After a very long wait, I just posted Lesson 35 of Water Business at Manga Fox. I'm pretty sure I didn't make any huge mistakes in my translation, though it is a very free one in places.
I have also acquired a copy of the novel Toritsu Mizushō! by Hikaru Murozumi. I'm not going to be posting a translation of it; that much Japanese is too much for me. But I am sort of deciphering what I can of it; I've already OCR'd it and searched it for character names to find out who's in and who isn't.
One thing that the manga series completely skipped over was the "off-campus-training" for the fūzoku girls. Inokuma had been building up to it at least to Volume 20, but then the storyline jumps over nearly the entire third year. There is a chapter in the novel covering it, but it's only a few pages and it's all exposition--no action scenes, not even any dialogue. It all takes place in six days during the break between the end of the second year and the beginning of the third.
I was pretty disappointed the way Inokuma handled it. He may have had no choice in the matter; the series was cut short by the end of its magazine. Maybe he was ordered to avoid the subject. There's been a lot of noise about "cleaning up" Kabukichō over the past few years; the demolition of the Koma Theater is supposed to be part of it (although I fail to see how closing down the only venue for actual kabuki in Kabukichō would hurt the sex industry.)
Why am I so disappointed? Because the tension between Mari Oda and Daichi Nagasawa over her actually doing sex work was never properly resolved. It was a big plot point: Could a sex worker go on to have a satisfactory marriage? How difficult would it be to dispel the stigma? Dispelling the stigma of sex work and the rest of the Water Trade is, after all, the entire mission of The School of Water Business. It's just a bit more than a comedy.

Warren G. Harding: Lousy President, Great Bloviator

The only disagreement among reputable historians about the President who returned the USA to “normalcy” is whether or not he was the absolute worst holder of the office (the other candidate being Ulysses S. Grant.) Harding didn't particularly want to be President, but he had the look of what Republicans liked in a president. Even so, the affable Ohio newspaperman wouldn't have demonstrated the Peter Principle to the nth degree had not Theodore Roosevelt inconveniently died when he did, leaving the GOP kingmakers like Mark Hanna an opening to nominate a good-looking boob who could turn out wondrous malapropisms like “normalcy.” Actually Harding wasn't that dumb; he called his speechifying “bloviating,” a word that has made it into some dictionaries. What demonstrated that he was not as dumb as he sounded was that he knew what he was doing.

Eisenhower was another great bloviator, projecting himself quite deliberately as a not-overly-smart but lovable, well-meaning, even-tempered uncle. The difference between Eisenhower and Harding is that Eisenhower was a genuine leader covering up state secrets such as the U-2 program, CIA-arranged coups in Iran and Guatemala, and under-the-table-but-very-credible threats to nuke the USSR and China if they didn't stop the war in Korea. Harding was merely covering up his mistress, his bootlegger, his gambling, and his blind eye to what his cronies were up to, such as stealing millions of government dollars when a million dollars was really worth something.

Harding may well have done at least one statesmanlike thing: He died before the big scandals broke. He happened to die in San Francisco, which is why there used to be a Harding movie theater in the Western Addition.

Tragically, very few bloviators know they are bloviators because they really believe their own B.S.

And now for some of my own bloviating.

I just discovered Japanese with Chris, wherein Christopher M. Ball shares his adventures in trying to learn (some) Japanese. He lists his sources rather thoroughly. Rather than overload his comments section, I decided to make a somewhat similar listing here. Seems appropriate, since the main theme of this blog is supposed to be my efforts to master enough Japanese to decipher a manga series that has no official translation and no active scanlators other than myself. These are my non-electronic resources (although I have scanned and otherwise bashed quite a lot of material from my library.)

Manga series

Toritsu Mizushō 都立水商! (22 volumes, complete, of course!!) (And I have ordered the light novel the manga is supposed to be based on.)

Jōō 嬢王 (12 volumes, the complete first series)

Some volumes of 「魔法先生ねぎま」、「ああっ女神さまっ」、「かりん」、「ぱすてる」、「ガチャガチャ」in both the original and in authorized English-language editions. Nearly all of these have at least one unofficial translation floating around somewhere on the web, so it can be quite interesting to see how much “your mileage may vary” between two different translators. For AMS/Oh My Goddess! there are two authorized translations available for some volumes, one done by Studio Proteus when Dark Horse was bringing out the series in flipped, monthly comic-book form, and a new one for the Complete reworking of the early parts of the series (which also restores the colored artwork.) I have other manga, translated or original, but few matched pairs.

Volumes 1 and 3 of Kenshi Hirokane's Division Chief Kosaku Shima, officially translated by Ralph F. McCarthy, with the original Japanese in the margins—part of the Kodansha Bilingual Comics series.

In the same vein, a tiny bilingual Volume 1 of the venerable series Sanae-san, 4-panels from 1947.

Books for Japanese Study

Jack Halpern's Learner's Kanji Dictionary

Spahn & Hadamitzky's Kanji Learner's Dictionary

Wayne P. Lammer's Japanese the Manga Way (a gem)

Manga University's Kanji de Manga, volumes 1-6; Yojijukugo; Japanese Sound FX

Tuttle's Colloquial Kansai Japanese and The Complete Japanese Expression Guide

Japanese in Manga Land, Volumes 1-3

Zakkenayo!

Barron's 501 Japanese Verbs

Japanese Slang Uncensored

Best Line I Ever Heard in Real Life

On TV, and especially in the movies, clever lines abound, but few of them were ad-libbed by the actors or polititions, who both use writers. I'm going to tell you about the best line I've ever heard in real life (that is, what you and I would have if we didn't spend our lives in front of computer screens.) I can't remember exactly who said it so long ago (more than thirty years) but I do remember the time and place. It was in the Petty Officer's Club in Rota, Spain where someone who'd had too many cervezas tried to pick a fight. The object of his non-affection said to the guy: "Don't mess with me! I know karate!! ... and several other Japanese words."

Anyway, back then I probably knew fewer Japanese words than my clever friend and not only did not know any kanji but never expected to learn any. But now that I do know at least a few kanji, I'd like to tell you about the connection between karate (空手) andkaraoke (空オケ). That's right, they both begin with 空 (sounded "kara") ; kara-te is "empty hand" and kara-oke is, roughly, "empty voice," -oka being a contraction. And 空桶 is "empty bucket" although it sounds just like karaoke. This suggests to me that many karaoke singers should be required to sing with buckets over their heads so they will have a chance to realize just how awful they are, or at least a chance to muffle their voices a bit. Oh, 空 can also be sounded "sora" in which case it means "sky" or "heavens," and is the Kanji 長谷川 空　(Sora Hasegawa) of Ah! Megami-sama! uses for her personal name.

All right, I'll actually put a little something up. Here's the work I did on the first three pages of Lesson 38. I know, I know, I should have started on Lesson 35, but, honestly, I opened the wrong folder and before I knew it I'd started working on it and I just had to finish it as best I could for some reason. What could it have been?

Lesson 38

片っぱしから！

Katapposhikara!

片っ端から 【かたっぱしから】 (adv) absolutely every little bit; everything from A to Z

So of course I translated it:

Why? It's an old Japanese proverb, basically saying the same thing as "When it rains, it pours." Just when Tanabe doesn't think his life could get worse, it does, big-time.

Page 1

Box Text: 歌舞伎町・某ヘルス店内――

Kabukichou - bou herusu tennai――

Kabukicho - A certain sex club――

Customer: あぁう…

某 【それがし】 (pn,adj-no) (1) (obs) someone; (2) I;

personal pronoun

何某; 某 【なにがし; なにぼう(何某)】 (pn,adj-no) (1) certain person; certain amount; Mr So-and-so; (2) I (personal pronoun)

ヘルス (n) (1) health; (2) type of massage parlor (parlour); (P); EP

店内 【てんない】 (n,adj-no) store interior

Panel 2

Customer: 若いのにすごいテク持ってね～～

Wakai no ni sugoi teku matte ne～～

Amazing technique for one so young.

若い 【わかい】 (adj-i) young

すごい (adj) terrible; dreadful; terrific; amazing; great; wonderful; to a great extent; ; KD

テク (n) (1) (abbr) technology; (2) (sl) technique; (P); EP

Possible inflected verb or adjective: (te-form)

持つ 【もつ】 (v5t) (1) to hold; to carry; (2) to possess; (P); EP

SFX: チュッ・チュッ・チュッ・チュッ・ズズッ・パッ・バッ

Chuu! Chuu! Chuu! Chuu! Chuu! Zuzu! Pa! Ba!

Chu is the Japanese onomatopoeia for a loud kiss, so chuu! suggests a longer, louder version of the sound. A good-old-100%-American dirty comic like Cherry Poptart might render the sound effects here as Shlorp! Shlorp! Shlorp! Shlorp! Shlorp! Suuu(pop!bop!)--the last being the sound as the fellator sucks on the tip and pops it out of her lips for a moment and a breath or two. Here, decades of field research definitely does count in my favor!

Fuzoku Girl: ふぉうお。（ふりがな：どーも）

Fuo ou (The furigana spell out "Doumou" which means that the girl wanted to say that but it came out another way because her mouth is full.)

Panel 3

ねェ、本番やらしてよ。お金なら私うしさ。

Nee, honban yasashite yo. O-kane nara watashi ushisa. Neh, for the real thing. How much money would I need? [It is not clear who is speaking. Watashi usually means a woman is speaking, but males can use it too, especially when trying to be polite and/or formal. So it might also be the Fuzoku girl saying something like "Now, about the real thing--I will need more money."

Fuzoku girl: ダメです～～罰金100万円ですよ～～

Dame desu~~(other stuff)

Lit. "The penalty will be...one million yen...

本番 【ほんばん】 (n) (1) performance; take; going before an audience or on-air; (2) game; season; crucial moment; (3) actual sexual intercourse (i.e. not simulated)

チェッ。CHEH!!

One million yen: This is a joke. A really top-line courtesan might get this for an evening's services (around $8-10,000) but someone working in a Kabukicho costume-play club would charge no more than a few 10,000 yen bills.

Incidentally, Japanese (and Chinese, Koreans, etc) don't have their own word for "million" because their traditional number system has an extra step: 10,000's. Except for scientists and engineers who use a lot of Western-style math, this is how the "man in the street" thinks of numbers. Given the English "million" which just about everyone will know, they will internally translate it to "One-hundred-ten-thousands." instead of "One thousand thousands" the way people raised using the Western system do.

Panel 4

SFX: ギシッ

Handwritten text under the panel: 騎乗位＿股

騎乗 【きじょう】 (n,adj-no) mount; on horseback

騎 3533 [2119:8b52] U9a0e B187 G8 S18 F1696 J1 N5222 V6761 H1834 DK1193 L1981 K1734 O2762 DO1174 MN44817 MP12.0530 E1133 IN1881 DF1911 DJ1874 DG1919 DM2000 P1-10-8 I10a8.3 Q7432.1 DR3449 Yqi2 Yji4 Wgi キ equestrian; riding on horses; counter for equestrians [Short entry for this kanji at JDIC. The "GI" means that this really complicated kanji isn't taught until the eighth grade in Japan. It's made up of the kanji 馬 for "horse" on the left, 大 ("big") on the top right, and 可 meaning "can" or "shouldn't or a number of other things on the lower right. I had no end of trouble re-discovering this one because I thought the 大 was a badly-drawn 立]

Babel renders part of this as "cowgirl." I just cannot make out one of the kanji and haven't found any compound that fits with the others.

Page 3

Panel 1

Customer: しかし実際のトコいくつなの？
How much, really?

Fuzoku Girl: ちょっとォ、女の子にトシ聞くのって反則ですよ～～

Chotto, onna no ko ni toshi

It's bad to ask when the girl is riding you.

SFX: ギシッ・ギシッ Gishi! Gishi!

Panel ２

Customer: いいじゃない、本当に若いんだろ？

Ii ja nai. Hontou ni wakai n'daro?

Whatever. But how old are you, really?

Fuzoku Girl: …フフっ (laughing)

Panel 3

Fuzoku Girl: 言っちゃおっかな～～

Iccha okka na～～

Let's say that...

Fuzoku Girl: お客さんロカタそうだし。

O-kyaku-san rokata sou dashi.

お客さん O-kyaku-san Honorable Customer

ロカタ　ろかた　路肩 (n) shoulder of a road; berm

そうだし　soudashi (probably sou da shi or sou dashi)

I really can't make this out at all.

Babel Fish gives: "The customer shoulder so it puts out,"

and Google translation renders it "They seem to be the customers shoulder"

If ROKATA is Japlish, it might mean, "The Honorable Customer is now LOCATED at the edge of the road" which in turn might mean "You're close to ejaculating" or "Where we go on from here depends on (money)" or both.

Or: "Since we've come this far..."

Panel 4

：実なね、Jitsu na ne Actually; Really

：ここだけの話――

Koko dake no hanashi――

Google: Ourselves

Babelfish: Here sufficient story

My guess: "Just between ourselves--"

Panel 5

Fuzoku Girl: 私、16歳なの。

Watashi 16 sai na no.

I am 16 years old.

Fuzoku Girl: 都立水商って知ってる

Toritsu Mizushou 'tte shitteru?

Do you know about Mizusho High?

Page 3

(Scene changes to daytime, at Mizusho High)

Reports of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Sorry about the long absence. I'll be returning to the painful process of deciphering Mizushou soon.

If you're wondering about the avatar I use on this blog, it's an alien called a Droyne from a roleplaying game called Traveller, and it's from about thirty years ago. The Droyne are, as a rule, shy, and seldom seen. In fact, one normally can't see them at all; they have a racial psionic ability to suggest that they are not really there; they can be seen normally by only those non-Droyne they wish to be seen by. They once had much higher-level technology than they do now, but they are presently no threat. Probably.

Well...

Except that just one of them is immortal, and has all that "lost" high-technology, including the technology to destroy planets. But your chances of running into HIM are almost zero, right?

Final Volume of Toritsu Mizushou

Today I got Volume 22, the final volume of 都立水商, The School of Water Business. No spoilers for you. There are only four lessons, but they are long ones, making the final volume full-sized and full-bodied.

The End of the Series?

Shinobu Inokuma's weblog states that the Young Sunday Special #5 will be the last--the last what I'm not sure. Young Sunday ceased weekly publication some months ago, meaning either its series have had to find new homes or wind up--fast!

Volume 21 of Toritsu Mizushō came out a couple of weeks ago and it zoomed over a lot of time fast. The first two school years of Mizushō required nineteen volumes, but only two volumes into its third year, we're at a festival halfway through it (that is, the end of September--in Japan, the school year starts at the beginning of April.)  I'm not going to throw in spoilers now (for once) but it looks like my favorite character got happy-ended out of the series, another major character sports a wedding gown, and a third very major character has a reconciliation. The volume ends with a cliffhanger (of course) but the resolution of this this one just might tie up the longest-running plot thread in the entire series.