July 31, 2003
YOOHOO, YOOHOO, KAI-ZOKU NO SEKAI WA II ZO
My story about a St. Petersburg native - and huge Buccaneers fan - now living in Tokyo ran today. You can't tell it by the bird's nest of text at the bottom of the Web version, but I had a Japanese interpreter translate some Bucs-related phrases from English to Japanese. (Including the above phrase, which means, "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me.")
Other phrases included:
Pound that rock!
Engi yoku rei no iwa o tata-ite!
It's automatica with Gramatica.
Guramatica sen shu no kerri- kata wa jidou-teki.
Welcome back, Booger McFarland.
O-kaeri-nasai bugaa-san.
Oh, no. There goes Tokyo. Oh, no. QB Killa.
A-ree tookyoo mo dai-nashi da. QB ga yarare soh.
Give us the Chucky face!
Chat-key no shik-ame-tsurra o misete.
I could use another beer.
Bee-ru o gui-tto nomi-taj na
On a related note, Tribune writer Roy Cummings is keeping an online journal of his time in Tokyo.
Roy writes:
This place is spotless. I walked around the city for about four hours Tuesday and only once did I spot a piece of litter on the ground. Even the taxis pass the white-glove test. Hop into one and you think you've just hopped into a freshly detailed car. There isn't a speck of dirt inside and the seats are covered with the same kind of lacy white linen as the doilies in my grandmother's house.