Really basic Japanese for Pachinko Buyers

[ocpachinko]

Every pachinko has a name. Most released in the past few years start with CR, short for Card Reader, meaning the machine has features compatible with stored value cards in Japanese pachinko parlors. Some start with CRF, where the F is short for "Fever"; a sort of trademark of machines made by Sankyo and its Daido (Bisty) subsidiary, and also a reference to what happens when you hit the "jackpot"...but that's covered in videos in the museum.

Most modern machine names end in the model, just like Toyotas and Hondas have LE or LX, etc. The model names indicate different sets of odds and/or operating details (you can find these in the links to the Japanese museum in the Pachitalk museum for each machine; the Japanese museum has a page for each model.)

There are three writing systems used in Japanese. Pachinkos are named with all three systems, and occasionally with a combination of two.

System 1: Kanji
Example machine nameCR新海物語M56

How to recognize kanji: They're often complicated, and seem like pictograms.

How to translate: There are about 2000 commonly used kanji characters in Japanese. They are actually Chinese characters with meanings that are sometimes borrowed from the Chinese. The Google translator will often do the trick for these (http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en). Copy the four Kanji characters above and paste into the Google translator, and you'll get:

New Sea Story

and darned if that isn't the name in English on this machine! It's the card-reading New Sea Story, model M56 (which is the model with the English name on the front).

新=new
海=sea
物語=story (from two kanji meaning "thing" and "language"

So this machine is, in English, CR New Sea Story M56.

A more interesting example is
CR浮世絵GS2

This machine keeps being called "Surfer" or "Mt. Fuji". But what is it really?

Cut and paste the characters and you get Ukiyoe. From the Random House dictionary: "a genre style of painting and printmaking developed in Japan from the 17th to the 19th centuries and marked by the depiction of the leisure activities of ordinary people." Like the one on the front of the machine (good references in the Pachitalk museum review).

浮=float
世=world
絵=picture

because Ukioye prints depicted the things of this transitory, or "floating", world.

So this machine is CR Ukioye GS2.

More about Kanji: http://www.omniglot.com/writing/japanese_kanji.htm

System 2: Katakana
The majority of Pachinko names are not written in Kanji...they're written in katakana (which mans "part (of kanji) syllabic script). These characters each represent one syllable of spoken Japanese. But here's the best part: Many pachinkos really have English names, written phonetically in katakana! When I visited Japan some years back I was surprised by the fact that many of the advertisements for prestigious product on trains and subways were in English...well, more like Japlish...a unique adaptation of English to Japanese tastes and pronunciation limitations.

Katakana look "simple"; they're written with straight lines, and only a few strokes.

So let's look at one:
CRホラーマンションV1

This game, on the playfield, says "Horror Mansion". On the video, too (see Arby's videos). But if you put this into Google, you get

Fear Apartment

Is this game really called Fear Apartment? Google won't give you the phonetics. Here they are:

ホ=ho
ラ=ra
ー=(breath)
マ=ma
ン=n
シ=tsu
ョ=yo
ン=n

"hora mantsuyon". It's Horror Mansion. The katakana is merely a way to spell the English words in Japanese. Where does Google get "Fear Apartment"? It's to give the sense of these words more generally, particularly as they would be in the context of other words, and without the extreme connotation of the original.

It's obvious that the designers of this Pachinko were going for extreme.

It's CR Horror Mansion V1.

If you're still reading this, a fun game is to go to
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/japanese_katakana.htm
and translate the Japanese names of
Lord of the Rings (CRフィーバーロード･オブ･ザ･リングMX)
or the game Slot USA calls Lil' Divas: CR・プリティバンドYS
On these, Google comes close, but you'll see that these really do have English names.


System 3: Hiragana
This is yet another alphabet, of phonetic "curly" characters, and occasionally make an appearance with a children's themed game (and others):

CRのらくろS

Once again, our friends at Omniglot help us with this other phonetic alphabet:
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/japanese_hiragana.htm

and I'll leave you to do this four character transliteration yourself.

This time, the video of this machine has the English over the hiragana, and adds the word Story. So this machine is

CR Norakuro Story S

since the manufacturer gave us an English name.

And that's about all I know so far. But at least I feel I've gotten closer to the truth. For example, I call CRドレミ天国FN
CR Do-Re-Mi Heaven FN, as it's a combination of the three katakana characters and kanji with the sense of "heaven" according to Google. I think it's close.

But I'm sunk on CRお祭りサブちゃんML1 apart from Celebration--it obviously involves a popular Japanese TV character, and I would love for someone to give me a decent English name from this game--hello, you silent Japanese lurkers out there! I'm sure this has amused you, so please help!

The next time someone dismisses your Pachinko fascination as simply one with "gambling machines", bring up this post (except for this sentence) and tell them "no, I'm simply following the ocpachinko method of Japanese immersion!"

Good luck.