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Posts Tagged ‘culture’

Japanese Emoticons

24 Oct

Ψ(`∇´)Ψ ヽ(´―`)ノ (*´д`*)  (´・ェ・`)  ヽ(;´Д`)ノ

What are those extremely cute smileys?!
Japanese emoticons are called Kaomoji 【顔文字【かおもじ】】 (face characters) or Emoji 【絵文字【えもじ】】 (picture characters). My first encounter with them was probably when I started playing Final Fantasy XI in 2002. At that time, the NA version hasn’t been released yet and the servers consisted of mainly Japanese players. While they were conversing, they used these very cute and expressive emoticons that I’ve never seen before. Then, I saw a fellow non-Japanese using it as well and I asked him what are these called. Kaomoji he replied, and told me I’d be able to find instructions on how to get them on a FFXI forum that we non-Japanese frequented. I went on the forum and browsed through the threads, sure enough, I came across one that taught users how to install Japanese emoticons for use in the game! This is what I am sharing in this post, how to use Japanese emoticons on your own english based PC.

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Are you a Hikikomori?

13 Oct

5 easy steps to tell if you’re Satō Tatsuhiro (above) number 2!

For those who have caught the popular anime Welcome to the N.H.K. (N・H・Kにようこそ, NHK ni Yōkoso), or read the novel & manga series by Tatsuhiko Takimoto (滝本竜彦), you’ll most probably be able to relate (either like thisclose OR t h i s a p a r t . . .) to the male protagonist Satō Tatsuhiro .

So . . . ever wondered if you’re a true blue Hikikomori or just what the hell it means? There’s always the below mini quiz* to find out for sure!

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