Japanese FS Forum!

Hi, ya all!

Hanatsuki suggested I create a Japanese forum on figure skating a few weeks ago...so I did! At first I thought we already had one somewhere, but after looking around it seems there isn't any. There are some fan forums for a particular skater in Japanese (but very few), but nothing like FSU or Golden Skate in Japanese. So well...don't know if I was fit for the job, but I decided to create one once and for all!

A short Japanese translation:日本語版のフィギュア・スケートに関する総合フォーラムを作りました。この真央フォーラムで言葉の壁に阻まれて読むだけにとどまってる皆さん、是非参加して思う存分カキコしてください！お気軽に、楽しくやりましょう！

http://japanfigureskate.forumotions.net/index.htm

I guess it sort of focuses on Japanese skaters mostly since it is a Japanese forum, but I did make sections in which we can discuss foreign skaters as well. Since I love the atomosphere in our Mao forum, I'm hoping it'll become something similar. It also would be an ideal place for Japanese users to get to understand some of the other new rules which are not being introduced by their media (and alot of them misunderstand FS and ISU because of this), plus I am hoping to pass on some new info concerning the sport and the skaters which I find in English forums including our Mao forum.

Now, I know there may not be many of you who can read or write Japanese here, but all foreign FS fans are welcome to the Japanese forum, as long as you all don't mind language problems. Those who want to learn or practice Japanese, this may be the ideal place to be. If you can't type in Japanese symbols, you can always write in alphabets sounding out the Japanese words, too. You can even write in English and have someone translate it into Japanese for you, I'm sure someone will be willing to volunteer.

And since most of the info will be coming in from Japan...who knows? There maybe some exclusive stuff on Mao! So, feel free to just come and read around sometimes (though some bits are for members only...just a business strategy to achieve new members, sorry!). Clovera was already kind enough to join in, and I already feel so secure just having someone like her who knows more about the sport than me around, thank you!

Btw, I'd like to make a list of links to other FS forums and figure skater fan forums all over the world in the Japanese forum. So, I'd appreciate it if you all would introduce me to some of such forums in your countries. I think if we all link our forums around, members capable of different languages can exchange info, and we'll all be getting more of what we want! Let's all make use of the internet as it is WWW!

I will join! I won't be able to converse much but I will try.

Wow!Great! First of all, Potato well come back, I missed you! And, of course I will join this forum!

I'll join too!!

I just joined

Although my native language is Japanese, I think I have lived in the US too long - and I'm no longer very good at expressing myself or writing in Japanese, so I may not be able to comment too much there, but I will try my best. I definitely want to support the forum!

I joined. Nice forum Pochinko

Spacey, polosatik, mingming, SpecialK, aoi88...thanks everyone for reading and joining my Japanese forum! I'm so touched...If I don't get enough Japanese speaking members, you can all turn it into an English forum!

And SpecialK, I love your new avatar! Kudos to the creator (...me)!
So I made some avatars for the Japanese forum, but anyone here is welcome to use them if they like.

PS:polosatik, could you give me the link and name(in English) of the Russian forum where Mao and Dai were chosen best skaters? Everyone who read about that in my blog were all thrilled, so I'd like to present them a link in the Japanese forum even if nobody can read it.

PochinkoPotanko wrote:

Spacey, polosatik, mingming, SpecialK, aoi88...thanks everyone for reading and joining my Japanese forum! I'm so touched...If I don't get enough Japanese speaking members, you can all turn it into an English forum!

PS:polosatik, could you give me the link and name(in English) of the Russian forum where Mao and Dai were chosen best skaters? Everyone who read about that in my blog were all thrilled, so I'd like to present them a link in the Japanese forum even if nobody can read it.

Sure! Here it is http://forum.fsonline.ru/ It called FSO . Also you can look through this site http://www.fsonline.ru/although it's in russian, but you can check it anyway. And here is the page where you can find the results http://forum.fsonline.ru/index.php?showtopic=1268&st=480 by user alyona

I'll join as well ~~
Hopefully I can practice my *bad* Japanese without being laughed at

Pochinko, you said there are fan forums in Japanese about particular skaters. Do you have some links for Mao fan forums in Japanese? I am just curious to see what they're like.

aoi88 wrote:

Pochinko, you said there are fan forums in Japanese about particular skaters. Do you have some links for Mao fan forums in Japanese? I am just curious to see what they're like.

http://8644.teacup.com/maochan_daisuki/bbs

http://figure.videopalace.net/forum?vasthtmlaction=viewtopic&t=9.0

http://mao.babyblue.jp/bord/index.html

These are just about the 3 sites with forums(actually they're only BBS) on Mao. They're all included in someones' blog or fan site. And as you can see, it's all more like everyone just writing whatever they want all in the same place, so they're all quite messy to read...I only found 1 organized real forum in Japanese related to figure skating, and that was a Johnny fan forum.

So you see, we really don't have much of a Mao forum either in Japanese. With BBS, you usually have everyone writing messages to the administrator, not to eachother. And of course we have the huge notorious 2 Channel BBS in which there are various threads on Mao, but everyone who writes there is basically anonymous; you make no friends, and since nobody knows you, people often end up writing stuff in bad manners. I'm not against anonymous posting, since there are things which can only be said when people don't know you, and some of those things need to be said sometimes. But still, us Japanese tend to speak out only under such circumstances even on the net. Many of us are afraid to say the wrong things or offend people, so we tend to state our opinions honestly only when we can stay anonymous. I've noticed how different things are out of our country after joining ISU discussion board and our Mao forum. Sometimes saying what we feel does lead to trouble, but it's better than making irresponsible comments anonymously. Plus I've come to know that most of us are rational and mature enough to reach an understanding even when we disagree. I think my people should start to learn how to make things possible like that.

Eversince I joined our Mao forum, I've noticed that because all the people who post here are honest, I feel like I know most of you more or less even though we've never actually met. I have an image of each of you in my head, which may be far off track from who you guys really are, but nevertheless, I can feel like I'm spending time with real people when I'm here. It's not like I'm just sitting in front of my PC all alone. I'm not here to just babble out my emotions according to how I feel by the end of the day. I'm here to communicate and talk to you all, which is much more fun than playing an online game or some other things you can do on the net.

I hope that some of my own people would get to know how great it is to share interests and make friends in a forum like we do here. I don't want Japanese figure fans only having 2 Channel BBS for a place to talk. I admire 2 Channel since it did change alot of things in our country. But you never get to know anybody there, and most people just write out their frustrations in a negative way. Anonymous boards will mostly end up like that. But forums are different. If you become a member and be active, it will become a comfortable place where everybody knows your name! I've really learned so much from being here in Mao forum...I hope our Japanese skating forum will become a similar place!

PS:MaoMaoRevolution, don't worry about your Japanese and post anything you want in the Japanese forum! We all love it when non-native Japanese users challenge using our language! Polosatik, thanks for the links! But I noticed that I've been to the first link before. I wanted to register there but couldn't manage to. I wanted to do so, because after I made that music cover video of Mao's 'Bells', I wanted so much for Tat to see it, and thought maybe she might notice it if I posted the link in a Russian forum. But later on I managed to mail Tat in her official site, so that was that. Anyway, I'm off to introduce the links! Another Japanese blogger wrote about Mao and Dai being chosen best skaters in the Russian forum after he read my blog reporting what you told us! It's really amazing how these things work, isn't it? Btw, if you're really willing to join the Japanese forum, it might be nice if you'd post your painting of Mao there too! You can introduce it in English and I'll translate. The second from last corner(動画＆イラスト等) is where all the artworks go. I'm sure many of us would be delighted to see it. I don't want to pressure you, but please do post if you feel like it!

Thank you my lovely Potato! My Japanese is so bad, that you help will be amazing!

Can someone translate the web page? I'm having a hard time finding the "Register" button!

MikiAndoFan#1 wrote:

Can someone translate the web page? I'm having a hard time finding the "Register" button!

It the second last button(the first red button)

PochinkoPotanko wrote:

Spacey, polosatik, mingming, SpecialK, aoi88...thanks everyone for reading and joining my Japanese forum! I'm so touched...If I don't get enough Japanese speaking members, you can all turn it into an English forum!

And SpecialK, I love your new avatar! Kudos to the creator (...me)!
So I made some avatars for the Japanese forum, but anyone here is welcome to use them if they like.

Thanks Pochi - Yup, I love this avatar - Kudos to you! I've always loved Mao in kimono I first tried to use it on the Japanese Forum but then quickly realized that another member had beat me to it... but I so wanted to use it that I decided to use it here. I was hoping you wouldn't mind, so I'm glad you said you wouldn't

And I'll try to post over at the Japanese Forum in Japanese as much as I can (I have just become so accustomed to writing in English now that my Japanese writing skill has gone downhill... ) But I'll try my best. Or maybe we can turn it into an English forum like you said...

Well, I did my best and registered. Now if I'll be able to cooperate in any way is a different story.

Anyway, congrats Pochi. I'm sure it will be a huge success.

SpecialK wrote:

And I'll try to post over at the Japanese Forum in Japanese as much as I can (I have just become so accustomed to writing in English now that my Japanese writing skill has gone downhill... )

Ditto. My Japanese ability is falling fast (embarrassing, I know) but I'll try my best to pitch in with posting. Here's hoping the forum will be a success!

As a studying linguist i've been trying to add japanese to my repertoire for a while (sdly only 2 years of study).

I'm probs the most unqualified person for such a forum (since i can only read japanese without understanding [as in i can recognize every letter and read without having any idea what i'm saying] and i freeze whenever i see kanji)

Nonetheless i guess i'll give it a try, i'd probably be able to navigate a little better had this been in romaji but i imagine seeing romaji is quite a rare thing

Thank you Spacey. That was a great help.

Arigato, Spacey!

I just registered!! Maybe that'll motivate me to get my japanese books out of their boxes! I haven't touched them in years, relying solely on Batsuchan and you guys But anyway, I could speak (not very fluent but whatever... ) but reading is another thing. I think I only learned about 100 kanji, all of which I forgot by now.

J'ai du pain sur la planche!!

chiyori wrote:

I just registered!! Maybe that'll motivate me to get my japanese books out of their boxes! I haven't touched them in years, relying solely on Batsuchan and you guys But anyway, I could speak (not very fluent but whatever... ) but reading is another thing. I think I only learned about 100 kanji, all of which I forgot by now.

J'ai du pain sur la planche!!

Well, you and I are almost on the same boat. I can speak Japanese quite fluently. I just can't read it or write it very well. I am a master at guessing my way through registrations. Google translator is quite handy. I can read and write Hiragana and Katakana. I am useless with Kanji. Truthfully, I can't understand most of the Kanji on the screenshots. But I am a pretty good guesser. Since I can speak it, with the help of my Japanese keyboard and Kanji converter, I can sort of write a few sentences together. I need to work on my Kanji too!

alyssa and MikiAndoFan#1 I'm happy to know that the screenshots were helpful.

Everyone who joined or is considering joining the Japanese FS forum, thank you all so much! I think it really helps out when lots of people join in a new forum to achieve more members. You guys are so great, I'm so touched! I also want to thank Z4mboni, where ever you are, cause if it weren't for this Mao forum, I never would've imagined creating a forum myself.

And Spacey! WOW!!!!!
Thank you so much for your guidance post on how to become a member even if you can't read Japanese! If it were a French forum or something in a language which uses alphabets, then everybody must've been okay. But Japanese is totally a language with different symbols, I think only Chinese people and some Korean folks who know some Chinese symbols can manage on their own.

I'm getting excited too! I never thought I'd have so many members in just a few days! Anyway, I want you to all know how grateful I am, and even if you can't post in Japanese...English is fine, too! Japanese folks love it when foreigners take interest in what they do. We all love having foreigners around. Someone is going to translate your stuff anyway!

Polosatik, thanks for the Russian forum link once again. Somebody in the Japanese forum paid a visit there already and tried to understand what was written by using Google translator. He said it didn't work out that well, but still he was able to find out Mao and Dai won and alot of people were writing about them there, and was very happy to know so.

:thankyou:I'm going to create a link to our Mao forum from the Japanese forum tomorrow. Maybe that'll boost some members here in return for all your cooperation!

PS:chiyori, entering a foreign language forum is probably one of the best ways for you to improve that language. I managed to get back much of my English abilities soon after I joined here. I hardly ever use it in real life actually!

Potato, if you or any of your friends want to know the translation, I can help!