Happy Birthday AprilSeven!

[jeffbert]

Well, you know what I bought for my special birthday treat?

"The 89!!!!"

Yes, the 89 Japanese episodes 108-193!! One of our new members, salotreup, put his boxed set up on ebay and I decided to purchase it. Just so you all are aware - there ARE Japanese boxed sets available on Amazon (Japan) too (I learned about this from salotreup too) - and the price is lower than it used to be (about $130 plus shipping). I will still need to purchase the Japanese episodes 1-107 to have ALL of the eps not released to the rest of the world. That's next on my target (along with the missing manga from my collection).

So, THANK YOU salotreup, and everyone here for their friendship and greetings! I'm sure I'll be posting plenty of Cobalt and Chi-tan stuff when I get time to gather up a bunch of screen caps!

I thought I already posted this, but disc #19 (1st in set 2) starts with episode 94.

[AprilSeven]

You'd know better than I, Jeffbert - as I haven't seen the disks yet (so I could certainly be wrong about that). But at least I'll have most of the ones I haven't seen before . . . then one more box to go . . .

[ASTROBUDDY]

Just thought I'd let you know (if you didn't already know) you actually have either 79 or 80 of the 89 episodes, depending on whether the set starts with 94 or 104.

I

[Astrogirl500]

Oh Happy B-Day dear AprilSeven,sorry for my delays!

[Anime Girl]

Happy Belated Birthday. I'm excited for my birthday as well. XD

[Earthshine]

Happy belated birthday, and it's great that you treated yourself to such a wonderful present! I can't wait to see what kind of person I'll be when I'm 60!

[MightyAstro]

Happy Belated Birthday AprilSeven. Congratulations on obtaining those episodes. That's awesome.

[AprilSeven]

I thought I already posted this, but disc #19 (1st in set 2) starts with episode 94.

Okay . . . my set might be different from yours, Jeffbert?

It's a box that holds Boxes 4, 5 and 6

Box 4 is 94 - 126
Box 5 is 128 - 159
Box 6 is 160 - 193

There is also some extra content - including an interview with the woman who voiced 60's Astro -- it's adorable, because she looks like a ordinary 50-60 yr. old Japanese woman and all of a sudden out pops Astro's voice!!

There's also some extra small footage - sure do wish I could understand Japanese, but besides their names, moshi moshi, watashi, a few other words, I'm lost!

Turns out all I had to do with the Mac to play the disks is set the preferences to "ignore" when a dvd is inserted, and download a free player called VLC. (Windows computers just need the VLC) - IT IS MAGICAL and I strongly suggest getting over to ebay and/or amazon japan - because there ARE boxed sets available and it's "only" about $130 (not like a $7 manga, but far better than being set back $600, and having to purchase a special DVD player!).

Now, I wonder if I invest in Rosetta Stone, if that would help me!

And thank you for all the additional wishes! Earthshine, trust me . . . you NEVER feel any older in your soul - just your body starts to complain by being stiff (or your hair turns gray). I'm now the age Dr. Tezuka was when he passed away and it breaks my heart, because I realize how YOUNG he actually was!!

I you guys!!

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

There's also some extra small footage - sure do wish I could understand Japanese, but besides their names, moshi moshi, watashi, a few other words, I'm lost!

Turns out all I had to do with the Mac to play the disks is set the preferences to "ignore" when a dvd is inserted, and download a free player called VLC. (Windows computers just need the VLC) - IT IS MAGICAL and I strongly suggest getting over to ebay and/or amazon japan - because there ARE boxed sets available and it's "only" about $130 (not like a $7 manga, but far better than being set back $600, and having to purchase a special DVD player!).
Now, I wonder if I invest in Rosetta Stone, if that would help me!

I'm sure we have some Japanese speakers on this forum (or at least some that could translate somethings to English). My daughter at BU has Rosetta Stone available to her at their library. I don't know how good the software is though.
I think I saw some websites listed in this thread here:
http://www.astroboy-online.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7887
that had some on line Japanese instruction, at least for the written language, maybe some audio-visual sites as well?

I could add a few words to your list.
Hai = yes, affirmative
Baka = stupid, fool, idiot
bonzaii -- general exclamation of enthusiasm
sayonara = goodbye (everyone knows that!)
and I think 'den-tay' might mean 'doctor', at least that's what Pinoco calls Blackjack all the time.


But the only way to really learn a language is to hear it often enough in some context that gives you the meaning. Eventually you reach the point where your brain stops 'translating' and simply 'knows'. Kinda like the way in ham radio where you stop hearing individual dots and dashes of the morse code, and even stop hearing individual letters. You start hearing "words" in morse. (I'm not THAT good at it!). Or the way I can read a resistor color code without doing the math anymore. I can 'see' all the color values AS numbers.

[Little Brown Fox]

... Hm. I'd like to be able to do that with Japanese one day, myself. Spanish and French are other languages on my eventual "To Learn" list.