Irasshai! (”Welcome” in Japanese) Hikaru Utada did it. Mika Nakashima did it. Shiina Ringo [or Shéna Ringö, or Shena Ringo, or Sheena Ringo, so many names..] did it too. They are Japanese artists who sang at least a song in English fully. What about the other way round? Picture this: Caucasians singing in Japanese. How possible is that? Apparently it is, or I won’t be writing such an introduction. Meet the gaijin-s (”gaijin” means outside people in Japanese) called Nice Guy Jin (NICEGUY人). Puns intended.
Three Amerika-jin (Americans) who call themselves Novi Go, Eikaiwa Dave and Afropics. Interesting enough, Afropics doesn’t sport an Afro, lol. Their single -Hai, Irasshai – is released on July 23, 2003. The song is from the soundtrack of “Kochira Kameari Kouenmae Hashutsujo” (Kameari Park Precinct), a Japanese anime movie. Yes, I did my researches before posting..
Hai, Irasshai! [Hello, welcome!]
Aah, ano ano eto eto ano eto ne!
[Ah, uhh, uhh, umm, umm, uhh, umm, hmm...]
Suimasen, ii desu ka?
[Excuse me, is it all right to order now?]
Hai, irasshaimase!
[Yes, welcome!]
Jaa, natto-maki, tekka-maki, sarada-maki,
[Well... natto rolls, tekka rolls, salad rolls,]
nan de mo maki maki, dou shiyou ka na?
[any kind of rolls rolls, what should I get?]
A sou da, California-maki arimasu ka?
[Oh yeah, do you have California rolls?]
Oh…
California-maki nai yo! Koko, Amerika ja nee zo!
[We have no California rolls! This ain't America!]
Gomen ne, sorry!
[Sorry, "sorry"!]
Hai, irasshai! Hai, irasshai, douzo! (Gomen ne, sorry!)
[Hello, welcome! Hello, welcome, come in! (Sorry, "sorry"!)]Hai, irasshai! Hai, irasshaima-SE!!
[Hello, welcome! Hello, welcome, WELCOME!!]
Ano sa, nan ka sa, da kara ii n da kedo sa,
[Uhh, something, uhh, so yeah, uhh,]
suimasen, ii desu kaa?
[excuse me, is it all right to order now?]
Hai, irasshaimase!
[Yes, welcome!]
Jaa, tako-yaki, teriyaki, teppan-yaki,
[Well, grilled octopus, teriyaki, grilled teppan,]
nan de mo yaki yaki, dou shiyou ka na?
[anything grilled grilled, what should I get?!]
Aa, sou da! Hiroshima okonomiyaki arimasu kaa?
[Oh yeah! Do you have Hiroshima okonomiyaki?]
Urikire! Urikire!
[We're all out! We're all out!]
MAJI? Shinjirarenai!! CHOU-mukatsuku!
[SERIOUSLY? I can't believe it!! This is SUPER-annoying!]
Koko ni modoritaku nai desu!!
[I do NOT plan on coming back here again!!]
Translated by Thomas Lipschultz
This lyrics are actually conversations between a customer and a proprietor. The conversations are very casual by the way. pketh suggested that I can make a jukebox that includes the songs, I told him that it’s quite easy. Okay, I am completely wrong, hahaa. It turns out I have no idea how to implement the loading of sounds correctly.
But I can still let you hear how it sounds like. Just a 38 seconds sample encoded in WMA file proprietary. Download the sample from here (164 KB). [Sorry, music download has been removed.]
I got my sources from Jpop.com.Maguro-chan [yummy] ran an interview with them too. Photos are included in the interview too. Official samples from their Victor Entertainment includes avideo andmusic. Both requires RealOne Player, and I hate RealOne, it’s a crap player.
You can visit the official Nice Guy Jin page too. It’s in Japanese. Demo watashi wa nihongo ga wakarimasen ["But I don't understand Japanese", ironically in Japanese, I hope I gotten that right.].
EDIT: Okay, It turns out that I gotten it wrong. It’s a typo error, but sharp-eyed Serene spotted it. I typed “wakarimasen” as “warikarimasen”.
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Tags: anime, japan, japanese lyrics, lyrics, movies, music, nice guy jin, usa