How to Get Games in Japanese (and Other Languages) on the Nintendo Switch

On February 25, 2019March 31, 2019 By Cynthia ThinnesIn Games, Japanese, Language Learning, Learning Japanese

A few days ago, my spouse and I got a Nintendo Switch. I had been wanting one since before it came out. This month we had a little extra money, and we decided to get one for ourselves for her birthday, Valentine’s Day, and my birthday combined. All three of these are in February, so it seemed a good reason to make such a big purchase (for us). I use games to work on my Japanese, and the Nintendo Switch is region-free. This means it will work on games from anywhere in the world. In theory, it also means that my spouse (who is not learning Japanese) can use it also to play games in English. It turns out that it works this way in practice as well. Here is what I learned in my adventures in setting up our Nintendo Switch for games in Japanese and English.

Set up your Nintendo eShop Account(s)

Before you even begin to set up your Nintendo Switch, it is a good idea to set up your Nintendo eShop account or accounts. You can get started without one, but if you are going to buy games online and access all of the features, you will need one anyway. You do this online on your computer. You may be able to do it on the console, but I could not work out how to do that, and it is just as easy to do it on the computer.

The site for the United States is here.

If you want to be able to access the eShop of another country, you will have to go to that country’s site. The Japanese eShop is here. If you want to set up an account for another country, you will need to say that you are in that region. Don’t worry, they will not check to see where you really live. If you want to set up accounts in more than one region, you will need to use different email addresses for each of them.

Set up your Nintendo Switch

Setting up the Nintendo Switch is really easy. You basically turn it on and follow the instructions. It will give you a choice of language and region right away. You will want to set up your region for the first account that you want to use. The language that you use for the console does not matter all that much. It will determine the default language that your games will appear in when you open them, but it is really easy to change the language of the game once you begin. I set most of my electronics to Japanese, but as I am sharing the Switch with my spouse, it is in English.

If you are only setting up one User account in one language, you are finished after this step. If you are sharing your console, or want more than one country’s eShop, you need to set up another account. Before you do that, you will want to be sure to set up your first eShop account on your console.

Add Another Account

To have access to more than one country’s eShop, you will need multiple User Accounts. You will also need to switch the region on your console, at least temporarily. In order to do so, follow these steps.

1. First, go to System Settings. That is the little cogwheel next to the Sleep Button on the main screen.

2. Once you are there, scroll to the bottom of the left-hand-column to where it says System, and you will find this screen.

3. Change your region to the one you want. When you change the region, you will be prompted to restart the console.

4. Set up your next user account. As you can see, there are three user accounts on ours, one for my spouse and two for me. I have two accounts so that I can access the eShop for the U.S. as well as the one for Japan. For reasons that I will explain later, you may want to have an account for the eShop of the country you live in even if you plan on only playing games in Japanese (or another language).

5. Set up the eShop for this User account.

6. When you are done adding User accounts, change your settings back to whatever you would like. Once the eShop is set up for each User, they will be able to access the eShop of their account, regardless of the region it is in.

Go Shopping

Now that you have your accounts, you are ready to go shopping. The Japanese eShop will be in Japanese, even if you have your console set to English. As I am buying games for the purpose of improving my Japanese, this is not a problem.

I did run into a different problem, though. The Japanese eShop would not take my credit card because it only accepts credit cards from Japan. I was frustrated and upset, thinking that I would not find anything to play (I have a personal rule that I do not play video games in English), and I would have to buy physical games from Japan…which would take some time to get, and I would have to save up for them.

But….

It turns out there was a solution. If you are looking for games from Japan, there is a site called Play Asia that sells pre-paid eShop codes for different regions. I tried that, and it worked just fine!

Added Bonus

When I bought my first game, Final Fantasy IX, I found there was an added bonus. It seems that the game I bought was available in several different languages, including English! Also, each user can play the game and save their progress in whatever language they want to without affecting the other User accounts at all.

2019022519285300-9C40363DE5E1D61A606EF869421C62D5 — My Save file

2019022519273400-9C40363DE5E1D61A606EF869421C62D5 — My spouse’s Save file

There are other languages available on this version as well. For example, if my spouse wanted to work on her Spanish using this game, she would be able to.

2019022518011600-9C40363DE5E1D61A606EF869421C62D5 — Final Fantasy IX in Spanish

For many games with multi-language support, you can change the language in-game. There are some, however, which will only play in the language that the console is in. You can change the language of your console in the same place that you changed your region. Changing the language on your console does require a restart, but it is easy enough to do. If you are sharing your console with someone else, you can always change it back when you are done playing.

Using Multiple eShops

As exciting as the discovery that my game was in multiple languages, I worried that perhaps I went through all of the trouble to get the pre-paid card and use the Japanese eShop for nothing. This is because I found that Final Fantasy IX was in the U.S. eShop as well.

You can actually find games with multi-language support in the U.S. eShop. For example, I found one called Cat Quest.

2019022517591600-7A5825B6334E63AF2B3C3BE850F1F62C — Cat Quest, purchased in the U.S. eShop

It turns out, though, that it was a good thing that I bought Final Fantasy IX in the Japanese eShop. Even though the Japanese version supports English, it turns out that the U.S. version does not support Japanese.

So, I learned two lessons from this:

1. Check the U.S. eShop first. See if the game is available and if it supports Japanese (or whatever your target language is). Unfortunately, the console will not allow screenshots of the eShop, but the supported languages of the game are listed right below the description.

2. If the same game is in multiple regions, do not assume that both regions support the same languages.

Enjoy your game!

The Nintendo Switch is really cool! You will have a lot of fun and improve your language skills as well. I am so very happy that Nintendo decided to make this console region-free!

You CAN learn Japanese with Anime: Here’s how. Right way to watch anime, learn Japanese

On January 19, 2019 By Cynthia ThinnesIn Japanese, Japanese Is Easy, Language Learning, Learning Japanese

Here is a very helpful video from Cure Dolly about how to use anime to learn Japanese. I used this method myself, and I highly recommend it.

Kinoko’s Christmas Treasures

On December 25, 2018 By Cynthia ThinnesIn Japanese, Kinoko Channel

Here is a freshly translated Nativity video from Kinoko-chan.

Japanese and English subtitles are available:

Hugtto Precure: Is it the Very Best? Yes! More Fabulous! Kinoko’s Review

On December 16, 2018December 16, 2018 By Cynthia ThinnesIn Anime, Hugtto, Japanese, Kinoko Channel, Precure

Here is the latest Kinoko Channel video, with Kinoko-chan’s review of the current Precure series, Hugtto Precure.

English and Japanese subtitles are available.

Instant Yakisoba Adventure

On October 20, 2018 By Cynthia ThinnesIn Japanese, Kinoko Channel, Uncategorized

Here is another episode of Kinoko Channel, with Kinoko-chan still in Japan. English and Japanese subtitles are available.

Scary True Story! Kinoko vs. Bad Chinese Person – It Really, Really Happened

On October 4, 2018October 4, 2018 By Cynthia ThinnesIn Japanese, Kinoko Channel

Kinoko-chan is in Japan again. In this video, she tells of her adventures on her way there.

English and Japanese subtitles are available.

The Passing of a Generation

On September 25, 2018September 26, 2018 By Cynthia ThinnesIn Diary

This has been a difficult couple of weeks. About ten days ago, I found out that my Great Aunt Inga in Sweden passed on at the age of 98. Last week, one of our cats, Naomi, who was about 15 years old, had a sudden seizure. There was nothing for the vet to do but to end her misery. From the way her eyes moved, the vet said that it was likely a brain tumor. Just four days before that, I had written an article here featuring her. A few days ago, we found out that a great uncle of my spouse through marriage also passed. I only met him once, but he is the last of that generation to go in both of our families. My Great Uncle Bengt in Sweden passed a few months ago at the age of 84, and my spouse’s Great Aunt Gerry passed earlier this year as well.

As anyone who has read this blog would probably know, I was very close to my grandmother, who passed about three years ago. Mormor was the fourth of five children, but Inga and Bengt were her closest siblings in age and in her heart. Inga was five years older than her, and Bengt was nine years younger. They both visited us in the United States several times. I also got to see them in Sweden when my grandmother took me there at the age of 17 to celebrate my great-grandmother’s 95th birthday. To be honest, though, I knew them the best through my grandmother’s stories.

Young Inga and Bengt — Big Sister Inga and Lilla Bengt

Mormor would talk about her childhood all of the time, and Inga and Bengt were frequent characters in her stories. Apparently, Inga more well behaved than Mormor was. Mormor would talk about how her father liked Inga better because Inga was always so good, but her mother liked Mormor better because she was mischievous like her. When Mormor was growing up in a little rural town in Skåne, the southernmost part of Sweden, she attended a one room schoolhouse with one teacher. According to Mormor, their teacher always asked her why couldn’t she be more like Inga.

Mormor, Gamla Mormor, and Inga.jpg — Mormor, my Great Grandmother, and Great Aunt Inga

She had many, many more stories of her rivalry with her older sister, but you could tell how much she loved her. She would talk on the phone with Inga frequently, even when international long distance calls were very expensive. She would tell her sister about her problems and would seek her advice. Inga was one of the few people she would actually listen to.

Mormor and Bengt.jpg — Mormor and Great Uncle Bengt

My Great Uncle Bengt was Mormor’s baby brother. Up until the day she died, she called him Lilla (Little) Bengt with a big smile on her face. I always enjoyed when he would come to visit us. He was a lot of fun. One time he visited my grandmother when he was in his 60’s, while she was still living on the North Side of Chicago. He took the bus to the Museum of Science and Industry, which was about 15 miles away on the South Side of the city. Going back, he decided to take a stroll along Lake Michigan. It was a nice day, apparently. This stroll ended up with him walking all the way back to Mormor’s house!

Mormor's first visit home.jpg — Mormor with her parents and all of her siblings

There was something sure and solid about that generation. I always seemed to connect better with them than I did with my parent’s generation or even my own. They lived through a world with many changes. Whenever a new invention would come out, Mormor would talk about how she remembered when they invented toilet paper and Scotch tape. With the last of them gone in my family, it feels like a dependable rock or pillar has been shaken loose. A firm foundation has cracked, and the world has become more precarious and uncertain without them.

Tabby Time

On September 14, 2018September 18, 2018 By Cynthia ThinnesIn Cats, Diary

In my last article on this site, I talked a great deal about our black and white cats, our oldest, Allie, and our youngest, Cookie. We have two other cats, and it occurred to me that they might be jealous, so I will feature them now in this article.

Our second oldest cat is Naomi. She is now about 15 years old.

20180914_134222 — Naomi, helping me to write this article right now

She is a shy, sweet girl. She came to us when she was about 10 months old. Our oldest cat at the time, Sassy, had to go to the vet on a regular basis for a chronic health condition.

2007-08-18 22.08.52 — Sassy, near the end of his life. He was a good boy.

Naomi was living at the vet at the time, looking for a forever home. She was always hiding in the litter box. Every time, my spouse would want to say hello to her, which I thought was dangerous. Eventually, I gave in and said that we could meet her and see what she was like. She sat in my arms with her head snuggled in my elbow. She came home with us that day.

2007-08-18 22.28.40 — Naomi, at about 4 years of age

When she was younger, she and Allie had a difficult time getting along with each other for quite a long time. It seems that they have come to an understanding recently. It seems that for cats as well as for people, differences seem less important the older they get.

20171130_155939 — The whole family together last December

The large orange cat in the lower left hand corner of the bed is our second youngest cat, Sunshine. He is now about 10 years old.

20180914_143611 — Sunshine, posing for the camera right now

He was actually the only cat who came to us when we were intentionally trying to increase our furry family. For a time Allie and Naomi were our only cats, and as I said, at that time, they did not like each other very much. Allie is quite the extrovert, while Naomi is very much an introvert. We thought if Allie had another companion, she would bother Naomi less.

2009-05-18 22.10.46-2 — Sunshine, around 6 months after he arrived at our house

We went to PetSmart, which was having an adoption weekend, and we did not find anyone. As we were about to leave, we saw a corner in which we had not yet looked. Far in that corner was a young, orange cat who reached out his paw and touched me. When we brought him home, he came in like he owned the place, and both Allie and Naomi acted almost as if they knew him. We think he might be a reincarnation of Sassy.

2009-05-02 22.51.19-2 — Poor Naomi. Siblings can be a bit of a bother.

This past summer, another orange tabby started coming around. We named him Romeo, because he would meet our youngest girl, Cookie on our balcony through the window. Eventually we started feeding him, and he became quite friendly.

We were quite worried as to what to do with him. We would have loved to bring him in, but our house is already filled to capacity with kitties. As it turned out, a friend of a friend who had a farm needed another cat to work in the barn keeping mice away. He now lives with 3 girl cats and as of last report, he has adjusted and is doing well.

UPDATE

9/18/18

Our little Naomi had a seizure earlier today, and when we took her to the vet, all they could do was to end her misery. For such a little cat, she has left a big empty space in our home and in our hearts.

Rest in Peace, Naomi

Reflections on Time

On September 7, 2018September 7, 2018 By Cynthia ThinnesIn Cats, Diary, Philosophy/Metaphysics, Ponderings and Reflections, Time

Time is an interesting thing. I have been thinking a lot about time recently. In the Filianic calender, we have just entered Autumn, and the Autumnal Equinox is just around the corner. Traditionally, this is when we reflect on our lives and where we are going.

This has been a strange year for me. Spring started late, and the summer has been very hot. I have been busy working on building my blogs and trying to develop my astrology practice, so I have not really been able to keep up with the garden. As a result, there is not much in the way of a harvest this year. It has been over 5 years since I closed my former business and almost 3 years since my grandmother passed away. I have spent much of that time heavily immersed in studying Japanese, and this year seems to be a slow reentry into the outside world.

It is easy to become filled with regret over things that might have been, if only… If only I had done this. If only I had not done that. Of course, there is nothing that can be done about the past. To the extent that we have Free Will, it is limited to the present moment, as least as far as we can tell.

The Arrow of Time

I think that one of the most interesting things about time is that it flows in only one direction. This is why we can only make choices about the present. For us, the past is settled. There is nothing we can do to change it in the present. The future is not yet. The choices we made in the past impact our present. The choices we make now will impact the future. Even so, we do not have the ability to know our future choices.

Time flows from the past, goes through the present, and continues on into the future. This is probably one of the very few things in this world about which everyone, everywhere would agree. Actually, if we met aliens from far away in a distant galaxy, it is almost certain that they would also agree. It is pretty amazing I think.

On an astrological and metaphysical level, time is governed by the Saturnian principle, and it is deeply intertwined with manifestation. On a scientific level, it is said that the reason time flows they way it does has something to do with the Big Bang at the beginning of this universe.

All of this supposedly relates to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, which states that in a closed system, entropy always remains the same or increases. It never decreases on its own. Entropy is a fancy word for disorder. This is why rooms do not clean themselves, it seems. The natural state of a room will be either to remain the same or to become disordered. It takes an outside force, i.e., someone cleaning the room, to create order again.

Speaking of Disorder

If entropy is the disorder of the universe, then cats seem to be furry bundles of entropy. I guess humans are too, although they are not so furry. My cats have been reminding me of the passage of time recently. It has been a year since our youngest cat, Cookie, came to us, and she was about 4 months old at the time.

20170925_171748 — Cookie, when she first came to live with us

It is hard to believe that there was a time, not so long in the past, in which she did not exist in this world as herself. At the time she came to us, she was so little that our other three cats looked huge next to her.

20171023_170421 — Cookie with our oldest cat, Allie

It has been about 20 years since our oldest cat came to live with us. At the time, my spouse was in seminary and studying Koine Greek. She had learned the word, Aletheia, which means Truth. I thought that word was so pretty that I had wanted to name someone that. Shortly after I had that thought, a 10 month old kitten came up to us on the street with an infected sore on her face. My spouse picked her up and brought her to the vet. She has lived with us ever since. As it happened, she is the one who got the name Aletheia, or Allie, for short.

20171120_083757 — Allie and her protegee

Allie has been a mischievous, but wonderful, companion for such a long time. Recently, her health has been declining, though. I know that I will have to face the time in the not so distant future when she will no longer be with us.

20180425_135238 — Allie and Cookie in the Spring of this year

In the Buddhist tradition, it is said that all is suffering, and one of the forms of suffering is due to the temporary nature of the material world. Eventually, we will be separated from everyone we love, at least in this world. There are so many who are not here with me now in the present, my grandmother, my grandfather, human friends, kitty and doggy friends, and so on.

20180906_234008 — Cookie, just last night

My little nephew is now all grown up and has left home; our adorable little kitten is now a full grown cat. She still acts a lot like a kitten, though, and I have to say it is nice that she is no longer quite as active as she was when she first came to live with us. Time marches on, I suppose.

Frozen – An Allegory for the Modern State of Femininity

On August 27, 2018September 7, 2018 By Cynthia ThinnesIn Disney, Philosophy/Metaphysics

I have to say that I have mixed feelings about the Disney movie, Frozen. I actually did not see it for the first few years after it came out. Like Tangled, the title is one word with a negative connotation. It did not seem as pure or good as the earlier Disney movies like Snow White and Cinderella, and not even as pure or good as the middle Disney movies like The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast.

Frozen is said to be inspired by the Hans Christian Anderson story, The Snow Queen, but it bears little resemblance to this tale. The Snow Queen, itself, is not a traditional fairy tale, but an original story by Hans Christian Anderson.

Eventually, I did watch it, however, and I found it interesting. In many ways, it seems almost an allegory for the state of modern femininity. The main plot of the story is not about love or romance, but about the relationship between two princesses who are sisters, Elsa and Anna.

Two Young Princesses

The elder sister, Elsa, is clearly Lunar, and the younger sister, Anna, seems quite Solar. That in and of itself is interesting. In the Modern West, the Solar is associated with masculinity and the Lunar is associated with femininity. That association is so strong that even the most ardent feminists do not question it. Instead, they tend to elevate the Lunar over the Solar, which is the position of the two sisters in this movie.

The story starts off with the two sisters as children. It appears that the elder sister, Elsa, has magical powers based on snow and ice. Elsa and Anna are having a lot of fun playing with Elsa’s powers until Elsa accidental hits Anna in the head with her powers after slipping on the ice.

Their parents, the king and the queen, come, and the father is annoyed with Elsa and her powers. He looks through his library for a book. It turns out that the book gives directions on how to find trolls. In thinking of this story as an allegory for the present day, I find it interesting that even the king had to seek advice from trolls.

It turns out that the trolls are actually quite nice and well meaning, and the troll shaman is able to heal Anna. The shaman then removes Anna’s memories, and talks to Elsa about her powers. He says that her powers can be beautiful, but they can also be dangerous. He also tells her “fear will be your enemy,” as he is frightening her about what can happen if her powers get out of control. Her father then steps in and hastily assures the shaman that Elsa will learn to control her powers.

The father’s idea of teaching Elsa how to control her powers was to encourage her to lock herself in her room, stay away from her sister, and teach her that she should always keep her emotions hidden and repressed. Somehow, Elsa was expected to learn to control her powers with no one to teach her, while locked away in her room.

No one explained anything to Anna, who was largely left to her own devices.

If we look at the father as a symbol of patriarchy, this situation is quite telling. The father controlled, locked away, and repressed the Lunar Feminine and ignored and neglected the Solar Feminine. Anna grew up without manners or grace. It is no wonder, as it seemed from the story that she was given little in the way of supervision or education, even though she was a princess as well.

Trouble Begins

The king and the queen are killed in a shipwreck three years before Elsa comes of age. Even though the father is no longer around, Elsa has internalized his repression and has become paralyzed by fear. She continues to lock herself away in her room.

When Elsa comes of age, she must leave her room, unlock the doors, and take her place as queen. She is so paralyzed by fear that she can not even hold the symbols of her office during the coronation ceremony without freezing them.

Anna is so excited with her freedom and open doors that she goes wild. She meets a prince from another land, and she immediately falls in love with him. Anna and Prince Hans decide to get married, and they go to Elsa, now Queen, to inform her of their plans. Elsa refuses permission, and her and Anna have an argument in front of everyone. Anna pushes Elsa too far, and Elsa loses whatever thin control she had over her powers.

Elsa, her secret exposed, runs off. It is a common theme in fairy and folk tales that the difficulties of a reigning monarch, no matter how personal, will impact the entire country. In this story, the entire country of Arendelle is suddenly beset by snow and ice.

Let It Go

This leads us to the signature song of this movie, “Let It Go,” which you can see below.

Frozen has been translated all over the world, and I have listened to versions of this song in many different languages. I have to say, I am particularly fond of the Swedish version. The line, “The cold never bothered me anyways,” is translated, “Lite snö hal väl aldrig stört mig,” or, “A little snow has never bothered me.”

The music to this song is quite powerful, but the lyrics in English are very troubling. I think that they speak to many of the problems and misconceptions of the modern feminist movement and others seeking to reclaim feminine power.

In this song, Elsa has decided to free herself of the restrictions she has grown up with and to reclaim her power. This is a positive development, but as she is doing this, she has neglected her responsibilities as queen. She mistakes being good with the restrictions of patriarchy, as she sings, “Be the good girl you always have to be.” She rejects the past entirely, as well as all rules or notions of right and wrong. She sings, “No right, no wrong, no rules for me,” and she sings over and over, “Let the storm rage on.”

Now, despite what she sings, as she is testing her power, she uses it to make nice and beautiful things. She re-creates the snowman she made as a child for her little sister and creates a stunning palace for herself. It seems clear that even in her rage, she is gentle and feminine. Her confusion about what it means to be good is also clear, however, when she sings in the last verse, “The perfect girl is gone.”

Rescue Attempt

Meanwhile, back in Arendelle, Anna shows her true fiery, Solar nature by deciding to go off and rescue her elder sister and the country. She leaves Arendelle to her new love, Prince Hans. Prince Hans is a 13th born prince of a neighboring kingdom, but it is clear that he has had more training to rule a country than Anna, the 2nd born princess of Arendelle.

Here is where the adventure begins. Along the way, Anna meets a man in the business of collecting and selling ice, Kristoff and his reindeer, Sven. They also meet Olaf, the snowman who dreams of summer, who was created by Elsa during her storm. With the party complete, they set off to find Elsa’s ice castle.

When they find Elsa, Anna enters the castle by herself to talk to her. Anna tries to reason with Elsa and coax her out. She poignantly pleads to restore their relationship. Elsa, still wracked with guilt over the childhood accident, refuses and asks to be left alone. Anna tells her what happened to the country, but convinced she can do nothing about it, Elsa refuses to try to help.

In the ensuing argument, Anna again pushes Elsa too far, and Elsa lashes out and accidentally freezes Anna’s heart. I think that one of the sadness things that has happened in the struggle to reclaim feminine power is that women have turned against each other. This has been particularly damaging to the Solar Feminine, it seems.

Thawing a Frozen Heart

Kristoff takes Anna to our old friends the trolls, who apparently raised Kristoff. The troll shaman says that “only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart.” Kristoff and Anna assume that means that a kiss from Prince Hans will save her. They return to Arendelle.

In the meantime, Prince Hans had gone to Elsa’s castle, captured Elsa, and imprisoned her. When Anna returns to Arendelle, she discovers that Hans never loved her at all, but was using her to gain power. Not only does he refuse to kiss Anna, but he locks her in a room and puts out the fire. At the same time, Elsa escapes her confinement, and Hans goes off to find her in order to kill her.

Olaf arrives and rescues Anna, and Kristoff realizes with the help of his reindeer Sven that he loves Anna. With this new knowledge he returns to Arendelle to save Anna himself.

Anna sees Kristoff and as they were coming together, she also sees Hans trying to kill Elsa. In an act of true Solar courage, Anna turns away from Kristoff to rescue her sister. She places herself between Hans and Elsa and freezes, thus protecting Elsa from Hans’ sword. Elsa filled with love for Anna embraces her and Anna begins to thaw.

Olaf, the snowman, makes the connection as to what has happened. It was Anna’s act of true love that thawed her own heart. Elsa then understands that love is the key to controlling her powers.

A Happy Ending

After that Elsa restores Arendelle with her newly controlled powers, and Anna frees herself from Hans in a rather masculine, but I have to admit, satisfying manner. Elsa assumes her responsibility as queen, and she uses her powers to make a ice skating rink for her subjects. Elsa even gives Olaf, the snowman, his own personal snow cloud so that he can enjoy summer without melting.

Perhaps if this is an allegory, it is good news for femininity. Maybe despite all of our current struggles, we will be able to reclaim the power of both the Solar Feminine and the Lunar Feminine and bring them together in harmony for the good of all. I hope so.