My Japanese student sent me a little thank-you gift. I think I might need to invest in a vinyl player now.

It's been about a week since I finished Thank Goodness You're Here, and I've still got Ilkley Moor Bah T'at stuck in my head.

I freaking love the aesthetic of the Echoes of the Fallen DLC. I wish we'd had more sections like this in FF16.

My dad sent me this photo today. Helping with the job hunt in his own special way.

Last week I was lying in bed, playing FF16, thinking to myself how much I love the art direction for that game. The next day was my birthday and a friend got me this.

I got Tekken 8 for Christmas. Does anybody want to geek out about Tekken 8 with me?

I shaved my beard off for a new year's costume party. Big mistake. I always hoped that if I shaved my beard off I'd look like Stanley Tucci. Turns out I look like a testicle.

I like the 2009 Christmas Carol movie with Jim Carrey.

I have reached the "stollen as a pre-breakfast snack" stage of the Christmas holidays.

Merry Christmas. I dropped my phone in the toilet.

M̵̩͂E̸̫͗R̸̝͑̚͜R̸̫͍̒Y̵̽̍͜ ̶̠̳̉C̸̛̜̈́H̷̨̦͗Ŕ̶͇̇Ĩ̶͚̍S̶͇̋̔T̴͚͓́͠M̵̛̤̬̆A̷͙̳̒̂S̷͍̈́

I started Final Fantasy XV in January, and last night I rolled the credits on it. Needless to say, the ending provided just the right combination of sadness and confusion that I've come to expect from an FF game.

SQEX Memories: Last night I left the Square Enix office for the last time. Thank you to everyone who made this journey so special.

I got the train into London this morning and was feeling a bit emotional. I ended up playing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 from start to finish on my Switch, because that game is like a warm hug for me.

SQEX Memories: I used to translate bug reports for games in development, and so I watched a tonne of footage from the final chapter of FF7 Rebirth on the bug database before the game came out. Needless to say, it left me with more questions than answers.

Every December we get together with our Canadian friends and celebrate "Moosemas". My wife makes chocolate mousses and we decorate them to look like mooses. Would you like to guess which one is mine?

SQEX Memories: My job interview included a Japanese spoken section. A member of the team asked a question that I couldn't think of an answer for, so I panicked and said "そうですね…" ("yes, interesting...") about five or six times in a row before finally giving an answer.

SQEX Memories: One time, to save some money, I tried getting the night bus to London instead of my usual train. I waited for about an hour in the cold at 1 a.m. for my bus, then walked through London in the dark before arriving at work 2 hours early and exhausted. Never again.

One of the rough things about leaving Square Enix is that it feels so entwined with my own family's history. I started the job right after my son was born. I can remember observing marketing calls with him asleep on me in a sling. His brother was born while I was there as well.

SQEX Memories: I was recently having lunch with some colleagues in the office when one of them started laughing because I had inadvertently coordinated my wardrobe with the protagonist from DQ VII.

SQEX memories: I won't name or share any photos of my team out of respect for their privacy, but let it be known: they were the fricking best.

SQEX memories: I bought a copy of Dragon Quest XI S with my staff discount right after I started at SQEX. It was my first DQ game and I loved it! I actually only finished it a couple of months ago, so it's been a constant companion through my time at SQEX.

SQEX Memories: The view from the bridge next to the Square Enix London office.

SQEX Memories: Last year I was invited to join the @ffunion pub quiz as the leader of Team Alexander. I got to meet so many lovely people, including a certain Mr Ben Starr, and David Menkin even recorded a personalised message for my kids (because they loved him in Jungle Beat).

SQEX Memories: Working on FF7 Rebirth was an all-time high for me. The OG FF7 was a formative experience for me, and replaying it during the COVID pandemic while homeless, with a two-year-old and a pregnant wife, was one of the few things that kept me sane.

SQEX Memories: Before Foamstars came out, we hosted a media preview at the London office. I was on-hand as interpreting support, but what I actually ended up doing was scrambling for ways to keep the journalists' capture cards from overheating in a room with no air conditioning.

SQEX Memories: A few months after FFXVI came out, my wife surprised me with an early Christmas present of a PS5. FFXVI was the first game I played on it, and I broke it in with an Eikonic Ale that I'd saved for the occasion.

SQEX Memories: The first game with my name in the credits was Infinity Strash: DRAGON QUEST The Adventure of Dai, though you had to go into the game settings to find it. Seeing my name in the credits of an actual video game felt like the coolest thing in the world.

SQEX Memories: After a couple of months on the job I got to sit in on this interview that @ffunion.bsky.social did with Hazama-san and Suzui-san. I introduced myself to Darryl and Lauren afterwards, and we've stayed friends ever since. youtu.be/iJdUuLPEta4?...

SQEX Memories: My first assignment at SQEX was to translate a playtest report for an as-yet unnamed remake of Romancing SaGa 2. Coincidentally, my first solo interpreting assignment was for some press interviews with Producer Shinichi Tatsuke ahead of RS2:RotS's release.

SQEX Memories: Day 1 As a lifelong fan of Square Enix games, getting a job there felt like a dream come true. I couldn't believe my luck. I spent most of my first day taking photos of all the cool stuff everywhere, and bumbling my way through some introductions to my colleagues in broken Japanese.

Forgive me for getting sentimental, but since I'm going to be leaving Square Enix fairly soon, I'm going to be sharing some of my favourite memories from my time there.

I got the confirmation yesterday that I'm being made redundant, so sadly I'll be leaving Square Enix by the end of the month.

Interviewed for a new bilingual role at my work today. What I meant to say was "通訳が不慣れ" (I'm not that used to interpreting), but instead I said "通訳が未慣れ". Not only is 未慣れ not a word, but it sounds like 見慣れ i.e. "I'm pretty used to interpreting" 😬

I've had a rough few weeks, I'm processing some big stuff right now, and I'm exhausted, and Adam Buxton chatting with Brian Badonde is exactly the type of idiocy that I needed to put a smile back on my face today. youtu.be/9SWFtBpfk_0?...

Pretty good day in the office.

Just wanted to say thank you to everybody who responded to my "cry for help" post. It's been a busy day of meetings at work so I've not been able to digest all the information yet, but I just wanted to acknowledge the response and say thank you. 🙏

Translators of Bluesky, this is a cry for help: I'm a J-E translator who's considering setting up as a freelancer. Where do I even begin? What should my rates be? Are there any good resources for people in my position? Any input at all would be helpful. Thank you!

Unfortunately, my job is at risk of redundancy too, along with the rest of my team.

Who's picking up this beauty today?

Tokyo friends, this is happening on Saturday - please come and join us! #translation #literarytranslation #booksky peatix.com/event/4568298

I was interpreting on a call this morning and I misunderstood a Japanese phrase meaning "please choose who goes next after you've introduced yourself" as "please wave your hand as you introduce yourself", so that all the Japanese managers waved very sweetly as they introduced themselves.

I've updated my desk setup! Before and after.

I've discovered a new benchmark for testing the limits of AI assistants that I call "the Japanese joke test". Copilot did not pass the test.

My life is an adventure. I just bought a new desk.

If you work from home and find that your feet get chilly around the house, I can recommend keeping one of these under your desk.

I spent most of my year abroad in Japan listening to: - Tool - Steve Vai - 80s King Crimson So hearing Steve Vai and Danny Carey play 80s King Crimson with Adrian Belew and Tony Levin is making me feel all sorts of things. youtu.be/WSJxtZwJcd4?...

Gex has joined the Amano-verse!

When you're trying to eat healthily but your wife comes home from Costco with a massive tray of chocolate hazelnut mini beignets.

Watching BBC archive footage from the 90s has quickly become one of my go-to coffee break activities.