Ok... we'll try this again (lost the first email)... 

Surprise, surprise, surprise! Here is the fifteenth
part of _Comes the Cold
Dragon_. 
 

Oh, the word "isha" means "Doctor" in Japanese. I
used it in a previous
chapter and carefully made sure the term was
understandable from context,
but I am so slow about getting these things out, I
don't imagine anyone will
remember.
 

       "Certainly! Why do you think I have remained so
circumspect?" the old man answered with a rueful grin, but
then suddenly his eyes grew cold as he asked, "If the
world
has become so dangerous, why have you so steadfastly
maintained your ignorance of it?"
 
        "I...I...well...I..." Ranma stammered.
 
        "Because that blockhead of a father of yours
thinks it
unmanly to study?" the old man asked.
 
       "Naw, well, it's not that really. It's just
that...Look
here! Have ever actually looked at a salary-man? I ain't
seen
one yet that could fight his way out of a wet paper bag!"
 

***




"But I haven't seen him practicing any of those things,
Nabiki."
 
       "He wouldn't practice that stuff where anyone could
see
him, Akane," Nabiki said, the smirked at her. "He'll only
teach it to those he thinks are stable enough to have that
kind of power."
 
       Akane's face began to redden as she replied, "I
suppose
you're right. That would be the wise thing for him to do."
 
***Interesting dialog.  Funny that Nabiki knows Ranma
better than Akane... or is it more of a case of Nabiki
uses her head more than Akane?


{{I beg disagree, Saotome. Our predecessor visited us
last night. Now we are obliged to go and visit him.}}
 
***I beg [to] disagree, Saotome.

(Like it or not, Saotome, I'm a pillar of the community
now. You will just have to learn to act like it.)
 
****This seems odd.  Normally unless it's internal or
something "female," they all usually refer to themselves
as "we."  Are you making a specific point?  Actually
throughout their arguements in this chapter Scales and Red
refer to Saotome as you, even though they are all the same
person... which is why "we" had been used before.

{{And a beautiful Dragon.}}
 
***Um... how about something more manly?  Like powerful,
or majestic or something...

(You know better than that, Saotome!)
 
       {{Indeed, Tendo-san does a great deal in Nerima
that we
have taken little notice of so far, Saotome.}}
 
       (I don't know nothin' about all that stuff he
does!)
 

***I agree. I know what you're trying to do, but... they
DO live in modern Tokyo (even if you try to date things
back to the time of the writing of Ranma).  That
neighborhood and community stuff doesn't happen much
here...like in other extremely large cities.  Much of that
Japanese culture/community stuff only applies to the
countryside.  Besides...normally the man would be a
salaryman/salesman/construction worker or something and
not be around to do stuff like that.  Thus the housewife
tends to be more community oriented, however... women have
been working after marriage and after children for awhile
now in Tokyo.  Fewer and fewer quit at marriage, a number
will quit at the birth of a child, but once they are in
school go back to work.  

I guess to sum it up...I don't believe it.  I guess you
are going to expand on that later, but at this point I
have a hard time believing this when people write it.



        Kasumi's smile broadened when she heard Nabiki
cackle.
She had to admit, while Ranma seemed understand little
about
actually being a girl, he certainly knew how to do the
things
that would distract or fluster other men while in his
female
form.
 
***...while Ranma seemed to understand little...


"If you would be so kind as to have one of your
servants point it out to us, Honored Elder," the leader
said,
"we would be most grateful."
 
       "Oh, I can show you where to set up," Kasumi said.
"I
speak for the landowner in this matter."
 
***I have to wonder... some write Kasumi as vapid...others
as a "deadly weapon"... hidden intelligence.  You've
played her as fairly wise and intelligent thus far... why
from here on does she go the vapid route?  She should be
aware of the importance of the proceedings on some level,
so why is she so oblivious to at least appearing to try to
keep protocol?


The men followed her out into the front yard. She
showed them the spot Tofu suggested would be the driest by
the time Haabu and his party arrived.
 
      "I hope this will do," Kasumi said. "The weather has
not
been kind to us of late, and most of the yard is still
quite
soggy."
 
***Why the outdoor cha-no-yu?  The tent setup from the
Edo-era (maybe even sengoku) was almost strictly
military/government related to my knowledge.  Thus the
name "bakufu" for the the Shogunate... "curtain
government."  Additionally...which cha-no-yu school are
you using as your base?  Seeing as how they ar
Tokyo-ites... they'd follow the protocol used by Tokugawa
Ieyasu, who was quite into cha-no-yu.  He had quite a nice
house for it built on the grounds of his place, Nijo, in
Kyoto.  Speaking of which... in that school use of a "tea
house" is normal...as you had with Ukkyo... and if I
remember right, you mentioned things such as having a
small doorway so that they had to crawl in...thus everyone
had to lower themselves to an equal level upon entering
the teahouse...


(Yeah, that is weird, Saotome. I didn't think she liked
me at all. Something really weird is goin' on.)
 
***Again as I mentioned earlier... I would have thought
this would have been "us" and not "me."

"Well, that's good news," Nabiki said without blinking
an eye. She had long known about Kasumi's empathetic
talent.
Most Japanese had such a skill to one degree or another.
It
was a product of culture and nurture

***You've got me... it's hard to explain... something to
do with centralized schooling and the language.  Japanese
is good for apologzing and being polite, but sucks for
business and explaining things... too round about.


***I guess I'll wrap this up for now with... I like that
Nabiki gets her own dragon.  Granted I still think I might
like her better with Ranma than Akane in this story...  I
see you're finally shedding light on how everything fits
together... so Ranma is to be their new banner? And the
three tribes will join together again...  interesting.

J

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