Sebastian Palm wrote:

Taika heaved a sigh and turned from her intended path and entered the
hallway where the altercation taking place.  Four hulking young examples
of bad attitudes had the much smaller Umino cornered up against a bank
of lockers and were making menacing gestures with clenched fists.

Lockers? Japanese schools generally do not have lockers. The closest they
have is the shoe cubbies for students to store their outside shoes.

Research

Japanese schools a little more carefully.

This is interesting. Actually, I have yet to see a fanfic that takes into
account all these little things that differ in Japanese and American
culture - frequently, I find stories that woul absolutely not work, since
the whole premise contradicts the culture portrayed...

(Like people having to stay "married" since the records office is closed for
x amount of time, etc...)

Any pointers to fics that get it "right"?

There's something else to take into account, though...
Does it really matter all that much?
Why is it necessary to be an expert on modern Japan to write fanfic? 
Unless you're trying to be an expert on modern Japan yourself, it's 
probably not going to make much difference when reading it.
Does it change the essence of the story whether it's lockers or cubbies? 
  Does a smattering of artistic license now invalidate an entire fanfic? 
Are we now required to make sure that any Japanese person who happened 
to be fluent in reading English and wanting to read English fanfics 
would not find a single thing out of place about the fanfic? (And am I 
thus required to know every street, office time, and restaurant hour in 
New York City if I want to write a story based there?)
This seems less like constructive criticism and more like nitpicking... 
"AHA! You got this wrong! But I know better! You need to have it like THIS!"
So, yes, it's good to have accuracy, but it's a very small point, and 
could have been mentioned very casually. The "Research Japanese schools 
more carefully" command seems a little much.

-Rann



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