Meet-me in Eigo - Recently Updated Pages

Vehicles

mukatsuku — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:44:42 CST

In-game vehicles that are, at this time, NPC only

Blimps Blimps can be seen flying around the virtual Tokyo.
Advertising Vans These vans are especially prominent around Shibuya station.

Hiragana chart

mukatsuku — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 11:31:00 CST

Hiragana can be directly converted into English writing (romaji) using a chart, or table.

Here is a link to a nice, clear one.

http://www.learn-japanese-kanji-hiragana-katakana.com/Hiragana_46Chart.htm

And here is a speaking one to learn the pronunciation.

http://www.genkienglish.net/genkijapan/hiraganachart.htm

Using the table, it is possible to pronounce and type any hiragana word you see.

Basic Japanese

mukatsuku — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 11:28:45 CST

This page is to help people learn enough basic Japanese in order to play the game. Whilst this wiki will provide translations, learning the basic kana (characters) of Japanese will make navigation much easier (by being able to read the hiragana of station names and enter them into the search box).

Japanese has 3 types of writing:

Hiragana
Katakana
Kanji

Romaji is also used, which is the way of writing Japanese using the standard English alphabet.

Some useful conversation phrases are on the Basic Conversation page.

For external links to Japanese study sites, see this page.

Hiragana

Hiragana is the most important kana to learn to play Meet-me, as there are not too many characters to learn (46 main characters + variations).

Check here for a hiragana conversion table, to allow you to read any hiragana word you find in Meet-me.

Hirgana chart

This video lists all the modern hiragana characters and pronounces them in turn.

Also, it does it with a catchy tune to help memorise the hiragana.

Katakana

For Meet-me, katakana is less useful than hiragana, but is used for some words, especially the icons.
Katakana is typically used to write loan words (words from other countries) and changes the pronunciation of the loan word into Japanese pronunciation (so it can take practice to recognise the original meaning of a word when converting to romaji).
Katakana also has the 'ー' character which symbolises that the previous sound is elongated. This can also be expressed in romaji by adding an extra vowel, but is important to remember this means elongation whereas in English it can change the sound completely (romaji 'e' is pronounced 'eh' and romaji 'ee' is pronounced 'ehh')

Some examples used in Meet-me:

Katakana	Romaji	English
ステータス	suteetasu	status
データ	deeta	data
アイテム	aitemu	item

Kanji

Kanji is the character set derived from Chinese and is the most difficult to learn (even for Japanese people). It contains many thousands of characters and it is necessary to learn around 1500 characters to read a Japanese newspaper.
These characters look a lot more complex than hiragana or katana and can be very daunting to a non-Japanese speaker.

All kanji can be converted into hiragana for easier reading (though when kanji are combined, the way to read the kanji can change)

Here are some useful kanji to learn for Meet-me

Kanji	Hiragana	English
男	おとこ	Man / Male
女	おんな	Woman / Female
駅	えき	Train station
東京	とうきょう	Tokyo

Japanese Study - External Links

mukatsuku — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 10:54:18 CST

A very useful site for learning to read and write hiragana and katakana is http://www.easyjapanese.org/kana_img.html
Both hiragana and katakana charts are available here.

This site allows the practicing of hiragana and katakana
http://www.realkana.com/

Hiragana and katakana practicing games
http://www.manythings.org/japanese/kana/

This site is just great! Totally free Japanese lessons that speaks everything you learn (using native speakers) and keeps a track of how much you are remembering. It suggests how much to learn each day and has tests for how quickly you recognise Japanese words and dictation tests to improve your listening!

This site is actually better than a lot of the learning sites that require a fee!

(and if you are Japanese, it has English lessons/tests too)

http://www.iknow.co.jp

Shopping

mukatsuku — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:27:19 CST

How to shop

To enter any shop, point to the door. When the cursor changes to an exclamation mark, left-click to enter.
Inside the shop, point to any item. If you hold the cursor still for a second, a description and the price of the item will appear.
If the kanji 無料 is displayed, then the item is free of charge.

When an item is left-clicked, this menu will appear.
The orange button on the left is "cancel", the button on the right is "buy".

Click here for information on each shop type

In-World Objects

mukatsuku — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:26:27 CST

Treasure Chest These chests are found seemingly randomly placed throughout the world. So far, it appears a key is needed to open them. What's contained in them is currently unknown.
Postbox This is for sending and receiving mail away from the post office. You can't buy stamps here though.
Land for Sale sign Seeing this on a plot of land means the land is available for purchase.
Vehicles There are a few vehicles that can be seen around virtual Tokyo. Currently, they are not controllable by the player.
Gatcha-Gatcha Machines So named because of the rattling noise they make (also called gatcha-pon). These contain plastic balls that contain random items. You need 100 Co per use of this machine. All food shops (Meetme Stores) have these.

Basic Controls

ellaina — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:45:52 CST

Keyboard

Movement: Arrow keys - walk forward, backward, rotate left, rotate right
Enter/Return - open speech bubble to talk

Mouse
The mouse cursor changes depending on the action.

Arrow = movement and clicking on icons
Fishing rod = fish (fishing rod needs to be active in hand)
Exclamation mark (appears above cursor) = activate object

Left-click anywhere in 3D view to run to that location, clicking closer to the character is walk, rather than run. Moving the mouse will cause the character to rotate.

Left-click twice to place temporary marker (the character will run to this marker and mouse can be used without causing character to rotate)

Hold right mouse button and move mouse to change camera angle

Click on doors to open them and enter/exit buildings.

Shop types

mukatsuku — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 23:15:58 CST

There are various types of shops within Meet-me

Post Office

While not technically a shop, this is where you buy stamps for your letters - the process of buying stamps is the same as the process for buying anything else from other shops.

Clothes and items shops

Here you can buy clothing and accessories to decorate your avatar and your home.

Food shops

At food shops, you can buy various types of food as well as use the "gatcha-gatcha" machine outside of the shop (you need a medal/token to use the machine).

Medal shops

Here you can turn your medals into prizes. The prizes consist mainly of decorations for your home and costumes.

Aeon

Aeon is a real-life chain of shops in Japan.
In Meet-me it contains clothing and accessories.
Many items are free from this shop.
(Shibuya train station shop pictured)

Jusco

A huge shop with some free items as well as clothing and housing items. This is next to 品川シーサイド (Shinagawa shi-saido) train station.
Jusco is a real-life Japanese chain, owned by Aeon.

My-home store

A big shop with all sorts of housing goods, both interior and exterior.
This is next to 笹塚 (Sasaduka) train station.

Possible Future Shops

These are shops which cannot be accessed but have a sign on the door saying "Undergoing preparation", which could possibly mean they will open after a later update.

By Train

mukatsuku — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 23:11:40 CST

*Important* Train travel requires you have BOTH the ticket for the boarding station and destination

When you first enter Meet-me, you are given 10 train tickets for free.
Each ticket is for a different station and can be used an unlimited number of times.

The tickets each player receives at the start are:

Kanji	Hiragana	English
新宿	しんじゅく	Shinjuku
渋谷	しぶや	Shibuya
原宿	はらじゅく	Harajuku
六本木	ろっぽんぎ	Roppongi
竹芝	たけしば	Takeshiba
方南町	ほうなんちょう	Hounanchou
初台	はつだい	Hatsudai
幡ヶ谷	はたがや	Hatagaya
笹塚	ささづく	Sasaduka
品川シーサイド	しながわしーさいど	Shinagawa shi-saido (Shinagawa Seaside)

While train travel is free, you need to own the ticket for the correct station.

To prepare the train tickets for train travel, click on the green briefcase icon, then on the map icon.
This opens the train map and ticket screen as shown.

Hovering the cursor over a green ticket will show the name of the station - the name of each station ends in the kanji 駅 which means "train station". The kanji before this are the only ones you need to examine.
To see the location each ticket points to, drag the ticket onto the map and it will zoom into that station.
The hard part is matching the kanji for the train stations to the kanji on the tickets.

The left is the map which shows all train stations and landmarks. Buses are not shown on this map.
The middle section is the list of station names.
The right hand section are tickets in your possession.

To travel, click and drag the departure station ticket and destination station ticket onto the map or station names. This will activate those stations and they will appear on the list in black, rather than grey.

Once they are activated, click on the station entrance and choose your destination and which exit of the train station you want to travel to.

To deactivate a station, click and drag from that station on the map (or station name on the list) into the right hand side.

The green tabs on the station list are filters that allow you to view JR (Japan Rail) stations, Tokyo Metro stations, stations close to you or all stations. The right most icons are "search for station" (use hiragana only) and favourite places list.

To search for a station click on the search tab (the one to the left of the star) and type the name in hiragana and press the button - the train station name will then be displayed in kanji, if the name was entered correctly.

Useful tip for kanji - if you know the name of the station in hiragana, then use the search button to find the kanji for it.
If you are at a station and don't know the hiragana, look at the entrances (orange entrances) to see the name written in hiragana.

Activities

mukatsuku — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 05:55:02 CST

At the current time these are the known activities within Meet-me

Fishing in a pond
Fishing contest from a boat

To fish, first of all the fishing rod (given free when character is created) needs to be equipped. To do this, click on the green briefcase icon, then on the clothing icon.
When the item box opens, click on the fishing rod and it is equipped, in the same way clothing is put on.

While the fishing rod is equipped, a fishing icon appears on the right hand side of the screen. When next to water (either a pond, or when fishing from a boat) click the fishing icon to start fishing.

To cast the line, move the mouse quickly backwards then forwards. A 3D view of the hook underwater will appear and the hook will start to sink, slowly at first but quickly gaining speed.
To slowly reel in the line and pull the hook upwards, press the left hand mouse button. This movement will often attract the attention of fish.

When a fish bites on the hook, move the mouse very quickly forwards or backwards (the same sort of motion that is used to cast the line).
If the fish is caught, then a comment regarding this will appear (such as "GET!" or "HIT") and the line will automatically be reeled in.
The fish size and type of fish will then be displayed. If fishing from a boat, the player will receive a time bonus and "rank points".

To fish from a boat, go to a harbour and click on the NPC at the gates. Multiple people can board a single boat and fish at the same time. The departure time of the boat will be shown, and players may have to wait a few minutes. Once out in the water, an initial time of 10 minutes is given in which to fish.
The harbour is at the train station "takeshiba" (竹芝).
The deeper your line goes, the bigger fish you can catch.

As of yet, it is unknown what the rank points do and they do not show up on the status menu.

Treasure Chests

mukatsuku — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 05:53:57 CST

This page will contain all that is known about treasure chests, what they contain, how to open them, etc.

There are three types of treasure chest in game and they appear in seemingly random locations. The wooden ones are the most common, iron ones more rare and gold ones are the rarest. The type of chest relates to the value of the items inside.

When clicked on, without a key equipped in your hand, a message appears which reads "You don't have the necessary item to open treasure chests".

As well as locked treasure chests, some open treasure chests have been discovered. It is not possible to click on these. It is unknown whether or not these will reset and go back to a closed state or not.

Currency

mukatsuku — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 05:51:27 CST

The currency in Meet-me is the ココア (Cocore), often shortened in game to 'Co'.

When a Meet-me account is created, 2000Co are awarded automatically.
This is displayed in the green bar at the top of the screen.
The blue bar represents a secondary currency called Medals.

One way of obtaining Cocore is to take items to a government office (yakusho 役所). There are numerous government offices around Tokyo, all of which can be reached by bus stop. Look for the kanji 役所前, which means "in front of government office"

One government office is found at the bus stop directly east of the Tokyo Tower and is visible from the tower.
It is possible to get here directly from the bus stop north of Roppongi 六本木.
This is the kanji for this office's bus stop

Another government office is reached by bus from outside the starter apartment block and is in west Tokyo.
The kanji for its bus stop is

After going into the government office, a machine to the right hand side is visible (looks like a cashpoint / ATM). This machine converts items into Cocore.
The size and rarity of the items seems to be related to the amount of Cocore received. Most items from gatcha-gatcha machines are traded for between 25Co - 80Co.

Co is used to buy food, items and stamps for sending letters as well as pay for ground rent.

To earn Co, billboards can be clicked on which ask a multi-choice question. If the question is answered correctly within the time limit, 20Co are awarded.

Medals are used in Medal shops.

No way of selling items has been implemented yet, apart from at the Government offices.

Meet-me in Eigo

mukatsuku — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 05:02:09 CST

This site is for learning about the Virtual Tokyo game Meet-me, in English.

Meet-me is in its alpha stage at the moment, so expect big changes from it as time moves on.
The game is 100% Japanese, so this site is to help non-Japanese speakers get around and have fun in the game, although the ability to read hiragana and katakana is a big advantage.
Some basic Japanese learning tools are here.

The official homepage of Meet-me is http://www.meet-me.jp

To play this game, Asian fonts need to be installed. Instructions for installing Asian fonts on XP are here http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/handson/user/xpintlsupp.mspx#E4.
If, when playing the game, lots of squares are showing instead of Japanese characters, go to Language Settings in the Control Panel (from Date,Time,Language and Regional Options), then click on the Advanced tab and switch the non-unicode programs pulldown menu to Japanese. (this will change the backslash into a Yen symbol in all software, though will still act like a backslash. If this is a problem, then switch back to English whenever you are not using Meet-me)
Vista has Asian fonts enabled by default.

Please use the navigation menu on the left to explore the site or jump straight in at the Getting Started section

Please check the to-do list on each page to see what needs to be added.

Urgently needed information

salvaging from grass (mentioned in an email but without explanation)

Basic Conversation

mukatsuku — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 03:53:58 CST

Typing in Japanese is not the same as typing in English. If you are unsure how to type in Japanese, please cut & paste these phrases from the page into Meet-me, when you wish to use them.

To type in Japanese, make sure the language bar is set to Japanese mode and type as if you were typing in romaji (and use the minus key for the elongation mark in katakana). The words will initally display in hiragana. To convert them to kanji, press the Space Bar after each word to bring up a menu of kanji that can be pronunced from what has been typed. Use the up and down arrows to choose the correct kanji, and press the Return key.

There are no spaces in Japanese, so it is not necessary to add any. Pressing the Return key while any word is highlighted, will simply tell the computer you want to use that word in its present for (hiragana, katakana or kanji). If no words are highlighted, then the Return key has the same function as if you were typing in English.

Useful Phrases

Each phrase will be shown in its Japanese version (with kanji), the romaji version (for typing in Japanese - each romaji word will be separated with spaces) and the English meaning of each phrase.
In the romaji column, words in brackets are optional but add a level of politeness if used.
The minus signs indicate elongation of the previous vowel which are entered by typing the minus sign.
The tilde (~) indicates a word or phrase needs to come before or after this.
ie. My name is ~ (means the tilde represents your name)
~shusshin desu (your country comes before the tilde)
Double consonants indicate a glottal stop and in Japanese are represented by a small つ or ツ

*Tip* 'watashi' (私) means 'I' or 'me' and can be used by anyone

'boku' (僕) means the same but normally used by men
'ore' (俺) means the same but more rough and informal

You will see Japanese people using all three, but 'watashi' is the safest one to use until you are confident in speaking Japanese

English	Romaji	Japanese
Nice to meet you	hajimemashite	はじめまして
Regards (often said at the start or end of a conversation as a matter of politeness)	yoroshiku (onegaishimasu)	よろしく（おねがいします）
Good morning	ohayou (gozaimasu)	おはよう（ございます）
Good afternoon	konnichiha	こんにちは
Good evening	konbanha	こんばんは
Goodbye	sayonara	さよなら
Goodnight	oyasumi (nasai)	おやすみ（なさい）
My name is ~	watshi no namae ha ~	私の名前は~
I am from ~	~ shusshin desu	~出身です
America	amerika	アメリカ
Australia	o-sutoraria	オーストラリア
Britain	igirisu	イギリス
Ireland / Eire	airurando	アイルランド
Can you speak English?	eigo ga dekimasu ka	英語ができますか
I don't understand Japanese.	nihongo ga wakarimasen	日本語がわかりません
Yes	hai	はい
Yes / It is / That's right	sou desu	そうです
No	iie	いいえ
No, that's not right (used more often than in English, especially in response to things like "are you Welsh?")	chigaimasu	違います

Creating Your Character

mukatsuku — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 03:47:25 CST

The Hotel Lobby

The first time that Meet-me is run, you will be taken to the hotel lobby.

Here you will be given the choice of choosing your character gender and name.

In the top box, enter the name you would like for your character, then click on the tick-box to select the gender. Choose 男 for male (left box) or 女 for female (right box).
This cannot be changed at a later time!

After this section is completed, you will be taken to your starter apartment and asked to edit your character.

Character Design

After the hotel lobby, you will be asked to design your character - unlike your character gender and name, you can access the character design screen at any time in the game.

Getting Started

mukatsuku — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:37:40 CST

How to get into Meet-me and start exploring the virtual Tokyo.

Running Meet-me

mukatsuku — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:06:51 CST

Once you have registered for Meet-me, downloaded the client and installed it, run Meet-me by double clicking the Meet-me icon on the desktop or in the 'Start Menu'.

The first time Meet-me is run, a large patch (around 1gigabyte) will be downloaded and integrated into the software. Every time the game is run, it will check for new patches and automatically download and install them.

Once patched and ready to run, the following screen is displayed.

The options button will display 3 options.

From top to bottom the options are:
High spec (run in high resolution)
Medium spec (run in medium resolution)
Low spec (run in low resolution)

Try out the different resolutions to see which is smoothest for yourself (it affects the typing speed greatly)

Once you click the run button, you will be taken to your home location, if you have played before, or the registration lobby to create your character.

Interface

mukatsuku — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 21:51:56 CST

*Menu Tip* For most of the time, if a dialogue box has two buttons to press, the left hand button is 'cancel', and the right hand button is 'accept'.
This is true for buying items, writing letters and adding and removing tickets to the map. If in doubt, press the left hand button.

The interface, from top-left anti-clockwise, to top-right

Your current location - Japanese addresses read the opposite way round to Western addresses, so the largest area is on the left, smallest on right.
The first three kanji in this example simply say Tokyo so are unimportant as the whole game is in Tokyo.
If you want to visit a specific location, the kanji after Tokyo are the ones to match up to maps, train tickets or locations mentioned on the internet. (this example is Shinjuku)

Group - the members of your group/party

Map toggle on/off

(unknown - currently non-functioning)

Place names on/off (on map)

Center on self

Map zoom
+ zoom in
- zoom out
Slider can also be used as well as the mousewheel

Chat window

Actions/emotes

(unknown)

Open chat bubble

The mini-map
Current location address

The light blue icons are train stations
The green buses are bus stops

Famous / Interesting landmarks appear as a small icon representing them.

The orange arrow is yourself

Green arrows are to scroll the map - smooth scrolling is possible by left-clicking anywhere on the map, holding the button and moving the mouse.

Chat window
Icons from left to right:
Own messages (only you see these)
Chat
Whisper / PM / secret messages
Actions

Land and Housing

mukatsuku — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:08:21 CST

Your apartment

When you first enter Meet-me, the first place you are taken to is your new apartment
It is very small and plain at first.
To get back into your apartment, you need to enter the apartment number written on your ID
If your apartment number is 123, click on the front door of the apartment building and type 0123

Your land

If you want a larger place to live in, you can leave your apartment, rent land and get a house.
Unowned land is recognisable as a small, brown, rectangular fenced section with a for sale sign in the middle.
To rent this land, click on the sign and the monthly rate will be shown (The lower, cheap price is the cost for this month. The high price is the cost for subsequent months).
Once you have accepted the price, the fence and sign will vanish and an extra icon will appear on the top left menu-bar. Clicking this icon takes you to the edit land screen, where you can choose a house to place (the house is free to place and multiple houses can be placed on the land).
You receive a free door when you create your character, click on the edit room icon and drag your door onto your house to place it and allow access to your house.

Decorating your home

Make your home more friendly and inviting with decorations.
Simply click the edit room button and drag items from your item tray into your room. They will highlight as green in areas they can be placed within, and red if they cannot be placed.

General Information

mukatsuku — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:35:42 CST

The virtual Tokyo in game appears to have very accurate road layouts and well known buildings are usually accurately represented.

The Day/Night cycles are controlled by the computer's system clock in real time. Adjusting the computer's system clock will instantly affect the game, without the need to log out and in again.

The game has a weather system, which remains purely aesthetic at the present time.

When logging in, the player is always returned to their home location.

There are themes and events launched in-world, often related to the time of year, such as Christmas and Valentine's Day. List of events.