Hey Everybody,

I've never been asked this before, and not sure what else to try, but I'm sure many of you have crossed this bridge already...

In placing an order (in Japan), I'm stuck because I keep putting the wrong info in the blank for "注文者氏名（ふりがな)", which using online translators comes to "order person name (inclination)" & "orderer name (phonetic)".

It can't be looking for the phonetic version of my name, cause (1) I've already tried a few diff. versions, and (2) how the hell would it know?

It's pretty frustrating & I wish it wasn't a required blank. It's not looking for my Screen Name or actual Name, cause those belong in spaces of their own, plus... I already tried them

Any Help would be GREATLY Appreciated, Guys. Especially since this is an item I've Most been wanting since it's release a few years ago. Sooo excited to get him, ha, and I can't even get past the last page. Arrgghh...

I encountered this recently when booking movie tickets oniine. I've been asked for my name in katakana plenty of times, but never hirigana.

Anyway that's what the system wanted, so that's what I entered. The phonetic name never came into play after that - it's just what the system demanded.

It's possible that you've been failing since you're inputing katakana characters.

So maybe try putting your name into Google translate and see what it comes up with (probably katakana). Then transcribe that into hirigana (should be easy to find a phonetic equivalency chart online) - then do lots of copy/pasting to go from one system to the other), enter the hirigana into the online ordering system, and see if it works.

After a while in Japan, you just get used to things like that and roll with them. Ain't no fightin it.

Thanks, Andy! That sounds too Right On not to work. I'll let you know!

To the batcave!

So it ended up wanting "Furigana", which seems to be the same as Hiragana, at least with my name.

After Google Translate, I used both, the Kanji Converter (http://nihongo.j-talk.com/kanji/) and Tatoeba Project (http://tatoeba.org/eng/tools/romaji_furigana) to double check my results. Both are Helpful.

Thank You for your quick assistance, Andy! As always, you're the man! or rather the 男!

Badabing. Glad I could help.

Furigana is 'simplified' kanji for reading purposes. It's probably to avoid a misreading of kanji characters for Japanese names, since there can be several readings for the same set of characters (and the correct reading would be reflected in the furigana reading).

I remember ordering one time and I kept having trouble because it wanted my name in furigana. I ended up putting Mark Mark

totally random but after seeing this thread and the your real name thread and thinking about the differant forms of writing of the japanese language I decided to punch the meaning of my name(twin) through a translator and wound up with tsuin. I found it odd that the japanese word(if I'm getting the pronunciation right) is similar to the english, which I am used to in words that hold only modern context but not ones that would have been rooted in history

This is actually very common, I drive my wife crazy asking her the "real" word in japanese as I know it must exist. I wont go into why it happens, that will turn into a pretty long discussion.

Yeah, and I ran into all sorts of interesting "you're doing it wrong" pop up windows. I go by my initials, "JP". It's my name really, been called JP since exiting the mother canal. Can you guess what the issue was besides using initials in general? JP is Japan. "Helllooo! McFly!"

Ha, once I realized the error of my ways (so used to JP as my name, that I forget they're initials), I went w' my real 1st name, And then - it was a wok in the park

Exactly right. You should always input the Katakana (Phonetic alphabet for Loan Words) equivalent of your name in the Furigana blank and the ROMAN ALPHABET version of your name in the NAME blank. You could put the Hiragana (Phonetic alphabet for Japanese Words) in instead of Katakana since they are both phonetic but that would be weird - unless your last name is Suzuki.
If for some reason the system doesn't accept single-byte ASCII letters just put the Kana in both blanks.