At 10:57 PM 5/15/98 -0400, Alandra wrote:

4) Now, I've seen Ranma and Akane's wedding pictures, or at least some
of them, of that big fiasco where everyone and their brother barged in. 
So (a) why is Akane wearing a Western style dress, as opposed to the
traditional wedding kimono that Nabiki wore in Sandborn's Nabiki New
Horizons?  (b) Is that common in Japan?  (c) Or was it just for the
purposes of the show? (a and c are likely to be very opinion laden; off
FFML, please, but (b) seems a more fact heavy one, so 'tis okay to
discuss w/ them.  Though why you would listen to me is another
question.)

  Western weddings are very common now in Japan.  According to a Wall
Street Journal article from a few months ago, they now account for the
majority of wedding ceremonies.  What is especially odd is that many of
these weddings (~25%, IIRC) even use a minister although few Japanese are
Christians.  

3) Ah...character names, to go with faces?  I know: Fui, Hikaru,
and...why do I want to say Daisy?  Okay, so tell me the blue-haired
girl's name.  I know Presalina (sp?), Guru Clef,  the Princess, and
that's all I can name.  

  Umi - blue hair
  Fuu - light brown hair and glasses
  Hikaru - red hair

Check a web page devoted to MKR for further details.  

1) I need to know how a stereotypical person from these backgrounds
speak:
	Austrailian

  "G'day, Bruce.  It's hot as a monkey's bum."  (Sorry, I just saw the
Monty Python sketch again last week)

	Irish (very important!  Must get that pattern right, or I'm liable to
confuse it with ST's Scotty.)
	Egyptian

  It's a little hard to describe in a way where people would look at the
text and say "Egyptian".
  If you ever heard a Palestinian, Syrian, or Iraqi speaking English, then
I would describe Egyptian accent as sounding similar but softer and
somewhat rounder vowels.  Although it has been a few years since I visited,
I recall that often they do not fully pronounce final "r" in words.  


                                                                 dml