Quoting Mr. Johnston:
"I don't believe that Japanese high-schools have enough slack in their
schedules that you could only have one class on a Thursday. Also,
Nerima has no docks. The closest water traffic would probably be on
the river which forms the northern boundary of Itabashi Ward, to
the northwest of Nerima."
Two good points. I failed to make this clear enough, early enough in the
story for several readers to understand. Kasumi is 24, Nabiki 22, Ranma
and Akane are 21. No one is still in High School. Nabiki is the only one
of the crew going to college. Ranma and Akane have elected to pursue
their art without the benefit of a college education. I know, this some
sort of sacrilige, but it happens more often than you might expect--even
in Japan. Judging from the Manga and everything else, neither of them
were all that interested in academics.
Part of this confusion has arisen from my overestimating how long the
gang attended Furinkan by the time Volume 38 of the Japanese language
manga came out. I assumed that by this time, Ranma and Akane were in
their last year of High School and, given their lifestyles, haven't a
prayer of making the cut on entrance exams. This being the case, they
would be faced with becoming ronin or taking up the art. To my way of
thinking, the logical thing to do would be to take up their art. Call me
name for this if you must. Teaching the Martial Arts over the long haul
would, in my opinion at least, be much better than what I did. I went to
work as a boilermaker. The money was excellent, but the taxes ate me
alive. Now you know why I wrote it the way I did, not that any of this
matters to the story save that there is life after college even if you
do not finish or even elect to go in the first place.
I have indeed taken liberties with Nerima's geography and topography.
So does Takahashi. In the first season series we see both tugboats and
fishing smacks running up and down a river. The "bump-humph" noise made
by the Kobiyashi-maru comes from the first season video. Yes, I have
visited Joseph Palmer's site, hence my choice of street names. As Mr.
Palmer points out, the Nerima Takahashi depicts has a good deal more in
common with Yokohama than it does Nerima. This puts me in the company of
Takahashi-sensei who takes liberties with Nerima and James Clavell who
took fairly broad license with his descriptions of Hong Kong. It is
called, "artistic license." You might rightly complain that I am no
Takahashi nor am I a James Clavell, and you would be absolutely correct
on that score. Still, one does learn from emulating the masters and if I
have here offended by violating verisimilitude for anyone reading
Spreading Wings, I apologize must humbly.
Regards,
Don Granberry.