Thread:Dynamisx/@comment-4784862-20160118025007/@comment-27612159-20160118164140

Yeah, I understand what you mean about structure, but translating the meaning of the sentence always gives a better result than sticking too close to the original. As I'm sure you're aware they are two very different languages both in terms of grammar, unspoken implications and the way subtle nuances are conveyed. For that reason, I'm often adding in nouns or phrases that are implied from 6 sentences ago (or skipped entirely) because the English wouldn't make sense without it.

Also, he has some amazing run-on sentences that have to be broken up to be readable in english so that all means that in some places I basically read 2-3 lines, took the meaning and important nouns/verbs, and then created several english sentences to convey it.

As for the author, he's using quite casual language, fitting the style of an auto-biographical narrator / personal diary entry, so it makes sense but probably plays hell with translation software :P

If youre interested in Rikai-kun, it's a free extension for Chrome and great to have if you ever look at Japanese in a web browser. the key thing is that when you hover over a kanji you see ALL the potential meanings and readings, whereas most machine translaters have to pick one meaning to go with and often get it wrong (heck, sometimes the author is using multiple meanings at once... which is one of the things I love and hate about Japanese :P )