What are some of my Japanese-to-English translation pet peeves? I’m glad you asked! Here is one. It is when onigiri is translated as RICE BALLS. This happens astonishingly often and I dislike it in a somewhat visceral, emotional way that doesn’t necessarily have a lot of rational thought behind it. Still, I will try to explain. First of all, they are not balls. It is simply an inaccurate term. The canonical onigiri shape is an extruded triangle with rounded corners, as many people already know from media, or restaurants, or other exposure. Which brings me to my second point; if you, the translator, are worried that “onigiri” is not as well-known a word as “sushi” or something, why not give your audience the opportunity to learn? If you go to a ramen place you might choose between shio, shoyu, miso, and tonkotsu bases and maybe get a side of takoyaki and on and on and on. Translated media seems to be perfectly fine talking about udon or bento or whatever, and don’t even get me started on things like the millions of martial arts techniques and everything else that remains in its original language. So why can you not call onigiri what they are, that is to say: onigiri? Besides, it’s a fun word! Onigiri! It’s far more fun to say than RICE BALLS.