In article <9505312219.AA19870@sol.jna.com.au>, Eric wrote:

>   Ummmm - according to very good sources (ie. some friends who have been to
> Japan and back...). The train station announcements, PA announcements and
> all that are all made in that 'cutset' sound effect. According to my friend, 
> it was okay in the beginning - but get's damn annoying after a while. 
> He wonders why they don't use their 'normal' voices - unless they have
> permanent damage from sucking helium!


At the Tokyo train and subways, local station anouncements (such as the 
next train is the express train, please stand behind the line, etc) are
done bye the local station workers ... unlikely to be female.  Perhaps
your friend was talking about the prerecorded voices used on the 'bullet
trains'...  FWIW I think of those voices as 'polite' ... not 'cute'.
Reserve the 'cute' tag for the female tv 'tarento's.  There is one
particularly nauseating one (whose name totally escapes me thank god)
that not only speaks an octave above a mouse ...  but also has an acute 
'nasal' quality as well.  Think of any of the Sailor Moon gals with a
permanent head cold ... not a pleasant experience I guarantee you.



Dwayne Lee
totoro@gol.com

- All spelling flames, either English or Japanese, kindly direct to /dev/null.