I am not really a fan of honorifics, myself, but a lot of people use -san, -chan, etc. because it works for them. Usually, they are only used between close friends but they usually clog up the roleplay. For instance, you would not refer to one of your friends as "Mr. Johnston", you would simply call him "Paul" (or whatever his name is).

However, you are more than welcome to use them if you would like to; plenty of people tend to use them here.

"Usually, they are only used between close friends"

Uh... actually, that's the opposite there. Honorifics are used for everyone BUT close friends. (A nifty link.)

Maybe I'll end up using both, I don't know yet. I'm trying to incorporate a lot of Japanese vocab into the text of the story itself, (shinai, unagi, etc.) so adding in a "san" here or there probably wouldn't glare out too badly. However, for some things, "Mr." just seems more natrual. (When writing in English, that is.) "Mr. Hat-and-Clogs," for example. But "Mr. Asano," or "Mr. Kurosaki?" That just seemed cheesy to me. Keep iin mind that this was for the narrative prose, not the dialogue. The prose is the hardest for me to figure out here.

Maybe a compromise: "san," etc. for a character speaking in dialogue, no honorifics at all in the text, and "Mr" when more fitting than an honorific. Thoughts?

Personally, I do it on a character-to-character basis, honourifics are a somewhat formal practice so, someone who's not really into that kind of thing wouldn't really use it and so on.

But I'd feel it mostly all boils down to how you take it and want to apply it. I view San (Its equivelancy aside) as being something you would simply omit when speaking in English because it doesn't often translate well given the differences between formalities and such between Japan and elsewhere. But you might view it differently and should apply it how you feel is best, I'm pretty sure most people would accept any approach in the situation pretty easily.

(I'd also say Yamamoto is more fitting of -dono given his station, but that's just me)

Thanks for the feedback guys. I think I'll take what Z6 said and just do whatever feels right for the character. However, the san vs. Mr. is still a bit sticky for me. Japanese people generally tend to be a lot more formal than us westerners anyway, and omitting that in conversation with a stranger/superior can often be considered offensive. So they'd probably use it a lot more than we would think, even if the character himself was considered more "informal."

(As for the Yamamoto thing, I meant that and Sato as common Japanese surnames, not as Bleach characters. xD Yeah, sorry about that. ;) )

Luckily most of my characters aren't Japanese! Aha!

(Well played sir, well played :P)