cha-bu-dai ga-e-shi - ちゃぶ..し - Japanese
Taken from a scene in the anime series Star of the Giants, a term most commonly known in the west as being used by legendary Nintendo video game developer Shigeru Miyamoto, when scrapping and starting over a new project.
Chabudai Gaeshi is directly translated to "turn over (flipping) the chabudai"; a chabudai is a traditional Japanese table with four short, retractable legs, allowing mobility and the occupants to be seated on the floor around it. Being on the floor with the table, it is very easy to get one's hands underneath and flip it, disrupting tea or dinner in the process.
Miyamoto is often called in to rescue a floundering project and this often results in an "upending of the tea table". However, while creating an inevitable delay, this has proven time and time again to be a successful approach for the head of Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development (EAD). Quoted as saying "a delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever", no doubt games such as the last great NES game Kirby's Dream Land and the Zelda games Ocarina of Time and the recent Twilight Princess, would never had been so amazing were it not for his insistance of this technique. Also referred to as: Miyahon Check, Miyamoto Test
Strangely enough, the scene from the anime, Star of the Giants, featuring this action is so famous in Japan that you can buy a Chabudai Gaeshi toy on Amazon and it has been made into a figure and a lunch box. In the particular scene a father is so angry at his son for lying to him he upends the table. Taking this image and what Miyamoto has made it stand for, it is a very interesting symbol to have stood out as it has.
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