My daily SharePoint frustration - XIX

This error happened with SharePoint Server 2010.

The error:

********** ERROR: The template you have chosen is invalid or cannot be found.

STACK:    at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPGlobal.HandleComException(COMException comEx)

   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Library.SPRequest.ApplyWebTemplate(String bstrUrl, String bstrWebTemplateContent, Int32 fWebTemplateContentFromSubweb, Int32 fDeleteGlobalListsWithWebTemplateContent, String& bstrWebTemplate, Int32& plWebTemplateId)

   at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPWeb.ApplyWebTemplate(String strWebTemplate)

   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPSiteCollection.Add(SPContentDatabase database, SPSiteSubscription siteSubscription, String siteUrl, String title, String description, UInt32 nLCID, String webTemplate, String ownerLogin, String ownerName, String ownerEmail, String secondaryContactLogin, String secondaryContactName, String secondaryContactEmail, String quotaTemplate, String sscRootWebUrl, Boolean useHostHeaderAsSiteName)

   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPSiteCollection.Add(SPSiteSubscription siteSubscription, String siteUrl, String title, String description, UInt32 nLCID, String webTemplate, String ownerLogin, String ownerName, String ownerEmail, String secondaryContactLogin, String secondaryContactName, String secondaryContactEmail, Boolean useHostHeaderAsSiteName)

   at Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPSiteCollection.Add(String siteUrl, String title, String description, UInt32 nLCID, String webTemplate, String ownerLogin, String ownerName, String ownerEmail, String secondaryContactLogin, String secondaryContactName, String secondaryContactEmail, Boolean useHostHeaderAsSiteName)

[...]

What I was trying to do: 

  I was trying to create a site collection with a custom template.

The cause of the problem:

   I was following some instructions from internal documentation on how to localize the site. One step instructed me to copy the site template XML file from the English directory to 

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\LCID\XML

  

  After I deleted the XML files from both English and Japanese sites, the problem went away. I didn't try to delete just from the Japanese directory.