#so すまん = sorry this bun is empty!

[daily-hyosatsu]

Animal name today! My favorite. 中馬 is most commonly read Chūman, which I didn't expect, but can also be Chūma, Chūba, Chūuma, Chōma, Nakauma, or Nakama.

中 means in, inside, middle, mean, or center. It's read naka, uchi, ata.ru, or chū. It also refers to China—actually my first association with the Chūman reading was 中華まん (chūkaman), meaning bao made Chinese style (as opposed to Japanese style). But the word 中華 (chūka) is specifically for Chinese food; it's 中国 (chūgoku) for the country, culture, etc.

And if you're curious, man is short for manjū, usually hiragana but occasionally 饅頭. I've never seen 饅 used for anything but manjū, but we know 頭 means head. AFAIK the Chinese word mántou (Simplified: 馒头) refers just to plain steamed bread, whereas a Japanese manjū would usually have fillings (though some don't).

And somehow I've managed to make this animal name about food! Sasuga. Not to suggest that horse isn't food; spoiler, 馬 means horse, and it's read uma, ma, or ba. The bottom radical 灬 is common in animal kanji, which you can remember because it looks like tracks (but it actually means fire).

#learning japanese #kanji #japanese langblr #animal names #if you click that manju link it's a great pun! #the product is called すまん #and it's an empty manju #素 (su) meaning plain #まん meaning manju obviously #and also すまん is short for すまない (verrrry casual word form of 'sorry' #[or inexcusable unjustifiable etc]) #so すまん = sorry this bun is empty!

[miss-becca]

exactly one year ago, my feet stepped on osakan soil for the first time.

so here we go. the final chapter of my exchange as documented on this blog. i’ve been procrastinating this for 24 days. i’ll do my best to pick up where i left off and limit my overly nostalgic feelings haha.

mid-january marked my first japanese snow experience. strolling out of a store with そうき, we spotted white-capped cars, and with great excitement (on my part, at least), we drove out of the parking complex into a snow-sprinkled wonderland.

i think i spent a good fifteen minutes iterating variations of すごい and きれい

vince stayed with me for most of the rest of the month, and we alternated between going to sightseeing hotspots and just hanging around in warm places. basically all the photos i have of this month are food, but that pretty accurately describes how we spent those days. (for extra captions, hover your cursor over the photos!)

double birthday party bowling! ビンスと陽介誕生日おめでとう！楽しかったよ！

the lead-up to v day could be seen everywhere <3 <3

special trip to kobe just to eat some of this glorious beef

and then dessert and the hardest i’ve laughed in a quiet public place ever

guess who’s is who’s! ;)

最後のご飯うううう

dessert became an integral meal

more special beef for our last lunch

we also had the pleasure of touristing around osaka and the surrounding regions with all our fellow australians who were holiday traveling :D somehow, i have no photos of the big group trip to usj though…

sorry for taking the only gudetama with a visible butt!

hello kitty cafe with cute cakes

and cute drinks (and the most ear-destroying song played on repeat for the whole 45 minute duration that we were there)

tempura after a day traveling kyoto!

saying bye to vince was pretty tough, but そうき made it better with a lovely evening spent playing with his dachshund  アンディ (andy <3), homemade food and then an annual mountain burning night in nara. そうきありがとう！その日はめっちゃ楽しかったよ！（ううう）

めっちゃ美味しかった！そうきありがとう！！

奈良の若草山焼き (wakakusa yamayaki – the burning of wakakusa mountain)

shiga february 3: 大学の授業全部終わった後、そうきと陽介とあいかと一緒に雪山に行った！天気めっちゃ良くて皆んなベックにボードの方法を教えたし、楽しかったよ！皆んなと一緒に遊んだの時間、いつも覚えてる！ありがとう！<3 <3 <3

after my classes finished, soki, yosuke and aika took me to the snow! the weather was fantastic and everyone patiently taught me how to manage myself on a snowboard, and the day was spectacular! plus, yay for onsen at the end to ease us out of the cold. ^_^

めっちゃ天気よかった <3 this weather though

the top of my first slope T_T (みんななんでこれは最初の…）

あいか〜 コーヒーありがとう！

nagoya february 10-14: my very last trip inside of japan, spent with the very best company and i couldn’t have loved this city more. we spent our days roaming around, enjoying the vibrant atmosphere, オシャレ cafes and pretty shopping streets. at nagoya castle, i had my first voluntary guided tour from a lovely man called sho, who gave us (in english!!) the history and stories of the structure as he walked with us through the grounds. on our way out, we caught the castle ninja (sora-san~) and he pointed us to visit the world’s largest planetarium, somehow hidden away in humble nagoya. added to the magic of city lights and stumbling across fairy-light heaven, i fell far more in love than i could have ever expected <3

味噌カツ！the must-have nagoya specialty: miso katsu!

pretty city

making fake meals at an art expo

goodnightmare bear

cake #1

cake #2

nagoya castle

the only one with a dry moat

reconstructions

world’s largest planetarium (though we arrived a few minutes after closing time…)

味噌カツ#2

stumbling upon pretty lights is love

didn’t find cindy but…

<3

cake #3 (of many)

i discovered a weakness for city lights

nagoya tower <3

my first omikase sushi!

dessert at pablo’s

i chose to stay in osaka for the remainder of my time in japan, hoping that everyone would have a little time to catch up on more time. i’m forever thankful to everyone who accommodated my unorganised schedule so that we could meet again, and to everyone who did their best even if it didn’t work out in the end like we planned. here’s a photographic (food-centric) ode to those days. ;) (bonus points if you can identify which photo is from our date based on the food i ate! and sorry if i forgot to take a picture of my food and our date isn’t represented here..)

just had to add this brutalised guitar in

and the creepiest coat hangers we found in a dingy cafe

speaking of last times, there were a lot of inwardly teary moments as i realised the year was truly wrapping up.

1. my very last day of undergraduate uni (if credit transfers go okay…)

from my favourite on-campus cafeteria

past the gym

the front gate (took me a solid 5 minutes to get this panaroma without butchering people’s passing cars)

the top of my morning struggle hill

my least favourite red light to wait at

i’ve run through this ground so many times on late mornings (also, the skyyy)

ただいま！tadaima!

and walking home for the last time from suita campus

2. my final (and fifteenth) visit to usj

and somehow we scored a day which was simultaneously stunning (that evening sky..) and empty. for a moment, it felt like we were the only ones there. also, hooray for parfaits.

3. my final wall mural

which was built up over the year, inspired by the desire to cover my overly yellow door. taking this down was probably one of the hardest things i had to do over the year.

4. my final glimpse of osaka

and then i found myself in my beloved hong kong; surrounded by family and family-cooked food. <3

my favourite restaurant in this whole country is my uncle’s house

the feast that mum and my aunty cooked for me <3

mum’s special dish <3 <3

i never truly appreciated the beauty of hong kong before, but this time the skyscrapers somehow had me speechless. and of course, the dimsims.

here again, i was thankful to the people who met me in my few free days for quick catch ups!

earl grey waffle with my cousin

green tea lava cake also with my cousin

super spicy fish with paul! ^_^

round two

a walk along the harbour to digest the food

before round three ^_^

not the usual view from victoria peak

pretty walk near cuhk

the view from cuhk

some cute streets nearby

then, my final travel spot: taiwan!

かおりちゃん、ありがとう！

goose! <3

of course, taiwanese night market is a must

not-too stinky tofu

pretty rock structures at yehliu

waterfall near jiufen

this place smelt like very rotten eggs

but it was pretty!

my first volcano visit!

beautiful kaohsiung

愛河！the love river <3 <3

cijin island with my bby!

accidentally finding this place

kaohsiung railway museum

pier 2

snoopy exhibition

if you look carefully, it’s actually the leaves that are pink!

lotus lake and the famous dragon tiger pagodas

after one more night in hong kong, spent not packing my bags (to my mother’s dismay), i boarded my plane back to the homeland.

this made me look forward to being home more

and australia really did give me a heartwarming welcome me back. <3

chicken skewers

chicken salt potato on a stick

custard bun

projected portraits on the back of the australian national portrait gallery

cloud of fairy lights and lightbulbs

on my first weekend here, canberra’s annual enlightened festival was finishing up. i was reminded of how wonderful my friends are when three phone flashlights backed me up so i could take that photo of the chicken skewers (please take a moment to appreciate it). <3 thanks guys <3 :3 i am happy here. so to end this joyously, here are some of my happysnaps of my week and a half back in one of the places i’m glad to call home.

sticky rice mango with mum

tacos with my dizz

pretty new university buildings!

oh the beautiful sky

day 346 (and then another 24): さようならではないとしってるけど、悲しいで〜 from home to home exactly one year ago, my feet stepped on osakan soil for the first time. so here we go.