圧巻

あっかん
akkan
(n) highlight; best part; masterpiece;

細かい彫刻のファサードは圧巻です。
Komakai choukoku no facade wa akkan desu.
The finely craved facade is the highlight (of the building).

お弁当

Seeing these お弁当 makes me realize it's not easy to be a mom and a wife in Japan!! :-( The lunch has to be well-balanced (with veggies, meat, carbo and egg), creative, delicious and all of that has to fit into the small containers. It makes me hungry just looking at it!

爆睡

ばくすい
Bakusui
Crashed; fast asleep (right away)

*It's interesting how we say the same in Chinese these days...

深夜の飛行機で一睡もできなかったらしく帰宅後爆睡。
Shinya no hikooki de issui mo dekinakatta rashiku kitaku ato bakusui.
It seems I was unable to sleep on the late night plane (but) I crashed upon returning home.

上海

中国語でブロギング

Recently, I feel blogging (reading and commenting blogs included) is a trend that is killing productivity at work and the people for any little rest time they have left. But what can one do? I stumbled across a very good Chinese blog while searching for a famous Japanese dessert cafe and from there I found a ring of very well written blogs by people my age talking about various very interesting things. Then there was one night I found myself typing away for 8 hours on a Chinese blog because it's very hard to type Chinese when you don't fully know pinyin... But it's great to be using the part of my brain that was hardly used anymore.

ヶ月

かげつ
kagetsu
Number of months

例えば:
今日から３ヶ月目。
It's the 3rd month from today.


生後４ヶ月。
Seigo yon kagetsu.
4 months after birth.

蔑視

べっし
Besshi
contempt

Time for some tough Kanji! >:-)

働き中毒

はたらきちゅうどく
Hataraki chuu doku
workaholic

*saw this listed as a Level 2 Kanji....

純真

じゅんしん
jun shin
Purity, sincerity



I saw this from an exercpt of a (Chinese) book today:
"我十五歲的那個年代，真是純真的最後一代了。。。"
私の十五歳の時は 本当に最後の純情年代だ...

I believe it's true for me and people my age. I might very soon start saying this to my nephew or maybe even people at work! :-)

麻婆春雨

マーボーはるさめ
maapooharusame
Instead of Maapoo tofu, replace the tofu with vermicelli.

追加

ついか
Tsuika
Additonal


*I will be looking forward to this movie: Perhaps Love 如果‧愛

中旬

ちゅうじゅん
Chuujun
Second third of a month

E.g. 4月中旬

We also have the same word in Chinese with the same pronounciation, but I don't believe it means 2nd third of the month. It means middle or 2nd part of the month, I think.

蒟蒻

こんにゃく
konnyaku
The purple jelly triangle thingie in oden.

We were watching Engine on the projected screen till late night yesterday and the chef in the drama was serving oden. Needless to say, it's the best chilly night to have oden and everyone was drooling. Lucky us, mom is in town and she immediate went out to buy 10lb of daikon along with other stuff in the morning and cooked up a big feast of oden for us. We had oden since we were kids and even my dad's Japanese co-workers and wives came to our house for oden. My mom used to do all the fancy stuff like the grounded meat wrapped in cabbage and tied with seaweed. Of course she does not make that anymore... but it's still the best oden on this continent we are in.

In Vancouver, there is this fancy oden-only place on Robson that's packed with people everynight. I think the last time I was there, which was a few years back, a plate of 5-item oden cost around CAN$6.50. You get 1 piece of daikon, half an egg, 1 piece of ちくわぶ, 1 piece of さつま揚げ ( if you are lucky or else a piece of tofu) and for sure 1 piece of 蒟蒻, which I hate. You can order à la carte.and it's CAN$2.50 for 2 pieces of one item. I think it's such a rip off because oden is so easy to make and the ingredients are so affordable!

Anyway, in the Engine drama, KimuTaku also does not like 蒟蒻, just like my dad and I and my mom (which I found out today). :-) Only my brother will eat it that's why my mom still puts it in.

Here is a picture of the oden that's close to what my mom made tonight but maybe think 5 times more densely packed:



We were too busy eating and I forgot to take the actual picture of it before we start. (残念)

申し訳

もうしわけ
Mooshiwake
Apology

申し訳なかったです。
Mooshiwake nakatta desu.
It was inexcusable.

甚だ申し訳ない
Hanahada mooshiwake nai
(I am really sorry but) I have no excuse to ask for your forgiveness.

申し訳ございません。
Mooshiwake gozaimasen.
That is inexcusable.

Saw this today:
誠に申し訳ございませんが、しばらく時間をおいてから再度ご利用ください。

とにかく

とにかく
兎に角 (I don't think anyone will write this word in Kanji)
At any rate, in any case
總之

I was watching アネゴ (dorama) last night with Chinese subtitle. The guy said "とにかく..." several times in one episode and "總之" had appeared so many times that now I think I can finally remember this connective word. It was then I realized having Chinese translation helps more than English. So from now on, I am going to add Chinese translation whenever possible. I can also practice my Chinese typing using Pinyin! :-)

好きな食べ物

Chinese: 喜愛的食物

暮らし方

くらしかた
Way of living; life style
生活方式

One of my favorite magazines,
Real Simple (リアル シンプル ジャパン), is now in Japanese!! Unbelieveable!

京漬物: 二十日大根

Just want to post this cute picture!

意匠

いしょう / デザイン
Ishoo

意匠系
いしょうけい
ishoo kei
Design major

Would love to go to one of those Designer Week events! :-(

就活

しゅうかつ
Shuukatsu
Job hunting

I saw someone saying this in her post:
こんちわ！就活一段楽。

What is she saying??

Hello! Job hunting is fun. (?)

気づき

kizuki
Awareness

【最近の気づき】
【Saikin no kizuki】

☆ I am more excited going on a trip than getting married! :-)

日焼け止め

ひやけどめ
Hiyake dome
Sunscreen, sunblock

日焼け止めをつける。
Hiyakedome o tsukeru.
To wear sunblock.

泥棒

どろぼう
Dorobou
Thief

I saw this in an article...

郵便物泥棒
ゆうびんぶつどろぼう
Thief who steals postal items.

Ever since I enabled the Google WordTranslator tool, any English word I point on the browser page will show me the Japanese equivalents of the word. It works with most of the English words and I found it extremely handy and convenient. But I guess the only serious drawback is that it's constantly luring me to study Japanese than doing my research and development work. It could cost me my job with deadlines missed.... If that happens, I will go into the cafe & dessert bakery business! :-)

やったー

Yatta!
Hooray!
*An exclamation of joy!

嘘

うそ
Uso

This is the kanji for uso....I keep forgetting...