Japanese Geography Project

If someone ask me whether I went to Japan before, my answer is usually "just take it as I haven't been there before". But actually, I have been there once when I was in primary school. Since I was so young at that time and I joined the tour group, I don't remember the details of that trip. Many "memeories" of mine are actually created by the questions I asked my parents years after the trip. So, I don't have a clear idea of the location I went and thus I will talk more about the places I want to go in Japan in the future.

1) Fuji-Q Highland (I am not sure if it is the correct name, I only know the Chinese)

It is in Yamanashi Prefecture. It is the one of two places that I remember I visited in the last trip. There was one event that I remember the most in the whole trip and it happened in Fuji-Q Highland.

I didn't remember why I had that courage to ride the highest roller coaster in the park or the world (at that time), but still I did. However, before I had the ride, there was a staff member asked me something. At that time, I didn't understand what he was talking about, he slowed down his question and repeated it for many times, but I cannot get it. At last, he wrote something on the paper. At first, I didn't understand the words because it was written in capital letter(until now I cannot understand capital letter fast), but after a few second, I can read it. It was " HOW OLD ARE YOU?". It was shocked to know that he was speaking to me in English and I had no idea.

Finally, I can ride on that roller coaster successfully. But the ride was quite terrible for me. As it is the highest one, it was a very exciting facility. Plus, I was very thin or you may say skinny at that time, I doubted that the safety-belt was totally useless for me. So, that ride became too excited for me.

For now, I hope I can visit there in the future because I love riding roller coaster and that roller coaster is the most exciting one in my mind. So, I want to try it again. Also, I know there are more facilities there, I want to try it. Besides, the scenery there is really good, as it is near to the Mountain Fuji.

2) Tokyo Disneyland Park/DisneySea Park

It is in Chiba. It is another place that I remeber in the last trip. There wasn't any special event happened, I remembered it just because of kind of regrets.

I was very curious about DisneySea Park, it seemed like very mysterious for me at that time (and also now). However, the construction of the park didn't finish at that time, so it was one of the regrets.

Another regrets was about Tokyo Disneyland Park. As the day before I visited Disneyland, I visited Fuji-Q Highland. I was scared by that roller coaster, so, I was afraid of riding any roller coasters or playing any facilities in Disneyland. It was kind of waste and I regreted it after that day.

3)Hokkaido

I want to go to Hokkaido for mainly two reasons(or things?!), snow and lavender.

It is a common sense that there is no snow in Hong Kong, so I hope I can see or play the snow or even skiing and I know that Hokkaido is very famous about this.

For Lavender, it is because the talk between friends or people and also the beautiful photos on internet. Beside that, I love Lavender because it is very romantic and it is often used in many fictions as Lavender symbolizes waiting for love and devotion in the language of flowers.

Of course, I want to try the hot spring, but I think I can enjoy it in many places in Japan, not only in Hokkaido.


source of pictures:

Fuji-Q Highland: http://www.youyoutokyo.jp/doing/dc1136.html
Disneyland: http://www.traveljapan.co.nz/tours/stopover%20tours/stopovers.htm
Hokkaido: http://www.welcome2japan.hk/location/regional/hokkaido/furano.html

Japanese writing project

When I learnt or saw the word of eraser in Japanese in the textbook for the first time, I felt a little bit strange, as the word is written as けしゴム (消しゴム), with katakana, hiragana and also kanji. On the other hand, the japanese word written on the eraser from my friend is different, at least not 消しゴム (I don't remember what exactly the words, just remember it's different.) However, at that time, I didn't check or think of the reason, I just put it aside. So, after Seo sansei gave this writing project to us, I decided to check and think about it.

Of course, I don't think that ゴム is a onomatopoeia or loan word. At first, I just think that it may be a practice to write in katakana. However, after I check the dictionary, I discover that it is a word from English. It is the english word "gum" which is one of the ingredients for making eraser. So, it makes sense that why "消しゴム" is written with katakana, hiragana and kanji.

Another question that I am curious is why the word is different on the eraser of my friend. As I forget what is the exact wordings, the only thing I can remember about that eraser is it is from Muji (sadly, there is no Muji near my home). So, I just go to some stores that sell stationeries. It is surprised that I find four different kinds of expression.


 

The first type is 消しゴム, of course. I can find it more easily than other type. Somehow, I think that it is a more classical expression  for eraser, may be it is because it is the expression used in the textbook.



The second type is 消ゴム. I don't know why し is missed. Actually, I don't even know whether it is eraser or not, I guess it is. I check on the dictionary to find the meaning of 消ゴム, but I can find nothing, there is no word like this.

 

The third type is けしごむ. All the words are written in hiragana. I can only guess why the company do so. It is a product of a box of erasers which have different cute shape. In order to match the image of the product, it is better to use hiragana than katakana or kanji. It is because hiragana has a roundish shape which gives people impression of cute.

The fourth type is ケシゴム. All the words are written as katagana. I think it is because the company wants to emphasize and attract people to see and buy the product.

 I think the use of these expression depends on what the company want and whether it suit their product. However, no matter which kind of expression, they have the same meaning of eraser.

初めまして～

こんばんは、皆さん～
初めまして、私はイーりン(Elaine)です。
でも、ETと呼んでもいいですよ～
私は日本語が少しわかりますから、英語で自己紹介します。

hi~ I am Elaine, call me ET or Elaine is ok.
But be careful, don't spell Elaine wrong!! is E-L-A-I-N-E~
I'm a year 1 student from HKU SPACE and I've studied Japanese for about 1.5 year.
When I have spare time, I enjoy watching animation and reading comic.
Sometimes, I listen to Japanese songs.
I spend many time on reading fan fiction in Chinese(mainly) or English (sadly, not Japanese T^T)
Also, I like reading novel too ^^~

This is my first time to create my own blog, so I hope I can make new friends here ^^~
じゃ、皆さん  よろしく　お願いします