Here’s a big hello from Australia! Enjoying myself  in the land down under. Loving the cool weather and the food. Gosh, the steaks and the oysters! Absolutely gorgeous! And we just had both today. Drove down (Well, not me. My sis and my dad did the driving.) from Batesman Bay to Lakes Entrance today, and we bought 5 dozen oysters along the way. Hurrah for fresh oysters! We tried several different types, Sydney rock oysters… Marimbula lake oysters… Pacific ocean oysters. Love the Sydney and Pacific oysters the best!

We’re staying in an motel & apartment today with a fully equipped kitchen so we bought steak from the supermarket and cooked it ourselves. Delicious! And cheap too. I’d love to share some photos… except that 1) this is my dad’s lappy. 2) I’m too tired already.

Just want to share/post a few vocabs here (food and other related vocabs from my holiday) before I wash up and get ready for bed.

ステーキ (suteeki) – steak

ハンバーグ (hanbaagu) – hamburger

牡蠣 (かき, kaki) – oyster

レモン (remon) – lemon
To go with the oysters! In Japanese, there’s no distinction between ‘R’ and ‘L’, so this word might be pronounced more like ‘lemon’ than ‘remon’.

海老 (えび, ebi) – prawn
We had pre-peeled, packaged and ready to eat prawns the other night. Lovely!

カンガルー (kangaruu) – kangaroo
We tried kangaroo steak… and there’s kangaroo kebab and kangaroo sausage sitting on the table now (got it from the supermarket, cooked it ourselves). We’re gonna reheat it in the microwave tomorrow for breakfast. Will be another early day tomorrow as we drive off to Philip Island!

ペンギン (pengin) – penguin
Hopefully we’ll get to see some penguins tomorrow!

コアラ (koara) – koala
Now seen any yet, but we will in a few day’s time.

ペリカン (perikan) – pelican
Saw many flying along the coast today!

鴎 (かもめ, kamome) – seagull; gull
Saw many today as well!

海 (うみ, umi) – sea; ocean

海岸 (かいがん, kaikan) – coast; beach

保護区 (ほごく, hogoku) – sanctuary; wild life reserve
We’ll be visiting the Healesville Sanctuary in Melbourne.

濠太剌利 (オーストラリア, oosutoraria) – Australia
I think normally just the katakana is used?

シドニー (shidonii) – Sydney

シドニー・オペラハウス (shidonii opetahousu) – Sydney Opera House
We were really lucky to visit on the last weekend before the Vivid Sydney festival ended, and got to see the beautiful laser effects on Sydney Opera House. Loads of beautiful projection mapping on buildings too!

メルボルン (meruborun) – Melbourne

十二使徒 (じゅうにしと, jyuunishito) – Twelve Apostles
We’ll go see the Twelve Apostles in the Great Ocean Road! Ah, notice the name in Japanese isn’t in katakana? It’s a literal translation. If you know the basic numbers – 十二 = 12. 使徒 (しと, shito) means apostle or disciple.

グレートオーシャン・ロード (gureetoooshan roodo) – Great Ocean Road
Just thought I’ll add this in since I mentioned it earlier. As expected, proper nouns are normally untranslated and in katakana.

Alright! That’s all for now! Time to get a bath!