Look what I found! It turns out that Yu’s photobook Kaiten TEBURU ha Mutsukashii, which had her followed by photographer Ivy Chen in Taiwan doing their Taiwan Cafe rounds, will be translated to traditional Chinese in a new release simply titled Taiwan’s Girl (台灣的女孩), to be out on December 27th this year. I doubt this will show up on any other online websites~
Yup. I finally bought Kyou, Konogoro (今日、このごろ。) — roughly translated to Nowadays, Lately. — which I had put off getting for years AND YEARS because… there’s a lot of text. But, damn. I was seriously missing out. There’s not many photos for the book, but there’s TONS of goodies for Yu-chan fans. A LOT of information (movie facts about Yu’s shooting projects, dates, movie suggestions, books she’s given or received, a sorta detailed work around to some of the magazine work she’s done, etc.) — In short, loads of great information for her Wikipedia page. xD
Having to tell you that my Chinese Mandarin classes are paying off for the Japanese reading. Ha! I’m just gonna have to go through all the text bit by bit. Coz seriously, there’s a lot.
I know I have been a very bad Yu Aoi fan. First off, I had only a faint idea she was going to release a new photobook via HMV Japan, but since her website didn’t mention a thing, I didn’t think it was such a big deal. In any case, I ran into some of the photographs in my daily runs through Weibo — and voila!
I thought I should buy it. xD
I am pretty (99,9%) sure that this used to be called Haru Natsu Aki Fuyu Kakigoori (春夏秋冬かき氷), which I translated as Kakigoori for All Seasons or Shaved-Ice for All Seasons. But now it’s called Kyou mo Kakigoori (今日もかき氷). I don’t know when that happened. But look!
We know how much Yu lovessssssssssss shaved ice, she’s like… super passionate about it. Some people love animals from shelters, melt for abandoned puppies and other assorted pets — Yu-chan loves herself some Kakigoori. She loves Taiwan for it, and my Mandarin teacher who’s from Taiwan tells me shaved-ice in Taiwan is off the hook out of this world.
I have no illuminating knowledge about shaved ice, because apparently Peruvian raspadilla has NOTHING on Taiwanese shaved ice. But there you go! Now you know how to say shaved ice in Peruvian Spanish~ I’ll put it in katakana: ラスパディーヤ // RASUPADI~YA. LOL The root of the word comes from “raspar” which means “shave” – and while in English, there’s also what we call “snow cones,” raspadillas aren’t really served in a cone.
Another common name for shaved ice in Spanish is granizado, in katakana: グラニザード // GURANIZA~DO, which comes from the word “granizo” as in “hail” ~~~ and also the term nieve raspada (shaved snow) or in katakana: ニエーベ ラスパーダ // NIE~BE RASUPA~DA, which in itself is a wonk term because you can’t shave snow… can you?
Are you bored by now with my Kakigoori knowledge? Well, in any case Yu is willing to travel the world for the perfect Kakigoori… I guess she’s going to need to know how to call it in different names. But if my teacher is telling me the truth, then Taiwan is all Yu needs.
Here are some more photos!
