I know you want to travel.

小肥的手帳

今年初，開始在 instagram 留意到「手帳」這回事。簡單而言，即是裝飾得很漂亮的日記。

因為見到別人寫的手帳都很漂亮，於是自己又開始寫了。

第一本手帳是土耳其朋友送的筆記本。

最初也是參考別家 instagram 的手帳風格，用紙膠帶作標題列，在雜誌剪貼等等。

後來開始畫圖了。

老是常出現的熊本熊。

也很喜歡小屋系列。

記錄一整天的行程，就用時間線。

開始使用紙膠帶裝飾。

也會用利是封、memo紙裝飾。想不到寫什麼就抄歌詞，練字。

有時收到信件，會把信封上的裝飾撕下來，貼在手帳中。（廣島電鐵啊…）

老是常出現的豬。很喜歡寺廟的紙膠帶，有齊南都七大寺。

很難抗拒漂亮的紙膠帶，會將買到的紙膠帶貼在手帳裡。

有段日子頗為鬱悶，沒心機裝飾，就寫下日期而已。

後來開始被餵食了，手帳裡多了許多食物的圖畫。某笨說：「這完全是小學生寫的、我今天吃了什麼的日記嘛。」

貼門票是指定動作（慳位）。

貼相片也是慳位的方法之一。（馬賽克什麼的就不用深究了）

最近一兩週的，因為發生了一些事，所以也沒特別裝飾，整齊就好。

寫日記並不容易。不是沒事好寫，不是討厭寫字，而是持之以恆的確很困難。所以有時候也是雙日記、三日記，甚至週記。不過，漸漸發現寫日記能帶給自己安全感，而且自己記性也很差，有很多高興的事也想透過日記記下來。

所以，開始寫第二本了。:)

My Postcard to Germany - 2015 JAN

I sent a postcard to Anke from Germany.
Anke collects UNESCO postcards and I sent her one showing Historical Centre of Macao, China.

Ruins of St. Paul Cathedral. The Cathedral was burned and only the facade remains today. It is called 大三巴 in Cantonese as 三巴 (Sam Pa) is the transliteration of "San Paolo," the Portuguese variation of "St. Paul". Portuguese is an official language of Macau as the city was a former colony of Portugal.

In return, I got a postcard featuring Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey, a UNESCO site of Germany and also the only standing structure dated back to the Carolingian Era.

Visit Anke's blog for more information
Official introduction of Historical Centre of Macao
Official introduction of Carolingian Westwork and Civitas Corvey

My Postcards to Italy - 2015 FEB

I sent two postcards to Jessica from Italy. Jessica loves Japanese culture and buildings.

Kochi Castle in Kochi Prefecture (高知県). On the postcard shows one of the 12 remaining old tenshu (天守, main building) in Japan.

Hachimangu in Kamakura, east Japan. Hachiman Daibosatsu (八幡大菩薩) was worshiped by the military men in ancient Japan. Shogun, the leader of all military men, also worshiped this deity; therefore, Hachimangu was built in Kamakura, the political centre of the Kamakura Shogunate.

In return I got two lovely postcards of Sicily.

My Postcard to Finland - 2014 DEC

I sent a gotochi postcard from Japan to Shireya from Finland.
Shireya collects gotochi postcard, and I sent her the Mie 2014 issue, featuring the ninja and Iga Ueno Castle.

Iga (伊賀) is a famous ninja village in Mie Prefecture (三重県). Ninja is a covert agent or mercenary well-trained in assassination, collection of information, poisoning etc. They wrote in their own language to avoid leakage of information. You can see on the postcard (below the word "MIE").

In normal days, ninja did not dress as shown on the postcard. On the other hand, they dressed as if a monk or a farmer, presenting themselves as a normal person to avoid suspecion.

The ninja on the left is holding a shuriken (手裏剣, or "sword on hand"). It was usually poisoned.

Behind the ninja is Iga Ueno Castle (伊賀上野城). It was built by Toudou Takatora (藤堂高虎), a daimyo in the 15th to 16th century. He was bestowed the state of Iga after the Battle of Sekigahara. As a skilled castle-builder, Toudou reconstructed the castle. A 29m wall was added for better defence.

In return, I got a nice card of Crete from Shireya. She bought the card when she was travelling there.

My Postcard to Belgium - 2014 OCT

I sent a postcard to Lotty from Belgium. Lotty collects UNESCO postcards.
This postcard shows the clock tower in Hiraizumi, a UNESCO site in northeast Japan.

Hiraizumi is built as a "pure land" in the Buddhist classics by the Fujiwara in Oshu around the 11th to 12th century. Fujiwara had been the most influential clan in the Japanese court since 645 and its subdivision made Hiraizumi a political centre to monitor the "barbarian" in northeast.

There were a lot of Buddhist architectures in Hiraizumi but only a few remain to be existed today. This clock tower is located inside Chusonji (中尊寺).

Visit my blog for my visit to Hiraizumi
Visit the official UNESCO site of Hiraizumi

My Postcards to UK - 2014 OCT & DEC

I sent two postcards to Paula from UK in October and December 2014, respectively.
Paula collects postcards of UNESCO sites and I sent her two, showing Iwami Ginzan and Shirakawa-go.

Shogenji (勝源寺) in Iwami. It was visited by the Magister of Iwami Ginzan every year. Some Magisters were buried in this temple as well.

These houses in Shirakawa Village are called Gassho-tsukuri (合掌造り). Gassho means "hands together". The steep roof avoids snow piling on it.

My Postcard to Malaysia - 2014 MAR

I sent a postcard to Aishah from Malaysia in the activity "Austria Meets World Round Robin (RR)" in March 2014.
The theme of this activity is transport so I sent her a card showing a rickshaw, one of the oldest transport in Hong Kong.

The term rickshaw origins from the Japanese word jinrikkusha, (人力車, meaning man-powered vehicle). Rickshaw was introduced from Japan to Hong Kong in 1874 by a German merchant, who ran a rickshaw company in Central. It has been a popular and unique transport that it has appeared on postcards from Hong Kong since its introduction. Like this one:

This is a photo taken in the studio as evidenced from the floor. It was a usual practice for studio owner to put something seen outdoor in the studio for photo-taking. The photo was then made into postcard.

This postcard (also reproduced from a photo) shows the busiest section of Queen's Road - outside the Central Market (on the left). There are many rickshaws on the road.

In return, I got this postcard from Aishah, showing a fishing village.

I met Aishah another activity "I'm going to Vacation RR". I sent her a card of Itsukushima Shrine, Hiroshima. It is the familial shrine of the Taira clan and also a UNESCO site of Japan.

In return, I received this postcard from her, a beautiful painting showing village life in Malaysia.

In another activity "Tag within Asia" I got a postcard from Aishah again. It shows the Clan House of Khoo Kongsi in Penang (or George Town).

Kongsi (公司) is similar to partnership or a company. It described a group of people, usually from the same place of origin, running business together. Some secret societies also use the kongsi as their organisations' name to avoid trouble.

This building is the Clan House of the Khoo. The Khoo migrated from China to Malaysia and built this house in around the 15th century. Clan house is a place for familial gathering. In the past, clansmen settled dispute in the clan house rather than in local court. When there is a newborn male baby, he would be blessed in the clan house too; and every year, male member of the clan could get a share of pork in the clan house - a symbol of their status within the clan.

The Clan House of Khoo Kongsi is now a part of the Malaysia UNESCO site, Melaka and George Town, Historic Cities of the Straits of Malacca. Visit the official website for more information.

My Postcard to Austria - 2014 MAR

I sent a postcard to Sarah from Austria in the activity "Austria Meets World Round Robin (RR)" in March 2014.

The theme of this activity is transport so I sent her a card showing junkship, once a popular transport but now a tourist spot.

In return, I received a postcard showing a train, ET 10.104 of Montafonerbahn, or Montafon Railway. It runs in the very west part of Austria.

Osterreich, the official name of Austria. This German word means east empire.

You may remember that from your history lesson that German is a majority race in Austria; and thus, German is the official language of Austria today.

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More Information

Austria and Australia have similar spelling but the meaning are different.

Austria

Origin: ostar (High German, means "eastern")

Since the 3rd century there were large groups of German settling in Europe. Some settled in the west (today's France), some in the east (today's Germany and Austria), and some in the south (today's north Italy). Austria refers to those German settling in the east Europe.

Australia

Origin: Australis (Latin, means "southern")

The term Terra Australis Inconito means the unknown land in the south. Since the 2nd century scholars have proposed that this big and legendary piece of land is actually the Atlantis mentioned in Plato's work. In 1814, an English explorer published a sea voyage journal, A Voyage to Terra Australis, mentioning his circumnavigation of Australia.

My Postcard to Malaysia - 2015 APR

This is the latest postcard to Matthew from Malaysia.

Both of us are collecting postcard of this series, "Greeting From." This series is designed by Ewa from Poland but we are particularly looking for postcards sent from the country named on the card.

With the special cancellation of Cyberport Post Office. The picture is the office building there, neither cyber nor port. (Hmmm... Holy Roman Empire lol? Not holy, not Roman, not an empire).

In return I got a "Greeting From" Malaysia from Matthew.

My Postcards to Malaysia - 2014 & 2015

This is my first postcard to Matthew from Malaysia.
Since then, I had been friend with Matthew and we exchanged several postcards later.

Matthew has been collecting postcards from this series. I sent him three during the Chinese New Year with three different Year of Goat stamps and special cancellation.