Japanese

Mitarashi dango

Noun

団子 ‎(shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai kanji 團子, hiragana だんご, romaji dango)

1. round sticky dumplings made from rice flour (see Dango on Wikipedia)
2. (game of Go, pejorative) an inefficient clump of stones

Idioms

• 花 (はな)より団子 (だんご) ‎(hana yori dango): "dango instead of flowers" → indicating a preference for the practical over the purely aesthetic

References

1. ↑ 1998, NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 (NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary) (in Japanese), Tōkyō: NHK, ISBN 978-4-14-011112-3