Omjima, tea, avatar, japanese

On Sunday, I went with a few friends to Omjima which is this set of islands/peninsulas filled with fisher villages on the Japan sea. There was lots of fresh fish around (and I saw squid living in a tank where you could pick one to eat, which was actually kinda sad but it satisfied my inner five year old to watch them) and the towns were tiny and I kinda felt like I was going back in time (when you see squid hanging up to dry and you can buy whale meat in a can...). We went to the whale museum, which was tiny and weird. They gave us origami whales and there were lots of whale crafts and pictures and they showed how they reenact a whale hunt every year with this giant wooden whale (which was on wheels outside, and I so wanted to steal it). And it almost wasn't disturbing if you ignored the whale fetuses/babies in jars and the giant whale penis...

The weather was absolutely gorgeous so we headed to the other side of the area where there were beaches and cliffs. The water was a beautiful aquamarine blue that faded to a rich royal blue as it went further out to see. The cliffs were rugged and beautiful with random rocks and lots of surf. Our path led us over the tops of the cliffs so we had some fantastic views, even through sea arches and stuff. It was quite relaxing. Afterwards, as seems to be usual, we ended up driving all the way back to Ube to have dinner at a Thai restaurant called Pacific Blue which was excellent, though I avoided anything spicy.

In other news, Lucy-chan has inadvertently suceeded in something that four years living in Scotland didn't manage - I'm addicted to tea. I've been drinking a cup of rooibos (red bush) and vanilla tea nearly every single day. I adore it.

Avatar continues to be excellent. I love how well rounded the characters are. Even though the older brother is often played for laughes, he still gets his moments to shine and be cool, and the little moments of humanity fire guy has are really cute (not to mention his uncle takes far too much joy about fucking with him (and everyone else)).

It's weird. Japanese class yesterday was really difficult (we were doing if and then statements along with learning a new verb conjugation (how to say "I can" without using dekiru)) and the teacher was moving us along at our usual breakneck pace and I was just barely keeping up, but it was still a lot of fun. I don't think I learn things in that class sometimes, but I do recognize grammar constructions when I encounter them later, which is all I'm shooting for, I guess. It's probably because all of our exercises are substitution exercises. It's not a bad way to practice grammar, we just never go over things again so you kinda forget the practice after awhile. Still, we've stopped using romanji on our worksheets which makes for excellent hiragana reading practice. Also, it's very fun to say たべられる really fast:D

Omjima, tea, avatar, japanese

On Sunday, I went with a few friends to Omjima which is this set of islands/peninsulas filled with fisher villages on the Japan sea. There was lots of fresh fish around (and I saw squid living in a tank where you could pick one to eat, which was actually kinda sad but it satisfied my inner five year old to watch them) and the towns were tiny and I kinda felt like I was going back in time (when you see squid hanging up to dry and you can buy whale meat in a can...). We went to the whale museum, which was tiny and weird. They gave us origami whales and there were lots of whale crafts and pictures and they showed how they reenact a whale hunt every year with this giant wooden whale (which was on wheels outside, and I so wanted to steal it). And it almost wasn't disturbing if you ignored the whale fetuses/babies in jars and the giant whale penis...

The weather was absolutely gorgeous so we headed to the other side of the area where there were beaches and cliffs. The water was a beautiful aquamarine blue that faded to a rich royal blue as it went further out to see. The cliffs were rugged and beautiful with random rocks and lots of surf. Our path led us over the tops of the cliffs so we had some fantastic views, even through sea arches and stuff. It was quite relaxing. Afterwards, as seems to be usual, we ended up driving all the way back to Ube to have dinner at a Thai restaurant called Pacific Blue which was excellent, though I avoided anything spicy.

In other news, Lucy-chan has inadvertently suceeded in something that four years living in Scotland didn't manage - I'm addicted to tea. I've been drinking a cup of rooibos (red bush) and vanilla tea nearly every single day. I adore it.

Avatar continues to be excellent. I love how well rounded the characters are. Even though the older brother is often played for laughes, he still gets his moments to shine and be cool, and the little moments of humanity fire guy has are really cute (not to mention his uncle takes far too much joy about fucking with him (and everyone else)).

It's weird. Japanese class yesterday was really difficult (we were doing if and then statements along with learning a new verb conjugation (how to say "I can" without using dekiru)) and the teacher was moving us along at our usual breakneck pace and I was just barely keeping up, but it was still a lot of fun. I don't think I learn things in that class sometimes, but I do recognize grammar constructions when I encounter them later, which is all I'm shooting for, I guess. It's probably because all of our exercises are substitution exercises. It's not a bad way to practice grammar, we just never go over things again so you kinda forget the practice after awhile. Still, we've stopped using romanji on our worksheets which makes for excellent hiragana reading practice. Also, it's very fun to say たべられる really fast:D