Onigiri

The other day I made onigiri for the first time. You'd think I'd have had tons of opportunities to make it but for some reason I thought it'd be super hard, and plus you can buy like 15 varieties of them at convenience stores in Japan for a dollar each so I just always did that. It was super easy to make though, and really good. I still can't make triangle-shaped ones, though.

Tea Station

Today we went to Tea Station. Sometimes I get the feeling I'm the only one who loves bubble tea as much as I do, the only one who thinks about going to a bubble tea cafe every day, the only one who posts about how great it is on their blog. But looking at all the reviews on Yelp for this one place alone, it appears that's not the case.

Today, however, we weren't drinking bubble tea. We were drinking traditional hot Chinese tea. And eating kakigori.Tea's more expensive here than the other places, and I like the open, fresh atmosphere of other places better, but they have a huge interesting menu with every kind of Chinese tea imaginable and all sorts of weird foods too.

アニメ・マンガの日本語Japanese in Anime and Manga

I subscribed to The Japan Foundation's mailing list years ago. Usually they have nothing at all relevant to someone learning Japanese, instead focusing on Japan-related art and culture-type exhibitions held around the world, but I couldn't help checking out a recommended website at the top of today's email from them: 'Japanese in Anime and Manga'.

All I've checked out so far is the 'character expressions' part; but I think it's worth checking out - especially if you're at an intermediate level of Japanese and are interested in where certain casual grammar patterns come from and want to learn how to decode them. Here's an example of what I mean. (It's kinda small so you're gonna want to click it.)


The grammar they introduce is stuff I've come across a lot reading Nana. They offer English translations for things you might otherwise wonder for years about what it actually is in English. For me at least, if I don't know the English word for what I'm learning, I may be able to understand the concept to some extent when I hear the word, but I have a hard time feeling comfortable using the word myself.

Not that I should be using manga Japanese anyway, nor, according to the great majority of Japanese people, should you. lol


I'd just asked Ryo about this one the other day:


And this I've relatively recently learned and have successfully added to my Japanese vocabulary.


The site is extremely slow right now. Must be all the otaku checking it out for the first time.

Snow Summit

Yesterday morning we left for Snow Summit, three hours north, to go skiing for the day. I can't remember what time we got out the door, but suffice it to say that it was very, very early. Like 6:45 early.The view from the top was awesome, but whether from being tired or carsick or stressed from the altitude difference or just so happy to be skiing I didn't care what kind of view there was, or what, I couldn't really appreciate it at the time somehow. It's beautiful now that I'm looking at it on my computer, though, lol.The sunset was beautiful and I absorbed myself playing photographer for Ryo.I was finally able to relax and feel free to just fly down the runs before they closed the lifts at 4. It is sooo great to ski during my favorite time of day, on a run with no one else on it, without needing goggles, knowing and trusting the condition of the snow beneath my skis. god, that feels good. I skiied without poles all day and though awkward at first it was cool to have my hands and arms free, held out to balance myself on sharp turns. Like a bird.We were out of the parking lot before 5. I drove for an hour in traffic all the way down the mountain, then Ryo took over.It was fun day of riding but we were both completely exhausted by the time we got home. I guess it's too long of a drive for one day after all. I wish we lived a skosh closer to skiing.

読書タイム

Today we went to our new tea place for lunch before I had to go to work and read books. Sometimes I ask the meaning of words I've asked about before. I want to go through each book at the end and make a nice long list of all the new words I've learned. Otherwise I feel like I lose them if they don't come up again.

Creativity 創造力

Lately I feel the need to be creative, in whatever small way I can. Why? Am I feeling stifled by work? Is it because it's ski season and I'm not skiing as much as I'd like to? Is it because of the sketch book and charcoal I got for my birthday? Maybe I could start a web comic. Maybe I could wallpaper my walls with drawings. I feel like I wanna make everything I look at interesting and cool.

Chocolate Junkie

Lately I've been all about eating chocolate, and today was no exception, as the girls and I shared a Chocolove bar at work (love poem inside!! what a great marketing concept, lol). I think eating chocolate, though, is what's making me break out all the time. Ryo tries to stop me, but inevitably at the end of the day when he questions me about whether I had any that day I end up confessing that yes, yes, I'm sorry, but I did.....I think I actually posted about Guylian's chocolate seashells before, and if you've tried these you know what I'm talking about. These things are reason enough to visit Belgium, if you ask me.These Lindor truffles were always floating around the office around Christmas....Mmmm..Last last Christmas a friend living in Germany sent me a bunch of these, plus some chocolate covered marzipan, chocolate covered gingerbread, and other authentic goodies... Heavenly.Of course there's the old fallback, running-around-in-costumes-while-trick-or-treating-memory-inducing Reese's peanut butter cups.Last Christmas Ryo's old roomie gave us a big box of See's chocolates. Sooo good. I even discovered I like the blueberry ones.My gym closed due to the flood a week or two ago, but with Valentine's coming up and everything,... they need to hurry up and re-open soon. :)