Tōjimbō-hana

Today, I began some the Fukui sightseeing with Atsu and Sekki! We first set out for The Tojinbo(東尋坊) Cliffs which are some very unique naturally occurring cliffs off the coast of Fukui. I believe that within the whole world, there are only three total geological structures such as this one so I was really interested in checking it out! The cliffs have a sort of hexagonal shape and look as if they were part of some man-made construction.

We drove out to the Tojinbo cliffs and parked outside a small shopping street that led up to the cliffs themselves. Fukui is known for its crabs so there were many crab decorations about the size of an suv placed on top of buildings and various shops. There is no way I could possible forget the word for crab after visiting Fukui 🦀

After walking down the crab themed street, we reached the cliffs themselves. It was extremely cold and it was beginning to hail. However, the water had a really stunning blue turqoise color to it and the water's foam created a cool contrast between the bright blue water and the white foam. I have a very strong fear of heights but I didn't feel very scared during this because of how sturdy all of the columns and cliffs were. I could probably have walked out to the very edge of the cliff if it were not hailing and if my friends didn't call me back to the mainland 😅 We went back to the shopping street after getting to take various selfies and video on the cliffs.

To avoid the hail/rain, we found shelter within one of the seafood shops. I thought this was a good opportunity to try some of the seafood I've never tried before since Fukui is known for having some of the best seafood around. We ordered a type of sea snail (I think?), sea urchin, crab with egg inside, and a type of fish egg dish that looks sort of like sausage.

Crab With Egg: I thought this was probably the most familiar tasting thing of all four of the dishes. However, in America I've only experienced eating the legs of the crab so eating the other parts are significantly different in taste. Had an ocean taste but the egg helped to balance it out.

Sea Snail: The texture of the snail was very tough and changed depending on what part you were eating. This was probably the strangest and most difficult to eat of all the dishes. I didn't think it tasted bad, but the texture made it feel like something I should not be eating. Plus, it looks like those anatomy diagrams of the inside of the ear drum so that made it look even more like something I shouldn't be eating! After finishing the snail, there was some broth left in the shell that I drank. It tasted pretty good! I took the shell home as a souvenier to remember the experience and also as a random decoration. My favorite types of souveniers are the one's where I can associate a specific experience to it like this one. I just need to work on getting the ocean smell out of the shell.

Sea Urchin: This one was very different than I expected. Sea Urchin is almost more like a paste and kind of has a mild ocean taste and a hint of bitterness. I didn't love it but I didn't hate it. I probably wouldn't order it again but if someone asked if I wanted to try a bit of theirs maybe I would try it.

Fish Sausage Thing: This tasted a bit like eel and I like eel so I enjoyed it! I would probably just order something more solid though in the future because something feels strange about eating thousands of eggs even if they taste good 😅

On the drive back, we saw another shop with a huge crab decoration on its front face. I wish I were able to have taken a picture but there was not time while driving past it in the car. I learned a new verb along with a fun application of a grammar point from Atsu and Sekki while driving past. One of them said 「店はかにに襲われた🦀🏠」which translates to "The shop has been attacked by crabs". The passive voice in Japanese is used to communicate dislike or displeasure so I found it funny that the passive voice was used to describe being attacked. I will probably use this sentence in my studies since it's now attached to the giant crab memory 😆 Another instance where the passive voice was used that I thought was funny was when I was hanging out at Atsu's place the first day I heard his mom call his name. He was on a trip somewhere so I let him know via text and he responded with 「呼ばれた」 which literally translates to "I've been called" but the passive voice adds the nuance of "I've unfortunately been called" so it made me laugh. I think it's pretty cool that Japanese grammar has some emotion baked into it! In English, it would be more word choice than grammar used to convey this same emotion.

Later that night, we picked up Ware and Shu from the Fukui train station. We have finally completed our post new years party group and were ready to have some quality friend time 😊 I'm really glad that my visiting could be an excuse for everyone to come together and that everyone cared enough to put in the effort to make time for something like this. I'm really lucky to have gotten to know such caring people! Especially in a country where taking vacation and time off is a bit more difficult.

After arriving back at Atsu's, we all waited in the guest room while Atsu prepared the room we would be drinking in for the night. We waited for quite awhile and were wondering what exactly was happening out there 😆 Atsu had brought down what seemed like ~30-40 bottles of different spirits and put them all on display in the room just in case we wanted to try any of them. Looking through them, it was clear Atsu primarily buys cat or animal themed alcohols 😸🍸 Along with that, Atsu's mother helped put together some food for us. I was overwhelmed with how good the food and drinks were. I must blame the good food and drink for my gaining a couple pounds while in Japan 😇

We also took a look around Atsu's room after getting sufficiently drunk 😆 It was fun being nosy and poking around Atsu's room with everyone. There is something cool about observing a friends room to get an idea of how their mind and everyday life works. This point gets a bit hazy for me because I had a LOT to drink but eventually I made my way back to the futon in the guest room (we were lined up like sardines), sent Atsu a message that his wallet was on the table in Japanese but I don't remember writing it, and then passed out.Read more