Anyone who's seen the Australian film 'The Castle' will recognise the title of this entry, especially Vaughan's family members ;-). Finding a peaceful spot in a bustling foreign city can be a real delight, as Vaughan and I discovered in Yusentei garden yesterday. Sipping green tea while enjoying a view of a pond and hearing birds chirp is a fantastic way to empty the mind. I think my brain was grateful for the break because it's been working pretty hard trying to absorb Japanese for 4 hours each day. Yep, I am a student again, more specifically at YMCA Japanese Language School. Their teaching methods are pretty rigid - the focus lies on memorising everything instead of explaining language points-, but that's compensated by the fact I can now actually ask basic questions and introduce myself :-). On Friday I was so excited to show my progress that I bored my Japanese friends Yasuko and Tomoko with a list of all the body parts I knew in Japanese... Funny how you turn into a 5-year-old when you learn a new language!
Neither of us had ever seen such large butterflies as in Yusentei garden so we were pretty determined to get a close-up of one. This one was about half the size of a bat (maybe slight exaggeration!).
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