Small luxuries by the sea

I went with my cousin Aimee and my uncle, along with some of my uncle's friends, to eat at a Japanese restaurant at the Nautical Mile. It's a cute little strip of restaurants and leisure centers perfect for people who own boats, who love seafood and live their lives roaming the sea. Of course, we were just a random little Asian group who just happened to know the owners of a particular Japanese restaurant.

But before we went, Aimee and I waited around at my uncle's place. The house smelled like incense, so we took pictures outside. Well, I took pictures outside. Aimee has a fashion blog, so I just took some random shots of her.

We sat outdoors at the restaurant, even though it was really hot today. Thankfully we had one of those gigantic patio umbrellas over our heads. The sushi was good--at least I thought it was. I can't really tell when sushi is "good," I just know when it's "bad." We also had fried calamari, edadame, some sort of fish I didn't like, and fried ice cream. Yum.

I had Genmaicha (Japanese roasted green tea) before, but I never had the iced version. I have to say that it tasted quite refreshing and pure on a hot summer day like this.

We spent almost 3 hours eating lunch there. I guess you can say it was like a linner, or a dunch. Whatever you want to call it. Today made me realize just how much I like being by the water (ignoring the fact that our surroundings had a fish-like stench). It made me think about what kind of life I wanted in the future. We saw all these families passing by us on their yachts and at that moment, I really wished that I could be one of those families. Maybe I don't have that kind of money now, but I really want to in the future.

While I was with Aimee in the car, we were talking about how lucky we were to be in America. China censors so many things; Chinese citizens are deprived of the freedoms that we often take for granted. I now know that I have the assets to build myself a bright future--I just need to stop slacking off, stop being so foolish and take advantage of what I have.