The Circle Of Life

Once again, I’ve found myself back in Japan – I just can’t seem to stay away! A couple of months ago, I managed to find cheap tickets on Jetstar – only $300 for the Cairns to Tokyo flight. But… wait for it… this was for business class. Done! Flight was booked, I just had to survive exams and find a return flight! Exams were survived, finding a rerun flight was not so easy -the limiting factor was that I had to return for the family Christmas, pushing flights up to over $1500 one way from Japan. And so a plan was born – Melbourne – Cairns – Tokyo – Fukuoka – Osaka – Taipei – Singapore (bus) KL – Melbourne!

The short amount of time that I spent at a Cairns hostel reminded me why I love backpacking in other countries, but not so much in Australia. It certainly was very bare bones, but couldn’t be bet for the location. I had a wonderful short stay in Cairns regardless, spending all my time on the reef – cruise out there, a play at scuba diving, snorkeling and then a helicopter flight back to Cairns. Highly recommended.

Over the years, I’ve been to Tokyo twice – the first time although I had a great night out on the town, I spent the rest of my time hung over, and the second time the airlines had lost my luggage and I was stuck in Tokyo with just the clothes on my back in the middle of a humid, hot summer. Not great memories.

This time, I had a trump card – The Lion King was playing, and I was going. I rocked up to my hostel late at night to find my pre-order SIM card had already arrived. After a few teething issues, I managed to get it going, and the next morning I borrowed a bike and set out for theatre. And went completely the wrong way, ending up near the Emporers Palace and in amongst the embassy’s. What should have taken 1 hour managed to take me closer to 4 hours! And having not ridden a bike for over 3 years, I’m really feeling it now! The Lion King was just as good as it was in Melbourne – truly amazing. The costumes, the set, the singing, all of it was すばらしい. I managed to sit next to a small girl, who was quite impressed with (or at least not upset by) my humming and the small amount of Japanese songs I was able to partially sing!

Over 10 years ago, Asako came to Australia as an exchange student and stayed with us for some time. One of my aims on this visit to Japan was to catch up with her – not only has she gotten married, she’s also had a baby! So we planned to do a day of sightseeing around Tokyo with her husband Hirosuke and baby Seigo. First stop was the newly restored Tokyo Station. I arrived before Asako, and was suprised by the amount of Japanese people milling around taking photos of the admittedly beautiful station. It wasn’t until Asako & Hirosuke arrived and explained that it had only recently been completed that it made sense!

After Tokyo station we headed to Asakusa Sensouji (Asakusa Temple – often referred to as “jinja”, but this isn’t right!). Hirosuke explained to me that even amongst Japanese people, it can be difficult to differentiate between shrine (Shinto – Jinja) and temple (Buddhist – Otera). One way of telling is the presence of a smoking barrel (temple) or purifying water (shrine). He also explained thati red “tori” (gates) are found at shrines, but pagodas are found at temples. And at shrines you often clap before praying, whilst prayers are silent in temples. All so confusing! Basically, when in Japan (or any other country!) I look to see what the locals are doing, and follow their lead!

The road to the temple is lined with lots of little shops selling a wide range of souvineers. We stopped for some fresh zaiten manju – red been paste inside a small cake, yum! Seigo is still not sure of me!

After our temple visit, it was time to take a glance at the skyline. Here is Asako, Hirosuke and Seigo in front of the Asahi beer buildings. Notice the golden coloured building in the background, with the grey “frothy head” on top? We so need one of the buildings in Melbourne! Also pictured is the Asahi flame, said to represent the “burning heart of Asahi beer”, but colloquially referred to as “the golden turd” by many locals. Hmmm.

Lunch was the famous Asakusa tendons for us, and udon noodles for Seigo – who really got into it!

As it started raining, we jumped in a taxi and headed to the Tokyo Edo Museum. Perfect for a rainy day (or even for a super hot day I would imagine), the museum is well laid out and quiet. Plenty to see and learn – so much information about the history of the people and samurai of Japan. Here are Hirosuke and Seigo doing their best to carry me in the traditional viewing box.

Next stop was a Tokyo cruise, on the Himiko ship. Designed by Leiji Matsumoto, one of the best renowned Japanese cartoonists (think anime), it’s futuristic and a bit out of this world. From here we were able to see much of Tokyo from the waterways, including the Tsukiji Fish markets and Rainbow Bridge. We also saw the theatre that I rode my bike to the day before. I also managed to wear Seigo down, and get a bit of a cuddle!

After getting off the boat, we ended up at a shopping centre created mainly for “yummy mummies” and young people. This is the front of ANA’s “kidzania” – a kids play centre (think Crocs or Lollypops). It’s a little different however, kids that enter this world will be enrolled into “careers” – they will become firefighters, nurses, shop keepers and more. It’s basically role play for kids, where kids will even earn a salary that can in turn be used to buy small presents for mum. Can’t wait till Seigo is old enough to go here and I can tag along!

And finally it was time for yakiniku (Japanese style Korean barbeque) for dinner. We had a wide range of meats and vegetables, all grilled on the table in front of us. Poor Asako didn’t get much at all – she was too busy keeping Seigo fed.

After saying goodbye to Asako, Hirosuke and Seigo, I realised that I was only a few stops from “Gyoza World” – a mysterious and magical place said to contain thousands of styles of gyoza (dumplings). So even though I was absolutely full from our delicious yakiniku dinner, I stopped by to see what it was about. And I wasn’t disappointed – dumpling shop upon dumpling shop for as far as you can see. I managed to nibble on some cheese dumplings (yum!) – next time I need to head back with a few people and an empty stomach!!

And that’s the end of my time in Tokyo. I’m currently sitting in the airport, awaiting my flight to Fukuoka, to visit with my host families from when I was a high school exchange student (12 years ago!!)

Just call me Travel Agent Bobbi!

Asia ~ Japan ~ Fukuoka & Beppu

Once again, blogs have been few and far between, whoops. It’s been a month of accomplishments with my Japanese – I can now do many things in Japanese that I never before had the ability or courage to do: order pizza delivery over the phone, direct a taxi driver to my apartment, make travel arrangements with a travel agent and more. Most of these things are activities I never even had the opportunity to do in English, in Australia – I live in the sticks, so getting a taxi home, or getting pizza delivered has never been an option. I’m finally beginning to really function over here!

Gyoza at the gyoza restaurant in Hakata

My friend Jen from home has been visiting me for the past two weeks, and it’s been a blast. I’ve taken her around to do plenty of things around Kyushu, including clubbing in Fukuoka (stumbling home at 7am after spending all night at “Happy Cock”, all you can drink for 2000 yen, who can go past that?!), horse races in Saga (where you go not to watch the races in Saga, but to bet on the races in Kyoto!), temples in Dazaifu (students are starting to cram, the temple was packed!), a home party drinking cocktails and eating oden in Kurume (and laughing the night away with crazy cousins!), bali style onsens in Chikushi (Jen’s first onsen!), sand onsens, hostels and “hell valley” in Beppu (natural bubbling colourful pits of sulphur water, reminiscent of what hell may look like), souvenir shopping at the many 100-yen shops in Fukuoka (and then finding a post office that will accept the 100-odd kg of souvenirs that Jen bought!) and shopping and watching movies at Canal City in Fukuoka (New Moon has FINALLY come out in Japan!).

Students tying their fortunes up at Dazaifu

Matt’s headed off on his next adventure – he is now in Taiwan looking for a job, leaving me in Japan all on my own… Never fear, with my newfound pizza (and sushi, curry, hotpot, Korean, Indian etc etc) ordering abilities, I think I should survive. Throw in the attention of my host sister and cousin (I have an accessible apartment in the city, a big bonus on a Saturday night when trains stop at 11:30pm! This Saturday night is the first I haven’t been out till 7am, and it was only because Jen was leaving early Sunday that I was excused!) and my other Japanese friends.

At the Moomin cafe in canal city. If you're lucky, Mr Moomin himself will come and sit at your table to help you drink your gingerbread hot chocolate (which is easily the best hot chocolate I've ever had, and so it should be at $8 a cup).

Now it’s back to work, sorting out my parents itinerary for when they rock up in two weeks time. We’ll be hiring a car (eek!) and traveling a bit of Kyushu before heading to Kyoto & Osaka for a couple a days, and then heading to China on the ferry. Just call me Travel Agent Bobbi!

Scarily Good…

Australasia ~ Australia ~ Gold Coast and Asia ~ Japan ~ Osaka

“Your bag is over weight, but when we combine both of your luggage allowances, it’s fine”, “no need to worry, buses run all night from Surfers back to your hotel”, “even though you’re amongst the last to checkin, I’ve assigned you emergency exit seats”.

The trip over to Japan wasn’t bad, not bad at all. We flew Melbourne to Coolangatta (Gold Coast) on Friday via Tiger Airways, and despite my bag being slightly overweight (oh come on, it’s not easy to pack a years worth of clothes into 15kg!), they combined our luggage – and as Matt has an amazing ability to pack lightly, we were fine. Our stay in Coolangatta was short but sweet (the hotel was a 5 minute walk from the aiport, right next to the beautiful beach and a 40min bus ride from Surfers Paradise). Checkin for our Osaka flight was quick and trouble free – and we snagged the emergency exit seats on a half full plane. Arrival into Osaka was great, as we stayed at a hotel I had previously stayed at (New Chuo Hotel) so finding it was a breeze. All in all it was a wee bit scary how easy it all was, but our confusion of Osaka’s subway over the next few days certainly levelled the playing field.

Beach near our hotel

Whilst in Osaka we’ve done the standard tourist activities, such as walking around Den-den Town (street full of electrical shops), stroll around Namba, watch families fish off the central pier at night (and see the sun set over the city) and visit a temple in Kyoto (Rokuonji Temple). But, as per usual, the most favourite activity was definetly people watching – for Osaka (and indeed Japan) has it’s own collection of distinct characters – from young girls in kimonos to teenagers with mountains of facial peircings, to salarymen, to old grandmas tottering around in floral print, there is always something different to see.

At the Golden Pavillion

Tomorrow morning we’re off to Fukuoka – we managed to book our first two nights in a cheap hotel (despite leaving it to the very last minute), and intend to start hunting for an apartment straight away. Fingers crossed please! Flight doesn’t leave until 5pm, and a reference website assures us that the trip from our hotel to the airport should take 50mins, so we are assuming that, with our incredible ability to catch trains that terminate before our destination, the trip will take at least 3 hours. So we will be leaving when our hotel kicks us out, 6 hours before our flight. Better to be safe than sorry!

Are the gods out to get me?

Asia ~ Japan ~ Kyushu ~ Kurume, Beppu & Kagoshima and Asia ~ Japan ~ Koyasan

Everyday over here seems to present new challenging situations, and yet each day also seems to present unbelievable experiences.

After leaving Hokkaido, I traveled down south to Kyushu via Osaka. Due to the entire country being on the move (and despite the fact that I booked my tickets two weeks in advance), I was unable to secure seats on a fast shinkansen. Instead, I went on the “SuperExpress Shinkansen” that stopped at all stations to Kurume. Sheesh. In Kurume I once again met up with previous host families and had a fantastic time. Our days were spent lazying about in the air conditioning (unbelievably hot down here in Kyushu) and going out for dinner. My first night out was at the local Chinese restaurant, where the owner still remembered me! Second night out was at a yakitori (grilled foods) restaurant. Plenty of (ice cold) beer to be had, fun times had by all. As always, leaving was difficult (sob!), but I’ll be back soon…

From Kurume I headed to Beppu. However, due to a problem with buying my rail pass in Kurume, I first had top head to the bigger city of Fukuoka to take care of my rail pass. As I’m flying out of there in 5 days time, I thought I would leave my big backpack in a coin locker there, and just cart around my small bag. So off I went to the coin locker place, and asked the guy how long you can leave a bag there, was 5 days ok? He said it was fine, so I put the bag in a locker (had to struggle to make it fit, I wasn’t going to pay the extra $1 to get a bigger locker!). The way it works is you pay the first day when you deposit the bag, then you pay whats owing when you come and get your luggage. So I paid for the first day. I then went all chatted to the girls at the information desk, and they then told me that its a max of three days for the lockers – after that they make you pay heaps of money to get your bag back. Bah! I had to go back and get my bag, and take it with me to the next place. Put it in a locker at the station when I got here, so I didn’t have to lug it to my accommodation, but still had to get it in and off the trains, very annoying!

Kagoshima

In Beppu, the capital of hot springs in Japan, I spent my first day wandering around, attempting to keep out of the sun. While strolling down the main street, I noticed an ATM that would accept my card, and thought I may as well get some money out as backup. Big mistake – half an hour later, after many “discussions” with the guys at the bank, my credit card had been frozen, and it appeared they had $500 of my money. The rest of the night was spent on internet chat to Australia trying to sort it out. Appears to be sorted out now, but was not fun! Whilst in Beppu, I also went to a hot sand bath (in an attempt to relax after the credit card dramas). Amazing! You put on a cotton yukata (summer kimono), and then lie down in the hot black sand whilst they shovel hot sand over your body. The feeling is amazing. Afterwards, you wash yourself off and soak in a big onsen bath. My second night was spent in fear – put a bunch of drunk foreigners together with a big bag of fireworks, and what do you think is going to happen? We’re just lucky that the rain dealt with most of the blow from the crackers.

Fireworks in Beppu

From Beppu it was down to Kagoshima, one of the most south points (other than the islands) that you can go in Japan. My first day was spent in agony – the trip was 6 hours of changing trains, and as it is the Obon holiday, tickets were sold out in most carriages. As a result, I ended up in a smoking carriage – couple that with the 3 hours of sleep I had the night before, and the copious amounts of Japanese sake and shochu I drank the night before (FREE, it was free!), I was a sorry sight by the time I made it to Kagoshima. Luckily I had the foresight to book a hotel rather than a hostel, and spent a good majority of my time asleep in my hotel room…

My last night in Japan was spent at a buddhist temple – an unbelievable experience. After checkin, I wandered about the neighbouring mossy antique cemetery – with an estimated 500,000 graves. Dinner was at 5.30pm, with an 8pm lights out! With a wake-up bell at 5.30am, the early bedtime was just as well. The next day was spent traveling to get back to the airport (with a few pre-planned stops for souvineer shopping 🙂 ).

Once again, my travels in Japan are over, but have no fear, I’ll be back again!

Sun setting on my holiday

Running wild in Agra

Asia ~ India ~ Agra & Varanasi

Hey guys, how is everyone? We’re starting to get ready for Beijing (gunna be cold there, brrr). But before we go, wanted to do a quick update… In the last couple of days we have been to some of the most well known spots in India… First stop was Fatepur Sikri, which is a castle built in the middle of nowhere. The maharaja of the area built it for his 3 wives. It was pretty awesome looking around, we were shown his bedroom, which was all made from stone. In the middle of the room was a very tall (about 3 metres off the ground) very big (he did have 3 wives!) bed. Apparently, it was so far off the ground because in the summer they would flood the castle, and so the water would come up to just below his bed, thus making it cool enough to sleep. The bedroom was next to the kitchen, so that in the winter he was set as well. Other interesting things abot the castle included the games room (which was set up play hide and seek) and the wives’ quarters. Each had their own areas, the biggest one was allocated to the wife that gave him a son…

On the 26th we visited the Taj Mahal in Agra. Truly impressive. The Taj Mahal was built by Shah Jahan for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. It is basically a tomb. When she died giving birth to their fourteenth child, he was so distraught that he ordered it to be built (with the tax-payers money!). It took 20,000 workers 22 years to finish. The main building was built by digging huge wells and putting wooden supports into them. The building then sits on all these supports, not on the ground. This way, in case of an earthquake, the building wont fall. The whole area is perfectly symetrical, one the left side there is a mosque – on the right side there is an identicle one that cant be used as it is facing the wrong direction, it was built purely to keep everything else in line. All the decorations on the buildings aren’t painted on, they are semi precious and precious stones that have been carved into the marble.

Taj Mahal

While we were taking photos we were approached time and time again by people who wanted to take my photo, its beginning to become a standard thing because of my hair. Finally we had to leave because people were starting to form queues to take photos of my hair. Oops!

The day we visited the Taj Mahal was Holi, the festival that I talked about earlier (where everyone celebrates ‘colour’). Everywhere we looked there were people running about in shirts stained with pink, blue and green! Krish kept us under careful guard so that we didnt get caught up in the festivities! For days afterwards we kept seeing straight faced guys going to work in their business suits, with pink and blue ears and necks!

Saying bye to Krish

After Agra we caught a 12 hour train to Varansi. Train wasnt too bad, we had our packs on our beds with us though, so there was absolutley no room. Even still, we managed a bit of sleep. In Varansi we saw all of the usual sights, all of the temples and forts. We also went on a river boat, on the river Ganges, totally amazing. We passed all the famous ghats (stairs next to the river). One of the more interesting ones was the cremation ghat, where we saw a couple of cremations taking place. Right in front of everyone they had the fires going, you could see everything. Its just a way of life over here I guess. Anyway, we’re back in Delhi now, roughed the train again, this time we went without air conditioning, we decided we could handle it. Got on the train to find out that our entire area berth was full of foreigners, we had a European couple with us and a couple from New Zealand. Very interesting… That was yesterday, got into our hotel and crashed, didnt wake up tilll 2pm this afternoon, very exhausted!!!

Train to Varanasi

Signing off for now… xo