Day 1 - Arrival at Narita & travel to Kyoto

Posted on April 13, 2008
Filed Under Japan, Holidays | 2 Comments

My flight arrived at 9am on Saturday morning March 22. Unfortunately, Sandy’s flight didn’t arrive until almost 4pm so the first 7 hours in Japan I spent wandering Narita’s terminal 1. I have discovered that it is HUGE. I had my nails done, spent half an hour or so on a paid massage chair, another hour or so on the paid internet terminals (100 yen/10 mins) validated my Japan Rail Pass and read a substantial part of my book all while waiting for Sandy.

I also discovered that McDonalds in Japan is not quite the same as in the western world. Apparently they use some sort of wasabi flavouring in the burgers. Ordering was an experience in itself. None of the staff spoke English so I was reduced to pointing to what I hoped was a cheeseburger. It was OK, but it was the last time I ate at McDonalds in Japan.

Then again, I usually avoid Macca’s in Perth too…

When Sandy arrived, we went straight to validate her pass and booked our trains to Kyoto (what was meant to be a 3 and a half our trip) on reserved seats. This first train to Shinigawa was uneventful…we were tired after all that travel.

On arrival at Shinigawa, we had 10 minutes to find the next train track and rushed to ask a steward for directions. He pointed to a train sitting at it’s track and clarified with “Track 24.”

What Sandy and I didn’t realise at the time, is that trains in Japan are VERY timely and the train that was sitting there was actually a few minutes early to be ours. We were meant to wait 3 minutes until the next one arrived but of course, the language barrier prevented the steward from explaining.

We got on the train and then puzzled over why there were people sitting in our reserved seats. Obviously tired and hauling a lot of luggage, we were slow to react and the train left the station with us standing in the full compartment of people. We saw an almost empty car and decided to sit there until another steward came by but before that happened, the train stopped and people streamed in to the previously empty car. We were in someone’s seats!

Apologising for being so rude (Sandy doing it in French causing hysterical laughter on my part), we moved and asked the lady for help (by showing her our tickets and shrugging with a questioning look..lol) She then spoke to her companion, her father, who explained to us in stilted English that we were on the wrong train!! DUN DUN DUN…

Apparently, by getting on the train 3 minutes early, we were now headed in the right general direction but instead of going right to Kyoto, direct, we were now going all stops to Nagoya where we would have to change trains again for Kyoto - extending our trip from 3 and half hours to more like 5!

Sandy was less than impressed…

If fact, she was so tired and worried that she spent the rest of the trip speaking only to my reflection in the window. I think she was confused LOL

We called the hostel from Nagoya to let them know we were going to be late and they agreed to leave the key in the mailbox for us…whew! The rest of the trip to Kyoto was uneventful until we tried to follow the internet provided map to the hostel.

We discovered that a lot of streets in Japan have no names and therefore, do not show on the map. So, when we counted 4 streets down, we were really meant to count 6! Exhausted and desperate, we stopped a family on the street and asked for help. (Showed them the map and shrugged with a questioning look…lol) I pointed to K’s house on the map and looked around with my hands in the air (huh?)

They seemed as confused as we were and eventually stopped two boys on bikes, to in turn ask their help. After a gruelling 5 minutes, one of the boys face lit up and he pointed to a side street nodding vigorously. We thanked them all (Arigato-gozaimas!) and headed off in the direction he indicated.

FINALLY coming upon K’s House Kyoto a full 24 hours after I left Perth and 33 hours after Sandy left Montreal. We were never so happy to see a set of bunk beds and promptly hit the sack.

Holiday over :(

Posted on April 13, 2008
Filed Under Japan, Holidays | 1 Comment

OK, so I’ve been back from Japan for a week now and I’ve decided that it’s time to update this seemingly silent blog with my adventures and tribulations of inter-continental travel.

I was actually rather clever (I thought), in that I brought a notebook with me on holiday and logged what we did each day along with any silliness that made us laugh or events that we didn’t want to forget. This will make it much easier to tell you all about the things we did, places we went and anything else that might be of interest.

I haven’t had time yet to resize all of my photos (almost 1000 of them!) so I will add photos as I can. I’ve decided that I will dedicate a post to each of the 15 days I was in Japan so that each one will be fairly accurate and not novel length.

Here we go…

What is it about passport photos?

Posted on January 23, 2008
Filed Under Life is funny, Australia, Life, Travel, Comedy, Perth, Stupidity, immigration, Canada | 5 Comments

Well Murphy, you’ve done it again.

I pulled out my passport for the first time since my trip to Canada, almost 2 years ago, last week. I knew that I needed to get the sticker proclaiming my permanent resident status in it just in case.

When your passport is scanned at the airport, all your details are available to the staff member doing the scanning, including any visa statuses. However, should they be unable to scan it, the sticker acts as a fail-safe…indicating your status and thus, allowing you back into the country where the visa was issued.

After rushing from work to DIMIA (The Department of Immigration and Multi-Cultural Affairs) and waiting in the queue to get a ticket (Baaaaa) and then waiting for the ticket number to be called. I had finally accomplished what should have been done right after getting PR. The woman at the counter failed to notice that I had been granted PR 11 months ago and offered a flat “Congratulations.” as she passed me ticket number Q432.

Satisfied that I would be allowed to return to Australia after my Japan holiday, I booked the flight. HOORAY!

Only then, did I really LOOK at my passport.

CRAP! I only have 4 months left on it on my return to Oz. They don’t like that, you see. There should be at least 6 months left on it on return. Stupid really. How does my status change 6 months BEFORE it expires? It should be valid right up until the last day.

So now, I am faced with another challenge. Apply for a new Canadian passport 8 weeks before I fly and hope against hope that they don’t find anything wrong with it or the photos. I sent it off today, fingers crossed.

Which brings me to the photo. The last time I had passport photos done, I had just had my hair done, make-up was perfect and I was allowed to smile (the act banning this came into effect one month later) so for the last 5 years I’ve had a pretty decent looking passport photo. This time, it’s been months since I had my hair done so it is long, lifeless and mouse-shit brown. My hair appointment is on Friday but I really didn’t want to risk waiting too long just for vanity’s sake. Also… I look 5 years older!!

The nerve of those photo people. I mean really, can’t they work the photo magic and miraculously shed the extra 20 pounds I’ve put on in 5 years?? (All flatteringly located in my second chin apparently.) Not to mention remove the crows feet and mad look on my face which was a direct result of me laughing immediately before the picture was taken then over correcting so as not to smile?

I’ll be amazed if anybody lets me into their country after looking at that picture! I’d post it here but I’ve already sent it off to Canberra. And by that I mean, I wouldn’t post that god-awful picture if somebody was shoving bamboo under my fingernails.

I might however post a new pic once the hair is done and I’ve carefully applied make-up and taken 50 pictures of me by candle-light and can choose one that doesn’t make me feel like seeing my lunch again.
Watch this space!!

Look who hopped in for tea

Posted on January 13, 2008
Filed Under Australia | 6 Comments

OK, well maybe a bottle of milk. Introducing …Lily!

This is her exiting her make-shift pouch… a pillowcase.

“Oh, hello everybody!”

Exploring the games room…

Tomi was so excited when Lily came in that I was afraid he’d overwhelm her, so I put him outside for a while. This didn’t stop them from checking each other out through the glass of the games room door. It looks like he’s barking but he’s actually crying to get at her. When he finally calmed down, I took Lily (back in her pouch - where she feels safest) outside to meet with Tomi. Now that she was comfortably wrapped in my arms she wasn’t the least bit afraid and happily sucked on my finger (much like a baby) while Tomi licked her ears and head.

Lily is an orphaned kangaroo and she is being looked after by one of Connors’ friends (J) and his family. Her mother was mistakenly shot by a hunter who thought she was male. J has some family friends that run a farm and regularly take in orphaned kangaroos and then integrate them back into the wild when they are old enough to fend for themselves. They happen to be on holiday at the moment and J’s mum (who’s done this a few times) offered to watch Lily for the week.
Unlike most animals, kangaroo babies nurse for about a year and spend most of that time in Mum’s pouch. If Lily had been left alone, at 6 months, she would have surely died.

She may look fairly big but she’s light as a feather and that tail, young as she is, is SOLID muscle.

I never would have dreamed that I might one day have a baby kangaroo roaming my house!

Welcome back!

Posted on January 10, 2008
Filed Under Australia, Life, Travel, Family, Perth, Work | 1 Comment

I hope everyone out there enjoyed their holidays as much as I did!

Twas the season (not) to be posting..lol. It was hot and the kids are home for the summer holidays and we’ve spent a lot of time together. And now, sadly… I have returned to work.

We moved offices over the holidays. Now we’re in Nedlands and it makes the drive to work SO much easier. Not necessarily shorter but a lot more pleasant than doing the stop-start thing on the Mitchell Freeway. There’s something about driving along the coast that still makes me really happy to be here.

In fact, there is on spot in particular on Marmion Ave where you’re approaching Scarborough and the ocean just appears and seems to magically swell to encompass the whole horizon that is still breathtaking to me.

If you live in Perth, I’m sure you know the spot.

Plans for Japan are moving along (thank you to everybody that replied to that post - everything was really helpful) and we’ve booked our accommodation and will be purchasing a JP Rail Pass for transit once we’re there. Sandy has just bought her ticket!! Eep! No turning back now…lol

I’ll be following her lead this weekend. I’ve called the travel agent I normally use and I’m waiting for my options now. I need to decided whether a direct flight is more important or if I want to have a stopover that will get me into Tokyo a bit later. Sandy’s flight arrives at 3:30pm and my direct flight arrives at 9:00am. So I’m looking at sitting around the airport for 6 hours waiting for her. It might be better to have a layover somewhere else to break up the flight and that way I’m only waiting for Sandy a few hours.

It’s all very exciting!!

— keep looking »