Not 6months but 3 weeks in Japan!

When I got married, I said I was hoping to go back to Japan every 2 years, well it was a lie. I have been back almost every year and this is 6th trip to Japan for Rob.

I wasn't looking forward to this trip as much as I was in the past.
It was so hard to say good bye to Nana, Yuri, and Tommy. I felt that I made a wrong decision leaving them there. I somehow said " sorry " to Yuri......

However 10 hours direct flight to Tokyo was fantastic! I slept more than 6 hours. It was quick! We left home 9pm and got on the plane at 11pm and we are here at 9am! Wow!

We are resting at nearby hotel right now,  We can have shower and put our feet up, and have a nap before we send my mum off to catch a plane to Hiroshima where my dad will be waiting for her.

I'm so glad to see Rob is asleep as he is hopeless at sleeping on the plane!!

Recovering day today, we will stay in Narita tonight as a couple of our friends are arriving from Melbourne tomorrow morning!

Vietnam

A final surprise!!!!!

As most of you know I avoid my 30th Birthday...well I thought I avoided it....

However, my husband organised a surprise 30th Birthday Party for me.

There were about 40 people I knew.

I had NO idea till that night as Rob has organised it while we were in Japan.

Thank you so much to all of my friends, my family for a lovely party!

Arrived safely.

Mami and I arrived back in Australia on Wednesday 21 at 6.00am. We were then told our flight from Gold Coast to Melbourne had been cancelled because a cloud of dust and smoke from the Chilean volcano was making it to dangerous to land.

We were told the earliest flight we might get would be 7.00am the next day. We asked if we could get flight to Sydney and then we could get a bus or train to Melbourne. The Jetstar guy was really helpful and said we could and was about to book us on the flight when someone cancelled from an earlier flight and we were able to get to Melbourne on a direct flight that morning because the plane was going to fly around the cloud. We were very excited!

We both slept for ten hours on Wednesday night as we didn't get much sleep on the plane. I slept about nine hours last night as well, so I am feeling a lot better now.

We are wondering what we should do with this blog...
Changing title to 'We are in Melbourne' or something
or maybe close it as there will not be too many exciting news to post anymore,,,

Last Day at Koiji Gym

Today was the last day at the gym/swim for me. I have made a lot of friends here over the last five month, both amongst the staff and the patrons. Being a gaijin (foreigner) in Japan is not that uncommon in the bigger cities, but in the smaller cities it is not as common and people are interested to know where you come from. By the end of my time here I had become good friends with the manager, Yorimoto san, and a number of the staff, especially Yasue, (pronounced Ya-sue-eh), who speaks very good English and will be coming to Australia to visit us. People were so kind and we hope more of them will come and visit us in Melbourne one day.
I made a short speech in Japanese to the staff on Wednesday morning before the gym opened and thanked them all for their kindness and helpfulness over the last few months. We had a lot of small stuffed koalas that we gave out and I gave Yasue and Yorimoto san a plant each. It was a pretty emotional moment and I really will miss all the wonderful people who I have met through my association with Koiji Gym.

Something we are going to miss....

We are certainly going to miss these beautiful Japanese dishes you can see in the photos. These are part of the meal we shared with one Rob's pool friends, Shinichi and his wife Toyoko. Shinichi is the manager of an oil distribution company and has shouted Rob and I out to dinner or lunch, four times since we have been here. He is extremely generous and as you can see the food is always five star and delicious.
Even though I am looking forward to having Fish & Chips, Pies, and our favourite Ferrari's pizza, I will miss Sushi & Sashimi a lot.
For the last few days, we get to choose what we want to eat for dinner and I am eating as much as I can!!!
I have put on 1kg in the last few days but this is one of those rare occasions I do not mind putting on weight.

As most fo you know, I love sleeping!! But now I do not want to sleep because a day will end if I go to bed.

Truth is.... I want to go back to Australia, but I do not want to leave my family..
Only 5 days left.......

Kyoto Trip

Last weekend we met our bridesmaid, Hiromi, at Tokuyama station and together we took the shinkansen to Kyoto. The trip took two hours and we arrived in Kyoto a little after 11.00am Saturday morning.
We had planned this trip after seeing Hiromi and our friend Maiko separately, wanting the four of us to get together before we came home to Australia. We always had so much fun together in Australia six years ago,we wanted to relive the memories. We even brought dominoes with us so we could have a game like old times!!
It was supposed to rain, but it only drizzled and we managed to do some sightseeing. We visited a temple called `Shouren-in` which had an incredibly beautiful Japanese garden that was so calming I felt my body was totally relaxed just being there. There are many such gardens and temples in Kyoto. I went to Uni in this picturesque city so I know it very well. (In another words, I was a great tour guide for our group, and they were so lucky to have me.)
Just being in Kyoto brought back a lot of memories, mainly good ones, and I still love this place. If I had to choose a city to live in, in Japan, I would definitely choose Kyoto!!! Rob says Kyoto reminds him of Melbourne.
On Sunday, Maiko, our other Japanese friend came to Kyoto. She travelled by bus from her home in Gunma, north of Tokyo, just to see us all again. This was really special as it was a 9 hour journey!!
We enjoyed every minute of our special gathering and we hope we can see each other again in the not too distant future!!

Thank you Maiko & Hiromi for making this wonderful weekend possible!!!