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!!!

Karaoke!!!!!!!!

I have been to Karaoke 4 times since I came here. Everytime my sister has a day off, I have asked her to come along. Japanese Karaoke has several private rooms (karaoke boxes) that are each equipped with a karaoke player, screens, and microphones. Unlike some Karaoke places in Australia, no one can listen to you except for your close friends!!! The modern ones have a touch panel remote. It is like an iPad but it is only used for Karaoke. You choose your song from the popular songs Karaoke list, or search the name of songs or singers. It only cost 680 Yen (A$9)per person and you can stay up to 8 hours.

You can also order drinks and food. So we ordered drinks and chips. We sang for 6 hours last time but this time we ONLY sang for 4 hours. We could easily have stayed longer but my sister had to go home to be there when Yurina got home from school.

I will finish this blog with a video in which I sang the Tamagochi song!! Enjoy!!

Fireflies & Fireworks

The night we arrived home from Okinawa, the family announced they were going to go out and look for fireflies. I was a bit tired after our trip but as I had never seen fireflies Mami and I agreed to go with them.
Fireflies congregate around fresh flowing water and as there are many streams passing in and around Shunan and neighbouring Kudamatsu, we headed off for a five minute drive to the nearest stream. Fireflies were immediately visible and looked fantastic. They emit a fluorescent green/yellow light from the rear of their bodies that can be seen easily from 30-40 metres away. They fly slowly and can be caught quite easily and will sit on your hand, emitting the pulsing fluorescent light.

We bought one home so that I could take some photos. It was difficult to do as it kept moving and blurring the shot, but I got a couple that I was happy with. I hope you like them.

While on the theme of night activites, last night I got to enjoy something I have not been able to do for many years. Play with fireworks! They are still legal in Japan, and whilst they are nowhere near as big and dangerous as the old 'penny bungers' that were about the size of a stick of dynamite, they were a lot of fun.

2 weeks left

There are only 2 weeks left here in Japan. We have done pretty much everything we wanted to do. As for me, I feel I spent enough time with my family to last me for a few years. I will keep in touch with them more often than before.
For the next 2 weeks, we plan to relax and do as little as possible, however, we already have a few plans. The big one is to go to Kyoto with Hiromo and see Maiko again this weekend. For people who met both of my friends, you know how much fun it will be for us all together again.
We also have a few other people to catch up & say thank you before we leave. Rob made a few friends at the gym so we will be going out for lunch with them on Thursday. They are a middle age couple and they have been very good to Rob. They took us out for lunch and dinner, as the husband, Shinichi, is the head of a oil distribution company. I will try to get Rob to tell you more about them and hopefully we can take a photo with them.
I will also catch up with my old friends, Asuka and Nozomi, and I would like them to know that I am here for them if they ever need to talk.
I am always amazed how quickly old friends can reunite as friends again after not seeing each other for such a long time. It has been great seeing my old school friends and catching up on all that has happened in our lives over the last few years.

Last Day

'We would have liked to stay one more day..' 'but we will say that again the day after tomorrow.'
These were two of the comments I just wrote on the evaluation form for our hotel. Yes, we are very sad to leave here, but I feel my battery is fully recharged and ready for anything that might challenge me in the near future. We did not do a lot here. Our purpose was to totally chill and to get ready to go back to reality. I have had a lot of time to think. It has been a great opportunity to think in a sensationally beautiful and relaxing environment. Only positive thoughts came into my head.
I am sad to leave but at the same time ready to go home and go on with my life. When I decided to come to Japan, I was hoping to feel something like this. "Ready to go on" I feel loved, refreshed, energized. It has been a wonderful opportunity and one I will cherish forever.

Our relaxing holiday by pictures

Fresh Juice and buffet Breakfast.


Reading Time in the morning

We found a library. Borrowed magazines!

Afternoon Tea carried out to us! yum!!

Afternoon Swim!

The end of day 2.

The hotel we are staying at has a sister hotel, and we are free to use the other hotel's facilities. There is a free shuttle bus between the two hotels. It takes 15mins in a cute bus (see picture) which has been made from a trolley tram.
The other hotel has a gym, an indoor pool, a big bath house and its own private beach with many aquatic activities offered. So I spent one hour in the bath house while Rob did daily swimming exercise. We finished a relaxing day with a beautiful sunset and a feast at the sister hotel. The buffet meal was huge in variety and of excellent quality. Delicious!
I am hoping this trip helps me to prepare myself to say goodbye to my family and go back to Australia. I have really enjoyed the last 5 months and I am looking forward to going back to my 'normal' life in Australia, but saying goodbye will be difficult.

5 Day Okinawa Trip

This is going to be our last luxury holiday in Japan.We are in Okinawa again, probably the most popular holiday place for Japanese people. I found a great deal on the Internet, 4 nights at a luxury hotel with all meals included, return airfare and free coffee & ice cream for $500.

There will also be a lot of free things. I am very proud of myself finding this deal.Okinawa is Southern Japan close to Philippine, so it is already hot (could be humid...) and we can swim in a pool and ocean.

I am very excited and I am going to blog it everyday so come back here everyday people!!!!

Ameyoko Market

At the market with Maiko.

After the Cat Cafe,we went to a famous market called "Ameyoko". I had heard the name before but did not know they had such absolute bargains!!!

We bought rugby tops for $4 each (excellent quality), Rob's Asics runners cost $35 and my sandals were $20. There were also cheap Fruits, veggies and seafood. Now when I think back, I should have bought more stuff such as clothing, shoes and bathers!!!!After the shopping spree, we went to see the Tokyo Sky Tree Tower.

"Tokyo Sky Tree" was built for digital broadcasting. Like Australia, analog broadcasting will finish and shift to digital in Japan. The tower is planning to be completed in 2012 and with a height of 634m, the tower will be one of the world's tallest!!!



Mami and Maiko with the Sky Tree in the background.

Cat cafe

Today is Monday and we took a packed train to Ikebukuro. Because we got on the train after 10am, it was not as packed as it would have been earlier in the morning during rush hour. There wasn't anyone pushing us to get on the train with a pole like you see on the ads. However you can see from the pictures it was still pretty crowded.I wish I could have filmed rush hour in Tokyo to show you how busy it gets, but that would have meant me getting up early so bad luck!!
After a short train ride, we caught up with Maiko. She used to teach Japanese at South Oakleigh SC and lived with us for a year. She is currently teaching English in Japan, and seems to be enjoying her job. After a few hugs, we all headed to a Cat Cafe in Ikebukuro.

　

At the entrance, you are given a card with the entry time on it. It costs 200 yen ($2.50) for every 10 mins you stay.There were about 12 - 15 cats and you can pat them, while enjoying a coffee, tea or soft drink. There were also copies of the latest magazines and comic books. We spent 50mins patting cats and taking photos. I could easily have spent all day there but I suppose there are other places to visit in Tokyo.

Earthquake.

A couple of days before leaving for Tokyo, Rob was saying that he would like to feel an earthquake, as long as it was not too big and it caused no damage to life or property.
Well our first morning in Tokyo Rob woke me about 7.00am and said 'Wake up! It's an earthquake!". I sat up, which rocked the bed a little, and still a bit drowsy replied 'I don't think so'.
Rob then told me to lie back and keep still, which I did and sure enough the bed was moving about 5 cm side to side in a gentle rocking motion. We lay there going 'OMG!'.
You have no control and as we were on the 11th floor of the hotel and still getting that sort of movement, it was awesome to think about the power in that quake.
The earthquake lasted about 15 seconds but was big enough to wake Rob up, so it may have been going for a little while before he woke. We turned on the TV and a report came up saying it was a fairly big one, about a 6 on the Reichter scale, with the epicentre somewhere off the coast of NE Japan. It was soon followed by an announcement from the hotel manager reassuring all guests that everything was fine.
Rob was very calm throughout, even though we were on 11th floor. He thought the movement was very fluid and gentle and before hearing the newscast had thought the quake must not have been very big. Luckily we were nowhere near the epicentre or it may have been a different story!
It might be politically incorrect, but Rob certainly got what he wished for.


Tokyo Tower

Harajyuku and akihabara

We again went to see Cosplay in Harajyuku. For those not sure of what Cosplay is, it is Japanese people, usually teenagers, dressing up in costumes, like manga characters for example, and walking through the streets. Harijuku is famous for its Cosplay.

However, there were nowhere near as many people in costumes as there was 4 years ago.I took a few long shots at the station before picking up the courage to ask some people if they would mind having their photo taken. As you can see on the photos, some people go to quite a lot trouble to dress up and were quite happy to have their picture taken. They parade up and down this street called Taleshita doori which is renowned for Cosplay.
We then headed to Yoyogi Park. We were gobsmacked to find such a lush abundance of natural beauty in a middle of one of the world's most densely populated cities. In the Yoyogi Park, there were a few Elvis impersonators, people practicing juggling and hula hoops and others having picnics. They are all seemed very relaxed.



We decided to visit another 'dressing up' town, Akihabara. This time, girls were dressed up as maids. In fact, they're working as waitresses, but treat the costomers as if they are a king. Mami wasn't game enough to go to one of those maid's cafes. I think she thought I might get ideas of subserviance and there are a heap of Cosplay shops where maid uniforms can be bought!!Oh well, we can always dream I guess!