Nara

Today, we caught the fast train to Nara in the morning. We all had train tickets with allocated seats! It was raining all day, so when we got to Nara, we all bought umbrellas for ourselves. We walked through the absolutely packed with deer deer park. We then went to Todai-ji Temple, the largest wooden building in the world. It used to be bigger, but it burnt down and got rebuilt again - smaller - but still the largest building in the world. There was a lot of incense and candles there. Inside, there was a hole which would 'enlighten' you if you crawled through it. I crawled through it but got a bit stuck on the way because I went in headfirst. I managed to get through in the end.
By L

fears... of swine flu and...

Fears of swine flu - evident in Japan from the groups of students we saw today with face masks on. Later at Kiyomizudera, at the fountain which everyone wants to drink - of pure water - the cups they were using were being instantly purified by use of ultraviolet rays!

Still, having a great time - December not as cold as I thought as yet - but I could be speaking too soon!

Winter Japan

I've only experienced Japan in winter twice, both times whilst we were living there between 1998 and 2000. I'm pretty sure we didn't travel either, so this year is really going to be a revelation. We're off on Tuesday morning, to arrive in Japan about 9pm that night...

Our trip is going to start off in Kyoto for 5 days, including a couple of day trips to Himeji and Hiroshima. Hiroshima is the farthest south we'll venture, and then we'll head north. Three days in Tokyo, followed by Hachinohe (Aomori prefecture), Hakodate and Sapporo. I'm expecting by this stage to get out the scarf, gloves, and thermals. Most times when I've gone to Japan, its been mid summer, sweaty, Tshirts, shorts and summer festival season.

L and I are going this time, after I took G last year - it'll be fun for L to tag along I think, along with 12 students from school and another teacher.

Onsens will be the order of the day, something to warm us up, after braving the cold. At the top here is a photo of us at a most memorable onsen in our time in Japan - with friends - fun! Apparently the onsens of the north are renowned, so hopefully we'll be able to get to them up north. A brother in law of a teacher at our school happens to be a Professor at the Hiroshima Peace Institute, so I'm pretty excited that he'll organise a talk with an hibakusha (Atom bomb survivor) in Hiroshima. It'll be a chance for us Aussies to hear another side of the war to Anzac Day and Gallipoli. Also, K in Tokyo has organised two friends to meet us and take us around Harajuku, Shibuya, Yoyogi park on a Sunday - Kakkoii!!

I'm meeting a Principal in Tokyo for lunch, while my students go ahead to Disneyland... hoping to set up some sort of exchange, which has eluded us for a while.

Flu tracker

Here you go, a flu tracker, to keep track of how virulent that piggy flu is... Look, Australia's got 666 cases - but most of them are in Victoria, where I live...! Its not that bad really.

'tween mountain and beach

I would recommend this campsite, between Mt Maunganui and the beach, we could watch sheep grazing, crazy guys jumping off the mountain on hang gliders during the afternoon and as late a 8.30pm in the dark, and walk across to the surf beach when we felt like it.

The bonus was the saltwater pools, on the other side, which warmed us up after an afternoon in the surf.

The top one is our photo, after our walk this morning to the top of this volcano.

Having decided this was a better place to spend our last day in NZ, we moseyed our way through a final day, and then headed up to Auckland in time to check in to a place close to the airport for our 4am start tomorrow!

Isn't this just as long as Welsh words?

The Maori 'thermal' village we visited today. We were planning originally to visit the buried village as well, which has been called NZ's pompeii, but decided against it in the end, on the basis of general prices in Rotorua, and our fast disappearing funds!

This is a shot of the geothermal forces at work in Taupo... G warming himself nicely. This was probably 20 minutes walk from our caravan park.

Our bath at the caravan park, scalds a bit on entry, we are also staying on thermal ground, just so that our backs stay warm during the night - you would have thought most caravan parks would offer this service in the 21st century?

Anyway, they also do pretty well with the showers, though the steam is a bit off putting!

Made it up Mt. Taranaki two days ago and found snow, to L and G's delight! Does it look a bit like Mt Fuji? Less people and less rubbish, though!

Easter in Aotorea - we tried to find a church, and found 5 churches. Eventually we went to the Anglican (with the Methodists) and heard 'in the name of the F,S and S' in Maori.

By the way, here is a photo of our lunch in our hotel we stayed in in Wellington.

.

More photos from Wellington

Okay, so here we were today, next to Wellington harbour, quite a stunning view isn't it. Right next to us, at this point, were about 10 girls and guys, who were taking turns jumping off a diving board, about 5 metres off the water. A fairly cool day you would have thought to jump in, with a top of 14 degrees, but at least they'd waited until the warmest time of the day. You probably can't see it, but in the background behind L and G are a whole lot of snow covered mountains, which gradually came out from behind cloud.



The waterfront has skateboarders, bikers, tourists and a massive building called the Te Papa Tongarewa, an impressive museum, which you definitely need more than a half day (which we had) to see. Some of the best bits are about earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanos, which for some reason, us Oztralians don't take much notice of.


Anyway, later, we met this friendly gent, who was only too pleased to let G have a pat of his dog.

Tomorrow, we head for Mt Taranaki, a volcano (of course). Not sure when our next internet access will be available - this cafe offering in Wellington has been too convenient. We could get used to adding to the cacophony by skyping from our pub where we're eating our irish stew!

Wellington

We realised this morning, that for G and I, NZ is the first country we've gone to out of Australia that still has

English as a common language. All of us are starting to see some commonalities and some big differences between NZ and Oz. Flying in last night at about 5pm NZ time, we had an amazing view of the northern part of the South Island mountain ranges, which we saw this morning at a cartographer was a part of a 'relatively new' mountain range, due to the fault line, which goes right up NZ, and is especially pronounced on the SI. Snow capped peaks are not a common sight for us aussies.

The cable car this morning was beautiful, and up the top of the mountain, we read the narrative from Mark, and reflected on Good Friday, which must have been so different to a sunny Wellington day, especially if there was an eclipse, and three hours of darkness. Though cold here, the sun makes it feel warmer than it is. By Easter Sunday, we're hoping to be up to Mt Taranaki on the west coast. This'll probably make it harder to blog etc., but we'll see how we go.

NZ here we come...

If you were looking at this picture of the North Island of NZ, what would stand out for you and what would you want to see? There is a big lake in the middle and a massive pimple of a volcano on the Western side. These are my must sees next week when we take off to NZ.

Starting from the south and working towards the north, our plan is to tackle the North Island and to do it justice. Probably difficult to do it justice in 7 days, but anyway! Yes, I've heard of the mud beach in the north - probably also a must do with 2 kids, Rotorua and so forth and if we have time, we'll venture north of Auckland to the Bay of Isles... More to follow! (Back to parent teacher interviews!!)

back to Kyoto

I met a very interesting Jesuit priest in nagasaki, who was able to fill me in with in depth knowledge re the Christians who were called Kakure and Senpuku in Nagasaki. He is the director of the 26 martyrs monument, which is going to be added to by the beatification of 187 Japanese martyrs later this year, recognising the suffering that Japanese Christians have experienced. Still today in Nagasaki, Catholic Christians make up 5% of the population, in comparison to 0.5% in the rest of Japan. We also saw some of the icons which the Christians made to keep faith, whilst pretending that they were Buddhist type symbols... Such as the one above. Also, we found Oranda street!! There is a whole area called the Orandazaka - meaning the Dutch slopes as well.

G and I went to mass this morning at the Nakamachi Cathedral and I could vouch for this - a full church, with singing children up the front, and quite a moving liturgy. (G found it a little harder to make the distance, having little Japanese and after a late night the night before, taken out by the `Australia-Nagasaki friendship association`! I was quizzed on John Howard, whaling, Nagasaki vs Hiroshima, etc, etc!)

G has continued to enjoy the shinkansen and we got up to Kyoto late today... it is just so different to Nagasaki - crowded, full of foreign tourists, but similarly hot! He loved the escalators leading up 12 floors unidirectionally, kind of up into the sky, to the top of the Kyoto station building.

Crucifying statues!

We arrived at the Peace wing of the Nagasaki Nuclear bomb museum today at 9.45am, to discover that our interviews with nuclear bomb survivors had been moved around, to start at 1:30 in the afternoon, as one of the survivors had cancelled due to ill health. At late notice, the peace wing volunteers organised another visitor instead, and so G and I instead went off to look at the Urakami cathedral, which was only about 150 metres or so from the bomb `hypocentre`. We found here, the `crucified` statues, most having lost their heads, or at the very least having been disfigured, having survived through hell on earth.

It was later that we heard about this hell, through the voices of a male and female survivor, one who was in junior high school, and the other who was an elementary school teacher at the time of the bombing. G kicked off the interviews, asking a few questions he had prepared, and the elementary teacher, who you would not have known was 82 years old, particularly appreciated this. I could tell that at times, there was ground which was painful and difficult for both survivors, and I also quizzed them about difficult topics such as reconciliation and responsibility which they also found somewhat difficult.

Yesterday, when we arrived in Nagasaki, we had spent the afternoon touring the peace museum, the hypocentre and the peace park, so by the end of this afternoon, G and I were quite tired out. This place is full of history, and is also quite spectacular, so we enjoyed just spacing out at a restaurant overlooking the bay and ferries this evening.

Fukuoka

G and I enjoyed the climb on Tuesday am up Himeji castle, a world heritage listed castle, which manages to crown the city buildings of Himeji, built as it is on a hill, in what was a castle town. It is a little strange to make the top storey to be greeted by a Shinto shrine, but apparently this is in honour of the hill on which it is built. We were really starting to feel the heat of a Japanese summer here, and perhaps it is that the further we venture south, the hotter it actually is. G enjoyed pretending to fire arrows from the various points around the castle, looking at the wells, and it was great being the only ones there, as we got there shortly after opening at 9am.

We hopped on our bullet train at 12.30, to be spirited away through Hiroshima, and on, under the ocean through a tunnel to the third main island we have managed to visit in our time here so far, Kyushu. By 2.40pm we were in Fukuoka, and made our way to a school visit by 3.30pm. Another school visit this morning at a Jesuit school similar to the one I am now working, and then we were free for the afternoon. Considering the heat, we decided to make for Fukuoka`s network of underground shopping, under the suburb of Tenjin, until it cooled a little. We enjoyed browsing the basements of the big department stores like Daimaru and Mitsukoshi, where we were rewarded with taste tests of jellys, cakes and even freshly prepared coffee.

The food in Japan has been an ongoing revelation - smoking allowed in most restaurants has managed to turn us off quite a few times, and we have decided `family` restaurants (beer and hamburger meat) are best avoided. Today, for lunch, we decided to try a place just over the road from our hotel, a tiny one man show, which turned out to serve the best Yakisoba, and one serve at 500 yen (less than $5) served G and I easily!

Finally today, we took a JR line ( on our passes) out of the city, and then had to change once and then onto a private line for one station - on a recommendation from one of the teachers at the first school we visited, we went to a place called Mitoma, north of the city. Here after an amazing 10 minute walk, we discovered largely deserted white sand beach, where G swam and ran with abandon, and we practised our stone throwing technique. By 6.45pm, we decided the sun had sunk far enough, had our misadventure with a family restaurant and returned home, only regretting the lack thus far of bath houses.

From Tokyo to inaka

Well the contrasts were obvious when we took off to Shikoku to take G back to his birthplace. To see

so much green, was a real highlight, after the smoky, crowded subways in Tokyo. But more than that, the highlight was seeing friends, and for G, making friends. G met Shun, and after the first night, the initial nervousness of not speaking each other`s language melted away, especially when the two of them took each other on in chess.

G gave Shun a Kangaroos T-shirt, his favourite team, and then they both wore them the next day to church.

It was fantastic to see so many other friends there, and we were welcomed back, many of them saying how little things had changed. The one thing that had changed was the children, who have grown up! H, who was a Junior High student last time we were here, took us to the river near Oyu, prawn hunting, and they captured 6 or 7 prawns in an hour. We had a BBQ later that night, and discovered a couple of versions of Shogi (Japanese Chess). We stayed out at Oyu the second night, in an amazing farmhouse - thanks to all from Nakamura Fukuin Church.

Pickles, faffing and issues with toast

Today we made it as far as Kings Cross in London. We've walked some streets three times and haven't been able to make it to places we hoped - but it has been fun.We got stuck on Oxford street with the annual pride march - crazyness. I tried to explain to L why some men were walking the street in high heels, bunny ears, tutus and pink wigs. She was very interested in going to Tottenham Court Rd (one story in Harry Potter) so we did without me asking first what the story was about (I found out later it was about Hermione having a sludgy grey coffee with Harry and Ron in a cafe and getting propositioned by a drunk man). We managed to have a lovely (though expensive) lunch and a great coffee, and also avoided the colourful street people. There are many parts that are pretty grotty though. L is exhausted this afternoon so we are going to check in now.
This morning we said goodbye to the M's. We loved spending the time with them - especially the younger two who have very developed personalities -J (4 years) is a pickle (cheeky ratbag) who faffs around (loves an audience - and is very cute), J (6 years) also has a lovely sense of humour. B (8) is an empathetic soul who has a gift for lego robotics, A (mum) has issues with the toaster (which was australian) and M (dad) is (along with A) is inspirational in the way he believes they are to enrich the community in which they live. M also volunteers and trains red cross first aid people in the area in his spare time. I had no idea he loved that so much.
We hope to walk along the Thames tomorrow - we saw the miniature version of most of the sights yesterday at Legoland (detailed - and infinitely more manageable) and also flew over it on the way to Heathrow on Wednesday. Today i've managed to stay out of too much sun after getting sunburnt at legoland (and bottles of sunscreen are £15 in london!). Tomorrow afternoon we fly to Holland - I am sooo looking forward to seeing the R family there.
Tonight we are off to stay in the Clink Hostel in KC - the old magistrates court complete with cells for bedrooms (L's request). The place we left our bags this morning resembled the room of requirement (Harry Potter) where things can be hidden forever. I hope they will be found when we get there in 15 mins. I think Clink may complete my picture of London as a little claustrophobic.

Pancakes in Harajuku

Today we met Kiyo and K in Harajuku, which we explored for a little while, coming across some dog kimonos and some pancakes, as well as some threatening police, due to the G8 summit being on at the moment in Hokkaido. Apparently that might make the populace restless in Tokyo, so the police are out in force, holding on to their batons and making threatening poses. (a bit like Ultraman on the top floor of Loft, a variety store in Shibuya). After we had walked to Shibuya, we met the four boys and teacher from my school, who are actually here for the World Children's Summit, which was also held in Hokkaido. They had had a great time from all accounts - we took them to do some shopping and then out to a 'family' restaurant - family stands in this case for a good variety of food at a good price! (and in a modern Japanese style) At the end of this time, we were able to experience 'the' intersection at Shibuya, which I hope comes up in this post, for your enjoyment - sorry, I think I moved too fast... basically there were a lot of people!

Tomorrow morning? Up at 5am, to get to Shinagawa station in South Tokyo to catch the bullet train, which will be in Shinagawa for exactly 1 minute. Woebetide us if we are late! By 3.30pm we hope to have proceeded south as far as Okinawa on Honshu and then across the inland sea on an impressive bridge to Kochi Prefecture on Shikoku. This is where we lived for 2 years. We will be staying with friends in Nakamura for the next two nights - I may be away from internet...

Shakespeare

The funny thing is, while K and L are visiting Shakespeare country, the founder of Waseda University, which owns the school I've been visiting this week, was the translator of many of Shakespeare's works into Japanese and a Prime minister of japan, perhaps at the same time! I saw some of his original translation attempts, with all the crossing out and re writing that goes along with it, at Waseda University. Waseda is like a little town, with its own subway station in Tokyo, pretty close to Shinjuku, the business hub of Tokyo. I was saying to G, 'This station has 3 million go through it every day and today we've made it 3 million and 3, because we've gone through it twice!' Its pretty hard to fathom, especially since in 1880 or so, there were only 30 people visiting the station every day!

First from English parts

"Mum, when are we going to get 'examined'?" L asked AFTER we got through the passport section in Korea. She has travelled so well in all the time changes and hours sitting on planes and in queues. On a twelve hour flightyesterday I had to work hard to get her to get out of her chair even 3 times. When we arrived at Heathrow I was grilled by the immigration official about being a minister and why my partner was in Japan. I wasn't sure if it was laid back chatting while the scanner chugged away (everything moves slow at Heathrow) or that I genuinely looked suspicious. I admit I felt dreadful. Whatever the case I was just relieved to have been pulled out of a 2.5 hour queue (because I had a child) just 30 minutes into the wait. It has been sooo lovely to see M&A and their 3. B has completely lost her Aussie accent and the children all look at me queerly when I talk about patting the rabbit (should be 'stroking') etc. They are so cute going off to school. M took a day off today and we talked lots of family and emerging church stuff in the car as we travelled the country roads from Daventry to Coughton Court. The tiny 700 year old church in the country village near Daventry (where the gunpowder plot was hatched) was more memorable than the tourist driven Stratsford-upon-Avon we finished the drive at. It is too cold to meet in during winter so they meet in the town hall. The village homes are complete with thatched roofs and window boxes. Tomorrow we are off to Legoland for a completely different experience with all the children very excited. G, J is into star wars - we'll have fun there and with the roboticworkshop, I think! I'm hoping we sleep past 4 am tomorrow morning. L and I had watched "The other Bolelyn girl" on the plane so we have theHenry VIII/Elizabeth I story fresh in our minds... At Coughton Court (hometo a loyal Catholic family) we saw the gown (and death mask) Mary Queen of Scots was executed in (macabre, truly) and a beautiful cloak embroidered byCatherine of Avalon after she had been discarded by Henry VIII. The cloak was a very Catholic statement of faith. I found the indoor 'heritage' interesting but oppressive. I think I know why the family handed the property over - how could you possibly live in such a place with all those forbears hanging over your shoulders with every meal, walk, conversation??Such a huge focus on preserving the 'relics' of the past seems to me a frustrating and tiring task for the descendents of a family. I love the stories, but when the past clutters every corner there is NO space to enjoy the present or dream of the future. A highlight today was the walled garden at this National Trust property. We walked lots and basked in the joy of all the summer flowers in both rain and sunshine. Yes, it does shine in the UK!

King Ghiddra, okonomiyaki and public transport

Hi all, yesterday was a massive day - because I had to go to Waseda Uni high school for an appointment at 2.30pm, before which we managed to get to Odaiba - Odaiba is a massive development, which was meant to be double its size, but got burst by the blowing up of the japanese economic bubble in the late 90s. It is actually completely made up of land reclaimed from the Tokyo bay, and to get there, you take this futuristic driverless (G drove ours) monorail around a massive loop which turns into a bridge to the male-made island. On the island, you see monolithic buildings which are architecturally challenging! Anyway, I left K and G on the monorail and made my way back to Waseda high school, which prob took me about an hour and a half including all changes of subway/train. The principal gave me a tour of the school and it looks quite positive in terms of exchanges...

Afterwards, I met K, G and our friend Kiyo in Asakusa, where we eventually had okonomiyaki... cooked in front of us - delicious! G had managed to find for himself a model of King Ghiddra from the japanese Godzilla - which he assured me was much cheaper here than in Australia... It was also fantastic for G when he joined us in rush hour (at 8pm!!) on the trains back through Shibuya to T and Cs where we are staying right now. He was able to use his three headed dragon to bite and kick people who jammed up to close to him... I don't think Melburnians actually know the extent to which you can take the concept of sardines on public transport!!

Ueno, tabako and cheaper Tokyo

G and I made it to Tokyo last night - our flight was delayed by 3 hours, but we only got in about 1 and a half hours late, which was good. G did fantastically, considering that 9pm here was actually 10pm at home. We jumped on the Keisei Skyliner, which took us about an hour to get to Ueno station, but was quite a scenic route, at the height of a lot of the apartment buildings, which G was noticing stretch on and on along the landscape here. We had to change to the subway to get close to our hotel, which we are happy with - we are actually located right between Akihabara, Asakusa and Ueno Park, which are three major tourist areas in Japan - I would reccomend this place if anyone else is coming to Tokyo. It is a brilliant location - unfortunately just one night for us, but we:re going to a friend:s place for the next three nights, which will certainly save money! Still, this place was 7500 yen for the night for both of us, which is about $75 Aussie dollars - who says Tokyo is expensive??! We had sandwiches for breakfast, because the hotel doesn`t do breakfast and our first Japanese meal will have to be lunch. This morning we took a walk to Ueno Park, which I last visited with K, L and Jono.

This park is the equivalent of Woolloomooloo I think in Sydney. We did stop to talk to a couple of the guys living there and they enjoyed talking. They had a couple of kittens and were sitting next to the big lake, which is full of green weeds and giant Koi (Carp). We saw lots of shrines and two temples. Photos now here!

Podcast

Here is our first podcast re the Japan/Europe trip. Enjoy!!

日本とヨーロッパのポッドキャストです。フランスも可能性だし、オランダ、イギリスを楽しみ。イチゴ大福、ディスニーも大人気。楽しみましょうね！　
Eurojapan pod1.mp3

Mapping our itinerary (G&G)

Living in Exile

May 1952 Opa and Oma travelled from the Netherlands to Australia not knowing that they wouldn't return. Well a couple of quick trips 'home' don't really count. L and K are excited to be travelling 'back' to their birthplace to spend some time with R-V family.

Some places we are also hoping to visit are:

the Rijksmuseum, Annefrankhuis, Delft, Leiden, Voorburg, Den Haag...

K is obsessed with decorative vegetable gardens and is dreaming of visiting Castle Villandry in France. L is interested in Oxford and some other Harry Potter inspired places in the four days in England.

A friend and I (K) were talking recently about how language forms so much of our identity. I know that in speaking Japanese there are things I can say more powerfully than in English. Occasionally I am stuck for words in English because there is a better idiom or phrase capturing how I feel in Japanese. Dad spoke Dutch to his parents all their lives - I wonder how much I didn't know them because of the loss in translation! I am looking forward to learning a little more of them in the journey.

This week I have been reading the story of Daniel and what it was like to be a person whose identity was constantly challenged in an exilic setting. Nebuchadnezzar tried to seduce Daniel to assimilate and to forget home with fine wine and a royal diet. But Daniel still knew who he was. I don't think Oma and Opa experienced royal life in Australia, in fact I think Oma in particular lived in culture shock for much of her life, but they did maintain a strong sense of Dutch identity with their food, living arrangements (yes, persian rugs on every table) and language.

Our trip 2008

This is the first post for japaneurope!! K and L have booked flights for going to England and Holland. They are very excited and are doing lots of planning for the big trip. They'll be leaving on the 1st of July and staying overseas for 3 weeks. At this stage, K and L will land in London initially, where they plan to visit the M'ton's in the north for a few days, followed perhaps by a weekend in London. After this, they will make their way to the Netherlands, to stay with family there.






Gw has booked to go to Japan on the 30th June, and will return on the 20th July and he'll take Ge with him as well. If they go, Ge would like to see the hospital he was born in. We are hugely excited about this trip, although we do just wish that we could do both altogether! This is going to be our virtual trip to Europe and Japan together - if you'd like to follow us along on this trip, then check up this blog from time to time, especially at the time. As this is partially business, Gw will visit some schools whilst he is in Japan, one of which should be Waseda Uni High School in Tokyo. He would also like to visit Nagasaki to do some research for his study this year. The other exciting thing is that Ki is also going to Japan at the same time. We will meet up with her, although she initially flies in to Osaka, thanks to Jetstar! We may also visit that American 'culture', Disney...

Golden orb takes up residence

Our new pet is a giant arachnid, which has taken up residence out the back, growing and providing much entertainment for us, as we wonder whether it is the compost heap, closeby which is providing the food.  Actually, there are two, a female and a male, but the male is much smaller.  As far as our identifying skills go, it is a 'Golden Orb', of which the female are one of the larger of spider types, whilst the male is a hardly visible tiny specimen.  

They are not called golden orbs because of their own skin, but because of the tough webs they spin. Can you make them out in the photo? The silk of a golden orb spider is somewhat prized - one visitor told me, as we showed off our new pet.  Apparently it was hoped at one stage that the silk of a golden orb could be used to make clothing.  Another friend told me that it was so tough it has been used in experiments in making bullet proof armour!  

Also, apparently these orbs are from Queensland, so it is a migrant to our state and perhaps the warm weather have encouraged it so far.

Whatever the case, we are enjoying watching the growth of the spider, its web and nature at work - even in terms of a predator.  The kids too are fascinated, especially by the strength of the web, which you can twang like a guitar without any sound effects.  Who was it who said that without the predator, there is no balance in nature?  

Anyway, this 'little' predator has made our little courtyard its new home, giving us something more than just the greenery to look for through the window in the mornings.    

Caught between two worlds

Last week we were in the blue mountains and decided to take on one of the 'difficult' walks, called the 'national pass', which started in the 'valley of the waters' and went along a path between two cliffs to the mid-point of the Wentworth Falls. L and G were suitably excited about going on a difficult walk, and with some misgivings we set off, starting at a waterfall where we had seen abseilers the previous day, coming down the fall with or without helmets and jumping the last 10 metres into the pool at the bottom.

It turned out to be a magic walk, water frequently angled over us from the cliffs above, and when we made it to Wentworth falls, the reward for L and myself was a pounding under another set of falls. Climbing up again was via a zigzag extreme path up the cliff itself, where we saw lizards and black cockatoos. As we neared the finish of the climb, there were suddenly hosts of people, who had walked down from the carpark, to get to the first lookout. The tourist on a mobile phone was a bit jarring at the lookout, but we were able to look straight down to where we had been in the water. The kids kept saying, 'Difficult is easier than easy!'.

Mr Pineapple Head

Fabulous Fruit Fantasy:

Well, thats what I wanted to call the party we held recently for our 10 yr old, but it was vetoed. In the end we had 'Fruit fun', which hasn't such a ring to it, has it? Whatever the case, Melbourne in early summer is perfect for fruit-themed parties, we soon discovered. Probably having a chocolate fountain at our place was a touch of finesse, although the child who discovered braces were good not just for your teeth, but helpful for gathering chocolate probably violated a few health regulations!

If you can get to the Victoria Market, you can do this kind of party in style...
and we managed. After a fruity fashion parade, we walked the girls dressed as little fruit down to the park, reminding them not to get squashed on the road. Our games included: Watermelon relay (around the lake in the park); Apple bowls, Watermelon smash, orange relay (You know that one where you pass on the orange without using your hands), Banana Karaoke (a favourite) and 'Fruity Tongue Twisters'. I'm just not sure whether wearing the pineapple on my head was such a good idea...

A Japanese Story

One memory of the trip this year was going in to this quintessential 'onsen' (hot springs) in Hakone. Hakone was a rainy day, so it was a good day to go to jump into some warm water. Most of the guys came with us, although a few took the opportunity to just stop at Odawara, where we had gotten off the bullet train from Tokyo. Anyway, all was going rosily - a few of the guys were a bit embarrassed about getting down to their birthday suits for the baths (they had been warned) - actually very rosily, if you didn't realise which bath was the scalding one! You could climb up some stairs to get to the top baths. Eventually, I thought I'd take the chance to get upstairs and just enjoy the scenery from the top floor of the beautiful traditional Japanese building, built on the side of a green mountain.

It dawned on me at this point that there was no pile of towels provided, as I had been advised at the Tokyo Ryokan that morning... no I had no towel, and what was worse - I had no towel for the 13 young guys! Luckily, I had bought a small towel to carry into the baths, and had a spare one which I could use for myself. Panicking, I raced out looking for a place where I might be able to hire a towel. Eventually, I found a vending machine... would you believe it - yes, in Japan every kind of vending machine is around most street corners. All I had to do, was get change from the front desk, and spend about 10 minutes, buying 200 yen ($2) small towels out of the vending machine. Going back into the baths, the guys were waiting and looked somewhat relieved!

From sweaty Shibuya to chilly Anglesea

I'm housesitting in Anglesea, watching a red parrot in the backyard and enjoying reading in front of the fire. Japan was a blast as we had always expected, with eighteen teenagers along for the ride. They were fantastic actually and you can read more details of our time in Japan at our blog of the trip, here. I missed my family though, it was fun catching up and continuing to catch up as we unwind down the coast. At last it is raining in Australia, and goodness knows, we need it! I'm just wondering whether to get out the wetsuit and take on the winter waves... if the sun would just come out, I might actually do so!

Here is a photo from Akihabara!