Australia!

So I made it to Sydney! I've been here a couple of weeks now and I love it :) All the flights went well, no delays, appart from my luggage which didn't arrive until 3 days later...

The first 5 days I stayed at WakeUp, which is the hostel where I work. I actually wasn't very jetlagged so that was good. I arrived on Sunday and started work on Monday. The first days weren't very hard, I went on a City Walk and a Beach Walk which they do for free here at the hostel a couple of times a week. Met a lot of nice people on the walks, but they've all left now... The first week went past very quickly, getting to know the people who work here, going out for a couple of drinks and learning all the new stuff at the travel desk.

I moved into the apartment the Kilroy-people stay in on the Friday. It's in Bondi Junction, so about 50 minutes walk from WakeUp, or 12 mins on the train. The apartment is okay, I've had some cockroaches so that sucks, but I've set of a "control bomb" and I've bought bait and vacuumed all the cracks and under the sofa so hopefully they'll disappear soon.

On the Saturday I went to The Big Day Out with one of the guys I met on the beach walk, and it was brilliant! We saw Lilly Allen, Groove Armada, Jet, Muse, Kasabian and some more I hadn't heard about. All in all, good weather and great music!

Last Tuesday was Australia day, so kinda like 17.mai at home. It was nice, really good weather (my nose got sunburned) and lots of people! First I headed down to Circular Quay to watch the ferrython, basically it's just all the ferries racing against each other and they're all decorated and full of people. Then I met up with some girls from WakeUp and we had a beer and some food and just peoplewatched.
In the evening there was a show on in Darling Harbour with speaches and performances and a boat parade, and it all ended in some spectacular fireworks! It was great :)

On Saturday I went surfing. I'm not made for surfing. I've got a big burnmark on my knee and my body is aching all over. I managed to stand up maybe three times for 2 seconds. So yeah...

On Sunday I went to the Botanical Gardens to see Where The Wild Things Are at the outdoors cinema. It was really nice, sitting there with Sydney skyline, the Opera house and the Harbour bridge in the background while watching the film.

So it's been a pretty good first couple of weeks here Down Under! The weather hasn't been great all the time but oh well who cares. At least it's still warm ;)

Tokyo

Finally we set off for our last stop, which was Tokyo! We got there around 10am and found our really nice posh hotel. We weren't able to check in that early so we left our luggage and took our money and camera and set off to explore. First stop was Shibuya, where the worlds biggest and most busy pederstrian crossing is. I must say I thought it was going to be a bit bigger... But it was better when we came back in the afternoon!

We had lunch at Starbucks overlooking the crossing, and then we took the underground to Shinjuku where we went looking for "alternative" people, you know the ones with lots of make-up, red hair and lolita clothes. But we didn't find any :( Our guide said they were probably taking the day off because there was a big sports arrangement or something nearby. We did find a couple of really cute little girls in kimomos!

Then it was shopping time! First destination was Akihabara, or Electric Town as it's also known. It was crazy! Huge shops everywhere with everything you could imagine of iPods, cameras, telephones etc. I was looking for a new lens for my camera and I found a really good and cheap one. Then Astrid and I went back to Shibuya where we shopped till we dropped (we did actually drop onto our beds first thing when we got back to the hotel!). I ended up with a lens, two everyday dresses (from H&M actually...), Adidas shoes, two pairs of earrings, a very cute white fluffy hat, and lots of other stuff.

Then we all dressed up and went out for a last sushi-meal, karaoke and party! Great night! Not so great flight the next day.

Mt.Fuji

So, it's probably time to tell you about our last couple of days in Japan. After Kyoto we set off for Hakone, a nice little town in a hilly area, where we were to stay in an Onsen, a traditional Japanese spa. Before we got to test the spa we set off to find some lunch and then to see if we could catch a glimpse of Mt.Fuji. Our guide wasn't so sure we'd be able to see it because of the weather.

So after lunch and some souvernir-shopping we took a train up the mountainside, it was quite steep and my ears kept popping. Then a funicular railway and at last a gondola. The gondola went quietly up the hillside, and then suddenly we reached the hilltop and everyone gasped as we went over and suddenly we were hanging 130 meters or so over a valley with smoke coming up from the ground and yellow patches of earth and a perfect view of Mt.Fuji in the distance! Seiko even said it was the best view she'd had of the mountain!

So we got off and took pictures and admired the view of the volcano with snow on top before we got on the gondola and ended up by a lake which we took a pirate-ship (!) across, and then a bus back to Hakone. It was dark by the time we came back and we were quite tired, but we didn't have much time before dinner. And dinner was quite and experience! We got a whole mackerell (or how you spell it), sashimi style, so the sides were cut off into little pieces but the rest of the fish was lying there looking at you. It tasted excellent though, with a touch of lemon! We also got miso soup with eel, hotpot with tiny mushrooms and sardineballs, tofupudding, pickled veggies, some small appetizers, fried fish, a very strange sticky rice thing in a cold jellylike soup, and for dessert almondpudding. It was a big meal... And they just kept things coming! We almost rolled out afterwards, and figured it was time for a bath in the spa.

In Japanese onsens you have to be naked when you're in the pool, but (luckily?) they have separate pools for women and men. It was really nice to lie there and let my body be soaked up in the water full of natural minerals. We decided to sit in the outside pool, so all the girl had a nice talk while relaxing under the stars.

The next day we set of for Kawaguchico, a town much closer to Mt.Fuji. After 6 different trains we finally arrived. We checked in and decided to go for a walk, so we headed towards the lake, as there was supposed to be great views from the other side of it. And there were! We took loads of pictures, some with our Kilroy t-shirts, and then we looked at a markedplace while waiting for sunset. It was worth the wait, because it was really beautiful! So after more pictures and more posing we went back to town to get some dinner.

After dinner we went looking for a place to have a drink but the town seemed rather deserted so we bought a couple of beers and went back to the hotel. I don't know if you know but Japan has very fancy toilets! I mean the actual toilet, not the room. All of them have buttons to wash your bottom and some of them even have buttons to make noises like a waterfall so other people can't listen in on your business... Malin and I decided it was time to try the washing-part, so three-two-one and we hit the button! We screamed and started laughing as the waterspray hit with quite some force right in the private part. It was really funny and tears were running down my face from all the laughing. And it never stopped! At last I hit the stop-button, and I thought it was going to dry me off aswell but it didn't. So what's the point of washing your bottom when you have to use paper to dry off anyway?