Here's another weird thing about Japan. There's a small fire engine which they drive around just for decoration. This fire engine is normally driven by older looking men who you wouldn't want to try to save you in a fire. It doesn't have a siren. Instead it has a bell sound, like a tower bell or something. From about 5pm to 9pm, they drive around the neighborhoods constantly ringing the bell. The purpose of this annoyance is apparently to remind people about fire safety. Seems like a waste of money to me. I doubt anyone tries to light their house on fire, so it seems like smoke detectors and the like would be a better idea.

On Monday, right before I left work, my computer started acting strangely, then froze. I turned it off and then back on, except this time I got a Windows error message saying my registry was corrupted. That's not a good sign. Anyway, after a day of looking up solutions and fooling around with them, I was able to get my computer to work again. Yay! Unfortunately, several other files had somehow become corrupted as well, but I don't know which ones. I keep discovering little things that don't work well, or icons or files that are missing. I guess I'll get all the bugs worked out eventually.

On Saturday Victoria had school, so I got to sleep in late, but she had to get up early. Not really the best arrangement. I went around to various foreign food stores and bought stuff to make lasagna with. I couldn't find any ricotta cheese, so I ended up using parmagian instead. I found a recipe online for making lasagna in a skillet instead of an oven, so I used that. Not having an oven can be a real pain, however.

I thought the lasagna was really good. There was enough that it fed us Saturday and Sunday. I have lots more noodles, so I'll have to make it again sometime.

Today there are tests at my school. I find this a little strange, since the students haven't actually had classes yet. So I asked my teacher why they have tests now. She said that they want the students to study hard during the whole vacation, so they tell them there will be a test in the first week. The first year students are tested on things they learned in elementary school. It all seems a bit silly to me, especially given that grades don't make any difference at all.

Japanese people need to learn how to relax. Everything they do is dedicated to keeping themselves incredibly busy. The kids study during vacations and the teachers have to come to work every day. When the kids aren't studying, they're doing club activities and sports, even during vacations. Only in the last few years have students stopped going to school on Saturdays, too. The teachers still end up working weekends, because all the sporting competitions are on weekends instead of in the afternoon.

Even the Japanese vacations seem to be very packed. First we fly to Rome. Then the next day we'll fly to Paris. On the third day, a train to London and then a flight home at night. It's a bit of a job to be on vacation.

I think it's good to have some downtime to relax in. I think I miss that most out of family holidays. Just relaxing is good for your spirit. Most of my vacations here tend to be in new cities or countries, so I don't want to relax as much as see exciting things. That can be fun, but often I end up more tired after the vacation. I hope I'm not turning Japanese.

Victoria and I went to Kyoto this weekend with Mike and Kelley. It was really packed, because it is cherry blossom viewing season. This year the season came a little early, so we actually got the tail end of the season. Still, I was surprised at how many of the trees still had flowers. By comparison, in Toyama there are hardly any trees with flowers still, despite the fact that Toyama started blooming a week later than Kyoto.

We tried several hotels two weeks before our trip, but they were all totally booked. Eventually, I gave up and booked us rooms in Shin-Osaka, a 25 minute train ride away. Even Osaka was fairly full, and we barely got reservations at the hotel there. Once we arrived at Shin-Osaka we were all hungry, despite eating on the train, so we found a nearby ramen restaurant.

Saturday morning we took a train to Kyoto and we wandered around the streets for a long time. There were just an incredible number of people whereever we went. Every restaurant we went to seemed full, and the temples we visited were full of people. We visited the downtown area and the Gion area primarily. Then we went to Kiyomizudera at the end of the day, which was nice. I always like going to Kiyomizudera. This was my third time there. From 6:30-9:30 there was supposed to be a special light display of the cherry blossoms at the temple, but we didn't go back to see it. Most of the trees there had already lost their petals, so I don't think we missed much.

One of our pasttimes in Kyoto was sitting by rivers and creeks and watching the sakura petals float down the river. The rivers all look really nice with the cherry blossoms in them. I guess that's one advantage of going at the end of the season.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel, which was in a bit of a deserted area of town. It was a little creepy, actually, because no one was around on a Saturday night.

On Sunday we went back to Kyoto and dumped our stuff in a locker. We had a hard time finding an empty locker, despite there being hundreds of lockers at the station. That's how crowded it was in Kyoto. There were also 50 meter lines to get onto buses at the station.

First we went to the Kyoto Handicraft Center, and Victoria and I bought yukattas (summer kimonos) there. Kelley bought a decent amount of things at different craft stores, so we joked that she was buying up Kyoto.

We found a little cafe near the handicraft center, and it had amazing milkshakes and pretty good food, too. After lunch we split up. Kelley and Mike went to the nearby Philsopher's Walk, while Victoria and I headed to Arashiyama. I hadn't gone to Arashiyama before, so I wanted to visit there. Victoria and I went on the Philosopher's Walk during our first trip to Kyoto, so I wasn't as interested in going back.

We wandered around for awhile, but it was very crowded on the sidewalks. We found a place in a park to have ice cream, which was nice. Then we walked along a lake for awhile, and up through a park. Eventually we came to a bamboo forest path which led back towards the train station. The bamboo was really pretty.

We took a train back to the station and then tried to get Subway sandwiches at the station. When my family was visiting, there was a Subway up on the 10th floor of the station building. Unfortunately, they had renovated the area on the 10th floor and got rid of the Subway. However, I remembered that there was also one down in the basement shopping area. We bought sandwiches to take with us on the train.

For some reason, the train was really long. Normally the thunderbird trains to Toyama are 10 cars long, but this one was 12 cars long. Perhaps it was because of the sakura season. Nothing very eventful happened on the train ride.

On Friday at my school, I found out that maybe they aren't going to shut down my school. They might shut down the other elementary school and move those kids to my school. I guess it hasn't been decided yet.

My first elementary class went pretty well. I have more students in my classes than last year, due to a small group of 6th graders last year (only 9). Now my 5th and 6th grade class (I teach them together) is huge. There are over 35 kids in the class, because the 5th grade class is giant.

I found out that several of the teachers I liked at my elementary school were transferred. Also, it turns out the principal moved to another school, instead of retiring as I was told before. The new principal used to be the Nanbu Junior High principal, which was one of Sarah's schools.

The big news in Japan tonight is that three civilians were kidnapped in Iraq recently. The terrorist group is demanding that the Japanese army (self defense forces) leave Iraq or they will burn the hostages alive. Sounds a bit gruesome. I can't imagine that Japan will pull out its forces, so I am worried about the hostages. It's a shame, since all three of the civilians are doing work to help the people of Iraq. I can understand attacking the military, but I don't understand attacking those who are obviously helping you.

I had coffee with Takemaru-san today, and he told me bad news about my elementary school, Sogawa. It is likely they are going to close it next March and consolidate it with another school. They are going to tear down the school, which is a shame, since it is the oldest elementary school in Toyama City.

Also, we ran into the mother of one of my students at the cafe, and she said the principal retired in March. In even more bad news, one of my favorite students, who is half-Japanese and half-Canadian, left. His family moved to Canada. I was looking forward to teaching him more this year, since he would be in the third grade.

I've met the new first year students, and the ones I met were pretty funny. The boys were real clowns in the office while they were cleaning. They reminded me of Ewoks in a strange way.

Then we started talking about how they are treated a bit like robots right now. Each student have a number that represents them, instead of their name. All their responsibilities and stuff are assigned by number instead of name. Since their nametags haven't been made yet, they are only called by their numbers. Instead of "What's your name?" we are thinking of teaching them "What's your number?"

Recently I've been doing a lot of fundraising for the charity show. We are trying to get a slew of companies to sponsor us. So far we have raised about 150,000 yen, which is about 1,500 dollars. At least, I think that is where we are at. Some of the companies have yet to turn in the postcard we provided specifying the exact amount they will donate.

I did find out some good news, however. It turns out that the prefectural board of education might pay for the use of the hall on the day of the performance. That's about half of our costs for this year, and would reduce the amount of money we need to fundraise from other sources. My goal is to pay for all of the show's costs using sponsors, and then all the ticket sales can be donated to the charities.

Monday was the goodbye ceremony for the teachers who are leaving, then a welcome ceremony for the new teachers at the same time as the opening ceremony for the returning students.

Today was the opening ceremony for the new students. The third year students came to the ceremony, too. However, there wasn't enough room for the second year students because all the parents of the first year students come (or at least, the mothers do).

I think it is nice to have an opening ceremony for the new students, as well as a graduation ceremony for the students who are leaving. However, I feel there are too many ceremonies. There is a ceremony every time a semester starts or ends. In the last three weeks, there have been five ceremonies, including three this week. It seems a bit excessive to me. Also, it seems silly to have a ceremony before the vacations, because most of the students keep coming to school every day for club activities. If the students don't leave and the teachers don't leave, is it really necessary to have a ceremony?

One thing that is surprising to me in the ceremonies, is that the PTA plays a very important role. The head of the PTA always makes a speech after the principal. Also, whenever a teacher or student comes to the podium, they always turn to the head of the PTA and bow to him. I don't think the head of the PTA was as important in my schools.

DVDs are really expensive here. I'm surprised anyone buys them. The most expensive ones are the ones produced in Japan. I want to watch a popular film from a couple of years ago called "Waterboys." However, the DVD costs $60 to buy. It's just an ordinary length film, nothing special. I would rent it, but for some reason, they have only released it on video, not on DVD for rental.

Sorry about the really long Australia blog entry.

Jo is back today from her two week trip with her sisters around Japan. I think she had a good time. They went to Hiroshima, Kyoto, and Tokyo.

Jo now has a new English teacher at her school who used to work at my school. His name is Shimobe-sensei, and he's the one that had a lot of trouble understanding what I was saying, but was really funny. Jo says she is always laughing already, and school just started.

My blog entry about Australia has been a long time coming, and so it has come to be long. Here it goes:

Friday, December 19

The trip started on December 19th a ways from Australia in Toyama. Our plane was leaving from Osaka on a Sunday, so Victoria and I decided to go down to Osaka on Friday and spend a little time there. We had a lot of food on the train due to both of us buying dinner for the other one before we got on the train. It was cold, so I guess we needed all the food we could get. The weather forecast predicted the first snow to Toyama would move in that night, so we were glad to be getting out of town before any snow fell. Snow is about the only thing that delays trains in Japan, so it is a powerful force. Sure enough, when we got on the train, the snow started coming down. We could even see it sticking on the ground at some of the train stations we passed. The ride from Toyama to Osaka is a straight shot, so it was pretty fast, about three and a quarter hours. When we got to Osaka it wasn't raining (luckily), but it was quite cold. Osaka, like Tokyo, is a really big city with many districts. We ended up staying at a district in the north of the city, near the main Osaka train station. We quickly found our Toyoko Inn and huddled inside it.


Saturday, December 20

Saturday we decided to try to go to our favorite restaurant from our trip to Hiroshima, Royal Host. We knew there were some in Osaka, and I found directions to one on the Internet. Unfortunately, it wasn't that close to our hotel. We ended up taking several subway trains to get there. Once we arrived, we were quite excited. Unfortunately, we arrived just a little bit too late for breakfast, so we had to order off the lunch menu. They are the only restaurant I've seen in Japan with a pancake breakfast, so we were disappointed about that. Our disappointment quickly grew tenfold when we discovered this Royal Host lacked the thing that made the Hiroshima Royal Host so great, the drink bar. The Royal Host there had an amazing drink bar with fresh orange juice, pink lemonade, fresh ground coffee and fresh hot cocoa. It was incredible. Unfortunately, at the Royal Host we went to in Osaka, we had to pay the same price as the drink bar on a per drink basis. Victoria said the coffee was way below expectation, as well.

After our breakfast bust, we took a train over to Osaka Castle. It's kind of a hobby of mine to go to castle's around Japan, despite the fact that many of them look quite similar. I guess it stems from building a lot of Lego castles when I was a kid. Anyway, the Osaka Castle is pretty nice, and has a good view of Osaka.

We headed back to our district of Osaka after that, and did a little shopping. Then we went back to the hotel, because Victoria wasn't feeling that great. We got bentos (boxed lunches) and ate them for dinner that night, too. We also watched a really strange Japanese dating show, where a guy and a girl were hooked up on a date together. It was really strange. We both thought the guy might actually be gay. For the end of their date, they went to a little Western-style house where there was a Christmas tree set up in the house. We were both thinking how pretty it looked. Then they clapped their hands and all these crazy lights started flashing on and off. They had decorated this beautiful Christmas scene with the most ridiculous lighting ever. It was a typical Japanese perversion of Christmas. We laughed a lot watching the show, though.


Sunday, December 21

Our flight on Sunday wasn't until the afternoon, so we had some time in the morning. There was a ferris wheel on the top of a tall building nearby the train station, so we went there. We thought it was going to be really crowded, because there was a large group of people gathered outside the building, waiting for it to open. However, once we were inside, we saw that the ferris wheel was not too crowded. Instead, the Disney store was completely packed with people. It didn't even look like you could move easily in there. I don't know if they had some sort of special sale or something, but it was packed. The ferris wheel was pretty neat. It went up really high, so we could see a lot of Osaka. It was a little bit scary to be so high up in something so small though. After the ferris wheel, we picked up a free shampoo sample they were giving out on the street. It was just the right size for Victoria to use during the trip, so it worked out well.

Then we got our stuff and headed to the airport. We had plenty of time there and Paul was waiting for us. We thought he would come later, but it turned out his train had been canceled due to snow, so he was forced to take a quick flight from Izumo to Osaka. At least he was able to get a flight. I don't know what would have happened if he wasn't able to. We would've wondered where he was. We were too early to check in, so we waited for awhile, then were able to go through the whole process without much difficulty.

The biggest problem at the airport was something I didn't find out about until when I was in Australia. I checked my email on their free Internet computers, and somehow someone was able to get into my account after that. I think it was because the computer prevented me from closing the window that Internet Explorer was in. So in the end someone who was really bored decided it would be funny to send out emails to people saying my girlfriend was pregnant and that I was going to leave her. Apparently that was really funny for this person. I discovered it later when I checked my email in Adelaide.

We flew Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong's airline), and the flight was pretty nice and uneventful. On the way over there was a Japanese businessman that was being a real jerk. He kept turning on his cell phone again after the flight attendants would come over to tell him to put it away. Also, they put his briefcase up above because it was in the way, and he took that back down when they left. He was pretty stupid, and the flight attendants started to get annoyed with him, as well as us. We flew via Hong Kong, and it is quite a long flight (9 hours) from Hong Kong to Melbourne. Traveling to the Southern Hemisphere took longer than I thought. I always forget that Japan isn't that far south.


Monday, December 22

It was Monday, December 22, when we arrived in Melbourne to much warmer weather. In the airport there were tons of signs talking about Victoria. Melbourne is located in a state called Victoria, so there were lots of signs with the word Victoria in it. "You'll love every piece of Victoria" was the main tourism slogan we kept seeing. It turns out it's true.

We didn't know how to get to our hotel well from the airport, so we asked the tourist information office, and they said a bus was leaving right then that would take us right to our hotel. We found the minibus easily, and the driver was very funny. I had a bit of trouble understanding him at first, though. He dropped us off pretty close to our hotel and we found it without any problem. The hotel was called the Bayside Hotel, and it was old, but spacious. At least, it seemed spacious after too many nights in Japanese hotels. It was right on Fitzroy Street, which is famous for its cafes and clubs. However, since it was Monday, it was pretty peaceful when we were there.

We were pretty hungry at this point, so we walked up and down Fitzroy Street until we settled on an artsy little cafe called 97 Cafe. The food was good there, and it had the type of artsy coffee house feel you often get near universities. After lunch, we walked down to the beach, which was quite small, and walked along it until we got to a giant gambling center and amusement park. At this point we decided to head into downtown Melbourne on the tram, but we couldn't understand the tram system. The maps at the tram stop were really hard to understand, so we stood their for awhile trying to figure everything out until a guy in a green jacket got off the tram and asked us if we needed help. He was a tram ticket checker, and he was very friendly. He sold us a day pass on the trams and told us which way to go to get downtown.

We got off by a new riverside casino downtown, and walked down the river. There were a lot of nice shops and restaurants along our walk. Then we crossed the river to the old train station, which is quite a decadent, gold-colored building. It looks nice, but almost like it was built to attract tourists. On the other side of the river was the busy downtown district, so we went in some stores, including a book store. Victoria got very excited about the book store, as she is prone to do. After wandering around downtown for awhile, we decided to go eat along the river. We found a food court area which was connected to the casino. I had a big chicken parmesan sandwich. The most interesting thing about dinner was not the food but the birds. There were tons of swallows who flew into the food court from the outside. The watched the automatic doors and entered when they opened. They seemed very smart, but I bet the food court owners hate them.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel to sleep some and we watched some TV in English, including "The Bachelor", which was really funny because it was so dumb. We feel asleep early because the previous night's we slept on the plane.


Tuesday, December 23

We got breakfast at a bakery, then caught a cab to the airport for yet another flight. The taxi driver was very friendly and talkative. He told us a lot about the city as we drove. We only stayed in Melbourne for one day, because my parents and Keith were already waiting for us in Sydney. We didn't want them to have to wait forever for us.

We flew via Virgin Blue, the new discount carrier in Australia. The check-in process was really easy, and the tickets were cheap. On the plane, the lead flight attendant was quite funny. She made a joke that if we were smoking during the flight, they would ask us to step outside to finish it off.

Our first surprise of the trip came at the Sydney airport. Our parents had said they would come to meet us at the airport, but I had said they didn't really need to, since we could easily find our way to the hotel ourselves. When we got to the baggage collection area, they weren't there waiting for us. We searched around the terminals and the arrivals area, but we couldn't find them. It was a bit confusing since we figured they would be there early, and we had been delayed some. We waited for awhile but they didn't come. So we eventually decided to just go to the hotel. In a stroke of bad luck, there was a train strike that day, so we piled into a cab to go to the hotel. The cab was more expensive than the bus, but the tourist people said that the bus would be really slow today because of added car traffic from the strike.

As we were driving away from the airport, Paul and I spotted my mom waving furiously at us from the Quantas Terminal. We stopped the cab, and she came running over. They were delayed coming to the airport because they couldn't take the trains, and the bus had taken much, much longer than they were told it would because of the traffic. Keith and my dad were at the other terminal looking for us. We must have left right before they came. We agreed to continue to the hotel in our taxi, and they would follow in another taxi in a few minutes.

We made it to the hotel without much problem. We stayed at a place at furnished holiday apartments, which were a good price around Christmas, and came with a fully furnished kitchen. I think it was about 200 dollars for all of us for a night. It was called the Meriton Tiffany Serviced Apartments, and was located at Bondi Junction, which is east of the downtown area. We had a balcony with a nice view of the downtown and the harbor area. I think we were all happy with the arrangements. The rest of the family showed up at the hotel soon afterward and we got their things moved into the hotel room.

Then we all took a bus downtown to Circular Quay, and walked to the Sydney Opera House. Victoria and I drank hot cocoa at a cafe on the harbor, while the others went to the Botanic Gardens. Afterwards, Victoria and I went there, too. The Botanic Gardens had some really nice views and some interesting animals. There were eels in the pond which eat the baby ducks, but we didn't see any of those. We did see some cockatoos and about a zillion large fruit bats sleeping in the trees (I counted). After walking in the gardens, Victoria and I ambled back towards Circular Quay and met up with the rest of the family for dinner. We ate a strange Italian restaurant where there were waiters, but they only did things with drinks. For food, we had to go up to the counter and select what we wanted. It seemed like a strange hybrid system.

After dinner, everyone else went back to the apartment, but Victoria and I stayed at the harbor and enjoyed the sunset. We sat at the Rocks, which is near the Harbor Bridge, and watched people going by. There was one large group of Japanese students we were tempted to talk to, but we didn't. After awhile, we caught the train back to the hotel. This turned out to be much slower than the bus because of the train strike earlier in the day. It took a long time to go back.


Wednesday, December 24

On Wednesday, Keith, Victoria, and I decided to go to the Museum of Contemporary Art. It is a great, free museum at Circular Quay. They had an exhibition about Tracey Moffatt, a female Australian photographer / videographer, and an exhibition about an artist who makes models which say something about famous buildings. Keith went back to the hotel after the art museum, and Victoria and I took a ferry to the Aquarium. The ferry ride was not too long, but it was a good chance to see the harbor area from the other side of the bay. The ferry eventually dropped us off at the Aquarium, which was our next destination.

The Sydney Aquarium was really cool. They had a platypus swimming around which was interesting to watch, especially since they are so hard to see in the wild (as we discovered later). The aquarium has several large tanks you can walk through in tunnels. The one with the sharks, rays, and sea turtles was really neat. You could see the sharks sleeping on the glass above you. However, the other tank wasn't that interesting when we went there. All the seals were asleep, so there was nothing in the water. Because of "Finding Nemo," there were lots of clown fish posters everywhere. One of the most interesting things at the aquarium was a little boy, actually. He was a little white boy, and he went up to two small Japanese girls and started hugging them randomly. We told his parents to tell him about the JET Program when he graduates from university.

After the aquarium, we met up with the rest of the family for dinner at a nice seafood restaurant called Jordan's. The portions were huge, and we didn't finish all the food we had. Afterwards, there was a holiday concert / chorus at Darling Harbor (the aquarium and restaurant are there also). We didn't have good seats, so we couldn't see the stage. There were a lot of people there, but not many seats. Towards the end of the show, Santa made an appearance, but not by sleigh. Instead, he came on a jet-ski with two of his elves holding flares. Not what I think of as a typical Santa entrance. Afterwards everyone else went back to the apartment, but Victoria and I noticed some bars that were having parties, so we went to one that looked nice. We got IDed, I guess because there were so many people around. I think Victoria said it was the first time she had ever been IDed. After awhile at the bar, we headed back to the apartment.


Thursday, December 25

We slept in on Christmas Day, and had a big breakfast with sausage, bacon, and eggs. It was delicious. Then we opened presents. I got a DVD, some cologne, a puzzle, a shirt, some candy, and a stuffed kangaroo named Joey. After presents, Victoria and I got dressed for the beach and went to Bondi Beach. It's considered the place to go on Christmas, especially for travelers. It's a really nice beach, but a little small (about a mile long). There were tons of special buses going there, which was a good thing, because there were huge lines to board the buses when we went there. There were a lot of people on the beach (about 10,000), including some without clothes on. However, we kept our clothes on. After sitting on the beach for awhile, we got hot and got some ice cream then went back to the beach. After about 3 hours, we went back to the hotel to shower. Around 3, Keith, Paul, Victoria, and I went to the IMAX theater and watched a 3-D movie called "Santa vs. the Snowman." It was funny and cool to see.

After the movie, Victoria took a nap while I went to the pool and sauna at the apartment. We had a semi-traditional Christmas dinner. Instead of roasting a turkey, we had a chicken roast that was much faster to cook. But we had the usual fixings of sweet potatoes, green beans, and salad. After dinner, we played a Cheap Ass game (that's the brand name) called Get Out. It took a long time, and we ended up speeding up the game, which allowed me to win. For dessert we had a yummy pavlova meringue, which is one of Victoria's favorite desserts.


Friday, December 26

Because we wanted to get to Perth before New Year's Eve, we had to leave Sydney on the 26th, but we should've stayed one more day, in retrospect. We had a morning flight to Adelaide from Sydney. Since mom, dad, and Keith had week long train passes, they took the train, while Victoria, Paul, and I took a taxi. We arrived at the airport quickly and sat around for awhile waiting for them. However, we waited and waited without any sign of them. Once our flight got moved to the priority check-in area, we got nervous and asked the attendants if we could check in and get seats ahead of the rest of our group. They said that was okay, so we did that so Victoria would have a window seat.

Then we went back to waiting. Luckily, we saw them soon. There was dad... and mom.... but no Keith! We ran up to them and they said they had lost Keith. They seemed to be cursed with the Sydney airport. Apparently at the train station they had split up. Keith took the stairs while my parents took the elevator. Somehow this led them to different parts of the platform or something, because they went around looking for each other but didn't find each other. Eventually my parents guessed Keith had gotten on the train, and hopped on it before it left. However, at the next station they discovered that he hadn't been on that train. The schedule said there weren't any more trains to the airport that would arrive on time. We checked in my parents' bags, except for one, and then checked in my mom. My dad was going to stay behind with money to buy a new ticket for the two of them to Adelaide later in the day, if possible. The rest of us went ahead to the gate (they had started boarding). As we went through security, Keith arrived on a train, and he and my dad checked in just in time. It was a very close call, and some unnecessary excitement.

When we got to Adelaide, the car rental agent wasn't there yet, so we had to call him and wait for him to get to the airport. The car rental place was called Smile-Rent-A-Car. It was a small operation, but apparently one of the only ones that would let you rent a car in Adelaide and drive it on Kangaroo Island, the main reason we were in the Adelaide area. We rented a van, which was a little crowded with us, all of our bags, and the rental agent in it. Once we went to the rental agency, we lost the agent and it was much more comfortable. Our hotel was pretty close to the rental agency. We stayed at a place called Adelaide Supercenter Motel, with rooms with simple cooking facilities. It was out of town a little ways, but very inexpensive.

We ate at a nearby Subway restaurant and then drove into the middle of the thriving metropolis of Adelaide. Actually, it was a bit of a ghost town in the center of town when we got there. We parked in a huge parking lot with about two other cars in it. Then we walked down to Victoria Square, where the Adelaide tram starts. It goes past a place near our hotel and them to Glenelg Beach. In the downtown area near Victoria Square, all of the stores were completely closed for Boxing Day, and hardly anyone could be seen walking around (this is the reason staying in Sydney another day would've been a good idea). We walked towards the river, where there was a strip of museums that were open. Keith decided to go back to the car and read instead of keep walking, so he left. Then we went to a free museum with a giant section on Aboriginal life, and a cool giant squid exhibit. We walked through the University of South Australia campus to the river, and managed to see a dead bird being eaten by two other birds, which was a bit freaky. Then we walked through the park by the river. We got close to the zoo, which was closing, and the botanical garden, which was also closing.

Eventually we gave up and Victoria and I found a place on a shopping street called Rundle Mall with smoothies that was open. After drinking smoothies, we went back to Victoria Square. Dad was taking pictures of the tram, so Paul said he was going to go get Keith and come back. Unfortunately, things got complicated then, because mom also asked Paul to look for restaurants. Then, while Paul was gone, dad finished and we decided to walk to the car to meet him. However, he wasn't there when we got to the car. We didn't see them around anywhere. After awhile, we found them on a nearby street, but we had a real problem with losing people that day (and the next). It turns out Paul had gotten Keith and then walked to a nearby street looking for restaurants. They had gone back to Victoria Square to find us gone, and had started looking around the streets for us.

After we found them, we went to a Thai cafe for dinner. The food was good, but I wasn't very hungry after the large smoothie I had. We went back to the hotel after dinner, and we saw an Internet cafe that was open near our hotel. Since I hadn't checked my email since Osaka, Paul, Victoria, and I walked down there and used the Internet. This is when I discovered that someone had accessed my account and sent out emails to my friends saying Victoria was pregnant. I had lots of humorous responses from my friends, but only Carmen noticed it didn't sound like me and asked if it was a joke or something. Other than that, I didn't really have many emails.


Saturday, December 27

Victoria and I decided to sleep in some and go to nearby Glenelg Beach, while the rest of the family got up earlier and drove down to Victor Harbour, stopping at some places on the way, like an animal park and a German town called Hahndorf. Victoria and I were woken up by the maids cleaning the other rooms.

We walked down the road to the tram and took a tram to Glenelg Beach. We discovered it would be cheaper to buy a day pass than two single trip tickets, so we did that. One idea we had was to rent bikes at the beach and bike around. However, the guy at the bike rental place was really unfriendly and the prices were really high. So we scrapped that plan. Instead we went to a pizza restaurant and had lunch.

After lunch we sat on the beach for awhile. Victoria read while I watched a beach volleyball tournament that was going on. They had some competitors from around the world, so it was fun to watch. We took turns doing a little swimming. It was very hot outside, but the water was pretty cold. It was my first time swimming in the Southern Ocean, but I couldn't notice a difference in how the water felt. Australia has a large corps of volunteer life guards that patrol the beaches and are often out past swimmers in kayaks, motorboats, or surf boards. I think there are a lot of problems with dangerous currents and sometimes with sharks or jellyfish. However, the beaches we went to didn't seem to have huge waves or anything. We also walked around Glenelg town some and Victoria bought "Pride and Prejudice" for a dollar.

We left the beach and waited for a bus to a nearby shopping mall. We wanted to find out information about movies for that night and do a little shopping. Unfortunately, we go to the mall and found out it closed at 5pm. I was very shocked, since in America you wouldn't see a shopping mall closed on a weekend until nighttime. We went inside anyway, since the movie theater was still open. We also found a surf shop that was open, and Victoria tried on a bathing suit there. I picked up a paper which told the movie times for that night and we took another bus back to the hotel.

When we got there, everyone else was back. They were ready to go to eat, so we decided to go to an Argentinean restaurant in Adelaide that we saw the night before. Unfortunately, it was closed until after New Year's. So we went to a French restaurant that was next to it, instead. Unfortunately, the food ended up taking forever. The good news was that no one was getting any food, not just us. Still, it took a long time. My parents said they were cursed that day because the same thing had happened in the German restaurant in Hahndorf. Paul and I split a kangaroo filet, much to Victoria's dismay. I didn't really think it tasted much different than beef. Because dinner took so long, it was too late to go to a movie afterwards. Instead we just watched a DVD on Keith's computer.


Sunday, December 28

We left the hotel at 10 and drove about two hours to Cape Jervis, where we took a ferry to Kangaroo Island. On the way, we drove through lots of dry scrubland which was a lot like California. However, there were also a lot of cows all over the place, which isn't as common in California. We were supposed to take a one o'clock ferry, but when we arrived they were loading the twelve o'clock ferry, and they had a spare space. We ended up getting the last space on the ferry, which was lucky.

As the ferry started up, a bunch of dolphins appeared out of nowhere and swam beside the ferry for a little while. It was neat.

The boat swayed a lot, so we had to stay outside to avoid seasickness. After about an hour, the boat landed in Penneshaw, a small town by any standard, but the second largest on the island. We split up for lunch, and Victoria and I found a small grocery which made sandwiches and burgers. They were out of bread, so we couldn't have sandwiches. I had a burger with all the fixings, and Victoria ordered some fries. The fries were huge. It was about a whole sack of potatoes worth of fries. We couldn't eat them all and saved them in the car for later. My burger was huge, too. It had egg, beets, bacon, and some other stuff, in addition to the normal things you might find on a burger. During lunch Victoria and I were surrounded by a huge flock of seagulls that wanted to eat our food. They were a bit scary. One of them sounded like a dinosaur when he squawked. He was really scary.

After lunch, we managed to lose Victoria through a series of bad luck. Somehow we were really bad about losing people that weekend. Victoria left the van and headed to the bathroom. My parents told her about a bathroom down by the pier, and then assumed she had gone there. However, she found a different bathroom that was on a back street. We were all waiting at the car, so we drove down to the bathroom to pick her up part of the way back so she wouldn't have to walk. Of course, she took a different way back and didn't go past our car. So then she came back to where the car was to discover it was gone. Thankfully she waited in the same place, because we came back to see if she had snuck past us when she hadn't come out of the bathroom after awhile. It was just bad luck, since we were trying to make things easier.

Once we had regrouped, we drove on towards our hotel. On the way, we stopped at Prospect Hill, a hill in the middle of the island where you can see around you. It was a short hike, and nice because we had been in the car most of the day. Also on the way was Seal Bay, a sea lion preserve on the beach. We signed up for a tour and went down to the beach with a guide. There were a lot of sea lions sleeping on the beach, and some swimming in the ocean. It was fun to watch them, but very hot on the beach, plus I think I was dehydrated at the time.

Finally we continued on to Kangaroo Island Wilderness Resort, our hotel. It was the most expensive place we stayed, especially since there wasn't any air conditioning or TV. Still, we didn't really need that stuff. A/C would've been nice, though. The resort had a bar which served food and a restaurant. The restaurant was quite expensive and fancy, so we went to the bar for dinner. Unfortunately, the bar was open to the air, and there were millions of flies there.

Flies are one of the strangest things in Australia. They are everywhere, buzzing in your eyes and ears. I don't know why, but they have more flies than anywhere else I have ever been. It's hard to eat outside without flies appearing. On Kangaroo Island, the flies were the worst out of the places we went in Australia.

At the bar, we had to eat by employing a strategy of wave with one hand and eat with the other. That's how constant and numerous the flies were.

We wanted to go on a Little penguin (that's their name) spotting tour after dinner, but the receptionist told us there weren't any guides available. She told us where the guides often go, a place called Vivonne Bay. We brought my tiny wallet flashlight (a gift from Victoria's sister) and drove to the bay.

The drive to the bay was very exciting, because there were tons of animals out. By contrast, the drive to the hotel had been very uneventful. We barely saw a living thing, because it was hot outside. Most of the animals sleep during the day during the summer and come out at night. On the way to the bay the sun was setting, so we could see the animals everywhere. Many of them also darted in front of our car on the road, which wasn't so good. I think it was stressful for the drivers. We saw lots of kangaroos, wallabies, possums, and even a couple of echidnas, the other monotreme besides the platypus.

Once we got to Vivonne Bay, we wandered around the rocks looking for penguins. We didn't know if they would be coming out of the ocean or what. I wandered off by myself and was crawling over a rock when I heard a large scrambling sound. I used my flashlight and spied two (maybe three) penguins huddled in a rock crack, trying to look camouflaged. Everyone else had headed off elsewhere, so I couldn't show them at first. I stood there awhile and then flagged down my brothers when they appeared. Eventually everyone came over and got to see the penguins. They were tiny and very cute. We were very glad to see them, and pretty lucky, too. The hotel receptionist said that in summer, most of them head south to Antarctica, so it's rare to see more than a couple on a tour with a trained guide.

We had a similarly nerve-racking drive back to the hotel from Vivonne Bay, but saw a lot more animals.


Monday, December 29

On Monday we got up a little early and had the breakfast buffet at the restaurant. We headed to Flinders Chase National Park to look at some more animals there. After visiting the visitor center, we headed to the platypus watering holes in small groups. Victoria and I made it there first, but we didn't see many animals on the way there. We saw one kangaroo and a bunch of gray geese. At the platypus watering hole, there were signs saying it is difficult to see platypuses, especially during the day. We waited and waited at the different lookouts around the swamp area, but we didn't see any platypuses. When we talked with everyone else, it turns out they had spotted a koala in the trees near the visitor center. One the way back to the visitor's center, we stopped and looked at the koala again. We also found a second koala near the first one that they hadn't seen originally. The koalas were very dopey and were sleeping. They looked quite cute hugging the trees.

When we went back to the car, we noticed another koala in a tree in the parking lot. It was great to see three koalas up close. Next we drove to another place in the park called the Remarkable Rocks. When we got close to the rocks, there was a giant goanna lizard in the road, but I didn't get to see it. They can be over a meter long.

The rocks are an impressive sight. They are randomly shaped rocks on top of a giant rock dome. The rocks have been carved out by the strong winds coming from the ocean. The rocks look very different than most rocks. It was very windy when we were there, so we had to be careful not to get blown away.

After the rocks, we drove down the road to Cape de Couedic, to see the Admiral's Arch, a giant rock arch by the sea. Tons of seals and seal lions live around the arch in the ocean. It was neat seeing them all, but there was a bad smell coming from the area. On the drive around this area of the park, we also saw some parrots and lorakeets flying around.

We went back to the hotel and rested for awhile and then had dinner. Luckily, there were less flies during dinner that night, probably because it was more windy. Once it got dark, we decided to go platypus hunting again. We drove to the lookout this time on a dirt road in the park. There were a lot of bumps in the road, so it caused a lot of vibrations in the car. Occasionally animals would run in front of our car, like the previous night. Keith decided not to go look for the platypuses because of the stress of looking for animals while driving.

There were a couple other people at the platypus holes, but it wasn't too crowded. We waited a long time at different holes, but Victoria and I never saw a platypus. My mom saw something that she thinks was a claw or a nose, but that was the best anyone did. While my dad was walking between holes, a group of baby feral pigs all walked across the trail in front of him. He said some other people saw the mother pig, but he didn't. Unfortunately, I didn't see the pigs. Mostly, I saw a lot of mosquitos as they were biting me. We got slaughtered by the mosquitos that night. My mosquito bites healed quickly, but Victoria's lasted for a week afterwards. Once it got too dark to see the holes anymore, we headed back to the hotel, dodging possums and wallabies all the way.


Tuesday, December 30

Due to an early morning ferry (8:45), we had to get up at 6am and head to Penneshaw. It was still cool enough outside that some animals were attempting to commit suicide in the road, so we had to be watchful while driving. It is hard to be watchful when you are half asleep. Paul did a marvelous job of driving, though.

We got to the ferry in time and got the car loaded up onto the ferry. Unfortunately, there was a problem with the pulley mechanism on the ferry, and it jammed while pulling up the loading door. We had to wait an extra hour before we left port. Luckily, our flight was later in the afternoon, so we didn't need to worry about time too much.

We drove back to Adelaide, ate at Subway again, and dropped of the rental car. At the airport, we didn't have any problems that I remember. We flew to Perth from Adelaide, which is a 2.5 hour time difference. For some reason Adelaide is 30 minutes off of Sydney time, instead of an hour. We were worried that it would be too hot in Adelaide, because it was over 40 degrees there when we were in Sydney. Luckily, it had cooled by the time we went there.

We took a big taxi van to our hotel, the City Waters Apartments. They were older and very economical. Still, they had a nice feel to them, and they were larger than my apartment in Japan. Victoria and I walked around the city for awhile and changed some more yen. We walked to the James Street area, where there are tons of restaurants and bars, and ate at a kebab restaurant. While we were eating at a table on the street, the rest of the family came by. They were eating at a restaurant just down the street, by coincidence.

Our friends Clint and Smiljka from Toyama are from Perth, and they were at home for the vacation, but they were leaving on the 31st to go back to Toyama. We called them up to see if they wanted to do something, but Clint was playing in a band at a show in another town 30 minutes away. With the time change, and the late time his band would be playing, we knew we couldn't stay up that late, so we couldn't go. Later it turns out they came by the apartment when we were out. Oh well, we saw them in Toyama later. Instead, we watched a weird show called "Extreme Makeover," where people write into the show to ask for a plastic surgery makeover of their friends and family. There were two women who had almost every part of their body replaced or operated on. It was a little scary, but really funny at the time. We also watched "Teachers", a British drama/comedy about (surprise) teachers.


Wednesday, December 31

Victoria and I slept in some and then took one of the free buses to the base of King's Park. From there we climbed up a huge set of stairs called Jacob's Ladder. We were pretty tired when we got to the top. We walked around King's Park for awhile, and got to see some random girl get really pissed at her boyfriend for nothing, have a tantrum and throw things at him, then sweetly ask the people next to her to take her picture after he left.

We walked on the treetop bridge in the park, but I was a little disappointed. It was high, but not right next to the trees. I didn't see any birds up close or anything. Afterwards we walked back into town and ate at a nice cafe with lots of pastries and sandwiches. Victoria and I split up to go shopping in different stores for an hour or two. I bought the fourth Monkey Island game, and she bought a cute shirt and skirt.

Next, we met up with the rest of the family for dinner at a place called the Lucky Shag Bar, which Victoria thought was hilarious, because of the meaning of "shag" in Britain. She had my family pose for a picture under the sign. The food was better than I thought it would be, since it was basically a pub.

After dinner, we went to see the New Year's festivities. They had five different events going on, so it was quite busy. They had a live band and swing dancing in the center of town. Spread out in the St. James Street area, there were four stages, each with a different type of entertainment. There was Jamaican music, a DJ contest, dancers, and some other act. We didn't see them all. We walked down St. James Street, and it was very crowded. There were tons of people out, and a bunch of them seemed like they wanted to make trouble. I had one guy run into me "accidentally" with his shoulder, trying to start a fight or something. Luckily, there was a lot of security all over the place, so I wasn't too worried. Victoria and I skipped the bars where they had a list to get in, and instead went to a different bar / dance club. We were carded again by the bouncer.

After talking for awhile at the bar, we headed back to the hotel to celebrate New Year's with the rest of the family. We sat by the river, watched fireworks, and drank champagne. My half glass of champagne went straight to my head, which Victoria has teased me about mercilessly ever since. The fireworks lasted a long time. It was a good show. However, we were told they would be by the river, but in reality they were somewhere else, so our seats were not as good as we thought they would be.


Thursday, January 1

The new year started out a little badly actually. Our plan was to rent cars and drive around the area south of Perth. We needed a cab to get to the airport to rent the cars, though. We called the taxi company the day before to ask for a big van taxi like we had before. They said it would come the next morning. But we waited and waited, and one never came. Eventually we called the company and they said they didn't have any available. Would've been nice if they'd let our hotel know that. So then we called two taxis and took them to the domestic arrival terminal. Unfortunately, when we got there the car rental place was abandoned. We called the company and they said we were supposed to pick them up at the international terminal. It took even more time and money to go to the international terminal and pick up the cars. Since Victoria and I couldn't drive (my license is expired), we waited at the domestic terminal with the luggage.

Unfortunately, there were no mini-vans available for rental in Perth at that time, so we had to settle on two sedans. However, there was yet another problem. Paul wasn't able to drive the rental cars from this agency because he is under 25. So we had two cars and three drivers, though Keith didn't really want to drive.

We headed off towards Busseltown, a small beach town in the Margaret River region. We stopped at a small restaurant in Mandurah and had kebabs for lunch. We only got lost once, and that was in Bunbury. The highway just disappeared and we ended up at the harbor somehow. We found the highway again, though, after a detour on a scenic highway. Another exciting thing on the drive was that I got to see a wild emu by the side of the road.

We arrived in Busselton at 4:05pm, to find out the tourist office which helps with hotel reservations had just closed at 4. Instead, we drove around to a couple places and finally chose a place called the Motor Inn Riviera, which was a pretty good price. However, they only had rooms for that night. All their rooms were booked for Friday and Saturday nights. They said many of the areas hotels were booked, so we should try to get a reservation somewhere ASAP. We called the Margaret River tourist information office and they gave us the name of just one hotel in Augusta (south of Margaret River) that had rooms free. Mom called there and we were able to get hotel reservations, luckily. Mom also made a reservation at a place for Saturday night, but the area we went to wasn't as crowded on Saturday.

With our accommodation secure for the day, Paul, Victoria, and I headed to the beach. The weather was nice, so we went for a swim in the ocean. That was my first time swimming in the Indian Ocean. I guess all I have left to swim in is the Arctic Ocean. The worst part about the beach were all the flies. There were a lot, but they went away when we were swimming.

The beach at Busselton isn't very big, but it has a very, very long jetty. The jetty is 1,840 meters long, and even has a train to take you to the end of it. I think it is the longest wooden jetty in the southern hemisphere, or something like that. At the end of the jetty is an underwater observatory. You can go down into the ocean and see fish around the jetty through the glass. We didn't walk to the end, since it was so far. A bunch of kids were diving off the edge of the pier, and wanted us to do it too, for some reason. But we didn't do it.

We walked back to the hotel to shower before going to dinner, and we saw a bunch of cockatoos in the trees. There were as many cockatoos as you might normally see seagulls at the beach. For dinner, we went to a bistro that was recommended to us at the hotel. The food was good, but the service was not hospitable. I got the impression that the presence of customers was unwelcome and interfering with the restaurant. After dinner, we just went to sleep.


Friday, January 2

We had breakfast at McDonald's and then started our scenic drive through the Margaret River area on a scenic highway. Our first stop was a place called Canal Rocks. We stopped at some lookouts over the rocks, and hiked up to another lookout. On the way to the lookout, someone spotted a well-camoflaged lizard by the trail. It was about a foot long, and cool to see. When we got to the actual rocks, we stopped and walked around some. The rocks were carved out by the ocean, and had some neat canals going through them. It was very windy, and there were a lot of waves breaking against the rocks.

After Canal Rocks, we headed to a small winery called Lenton Brae. There were about a hundred wineries around, so we just randomly chose one that was on the way and had a cool name. They had free wine tasting, so Paul, Victoria, and I tried some. I bought a bottle of the wine for Victoria, and she said it was really good.

We then went to the Margaret River Chocolate Company. They had a store with some really expensive chocolate, so no one bought anything. However, we did eat the free samples. It was a bit of a letdown, and not worth the visit (except for the free chocolate).

Then we drove to the Ellensbrook Homestead, a historic homestead in the middle of nowhere. Nearby was a small creek which led to the Meekadarribee Waterfall. The waterfall was pretty, but much smaller than I thought it would be. It was more of a cave than anything. The walk around the waterfall was nice, though.

Our next stop was Margaret River, the center of the area. We found a pizza restaurant downtown and ate there. The pizza was okay, but our service wasn't the best. The waitress was new, so she tended to get confused about things.

After that, we took a faster highway to a cave called Jewel Cave. There are about 350 limestone caves in the area, but only about 4 are open for public tours. The one we went to was recommended in the guide book, so we went there. We barely made it to the cave in time. The last tour was at 3:30, and we got there about 3:20. The cave tour lasted about an hour, and the cave was beautiful and vast. I was amazed at how large the cave was. We got to see rocks that looked like a girl, a camel, and a waterfall. We also saw the fossilized remains of an animal in the cave.

Next we went to our hotel and checked in. The hotel was further south of the cave in a place called Augusta. It was a small town, and really close to the southwest corner of Australia. After checking in, everyone but Victoria drove to nearby Cape Leeuwin, the intersection of the Southern and Indian Oceans. We walked around there for awhile, but we couldn't go up to the lighthouse. The gate was locked at 5pm, so we couldn't enter. However, we checked out a nearby old well wheel that was used to pump water to the lighthouse watchmen's cottages. The wheel is now covered in moss and looks interesting.

Finally we went back to the hotel and Victoria and I went to dinner. We ate at the restaurant at the hotel. They had an all-you-can eat salad bar, and a grill where you cooked your own meat. I had a t-bone steak, while Victoria just had a salad bar. We were lucky to find a table because it was really crowded there. Since we were at a table for four, a mother and son asked if they could sit with us. They were a little quiet at first, but we got them to talk to us some. It was a neat experience for us, since it is often hard to meet people from a country when traveling through it, unless they work in the hospitality industry. They lived three hours east of Perth, so it took them about 6 or 7 hours to drive to Augusta. They were just there on holidays, because it was summer vacation. They said we were lucky to get a room at the hotel that weekend, because a lot of people reserve cottages and the like 4-6 months ahead of time. They also told us about the School of the Air. It's a school system for kids who live out in the Outback, far from any schools. They receive their lessons through the radio, or other forms of communication. They only meet the teachers face to face every once in awhile. I thought it was an interesting way to do schooling. My dad made a comment about the School of the Air. He said he read that, "The area covered by this school is twice the size of France and yet has only 110 students in grades 1 through 12." Interesting.

After dinner, Victoria and I went back to the hotel and watched "American Wedding" which was really bad.


Saturday, January 3

We ate breakfast at a little cafe in Augusta, and then drove to Pemberton. We stopped at a waterfall inside a national forest. Beedleup Falls was not a very impressive falls, but there were a lot of tall trees around, and it was a good break for our drive. There was supposed to be a bridge crossing near the falls, but it was gone, so we couldn't walk the loop trail like the map suggested. The tall trees were called karri trees, and we saw a lot of them on Saturday.

Next we went to the Gloucester Fire Tree, a 61 meter tall tree that you can climb. Keith and I climbed up the tree. It was a little scary, because there wasn't much protecting us as we climbed. There were steel rebars shoved into the tree that we walked up like steps, and widely spaced rebars sort of behind us. In addition, there was a small mesh wire strung between the two, I guess to help prevent us from falling off the side. Climbing was fun, and I only got nervous once, when a guy who was passing me on the way down's hat fell to the ground.

At the top, we could see really far. It really was the tallest tree for quite some way. It would have been good to spot fires with. Eventually, we made it back down the tree. At the base of the tree were lots of parrots who were begging for food from everyone watching people climb. Victoria also climbed the tree to the first branch, but not to the top.

After the fire tree, we headed to the Walpole Treetop Walk. It was a series of swaying walkways about 40-50 meters high in the air. You walk up a ramp to get to them. It was pretty fun, but we didn't really see many animals about during the walk. That was kind of a shame, since the visitor's center implied that there were tons of weird mammals that lived in the forest. I have to say that the animal display was really disorienting for me. I didn't know the names of most of the animals. They had weird Australian names, and I had never seen the animals before. It made me think about how many different animals there must be out there. My mom and Victoria were both a bit scared on the walk through the trees. Victoria said she was fine until my dad pointed out that there were people walking below us, and she looked down at them. I have some great photos of her terror that I will try to put up on the web.

We left the treetop walk and checked into our hotel, the Walpole Hotel/Motel. It was a decent price at $75 (AUD) for a spacious double. We had dinner at a place that advertised having burgers and a large menu. Unfortunately, once we sat down, we realized that we were looking at the lunch menu. The dinner menu was more limited, unfortunately. I had fish n' chips and some wedges. After dinner, we played another Cheap Ass game, Save Dr. Lucky. Victoria didn't play during the first game, but she did play the next time. I think she might have won. This game is much, much faster than the other one we played, which we didn't finish.


Sunday, January 4

We started driving back to Perth on Sunday, because my parents and Keith had to fly back to Sydney on the morning of the 5th. We stopped at a place called Mount Barker to use the toilet, and ran into a Canadian who was working at the small town tourist office there. He recommended we go to a nearby lookout over the valley, so we went there. On the way back from the lookout, we saw another huge goanna near the road. I tried to take a picture, but it hurried away before I could.

We stayed at the same hotel as before for simplicity's sake. Victoria and I cleaned up some and went to the Lucky Shag Pub before dinner. Everyone else met us at a nearby Chinese restaurant shortly afterward. The restaurant was pretty nice.

Because we spent a lot of the day driving, we didn't do that much on Sunday.


Monday, January 5

Mom, dad, and Keith left in the morning, and took the rental cars with them. Victoria and I went shopping for toiletries and omiyage for Japan. We met up with Paul and went grocery shopping for dinner. We decided to finally take advantage of our cooking facilities at the hotels and make something good. The food was much cheaper than Japan. I had forgotten how cheap produce can be. I also found some old Christmas candy (candy canes and chocolate coins) on sale that I bought as omiyage. The candy canes were the most popular omiyage I've ever given my teachers. They thought they were cool. After we dropped off the groceries at home, we went to see Finding Nemo at a nearby movie theater for $3. The theater was tiny, and so was the screen. But we still enjoyed the movie. I thought it was very good, and it was cool seeing it while I was in Australia.

That night we watched more of "The Bachelor" and a crazy British reality show called "Wife Swap" where two families switch wives for a week. I cooked us a fettuccine dish with chicken, tomatoes, mushrooms, and artichokes.


Tuesday, January 6

The three of us took a cab to the airport and hurried to check in. However, we were told there weren't seats together for the first flight. Luckily, Victoria got a window seat, and a nice man seated next to her switched seats with me. We watched the movie "Secondhand Lions" on the plane, which was pretty good, though Victoria wasn't thrilled about the plane crash part of it.

We ended up with about a 7 hour layover in Hong Kong (it was about 8pm when we landed), so we went through customs and got our passports stamped. Then I got money out of the ATM for us all to buy train tickets into the city. There is a new express train that goes from the airport to downtown in about 25 minutes, and is quite affordable. We took that train and ended up in the center of Hong Kong. The tourist information office suggested we take a ferry across the harbor and back, since it is pretty at night.

We found our way to the harbor eventually. It was a bit confusing walking around Hong Kong. You mostly have to follow the signs, not a map, because there are many walkways that go through buildings and twist and turn a lot. The ferry ride was really nice and we saw tons of lit up buildings in the city. We even saw an amusement park by the harbor. After walking around for awhile and eating some ice cream, we took a ferry back and made one of the last trains back to the airport around midnight.


Wednesday, January 7

In the airport we slept for awhile until our 3am flight boarded. We had to take a bus to the plane, which wasn't too full when we got on it. I slept almost the whole way to Japan.

Once we got to the airport, Paul was anxious to get going, so he took off quickly. However, we ran into him again at the trains. He had run into a friend from his prefecture and was helping her out some. Soon he left again, though. We took a train to Shin-Osaka and then back to Toyama without any problems. Then we basically collapsed and got ready for school the next day.

Well, I found out from Paul that he and Keiko decided not to go to South Korea after all, because it was too expensive. Too bad there's not a ferry from the nearby city. That would be the cheap option. I guess I should try to avoid being in Seoul in the beginning now, since more Japanese people will be there, which means higher prices at hotels, etc.

I have decided to go to Korea for Golden Week (April 29-May 9). Of course, South Korea, not North. I originally found a flight there for about 600 dollars, which is pretty good for Golden Week, but I discovered there is a hydrofoil which goes there from Fukuoka, for 250 dollars round trip. However, there is a 200 dollar difference in the train fares to Nagoya and to Fukuoka, so I will only save about 150 dollars in the end. Still, it should be a neat way to travel.

I will be landing in the south, in Pusan. From there I will probably make my way up to Seoul quickly, then work my way back down slowly. I think Paul and Keiko might be in Seoul for a few days while I am there, so hopefully I can hang out with them a little bit. I think I might bring my tent and sleeping bag and camp a lot while there. It should be fun.

Well, the results of the chaos are in, and they decided at the last minute to move my desk. So I moved all my crud over to the other desk, instead of dragging my desk around. The new desk has a smaller drawer over my legs, but this actually gives me more legroom, so that's kind of nice.

However, now I am the closest teacher to the phone, which doesn't really make sense. After all, I can't answer the phone as well as the other teachers can.

I'm also far from the heater, but luckily I won't be here next winter and the weather is improving now. Too bad for my successor, though.

The good news is that I am closer to the doors, so I won't have to weave in and out of everyone to leave the office. We also have less desks right now, so there is a lot more space to walk around. I'm sure they'll cram more teachers in here in another couple weeks though. They always seem to.

Today is the single day out of the year that annoys me the most at school. It's the start of the new year, so the teachers will all change offices, depending on what grade they'll be teaching next year.

I came into school today to find the office locked because of a big staff meeting with all the teachers, so I had to hunt down a key and let myself in. The first thing I noticed at my desk was that the router for my group of desks was gone. All of the routers in the office were gone, except for the central one.

Since the teachers are changing rooms, they are supposed to take all of their equipment with them, too. So the office computer gets moved and an identical one from the other room will come here instead. All of the routers are switched to the other office, and ones from there come here, despite the fact they are identical. Then, later in the day, when the teachers know where their desks will be, they have the students drag the desks down the hallway to the other office. It's a big, pointless mess. It would be much easier to switch only the things that are different. Just switch the desk drawers, and the tower of the computer, and they'd be all set. It would take about a third of the energy that moving everything takes.

Such things are frustrating to me, because they seem so pointless. But, granted, often there is some point behind the madness. So I asked several teachers about it, but they had no idea why they do that. Most people seem to think that not moving the desks would be a good idea, but instead they say, "Well, that's just the way we do it at Horikawa." Some schools don't move all the desks, so it is inconsistent.

Last time they moved my desk to another part of the office, just to put it back in the same place in the end. I couldn't figure out that point of that, either. It shouldn't really bother me so much, since I don't have to move the desks myself. However, it represents the way things are done in Japan. Most of the time it's tradition, or just because, not for any thought out reason.