Last few days in Japan....

Wednesday, September 24th

As we traveled throughout Australia we met many people who had traveled in Japan. One couple suggested that we purchase Japan Rail Passes that would allow us unlimited rail travel within the country. These passes had to be purchases prior to entering Japan, so in Sydney we went to an Asian travel centre and bought one week passes. We decided to only get a pass for the second week because they are really expensive and we were on the subway line while staying in Tokyo. We took a Hikari (bullet) train to Kyoto where we had arranged four nights accommodations, using it as a base to do day trips with the rail pass. It was our intention to spend two days in Kyoto, a day in Osaka, and another in Nara before heading to Hiroshima.
Our accommodation was in a Japanese guest house, Japan’s version of a hostel. We had a traditional Japanese room for the four of us; there were four rolled up futons on a tatami floor, a small TV, a beanbag chair and a table. We did not have our own toilet or shower but the YAHATA house was very clean, had internet connection, a small common room, a small kitchen, a traditional Japanese shower and soaking tub, and most importantly very helpful and kind staff and owners.

In our last post, Elaine eloquently told you about our new friend Agnes. The day after meeting Agnes we took a one day excursion to Nara. It was a short ride from Kyoto (45 min) and we were rushed to be on time for our prearranged English guide.

Just a side note.....most people know that our family is always trying to maximize our time whether it be finding the most efficient route from point A to B, splitting up to accomplish multiple tasks simultaneously, or taking advantage of an opportunity for an additional 10 minutes sleep in the morning. Certainly the later has been apparent in Japan! Hence, this continues to be a Ying/Yang type of thing.....stressed to get to things on time while exhilarated that we made it and still got that extra 10 minutes sleep. It seems to work for us but I wouldn’t suggest everyone follow the same path.

Anyways, Nara was a very beautiful and quiet city in Japan. Our guide, Mio, was a young woman who is going to university in Nara to be a high school English teacher. We had a very pleasant day in Nara with Mio as it was unrushed, tranquil and afforded us an opportunity to relax. In Nara, deer are sacred animals and also a bit of a tourist attraction. I’m sure Mio thought Sammy was crazy for her fascination with the deer and the number of pictures she took. On our walk through the old town we probably saw a hundred deer . I bought some food for Sam and Jeff to feed the deer and quickly found out that they get quite aggressive. Jeff, Sam and especially Elaine found it hilarious that I was being mauled and bitten in the backside. In fact, Elaine wanted to go back at the end of the day and have me recreate the attack so we could video tape it and put it on the blog. Sorry folks.....I’m just not that dedicated to keeping you up to date on everything we do! We went to a noodle shop for lunch with Mio and it was very good, however, I did have some issues with bodily functions that the family thought was funnier than the deer story but I’ll save that for a dinner party. If you ever go to Japan you should spend some time in Nara .

Thursday September 25th

Elaine and Sammy had been chomping at the bit for this day to arrive. We planned to go to a monthly market at a Kyoto temple. Elaine had read that this would be a great spot to purchase Kimonos so she and Sam were pumped to go shopping. Jeff on the other hand wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about it as Elaine and Sam. After all, what was in it for him? Certainly the thought of going to another temple and shopping for clothes should be enough to make any 11 year old boy run for the hills. After a long walk to the train station followed by a 15 minute walk to the find the market we arrived. The market was very big and the first booth had tons of Kimonos. I decided to leave the girls and take Jeff with me to continue to explore the market before we both lost our minds. There were a lot of Japanese food booths and this made Jeff a little happier. There were many antique stalls, clothing, food, plants, and carnival games.

Samantha and Elaine were shown how to dress Samantha in a Kimono by a gentleman who became much friendlier when he realized we were not Americans but Canadians. Elaine and I felt that as soon as he realized we were not Americans that his entire demeanour changed towards us. He helped dress Samantha like a model in a fashion show, calling out for string, undergarments, and the proper colour belt while he fit her. The man was just a shopper in the market. An older couple owned the stall and seemed to take pride in the way the English speaking gentleman was dressing Sam. They were so nice to Samantha that I didn’t even negotiate with them on the price, which is not like me in any of the markets we have been to in our travels. The elderly Japanese couple gave Sam two gifts after we paid which was a very nice gesture.

Jeff and I made a few purchases ourselves. We bought some nice mementos of Japan but don’t want to mention what they were as someone reading this may get one for a present! Needless to say, we really liked what we bought and couldn’t stop talking about different negotiating tactics. We employed the LMBIRMD strategy today (LMBIRMD =”Last minute before imminent rain- multiple discount”). Jeff has also taken an interest in collecting old coins on our trip. He bought a 1964 Tokyo Olympic Medallion and a US Liberty dollar which I thought were good purchases, unlike the PSP video that only works on Japan video games.

We ate some street meat, a couple of overpriced crepes, a few unknown cooked vegetables and headed back to the train station. Once again we were running tight for time as we had two bullet trains to catch to Hiroshima at 2:00pm. We let the girls stay at the main Train station while Jeff and I ran through the streets in Kyoto to go pick up our bags at YAHATA house and meet Sam and Elaine back at the train station. We were soaked with sweat and our legs and feet were really sore by the time we made it back.....but like always we made it on time...while maximizing our time at the market.

We took two bullet trains to Hiroshima each about an hour long. I had a large beer out of a vending machine, they’re everywhere in Japan, for about $2.

We took a TRAM/Streetcar from the Hiroshima train station to the stop nearest our accommodation. We had to walk down residential streets with our laptop open with the map that had been emailed to us earlier in the week. We stayed at the World Friendship Centre where we slept on traditional tatami mats and futons again. We had two rooms divided by a paper door, a shared bathroom, internet, a library with hundreds of books about peace and war. Our hosts had graciously arranged for our family to meet a living survivor of Hiroshima and a English guide for the Peace Park the next morning. I had mentioned that this might be a possibility to everyone but I wasn’t counting on it as I had not heard back after my initial request. Needless to say, we were all very excited about the next morning. As soon as we were settled in, we went out to a noodle shop for dinner. We had Ramen noodles and cold beers while watching the Hiroshima Carp play the Tokyo Giants in baseball. Jeff didn’t think the quality of play was as good as the MLB but the fans intensity rivalled any Toronto sports team we have ever watched. After dinned I wanted to walk to the Peace Park to get our bearing s for the next morning and thought it might be illuminated at night. It turned out to be a beautiful evening and we had an opportunity to get ourselves acquainted with several monuments in the Park like the eternal flame, the A-Dome, the children’s monument, the rivers, and the museum where we would be meeting our survivor for our talk the next morning.

When we arrived back to our room, Elaine began her blog entry while I read the kids the true life story “Sadako and A thousand Cranes.” Sadako is a well known figure and throughout the world. The book is based on a true story about a girl named "Sadako Sasaki". Ten years after the bombing of Hiroshima, Sadako Sasaki died of leukemia at the age of twelve. The story of Sadako who continued to fold paper cranes throughout her illness in hopes of recovering from the disease touched the hearts of many people. We were all in tears by the end of the story after realizing we had been standing right beside the monument in the story. Although our intention was to get to bed early, everyone found books in the library to read about Hiroshima and the war. I found a book that provided more details about Sadako and her family. I ended up staying up until about 2am reading and booking a hotel in Beijing.

Friday, September-26-08

We started our day with a great breakfast, fruit, granola, yogurt, toast, juice and coffee. Then we ran to make our 9:30am seminar. This seminar was the most moving seminar I have ever attended. Mr. Keijiro Matsuchima was a boy of 12 sitting in a classroom about 2 miles from where the bomb landed in August of 1945. You can imagine how moving Mr. Matsuchima’s recount of his experience at that time was for all of us. What I found interesting was that only in recent years have survivors, or Hibakushas as Japanese people call them, begun talking about their experiences. After the war there was great prejudice against the survivors. They were often considered “dirty” as people were unsure if they were contagious or would bring bad luck. Many kept their experience a secret in fear that their children would be unable to marry or find jobs. However, now many survivors, who are aging and realize their stories may be lost, speak openly and often with a deep conviction that they must tell their stories and educate people in order to prevent a horrifying event like this from occurring again. And most humbling and moving was the great humility and sorrow with which Mr. Matsuchima apologized for their country’s attack on Pearl Harbour. Surprisingly, he communicated no resentment at all towards the United States for having dropped the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He felt as though Japan provoked this occurrence by it,s armies stubbornness to continue a losing war at that time. Mr. Matschima’s final words were, “Now we must stand together and say Never Again!” After the dozen people in attendance for this private seminar left, Elaine, Sam, Jeff and I stayed to thank Mr. Matsuchima for his time. I learned that Mr. Matsuchima had intended to be an Engineer while enrolled at the technical college days before the bomb dropped. After inconceivable hardship for him and his family, he decided to change his career aspirations. He became a school teacher and retired a principal. Mr. Matschima very seldom ever spoke to his students about being a Hibakusha (survivor). There is so much more to share but I will save it for another time.

After our “survivor talk” we wandered around the museum basement. We viewed the artwork of survivors and their accompanying stories. Each picture stated the age of the survivor at the time of the bombing, their date of death, and the proximity they were to the hypocentre. We arranged for an English speaking guide to show us the Peace Park. Jeff and Samantha asked many interesting questions they had about the war.

After our guided tour we quickly went through the Museum. Samantha and Jeff were really moved when they saw some of the cranes that Sadako had folded throughout her illness. Elaine and I both felt ashamed that we could not spend longer here as it was so important. It was a solemn day for us and we would suggest that everyone try and visit someday......as Mr. Matschima said, “Never Again!”

A new friendship!!

One of our main excursions everyday on our journey is to figure out what, and where we are going to eat. In Japan, an area known for good, cheap food is Osaka. Osaka is the third most populated city in Japan with 2.5 million people. It takes about 15 minutes by bullet train to get from Kyoto, where we were staying to Osaka, with trains leaving regularly throughout the day.

After a busy morning exploring Kyoto’s Castle we set out for Osaka without any real idea of where we were going. As the train approached I asked a man in front of me if we were on the right platform. He said no and pointed to the opposite track. We began racing for the stairs, when to Kevin’s annoyance, I stopped once again to clarify what track we needed to be on. That’s when we met Agnes.

Agnes, it turned out, spoke English really well. She is originally from Malaysia and has been working in Japan for the last 4 years. Agnes was enjoying her last day of summer vacation, heading home to Osaka after being at a concert in Kyoto. She quickly assured me that we could get to Osaka on the train she was waiting for. She then went on to offer to take us to an area in Osaka where the local people eat. I quickly accepted and we all boarded together.

After about 15 minutes we arrived at the train station and then transferred to the subway line, something I had not planned for. I began to wonder If I would be able to get us back to Kyoto at the end of the night. After about 15 more minutes we got off the subway, and to my surprise Agnes did not just point out the eating area, but began leading us throughout Osaka’s downtown. She jokingly held up a fan leading us as though we were a tour group! We walked through some really busy streets taking photographs and eating street food. After shopping for a while, Agnes brought us to a really neat restaurant that specialized in Okonomiyaki (Japanese pancakes). Okonomiyaki is a pan-fried Japanese dish cooked with various ingredients. Okonomi means “what you like “or “what you want,” and yaki means “grilled “or “cooked”; thus, the name of the dish means “cook what you like, the way you like.” They are not anything like our breakfast pancakes, and are made from seafood, meat, eggs and sometimes noodles. Our meal was cooked on a large frying pan right at our table. The food was awesome! After dinner Agnes led us to an amazing crepe stand where the kids had banana split crepes.

The tour didn’t end there! Instead of going to the subway station we walked to a beautiful mall and boarded a glass elevator. We shot towards the roof, peering through the glistening glass. When the doors opened we stepped out into a beautiful green space, a park above the city! The five of us walked around, spending some time sitting on a bench gazing at the city lights.

Our great day ended with Agnes not only taking us to the subway, but going out of her way by riding the subway all the way to the train station with us. We hugged good-bye, sad that our time together was over, however, happy to have forged new friendships. We have heard from Agnes twice since our day in Osaka by email. Our time together will not be forgotten and I have a funny feeling we will meet again someday.

The Day of the Sumo!! (By Jeffrey)

One day on our family’s world trip we were rushed, very rushed indeed. We were going to something you can only see in Japan....SUMO WRESTLING!! We weren’t sure we could even get tickets. I was thinking that we had a fifty-fifty chance of getting them because we had read that you needed to be at the stadium very early to get tickets for the same day.

It took around 30 minutes to get there by train and subway on Thursday, September 18th. We got the tickets for an awesome price. It cost 4600Yen in total, about $46Cdn. Each adult was $21 and each kid was $2. We weren’t expecting it to cost so little. The matches started out by showcasing the lower ranked Sumo wrestlers. We had the best seats in the house, only four feet away from the place they wrestled. We could also ask for tea in our seats. The seats were actually cushions arranged in a group of four to one box. We sat in these seats until lunch.

After lunch we sat in seats closer to the top of the building. Also after lunch the quality of the Sumo increased. We also met an Australian whose parents were Japanese. It was really weird to hear an Australian accent in Japan.

Many people believe that Sumo wrestlers are extremely fat. Of course some of them are, but the best aren’t that fat. The bouts were actually very interesting. My dad even said “I’d rather se Sumo wrestling than see a Leaf game if given the choice again.” I don’t necessarily agree with him but I do think Sumo wrestling offered better value. Four people could attend a full day (8 hours) and have a great lunch for the price of a decent seat at a Leaf’s game!

You can watch approximately 220 Sumo bouts in one day. The average bout was about 20 seconds with the longest running to about a minute and a half. Each bout had a repetitious 3 minute ceremony prior to the bout. We had no idea what the ref and his assistant were saying at this time even after 4:00pm when we got our English commentary radios. I thought the ceremonies were not necessary, however, I enjoyed every other minute of Sumo. When the current champion (no losses in his last 20 bouts) lost to the worst wrestler in his group, everybody on the lower deck started throwing their cushions at him. It was hilarious!

On our way home we saw a Sumo wrestler all by himself on the subway. It shocked me because Sumo wrestling is Japan’s national sport. I thought he would have been treated like royalty. Well I guess that probably only the top Sumo wrestlers would be treated like royalty. The funny thing is that we weren’t expecting to get into the match because there are only 6 tournaments per year, however, not only did we get in but we had fabulous seats. Without a doubt I would go to another Sumo tournament. Even my sister enjoyed it!

(P.S. – you can leave me a comment if you have any questions about Sumo)

Blog Entry by Sam - Tokyo apartment

Blog Entry by Samantha - Tokyo

After flying from Australia to Japan, we rented an apartment in Tokyo. I am going to describe what the apartment looked like. The bathroom, well the toilet area, because the toilet area and washing areas were separate, had an electronic toilet that massaged and cleaned your bum. It also dried your bum with hot air too! It was a really clean toilet area, so that was nice. I spent most of my time on the toilet! The other half of the washroom had a Japanese style bath and shower. The washing area was divided into two areas. One had the washing machine and a sink for general use. The other had a Japanese style shower with a soaking tub. First you have a shower in one area and then you soak in a really deep tub. Our whole family loved the Japanese tub. It even had a heater to keep the water hot!

The bed in our bedroom was on the floor instead of carpet or tile, there was tatami mat. A tatami mat is about 1m x 3 m and made out of Styrofoam with a grass covering. In our living room we had a plasma screen TV that actually had English channels. We also had high speed internet access in our apartment, which was really useful. We had a really cool kitchen with all the supplies that we needed, so we usually ate at least two meals in every day. Also there was a nice balcony that we could see parts of Tokyo from. I loved everything in the apartment. I really liked the couch because it was a pull out bed and we made a fort with it, however, my parents would always tear it down. I would colour, read and have fun in my fort. I had a wonderful time staying in our two bedroom apartment in Tokyo!

Konnichiwa - Hello from Japan

Preface to Japan

After a 10 hour flight to Narita airport via Cairns we were finally in Japan. Everyone was looking forward to going to Japan after spending nearly 3 weeks in Australia. Quite honestly, we really were let down a little by our Australian segment of our RTW trip. The scenery was without a doubt spectacular. We only saw the east coast of Australia so we can’t say we would never come back...it’s a big country! Even though we all felt this way, the funny thing is that Elaine and I both agreed that we would move and live in Sydney in a heartbeat if given the chance. Sydney is without a doubt world class city and I have rethought my initial feelings about cities that choose to take on massive amounts of debt to host the Olympics. The infrastructure was extraordinary, the waterfront never-ending, and the makeup of the city was very multicultural. I have a friend who was offered an incredible job in Sydney but choose to turn it down....were you crazy?? We were told that Melbourne would have been nice to visit but it wasn’t possible on this trip. Outside of Sydney, the missing piece for us was the singular culture......there were no faces other than white. I think this is why we were all so excited about Japan.

On to Tokyo...

We arrived on Sunday, September 14. We took an express train from the airport to Shinjuku station and then transferred to another train line to arrive at Nakano station. Shinjuku station is one of the busiest stations in Japan. About a million and half people travel through this station each business day between the hours of 8am-9am. Needless to say we haven’t traveled during these times very often.
Tokyo has met many of our expectations and at the same time been quite the opposite. First off, the city is immaculate; every piece of glass is sparkling from handrails to shop windows. The subways and trains are clean and of course without graffiti. There are a massive amount of trains, subways and busses run by several different companies but somehow they manage to keep everything working together in harmony. The stations, trains and platforms are numbered in a logical manner. The trains announce each station in Japanese and then English, which has worked out quite well for us.

The Japanese people in Tokyo are very kind, courteous and of course orderly. Perhaps in a city of such magnitude there is no other option but to conform and be orderly. We have all enjoyed and tried our best to conform to their standards while visiting. There are a lot of bikes in the streets, many taxis and certainly a lot of sushi which has made Jeff and I happy.

Top 10 things that really have shattered our initial perceptions about Tokyo:

1. The subways are not as crowded as we had initially expected. We have been on the subways during rush hour a couple of times but the crowds are not that much different then on the TTC in Toronto during rush hour, although everyone does line up orderly to gain access to each car on the platform!!

2. Food is not more expensive. In fact we have found prices to be significantly less than Australia. Now with that said it it possible to spend a couple of thousand dollars on a dinner for two...and $20 for a nice sushi or other suitably delicious meal.

3. The city is clean. With a population of 35 million it is incredible that there is little to no garbage on the streets or in subway stations. The garbage men are immaculate and come each day for various collections. Tokyo is very proactive in recycling. Get this.....the garbage men have neatly pressed (you can see their press lines) uniforms, wear white gloves and use very quiet trucks.

4. There is very little noise. We have heard only 1 horn beep in our 6 days here and that was from a Western driver! The traffic is silent.

5. The Japanese youth will do anything for the latest fashion. Case in point....A new H & M clothing store (all over Toronto Samantha tells me) opened in Tokyo earlier this week. Every young, fashionable, cell phone texting Tokyion had an H & M bag. We went pass the store..... there was a line over 10 blocks long. Police with white gloves were stationed on each corner to ensure no intersections were blocked, everyone was lined up in three’s to ensure that exactly half the sidewalk was available to regular traffic flow. The line was incredibly orderly and neat and no one had seemed to have any reservations about being in such a long line. Mental Note: open a new store in Tokyo.

6. Electronics are not cheap but they are plentiful. In fact we found electronic items cheaper in Sao Paulo Brazil than in Tokyo. This has certainly disappointed Jeffrey. We have read that China is far better off for great deals on electronics.

7. Having a sitdown meal and beer at a National Sporting Event is not as expensive as one might think.

8. There are dollar stores in Tokyo (well 100Yen stores).

9. People don’t stare at us all the time. We thought that being white and travelling with children would draw a significant amount of attention. This hasn’t been the case. We were told that people would not want to sit beside us on the subway but that has been far from reality.

10. A Japanese TV converter can be worked by a Gajjin (name for white guy in Japan). The gentleman who we rented our 2 bedroom apartment from in Tokyo gave us instructions on how to use various things in the apartment (bath, shower, hot water, doors, toilet, security, elevator and of course the TV). I think he exact words were....”whatever you do just push these two buttons on the converter to keep the English channels available”. Like any other 11 year old boy, Jeff decided to push one of the other 150 Japanese buttons and we were confined to Japanese only stations for a few hours before I figured out how to get things back on line again.

So what have we been up to for the last week??

Well first off we realized two days before leaving Australia that we didn’t have a Chinese passport. That became our immediate concern when we arrived in Japan. We had to find a Chinese embassy in Japan to process a Visa for our Canadian passports. Monday was a holiday (respect your elders) in Japan so we set out for the Chinese embassy first thing on Tuesday morning. We had researched the passport issue in the airport business class lounge and printed out everything we could find as well as firing off a couple of emails to the Canadian Embassy, the Chinese Embassy in both Beijing and Honk Kong. We finally got typical government responses back 3 days later. Fortunately we were able to get things accomplished on our own. The only thing we didn’t have was a travel voucher indicating we had arranged for accommodations in Beijing for our arrival. We found a 5 star hotel close to the embassy and I snuck into the business lounge and booked a cheap hostel for 2 nights and printed out a receipt and we were off. The kids and Elaine stayed in the hotel lobby and met some very nice people from South America and Europe. The visas were ready for our pick up yesterday (Friday) and Elaine took the subway herself to pick them up while I stayed in the apartment and began planning and booking accommodations for our travel to Kyoto, Nara, Osaka and Hiroshima. Jeff and Samantha slept in and then got a couple of hours of reading and math done, something we have been a little lax on.

We spent most of the day cooped up in the apartment and this was getting to all of us. Jeff and Sam made a fort out of the couch and some blankets, Elaine and I urgently tried to get some affordable accommodations for the next few days via email and the telephone.

We ended up going for a walk in the evening (it was grey and rainy most of the day) in the rain with our umbrellas. We are in a suburb of Tokyo (Nakano) which is about 3 minutes by train to the main core of the city. Nakano is quite nice, small streets, lots of restaurants, bars, stores, gambling parlours....something for everyone. We had a great sushi dinner in a stand-up restaurant. The sushi chef was a really nice guy and took care of Jeff and I. He spoke very good English and reminded us of our friendly neighbour at the cottage, Bob, who is also Japanese.
After we came home Elaine and I spent another couple of hours planning for the next week (if you call booking a room and winging it planning). We wanted to store 3 of our 4 knapsacks in Tokyo while we travelled around other parts of Japan. All the rail stations have lockers, but they are only good for a maximum of 3 days and we were planning on being gone for 6. There is luggage delivery companies that are quite popular but we decided to take them back to the airport and store them there. The charge for doing this is about 500Yen/day/bag. I instead booked a room at a Hostel for the 26th, the night before we fly to Beijing. We just need a place to sleep for a couple of hours and the owner arranged to meet me at the airport this afternoon to pick up our bags and store them for the week for less than the cost of the baggage storage (plus we get a place to crash and a drive to the airport). I am actually on the train travelling back from the airport to Shinjuku station as I type this. I have just arrived and have to run......

Jeff and Sam will post an insight into Japan from their perspective shortly. I think you will like their take on our week in Tokyo!!

Videos to watch - Misner RTW trip

Here are a couple of videos you can watch. We have taken only a couple on our trip to date. The internet connection in Japan is much faster so we can now upload these for everyone. We hope to have a few really interesting ones of Tokyo over the next few days as well.

We're still in Oz - Had a great time on the Reef!

We have now been in Australia for 2 ½ weeks. We have done lots of driving (over 2400km), seen many animals and enjoyed tons of water activities. In Hervey Bay we went on a whale watching cruise. We boarded a 15m boat and set out for the Pacific. It is whale migration time in Eastern Australia, so before long we spotted our first whale. The whales put on an amazing show, even swimming under the boat. Some of the whales were longer than the boat! We enjoyed a buffet lunch and an afternoon tea aboard the ship, arriving home around 6 p.m. After Hervey Bay we drove for 2 days up the coast to Airlie Bay to get closer to the Great Barrier Reef. We decided to splurge on a 3 day/3 night sailing adventure on a boat called The Pacific Sunrise. It was 30 m long and was really lovely inside. Only 19 passengers were on the cruise and Jeff and Sam were the only children. It was 3 totally awesome days! We sailed at 2 p.m. on Wed. which was a beautiful day. That night we dined like kings, something we had not done yet in Australia. The next morning we woke up to a light rain/drizzle. After a great breakfast we all put on our full length wet suits and went snorkelling. The Reef is amazing, just like you see on T.V., bright colours, tons of fish, and glorious coral. We continued snorkelling in the afternoon after a huge lunch (spare ribs, sausages, steak, pasta salad, tossed salad...) That night it cleared up and Kevin spotted a dolphin dining on a squid beside the boat. The next day we woke up to brilliant sunshine. Everyone had such a great time snorkelling the day before that we decided to go one more time in another location. The sun really made a difference and the location was spectacular, and Jeffrey taught me how to dive deep and then clear my mask. As usual we were the last of the crew to get back to the ship. After a great curry, which we all devoured, we spent the afternoon on the Whitsunday Beach. We spent the next few hours kayaking, swimming and learning to play beach cricket. While kayaking we saw sea turtles so close to our kayak we could touch them. That night we dined on 8 different dishes, while chatting with the other passengers. The night ended with a great jam session under the stars, a ship’s version of a campfire. Jeffrey and Sammy were perfect sailors!

We have been staying in Townsville, about 4 hours north of Airlie beach. We have rented a small cabin across the street from the ocean. The road is a little busy in front of us; however, the view is quite nice and we have tennis courts that we have used extensively. Townsville is a pretty town but it seems like a strange place. You can’t swim in the Ocean because there are small jelly fish that can kill you. No matter how minimal the sting is from some varieties you will still likely end up in the hospital. We have learned that the phrase “Everything is bigger and deadlier in Australia” is almost true.....except that there are quite a few small creatures that can kill you as well. We returned our rental car to the airport yesterday morning and Kevin and I walked back to the cabin (about 3.5km). Today the kids wrote a recount for school and did some reading. After a long tennis match we went for a nice walk along the boardwalk. We were going to head home and have dinner but it was half price pizza on Tuesday so we had a Hawaiian pizza. When we turned the corner to go home there was a McD’s and we had promised Jeff and Sam a McFlurry after some great improvement on the tennis courts. We ended up having a small dinner at McD’s----not quite the intention prior to setting out on our walk! Tomorrow we will do some laundry, get everything settled for our upcoming stay in Japan, arrange accommodation in Sydney for 3 nights, a tennis game, and dispose of some of our clothing to lighten our loads (we will actually need to carry our knapsacks shortly). We don’t instead to extend our stay in Australia but we are going to stay in Japan for two weeks rather than the one week originally planned.