I'm home!

I'm safe back in Japan today! What I said at first when I got off the airplane was 'it' cold in Japan!' It would take time to adopt my body into Japanese climate...

On the airplane, I started reading messages which I got from my friends at the last drinking party. All messages reminded me of my life in Australia. To my shame, I was going to cry alone there. It was so long flight from Australia to Japan that I work hard to kill a time not to cry again.
On my way to my home from Narita airport, I felt strange feeling for everything. I have seen something but it looks different from that before... I might be Taro Urashima...haha... Because I had an urge for Japanese rice, I asked a person who picked me up from the airport to drop at a Japanese restaurant. I'm still a Japanese even though I stayed in Australia for nine months. Although he said my Japanese sounds a bit funny... I have to practice Japanese in order to get a future job. Of course, I will keep studying English!!! What I felt a pressure is that I have to show off my English for my teachers and friends. I do not know whether I can come through their expectations. But I could say I had a really precious experience there anyway!!!

I'm home, Japan! Please do not miss me you Australian guys! I won't cry anymore because I believe that we can meet again some day;^)

thanks for everything!

I did not want to count...but I could not help counting how many days I had left... someday I have to go back to Japan anyway.

In the last week, I was very busy to buy souvenirs, to send my luggage, to apply to go back to Japan....that's why I could not do everything I wanted to do. But, sometimes we need a time limit. Otherwise we can be getting lazy. Being struggling preparation, I tried to make a plan to meet my friends as much as I could. I feel sorry for everyone who invited me but whom I could not spend time with me. However, I was really happy that a lot of my friends came to my farewell drinking though some of them seemed to be busy on exams and assignments. I used to say that I did not have so many friends in last semester. But actually, I have many many great friends! What's a shame I could not notice it!!!
I do not know how many times I cried. I had not realized that I could cry so easily...I'm sorry for showing my awful face. But, I believe that the number of tears shows the number of my memories in Australia.

THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH FOR EVERYTHING! I WILL NEVER FORGET WHAT I DID IN AUSTRALIA FOREVER!!!

100 to do list

Nowadays, what I somehow tend to do is to count how many days I have left to stay Australia. Just today, I have less than one month until I go back to Japan. I cannot believe! I don't wanna believe!, which is what I'm saying every day. If I want, I can change the date of flight. But, I'm really worry about job hunting. As my professor says, there are a lots of things to do in Japan...

Anyway, I have only one month. I do want to do whatever I can! I do never waste a time! Such person, I, have got a good idea from Hiroko who was one of my classmates in last semester. That is....'100 to do list before leaving'. What I really wanted to do, what I have missed to do, what I thank my friends...and whatever comes up to my mind, I put on the list. In order to make the list, this blog was helpful. I have continued posting so far, which was good. Though I don't know I can achieve everything on the list, having the list could make the rest of my life in Australia maaaaaaaaaaad fun!

Surely doing heavy assignments, I will enjoy as much as I can in Australia!!!

with flatmates

International students look very busy even in holiday, which differ from us, exchange students. Such my flatmates seemed to finish their assignments and invited me to go daytrip to Jervis bay which is located in Southern Coast! Though I have spent much money on traveling, I still could afford to go day trip with them. Three of my flatmates from Malaysia, their friends from India, Spain, and my Japanese friends joined all together.

This day trip had a quite tight schedule because there are many things to see in South Coast. While I used to live in South of Sydney, I had not been further than Cronulla where I stayed five years ago. Firstly, we went to see grant coastline and the Kiama Blowhole which is like a big tube made by rock and spouts seawater. I did not know that there were such a beautiful place in Sydney! On our way to there, we dropped at Wollongong Nan Tien Temple. We saw China for a while, which made us feel mysterious... After that, we rode on a ferry having a lunch to watch dolphin and whale. It was difficult to close to them as I expected. But, wild dolphin and whale were cuter and more alive than that in aquarium (Unfortunately, I could not take a good picture of them)...Despite of my concern that we who are from Japan would be looked with something strange by Australian people, I did not have any problems, which was good. It's because I have a Japanese friend who had experienced in bad way when he joined whale watching tour. Finally, we moved to beaches which are famous for the whitest sand in the world and came back to city.

It was a bit tiring to follow the tight schedule...but, I enjoyed much more than I expected. Particularly, I was really glad to go out with my flat mates. During the trip, we could talk about deep topics with a lot of joking:) It might be the last going out with them because when I leave Australia, they would be very busy to do assignments and exams. This trip must have been a gooooooooood memory with them...!

From Tasmania~Day4

Today, we got up early again and joined a tour to go to the Port Arthur which was established as a traditional prison of convicts from England in 1830. As it is said that Tasmania has a sad history of Australia, I did not know that such a historical place is located there but in the main land. On the bus, each of us got a tramp card which a man or woman was drawn. These people were people in the prison and found at the Museum. The man who was printed on my card was chased by gangs moved there. People were sent there even though their crimes were not so heavy. Some of them seemed to commit crime to escape from poor life.

When I went out the museum, I was so surprised because there were so beautiful yard and buildings. I supposed convicts' mind would have become pure if they stayed there for a while. But, I changed my mind. When I had a look a penitentiary, I did not want to imagine what I would have done or something like that. Some rooms did not have any rooves and floors...

Around 1 o'clock, we joined a harbour tour which we can get explanation of the history at an outer island. The island also looked nice. There had also graves sad histories of convicts though...

We learned much history of it, which was good while we were not so comfortable. However, it must be necessary for us to go traveling not just for fun. That is why I cannot stop traveling! Of course, we enjoyed this traveling a lot! It would be the last trip for me in Australia. I really want to thank Kasumi (sitting next to me in the right photo) who invited me and Grace (the second right of the right photo) and Cici (the right of the right photo) for traveling together.

In Tasmania~Day3

This morning, we got up very early to go to Mount Wellington because we had to take the rental car back to a rent shop. Also, it looked hard to clime the Mountain without cars. Getting lost many times on our way to the top on Mountain, we saw beautiful scenery of Hobart city. But, the most wonderful view was from the top. We were above cloud and saw the city in hole of cloud. In addition, there was still snow on surface of roads. It was the first time for me to see snow in Australia!

Then, we went to the Salamanca Market. I like markets because we can know about the place from what are sold in markets. There were something interesting which I had not found in markets in Sydney. For example, fruit leather, Tasmanian Devil's mitten, antique musical instruments. and so on. More over, many musicians from young to old generations were playing music between shops, which was very interesting for me♪ We did not buy anything there because we did not want to make our luggage bigger. (Our luggage had already been filled with chocolate...)

After that, we hanged around city. The orchid festival was held at Town Hall, which mended our tiredness. And, we studied maritime history at the Maritime Museum next to Town Hall. To my surprise, people in Tasmania did whale hunting as well as Japanese! (I can argue about it in class because we have had some discussion of whale hunting in this semester.)

At night, we ate Indian dishes. We could eat anything, but there were few restaurants around our backpacker even though it was Saturday today. It was the last night in Tasmania. We enjoyed chatting over.

In Tasmania~Day2

Today, we rent a car to go away from Hobert. Today's theme was EATING! It's dangerous theme for me who is on diet...

First, we dropped at a cheese factory. It was much smaller than we expected. We tasted more than five cheese made in the factory. Goat cheese had a strong smell and taste. (I didn't like it.) We bought nothing and drove for the next food.

Next food was chocolate! In Australia, there is a famous sweets company, Cadbury which deals with chocolate, ice cream, candy and so on. Grace and Cici really wanted to come to the factory so that they decided the factory as the first destination. They applied a visitor tour for an hour. Contrary to our expectation, what we did there was to have explanation of how to make chocolate and history of the company. We were depressed and bought a lot of cheaper chocolates which were not sold because of defect.

The last food was bread. While it took about two hours to get there, we, Japanese wanted to go to a famous bakery 'Ross Village Bakery'. It is said that Studio Giburi movie 'Kiki's delivery service (魔女の宅急便)' was based on the bakery. I love the movie! The bakery was a bit different from our images. But, we found a black cat, gigi's dolls were sold. Shopper aunt seemed to be accustomed to Japanese tourists. She suggested us to take a picture at a counter with Kiki's pose like resting our chin on our hands, which made my interests gone, unfortunately...

After that, we thought we had time to go to wineries. However, because of clapped car navigation, we got lost and ran out of time to go. Instead, we went out to a pub 'New Sydney' (even though we were in Tasmania!) and drunk Tasman beer and wine. Though I could not distinguish how was different from normal beer and wine, I was satisfied with fashionable night at the pub with live musical performance. Umm...I ate much today...