reverse culture shock

Feeling much closer to being human. Waiting to go back to work - an HR issue means I don't go back until Monday May 7th, instead of May 3rd which was my intention.

Getting used to driving on the right side of the road. I'm still having a bit of trouble slipping into life again - taking it slowly with meeting up with people. Sometimes it's just too much.

I put the bulk of my photos in for printing today - too many for the one hour service so I don't get them back until tomorrow. I still have to edit and sort through the ones from Japan. I'm still a bit old fashioned in that I prefer my photos printed, rather than merely burned on a CD. I figure I'm already in so much karmic hell from the size of my carbon footprint from all the traveling this year, what's a few more reams of paper.

home and sleeping off the jet lag

Home safely. I'm staying at my sister's house in Pickering for a while. Mostly sleeping off the jet lag. I've done my laundry and tried to unpack a bit. Haven't felt much like seeing or calling anyone yet. I can hold a coherent conversation for the most part, but I get sleepy at irregular intervals and I have a small exhaustion headache. Should be feeling better a bit at a time. Everybody always has helpful advice on handling jet lag, but mostly I'm just going to wait it out and listen to my body. Luckily I don't have to be anywhere anytime soon.

in vancouver

24 hours of travel so far and still not home, but getting close.

the airport has a rooftop swimming pool

Spent the night at Changi International Airport in Singapore. The airport is open 24 hours a day and has all sorts of things to do in addition to shopping and eating. When I arrived I went to the swimming pool and spent a pleasant hour and a half - it is surprisingly peaceful considering it's on the roof of an international airport. I haven't enjoyed a swim that much in a long time. There's also a free movie theatre, free Internet and x-box games, multiple flower gardens, lounges and play areas for the kids, live music at the bars in the evening and 24 hour shopping and restaurants. This is quite the airport. I rented a budget room in the transit hotel (very nice - comfy single bed, tv, shared bathroom) for 6 hours to sleep starting at midnight and now I'm wandering around the airport waiting for my flight to Vancouver, which is in a few hours. It made more sense than going into the city to find a hostel to sleep at, only to have to be back here so early.

I get into Toronto Monday night. Stopping over in Vancouver and going to Victoria didn't work out since I couldn't get the ticket changed, so I'm coming straight home.

touring Enoshima and Kamakura

Yesterday in Kamakura, we went to the Buddhist temple Kotoku-in and saw the Great Buddha. It's a 13.35 metre high bronze statue which weighs 93 tons. It's the second largest monumental Buddha in Japan, dating from about 1252.







And, of course, what does every 13.35 metre high Buddha need?

Really big sandals.




Spent the day touring Enoshima island and other temples and shrines in Kamakura. It's been a whirlwind tour and I'm not even sure I understood a lot of what was going on. I was surprised to find that not even the most mainstream tourist places had much in the way of English signs or maps. I had to rely on Emi to translate, but her translation skills are not that good (somewhat due to lack of confidence) and the fact that she's sort of a tourist too, having been out of the country for two years. When I put my pictures in an album I'll be able to add the commentary from information I can pull from guidebooks and the internet.

This morning, after spending the night at her parents' home, we took a two and a half hour train ride from Kamakura to the airport. I took Thai Air to Bangkok (6+ hours) and then Bangkok to Singapore (2+hours) to stay at the airport until my flights tomorrow.

Hakone

Today we went to Hakone and stayed in a really nice Japanese style hotel.

They brought us dinner in our room and we (Emi) cooked it at the table. It was delicious.

Then, afterwards, we called the front desk and they came and cleared away everything and a man came and set up our futon beds. Talk about service. We also took another Japanese style bath at the hotel.

We went to a volcanic area where there was pools of boiling water and steam vapours coming from the ground. This stand sells eggs that they boil in the water. The eggs turn black from the sulphur. Eating one is said to increase your life by 7 years.

really fancy toilets

The toilets at the bus station have heated seats! And, when you sit down, they play the sound of running water ~ apparently, some Japanese ladies are quite shy and will resort to repeatedly flushing the toilet to cover up inevitable bathroom sounds. An innovative company came up with the idea of providing noise in order to save millions of gallons of water a year.

touring Tokyo

Spent the day with Emi in Tokyo. It's quite the city. Emi has no sense of direction so we spent a fair bit of time being lost and back tracking. Their subway and train system is huge and complex. Some signs are also in English, but the majority is in Japanese.

In the afternoon we took a bus tour.

It's spring in Japan so it is a bit cold (but it's not snowing). Emi has been living in Brisbane, Australia for more than a year where it is quite hot so she's cold a lot of the time. This is Emi in front of the Imperial Palace.

We went to a Buddhist Shrine and the shopping area in front of it. It's much more fun to shop for gifts and souvenirs in Japan than in New Zealand because everything is so different and cute. Have to remind myself of the garage sale rule (don't buy it if you can picture it on the 50 cent table at a garage sale).

Having loads of fun.

blogging in Japanese

I made it safely to Tokyo this morning and met up with my friend Emi. We ate lunch and looked around a bit,had lunch at the restaurant where her ex-boyfriend works and then check into a Japanese ryokan (inn). We watched a great Japanese animated film this afternoon called Sen To Chihiro No Kamikakushi. Tonight, after dinner we are going to use the open-air public bath here at the inn.


I:m having trouble emailing and blogging because the computer is running the Japanese version of Window:s XP and the keys are not all in the same position. I can:t find the apostrophe and I keep hitting some unknown combination of keys that causes the keyboard to switch to kanji,( Japanese characters).

it's hot

Arrived safely in Singapore after a 9+ hour flight from Auckland. I checked one of my bags into storage at the airport and have confined myself to what I could fit in the little black suitcase on wheels. Checked myself into a backpackers accommodation.

I'm going to see the Singapore Zoo today and then check out the shopping area (not that I have even one square inch of space left in my bag, but it's the looking not the buying) .

It is hot here. Really hot. The plane landed last night after 7:30 pm and it was still 85 degrees F. When I was looking online at backpacker accommodations, I found it odd that some of them advertised showers with hot water. I'm thinking now that a lot of the time, maybe hot water isn't so necessary.

I'm going to Japan!

It's last minute and I didn't think it was going to happen, but the flight change I needed to go to Japan on my way back from NZ came through. I bought my tickets this evening and I got a surprisingly good deal, considering the late date.

So, it's off to Singapore on Sunday for one day (their zoo is supposed to be pretty great so I'll probably go there and then walk around the city a bit), and then to Tokoyo and Kamakura to hang out with Emi and experience Japan. Can't believe I'm going - I had kind of resigned myself to not going.

Still working on getting the flight from Vancouver to Toronto changed so I can go to Victoria to see my friend Andrea's parents (and hopefully my friend Wil) and pick up the stuff I left there on the way out. So I don't yet have a confirmed arrival date in Toronto, but that's okay right?

down from the mountain top

Back from the meditation retreat - it was a worthwhile, interesting experience. I certainly found more than I was looking for. Still have to digest it all.

Caught a ride to Nelson with the two swamis and their ten year old daughter. Met up with Jill, a friend I met in a hostel in Auckland a few weeks ago. We went to dinner at her mom's friends' house. I know that I barely know Jill in the grand scheme of things - we hung out for 2 days in Auckland, but it was just so great to meet up with someone familiar. It has been good to meet lots of people and make new friends, but then you move on and likely never see the people again. I just wanted to connect with someone I already knew.

So, tomorrow I fly to Auckland (spent extra days at the retreat so I don't have time to meander back on the bus), and then on Sunday I leave for Singapore.

autumn

Just an update.

Some of the leaves are turning colours and falling off - summer's over, time for me to start heading home. My ticket to leave New Zealand is for April 15th. In theory, I'm allowed to change the date, but there's no seats available so I have to stick to the schedule I decided way back in July when I bought the ticket. I also have a four day stop-over in Singapore, a country I know very little about. I only put in the stop-over at the suggestion of my travel agent. I'm sure I will find something interesting to do. I also plan to go to Victoria, BC on the way back for a few days. So, I don't know exactly when I'll be back in Toronto.

In the meantime, I am going to a meditation/yoga retreat for a week or so here on the South Island. Then I will head back to Auckland for the flight out. I'm looking forward to reconnecting with everyone when I get back.