Archive for August, 2008
August 28, 2008
The Division 4 State League Grand Final was played last night at Pasadena Stadium between the North Adelaide Rockets and the Western Magic. With the Rockets dominating the Northern Conference all year, and the Magic beating out big favourite, Forestville 2, in the semi final, It was sure to be a big match up. In the other semi final, North held off the last Southern Conference team in Flinders Uni, who had been a force all year.
North would go into the game as favourites, having beaten the Magic in their two encounters during the year and also on a 11 game winning streak. However, the Magic were with their full squad and on a streak of their own, and having beaten some tough oponents, it wasn’t going to be easy.
The crowd showed the great anticipation everyone had for this game with over 150 turning out to cheer their teams on. While the Magic brought loud voice and chants, the North supporters easily matched them with their voices, pom poms and giant banner.
North got out to a great start, finding open shots and playing great defence which so them go into the first break with the lead. The Magic weren’t giving up though, and fought back tirelessly, only to have North up their defensive pressure and go on a 10-0 run which saw the lead out to 16. Magic fought back to decrease the lead slightly but half time, but a lot of people were sensing the damage had already been done.
The Magic had other ideas, coming out of the half time break with energy to try and diminish the lead. They got the lead back down to 4 points before North called a timeout and made some much needed substitutions. North finished off the quarter strongly going into the last quarter with a double digit lead. This was no reason for them to slacken off though, with the memories of the previous year’s Grand Final still in their minds where they nearly blew a double digit lead going into the last quarter.
North knew what they had to do and came out to give their all in the last quarter, running it out, playing exceptional defence, and playing a great team game to take the lead to close to 30 points with five and a half minutes to play. They then cleared their bench with the 5 players who built the unassailable lead coming off, for the 5 from the bench to come in and finish off the game. The Magic never gave up and fought back strong, but North were not going to relenquish their lead, with the final scoreline reading 84-70.
August 9, 2008
By we, I don’t mean Belinda and I, she won’t be home for another week and a half. By we, I mean me and Totoro. He rode the plane, the train and every other form of public transport with me. He even had his own seat on the plane and watched Kung Fu Panda. I think he was getting some tips for himself.
After a bit of trouble at the airport, not knowing where one of my bags was, (which turned out to still be at Ben’s), I got my ticket and headed through to catch the long flight home. The flight didn’t actually seem too long, probably because I kept falling asleep. I did watch Kung Fu Panda 3 times though because I was falling asleep, and it wasn’t movies on demand so I couldn’t fast forward to where I was up to in it. Grrrrr!
Eventually got back to Sydney, stopped and grabbed some duty free items, then heading through customs and off to the domestic terminal. Unfortunately all this took way longer than expected so I missed the flight from Sydney to Adelaide, which meant I had a 3 hour wait for the next one! It worked out ok though, as that allowed me some time to get Krispy Kreme doughnuts, which I had promised to Dung.
Made it back to Adelaide about 1.30pm and first thing I wanted to do was go back to Japan! It is just too damn cold in Adelaide. Coming from nearly every day over 30 degrees, and at least 80% humidity, this just wasn’t right. Take me away to where the sun is out and where I don’t freeze when I walk out the door!
August 8, 2008
We were both so excited to be visiting Totoro at the Ghibli Museum, you could not hide the smiles on our faces! As we walked down the streets to the museum, there was signs every hundred metres or so, some with Totoro himself on them. So naturally we had some photos with them. The walk was about 1.2km according to the sign posts, but knowing how inaccurate some of these sign are in Japan, it could have been more. We got to the museum to be greeted by a giant Totoro!
Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take photos, well, not inside the museum at least. We took as many as we could though. The idea behind not taking photos is they want it to be a place that lives in your memory, kind of like Totoro.
Once inside, we started to wander, which is the recommended way to see the museum, as there is no sets routes. The plan is just to walk around and lose yourself in the place. After we had seen a couple of the rooms, we went to the movie theatre to see a short movie, which can only be seen at the museum. While I couldn’t understand it, as it was in Japanese, Belinda was translating for me. And there wasn’t much dialouge and what there was, was pretty basic as it is a children’s movie afterall. I did manage to understand little bits of it by myself though.
Once the movie had finished we continued to get lost and try to find our way to see everything in the museum. We think we did eventually, and after a couple of hours there, we were done. Then came the task of finding our way out, but not before we had stopped at the gift shop, where I got my own Totoro, who had his own seat on the plane on the way home!
After we stopped for something to eat, and a coffee (Yes, I drink coffee now), we headed back to the hostel, used their internet, planted another koala, grabbed our bags, and then we were on our way to send me home.
August 8, 2008
Our last day in Fukuoka was fairly uneventful, as we wandered the streets, checked out a few local sites like the Fukuoka Castle Ruins before we made our way to the airport to fly back to Tokyo for my last night in Japan. I continued my crazy sleeping patters by sleeping on the plane and in no time we were back in Tokyo. It still continued to amaze me, and I must have been like one of those clowns at a carnival that you put ping pong balls in their mouths. My mouth would hang open as I turned my head back and forth looking around, taking in the sites, buildings and atmosphere.
Our hostel was a little different than the others we stayed in, with a shared dormitory room, with guys and girls. Each person had there own box to sleep in, which was about 2 metres long by 1 metre high and wide. See below:
I had Bel repack, and shove in as much as she could to my bags, and then it was time for some broken sleep before the big adventure the next day to The Ghibli Museum.
August 6, 2008
A day trip from Fukuoka to Beppu was the plan for today, and we had a 2 hour train ride to get us there. I won’t bore anyone with those details as I’m sure you all get the idea by now. So we arrived in Beppu, found the Information Desk, where they spoke excellent English (Score 1 for us!) and found out how we went about finding the natural hot springs, or Jigoku, meaning “burning hell”. We got our info and a day pass for the pass and off we went.
Welcome to hell! We found the springs, with the coolest of them being about 70°C! Some of them were once used to cook food in, and a few are still used today to boil eggs in. There were 8 spring in total, and we visited them all.
The first was Yama-Jigoku, where amongst the steam rising from the ground there is a range of animals from a hippo, chimpanzees and even an elephant! It was so hot walking through just a little of the steam, but gave us a taste of what was to come. Next we went to Umi-Jigoku, which has vivid blue water with eggs boiling over it and surrounded by beautiful gardens. Another feature was a small hot spring where you could put your feet in which was good for cuts and other things. It was very relaxing, but hot, so we only left our feet in for a short time.
Next stop, after a short walk, was Oniishibozu-Jigoku, where hot gray mud is continually bubbling. After a lot of photos of the bubbling mud which looked like ooze, we found another spring to put our feet in, supposedly good for some other reason this time, and sat for a bit to relax. We left a koala by the spring and were off to the next one. Kamado-Jigoku features a bright red demon watching over it and had a range of different types of Jigoku. The next one we visited was a breeding ground for crocodiles and alligators as the hot water made it perfect for them. Not only that, but the steam coming from the ground produces enough pressure to pull one and a half train cars! Finally, before getting on the bus to see the last 2, we stopped at Shiaike-Jigoku, which has creamy white water which spouts from the ground clear, but then mysteriously changes.
The last two to see were Chinoike-Jigoku, and Tatsumaki-Jigoku. Chinoike-Jigoku was a little disappointing, as the steam was supposed to be red from the clay that was boiling, but unfortunately it wasn’t for us. Also, half of it was closed off for maintenance, including the part where you can put your feet in the red water. Tatsumaki-Jigoku was really cool, and we got there just in time as it is a geyser that spouts boiling water into the air every half hour.
We got on the bus back to the station and we were looking up when and where we could get buried in a bath of sand, when we passed it on the bus! So we jumped off and in we went. What an amazing and weird experience! You get undressed and put a robe on, then lay down in hot sand, then have people shovel the sand all over you and bury you in it up to your neck. You then lay there for 10-15 minutes. The sand gets quite heavy which makes it a bit harder to breathe, but nothing to bad. Then you start to feel your body pulsing which is a little strange, and then as you have been there a couple of minutes, you start to sweat a bit. With beads of sweat running down your forehead and no way to wipe them away, it is very difficult, so best just to try not concentrating on them. Once the time is up, you just kind of brush the sand off of you and just stand up, with the rest falling to the ground. You head inside, was the sand off, have a hot bath and head back out and your all done. That is what it is like to be buried in a sand of bath!
August 5, 2008
The day began with us walking out of our room to find a couple of people sleeping on the floor of June’s lounge room which gave us the feeling that we were just staying at a friend’s house after a big night. It was about 8.30am as we were ready to leave, but realised we needed to wake June to give him back the keycard and get our security deposit from him. I went to his room and woke him up, gave him the keycard, and then he gave us the deposit back without even checking the room. Why he took it? I have no idea. We headed out and for some reason we felt the need to thank him very much for letting stay, like it was an unexpected thing at a friend’s house. Nonetheless the, it was a really great place to stay and he was very welcoming and a great guy. A highly recommended place to stay, even if it is a little unorthodox!
Firstly, we checked out the Cultural Sightseeing Street, which turned out to be not all that exciting. So we went off to find some markets to do a bit of shopping. This turned out more difficult than expected, and proved much harder to find anything we actually wanted. We ended up getting frustrated and finding somewhere to eat. All the menus were in Korean, luckily though as we sat there staring at the fake plates trying to figure it out, a young Korean man came up to us and asked in English if we knew what we were ordering. He explained to us what some things were, recommended us some Korean dishes, and even took us and ordered the food for us. It made our day, he was so very helpful for no reason.
After a bit of food we went in search of some more markets, but again we were disappointed with them not offering much of what we wanted. We ended up finding a couple of things before heading back to the ferry terminal to catch the Beetle back to Japan and end our stay in Korea.
All in all it was quite a nice place to stay, but would have been better if we had another day or so. Still a great experience nonetheless, and would love to go again. One thing though is that the drivers on the road are crazy! We ended up taking the approach of crossing lights with “Go hard, or go home in a body bag” because if you hesitated, you were bound to get hit. Bye bye Korea, see you again one day.
August 5, 2008
A month ago or so I was sitting a home on the computer and a message pops up from Bel. “Hey, wanna go to Korea while you are here?” A little bit confused I reply “Sure, why not?” so here I am, in Korea, for a whirlwind tour of about 24 hours.
Once again up and about in the early morning for two unemployees, we were off to the bus station to take us to Fukuoka, where we would depart for Busan, Korea. The bus ride was like any other, and gave me a chance to catch a little shuteye. All this traveling on public transport was great. I could sleep all during the trips, then only need a few hours sleep each night.
We got the International Departure Port where we would be catching the Beetle Boat to Korea which took roughly 3 hours. Some of the views as we left the port were good, but once out on open water, it was time to sleep again. Before we knew it, “Land Ahoy!” Korea was in our sight and it was a magnificent looking city from the water with mountains and buildings everywhere.
We got through customs, found a bus to take us to the station, where we changed over to the subway, and got off where instructed by the hostel, and made the call for them to come pick us up. Now this is where it gets interesting. Not in a bad way at all, just a different way I guess you could say.
We were told it would be about 10 minutes to meet us at the station, which confused as a little as the hostel was supposed to be in the heart of the city, but no matter. About 8 minutes later a car pulls up, so we think, maybe this is for us, but no go, until about another 5 minutes passes and a guy comes jogging across the street to us and introduces himself as June, from the Zen Backpackers Hostel. So he’d ran to come meet us so he could escort us to the hostel, to make sure we found it, which was good, just not what were expecting.
We arrived at an apartment building which June told us was only built 10 months ago and he hands us a keycard to get it and takes us to the 29th floor (of 32). We go through the door and find a extremely nice place with extraordinary views which seems more like bachelor pad than a hostel. June showed us around, starting with our room with 2 beds, another room with 4 beds, the bathroom, the kitchen, lounge area, the views, then shows us his room. It basically just seemed like he had bought the apartment himself, and the spare rooms he just rents out to international travelers. He wasn’t even sure how long we were staying! Nonetheless, he was a great host, showed and told us some places to go on our map, supplied us with everything we needed, offered to use his computer if the guest one was occupied, and was a great person to deal with and talk to.
Not long after putting our bags we headed back out to Haenabe Beach where we found a Korean Barbecue restaurant for dinner. We had lots of small bowls served to us with different kinds of vegetables, salads and sauces, plus some pork and sausage which we got to cook ourselves in the middle of the table. It was all quite spicy, but a pretty good meal no doubt. I did however eat a red chili, which I thought was capsicum, which then kept my mouth burning throughout most of dinner! Even the beer couldn’t cool my mouth down.
We finished our dinner and headed out to the beach, where June had to take us told us there was over 1 million people the day before. It didn’t disappoint. There was people everywhere, but not as packed as it could have been as the sun was setting, and we think the officials were telling people to get out the water. We found a Starbucks and sat down for a coffee overlooking the beach and relaxed for a while before checking out the beach once again, this time with the night lights, then ventured back to the “hostel” to turn in for the night.
August 5, 2008
An early start was in order as we decided that returning to the hostel for some R&R during the middle, and hottest, part of the day was best. We were heading to Dejima, which was once a man made island, but had since be reconnected to the rest of Japan but is in the process of being restored to its early 19th century form.
Dejima is about 15000 square metres and was originally developed as a place to keep the Dutch and curb their effects on the rest of Japan. It has many buildings that have been restored to how they used to be, along with objects and other history strewed around in buildings around the island. It now also features and Adelaide, Australia Koala Bear on one of the ropes holding up a giant flagpole. (Well at least it did when we left the place).
It was so interesting wandering around, reading all the information from how the island was created, to how it was run, what operated on the island, and tools and objects they used, that before we knew it, a few hours had passed. It took a lot longer than we had expected, but we weren’t complaining at all, it was worth every minute of it.
We decided to walk out towards the beach in search of the dragon boats festival that was going on, and eventually, and somewhat unintentionally we stumbled upon it. We had heard drumming so followed that, to what we found out was what we were looking for. A little disappointing though, as none of the boats actually looked like dragons as I expected, or even had dragons painted on the side. We sat by the water and watched as occasionally a team would row out to a random spot, wait a while, maybe row some more, then come back. We were confused. All I wanted was a race, was that too much to ask? I didn’t think so, but apparently eeryone else did, as I didn’t get my wish. So we moved on.
Back at Nagasaki Station, we slowl ventured around the shopping mall to kill some time, before getting an early dinner, then upstairs to the cinemas to see The Dark Knight. The previews and ads before the movie were in Japanese, but I’m pretty sure I got the tanslations right just from the pictures. One being “you’re not allowed to replace your head with a camera.” Thankfully the movie was in English, and all I had to do was put up with the annoying Japanese subtitles. Oh yeah, the movie was amazing, it had it all, with Belinda not being able to take her hand away from her mouth the whole movie! Not only did the movie have it all, but so did we, with Mister Donut donuts, caramel popcorn AND salted popcorn, and not to forget, some melon soda to top it off. Oh the life of the unemployed…
August 5, 2008
Our first day in Nagasaki started later than usual so we could catch up on a bit of sleep that we so desperately needed. We eventually decided to pull ourselves away from the air conditioned comfort of the hostel room and went off to wander down Temple Street.
Nagasaki has trams going all over the city, and at only 100 yen per person, it was a bargain. Everything was in fairly close vicinity of each other, or a short tram ride away. Most it was even in walking distance, so we even walked a lot of places we went. Another thing I noticed about Nagasaki was the kids. They were everywhere. Little kids with their parents walking round, catching the trams, some cute, some just annoying. I think it must be the kid capital of Japan or something.
So, back to Temple Street. It was just a 2 blocks behind our hostel so off we walked, our first stop was Kofukuji Temple, which was a Chinese Temple. The grounds where amazing, so well kept and green, and there was hardly anyone around which made it very relaxing to walk around and look at it all.
After Kofukuji, we began wandering along Temple Street and made it to Sofukuji Temple, which was also Chinese. Again, there wasn’t many people around which made for a relaxing visit as we meandered through the grounds.
By now we had seen enough temples, and because of the humidity and heat we decided to grab a quick snack from the Family Mart, and back to the hostel for air con.
Skip to 2 hours later and we were back on the tram, or streetcar if you prefer, and on our way to see the Nagaski Peace Museum, a tribute and history of the second nuclear bomb dropped on Japan during World War II. There is so much to take in while walking throughout the museum, and so much of it is so difficult to comprehend, but without it, it would be unknown to so many how much damage the bombs actually caused. With objects such as glass bottles and coins that had melted together, to metal frames of building and bridges that buckled, and walls of houses and slabs of concrete that had shadows burnt in to them due to the intense heat from the blast. As well as clocks that had stopped at the exact time the bomb was dropped, and plates and bowls that had been charred so badly, not to mention the stories of people going to thee homes to find loved ones, only to find their ashes, it is a really terrifying thought imagining what it would have been like.
From the museum, we went to the Hypocenter, the exact spot where the bomb was dropped. There is a monument standing in the place, as well as small part of a wall of the cathedral that was still standing after the bomb. Off we walked again, this time to the peace park, which has beautiful gardens and many statues and monuments dedicated to peace donanted from different countries around the world. The main sttatue we wanted to see though, was unfotunateley ruined by construction work being done around it. We weren’t really sure if they were buiding a wall by the sides of it or cleaning it, but we did know that the scaffolding that was erected had ruined our photos! So off we went, back to the station to see if we could find somewhere for dinner.
August 3, 2008
The night was young, so we jumped on the tram and ventured out to the ropeway (cable car) to take us to the top of one of Nagaski’s surrounding mountains. (It is surrounded by mountains on 3 sides of the city). While the ride up there wasn’t anything special, it only took about 6 or 7 minutes and was definitely worth it. The view from the observatory at the top was spectacular! You could see the whole city, all around, and it was all illuminated which was a stunning view. The city, building, parks and bridges, the rivers, the outlines of the mountains, it could all be seen. We photographed it all from as many angles as we could then hopped back on the ropeway for our return trip down the mountain.