random thoughts
1. when you take pots of vegemite for others to take home - remember to at least take a small tube for ones own use
2. encourage Ian to do his pdf travel plan - print it out and have a copy on your ipad and a paper copy in your backpack
3. hotels will use the wotif booking from your ipad when you cant find the paper copy quickly enough
4. it is difficult to collate photos and videos from about 1/2 dozen people, many hours later i think i have most peoples - still need to collect ants, christians and judy's
5. you need an engineering degree to work out how to flush japanese toilets - just when you think you have them sorted another method comes along
6. some members of the group wont eat raw meats and fish - wouldnt try the cured chicken and others were reluctant to eat raw fish
7. if you can construct ikea furniture you can manage to find your way around the tokyo subway - reading the maps is similar to reading ikea instructions
8. tokyo subways do have a daily ticket and it is cheaper to buy one than buy multiple tickets
9. it isnt easy to find a restaurant that will take 15 people without a booking but we managed it
10. some members of the travelling party are more apt to wander than others
11. it is fun travelling with a large group that will split up and regather later in the day to compare notes
12. japanese cafes and restaurants are happy to look after non japanese speaking people - we ate lots of different foods and had fun trying out different plates
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| Ok its a Turkish Japanese restaurant |
13. happy hour cocktails arent good for weight loss
14. walking 6-8 hours a day negates the weight gaining effects of happy hours
15. judy and i can both drink blue cocktails at 68% and continue drinking
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| Lindsey enjoying her blue cocktail |
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| theo and judy enjoying happy hour |
16. the group enjoys edamane beans - better to eat than chips with cocktails
17. travelling on the shinkansen from tokyo to nagoya puts the ballarat "fast" train to shame
18. electronics are cheap in nagoya - an ipad 2 cover was 1/2 the price of melbourne or the tokyo mac store
19. USB sticks are also cheap in nagoya
20. it is bloody hot and humid in august in japan and hong kong
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| Lindsey in the heat at miyajima |
21. weddings are enjoyable where ever you are
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| jess, ant, em, kaori, austin, lindsey and ian |
22. it is fun to skype the grandparents to the japanese wedding
23. the japanese play cute music at weddings
24. the japanese know how to prepare wonderful food for weddings
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| beef cheek |
25. it is fun to travel on the train to get to a wedding
26. if you are travelling on a train to a wedding you are apt to be picked up by other people travelling to the wedding - " do you happen to be going to a wedding. is it austins. good then i will travel with you"
27. travelling back to the hotel after the wedding on a bus is also fun
28. wedding after parties are fun
29. i am too old to go to after the after party - i piked on the karaoke - the young ones didnt pike
30. when travelling the day before the wedding make sure you have a change of underwear in you hand luggage so that when your luggage gets lost you still have clean underwear - you still have to buy a suit however
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| zoy in his new suit |
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31. make sure that you have a spare battery to the video camera - i had spares for the still camera - luckily it also takes video
32. carry multiple universal power adapters - others like to borrow them
33. organising an internet dongle from narita airport was worth every cent it cost
34. people travelling on public transport will indicate how you have to pay when you cant work it out
35. japanese train workers are universally friendly and helpful - they could upskill a few of the melb transport workers
36. i wake with sunrise - ian doesnt like to
37. nara local deer bite you if you dont feed them - deer from miyajime dont
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| if these deer want food dont try and stop them |
38. hiroshima is overwhelming
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| A bomb dome |
39. hong kong disneyland as per austin is underwhelming
40. the big buddha at ngong ping is worth the scary cable car trip
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| big buddha |
41. the cable car to victoria peak hong kong has long waiting times
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| it took 45 minutes to get onto the tram |
42. the food at the top of the peak is fun
43. taxis in hong kong are fairly cheap
44. alcohol and food in hong kong are cheap - austin says 2 maccas meals were the cheapest he has had
45. if you go looking down dark and dingy lanes in hong kong austin can find cheap wii games and hard discs with many wii games on them
46. if after 10 years of contemplation you decide to plant daffodils bulbs, they will, without question flower when you are away on holidays
47. ian obviously looks more dodgy than i do at security checks - was checked out for cigarettes coming back into japan from hong kong and has his carry on baggage pulled apart before allowing him through narita airport security coming home
48. ian might look dodgy but his gold card status on frequent flyer points gave us an upgrade to first class when coming home - way to go
49. suitcases are never big enough - but it is better to travel to a warm destination as summer clothes weigh less
and as a group we had lots of suitcases
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| waiting for a train at shinagawa station |
50. ipads are wonderful to travel with but writing up blogs are better done on a proper computer
51. dont annoy the japanese fish - they are huge
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| big fish |
52. japanese food is colourful and tasty or is just rice and seaweed - both types wonderful
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| food platter - nara |
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| bento box - ginza - Tokyo |
53. Japaneses outdoor air conditioning is different from ours
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| Em cooling off in the mist after a hard hot days walking |
54. if you take a photo of the food photo outside the restaurant you can indicate what you want for lunch when there aren't any english menus
55. it is nice to get home to a washing machine and somewhere to dry the washing
56. japan is busy and quiet, hong kong is busy and noisy
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| ian and austin hong kong - looking for wii games |
57. night lights look good
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| hong kong |
58. things get lost when travelling - including train tickets, phone chargers, socks, bandaids, people - most things eventually turn up
59. we say hello to new friends and goodbye to old ones
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| judy and frannie |
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| jim and theo |
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| austin says goodbye at nagoya |
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| bye austin bye freyja |
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| bye frannie and jim |
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| bye bye kids - hope you had fun |
60. you learn to hate blogger as you and it cant agree on how to upload photos and it crashes multiple times as you try to do so!
61. the boys scrub up well
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| christian zoy ant |
62. the family looks good as well
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| except we lost jim's head |
63. austin got to collect flowers and give one to Kaori at the wedding
64 it is easier to upload photos at the flat where the internet connection is much faster and so i will continue to up load when i get to Melbourne
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| Austin and kaori |
65. brides look beautiful
66. grooms look handsome
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| Ross |
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67. family loves survives distance and times
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| Austin and Frannie |
68. We had all had a good time and came home with lots of good memories, lots of photos and lots of videos to edit!
