Christmas Eve

Another fresh lot of snow today.

This is Christmas Eve...

Merry Christmas to everyone in the right time zone!

Santa comes tonight!

Sending Michigan love...

It snowed last night

My first real snow experience.
Ohboy!!!!

The very long day...

Well the 19th December was a real bitch of a day.
Woke up at the crack of dawn ( or earlier because we couldn't sleep).. Left our hotel for peak hour at the train station.. lugging our heavy luggage up the stairs because there are some stations that don't have escalators or elevators. Barely fit on the train- felt like a sardine.
Anyway, a few trains later, we made it to the airport. Waited in line for about an hour. Technical problems with the self check-in so had to wait for someone to serve us.
Our flights were Japan airlines to Chicago, then change to American Airlines for Detroit. Our clerk had trouble understanding this, so the whole check-in thing took way too long. Anyway, we finally get on the plane.. I pop a Valium straight away because I want to get as much sleep as possible (landing in Chicago at 7am the same day..) I got about 30 mins sleep before being WIDE AWAKE all of a sudden. So I watched a bit of tv, had some food and popped another Valium, hoping to finally get some rest. No such luck.
So 11 hours later, we arrived at Chicago, exhausted. We had 2 hours before we needed to be boarding our flight to Detroit. But the line to get our passports stamped was about 800 people long. There were only 3 clerks rostered on and Shane timed the average person to go through was 5mins. There was no way in hell that we were going to make that flight. The valium had started to kick in ( 11 hours too bloody late!) and 3 hours later, it was our turn to give our fingerprints and stamp passports etc. but SO much time had elapsed since we got off the plane, that the monitors had deleted our flight details so we had no idea where our luggage was. At this stage, I just lost it. Bawling my eyes out because I'm just too tired and expecting the worst: will we need to buy new tickets to Detroit? Will we need to buy new luggage? Will we need to spend the night in Chicago?
Luckily I married the best kind of man- the kind that calms me when I'm wound up and comforts me when I'm delirious, tired and upset. We found the bags.
I told the lady who looked at our tickets that we had missed our flights.. She said "oh, you too?" So obviously there were a lot of other annoyed people too.
We waited for another 45 mins or so to see if we can make another flight out the same day. The lady said that they were completely booked out for the day.
But she had a fiddle around and said we could get there by a connecting flight to Kalamazoo (who has ever heard of such a place??!). PRAISE THE LORD, we didn't have to pay a cent and headed straight over to where we needed to be. But waited another bloody hour or so, to go through security. After all that, we were finally able to use a pay phone and call Nathan- who was already at Detroit airport waiting for us!! I was devastated! I hated not being able to contact him and let him know what was happening until we had a stinking pay phone. So instead of arriving at 11am, we would arrive in Detroit at 4:30pm.
So flipping exhausted and dehydrated because we weren't allowed water in the airport until we got passed security.
Kalamazoo was only a 40 min flight so after the last bazillion hours we just endured, it felt like no time.
Once at Kalamazoo, we enjoyed the most amazing cheese pizza of my life before boarding once more for Detroit, trying to keep our eyes open.
It was only an hour or so away and what a sweet sweet relief it was to run into my brother's arms at the end of it all.

Feels so good to be back at their house. Late night chats with Nath and Kel, playing with Isabelle-my niece, waiting for Caleb, my nephew to warm up to me.. Good food, good smells, an amazing shower... And sweet, sweet, glorious bed. Zzz

The last Japanese day

18th... Last day in Japan :(

Went to shibuya, which means that we finally made it to the well known pedestrian crossing, and as turns out, the fashion capital pretty much!! Which is quite embarrassing, considering I was wearing my "merry Christmas" Santa T-shirt and my floral pants (the only other pants I brought are all of a sudden too big for me!)
So I was getting a whole lot of weird looks.. Also probably because my lack of Asian-ness really stands out.

Went to 109, as suggested and found a whole heap of adorable boutiques. Found too much I wanted but nothing really to fit my non-Japanese body shape/budget.

I did find some incredibly short skirts that were priced two for one. The girl made me try it on. But wouldn't let me into the change room with shoes on. (Good thing I wore my boots that take me HOURS to put on and lace up...) Well, because I have a curvy bum, I had to pull the skirt over my head. Which then became extremely rolled up and impossible to make it look skirt-like. Approximately 20 mins later, I emerged from the change room with a skirt on around the middle, as it should be, but slightly tight. I asked the girl, "what size is it?" in my best Asian accent (... Oh gosh I feel a fool sometimes.)
She points to the size tag, which says "F". (What the heck does F mean?!)
I hold up 10 fingers, then 2, to indicate size 12 (which may sound enormous to them, but far out, for me, that's a bloody accomplishment!!) She said to me "only 1 size for everyone".
Well considering I got it on, it didn't LOOK too tight, I thought, why the bloody hell not! I fit into a "one size fits all" in Japan. So I got the 2-for-1 special and got some thick tights to go with them!

After shibuya, Shane and I hopped on yet another train and headed the massive distance of one stop to Harajuku- Home of crazy fashion. Seriously, anything goes in Harajuku. We walked past a pants store. Didn't even realise that they were actually pants until we looked closer. Fluroescent colours, colours that clash, colours that go really nicely together but on really obscure clothing.. I found some amazing big, thick, wooly jumpers in a few different stores. Silly me, decided not to buy straight away but to keep looking around. Well sure enough, I forgot all about the big, thick, wooly jumpers until well after we had left for home. Oh well. I am sure I'll find something to suit in America!

Kiddy land was something that was on my to-do list, but forgot about it until we stumbled across it while in Harajuku. It was Ah-MAZING!!
There was a whole level dedicated to Ghibli and Disney merch!!! Two of my great loves! We bought a baby sized Totoro blankey for when we have kids. (I think I freaked out Dad Beresford with that comment.. Sorry, no grandkids yet!)

After Shibuya and Harajuku, Shane and I were both exhausted and decided to head back to Hotel Yanagibashi for a bit of a rest, before heading out one last time to Akihabara.

We decided to spend our last evening by going to a Japanese restaurant. Well.. By japanese restaurant, I don't mean sitting on the floor with our legs under the table, but, like the one in Sydney, where you sit at tables and order off a screen- not one little bit in English! Just look at the pictures and try to match the Japanese symbols and characters to that on the screen. We were tempted to ask for help a couple of times, but managed to order independently. We ordered an array of foods.. I was hankering for some agedashi tofu, but apparently there's NONE in the whole of Tokyo.
What we ended up getting:
*Some extremely tender chunks of beef in some Asian paste and bean sprouts (SO GOOD)
*gyoza (they are the same as anywhere),
*2 types of chicken skewers (sounds adventurous, I know.. But one of the types of skewers were actually just skewered pieces of chicken skin. So weird!),
*spring rolls (again sounds adventurous- NOT. But these were so different from any spring rolls that I have ever tasted. I think the main ingredient was bean curd..? They were very squishy and soggy anyway, despite their crispy, deep-fried outer shell... Not a huge fan...)
*plain vanilla icecream for Shane (of course..)
* my dessert was this Bizzare frozen treat- I can't decide if it was ice cream or cheesecake or a mixture of the two. It tasted very tropical - mango, banana, pineapple- but had a thin later of toffee on top with some coconut milk and coconut whipped cream on the side. Whatever it was- it was GOOD!!!

So sad to leave. But excited for the next chapter! Next stop, FAMILY TIME!!

Japanday 4

Rented another car today. 

Toyota. Much nicer. Came with an English speaking navman. 

Drove past the Tokyo Disney resort. HUGE!! So beautiful and wonderful looking. Can't wait for Florida!!

Purpose of today's trip: to visit more "Up Garage" shops for car parts for Shane, and my agenda was to try and find a new gear shifter for little Bernice. 

We spent a fair bit of time in traffic but made it back by 4 and got cash back for the early return! 

This arvo, we looked around Akihabara for some knick-knacks an thought we had run out of yen completely! But we have heaps left for our last day tomorrow. Flying out on the 19th. The thing i'll miss the most is the amazing family who runs this little hostel. They are SO lovely and really go out their way to help us out. We wrote them a tiny letter of thanks. I'm sure they get that sort of thing all the time.. But we just love it here. The only thing I think I WON'T miss about this place is the pillow- or should I say, SACK OF LENTILS on my bed where a pillow SHOULD be. Wow. Good thing I brought mersyndol!

Japan Day 3

Hiring a car. What a nightmare.

Walked to Asakusabashi to a car hire place, who told us that there were no more cars. This is at 9am. 

We then walked to the other side of Akihabara to another car hire place to tell us the same thing. Walked back to our hotel and asked the non-English speaking lady to look up one for us. Then caught a train to Rayogoku and got lost. Asked a guy at a servo where we needed to go. He said "here!" So that was helpful! 

Finally got into the car and Shane said to the guy "oh, where is the GPS?" The guy said "no GPS in this car."  So The both of us said a little prayer. Shane's consisted of learning Japanese ASAP and mine was to stay ALIVE on the Japanese roads. 

We drove back to our hotel so we could google map where in the world we needed to be going. Shane came back into the car with 1000 screen shots on his phone, trying to explain to me where we need to go. I just smile and nod, glad he knows what he's doing. That is until he gets me to navigate. Uhhh these maps tell me NOTHING.  I am incredibly frustrated that Shane can understand them and i have no idea. 

Anyway..

Once we got on the Wangan (fast enormous highway that circles Tokyo), we had no idea of speed limits. Shane was going around 125km/h to sort of keep up with other traffic.. We passed a police car and quite soon afterwards, saw a 60 sign. Good thing the police over here have better things to do than chase speed demons on the highway. 

We stopped at Sano- a rest stop with fenced fields to let your dog go wild, food trucks selling hot dogs, vending machines selling groceries, and an eating area where you pay a machine, a ticket shoots out, you hand it to the man at the counter and wait for your number to be called out when your food is ready. 

The interesting thing is, not only do you have no idea what your ordering.. But they call out your number and order in Japanese.. So I was just staring this guy down, waiting for him to give me some eye contact when it was our order that was ready. This tactic worked and we got our meal. 

Shane thought that the stringy white stuff on top of our ramen was cheese, so he stuffed a whole bunch of it in his mouth. He said "that's not cheese!!" And he coughed and splattered. 

"I know it's not. It's ginger." 

I still can't believe that he thought he was getting cheese on his ramen. LOL!!

The whole purpose of hiring a car was to go to Nikko Circuit- a drift track 125km north of Tokyo. This was Shane's favourite part of his Japan trip back in April. He was practically jumping out of his seat as we got closer and closer to the circuit entrance. And for those that don't know Shane, for him to SHOW excitement is a huge deal. 

We went and watched the drifting that was happening. I sort of know what's going on and what to look for. Years with Shane have taught me a thing or two about the drifting culture.. (Or at least Shane's taste of what's "good" in the drifting culture!)

We walked around checking out the "camber" and "body kits" and "engine" and "how clean that ZX is".. Or something like that. All the while, I am ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the various paint jobs and the pretty stickers.. And the amazing wooden  Coca Cola seats that are so weathered and beautiful... 

After about an hour, I started to fade. I'm still a bit fluey, but at the fatigued stage. I sort of start to sleep while sitting in an upright position. After a while, I went and sat in the car and let Shane enjoy himself. 

The race was on to get the car back by 8pm.. But we kept stopping on the way home to check out car supply stores called "Up Garage" and Japanese book stores called "Book Off" where Shane buys all his favourite Drift magazines second hand. 

We spent about aus$100 In tolls all up. Traffic coming back into Tokyo was a nightmare, as was navigating. But PRAISE GOD- Somehow, we we able to access Google Maps without Wifi or data roaming or any signal whatsoever. Huge help!! 

After all the noodles we have been eating, Both of us really just felt like something familiar. Shane recalled passing a pizza joint so we walked half the night looking for it. After becoming extremely hungry, we gave up and settled for Burger King which turned out to be quite pleasant!

Another early night..What is happening to me?! Getting used to falling asleep to the very amusing Japanese talk shows...

Japan Day 2

Today's plan was to go to the Ghibli Museum. 

((For those of you who don't know, Ghibli is an incredible creator of Japanese animation that Shane and I like so much, we have collected all of the movies that have been released. Among our favourites are Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke.))

To get there, we took the scenic route and walked through the park. My goodness, Mum: I had to stop Shane every 30 seconds so I could take photos of all the many colours of the trees. You would LOVE Japan, if only JUST for the trees. 

Once we got to the museum, we frothed over every little thing and spent WAY less than what I was expecting to at the gift shop. 

There WAS an amazing jacket that Shane and I both really loved. But to buy just one, would have cost around aus$240. So we bought a little pin and some film excerpts from Howls Moving Castle and Spirited Away. 

After Ghibli, we wandered all over shinjuku in search of the famous road crossing, only to realise at the end of the day when our shoes were soaked through to our frost-bitten feet that the crossing is actually in shibuya, not shinjuku. Luckily,  shibuya is on our list of places to go while we are here. Found some amazing clothes and female fashion boutiques. A bit pricey but very dreamy. I think my style of clothing is quite Japanese, as I looked around these shops, there wasn't much I wouldn't buy if I had the cash! 

Walked around akihabara until what felt like midnight. I was starting to fade, as I'm a little fluey, So we walked back to our little Yanagibashi hotel and snacked on our "french" pastries we bought at "Vie De France". And some two minute noodles from Lawsons (7/11). 

Ate them in bed and crashed at 8:30pm?!?!? How sad are we?

Japanland

Arrived safely in Japan.
Shane and I were extremely fortunate to score emergency exit seats so the leg room was phenomenal! Loved being able to stretch out. The only real discomfort of the 10 hour flight was some ear troubles when landing.

Before even landing in Japan, I had already decided that I love the country because everyone is just so friendly. I have been practising saying　Gozaimasu　after every phrase, in my attempt to appear equally as polite as everyone else!

Jana`s departing gift to me was a series of letters which have specific reading dates, starting with: On the aeroplane. Sort of like P.S. I Love You (no doubt that`s where the idea stemmed from) but slightly less morbid. I love things like this.. it`s so thoughtful! I now have some nearby love on my travels whenever I need it most, especially when Shane goes home. I am so excited for Christmas so I can open my next letter (among other things)!!

Upon arriving in Japan, I did become a bit frazzled, so I had a few little moments. I am so so glad I have Shane with me for this leg of the trip. I just don`t think I would have made it tonight! We did however, have an argument over which colour one of our bags was as they were coming around the belt for the third time (He`s colourblind, but still was not convinced that I was right!) We got the bag in the end, and made a note for next time: PURPLE with yellow ribbons. We also got lost trying to catch the trains. Once we finally made it to our hotel, we spent the good part of 20 minutes trying to count out yen to pay the poor guy.

After dumping our bags in our incredibly TINY living space, we went for a walk to find dinner (at 8pm). Looking and smelling all of the amazing foods along the way, we ended up at McDonalds and through the confusion of it all, accidentally ordered 15 nuggets and a cheeseburger between the two of us. Struggled to fit it all in, what I really wanted was a drink!!

Anyway, loads to do in the next 5 days that we are here, so I might do another update when I get a spare min!

Well that is news of safe arrival, so hopefully that will tie you over until the next installment.

Sending Japanese love back home...

The countdown comes to an end and the adventures begin... tomorrow.

For Mum's peace of mind...

Depart Sydney 14th December 09:15

Arrive Tokyo 14th Dec 17:05

Depart Tokyo 19th Dec 11:00

Arrive Chicago 19th Dec 07:30

Depart Chicago 19th Dec 09:25

Arrive Detroit 19th Dec 11:50

Depart Detroit 29th Dec 06:10

Arrive Washington 29th Dec 07:55

Depart Washington 29th Dec 10:00

Arrive New York 29th Dec 11:20

Shane Depart New York 5th January 13:55

Shane Arrive Hong Kong 6th Jan 18:55

Shane Depart Hong Kong 6th Jan 21:25

Shane Arrive Sydney 7th Jan 09:45

(Shane goes straight to work on 7th Jan!!)

Emma Depart New York 7th Jan 10:00

Emma Arrive Orlando 7th Jan 12:40

Emma Depart Orlando 12th Jan 11:20

Emma Arrive Miami 12th Jan 12:20

Emma Depart Miami 12th Jan 15:00

Emma Arrive Quito 12th Jan 19:00

Emma Depart Quito 13th Jan 07:00

Emma Arrive Baltra 13th Jan

-Start Galapagos Islands Cruise-

Emma Depart Baltra 20th Jan

Emma Arrive Quito 20th Jan

Emma Depart Quito 21st Jan 07:00

Emma Arrive Lima 21st Jan 09:15

Emma Depart Lima 21st Jan 10:35

Emma Arrive Buenos Aires 21st Jan 17:05

Emma Depart Buenos Aires 20th February 08:30

Emma Arrive Sydney 21st Feb 14:20

 

Here are the flight details of the "when" and "wheres".. The only real difference is that I might be cancelling my flight from Lima (Peru) to Buenos Aires (Argentina). I figured that I will get to see more if I head down to Buenos Aires if I catch a few buses and see the neighbouring countries. A few on the list to see are: Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Uraguay and possibly Brazil. I know that Mum is a little worried about the lack of "organisation" in this part.. so if you could pray for mum in that respect, I'd like that. 

It's a sure thing that I'm not "organised" for the majority of this trip. But that's sort of the point. Jana (my bestest gal pal) has done this holiday as well and said that it's one of the best things she has ever done in her life. Luckily (/surprisingly), I am not worried about safety, anxiety or language barriers or anything like that, (but would appreciate your prayers on those matters all the same).. The main thing that I'm worried about is just being away from my hubby for over a month and becoming homesick/lonely when it comes to winding down of an evening and falling asleep without my best friend next to me.  

The only accommodation that we have officially booked is Japan and New York, staying in hostels. These two places are private rooms, but we share a bathroom with other hostel users. So it's not exactly a glam holiday. In other countries (and Florida), I am looking to stay in hostels also, but in female dorms.

 I realise that I will be the lone female traveller, but I am also hoping to meet tonnes of people and maybe, possibly, potentially, hopefully meet some friends to stay in touch with. Wouldn't that be the coolest?! Then we could house-swap in different countries and all sorts of things! I am getting a little carried away here.. 

Anyway, instead of do a big long email to everyone, keep checking this blog for updates and stories and leave me a comment!! Otherwise, send me a Whatsapp message. I will still look at emails and Facebook, but may not get them straight away because my notifications for these things are turned off to save phone battery.

Thanks to all for your warm wishes and prayers. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Birthday (to me) and all the other stuff I'll miss.

Mum, if you're reading this, it means you have FOUND my blog!! I hope the writing is big enough for you! I am so proud of you and knew you could do it! Just remember the steps you took to get here.

Much love!

See ya later alligator!

The Countdown

Yes, yes, the promises to regularly post updates are broken. 

The dilemma of this infrequency is threefold: 

1) I have poor time management 

2) University has turned me into a guilty school girl when my mouse hovers over the blog post link

3) I don't have much to say these days

But ah-HAH! I have a plan. 

Today marks 62 days until I go jet-setting across the globe. 

(YES. This is actually happening. I am going overseas.)

Japan

Michigan

New York

Florida

Ecuador

Galapagos Islands

Argentina

Sydney

With me, I am bringing my other half - Well, he will be with me for destinations one, two and three. Sadly, at this point, he runs out of annual leave. I, on the other hand, have months of uni break ahead of me. So, me, the solo traveller will be keeping busy immersing myself in a rock pool of the the world's cultures and trying not to miss Him too much. Here's where the plan comes in.. Hopefully, if technology and money is on my side, you'll be hearing (reading) all about it and cheering me on with comments below.

 This is, after all, a huge deal for me to travel, let alone ALONE!

(If not, I'll upload pics and journal entries when I get home, but let's try to stay positive, shall we?)

LET THE COUNT DOWN BEGIN! 

sixty-two and counting...

(And now, back to my assignment that's due in a few short hours.)

Crayola.

This was a fun day.

 I can now post about it because these gifts have now made their way to their recipients.

Summer Bucket List

Too often, the words "not much" or "nothing exciting" follow questions of "What did you do over the holidays?"

Before she left to go overseas for three months, the best mate sat me down and made me write a list (I love that Jana is also a list maker) of things to accomplish while on holidays. 

"You'll kick yourself if you have nothing to show for the holidays except an increased knowledge of daytime T.V programs."

The list started with:

Read a book. Preferably one I haven't read before.

And then the list grew as weeks went by. There was so much I realised I wanted to do. When would be a better time to do these things than when you have nothing else to do?! So I documented it in my companion, The Sketchbook. 

Disclaimer: I thought that with a lot of people reading/judging my Sketchbook from all over the world, I would leave out a heap of things. "Go to Jamberoo" doesn't mean anything to someone reading this list in New York. So there are a lot of things on my Summer Bucket list that didn't make it into The Sketchbook. There's still a couple of things I haven't done. These have now been transferred into other lists such as "2012 Bucket List" and/or "The Bucket List". 

Side note: I still haven't been to Jamberoo.

Challenge: I dare you to make your own Bucket List. Whether it's before the year kicks the bucket, the season kicks the bucket or you kick the bucket. Do it. It's an exhilarating feeling when you get to cross something off.

Also, I'd love to hear about some cool things you've crossed off. Or even just some things that you want to cross off. Email me-

emandshano@hotmail.com

 -or simply leave a comment below. :)

(If you click on the pictures, they get bigger.)

Another Project

I am doing Project 365 for the second time. I suppose it is "Project 366" this year. This means, I take a photograph every day for a year. When my year is complete, the photos will aid me in creating my diary for 2013. I really encourage you to take part in it! It's not too late to start. The last time I did Project 365, I went from September 17th to the following September. It is a great reminder of the year that's been. You can be totally crazy with it! Or be structural about it: On Mondays, take a photo that shows a lot of the one colour; Tuesdays could be something architectural; Wednesdays, take a photo that reflects what you got up to that day; Thursdays, capture some food; Fridays, find a cool word/font somewhere, in a book, on a sign, in a letter, on a menu etc; Saturdays, a household item; Sundays, anything outside! There are an unlimited amount of options. I'm not very structural (as much as I would like to be), so I just look for something to take a photo of. Sometimes (most days) I have more than one photo per day. That's cool too.

I thought that I would share some of my "January" with you.

01.01.2012

02.01.2012

03.01.2012

04.01.2012

05.01.2012

06.01.2012

07.01.2012

08.01.2012

09.01.2012

10.01.2012

11.01.2012

12.01.2012

13.01.2012

14.01.2012

15.01.2012

16.01.2012

17.01.2012

18.01.2012

19.01.2012

20.01.2012

21.01.2012

22.01.2012

23.01.2012

24.01.2012

25.01.2012

26.01.2012

27.01.2012

28.01.2012

29.01.2012

30.01.2012

31.01.2012