Australians seem, on the whole, to be easily exciteable.

Random Australian: So when did you get here?
Me: I flew in a few days ago.
RA: Oh Congratulations!!!!!!
Me: *wonders if they realise I was not the pilot*

Random Australian Waiter: Can I take that?
Me, looking at empty plate: Sure.
RAW: Awesome!!!!!
Me: Um, ok, whatever floats your boat.

I have been thoroughly spoilt in Melbourne by flerdle and frogstar, and I am now in Hobart spoiling myself. I am staying in a hostel called The Pickled Frog (it had to be!) and tomorrow I am getting a hire car, which is slightly scary as Hobart seems to have a full-on one-way system so I could spend the whole day driving round Central Hobart if I am not careful.

* posted by nat 9:49 AM

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Hello internet!

As you can all tell by the fact I have made no posts whatsoever for a while, I am having a VERY good time.

Japan in brief: I was kidnapped by a class of Japanese english students and their Kenyan teacher from Nikko; I stalked small kimono-wearing children round shrines; I went to Miya Jima where a man tried to persuade me I wanted to climb a mountain (I declined) - and watched the tide go out and the sun go down; I discovered onsen; I discovered more onsen; I talked a lot about onsen; I was divebombed by a hawk and I ate natto (ew!).

Then I went to Sydney. Sydney has ferries. Whee! Just for me, they had their coldest day in November for 100 years on Thursday, but improved matters enough that I spent the whole weekend on beaches (and a few ferries) and got to go swimming (or at least swallow a lot of water while diving under waves) in the Pacific. I also went to the Blue Mountains, which are indeed blue, and are full of birds and Japanese tourists who keep my rudimentary Japanese in good use.

I arrived in Melbourne yesterday where it was cloudy when flerdle picked me up from the airport but then the sun came out and the temperature went up to 35C. Thus I like Melbourne more than Sydney - I am fickle. The city appears to consist entirely of cafes and restaurants. This could be fatal!

But yay anyway!

* posted by nat 12:03 AM

Thursday, November 02, 2006

I am in Japan!

Precisely I am in the Apple store in Ginza, as they have free internet on all the display models. It is a large display screen though, so everyone can see what I am writing. However they are all Japanese, so I am happy to give them reading practice.

I have mostly been in parks so far, except Ginza which is one of those shopping streets that all look the same at night. I am learning how to use my new camera which involves taking the same photo three times on different settings and seeing which one works best. Very time consuming.

Plenty of noisy birds about, and I already know four more Japanese words than last time (and am remembering the 20 or so I knew before).

Lots of Japanese people are shouting at me, but I think that is just general shop chat. They are quite good at unnerving you by dropping whatever they are doing the minute you even put half a toe into their premises and yelling helpfully at you in unison. If you walk round they will continue to yell helpfully at you at 10 second intervals, just in case you wanted something but were too scared to ask. The more expensive or exclusive the shop/restaurant is, the more often they yell at you. This is quite helpful, as you quickly know if you can afford anything or not.

It is dark now, I still cannot operate an Apple keyboard (this one has a musical keyboard in front of it, so I am a bit strung out over the desk space), so I shall stop this and go out and enjoy all the bright lights of the city.

ETA: Or I could press the wrong button, as everything on the screen in in Japanese, and then have to sit here for eight minutes because I have pressed the "republish entire blog" button. Go me!

* posted by nat 8:04 AM