Proposed Japan itinerary

After an hour long discussion with Tang Kok Siew and Yvonne Loy, we had come up with a proposed itinerary to show the Japanese Consulate so that we will be able to get our visas. Thanks to Kok Siew, who had so thoughtfully typed it up, I present to you the Japan itinerary:

9 April

Arrive at Narita Airport

Proceed to Kyoto Ryokan Budget Inn

10 April

Kyoto Full-Day Sightseeing Tour including Nijo Castle and Kiyomizu Temple

11 April

To Osaka

Universal Studios Osaka

Himeiji Castle and Sake Brewery Museum

Back to Kyoto in the evening

12 April

Self guided tour of Gion area of Kyoto

13 April

Check out of Kyoto Ryokan Budget Inn

Proceed to Tokyo

Check in Tokyo Inn Hotel

Shop in Ginza

14 April

Tokyo Disneyland

15 April

Mt Fuji and Hakone

16 April

Self Guided Walking Tour (one day)

Shibuya, Meiji Jingu Shrine and Harajuku

17 April

Self Guided Walking Tour of Ueno including Ueno Park with its museums.

Then catch a train to Odaiba for the afternoon and dinner in the evening

18 April

Check out of Tokyo Inn Hotel

Free and Easy

Back to Narita Airport for return flight

I'm SOOOOOOO excited.

Sydney Day 3

Well, the day started off with all of us deciding to go our own separate ways for the day. Nadia and Mel were off to Manly to visit Yana, Luz and Jill were going to spend time by the water and Elizah and I had plans to yum cha for that morning. Although she was meeting a friend of hers who I didn't know, I was there for the food. The yum cha was yum yum yummy and after that a day of shopping was ahead of us.



Needless to say, I love shopping with Elizah almost as much as I love shopping alone. As usual, I got insane bargains, and stuff I could NOT wait to wear once I got back to Hobart. Of course it rained on us, and we hurriedly boarded the monorail to meet Luz and Mel at the Lindt Cafe. Even though we had terrible service, you really couldn't go past Swiss Chocolate though.

As the rain descended heavily, Elizah and I fretted in the monorail because we knew that we were late meeting Mel and Luz. I called Luz to explain why we were late and after talking on the phone for about 5 mins, we realised that we were all on the same monorail, just different carriages.

Arrived at the Lindt Cafe, which was packed out and so decided to head to the Blackbird cafe just above. Had some food, some cocktails and some AMAZING cakes while watching the rain. I do love the rain, BUT was also thinking about Elizah and I having to brave the storm for dinner later.

Luz and Mel left and Elizah and I were the only two standing. Jill and Nads had left in the afternoon (they insisted that the torrential rain was because the heavens were sad that they were leaving *gag, gag* :))

After the rain died down for a bit, Elizah and I went a-wandering for some food and finally found a food court which was open. We ordered enough food for it to be classified as a banquet and headed back to the hotel for the final night.

The much anticipated Sydney trip was over. It was great, and will definitely plan another girls weekend away.

xoxo

Sydney Day 2

Day 2 started off well. Elizah and I were up bright and early and met Luz and Mel for a leisurely morning and a bit of a shop. Had some brekkie and to be completely honest, I can't for the life of me, remember what we did that day. I will have to talk to Elizah when she is here next weekend and find out and re-write this section.

BUT walking along the waterfront and we decided to do a cruise. Well, I was the only one really keen for the cruise because the other girls were keen for the jet boat ride. Are you kidding me? I can't stand heights, but I figure that jet boats are going to make me queasy as well, so I put my foot down and said NO. But gave in in the end.

Thought about Nads and Jill who were getting in that afternoon. And we thought that we should ask whether they were keen for the jetboat ride. Which they were. In the end, the boat had to practically wait for them as they tore down past all the shops to get to the waterfront. When Jill realised that it was a jetboat, the look on her face was priceless. They had just experienced turbulence in the air and were a little green. Needless to say, she was not impressed.

Nads, who is always up for a good time jumped into the boat. To say I noticed all this before the ride would be lying. I was so nervous and, pardon my French, was s***ting my pants. Refused to sit in the front row (which the crazy daredevil Elizah wanted to do) and climbed into the second row. Was also told by Elizah that seatbelts were unnecessary ( I think on some subconscious level she wanted to kill me) and clung on to dear life - til my knuckles went white! Was also singing "My Favourite Things" to make me feel better.

Turns out that sitting in the second row was a blessing in disguise because I was perfectly dry by the end of the ride and the rest of the girlies who had no choice but to sit in front were saturated. To my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed the ride and was like "Again, again!!!"

The rest of the arvo flew by and before I knew it, it was time for the Bledisloe. Met Gibbo and Russell at the train station, (where they were late, btw - I was anxious!) and got to the stadium. at Homebush The match was so great - it was amazing to be there at another international test and barrack for my boys! They put on another awesome performance and decisively beat the All Blacks. I think the rest of the girls had a good time, it would be hard not to.

After the match, all of us had a drink at the pub next to the stadium before taking one of the last trains back to the hotel. End of day two.

Day 1 - Sydney Australia

Sydney, Australia.

Day one was hardly exciting - aside from the fact that it was a girls trip away. Had a full day of work and left in the mid-afternoon to get there by 6pm. Luz, Mel and I ended up at the airport together and so we boarded the train and got to the hotel with minimum fuss. Although the weather was stupid and annoying and raining and what not. It was rather crazy and we walked around in circles, getting wet until we got to the hotel. Even though I had a wheelie luggage, it was still a pain!

Got to the hotel, spoke to Nicole on the phone who was with Ruth and Elizah and were trying to figure out where we should go for dinner. It was finally settled that we were going for Indian and we set out for the Indian food.

The Indian restaurant was AWESOME. The food and the staff were delightful, and although I can't remember the name of the restaurant now, it was great. Had a good time with the girls, drinking and eating and was even tempted to karaoke upstairs. Thought better about it and headed to the Lindt cafe by the waterfront.

To say that that was an enjoyable experience would be lying. THe staff were extremely rude and at one time, one of them was yelling at Ruth's husband. Doesn't matter how good your product is, the staff was rude, rude RUDE. Asian kids, all of them - annoying as all hell. And I can say that, I'm Asian. Shared a hotel room with Elizah which was good fun.

New Zealand in a nutshell

Thus ends my NZ travels for now. I had only done the North Island, would love to go back and explore the South Island*.

While the initial impression of New Zealand was rather scary and the end of the trip was not as crash hot (considering I was dying to get back on Australian soil), I had enjoyed the trip very much, especially my experiences in Rotorua. I look forward to coming back here one day - I think my mother would enjoy it very much.

I will endeavour to write up my posts a lot quicker though.

xoxo

*Turns out I am going back to NZ in 2009! A more exciting trip because I'm going to the South Island (with possible skiing/snowboarding on the horizon), with my darling Luke AND going to watch the Bledisloe cup! I think it will be better. Surely.

Auckland Part 3

I should say that this blog was written on my little Gambit (for those who don't know, it's my Blackberry) so there are lots of shorthand, lack of punctuation and lack of capital letters. Will edit when I find the time.

Had a leisurely faffing session while getting ready to take the explorer bus to surprise, surprise, explore auckland. $30 is meant to take u to 14 attractions. Apparently only three attractions are really worth seeing, the museum, sky tower and kelly tarltons. I'm not sure abt going to kelly tarltons, after all, I'm considering the dolphin n whale safari and I have been to the underwater world in singapore and the sydney aquarium, so it may be unneccessary.

So I headed to the museum to have lunch. And had to listen to this woman complain how outrageous the prices in the museum were. Hello, its a tourist area, what do u expect. Then she proceeded to complain to the manager abt the size of the font of the coffee prices. Very annoying indeed and was definitely interrupting my lunch, as she also spoke to me. I wish she didn't talk to me and just go away. anyway, I just scoffed down my lunch and went into the museum.

So it turns out I'm not that cultured. I really didn't enjoy the museum that much and didn't see what the big deal was. But it could be attrbuted to the fact that there were screaming kids around me. Yup, my visit coincided with a school tour. Plus there were glass cages of what looked like a thousand cockroaches and that completely put me off. There were other glass cages of creepy crawlies, which completely grossed me out.

So after the museum, I headed to Victoria markets where I was told that it sold heaps of arts and crafts. Once again, was rather disappointed. This market did not have the colourful stalls like Salamanca or the bargains like Victoria markets in Melbourne. It was really quite nothing really. A dead little sleepy market, with the regular souveiner stalls selling what looked like cheap china made goods. Definitely not something that I want to buy for the peeps back home. The only store that grabbed my attention was the nike sotre and tried as I might, there was really nothing to buy.

Headed down to viaduct harbour and wandered into Fox Ale House who told me that they WILL be showing the match live on their big screen tellies. Sweet.

Somehow found myself on Queens street again and wandered into the same stores. None of which were chic or fashionable. Are u kidding me? I was under this impression that big Auckland city would be the centre of cutting edge NZ fashion. Instead I look around what was meant to be the shopping precint of Auckland and saw nothing but b-girl wannabes with the bling. Those that were not dressed rapper-style would definitely not be considered fashionable. I'm starting to view NZ like how the Americans view the Canadians.

Nothing to buy, nothing to shop, this city is NOT appealing to me at ALL.

Cut to later that night, made my way to the Fox tavern where I was told that the afl was playing. Was it playing? NO, stupid EURO 2008. Are u kidding me? Soccer? I f-ing hate soccer.

Sorely disappointed, I headed back to the hotel, cabbed with this very eccentric cab driver, who is another story himself. What I will say for now though is that he nearly scared me half to death.

Thus ends day 3 in Auckland!

Xxx
Sent via BlackBerry® from Telstra

Auckland part 2

So I arrived in Auckland after my whirlwind of a trip to Rotorua. Who knew that travelling was so tiring?

Anyway, went exploring for half the day around the city. Walked down to Viaduct Harbour which is apparently the hip hop happening place to be. In all honesty, I was looking for the Price Waterhouse Cooper building which was where I was meant to get my visa label printed. After waiting in line for half an hour (and having this American woman tell me that there was no way in hell I was getting my visa- what was she on?) , I got my label printed ( btw, I'm an official PR now, yay) and walked on. There were only a couple of hours of business time so I had to make the most of it.

The Saints play Freo tomorrow night and as Freo is my second fave team, I had to find somewhere to watch the match. And would u believe it, everyone who I asked " would u know any pub that would show the afl tomorrow night?" Laughed at me and told me that it was a stupid game. And funnily enough, three years ago, I wouldve agreed with them, but I'm a convert now so I was mildly, but amusedly offended.

Found Mecca, which to the normal person translated to the All Blacks store. They were having a sale too. Oh dear! I just might move on from there...

Stumbled into Queen street which is apparently the shopping precint district. Wandered into several cute shops, and even went into Gucci and Louis Vutton. Can't help it, old habits die hard.

Decided then to walk back to the hotel, it was getting late. The one thing I will say about Auckland is that there doesn't seem to be much to eat. I have chipped myself to the brim and was absolutely ravenous for some vegetables. I know, for those who know me, you might want to read it again. Some VEGETABLES. I'm hanging out for some stir fry for sure. But was there anywhere good to eat on the way to the hotel? No. Japanese food and Korean food aplenty. But the equals to carbs carbs and more carbs. Enough!

Finally found somewhere to get some roast pork and roast duck rice, which was quite bleah as well. Can someone give me a salad already?