I heart Japan

Sometimes my heart feels like it’s bleeding when I think of Japan. Similar to a homesickness feeling. It’s normally a short, sharp memory of our trip that brings it on. It could be a whiff of my perfume that I wore in Japan that starts it. Or it could be nothing in particular at all that triggers it. It just happens. 

Today Rosie from The Londoner asked us what our dream trip would be. Easy question for me to answer because I feel like I’ve already been on it! And I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

My family don’t seem to have a strong interest in travelling to Japan. My mum and stepdad are more into cruising pacific islands and my dad and stepmum are similarly keen on Fiji, Hawaii and the like. That’s all well and good but I think if they went to Japan they would be pleasantly surprised.

Here are some of the things that I like best about Japan.

Travelling from city to city, from island to island on shinkansen (bullet trains).

Riding on any of the reliable public transport to get around.

Eating my weight’s worth in ramen…

And delicisies.

Visiting temples and shrines.

Exploring old castles and traditional Japanese houses.

Walking the crowded streets and shopping arcades.

Relaxing in onsens and public baths.

The thought of all these things fill me with so much joy!

I’m so eager to go back and not only experience these things all over again for myself but be able to share these experiences with others.

Queens Gardens

A few weekends ago we had a long weekend. On the Monday, Shan and I were feeling a bit restless so we decided to get out of the house. It was a really beautiful day but we didn't know how we wanted to spend it. After tossing around a few ideas we decided to head out and buy some coffees and then see where the day would take us.

It ended up taking us to Queens Gardens.

We'd been saying for ages that we should go and properly check out this garden (Shannon had been in there briefly in the first couple of days we moved to Townsville but hadn't checked it out entirely). I have to say that Townsville is very well equiped with many well maintained gardens scattered throughout the various suburbs and this one may be one of my favourites. Queens Garden is very impressive with a bird aviary, two hedge mazes, a succulents and herb garden and a bunch of other themed garden areas.

We frolicked around sipping our coffees, playing in the mazes and soaking in the winter sun.

Although we only stayed an hour or so we have plans to go back again with a picnic lunch and make a real afternoon of it.

Unforgettable

I like the idea of a blog because it keeps a permanent record of your memories. I spose you could always write these things down as well, but books and paper can get lost. The internet is kinda harder to lose. I'd like to make enough posts so that I can look back and be like "Ohhh yeah! I remember that!"

Shannon messaged me just now to tell me he'd gone out to get a book from his car. He'd left his car window open for the night and when he opened the door....BOOM! A cat. The poor puss must've wanted some place warm to sleep and decided to slip in through the window. Apparently the cat freaked out a bit, upon being discovered, and then eventually bolted out the door. Oh cats. You floor me.

It's these stupid, small, everyday life things that I think will mean the most to me later. I mean, of course, when I look back on my life I will remember all the big ticket items, but I think it's the small things that make up all the substance.


A Townsville sunset during one of my walks near the river



It's maaaa birthday!

Quarter Quell today, guys, Quarter Quell #hungergamesreference

Here's a list of....

25 Things I've Achieved in 25 Years:

1.  Experienced love.
2. DUX of high school.
3.  Finished a degree.
4.  Bought a unit.
5. Travelled to Japan, twice!
6.  Travelled to Thailand.
7.  Travelled to Italy.
8. Travelled to France.
9. Travelled to America (NY and LA).
10. Travelled to Fiji and Vanuatu.
11.  Travelled to Bali.
12. Been on numerous cruises.
13. Moved interstate.
14. Found 3 jobs.
15. Made it into the OC.
16. Graduated high school.
17. Saved two kitties.
18. Saw "Titanic" at the movies nine times.
19. Played soccer for 12 years.
20. Bought a car.
21. Learnt to drive.
22. Made incredible friends.
23. Learnt to walk.
24. Learnt to talk.
25. I'm still alive!!

Last New Years I gave you my heart...

So my friend Mel (who will forthwith be referred to as "my gf" due to a personal joke) and I recently bought tickets to go to New Zealand for New Years this year. This purchase has made me think of last New Years that boyfy and I spent in Kyoto and how awesome it was. The whole four week trip was an insane amount of awesome that we've talked about almost every single day since we got back, but still, let's micro focus on New Years Eve in particular.

We were staying at a really great hostel in Kyoto, Khaosan, and up until the day we arrived there from Kochi on the 29th we had been planning to attend a traditional bell ringing ceremony. Something very culturally rich and rewarding. However, the front desk at Khaosan was advertising a NYE pub crawl. We are Australian. It was a no brainer. (That's not entirely true, we didn't really fully commit until like 5pm on NYE.) But it was run by Japanese hosts! So we were still experiencing Japanese culture. Just modern culture.

Anyway, we met up in our hostel lobby at about 6pm, I think it was, and awkwardly smiled at the other people in our hostel who were coming along. We made friends with one lady who was also from Australia who I mistakenly referred to as Helen-san for the WHOLE night before she corrected me after midnight that her name was actually Hailey. We chatted to Helen-san and our two Japanese guides, Yuki and Roki (I believe) on our walk to our first bar.

I have no idea what the name of the bar was but as part of the crawl we got two drinks and two shots in like one hour so needless to say the early awkwardness had worn off.

I'll tell you what, those Japanese guides certainly know their customers. Roki instantly had our attention when he walked to the middle of the dance floor holding up a bottle of vodka and announcing "SHOTS! SHOTS!" The crowd formed.

After shots we were herded out of the bar to make our way to the club, our final stop for the evening. I know. It was a short pub crawl but it was NYE and Roki had explained that it was just too busy everywhere else to do more.

On the way to the club one of our new Australian friends, Mia, was trying to confirm with one of our new Japanese friends about where we were going. She interpreted his probably very good English poorly and from then on we were headed "to the CRAB!"

At the crab we danced and drank the night away.

Our "I can't believe you're wearing the same shirt" photo. We could believe it. It was planned.

That's "Helen-san" in the middle.

At almost midnight, Shan must have glanced across at the bar and decided "hey, there's no line, what a perfect opportunity to get a drink."

Try as I might to drag him away for the countdown, he was adamant that he needed to get his drink right at the moment. So I counted down and celebrated with my new friends instead. For some reason after we counted down to the first midnight, they rewound the timer so that we had another hour to count down again. I don't know.

Being pacmanned. Definition: when you go to kiss but the other person purposely opens their mouth wider.

We didn't make it to then anyway. We are weak and we were drunk. And we hadn't had dinner.

We left the crab and somehow in his blurred state Shan was able to guide us back to the hostel (skills like a turtle), with a much needed pit stop at Macca's on the way, where we lectured the Japanese people at the table next to us on the correct use of past and present tense "thank you" in Japanese. Honestly, you'd think they'd know.

An Un-Easter-y Easter

This past weekend was really a non-event and very clearly illustrates the life of a three quarter time student who works full time and lives interstate to all her friends and family. At least the best thing about Easter still applied to me and that's the four day weekend. Easter must be my favourite holiday, I reckon. I mean it always falls on a weekend and I always get a four day weekend.

The second best thing about Easter is obviously the chocolate. Unfortunately, bofy wasn't clued in to the "surprise my girlfriend with many Easter chocolates" scheme, so instead we headed out to Big W on Sunday morning and bought our own together. Not quite as special but still the end result is chocolate so eh, I'll take it.

Now, as for the spending time with family aspect I've come to get used to with Easter...this was non-existent, due to the fact that my family live in New South Wales and I live at the top of Queensland. Hmmf. No ham and red-dyed boiled egg lunch prepared by my Mama for me.

So, what were the positives of this weekend?

I studied.

I studied for six hours per day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday until I got to Monday, studied for two hours and decided I'd had enough. Study be damned! I'm watching Breaking Bad for the rest of the afternoon. So I did.

So here's to having a more exciting Easter weekend than I did, which is basically a special shout out to all my friends in Sydney who spent the whole weekend drinking and partying as evidenced by Facebook.

Here's a photo of my cats sleeping on our bed. They are new friends (Nomi, the cat on the left, is a new addition to the family) so this is a big step that they are sharing sleeping space this close to each other. Also, just after this photo Nomi walked over to Oreo and starting cleaning his face #thereasonwhyiboughtasecondcatinthefirstplace

There's nothing like a good book

I'm sure I'm not the first person to say this: "I wish I could read books for a living."

But seriously, how awesome would that be? People just pay you to read books all day long.

And I don't mean, like, a professional book reviewer that then has to go to the trouble of writing a review later. Gah. I mean a book reader who just gets to enjoy the unrequited pleasure of simply reading a book.

I just finished reading a most excellent book, "Me Before You" by Jojo Moyes.

To be honest, the cover didn't inspire much inside me, but the reviews on Goodreads.com said good things, so I placed my reservation with the library and away I went.

This book is haunting me. Honestly, if you haven't read it, you probably should so we can talk about it. Or more accurately, sit together quietly whilst thinking about it. I guess it's not really the kind of book I want to talk about, I just want to have the knowledge of it inside me. Keeping me company. Reminding me of what's important in life.