Next day Brant picked us up in the morning and took us to Port Douglas.
On the way we stoped at Rex Lookout, took some pictures and saw a 60 y.o guy paragliding.
At port Douglas we stayed a bit on the beach, took a bath and saw all indications that dangerous jelly fish – Stringers, is present in the sea – so no way you can go swim by yourself whenever you want. The bite of this jelly fish is mortal, not kidding.
Nest stop was another waterfall,where we swam in the rain and enjoyed the nice and not so cold wáter :-D
Last stop this day was wallaby seeing. We were asking Brant all the way to show us wallabies and he took us to a district, where we saw hundreds of wallabies. They were everywhere, at people yards, gardens, just in the field :-D
And this is Juli scarying poor wallabies and me trying to take some pictures while they are running away :-D
So the mission of the day was accomplished –100 photos taken with kangaroos and we were ready for the next day – Great barer reef trip!
After 7 hours flight we have arrived to Cairns, took a taxi till shopping center, which was the meeting point with our host – Frank.
Since we have arrived to the shopping center, Raintrees, at 7 am, we have decided to wait till decent hour to call Frank. Meanwhile, the Mall has opened at 7.30 (never happens in Europe!) and I have bought some food for the breakfast and Australian SIM card of local operator Telstra (SIM card cost 2$ + 20$ credit recharge.
At around 9 am Frank came and picked us up, we dropped bags at his place and went back to the shopping center to buy a plug adaptor for European cables (to connect all our gadgets to Australian plugs, you know :-D
People told us plug adaptors we can find at post office and here in post office a miracle happened to us. While we were asking where actually we can buy those adaptors and how to get there (pointing on touristic map of Cairns), a man waiting in line after us just said (probably tired of waiting :-D : “ don’t worry, I will give you a lift to the central shopping mall where you can buy them”. Okkk, so he gave us a lift and actually spend with us 3 full days :-DD
Brant, our new Australian friend, was working as fireman and actually got these days off work (lucky us!). He was kind of superman, Bruce Willies in “Die hard” – fit, sporty, jumping, walking without flip flops through the rain forest, swimming, sliding , climbing – you know, real Australian as we imagine them in Europe :-D
He drove us with his car to see Josephine falls – a splendid waterfalls in the middle of the rain forest, where you can swim in a sweet water and slide on the rock, he showed us his house – on the top of the hill with fantastic view, took us to see local harbor – the day was completely full :-D
Next day we have agreed to meet and see some surroundings and wallabies – small kangaroos which are famous from this area.
We have arrived to Franks house, cooked potato omelet and had a quiet dinner with a glass of red wine.
Some words about Frank: first of all we knew that Frank was gay and nudist (he mention on his profile) and that was no problem since we have plenty of gay friends and nudism really its personal choice and doesn’t bother us at all.
What was a bit bothering is 1,000 rules Frank has in his house:
-Use a sand clock in the shower not to spend there more then 3 minutes -Lock your room when you leave and lock all the doors even if you are home -Doesn’t bring bottled water at home, drink rain water he gathers with a special rain water tank -If you want to cut food for cooking, you have 3 different woods to cut things: one for vegetables, one for meet and one for bread -Recycle everything and don’t bring plastic bags to the house
It was a bit freaky I can admit to follow all those rules, I felt like in a closed institution :-D
What do I love about Japan, besides views, temples and beautiful nature.
1.Hot green tea that you can buy everywhere from vending machines for 130 yen (1 euro) – it can be coffee, chocolate and other 100 kinds of hot drinks.
2.Onigiri – rice balls with tuna, salmon or other filling inside – for 110 yen (80 Euro cents) – tasty, cheap and fill your stomach quickly.
3.Convenience stores where you can buy an instant noodle soup for 100 yen (75 Euro cents) and prepare it there for free (they give you hot water).
4.Japan rail pass that can be used even its not valid yet since they never open it, especially if you are not slow and not asking for that :-D
5.Bars which give you free drinks – this is really surrealistic :-D
6.Japanese people who even if don’t speak English try to help you and sometimes offer to go with you and show you the right way.
7.People sleeping on the train with mobiles, laptops and open bags, knowing nobody will steal (the security level here is really impressive).
8.Free touristic sightseeing tours, offered by volunteers.
9.That somehow everything in this country is thought smart – even food package has a trick to be taken off in a smart and easy way :-D
What I don’t like:
1.The feeling that you are in a clone world, where everybody listens to the rules and does the right thing (kind of feeling you get in Singapore).
2.Protection masks – make you feel like it is a quarantine or something.
3.The price of beer – even in convenience store a can of beer is 1.5 euro (150 – 200 yen)
4.Chaos at Shinjuku station :-D
In conclusion I could say there are three most important things in life of any Japanese:
1.Mobile phone - they do everyting with mobile phone: call, play games, watch TV, surf internet, use it as a card in the metro stations, take pictures, videos - this magic japanese mobile phone can do everything.
2. Toilet - toilets in Japan are amazing - you can adjust flushing sound, you can put it on warm program, so when you sit on it it would give you some heat, its amazing really the number of buttons you can find on a simple toilet -and its everywhere, even in public places!
3. Sleep - Japanese people sleep everywhere. They sleep in trains, buses, stations, they sleep sitting, standing, in any position - somehow they wake up when they get to their station, or dont wake up and they they need to find their way home again :-D
Anyway, this country is amazing, so different and easy in the same time, unique for sure.
On the way from Nara to Tokyo, in the railway station we saw 3 geishas which kindly let us take a picture (however, pointed out that only one picture can be taken :-D
We got back to Tokyo, met Naho and Diego, went for some drinks in Shimokitazawa area, where we have been for Halloween and had free drinks. We still had a coupon with free drinks available for some bars (it is valid till end of November), so we decided to take this chance and drink it all :-D
Next day we met Naoki, went once again to our preferred sushi restaurant at Ameyoko street, took Narita express using our Japan Rail Pass still valid for today and finally got to the airport.
Next stop Australia, Cairns!! (unfortunately the weather promise to be rainy :-(
In the morning we went directly to Kintetsu Nara Station, which is 1 subway stop from Shogo’s place and found a tourist information office. Besides the map of the area they offered us a free sightseeing tour around the old town, offered by volunteers and we took it, of course! :-D
Our guide was a nice old lady, called, Harumi, who took us to see all the Nara temples, Big Buda, told us a lot about the history of each place.
Same as in Miyajima there a lot of deers in this city, actually even more, since you see them everywhere, in the parks, on the streets, near the temples – asking for some food and stealing maps from the tourists bags :-D One of deers bit Juli’s but while he was feeding them :-D
Lots of kids with school tours running around the temples all the time, wearing protection masks – scary scenery, you will like in a science fiction movie again :-D
In evening, our host from Osaka, Saori came to visit us and Shoguito. We prepared Nabe (Japanese soup), sangria (Juli took care of it), bread with tomato (typical from Catalonia region), and guacamole (Shogo prepared it as expert :-D) Then Shogo’s friend came and another CS-er, a guy from Malaysia – so we ate, Shogo and his friend played guitar, Vanilla was running around wearing small pampers for kids (to avoid peeing in a wrong place)- this way like a family we had a nice and relaxing evening J
Today we are going to Nara, but since our host, Shogo, is working till 7 pm, we have decided to visit Kyoto during daytime and then at night go to Nara.
After 9 days in Japan we kind of got tired of all temples and shrines, but we needed to visit golden temple in Kyoto, of course! This fantastic golden building, surrounded by Japanese garden was shining at the sun and was definitely worth visiting.
We took 1000 pics and went to visit another Kyoto area, Arashiyama, but this time not for the temples but for a bamboo forest.
Ok, we were saying good bye to Kyoto, and heading to Nara. This night in Nara, we cooked Spanish omelet again together with our host, who call himself Shoguito, plays guitar and sings songs in Spanish. Shogo was studying Spanish for 4 years at the university and then has been living in Mexico for 1 year, so he speaks a very good Spanish and besides has got kind of “Latino attitude”, not typical Japanese :-D
We woke up late and then together with Saori took train to Kyoto. Arrived around 5pm we went straight to the Kyoto old city district, called GION, where from 5 to 6 pm you could catch geisha if lucky. Normally this hour geisha or maiko (this is a name for young girls who are preparing to become geisha), are going out to work.
Juli somehow had a wrong idea what geisha does…no, she is not the one who sells sex for money, normally geisha is paid to be a company, to maintain a conversation or serve the guests at the restaurant. They are educated to entertain people and especially are hired for the business meetings. Geisha services are extremely expensive, so it is also kind of showing your status to the partners.
Anyway, the Gion area was extremely nice, kind of old Japanese city atmosphere, you feel really like in a story about ancient time, geisha and samurais. We saw some geisha girls, took some pictures in a real touristic spirit and felt like mission was completed for today haha
Then we went to see a night view of the city, went through old streets with typical houses where everything was conserved in a proper and clean shape….well, like almost everything in Japan :-D
After cultural program we felt like having a beer, and since it’s so expensive in Japan (in any bar is 5-6 euro/beer and in convenience store 1 -1.5 euro/can), we decided to follow old tradition, buy some beers in a shop and drink them sitting on a bench just by the river. So we had a river view, cheap beer and good conversation :-D (the picture is called “Botellon en Kyoto” :-D)
We met Saori’s friend, Jun, and went to a sushi restaurant, where the price for any plate (2 nigiri sushi or 4 maki sushi) was same– 100 yen (80 euro cents).
We ended up with 10 plates/each and all happy and satisfied took a train back to Saori’s place.
We woke up early and headed to Miyajima island, to see floating tori (the gate to shinto temple). After long way and 1,000 changes of trains and even ferry, we finally have arrived.
Even from the ferry, we could see the gorgeous red tori - what a beauty!
At arrival, just geting out the station, we saw deers everywhere walking around and asking tourists for food. One young deer just came and bit the Miyajima map I was holding in a hand. It didn't get scared and just ate the whole map, while I was struggling to take it from the cheeky animal :-D
The island was coloured in yellow and red, we saw many temples, surrounded by small gardens and the sun was shining the whole day, leting us make the best pictures :-D
One of the buddist temples has a whole alley of small buddha sculptures, each Buddha was protecting different areas: health, money, kids, etc and people visiting temple were leaving coins at the sculptures, to ask for protection and good luck. Juli started wondering how much money actually they were leaving, counting yen - and in conclusion we have agreed that this probably wouldn't work in Spain, since money could disappear very quickly :-D
In case you are wondering - he didn't take the money, I didn't let him haha
So this nice and sunny day has finished with the perfect sunset.
I was enjoying my new camera, as you can see and using its "sunset" option :-D
After long way home, we have arrived and decided to cook a spanish omelette for our gorgeous host Saori. Juli was a trainer and she was a great listener and poser :-D
Saori is a great host and a very lovely girl. She has the sweetest dog in hte world, called Vanila, and it seems that we go to the same hair stylist :-D
Day 6: Akihabara, best sushi restaurant in town and way to Osaka
Next day we went to Tokyo station to leave our bags in coin lockers, then directly to Sony Service center in Akihabara. When I showed the girl the problem with my camera, she told us to expect a moment and went to show the problem to the specialist, somewhere behind the reception. She came back within 10 minutes and said that he has opened and cleaned it and the spots have disappeared now - so the problem solved! :-D
To test the camera we made a picture of her, here she is! :-D
After sovling our problem we went to Akihabara where we agreed to meet Naoki (remember, the guy who showed us Kamakura?). He had a meeting in town, so he looked very cute and serious :-D
Juli wanted to buy a small notebook, but they are terribly expensive in Tokyo and besides that, its difficult to find a pc with english operational system or english keyboard. So we didn't find a netbook, but instead I saw one photo camera and fall in love with it :-D
This is the model is Canon Power Shot SX200 IS. I asked the girl in the shop, how much it will cost me together with 4GB memory stick. She said 27,000 yen (200 Euro).
We went to have lunch with Naoki first (by the way, sush restaurant he took us was probably the best sushi place i saw in my life and cheap too), and then finally decided to go back to Akihabara. On the way we stoped at internet cafe and saw that I got Australian visa - so now we needed to celebrate and have decided to buy this camera! :-D
Going back to Akihabara, same shop we asked a guy again how much is camera and 4GB stick, and this time he said 29,000 yen. After discussing with him a bit, he agreed to keep the price girl gave us before and Naoki made a conclusion: " Probably he is Chinese", he said, "He has no pride and I don't like his way to treat customers". (again japanese - chinese tension :-D
So camera was bought, and we went back to Tokyo station, took the high speed train (shincansen) and same night arrived to Kawachinagano (Osaka region). Saori, our host, has picked us up from the train station and we finally had access to internet to update this blog :-D
