Our Brief Tour of Japan

2015 got off to a cracking start as we landed in Tokyo on New Years Day. During the flight a friendly Japanese man taught us how to use chopsticks properly and went through our Japan guide book with Alex and gave him his suggestions of the best places to visit. He slightly underestimated the taxi fare from the airport though, telling us it would cost 500 yen yet it set us back 10,000 yen.

We spent the first four days in Tokyo. Having arrived very late, waking up the following morning was a little disorientating so we spent our first day getting our bearings and wandering around in bewilderment. We went to Shibuya crossing, supposedly one of the busiest crossings in the world, saw Shinjuku and walked through the shoppings streets of Ginza which basically resembles Oxford Street. We tried to embrace the Japanese culture and sampled different foods throughout the day including noodles, curries, Japanese green tea, broths/soups and horrific hot coffee in a can sold in vending machines at almost every corner.

On our second day in Tokyo we went to Senso-ji Temple and the hectic surrounding markets. It was unbelievably busy as we found out that the Japanese people visit a number of temples in the first few days of the new year to say thanks for the previous year and to pray for the year ahead. Part of this ritual included throwing coins into grids on the floor of the temple; we bowed our heads and throw our coins too. We really enjoyed the buzzing atmosphere here and it was certainly a highlight of our time in Tokyo.

On day three we escaped the busy streets and went to Ueno Park. We enjoyed a walk through the park and went to Ueno Zoo seeing two Giant Pandas there. In the evening we went to the owl cafe; this recently opened and people line the streets each day to try and get in. This 'cafe' was actually a very small room and no one there spoke any english. The encounter was pretty strange but we enjoyed holding a number of different owls whilst there.

Next we headed to Hakone on the Shinkansen bullet train. We bought a sightseeing pass and experienced spectacular views of Mt. Fuji via 5 different modes of transport, the mountain railway, cable car, ropeway, a pirate ship and finally a bus.

The following day we arrived at Kyoto and checked into our Japanese style room at a capsule hostel near the station for the next two nights. During our time in Kyoto we went to the bamboo forest and Nishiki food market. The highlight of Kyoto was our visit to Kinkaku-ji temple, known as the Golden Pavilion. The temple consists of three stories and the top two stories are covered with pure gold leaf. Here I purchased 'good health and a long life' for the very reasonable sum of 400 yen in the form of a small hanging purple ornament, much to Alex's amusement. 

Our next stop was a very chilly Osaka. We wrapped up and visited Osaka castle, one of the more famous castles in Japan and we could see why. It consists of 8 levels, which have been made into a museum and an observation deck. The following day we sidetracked from our culturally rich trip and spent a fun-filled day at Japan's Universal Studies, and the recently opened Harry Potter World that they have there. This was an excellent idea until we queued for our first ride only to discover that obviously it was all in Japanese. Nevertheless we drank butter beers at the three broomsticks and tested our imaginations on Japanese simulators. We topped off our day by devouring two full racks of ribs at The Outback Steakhouse. How very cultural indeed.

The final destination of our 10 day tour of Japan was Hiroshima. Having studied history I was particularly looking forward to visiting Hiroshima and learning more about the devastation of the first ever dropped Atomic Bomb. We went to the Peace Park Memorial and found the museum there to be both heart wrenching and highly interesting. We saw the Atomic Bomb Dome; the ruins were preserved when the reconstruction of Hiroshima began and consequently serve as a memorial to the people who were killed on the 6th August 1945. Our stay in Hiroshima was a highlight for both of us. 

Safety checks were taking place on the
Atomic Bomb Dome hence the scaffolding

So, what have we learnt from our first 10 days in Japan?
1. Japanese Katsu Curry is a safe food choice, 
2. The Japanese people are very friendly and happy to help you if they can, but they understand written english much better than spoken,
3. The rail network is excellent
4. The donuts here do not contain delicious jam but rather cold, mushy red beans, much to our bitter disappointment,
5. Do not play with the buttons on the toilets in Japan because you will get wet...



The next chapter of our travels gets a little snowier....

Sydney and a spectacular NYE

We were very excited to be spending New Years Eve and my birthday in Sydney and had been eagerly waiting to see the glamorous city.

Having driven 1200km from the farm to Sydney, a 'road-trip' that we had idealised but turned out to be just long and draining as our journey was made more difficult by pouring rain for the first 1000km,  we were pretty exhausted when we arrived. We were staying in the QT hotel which is centrally located, luxurious and wonderfully quirky. That evening we took a picnic and went to Sydney's moonlight cinema.

The next day was MY BIRTHDAY!!!!! After opening my presents, we went to spend the morning at Bondi Beach. We started with a large breakfast at a beachfront cafe, before spending an hour sunbathing alongside thousands of others.

In the afternoon we met Steve and Della, Megan and Finley (Alex's friends from home) from home at the Opera bar, where we got our first glimpse of the infamous Opera House. The bar was very busy but boasted a great view and we stayed there until dinner. The most appropriate place to eat that night turned out to be the 360 revolving tower restaurant, with views over all of Sydney city. Alex ordered kangaroo loin tartare, and sent it back when he realised what it was. After that we both ate pate for starter and pork belly for main.  The restaurant finished off by bringing out a small birthday cake.

Our third day in Sydney was spent on a trip to the Blue Mountains, so named because of the blue mist created from oils in the trees. The mountains were beautiful and we spent a few hours walking through forests to get to different view points, walking past waterfalls and small caves on our way. A ride on the world's steepest railway was also included.

'The Three Sisters'

That night we had to decide on a plan for New Year's Eve. Sydney effectively shuts down with so many people flocking to the harbour, camping out to get the best spot. Originally, a boat trip seemed to be the best idea. However we found tickets online on Gumtree being sold for an event called Wonderland. We had never heard of it and couldn't find out much information on it, but it was advertised as being in a prime spot, directly under Harbour Bridge, with a great view of the Opera House. We bought them and crossed our fingers.

On the last day of the year we took a trip to Manly to see Steve and Della for lunch. They had just had a surf lesson and judging from their faces weren't going to be entering any competitions soon. Manly beach was very pretty, nicer than Bondi probably, and the food at the hotel matched. 2 towering burgers later, we took a ferry back to Sydney city to join the rest of the world there for one big party.

We went to Wonderland in the evening, the event turned out to be a VIP ticketed arena. The original tickets had been issued through ballots, won through competitions or, apparently, sold for $600 each. We paid $150. The tickets however would have been worth $600, the view from the arena was amazing and it hardly felt packed at all, compared to the surrounding areas. Various firework displays and entertainment was put on throughout the night until finally midnight came. The bridge, sky and opera house erupted with fireworks for 12 minutes. The show was brilliant and we couldn't believe how lucky we were.

Once the New Year had arrived, we quickly headed for the exit and back to the hotel. We were kicking off 2015 with an early flight to our next destination; Tokyo, Japan.

Fraser Island and Noosa

Having left Brisbane we headed North to a very rainy Rainbow beach. Nevertheless we embraced the bad weather and walked along the beach that got its name because of the 'rainbow coloured' sand-dunes surrounding it.

The following morning we began our 3 day tour
of Fraser Island. This was a a 4WD tag-along tour, meaning that 8 strangers were put in a Toyota Land Cruiser together and expected to trust each other's driving abilities. Throw in the fact that we were learning to drive on sand without any real guidance and I've described the adventure tour that we found ourselves on. Initially we were a little disappointed as we were placed in a group with other couples yet they were all at least 10 years older than us. They turned out to be a lot of fun and consequently reminded us 'not to judge a book by its cover'. At camp the evening ended in a competitive game of 'goon ball'. Goon being a 4 litre box of 'wine' costing a very reasonable $11. Alex's invention of 'goon ball' meant that once the 4 litres of 'wine' are drank, the goon bag is then blown up and used like a volley ball. Genius.

Fraser Island was a very beautiful and unspoilt place and we were able to visit Lake Mckenzie, Lake Wabby, Eli Creek, the champagne pools and enjoy the stunning views from Indian Head during our time there.

Our next stop was Noosa.

We stayed in a hostel called Flashpackers which, true to its name, was the flashiest hostel we stayed in throughout Australia. During our time there we went on a great coastal walk around the Noosa Heads peninsula, met Charlotte (my friend from home) and her boyfriend, Derek, for dinner and most importantly went on a 3 day canoeing trip through the Everglades. In a group of 14 people, we took our canoes and set off down Noosa river to our campsite and home for the next 2 nights. All our food was there ready for us, as were our tents. Aside from a lot of canoeing, we also went on a long trek to the Cooloola sand patch, a desert in the middle of a forest. We got back from the trip pretty exhausted and very hungry, so treated ourselves to giant burgers that evening which we enjoyed with Charlotte and Derek's company once again.

After leaving Noosa we travelled back to the farm to spend Christmas with friendly faces, before driving over 1000km south to our destination for New Year's Eve and our finally stop in Australia, Sydney.

The Best of Brisbane

Our time in Brisbane has come to an end and we are very sad to be leaving a place that we have become very fond of.

Here are some of Brisbane's best bits...

During the G20 Brisbane held a coloured light festival. All the grand buildings in the city were lit up with bright lights along the river. It was quite spectacular to see and we followed the trail around the landmarks of Brisbane. At the beginning of the trail there was a large screen where we were able to choose colours and a pattern for the lights to appear in. Our selection then instantly appeared along the CBD's buildings on the opposite side of the river.

We have enjoyed exploring Brisbane, going on the city ferry, bike riding to New Farm Park, breakfasting, lunching and basically dining out at any given opportunity, as well as gazing at the story bridge, which is lit up each evening.

Brisbane has thrown some pretty crazy weather our way including sticky humidity for weeks on end making our 1.5 mile walk to work each day fairly unbearable and a number of storms including a frighteningly destructive hail storm which we believe made the news at home.

In order to truly make the most of our time in Brisbane we decided to explore the surrounding areas as much as possible. We returned to Byron Bay with Brook and her sister and barbecued at sunset. This was a very lovely idea until the sun actually set and we were left without any light to cook the food with.


We rented a terrible car from 'rentabomb.com' and ventured to a number of the surrounding National Parks. We went south to Mt Tamborine where we walked the 'sky walk' and ate scones in a tearoom located high up in the rainforest. We drove the lengthy scenic route to the Glass House Mountains. Here we trekked a number of the trails and had lunch at the Glass House Mountains Lookout cafe. We also explored Nightcap National Park with Brook and her sister hiking the stunning 8km Minyon Falls loop.

We ended our time in Brisbane by dining on the Kookaburra Festive River Cruise, feasting on turkey and delicious Christmas puddings whilst cruising under the Story Bridge, which was perfectly lit up in Christmas colours, past the Kangaroo Point cliffs and along to South Bank. It was a great way to finish off a wonderful chapter in our travels.