See you in Sydney!

I suppose I must have said some version of the words to my parents on the phone in December, but it's so long ago now, I can't be 100% sure.

I do remember it was cold and rainy the day I left Japan (just like it had been the day before, and like it has been most of the last two weeks. Seriously!) but the weather doesn't look so bad on the way to my transfer in Hong Kong.

The flight from Fukuoka to Hong Kong took about 4 hours, and the flight from Hong Kong to Sydney another 8. I flew Cathay Pacific, which I would not recommend for the long haul if you can avoid them. While they do have the in-seat TV screens with lots of options, their seats don't have seatback pockets (the magazines are under your seat, real convenient) and the seats don't so much recline as slide out from under you. They also find it necessary to give you dinner at 10 pm and wake you up 5 hours later at 3 am for breakfast. Anyway...

...Australia! After confusing several customs/currency exchange people with my pale skin, American passport and Japanese yen, I took a short train ride into the city, found my hostel, checked in and shucked the tights and scarf and took off on a self guided walking tour. Downtown Sydney isn't too big and I managed to see a lot of the big stuff on my very first day.

The Sydney Opera House gleaming in the sunshine!

Opera House and city skyline. I also stopped at the art museum, which was really nice because it was free and had a large wing of Aboriginal Art.

When it started to rain in the late afternoon I was amazed to see people walking out in the open without umbrellas! I've gotten used to living in a country full of neurotic people who check the weather forecast religiously and won't be caught without an umbrella if there is even a hint of rain.

Another sign I wasn't in Japan anymore. These exotic looking birds roamed the parks like pigeons. When I took this picture, I was a little afraid that he was coming over to nibble on my bare toes with that long beak!

The rain sent me back to the hostel for a much needed break, some dinner and an early night before the fire alarm went off at 1 am. As I made my way down 8 flights of stairs to the street in my pajamas, I marveled that this was the 3rd time I have had to evacuate a hotel/hostel in the middle of the night.

After spending a good 48 hours alone surrounded by many people I didn't know, I was really eager to meet my family at the airport. Eventually we checked into our much nicer hotel and began exploring Sydney together. Our first stop was "Wildlife World" for an introduction to Australia's many wild and wonderful fauna, including a 6 1/2 foot tall fringed lizard. Ha ha.

Inside we saw everything from gigantic insects to wallabies and koalas real lizards the size of baby alligators. The lovely specimen below is a perentie, the 4th largest lizard in the world!

The next few days in Sydney have turned into a bit of a blur, but the highlights included riding on a double decker city tour bus in the sunshine, walking across the Harbor Bridge (the structure in the back of the photo below,) taking a tour of the Sydney Opera House, a Christmas Harbour Cruise on a fake steamboat, and seeing people in bathing suits with red velour Santa hats at Bondi Beach.

Bondi Beach was full of Christmas revelers. It was interesting to spend Christmas south of the equator. Since there's not a whole lot of snow in Australia, the Aussies have come up with their own Christmas lore. Santa arrives in a beat up truck pulled by 6 white kangaroos, and can also be seen sporting aloha shirts while surfing.

The tour of the Opera House was really interesting. There was a lot of controversy surrounding its construction, and what follows is a pretty poor summary. There was an international competition held, and the winning design turned out to be nothing more than a few curves drawn on a cocktail napkin (or that's about how much actual thought went into it) The architect had no idea how to build the structure he envisioned. A relatively buget conscious project ballooned way out of proportion and took forever to build. No one liked it. But now that it's internationally recognized, I think they like it a lot more. One thing you can't tell from the outside is that a lot of smaller performance spaces are underground. Very interesting place, and I was intrigued to see that the main orchestral hall seemed to serve as a model for the Disney Concert Hall in L.A.


In addition to all the sights, Sydney was also a treasure trove of tantalizing food. We ate really excellent Indian food, seafood, pizza and breakfast treats. I think my lunch on my first day is still my favorite meal from the whole trip, and it's sort of a pity that I didn't take a picture of it; a grilled chicken, sun dried tomato, avocado and brie sandwich on focaccia bread. Sigh...if such a delight actually existed in Japan, it would probably cost about $18.

Next, we leave the coast for the Outback...