Feb 24 2005 - Melbourne, Australia - "Melbourne, part 1.5"

Okay, so it's only been a few days since my last, extraordinarily long email, but I actually wrote that one over the course of several days and I promise I won't do the same this time. All in one go or not at all.

So, picking up where we left off, I'd just arrived in Melbourne, right? Well, I've completely lost my sense of time here because every time a friendly Aussie (pronouced "ozzie," for those who didn't already know) asks me how long I've been in Australia, I have to sit there silently doing the math in my head, which for me, most of you know, can take a while. Anyway... hang on, gotta figure out the math... yeah, I've been here in Melbourne now for exactly two weeks, fourteen days, a fortnight, quinze jours, however you want to call it in whatever language or country you're in. My first few days here went by really fast and were spent basically being adopted by the NICEST "Brady Bunch in real life" family. I came to Melbourne with my dad to attend his friend's wedding. The friend's name is Richard, his bride's name is Geraldine, their family is called the Negris, and they're all SUPER-frickin' nice. There's absolutely no other way to put it, their niceness automatically comes with an expletive.

Anyway, Richard went out of his way to welcome my dad and me, and his whole family was falling over themselves to do whatever they could to make our stay great. The day after the wedding (which was great, by the way - the chaplain was Richard's old school chaplain who he'd had to track down and ask to perform the ceremony, which was held in the chapel of Richard's old school, Melbourne Grammar, which is like the Eton of Melbourne, so I've been told. Also, I've decided that I want the same kind of reception they had, which was great! Very laid-back, but I won't tell you what it was like so that whenever it happens, it can be a surprise for you all...

Okay, back to the story. After the wedding weekend, my dad left Melbourne for Tokyo and I moved my stuff over to my (American) friend Andrea's apartment. Mind you, I had only met Richard the day before the wedding and Geraldine AFTER the wedding, so it wasn't like we were best friends before I got to Melbourne. But, the Negris invited Andrea and I over to their house for a Sunday dinner/post-wedding BBQ and that's when we really discovered that the Negris are super-FRICKIN' nice. One brother offered to help Andrea go car-shopping, his wife told Andrea that she now has family in Melbourne since hers is so far away, one sister couldn't stop telling me how glad they were that my dad and I had come to the wedding, etc. Anyway, Andrea and I were shocked at how nice they all were and how well they got along, and even the little cousins (ages 4, 5, 6) never fought once the entire weekend. No, I don't know what planet they come from or how we can visit it.

During these last couple of weeks, I've enjoyed the lovely sights that Melbourne has to offer. If sydney is L.A., then Melbourne is San Francisco. There's a great outdoor café culture here, lots of stylishly dressed people, lots of good restaurants ("restos" from here on in, I'm too lazy to type out the whole word), and it's a very walkable city.

In the interest of expediency, here's a summary of what I've done so far:

• Visited the Old Melbourne Gaol (jail), Melbourne's most haunted building - at night -- this was somewhat spooky considering there were all these empty, unlit solitary confinement cells on the ground floor and at one point I had to squeeze in next to another lady so that I could have my back against the wall and not before one of the open cell doors, a tempting target for a ghost!
• Eaten my way through Little Italy (where Andrea'a apartment is) -- there is an amazing Italian coffee/pastry café called Brunetti near Andrea's apt., which is both a good thing and a bad thing for obvious reasons; and an amazing vegetarian resto literally across the street from aforementioned amazing coffee/pastry café, again, both good and bad for obvious reasons.
• Gotten several blisters - blood and all - on my feet from walking around the city (I've officially regained my gross traveller's feet, in case you were wondering, which, although, not very attractive, makes me feel like Í'm a rough-and-tumbling traveller! Also, compared to some of the seriously scary hooves I've seen on other backpackers, my feet practically look freshly pedicured!).
• Saw 'Ocean's Twelve' at the Royal Botanic Gardens -- this was so cool because it was like a drive-in without the drive. You go to one of the lawns in the gardens where a HUGE screen has been set up. You can picnic before the movie starts, put down blankets and rent bean-bag chairs for the movie, and then watch the movie outdoors. Plus, there were companies there trying to promote their stuff, so we got free popcorn and Bailey's Irish Cream drinks. There were bats flying around the screen, but I didn't realize that at first. I thought they were just birds, but then Andrea was kind enough to point out that they were, in fact, bats. Amazingly, i was not too creeped out. They weren't low-flying rats, but rather high-flying rattish things, so it was okay. Actually, pigeons are much worse and much more detestable. P.S. I liked the movie and Brad Pitt is still beautiful.
• Driven part of the Melbourne Grand Prix track -- not in a Formula One car, but it was still cool to go through the Start/Finish line, even though I was just a passenger.
• Had afternoon tea at The Windsor Hotel -- the food has been amazing all over Australia, but I have to say this was one of the few disappointments. It was good, but the scones here are more like American biscuits and the cream wasn't really clotted cream, but more like whipped cream. I have to admit, I missed the packaged scones from Franprix, my Paris grocery store.

That's all I can think of right now because, as I said earlier, I've lost all track of time. Mostly I've been hanging out with Andrea, whose 2nd bedroom I have taken over with my mess which she has been kind enough to overlook. Anyway, tomorrow I'm leaving for a 3-day tour of eastern Tasmania. I'll let you know how that goes when I get back. After that, Hong Kong (6-10 March... anyone gonna be around?), then Tokyo (10-25 March, most likely... again, anyone gonna be around?). Hope you're all well and enjoying life wherever you are.

Noguchi out. ;) (p.s. this is a lame "American Idol" reference for those who don't get it.)

Feb 20 2005 - Melbourne, Australia - "Miki in Melbourne"

Hello again-

I've been in Melbourne for a while now after having spent most of my second week in Australia on the road with my dad driving down the southeastern coast from Sydney to Melbourne, going part of the way on the Princes Highway, a sort of Pacific Coast Highway - type road. We made several stops along the coast, starting with Jervis Bay. It's known for it's white sand beaches and clear blue water. This combination was a little a bit deceiving because the ocean looked like the Caribbean but felt like Alaska! The water was FREEZING cold! It took me a couple of days to get used to the water. Needless to say, I've got my summer tan going early with all the sitting around on the beach rather than swimming in the water.

My dad and I went on a dolphin watching tour and saw quite a few dolphins in the bay, went kayaking, and slept and read on the beach. It was very nice. I also learned how to drive on the other side of the road. Huskisson is a town so small that it doesn't even have a traffic light, so this was the perfect place for me to grow accustomed to having everything in the car switched around. We stayed in a nice bed and breakfast where they served us the BEST tomatoes in the entire world. I actually don't really like tomatoes, but these were amazing. I know, weird.

After Jervis Bay, we continued down the coast to our next stop, Pebbly Beach. There weren't really very many pebbles, but there were several wild kangaroos grazing on the grassy area by the beach! They seemed pretty used to having people around them, so they let us come pretty close. I didn't try to pet any of them though because they have the ability to punch you really hard and then claw you up pretty well with their paws. I took lots of pics, but with my regular film camera, so sorry, no photos right now. Then we walked out to the giant white sand beach where there were maybe 10 other people. Crazy! The whole trip was like this with these miles long white sand beaches and only a few other people on the beach besides us.

The next beach was at a place called Mimosa Rocks. Almost all the beaches were parts of national parks, so we were basically national park/beach-hopping down the coast. Anyway, at Mimosa Rocks, there really were rocks, so we could only visit one beach really. We set up on the sand to eat lunch and wait for the sky to get sunnier. While we were waiting, I read and my dad slept. About an hour later, I looked up and the 4 or 5 other groups of people who had also been on this big beach were all gone! We were the only ones left and the sky looked like a bad storm was coming. So we explored around the tidal pools a little, saw a lot of crabs and small fish, then took off for the little town that was our stop for the night, Merimbula. Here I met a very nice Rottweiler named Bella - she made me think that maybe these kinds of dogs aren't so bad. That night there was, in fact, a pretty strong storm and Bella was barking all through the storm - apparently, she's afraid of thunder! We also had a bit of nature inside. A huge tarantula was on the window INSIDE our room. The host of the bed and breakfast said that it was harmless though and just shooed it out with a broom. The next day there was another one on our car!

Okay, next and last stop before Melbourne was yet another national park called Cape Conran. This place was so remote that most Australians have never even heard of it. We stayed in a cabin run by the national park service. I wasn't really sure what we would find, would the cabin be a filthy box with 4 walls, a roof, and plenty of bugs and gross things? I had no idea. Well, turned out that the cabin was super nice and clean and had a full kitchen, flushing toilet, hot water, and showers. So, rough it we did not, but live a little outdoorsy (e.g. didn't shower because we decided to wait for the nice Hyatt hotel showers that awaited us in Melbourne), we did. To keep with the theme, we ate canned beans and chips - and diet coke. While we were getting ready for dinner, guess what we saw... a kookabura bird! It was really cute and looked like it was used to people feeding it as it kept opening up it's beak wide, but I didn't give it anything to eat... we were eating beans, for god's sake! Also, earlier in the day, on our way back from a hike, we spotted 2 adult wallabies standing in some tall grass right as the sun was setting. It looked like a postcard with the light behind them, but as we pulled the car closer to take pics, they took off. Seems they're not as people friendly as the kangaroos at Pebbly Beach.

Okay, so I've been in Melbourne for about a week and a half now, but I think this email is long enough, so I'll stop here. Sorry no pics, will try to send some along later. Take care and sorry if this email was too long!


bisous,
miki :)

Feb 3 2005 - Sydney, Australia - "Miki on the road again"

Hi all-

I finally decided whether I would go on this " 'round Australasia" jaunt and now here I am in Sydney. I arrived here yesterday after having spent a 2-day layover in Honolulu. My sister took me to the beach near where she used to work at a luau and where the show "North Shore" is shot. The beach was really pretty and empty and the water was calm - the beach is not on North Shore.

Now I'm living it up in Sydney with my dad and staying on the 28^th floor of a really nice hotel with a view of the Sydney opera house.

[PHOTO TO COME SOON]

I arrived in Sydney Wednesday night and was so tired I just went straight to sleep when I got to the hotel. Yesterday I was able to tag along with my dad's business group for a harbor tour and a private tour of the opera house. They were both really interesting. Unfortunately I won't be able to see any performances at the opera house, but at least I got to see the inside. Last night I had big plans to go find a good restaurant and wander around a cool area of Sydney, but my "quick" nap before dinner ended up lasting 2 hours, so I just went back to sleep for the rest of the night when I realized it was almost 10 o'clock when I woke up from my "nap". Today I'm going to explore an older part of Sydney called the Rocks and then maybe another neighborhood. I'm passing up on Bondi Beach since I can't go to the beach by myself and swim - no one to watch my stuff while I'm in the water. However, I did get a nice view of the nude beach during yesterday's harbour tour.

I'll send updates from the road if I can. My dad and I are leaving Sydney Saturday morning for a road trip down the east coast to Melbourne on a road similar to Pacific Coast Highway. My plans are not quite determined after arriving in Melbourne, although at some point I'll be stopping in Hong Kong and Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka).

Hope you're all well and if anyone is in the area, let me know!

- Miki