Nick's Worldwide Wanderings!

I sleep in until 9am, then leave for what turns out to be an immensely complex system of transport.
You see, I was now in a small town near Osaka, some hundreds of kilometres away from my intended destination, Nagoya. But it should be pretty simple to get there before dark, right?

First bus goes from the hotel to Osaka city, which is still about an hour away.
From Osaka, there is no direct train to Nagoya, so I must catch a train to Kyoto, followed by a bus to Nagoya.
At 2pm I arrive in Kyoto, so I stop for lunch. It turns out that it`s still spring here, and the weather is well...springy! Flowers everywhere, and lush green plants growing out of just about everything. The sun shines through the warm air as I wander to and from a 600 year old temple while I wait for the bus. Yep, that`s Japan for you!

The bus leaves at 3pm, but there is a problem. We might be a little late,　it seems. Approximately 1-2 hours late, as a matter of fact. I couldn`t figure out whether the driver was serious or just had an inferiority complex about his driving skills, as the first 2 hours of the trip we positively speed past signs saying things like `Nagoya, 30km away). But those last 30km turn out to be the problem, and we spend an hour and a half waiting in a huge traffic jam on a bridge. I couldn`t have been happier though, the view from the bridge was magnificent! We had passed mountains, country rice fields, ancient temples and beautiful forest, and had now stopped looking over a massive river (about 3-4 times the width of the murray) as the sun set behind us. Who needs the bullet train when you can sit and half a view like that! They didn`t even charge me extra for the nice view...

However, my problem of getting enough of the neccesities of life remained. This time, it was water. I promptly forgot to bring a bottle on the 4 hour bus trip, and assumed I would simply amuse myself with dehydrated hallucinations until we arrived there. I spied a solution however...the toilet at the back of the bus! Not the actual toilet of course, but rather the sink. The sink didn`t agree with my plan of attack however, and was nowhere near big enough to let my head in. It let out only the tiniest dribble of water, no doubt designed to make the person who wants to wash their hands frustrated enough that they foam at the mouth, which they can then use to wash their hands. So here I was, slowly filling my cupped hands up with water, then trying to get that water to my mouth to drink. On the rickety bus, most of the water never made it of course, and I ended up licking my wet hands while my pants and shirt became positively soaked. Eventually we stopped at a rest stop, and I was able to buy a can of Pocari Sweat instead. This charming drink mimics the substance of human body fluids (such as sweat, hence the name), which aparently allows you to absorb it quicker.

So the bus got into Nagoya at about 7pm, and I promptly got lost on the local trains trying to find my way to the station I was meant to meet my friends at. It wasn`t until 8 30pm that I finally arrived at the end of my 10 hour journey,　but it was well worth it.

The people I am staying with are amazing even by the standards of Japanese hospitality.
Most people offer you the bath first, but instead a special bath is run just for my own use so I don`t have to feel guilty about sitting in it for half an hour.
Most people offer you some sort of snack when you get there, but I am positively plied with cakes, tea, biscuits and the like until I can eat no more.
Most people would probably be a bit ticked off if you got there at 9pm, but I can`t even finish an apology or explanation without being cut off and fed something delicious, no matter how many times I try.

When I go to sleep, my room is absolutely stunning. All paper walls and tatami mats, with a futon in the middle and a tray with a bottle of chilled water next to it. It is a veritable japanese castle, with shrines all around it and a wood carving of Mt Fuji cut into the wall.

Beautiful house, beautiful people. This is why I returned to Japan! For those who were wondering whether I had some sort of plan up my sleeve as to what I was doing in Japan, I invented one on the train. After spending all of today walking around the shrines and temples in Nagoya, with towering shrines and flowering bonsais, I have decided to go to Kyoto from here, the Shrine and Temple mecca of Japan.

I thoughjt I`d throw in that I am writing this in the greatest internet cafe in the world. When they told me $5 an hour, I wondered what the Japanese equivalent of `hell no` would be (I have limited funds), but when I go inside I find a paradise... In a private booth on a big leather couch, with an unlimited supply of soft drinks and slushies! Truly heaven...but now I need to go to the toilet!

I can only go on the internet from time to time, so my entries will continue to be published all in one go. I write them in my journal first, and then type them up when I can. Pictures will come next time, I lost the batteries for my camera!

The Jetstar people did end up fixing my flight completely, but used a rather unnerving system of communication and organization.
The man at the check-in: `someone will page you and tell you what to do when you land`

No paging...however, suddenly a man on the plane finds me. I have no idea how he finds me, as there were two people booked for the same seat (maybe there were two seats called 25G?) and being the second one to arrive I just moved to a different seat. This man tells me: `when you land the ground staff will contact you and tell you what to do`.

The plane gets in at eleven o`clock at night. However, during this flight, I had no Australian currency. Before I left, I made sure I spent every last cent, and boarded the plane feeling very proud of myself. When the food cart comes past, I take my Japanese yen out. Whats that? You don`t take Japanese yen? I see...
So having eaten not a single crumb of food since 7am (I did find a crumb on the ground, but resisted the temptation), I landed in the airport and proceeded to try and find who exactly the ground staff were.

Luckily, my case seemed to be extraordinary enough to warrant a person waiting at the door just outside my plane with my name on it. It started to feel like some sort of strange conspiracy, with people everywhere turning up with messages for me - this one was in Japanese and somewhat undecipherable, but it had something to do with me collecting my bags.

I collected my bags and left the baggage claim with my gigantic suitcase pulling my bones apart, only to find that the people who I was meant to talk to were INSIDE the baggage claim, an area that was now sealed off to me by international law. I used my considerable charm to negotiate a solution, and finally gained access to the one who would deliver me the message! I was somewhat disappointed - `catch this bus` he said, pointing in the direction of the bus stop, before melting into the shadows like everyone else I had met so far.

Outside it was a delightfully warm rainy night (I hope rain continues to stay exciting over these next few weeks, the rainy season). I caught the bus, and found out it went to a hotel. When I arrived in the hotel I prayed to god they knew my name, and was determined to sleep in the lobby if they did not. Luckily, they had an urgent fax on the desk with my name printed in big letters (again, the international conspiracy continues), and I was shown into an extraordinarily luxurious room that I could never have afforded by myself. The only problem was, it was now midnight, and nothing in this room was edible (even the mini-bar was empty!). I wandered the halls, looking for some sort of edible mould, when I found my saviour...does that sign say `24 hour convenience store?!`.

MISO! CUP RAMEN! CC LEMON! ONIGIRI! I help myself to a three course meal plus drinks, for the princely sum of $5. Best meal I have ever eaten. A toast...to Japan!

"Oh" is a very innocuous word, it usually doesn't mean very much at all. Funny how at certain times, like at the check-in line for an international flight at 4:30am, even a tiny word like "oh" could be an omen of impending doom.

I hand over my ticket, the man types it into the computer, pauses, frowns and there it is - "...oh"
Turns out I'm booked for a different flight. And most inconveniently, it leaves not today, but yesterday. The route is also changed, now I'm flying to Cairns first! To sort it out, I have to shuffle between the domestic and international terminals, which are conveniently located approximately 1,000,000km apart from each other for some reason. I spend a good deal of time standing by the road in the dark with my hand out like some lost hitchiker, as taxis stubbornly refuse to manifest themselves. Still, one does eventually turn up, which is more than I can say for the bus I was told to catch - after a period of waiting at the stop for it, I think to check the timetable and notice that the bus service doesn't run until 7am. All of this shuffling was done with a gigantic backpack, and just to complicate things I am currently wearing a belt made out of a laniard (I forgot my belt) and as I result I look like some kind of gangster with my pants around my knees as I walk up and down the terminals.

The result is eventually in my favour; I was not at fault, my flight was cancelled had been changed by the airline without any notice to me whatsoever. I get a ticket for the next flight to Japan, which lands at Osaka, about an hour or two away from Nagoya, where I was originally intending to land. A train from there to Nagoya shouldn't be too expensive I figure, at least not compared to the amount I'd spend on taxis trying to work something else out ($50 donated to the yellow cab fund already today). They're still working something out, at the moment they're talking about a domestic flight to Nagoya at the other end...hope they figure something out!

The nice man at the desk even gave me a voucher for breakfast, worth far more than I ever planned on spending.
I ended up with a smoked salmon and red onion omelette, vegemite toast (saying goodbye, sniff) and a coffee. My companion for the meal was a small sparrow (see, I told you I'd make friends along the way!) who sat on my table while I fed him bread. Together we watched the sunrise over Sydney in the cool morning air.

A morning on the beautiful observation desk admiring the beautiful view over Sydney, a new friend, and suddenly I'm going to a destination I had no idea I'd be visiting...The first day of my joruney has begun!

Those two weeks...what happened to them? All of a sudden here I am in Sydney!

It never really sunk in that I'm going somewhere else, that "goodbye" actually MEANS "goodbye". I have travelled overseas many times, but I have never had so much to say goodbye to. Chatting to friends on beds and couches, sitting in QE2 watching clouds and bogans drift by, getting excited over maths whilst tutoring my little tutorees, going out and dancing to songs I hate because I'm with people I love... As I replay the memories of the last six months in my mind, they are all tinted gold. For those mystified at how I keep so happy, you need only look at yourselves! I never thought I'd say this, but doing nothing in Albury for 6 months has been one of the best times of my life!

I hate to leave it all behind, I miss everything already. I couldn't delay leaving though, for one simple reason; There will never be a time when I want to leave all that. If I can't part from it now I know I'll never be able to. Images of friends keep flashing through my mind, I'll miss you all so much!

Leaving is the hardest part, and once that's over I'm sure arriving at something new will make it all worthwhile. I'm sure a whole new world lies before me, and even now excitement is bubbling up as I finally realize - I'M GOING TO ASIA!I have no illusions about life as a nomad, with just my 10kg backpack (less than 2kg per month!) and a pocketful of dreams. It will not be pretty, it will not be glamorous, and it will not be easy. In setting out I know I am not travelling for pleasure. Nor am I travelling for fun. Nor am I travelling to relax. I am travelling with only one purpose, which is to have my eyes opened even in the slightest, and this will be the only goal I can measure the success of my journey on. Wish me luck!

Two weeks to go, and I thought I better get organized just a little bit!
Still not really sure what I'm signing myself up for, I'm hoping it will just hit me when I get off the plane into a foreign country. Anyone who has asked me about my trip may well have had a conversation like the one below:

"Where are you going?"
"Asia"

"What are you going to do there?"
"Travel, meet people, have fun, a little bit of this, a little bit of that..."

"Got any more specific plans?"
"No not really, just, you know, thinking about...doing...stuff?"

"Hmmmm....."