Postcard from Sydney, Australia

 

Hi everyone at Luna!

I arrived in Sydney in the middle of winter, but the weather is beautiful! I stayed near the fabulous Harbour Bridge in a traditional little hotel above a pub...perfect!

I took a ferry to Manly, across the harbour and had delicious fish & chips on the beach. The view of the Opera House from the boat was magnificent!

I'm going to see a rugby match tonight, then travel south to see my brother's family. hope you are not missing me too much?

Jim

Adventures in Australia - the lost diaries of Remi

Recently one of our students, Remi, had the opportunity to have a 2 week homestay at Jim's brother's house in Australia. How exciting! Before departing on her grand adventure we asked her to keep a diary of her experiences as well as sending us a postcard, which read "Australia was fun". Thankfully her diary is much more interesting to read, even though it did take her 3 weeks to finish after returning from her trip! So here is the long awaited diary log of Remi's experiences in Australia!

3/21

It was my first time to go to foreign country alone. So I was very nervous but also excited. And I was very happy because one of my favorite singers, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu was on my plane!! I was soooo happy!!!!

3/22

Next morning I got to Sydney at 7:30AM.(In Japan it was 5:30AM) I had to get up so early. So I was a bit tired. After I met Mike (Jim's brother), Charlie and Louis, Mike took me to a place where we can see Opera House. Opera House was really white and beautiful than I expected.

3/23

I got up early and went to see football practice of Louis and Joe. In Japan, football is not so popular so, I didn't know the rule at all. But it looked so exciting and fun !! In the afternoon, I went to a walk with Mike, Liz (Mike's wife), Fred, Louis and Joe. And we walked along the beach. The beach was beautiful than Japan. Japanese ocean is not always clean and algae is always floating so I hate swimming in the Japanese ocean. But that beach had white sand and clear water. Next time when I goto Wollongong, I'd like to swim!! 

For dinner, we had fish and chips.Usually, I don't eat oily food a lot. But it was incredibly delicious that I ate all!!!

3/24

I went to Coles (a supermarket in Wollongong ) with Liz. When we got out from the supermarket, it was raining cats and dogs. Liz told me in Austrailia, it doesn't rain so often and last time it rained that much was before Christmas! I was really unlucky.

3/25

I met to Misaki. She used to study at Luna. And she lives in Sydney now. She took me to Rocks, Manly and Mosman. We took lunch at Rocks and had pancakes. It was my first time to eat pancakes for lunch. This day was short because, Misaki took me to lots of nice places and I had so much fun. And I thought I wanted to meet her again.

3/28

Went to Sydney with Liz, Fred, Louis and Joe by double decker train.It took a lot to go to Sydney so, at last everyone got bored. After we got to Central station, we walked through QVB(Queen Victoria Building). Queen Vitoria Building is a very huge shopping mall. And in the corner of the building, there is a big statue of

queen Victoria. So, it is called QVB. After that, we went to Aquarium. The aquarium was very big and there were lots of animals like Dugongs, Platypus and Sharks etc...

After going to the aquarium, Liz was planning to go on a ferry from aquarium to Circular Quay. But the ferry had already gone. So we had to walk all the way to Circular Quay station. I got really tired tired but, it was so fun to walk with the boys.

3/29

I went to Sydney again!!

This time, I went with everybody by car. Liz told me it is really difficult to go out with everyone. Because
everyone has each football practice and soccer practice almost everyday.

First we walked around Darling Harbour. Mike told me there is the biggest cinema in the Southern Hemisphere. After walking around, we went on the ferry and played a little bit in Luna Park. Luna Park is a amusement park in Sydney. There are lots of rides like roller coaster, ferris wheel etc.... 

And walked across Harbour Bridge. The view from the bridge was very beautiful and we could see Opera House from the bridge. I saw people doing bridge climbing. It looked really scary. I think I can't do bridge climbing because of the height. 

For dinner we had Chinese food at China town. 

After that we went to the Olympic stadium (now it's ANZ stadium ) to watch Australian Football. The rule was complicated but I had so much fun. 

Another traveller's tale: Tales from Longpuddle after reading

Write about a peaceful long journey you made? Where were you going, and who with? Why were you travelling, and how did you feel about arriving?

That was differently our honeymoon to Australia. We got on the plain two days after our wedding party. We spent about 10 months for preparation on our party and new life at our new house. We had done everything we had to do and were filled with a feeling of freedom. It was a night flight from Nagoya to Sydney via Cairns. We had a good meal with some wines and good slept during flight. We really enjoyed the journey and it is still the most wonderful one for me.

Posted for Tomoko

Postcard from...Sydney, Australia

Dear everyone,

we've had a fabulous time in Australia, finishing our sightseeing yesterday by the Opera House/Bridge. The weather  has been superb, so we've been especially careful not to get sunburnt. We've done beaches - Woolgoolga, Bulli & Hyams. We've seen sharks, platypus, roos and Cockatoos. W'eve had huge steaks on the BBQ & bottles of fabulous reds and shilled whites - as well as plenty of fizzy stuff. Only bad news was having to walk past my favourite pub (twice) without testing the Guinness.

Eleanor & Ceilidh both love the sea nad the pool, and two weeks of English has been a treat. NOT looking forward to freezing weather on Friday.

Missed us? See you soon?

Jim & Yukari

 Over the holidays we managed to move everything we have collected over the last seven years from our home in the MK Building to our new home, which is still disguised as a bakery. (Our banners finally came off 'old' Luna yesterday - it will take a us a few days to figure out how to attach them to our new place.)

As you can see, the last month of our stay in Motomachi was very congested & confusing. Teachers couldn't find CDs or flashcards, and our students barely had enough room to sit down. Our mums had to wait in the corridor (until we could shift some stuff and get the Christmas tree up).

By the time our last classes said good night on December 22nd (and Kevin had managed to re-arrange his travel plans) it was a relief to know we had a few days without interruptions to get things done/pack coherently & think about priorities.

Obviously we could not move everything out until the place we were moving to was ready. In between classes and visits to the hospital (our son finally escaped on the 23rd - thank you for all your kind wishes) I was frantically cleaning a very cold & dirty room (to be "Kevin's room") before painting then carpeting it. Couldn't move any furniture before that, nor dump all our books.

As you will have read, I enjoyed listening to the cricket while doing this, so each room at new Luna has a special memory for me. One room is the Adelaide match, another the Melbourne game, and the staircase is Sydney!

On December 28th my friends Mark & Paul very generously helped us with the 'big move' - shifting as much as we possibly could in what eventually took 14 hours. Yukari's family also helped enormously (thank you Chiemi & Yusuke) and to Naomi - every bit of help was gratefully welcomed. Sorry we took all the heaters! I am certain everyone slept well that night - we moved an enormous amount of furniture and boxes up and down a lot of stairs. Fortunately, everything did squeeze through the small doors at our new location - just!


On December 29th Yukari & Sawa-kun helped me move the remaining stuff we couldn't manage the day before, which took ages...which meant our classrooms and office were all totally empty except for the carpet, which was the last (and heavy) thing to remove on the 30th, as the electicity was turned off. If you are ever thinking about joining a gym, don't bother. Go to the DIY store and buy a box of carpet tiles, then carry it up & down a flight of stairs til you drop!

So I locked the door for the last time, and said goodbye to a lot of excellent memories...and hello to a massive job at 'the bakery'. But that's a separate story.