Final night in New Zealand

I wouldn't say that I'm freaking out. But I'm getting a ride from the hostel to the Christchurch airport in just a few hours. My flight is at 5:40 AM, but I said it would be fine if I got dropped off at midnight. A very nice staffperson at the hostel is taking me.

The trip will only take 14 hours (compared to 22 from Minnesota to New Zealand). I'm supposed to arrive in Tokyo around 4:40 PM local time. My first challenge will be to get myself from the airport into Tokyo on the train. I have directions. Kind of. But there are a lot of different trains. And some are express, and some are local. Some of the trains go to my final destination, but some of them pass by. There are English signs in the train stations though. And I've been on quite a few different public transportation systems, in different cities and countries. I'll be fine.

I didn't sell my car. So I spent about $250 in parts and repairs today, including a new battery, and I'm letting a friend I met at the hostel keep it for me. Better that than leaving the car on the street and hoping it doesn't get towed. Actually, after driving around this afternoon, I think the repairs gave the thing a new lease on life. It feels like it has a little more power now. And it starts on the first time you turn the key!

I'll be posting far more pictures in Japan than I have in New Zealand. In Japan, you get unlimited bandwidth. In New Zealand, you pay by the megabyte, which pretty much means that uploading a bunch of pictures has been out of the question.

There's a little going-away/birthday party tonight at the hostel. There will be wine and beer. It's nice that I don't have to drive myself to the airport.

Wow. In 24 hours I will be in a very foreign foreign country.

Packing for Japan

I leave for Japan in five days. I'm trying to figure out what to bring. My mother sent me a bunch of summer clothes expertly crammed into a flat-rate USPS box. She even got the wedge-heel sandals in there. Unfortunately, I don't have room in my bag to bring them. In fact, I don't really have room in my bag for any of the shoes I'm bringing. But I NEED all of them, and they all serve a different purpose. I've got hiking shoes, tennis shoes, dressy clogs, walking sandals, and flip-flops. However, I'm only taking two pairs of pants and one pair of shorts. Because that's all I've got.

I've extended the Japan trip to the end of September. I figure that as long as I'm going, I might as well really go. The weather will be better then, as well.

The reason I'm extending the trip is, in part, because my friend in Tokyo is going to Europe for three weeks. So I get his apartment for three weeks. Score! Don't know exactly how I'll fill my time in Tokyo, but I'm sure there's a ton to do. That reminds me, I should make sure to buy an English Tokyo guidebook while I'm still in an English-speaking country...

In Christchurch

I've got about a week and a half before I leave for Japan. Originally I was only going to stay for three weeks, but I've decided to extend that. For one thing, I'm not going to want to come back to the New Zealand winter. I haven't changed my plane ticket yet, but I'm thinking about staying in Japan until at least mid-September, when it should start to get warmer in New Zealand.

I'm staying at an inexpensive hostel right now, biding my time. Christchurch is okay. I went and saw some pretty good free live music last night. And there's a Michael Jackson dance party on Saturday night (wooo!). Next week is the start of the biannual Christchurch Arts Festival. Some of the stuff is free, but the good theater/dance performances are expensive. I can afford to see the (free) performance art going on in the park.

Planning is going well for the Japan trip. I have started a to-do-while-in-Japan list. In the #1 slot is climbing Mt. Fuji. I'm going to see the world's largest wooden building. Inside is a huge Buddha statue, originally erected in 752 (that's not a typo--752!). It has been recast since then, but that's seriously old. In comparison, in New Zealand anything from the nineteenth century is considered ancient.

There's a robot museum that I want to go to. And of course I'll be singing karaoke, and eating lots of sushi. I'm also planning to overnight at a Buddhist temple (shukubo). They feed you delicious vegetarian food, and you are invited to attend the morning prayer ceremony.

The Japanese language learning is going well. I'm studying every day, and I'm really enjoying it. Hopefully I'll be able to put it to some good use.

That's all for now!

(I think I'm) Learning Japanese

From 2009-07-06 Dunedin

I dropped Josie off at the airport this afternoon. She's going back home, although hopefully she will be headed off to another winery in a few weeks to do a northern hemisphere grape harvest. After leaving the airport I carefully drove on the left to the hostel I'm staying at, and checked in. After which I immediately drove over to the Christchurch YMCA and paid for a one-month membership. I'll only use it for two weeks, but it's cheaper doing it that way than paying on a per-use basis.

It's wonderful to step into a gym after you've been away for a couple of months. The Christchurch YMCA has a very similar feel to the YMCAs in Minnesota. They've even got the brand and model of elliptical machines that I like. I listened to Green Day while cross-training on the stairmaster and inclined treadmill. I'm trying to get in a little training before I climb Mt. Fuji on August 1 (if all goes according to plan).

I studied the Japanese language for one year in 9th grade. I don't remember much of it. But I really want to pick it up again and try to learn conversational Japanese. I've got a couple of CDs, a phrase book, and a slick iPod Touch Japanese language app. The Touch app is pretty good. I'm liking it so far. The only problem is that before they teach you a word of Japanese, they make you learn the hiragana characters. So I've had the program for a week and I don't know any actual words yet. But I can read some written Japanese, without knowing what it means. We'll see what happens when I start learning words.

Miscellany

These are some random things I've thought about blogging.

When Josie and I were in this little town called Picton, we stopped by a grocery store. The cashier that checked us out was probably 15 or 16. He casually asked where we were from (our accents give us away as non-Kiwis, of course). We said we were from the U.S. And he asked, "Kentucky--is that a real place?" And we laughed and said that yes, it's a real place. They've got... a lot of horses there. It's where they hold the Kentucky Derby. "Oh! That's real, too?"

For a while after I came to New Zealand I was having really weird dreams. Stress maybe. Or maybe it's from sleeping on horrible hostel mattresses night after night. I miss my nice bed at home a LOT. Anyway, I had a dream that there was a Target store in the next town we were visiting. And we went there to shop. It was wonderful. It was the happiest dream I've had in a long time. But I woke up greatly disappointed. I know that there are no Targets in New Zealand.

New Zealand roads are incredibly winding and twisty in many places. I'm not one to experience motion sickness, but after a while, my stomach couldn't handle it. I saw a Mythbusters episode where they tested the efficacy of different types of motion sickness cures. And ginger was actually the best cure, and had no negative side effects. Now Josie and I keep crystalized ginger in the glove box. It works.

I'm going to Japan

Josie is leaving me on July 15th to go back home to Minnesota. To extinguish the sadness and envy I'll feel when she leaves, I'm planning a trip to Japan for three weeks in August. I got a red-hot deal on the plane ticket. And a friend in Tokyo who can hook me up with accommodation. I'm going to climb Mt. Fuji. And go to the beach. So I can have some summer this summer. New Zealand winters aren't anywhere near as bad as Minnesota's, but winter is winter, and I need some summer right now.

My connecting flight is in Sydney, so I may try to make a deal with the airline to stay in Australia for a while. I have lots of time.