Melbourne and Tasmania, Australia..

さきのやすめに、わたしはひとりでAustraliaにいきました。
Melbourneはさいしょのばしょでいきました。
わたしはともだちのうちでとまりました。
わたしだちはGreat Ocean Roadでくるまをうんてんしますた。

Last holiday, I went to Australia alone to visit my friends for a month. I went to Melbourne, Tasmania, Sydney, Brisbane and Cairns. My first stop was Melbourne. Melbourne is a big city which is not so interesting to me. Probably I am not a city-person. But undeniably, I like the clothes there. Compared to other places I visited in Australia, Melbourne probably has the best garments in Australia.

Throughout my stay in Melbourne, there is an evil place called Crown. It is the most evil casino in the world which will suck up all your money. So, peeps, don't even think of entering the place due to curiousity. Trust me, I personally experienced it.

When I was in Melbourne, I was staying with one of my best friends. Thus, free accomodation. Besides, since he is studying there, he is sort of like half an Australian. Hence, he knows best where to bring me and thanks to him, I went to a lot of places like Great Ocean Road. We went to Great Ocean Road by car. Great Ocean Road is highway-alike and a lot of great scenic spots along the road.

これはGreat Ocean Road の Twelve Apostles です。
One of the famous scenic spots is the Twelve Apostles. It consists of 12 big rocks seperated from the mainland due to years of erosion.

これはGreat Ocean Road のLondon Bridge です。

Another great scenic spot is called the London Bridge. From the photo below, it is not connected to the mainland. This is because around 18 years ago, the main arch connecting London Bridge and the mainland cracked and fell into the sea.

うちくしいふうけいですね。(Beautiful view, right!?)
Another great thing about the Great Ocean Road is that you can take tones of awesome photos along the road.

We even went down to a scenic spot and did some hiking and rock climbing. I would say it was not a smart move since we might die if we trip and fall from the cliff.




でも、たのしかったです。 (Yet, it was fun.)

On our way back, わたしだちは wild Koala Bears をみました。
Koala Bearはとてもかわいいですね。
On our way back, we saw a lot of wild Koala Bears. Don't you think they are cute!?

いっしゅうかんご、わたしはTasmaniaでanotherともだちにあいました。
(A week after, I went to Tasmania to meet up with another best friend of mine, Kenn)
なまえはKennです。

わたしはKennのちゅうごくじんとAustraliaじんともだちにたくさないました。
(He introduced his friends to me where most of them are Chinese from China and Australian.)

I can say, most of the Chinese there are heavy drinker. I played a lot of crazy, wild games and drank a lot of beer with them. There is something in common between Tasmania and Melbourne. the weather there are freezingly cold eventhough it is summer. That's the reason people over there drink beer more than water. Moreover, beer is cheap.

わたしだちはcampにいきました。(We went camping.)

We camped beside a lake and it was freezing. All of us were in jackets but still shiver when the wind blows.

つりをしました。(We went fishing.)

Kenn and his friends are studying Aquaculture in University of Tasmania. Thus, fishing is their favourite activity. They tend to like compete indirectly among themselves. It is something like a silent competition.

たくさんさかなを捕まえました。(A lot of fishes were caught)
Yet, Kenn was having a bad-luck day as he did not manage to get any and so did I. If I am not mistaken, we managed to catch around 7 big fishes.

Kenn and I love sushi and sashimi. だから(Therefore)、we picked the smallest Trout(a fish similar to salmon) and ate it raw. Our Australian friends tried it as well. でも(But)、Australiaじんはさしみがすきじゃありません。(they don't quite like it.)

わたしだちはよるにhuntingをしました。 (We went hunting)

そこでたくさんウサギとkangarooとちいさい動物があります。
(There were a lot of small animals like rabbits, possums and kangaroos around our camp sides)
.
Suddenly, we saw a herd of sheeps and we decided to surround them and catch a few of them. Guess what, there were seven of us and we managed to catch 5 sheeps.
とてもたのしかったです。 (It was so fun.)
.
I wanted to carry one of the sheeps and take a photo as remembrance.
でも、羊はとてもおもいです。(But, the sheeps are too heavy.) Or probably because I am not strong enough, that's why I needed help to carry the sheep up in air.


Then, we had some fun with the sheep as stated in the photo below. The fat dude on the left hand side is Kenn.

Beside camping, we went to a wild life park to see some animals which can only be found in Australia.
.

これはTasmanian Devilです。It earned its name from the blood-curdling devillish screams heard by the early settlers as they huddled around their campfires at night.

これは Wombatです。 (This animal is called Wombat)わたしはWombatがだいすきです。(I love Wombat.) Wombat はとてもかわいいですから。(It is so cute.)
.
I seriously love this animal. It is so adorable. It looks like a huge guinea pig. Someone in Australia should really commercialize this animal because I will definitely get one as pet.
.

Just a video of me playing with a Wombat.

.

.

That's a bit of my trip in Melbourne and Tasmania. I will talk about Sydney and Cairns in other entries.

My visit to Japan(Part IV)..

In Shizuoka, I was hosted by two families. Both of my host fathers are members in Numazu Koryo Lions Club. Anyway, I spent my first five days in Nagoya during my homestay in Japan with other exchange students in a camp. I cannot recall the name of the place but it is on a mountain in Nagoya prefacture.

After the camp, the exchange students were seperated and being hosted by different families in different area. I was the only student being sent to Shizuoka where as most of them were sent to Aichi-ken.

I was hosted by たまきごと (Tamaki Goto). I call him ごとさん (Goto-san). It feels weird when you call someone of your dad's generation as if both of you are good friends. Anyway, during the second day of my homestay, he brought me to the Lions Club meeting at Numazu Tokyu Hotel. Talking about the hotel, the ammenities and services were superb, especially the food. The foods there is fantastic but too bad I do not have the photos with me right now.

Anyway, this the President of Numazu Lions Club. He is a very nice guy and he actually wanted to host me for a few days.

When he was giving his speech, I was totally clueless of the things he say. Out of sudden, everyone clapped their hands and the master of the ceremony (MC) suddenly called my name and I was like, "I am soooo sorry, I do not understand a single word from you guys. So, what do I need to do now??". I was standing in front cluelessly and then suddenly our national anthem, "Negaraku" was being played.

I was like, "Ohhhh, わかりました (now I understand..)". Initially, I was just standing there but the MC suddenly hold the mic in front of me which led me to no where. I was kindof being forced to sing. It was quite an embarrassing moment as I was singing alone and the most terrible part was that I am one of the worst singers in the world.

Then, I was asked to give a speech in Japanese. Luckily, I have been told beforehand about it and my host sister who studied in English Language helped me to translate the things I want to say into Japanese.

I translated the speech in the pronounciation form since I knew nothing about Japanese characters and currently, I still have the paper with me. The speech sounded something like this.

Minasan, hajimemashite.
みなさん、 はじめまして。

(Hi everyone)

Watashino namae wa Tan Jia Jian desu.
わたしのなまえは Tan Jia Jian です。

(My name is Tan Jia Jian)

JJ to yonde kudasai.
JJ とよんでください。

(Please call me JJ)

Watashiwa jyukyu sai desu.
わたしはじゅうきゅさいです。

(I am 19 years old)

Minasan oai dekite udesi desu.
みなさんをあいできてうでしです。

(I have no idea)

Dozo yoroishiku.
どうぞよろいしく。

(Nice meeting you guys)

After learning Japanese for 2, 3 months, finally I know some basic stuffs about japanese. I know what I was saying but due to my poor Japanese skills, the line " Minasan oai dekite udesi desu, みなさんをあいできてうでしです。", I have no idea what it means. *(If anyone know what it means, please do tell me..)

Then, we exchange souveniors. I brought some miniature building pewter products like KLCC and KL tower as a token of appreciation for them.

Then, all of us started to eat. While I was eating, a lot of people came to talk to me. Surprisingly, there were a few people who understands chinese. They are business people who travel to China constantly for business purposes and we communicated in Chinese. It was fun when you talk to them in your own, familiar language.

Then, there was a Japanese rockstar in the olden days I suppose, came out and sang us a few songs.

Then, all of us were mingling around and I took a lot of pictures with them. All of them were very nice and offered to bring me to visit their houses and the places around Shizuoka.

Then, it was the first time I met with my second host family. We talked a while and then I was being pulled over by some other lions. I felt like a VIP at that point of time where they ask me a lot of questions about Malaysia and my stuffs.

Not forgetting to mention, the Lions Club were very generous and sweet to us. They organized a skiing trip for all the exchange students in Nagoya.

It was sooooooooooooooo fun even though it was not my first skiing experience. I went to the expert lane with the third class skills with a Croatian guy who is a Ski-sensei. He brought me up and according to him, he will take care of me and I am flattered to say that I was the only student exchangee from Malaysia who tried the expert lane. Others were prohibited to do so.

The lane was extra steep and challenging. There were even a few trees in the middle of the lane. The adrenaline was rushing in my body at the maximum level when I was at the top of the hill because I know I might lose control and ended up smashing myself towrds the trees. For your information, I almost ski-ed into the jungle but luckily I managed to stop myself by falling sideway. Anyway, the 1km journey from the hill to the bottom was so dangerous yet fun. It suits well in one of my own philosophies, "To have fun, you must put your life at the stake." To put them into easier words, I am an idiot who do not mind losing my life just for the sake of having fun.

Anyway, a few friends and I did something fun at that night.

After finished bathing, a few of us got naked in the snow. As in real naked after taking the photo above, without any clothes on and, if I am not mistaken, for only 5 minutes as it was the furthest extent we can bare.

Anyway, the guy from the far right is the Croatian guy I mentioned before. The kindof plump guy on my left is from Australia whereas the guy at the far left is from Malaysia.

I will talk more about the things, or should I say, crazy silly things we did in the camp in other entry.

My visit to Japan(Part III)..

I had a rare opportunity amongst all the youth exchangees when I was in Japan. My host family actually brought me to Tokyo and I had a three fantastic days there.

Tokyo is not a small city which can be fully explored in 3 days. I only managed to see part of the 'must' and famous places.

We took Shinkanzen(Bullet train) from Shizuoka, Nagoya to Tokyo. When we reached there, the train station itself is one of the major historic places in Tokyo.

As what I have been told, it is the oldest train station in Japan. During the second world war, suprisingly, it was not destroyed where as the buildings around it were bombed into pieces.

Next, my host family brought me to Tokyo Imperial Palace. It is the main residence of the emperor of Japan. I do not know how big it is but all the royal families and relatives stay in there. Besides, the visitors are not allowed to enter the castle compound. We can just loitering around outside the castle.



Tokyo Tower probably is the most famous building in Tokyo. It is something like KL Tower in Malaysia. The similarity between them is both buildings are one of the tallest buildings in the country. Besides, we can actually see the whole Tokyo city from the air.. Even though it was not as interesting as I thought it could be, it is still a must to go. How can you go to Tokyo without visiting the famous landmark, right!?

Not forgetting, there is a maskot for Tokyo Tower. I cannot recall his name due to my weak memory but I remember the meaning of it's name, which is 'tall', if I am not mistaken.

Then, we went to the Japan's oldest temple, Sensoji temple in Asakusa. The main gate is called Kaminarimon (Thunder Gate).

After getting into the compound, you need to walk for around 200 metres to reach the temple. Along the road, there are a lot of stalls selling Japanese souveniors and snacks. The path is called Nakamise. The road is always packed with people. It is something like 'Pasar Malam'(Night Market) in Malaysia. The only difference is that Nakamise operation hour is from day to night.

Normally when we pay a visit to temples, we go there to pray and get some sort of "fortune-telling-paper"(Tilik-nasib-paper, I do not know what it is called in English) which will tell you about your luck or path or destiney, you name it for the following year. Of course, just for the sake of trying, I paid 100 yen and get a paper.

Unfortunately, it was a bad-luck-paper. From the kanji, I predicted that I will be facing a lot of difficulties and numerous obstacles in everything I do. Besides, my mind will be challenged and it will make me emotionally unstable. Lastly, I might get involved in a huge fight.

But not to worry, there is always a remedy for every problem. If we picked a bad luck paper, we just need to tie it to the rack so that the bad luck will stay there and eventually, your path of life will be changed.

I guess that's the reason I did not get any trouble in the following year.

When we were walking in Shibuya towards our hotel, I saw a Pachinko shop and I actually tried it. I did not and still do not understand how it works. I just simply play and in 5 minutes, my one thousand yen gone. I can't really remember how to play as well, it is wayyyy past tense.

Then, we went to one of the most expensive area in Tokyo which is Ginza area.

There were a lot of people walking in the city. I do not know why but when the pedestrian light is on, the streets will be full of people, as in a lotttttttttttttt of people. Have a look~~

These are the few buildings in Ginza area.

A photo speaks a thousand words. On the following day, we went to~~

Lets talk about Disneyland in my next entry~~
.