Trip to Australia Day 4: Pre-wedding Retreat at Kangaroo Valley

Image taken from http://www.ytravelblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Kangaroo-Valley-NSW-125.jpg

A great weekend away organised by the best man as a pre-wedding wedding retreat. Good bonding time. Had so much fun that I forgot to take photos :P

The highlight of the trip has to be the "bonding games" my friend came up with. So ridiculous, and so fun.

He organised three challenges, dividing the eight of us who went on the retreat into two teams.

The first challenge involved navigating a maze that he constructed using wooden pickets and string - with everyone blindfolded. The first team out of the maze won. Unfortunate to say the other team won this challenge.

The second challenge had two parts. The first, was to construct two coffee tables 50cmx50cm and at least 13cm high using planks of wood, nails, hammer and saw that each team was provided. The second part, was to navigate the maze from the first challenge (this time not blindfolded), but only standing on the two coffee tables we constructed. Note, there were four fully grown adult (Asian) men on each team. The first team to reach the finish line wins. However, if our tables break, we lose. Our teams finished the tables and started the maze navigating at roughly the same time, but not even 10 minutes into navigating the maze, one of the other team's coffee tables lost two of its legs, so we won. For the record, our team was ahead in the maze when they were disqualified.

The final challenge involved playing soccer, using the three intact and one broken coffee tables as makeshift goals. The catch: we could only use our left leg to kick the ball. None of us were left side dominant.
The game was meant to finish after two ten minute halves. After extra time after the second half, however, we were tied on two goals each. We were too into it to leave it at a tie, so we played on for the golden goal. Another twenty minutes later, the other team finally scored. Though on a points basis one team lost and one gained, but really, all of us gained. It required a really big team effort to fight till the end, and we did it. I was really happy with the outcome, and with my friend for coming up with the games. We were all so sore the next day.

Trip to Australia Day 3: Uni friends

It was good to catch up with my good old med sci buddies :)

We were planning on going to the beach, but it had been forecast rain that day. It's apparently been raining everyday for 9 days prior to me arriving in Australia, and continued to rain till yesterday. But today, it turned out to be actually good weather in the end. Oh well. We had a good time having a good ol' backyard BBQ catching up over a few snags.

Not having gone to the beach today means I don't think I'll be able to visit the sunkissed Aussie beaches this time round :( That's a bit of a shame. Definitely gotta go next time.

Trip to Australia Day 2: ALLC, Kangaroo steak, Bondi Junction Westfield

For the first time in one and a half years, I went to ALLC to meet up with my pastor. It was a nice catch up, 

Kangaroo steak and beef sewer with chips and garden salad on the side. It was a 110% satisfactory meal. Meat SOO tender. Forgot the name of the restaurant, but it faced the harbour and is next to IMAX. On the pricey end, but the experience was totally worth it. Cheers Daz for bringing me here.

Pearl milk tea and "cheese waffle" at a Taiwanese cross between Meet Fresh and EasyWay called ComeBuy. Wasn't bad. 

Sneak photo taking of my sister during her shift at Bondi Junction Westfield. Exhibiting her expertise on men's underwear to a customer. 

Trip to Australia Day 1: Landing in Sydney, visiting a family friend with my sister

Dinner on the plane: Korean style. Btw the indistinguishable black liquid is seaweed soup in poor lightning. 

Breakfast on the plane. 

Stunning view at dawn from the plane.

Lunch with sis: Time for Thai, Kensington

First time trying Masman curry, after having heard much about its renown. Having had it myself, I agree it's defs up there. But personally, butter chicken is still my personal fave :3

Pad Thai. Moist, and full bodied flavour. Very tasty. 

Dinner with sis: Papa Rich, Chatswood

Nasi Lamak with curry chicken and prawn. Superb taste. The rice and the prawns were extra tasty. Would come back just for the rice and prawns. 

Spicy rice dish my sister ordered which I forgot the name of. But it was tasty.

After dinner we visited the home of a family friend who has been very hospitable to us when our family first arrived in Australia. Our visit was perfect timing; a couple of days later and they would have been gone on a family cruise. It was good to see that their family was doing well.

Trip to Australia day 0: Incheon, Korea

Once again, it's time to board the plane. It's been the end of a productive day, with many surprises and twists.

This morning I left Tokyo at 06:20 and arrived in Incheong at 09:05 (no time difference). 

Breakfast on the plane, included in the price of the ticket.

My connecting flight to Sydney from Incheon would not leave till 19:05 the same day, meaning I had a whole 10 hours to figure out what to do with. I do have a considerable amount to revise for the upcoming end of sems, but I didn't want to spend a whole 10 hours studying... 

Just as I was approaching customs, I came across this brochure...

Inside, I found this...

It's free, it enables me to see some of Korea, and I was allowed to make a reservation. So why not! And I'm glad I did. As the description says, we visited two places, Wolmi Park and Shinpo Market, by bus, and for free. (had to pay for my own lunch at the Markets though).

Cartoonised figure of the ancient king and queen of Korea. Around it, you can see there is quite a lot of recent snowfall. That in itself was a great experience too!

This is the culture exhibition museum in Wolmi Park. We took a glance inside...

...And came across the mascots of the 2014 Asia Games held in Korea. Also...

Dress up as the king of Korea! :D Others on the tour seized the opportunity to dress up as queens and princesses too. For privacy reasons, I'll only be uploading the photo of myself.

Sinpo Internal Market.

A squiz inside.

This is where I decided to eat lunch. Although my Hangul was hopeless and so was their English, by the end of lunch, I became pretty good buds with the owners of the store. So friendly! I had some sort of crispy chicken. Rather than describe it, let me show you.

It was delicious. And SO MUCH. For the equivalent of AUD11, I ate chicken and more chicken till I could eat no more... and took half with me as takeaway lol.

Also came across these cool colourful buns.

It was an excellent day. I highgly recommend this Incheon Transfer Tour ^^

Trip back down under

I'm sitting back relaxing, nice and early in the morning at Haneda Airport, waiting to board my plane back to Australia. 

It's been over a year and a half since I first landed in Japan as a foreign student. It's really no overstatement to say that so much has changed since then, both in Japan and back down under. Can't wait to see the people important to me once again. 

Winter in Japan really does mean illuminations. The view inside Haneda Aiport.

My flight itinerary. Sorry to those who can't read Japanese. You can guess from the numbers and symbols. Or learn Japanese. 

Here's my record of my time back.

Trip to Australia Day 9: Flying back

Trip to Australia Day 8: Wedding

Trip to Australia Day 7: Catchups old friends and a wedding rehearsal

Trip to Australia Day 6: High school Bible study group

Trip to Australia Day 5: church, shirts shopping, carols

Trip to Australia Day 4: Pre-wedding Retreat at Kangaroo Valley

Trip to Australia Day 3: Uni friends

Trip to Australia Day 2: ALLC, Kangaroo steak, Bondi Junction Westfield

Trip to Australia Day 1: Landing in Sydney, visiting a family friend with my sister

Trip to Australia day 0: Incheon, Korea

Winter Illuminations in Tsukuba

We've truly entered winter here in Tsukuba. Not only the grass, but even the air seems to have developed frost. Even when I'm breathing through my nose, the air steams up.

Another sign that winter has come in Japan, is the appearance of illuminations. Here are some shots of Tsukuba centre at night.