Phillip Island

 (image from Visit Phillip Island)

 (image from Visit Phillip Island)

Tales from our trip to Tokyo, Australia, New-Zealand & Singapore

Tokyo - city of lights and color
Tokyo - <3 SUMO
Tokyo - old & new
Tokyo - Tsukiji fish market
Melbourne & Australian Open
Phillip Island

Phillip Island is an island 140 km from Melbourne. It is often visited by people staying in Melbourne. The main reason that people go there is the wildlife & nature and most importantly the little penguins. There are a large number of companies that offer trips there. It is quite hard to get there via public transport if you want to see the penguins as they come out after dark - the only reasonable way is to take a whole day trip or go there with your own car. We took a one day trip and were quite pleased as we got a good guide who told us all kinds of fun little info. We saw beautiful beaches and coastlines, kengurus, koalas, wallabies in the wild and the day ended with the much anticipated Penguin parade. In the penguin parade you go to a specially built auditorium and wait for about an hour in the silence for the dark to arrive because when the dark comes, the little penguins come to the shore in groups and wander to their homes after being at the sea to get food. The little penguins are so cute! It's amazing that they come to that same place everyday and there's only one other place where these little penguins live - a small number of them live in the south of Australia. Completely fell in love with them. You can't take pictures at the penguin parade so I borrowed a few pics to give you a feel how they look like. If you want to know more about Phillip Island - go to visitphillipisland.com. Oh, and here's a video which helps to understand the Penguin parade experience a little better. 

Melbourne & Australian Open

Melbourne was hot. Like +40 degrees when we went there. But it was also cold. It got really cold at night time. We were freezing in our shorts a few nights we stayed out until late. We met with my parents who were also there and stayed with them in their apartment which they had rented for their stay in Melbourne during the Australian Open. 

Australian Open was a great event. A really relaxed and fun sportsy event (with weirdly non-sportsy food selection ;). We got to see great matches and great tennis. Loved the experience.  

We also got to see Serena and Venus Williams doubles game. It was so cool to see them live! And we got good seats too. If you look carefully enough, you can find their mum in the audience picture on the left ;)

It was +40 when Jarkko Nieminen played one of his matches (he lost that one - boo). We tried to stay in the shades to even survive just sitting and watching - must have been quite hard to play in that heat!

We spent a few evenings in the Federation square downtown and watched games from the big screen they had put up for the tournament. The tournatment had taken over the whole city basically ;)

St Kilda and South Yarra were my favorite areas of Melbourne. They were full of old pretty houses like this. 

We used the trams to move about - their Myki card system was so messed up that we never really got it. Please let me know if you figure it out! We topped our cards for lets say for a day and they advised us to touch it on the screens when you enter the tram and touch it off when you leave. We did so and after a few rides the card was empty even though we had bought a whole day card. When we asked how it could be so - we had to top up again like 50 cents to get it work again and noboby could tell us why. Still gets my fumes going when I think about it! ;)

In St Kilda Beach there was a fun atmosphere...

... and a lot of beachgoers even though it was windy. 

St Kilda and South Yarra were also full of nice little restaurants and bars and cafés. But my favorite drink turned out to be strawberry milk from the closest grocery store. 

Oh, and in Australia they call Mc Donald's Macca's and for Australia day Mc Donald's had a campaign where they had changed the name of some restaurants to Macca's - "There's only place in the world where you can get maccas!" And for that reason only we had to go and get one burger - a macca - from there ;). And they had lovely frozen drinks in their menu too - I loved the frozen Fanta.  

Tales from our trip to Tokyo, Australia, New-Zealand & Singapore

Tokyo - city of lights and color
Tokyo - <3 SUMO
Tokyo - old & new
Tokyo - Tsukiji fish market
Melbourne & Australian Open

After Tokyo we flew to Australia - and first to Melbourne to watch the Australian Open Tennis tournament. Our experiences are summed up in the pictures and picture texts above. 

Tokyo - Tsukiji fish market

Tales from our trip to Tokyo, Australia, New-Zealand & Singapore

Tokyo - city of lights and color
Tokyo - <3 SUMO
Tokyo - old & new
Tokyo - Tsukiji fish market

Tsukiji Market - the world's largest and busiest fish market - is a must see if you go to Tokyo! I wasn't expecting much but loved the experience so much that it was one of my favorite things in Tokyo. To get there take the Oedo Subway Line to Tsukiji Shijo Station. There are signs at the station which way to go to find the fish market. There is no particular grand entrance and you feel like you shouldn't even walk there or you'll be on someones way but just keep going and watch where you're going and you'll be fine. 

There isn't anything special, but just to see the various kinds of fresh fish and other seafood and the busy atmosphere of scooters, trucks, sellers and buyers hurrying around, make the experience worth while. The local fishermen looked so interesting and the way they handled the fish was amazing. Never seen so many fish in my life! There is also an opportunity to go and see they daily tuna auctions at 5 am. We weren't able to see it because it was closed for visitors when we where there. Apparently there have been so many tourists going to the fish market in the recent years that it has become a problem to the course of business as the place has not been designed to be a tourist spot. And therefore they are limiting the areas and times when visitors can go there. Be sure to check current restrictions before you go. 

New stuff.

Jei, vihdoin löydettiin kiva tv-taso! Se on ollut metsästyksessä ainakin vuoden. Huuto.net tuli hätiin ja tehtiin hyvät kaupat ja ollaan kovin tyytyväisiä. Jatkojohdot ja kaikki roikkuu vielä miten sattuu, mutta ollaan vaan niin iloisia uudesta lipastosta ettei sekään haittaa yhtikäs mitään. TV on nyt melko korkealla, mutta se ei ole haitannut katselua - tosin ei olla kauheasti keritty telkkuria reissun jälkeen katsomaankaan mikä on ihan positiivista. Ollaan käytetty enemmän aikaa ruoan laittamiseen arki-iltaisin. Se on luksusta kun ennen reissua ajauduttiin siihen tapaan, että haettiin vaan jotain puolivalmista kaupasta ja aina jotain einestä ja yökkimys-ei-oikeeta-ruokaa. Kyllä mä mieluummin syön itse tehtyä kasvissosekeittoa tai makaronilaatikkoa.

Lipaston viereisellä tuolilla odottelee työhuoneen uudet tapetit. En malta odottaa että keritään lykkimään ne seiniin!

Reissussa käteen tarttui joitain kortteja ja esitteitä ja lippulappusia mitä olisi kiva laittaa esille. Nekin ajallaan - nyt ne odottavat pinossa jota siirrellään paikasta toiseen paremman paikan toivossa.

Keittiön string -hyllyn sisältö on vahingossa muodostunut tuollaiseksi viher-turkoosi-minttu painotteiseksi. Vielä jaksaa tuo värimaailma miellyttää - vaikkakin perusinervä ja keltainen ovat nousseet myös tän hetken lemppariväreiksi.

Tokyo - old & new

Tales from our trip to Tokyo, Australia, New-Zealand & Singapore

Tokyo - city of lights and color
Tokyo - <3 SUMO
Tokyo - old & new

In Tokyo the old and the new live side by side. A good example is that next to Tokyo's buzziest area Shibya is Yoyogi Park where Tokyo's oldest temple, Sensoji, is situated. It's handy to combine these places in see them during the same day as they are so close to each other. Sensoji. (浅草寺, Sensōji, also known as Asakusa Kannon Temple) is a Buddhist temple and is one of Tokyo's most colorful and popular temples. There time stands still and everything is calm. Meanwhile back in the heart of Shibya it is busy and quite hectic with all the traffic and lights and shops and people. Next to Shibya station there is a famous crossing of streets called 

Shibuya Crossing.

It would be a shame to go to Tokyo and not take a walk across the famous intersection outside Shibuya Station. When the lights turn 

red at this busy junction, they all turn red at the same time in every direction which means that cars and other traffic stop completely and pedestrians surge into the intersection from all directions, like marbles spilling out of a box. Other than that Shibya is packed with stores and restaurants, and boutiques. 

When we went to Shibya and Sensoji and Asakusa it was the day after the snow fall. It was hilarious to watch how they handled the situation after that much snow. In front of banks and such local Sararīman ("Salarymen") shuffled snow away from their doorsteps with their black suits and shiny shoes on. In the temple area they used funny old wood carriages and made big snow piles and placed them in the sun. Everyone took care of their own area. There seemed to be no public service for cleaning out the snow. 

We also saw the area of Asakusa which is where an atmosphere of the old Tokyo survives. Asakusa's main attraction is Sensoji, a very popular Buddhist temple, built in the 7th century. We mainly tried not to fall as it was so slippery after the snowfall and were in awe of all the people going there and doing their religious routines. 

sumo

Tales from our trip to Tokyo, Australia, New-Zealand & Singapore

Tokyo - city of lights and color
Tokyo - <3 SUMO

If you happen to be in Tokyo during one of the three grand Sumo tournaments — 15-day events in January, May and September — you should definitely go and see sumo wrestling. It is an absolute blast! We bought tickets in the morning, spent a few hours in Akihabara - area packed only of electronic stores and game halls, before going to see the games. Akihabara is a nerds heaven and is famous for its countless electronics shops. You can also see a lot of game halls and such devoted to anime and manga which is quite interesting. While we were there it started to rain - quite heavily. And soon enough it turned to snow. It was weird how quickly it turned to snow and complete winter. We just laughed as it was so absurd. I mean, look at me in the wind and snow storm with my huge raincoat - it was hilarious! 

Around 2 o'clock we headed to the sumo games and spent the rest of the day watching big men strech and stomp in the arena. Sounds boring but it definitely wasn't! It all goes down in Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo's National Sumo Hall. If you want get there, take the JR Yamanote line to Akihabara and transfer to the Sobu line for Ryogoku station; the stadium is next door or take the Toei Oedo line to Ryogoku station. Apparently if you go on a Friday or Saturday evening the place is packed so you better book tickets beforehand. We went on the first day of the tournament so the tickets were easy to come by. Ticket information found here. 

The game itself is so funny. One game, or bout as they call it, usually lasts for just a few intense seconds (bodies lock, twist, ripple, drop) with a lot of posturing (stretching, stomping, salt-tossing) in between. The actual match is over in a matter of seconds and it seemed to be quite rare that  they get to a point where they throw each other over the lines (but when they do, it gets a big roar from the audience ;) Normally one just rushes and attacks and the other one moves and the attacker falls on his face ;)  If you're interested, you can read about the rules of sumo here. 

At the start of each round the Rikishi (sumo wrestlers) come to the arena wearing ceremonial aprons and do a routine in the ring - this is worthwhile seeing as it looks funny in our eyes when big men wearing strings walk in a ring and do funny movements ;) While you're there you should eat their special chicken (can't remember what it is called though ;) and drink local beer there - we did and it was perfect :)

Urban ears.

 

Mulla on ihan hölmöt korvat. Niihin ei istu mitkään kuulokkeet. Tai itse asiassa koko pää ihan oudon mallinen kun ei siihen istu hatut eikä aurinkolasitkaan :) Ei paree laittaa päähän mitään lisäkeosia. Mutta nyt ilokseni löysin kuulokkeet mitkä pysyy korvissa ja näyttääkin vielä kivalta: Urbanearsin Bagis malliset kuulokeet. Jei! Punaiset tietysti että mätsää puhelimeen. Tuli arkeen yhtäkkiä ripaus luksusta kun vertaa vanhoihin kuulokkeisiin, josta kaikki kuului läpi :) Ostettiin myös ne isommat Plattanit harmaana kotikäyttöön ja miekkoselle töihin. Värivalikoima ei ollut paras mahdollinen Verkkokaupassa mistä nuo haettiin, mutta värejähän löytyy valikoimista vaikka mitä kivoja.

My new Urbanears earplugs.

Just remembered.

 

Jossain vaiheessa jossain välissä viime vuoden lopulla sain ostettua kauan etsimäni posliinitussin. Ei löytynyt haluttua väriä eikä miellyttävää tussin kärjen kokoa, mutta jonkunlainen kuitenkin. Jossain vaiheessa jossain välissä viime vuoden lopulla kerkesin myös piirrellä tussilla tuollaiseen hauskaan kirppikseltä löytyneeseen teekannuun. En ole käyttänyt vielä teekannua saati pitänyt kannua missään esillä. Tuli koko kannu tästä juuri löytyneestä kuvan räpsystä mieleen. Joku päivä tässä ehkä kaivan sen esiin ja harkitsen käyttöä - vaikkakin tuo alimman rivin viivanen onkin jo ihan liikaa mielestäni. Ei auta enää polttamisen jälkeen harmitella.

Meidän huushollissa tehdään nykyään viikkoruokasuunnitelma. Se läntätään jääkaapin oveen muistutukseksi. Mun käsiala on maailman epäselvintä. Luulisi, että siitä olisi oppinut lukemaan epäselviä käsialoja, mutta ei. Olen maailman huonoin tulkitsemaan sekä omaa että muiden käsialoja. Saas nähdä tuleeko tehtyä edes suunniteltuja ruokia kun nuista lapuista näitä ohjeita lueskelee ;) Suunnitteleeko kukaan muu viikon ruokia etukäteen? Me ollaan koettu se kovinkin käteväksi. Riittää yksi kauppareissu viikossa entisen parin-kolmen epämääräisen hakureissun sijaan.

Ja eikö oo mageet kengät mun työkaverilla!?

I decorated this teapot some time at the end of last year. I just remembered it even existed. I haven't even used it yet.  
Nowadays we plan what to eat during the week in advance - makes going to the store so much easier!
And doesn't my work friend have the coolest shoes ever?!