Two days after Sydney I was off to Tokyo to meet Eva and Teresa. I hadn’t had much time to plan out the itinerary so I left that to Eva, who had been in Tokyo for a few days and gotten comfortable with the wildly inefficient rail system.

My stay in Tokyo was an absolute blur. I only stayed for 72 hours and barely remember it (and no, not because of blacking out). The pictures that follow are mostly of people and relatively ordinary things, hardly Tokyo-specific, but they’re how I’ll remember my weekend in Japan.

Tsukiji Market

We went to Tsukiji Market– the largest seafood market in the world– the first morning I was in Japan. The place was enormous, reeked of raw seafood (thankfully it wasn’t summer time) and some creatures for sale that I’d never seen before in my life.

There were a lot more eye-opening things at Tsukiji than these octopuses...

The next few photographs are of people that I was able to take (sneak) shots of while they were candidly in their own worlds.

The Medical Mask

Tsukiji Transport

Grandmother Kabukicho

Yoyogi Coupling

Imperial Guard

When Eva and Teresa left I was on my own for Sunday night. I checked out the tourism guide and saw a bridge with a pedestrian path (one of my go-to activities in a city with water): the Rainbow Bridge over Tokyo Bay. After an hour on the subway (and nearly 15-20 minutes lost in the subway station) I got there just before they gated off the path. There’s more embarrassing aspects of the story that involve sweating, snot and my screaming “screw you guard, I told you I could make it across in time,” but that’s for another time.

The Rainbow Bridge over Tokyo Bay

Tokyo Tower

On my last day in Tokyo I had to wheel my suitcase around because I foolishly opted for that rather than my hiking backpack. First stop: Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, Observatory Deck.

Okay, so the building isn’t the sexiest sounding location, but it was a free vantage point in the center of Tokyo!

It took me like 10 minutes to work up the nerve to ask someone to take a picture =(

I paid $50 to sleep here. Now I understand where coffins get their price tags.

I had an interesting trip to Tokyo. The cost of everything (from a $65 taxi to $13 bowls of ramen) put a damper on our moods but seeing the juxtaposition between Japanese and Korean fashion was really refreshing. Oh and I also got to get a picture in front of this place:

I'm really mature, I swear.

Sydney Harbor

From the suburbs of Melbourne I took a train (almost got fined $180 for putting my feet up) into the city and then grabbed a bus to Tullamarine. After having an awful experience on Christmas Eve I was prepared for the worst; fortunately, I blew threw security and was at my gate (in disbelief) fifteen minutes later. As of 9:00pm I was off to Sydney to see Mija and prepare for the NYE festivities.

Mija, one of my closest friends from the Homecoming Program, along with her mother and brother, picked me up at the airport and drove me back to their house in Hunter’s Hill, a suburb about 20 minutes outside of Sydney’s CBD. Too late to do anything, we went to bed early and got ready for the grand tour of Sydney that would start the following day.

Sydney Opera House

The University of Sydney: Mija in the Quad

We walked from Circular Quay (the city’s main docking station) all the way down to Mija’s uni. Riding on the ferry in the harbor was easily one of my favorite things we did.

Sydney skyline from the Harbor Ferry

The Man, the Myth, the Legendary Fishbowl Artist: Matthew Scott (and me) about to walk over our second iconic bridge together

After a few great days touring Sydney it was time for NYE. We wound up waiting around 12 hours for 12 minutes of fireworks, but if I had to do it all over again I wouldn’t have changed a thing (well, maybe I would have brought shorts to wear during the sweltering afternoon sun).

The 5-hour line into Mrs. Macquaries Point that we passed on (after having waited in it for an hour haha)

Just wait, Shirtless & Umbrella is going to be all the rage in Korea come summer time

Bloomingdales makes an appearance in front of the Harbor Bridge

Fireworks

On New Year’s Day we went to Bondi. It was hot and the first time in my life I swam in the ocean on NYD. The southern hemisphere definitely knows how to start the New Year right!

Bondi

I spent six days in Sydney and loved every minute of it. I was lucky enough to run into Matt, another very close friend from the Homecoming Program, and his girlfriend (as well as their friends), who I hadn’t seen in months. We tight.

As great as the weather, sights, fireworks and friends were I’d have to say the icing on Sydney’s cake was seeing Mija again and meeting her family. Easily one of the most genuinely good families I’ve ever met, the Keanes took me in as if I was their own (insert adoption joke here) and always made me feel at home. Cheers, Mija, thanks for a wonderful stay and best of luck in India (and 2012). Take care =p

Leftovers:

Ramen. It had been about a week and I was already craving it. I went bananas when I saw this at Circular Quay.

Wedges (c) Matthew Scott

King's Cross... in the day time

Melbourne from the Eureka Tower's Skydeck, home to the highest public vantage point in the Southern Hemisphere

During my trip to Korea last July I met Zoe, a Korean-Australian that shares my love for sarcasm and crude humor while maintaining a much more pleasant demeanor. So, even though I boarded my flight to Australia only a few weeks ago, my adventure down under started nearly a year and half prior. Without the friendship that Zoe and I formed over our brief two weeks in Korea– and sustained for months and months beyond– I doubt I would have made it to my fourth continent (same goes for that Sydneysider). Thanks for welcoming me into your home and being a wonderful friend.

Now, enough with the sappy stuff, onto the week that was Melbourne (I don’t remember the everyday details of my five-day stay, nor do I think writing it would be the most entertaining way to share it; fortunately, I took a lot of pictures. Enjoy!).

Off of Great Ocean Road.

Boys were eating french fries. I contemplated stealing and/or asking them for some. Wisely, I decided against both.

I arrived in Melbourne on Christmas Eve after approximately twenty hours of traveling (4 hours to Guangzhou, 5 hour layover, 10 hours to Melbourne). I’ve never flown by myself during the holidays and security was a nightmare. It took forever to clear customs but once I got through the summer sun cooled my frustrations. It was only midday so we headed southwest to Great Ocean Road and caught up.

They drive on the wrong side of the road!

St. Kilda on Christmas Eve

For Christmas I went on a run outside, shirtless. I told Zoe’s mom that it was “my Christmas present” because in Korea people a) don’t run outside b) don’t run outside shirtless and c) definitely don’t run outside shirtless in zero degree weather on Christmas. It was a quiet Christmas but an experience I definitely related to.

Healesville Sanctuary: Kangaroo

Healesville Sanctuary: I promise I'm not afraid of Kangaroos

Healesville Sanctuary: Chlamydia Carrier

Great, now I have Chlamydia.

After Healesville (and Melbourne’s temperamental weather started cooperating) we were off to ride bikes around Melbourne, tour the city on foot and hit the beach. All of my favorite things.

With the messenger bag over my shoulder I couldn't help but feel like I had something to deliver...

Eureka Tower over the Yarra River (...why's it so brown?)

hahaha and Melbourne's so hipster! (insert indie music posters everywhere)

The famous Flinder's Street Station with Zoe.

Unfortunately I don’t have any worthwhile pictures from Sorrento (the beach we stayed at for my last day in Melbourne). My best story from Sorrento is that my back got burnt so badly that I was pealing weeks later. Goddamn hole in the ozone layer!

I was scolded by a Sydneysider for not trying Melbourne coffee (because apparently it’s something they’re known for) but other than that minor oversight I’d say I really loved Melbourne. It was creatively modern. Bridges and architecture showed character despite clearly being new, unlike in Korea where new chrome, sterile building designs are repeated blueprints.

Thanks for showing me your city, Zoe, it certainly lived up to all the hype.

Today I finished my last day of teaching this semester and am off to Australia on Friday. After spending the holidays down under I’ll jet off to Japan and then have about a week and a half back in Korea before heading down to Taiwan.

Things will calm down (sort of) in February when I move into my rented room in Seoul and start taking language classes. I’ll try and blog about my travels but there’s no guarantee!

Now I’m off to start two hopefully incredible months of vacation!

For the last three years I’ve kept a journal pretty regularly. I got my first moleskine for Christmas in 2009 and have since gone through that one and two others from front to back.

Approximately every 12 months I finish a moleskine. The dates to my just completed journal are 11.26.10 to 12.10.11. It’s like clockwork and it’s completely unintentional. It’s nice how despite how much things change (countries, careers, people) some things are always comfortingly constant.

Onto #4.