My last destination on South Island took me to the Franz Josef glacier. This glacier is one of only three in the world that pushes up right against temperate rain forest. The change in scenery between cascading waterfalls alongside lush green forest and an overgrown ice cube is breathtaking.
I opted to go for the full-day hike so that we’d get a chance to get a little bit higher on the glacier where the snow is a lot cleaner. Getting to the top of the glacier on foot would take several days though there are huts spaced out for overnight stays to anyone who has the experience and willpower to proceed.
I was most amazed by the adaptability of the human body to extreme conditions. The guide told us that a few months of work created notable changes. His skin became tougher and less prone to cuts. He found it easier to stay out longer without experiencing cold. As a rule, the guides tend to wear shorts because if they start feeling the cold then all the tourists are probably freezing.
There are small pools of melted water that form on the glacier. Some of the climbers decided to immerse themselves on the way back. It’s a bit strange because you have to keep the boots and metal spikes on, otherwise you can’t climb back out!
In my job and in my life I am very concious of risk. I think it’s important to seek new experiences and as a secondary measure, reduce the risk as much as possible. This attitude is what led me to organize a skydiving trip a few years ago.
I first suggested the idea of skydiving to one of my co-workers and within a few weeks we had twenty people who expressed interest. I had to wait patiently until spring before we could organize a trip to New Jersey for the jump. Five people actually showed up and we all walked away happy after our tandem skydive.
I wish I had a video of the experience but the camera man had the day off. I remember stepping off the plane with one foot trying to reach the small platform with the wind rushing by. There was a short countdown and I even pushed off like I was supposed to. The first few seconds were a rush of wind and I had to concentrate to remember what else I was supposed to do.
The twenty minutes of preparation we received seemed so inadequate. The alternative was a six hour course followed by a static line jump. I was in this for the free fall, so that option did not appeal to me. The instructor kept it simple and told us we only had to remember three things:
- Move slowly and deliberately getting off the plane
- As soon as you are out of the plane, ARCH
- Lift your feet forward as if you were doing a crunch before you hit the ground
That’s right! I was supposed to arch my body to stop the tumble and stabilize my fall. I was a few seconds behind schedule and we managed to flip twice through a small cloud before the shock of jumping out of a plane passed me by.
The whole experience was surreal. Thinking back on it, I can’t remember the excitement or the expected rush of adrenaline. I always thought that if I did another skydive the second time might be even more exciting. Although I have not skydived since that time, I got the chance to experience a 134 metre bungee jump while visiting Queenstown, New Zealand.
The experience is still fresh in my mind and I have a video of the entire jump which led to some unexpected realizations. I only had brief flashes of nervousness in the hours leading up to the jump. I knew what to expect and I had a goal of doing a solid jump extending directly into an arch just like I should have done during my skydive. The most dangerous thing you can do on a bungee is jump feet first. When the cord reaches full extension, your body will be whipped around possibly leading to back injuries.
I guess my biggest fears came from the unexpected. I was asked if I had anything to say for the camera but I didn’t even think that would be an option. My feet were strapped together for the jump and the lack of stability led to a tentative penguin-like walk to the platform. I was afraid that the blue bag connecting me to the bungee would pull me over the edge of the platform. I actually approached the platform looking down the whole time and I never got closer than ten centimetres to the edge.
When I knew I was in position, I looked up to the mountains ahead of me. There was an immediate change in my posture as I became relaxed and committed to doing my perfect arch. There was a short countdown and then I bent my knees and jumped forward into the air. Although I did not initially have anything to say for the camera, the video proves that I actually yelled “Geronimo!” in the first few seconds of free fall. I honestly did not plan that, and until I watched the video, I did not remember doing it.
Bungee jumping is a little bit different from skydiving. My body was still whipped around slightly and I felt as if I had done 20 sit-ups afterwards. The elasticity of the bungee cord causes a slow deceleration unlike the steadily increasing pressure caused by a parachute dragging the harness. My favourite sensation was the top of the first bounce when for a single instance, you feel completely weightless.
I still don’t remember the expected adrenaline. Maybe I never got that rush, or maybe it happened and the novelty of the experience prevents me from remembering it just like I didn’t remember yelling “Geronimo!” as I went over the edge. Regardless, I think I am done with bungee jumping although I am still open to new experiences.
Even before I got into scuba diving, I had been hearing people wax poetic about their own diving experiences. At least one web site lists the Yongala as the top dive site in the world. I had been hounded by one of my friends who insisted my trip to Australia would not be complete until I dived the Yongala.
As I like to make all my plans at the last possible minute for maximum flexibility, I didn’t get around to booking a flight until a week before I left Melbourne. The cost for the flight was $329! I decided to go to Sydney instead. Once in Sydney, I decided to try again and was able to find a flight for just $119. Australian airlines are very much like Japanese and American ones. If you give long enough notice you can get huge discounts. Also, last minute flights have huge price premiums.
Townsville is a small city just a few hundred kilometres south of Cairns. It is also the largest town in Australia north of Brisbane. There is a ferry service that runs to nearby Magnetic Island on an hourly basis. The population is influenced heavily by the local universities and army base. During the week, there is absolutely nothing going on in the city. Guaranteed.
I signed up for a dive while I was still in Sydney and I’m very glad I took the time to dive the Yongala. Although I didn’t bring a camera, I saw many underwater animals which were new to me. I saw a very large sea snake (not the banded kind that are common in Thailand), but the highlight of the dive was a 2 metre marble ray! I think I woke it up by accident because I turned my head and there it was right in front of my face! We still had about ten minutes of air left and all the scuba divers clustered around the huge ray. At one point it swam above me as I was sitting on the bottom looking up.
Anyone who travels for longer than a month knows about backpacker burnout. When I travelled Europe for six weeks after graduation, I became burned out after about four weeks. I was changing cities every two or three days and the pace of travel was very hectic.
Each city has its own idiosyncrasies and the stress of trying to find accommodation in an unfamiliar place surrounded by people who may not speak the same language adds up quickly. At the end of my fourth week, I spent three solid days in Berlin playing cards at my hostel.
On this trip, I had a plan to prevent burnout. I was going to move slowly, devoting at least four days to most of the cities I visited. At least once per week I was going to have a rest day where I would do no sight seeing or any other tourist activity. This plan carried me through half of my trip but when I got to Japan I realized I was going to need a holiday from my holiday.
I had originally planned a month long stay in Estonia as part of my travels. I wanted to get away from the backpacking scene and immerse myself in the local culture. My trip got delayed slightly so I put off my break until I got to Australia. I had met so many people from Melbourne during my travels that I felt very comfortable staying there.
I arrived in Melbourne just as the Formula 1 championships were getting started. I stayed in a nightmare hostel the first night, actually the dirtiest hostel I’ve seen anywhere in the world. I quickly moved to the YHA which, while having less character, is absolutely spotless. I stayed there for a week while doing some apartment hunting. The best way to find an apartment in London or Australia is Gumtree. I finally found a place in the CBD across the street from the Exchange Hotel. The location was great and I had my own room with an ensuite bathroom.
I decided to jump into the salsa scene while I was in Melbourne. I quickly ended up doing group classes three or four times a week and private lessons on the weekend. The work really paid off. By the end of the month I was comfortable doing level 3 classes, I could easily pick up the rhythm from most of the songs we used, and I knew how to lead. I was told by several experienced dancers that my progress was very rapid, but I think I would need several more months before I could really dance smoothly and unconsciously.
My time was well spent on salsa as I avoided doing any sort of tourist activity. No sightseeing, no walking tours, and I even stopped drinking alcohol for about three weeks. I spent most of my time just socializing with people, reading books and hanging out about the city. I found it very easy to meet people in Melbourne, and I am looking forward to showing them a good time when they visit me in the future.
I spent just over a week in Western Australia. I arrived during Labour Day and found accommodation to be almost impossible to find. My first impression of Australia was as a place even more expensive than Japan!
Perth is very isolated from the rest of Australia. There are no other major cities within thousands of kilometres. Australians really like their live music and the biggest downside of living in Perth is that all the bands touring Australia almost never include Perth on their tours.
I took a nap in the airport when I first arrived since it was too early to check into any hotels. I suspect that is when the LCD on my camera cracked. Although there was a Casio repair centre in the city, the repairs would cost over $200 since cracked LCDs are not covered by Casio’s warranty. This was the second Casio LCD I cracked on this trip; I decided to get a very nice Olympus camera which I am extremely happy with. Although the screen is not as bright, the camera is durable, and as a bonus waterproof to 10 metres!
I did six dives near Esperance. The first four were right from the dock that stretches several hundred metres into the water. The last two dives were done from a boat. We planned to catch abalone for dinner. Unfortunately, no one bothered to look up what abalone looked like in their natural habitat. We ended up with some sort of snail. The mystery meat was served up and I am just glad no one got sick since no one was able to identify it. I’m willing to eat almost anything as long as (a) I know what it is and (b) it’s reasonably safe. Chalk one up for experience!
Travelling many countries it is easy to receive a bad impression of a country by encountering locals who take advantage of tourists. In India, scams seem common because the 1% of the people who participate in scams actively pursue their targets. In Japan, it is hard to imagine that any type of scamming even goes on. The generosity and willingness to help I have personally received from the Japanese is astonishing.
When I went for lunch at a tempura restaurant in the Asakusa district of Tokyo, I was seated with a Japanese man who helped me to decipher the menu. In halting sentences we were able to communicate where each of us had come from and a little bit of our family lives. By the end of the meal, the man insisted he would pay for both of us.
Having arrived in Kumamoto, I was eager to try the local beef speciality known as higo-gyu. The brochures and guide books all mentioned this food but did not list any restaurants. I walked into a random restaurant to inquire if they served higo-gyu. When they replied negatively (and apologetically), I asked if there was a restaurant nearby which served this delicacy. Two of the waitresses started searching the yellow pages. One waiter started skimming some of the local food magazines. Two of the cooks came out of the kitchen and started calling around on their cell phones. The head waitress invited me in for a complimentary coffee. All of this, just to send me to a competitor!
I walked into a cafe with a Japanese friend of mine who engaged an older lady sitting nearby in conversation. The lady was in her 70’s and was very excited to meet someone from Canada. She asked both of us to sign her guest book. This woman turned out to be a master of Shoujo (Japanese calligraphy). She offered to create a scroll for me free of charge! Unfortunately, I was leaving the next day and a properly made scroll takes several days to create. The offer to invest so much time in a project for someone she had just met really underlines the generosity of the Japanese spirit.
Even the Japanese Inns I stayed at called ryokan insisted on sending me off with a gift or two. I was constantly amazed at how well I was treated no matter what the occasion. I knew that Japanese society valued politeness, but everyone I met went above and beyond expectations.
Having spent a month in Japan, the only negative experiences I came away with were a drunk man who was a little too eager to practice his English and a shopkeeper who would not make change for me unless I bought something from his store. These are minor trifles which would be part of every day life in every other country but stood out in contrast to all the other wonderful people I met on my visit to Japan.
A few years ago, I read the so-called warrior’s trilogy. The informal series consists of Machiavelli’s The Prince, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, and the lesser known but equally important Miyamoto Musashi’s Book of Five Rings. Musashi is mentioned in many samurai films and is considered to be one of the greatest swordsmen to have ever lived. His fluid tactics and sound advice mirror many of the lessons from Sun Tzu’s earlier work.
Musashi duelled more than 60 times over the course of his life but it was not until he was in his sixties that he thought of himself as a master martial artist. Musashi is most famous for his two-sword technique and later in life for being able to defeat opponents without lifting a weapon. It is a mystery whether Musashi’s fearsome aura was rooted in his understanding of psychology, his reputation, or his reported unwillingness to bathe.
The Lonely Planet failed to mention that Kumamoto was the final resting place of Musashi as well as the location where he meditated on and wrote his famous treatise. Although the cave where Musashi prepared himself for 90 days is many kilometres from public transportation, his grave site is a little bit easier to get to.
I was very lucky to be travelling with a local Japanese speaker who made it much easier to find the site. We were also pleasantly surprised by the caretaker who let us into the traditional tea house located on the grounds and showed us around. The tea house consisted of several large rooms separated by sliding panels and was surrounded by a garden. The entire experience evoked memories of the tea ceremony described in James Clavell’s Shogun.
Japan has over thirty amazing castles mostly in Western Honshu. Many of the castles were destroyed during the war and the ones which have been rebuilt were done using poured concrete and although they look like classic buildings from the outside, they are actually modern museums on the inside.
Himeji castle is different. It was spared from bombing through clever use of camouflage. During the restoration process, only traditional construction techniques were used.
I visited three castles while in Japan but Himeji was my favourite. As a value-added service, English speaking tour guides are free when available. There are so many Japanese people who want to practice their English that they often volunteer for these roles.
After spending a few days in Tokyo, I moved on to Kyoto. Kyoto used to be the capitol of Japan before Tokyo. I stayed in a hostel called K’s House about halfway between the train station and the Geisha district of Gion.
Kyoto is saturated by shrines and temples. Two of the most famous temples are called Kinkakuji and Ginkakuji, translated as silver temple and golden temple respectively. There is a really great path along the river called the Philosopher’s walk that I enjoyed one day.
The food in Kyoto is some of the best in Japan. I had another chance to enjoy Okonomiyaki (Japanese pancakes) as well as the Japanese haute cuisine known as kaiseki. I have previously had some amazing kaiseki in Toronto at Sushi Kaji as well as New York at Next Door Nobu and Sugiyama. These three restaurants offered some of the most amazing meals I’ve ever had so I was eager to try kaiseki locally where the entire tradition began.
The restaurant was located in the middle of a shopping district. There was a tiny door to walk through which opened up into a small but immaculate traditional garden. I was greeted at the door and seated in a private booth. Kaiseki consists of very small servings but each course is a blend of many contrasting ingredients. The restaurant I chose was not the most expensive as kaiseki meals can cost upwards of $200 USD. I really enjoyed the experience and the staff was very friendly to me.
I have wanted to go to Japan for many years. During school I gave up a sure job for the chance at an internship in Nagasaki, and even after I graduated the first position I applied for was as a game developer in Yokohama.
I think it’s important to live in a place for at least a year before you can get a feel for its subtleties. It also takes a long time to be comfortable using a new language so I thought living in Japan for a few years would be a dream come true. The working reality in Japan is much different from my expectations and a six day work week is just not compatible with my values. Maybe this is a reversal of the Paris Syndrome!
The Japanese have such great expectations of Paris. They think of an idealized place and service approaching the Japanese standard. The grim reality of rude Parisians and dirty streets results in complete psychological breakdown for about 12 Japanese per year. It is a rude awakening when expectations are not met.
I like to keep expectations to a minimum but prepare myself for any of the likely possibilities. In general, if you expect the worst you will certainly encounter it. I had a much rosier picture of Japan especially since I’ve been fascinated by it for so many years. I spent three semesters taking a series of Japanese courses which have been invaluable in getting around. I spent a year in university being an avid Go player rising to a rank of about 6 kyu. I also spent an inordinate amount of time watching anime until about four years ago. Sushi has been my favourite food since I was introduced to it in the late 90’s. The Japan I expected to see was certainly present but there were also many surprises, all of which I viewed as positive.
Tokyo alone was full of surprises. Each district has its own character. In Harajuku, I saw dancing Elvises clad in leather. The impossible-to-find sushi restaurant in Ginza called Kyuubei reminded me just how good food can be. Akihabara is an electronics mecca without compare. Asakusa is a taste of traditional Japan, with temples and tempura being the order of the day. If Tokyo is a macrocosm of Japan, then my expectations were not just met, but exceeded.
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