Good Bye Asia, Me Love You Long Time by Katy Jane

well, pictures are first again. i can't figure out how to get them in the middle! or at the end! well enjoy them and then read up below to put them in some context.



me and greg outside his cute little house, either looking for the space shuttle or trying to explore the ramshackle building next door. you decide.


bullet train! see how FAST its going?


i think this is that famous intersection that they always show on tv when they talk about japan, where a ZILLION people all flood into the intersection when the light changes and there are bright lights and big billboards. tokyo's time square. i'm such a tourist!


fish market! so many squiggly things!


mr and mrs yajima, keiko, and haruna! so cute and great!


closed temple at the top of like 1000000 stairs.


cherry blossoms and lanterns that i LOVE and want a bunch of. at a temple.


temple life! and greg with an umbrella that the universe (in the form of a sweet nun) gave to us when we were stuck under an awning with no way to get home.


right? thats what i want to do EVERYDAY!


osaka! so bright! saturday night!


kitty chan! at the most peculiar parade ever. other attractions include: vcr's and air conditioning units, boys dressed as female cartoon characters, and a whole bevy of girls dressed up like french maid. oh, and a marching band.


temple and more lanterns.


temple. can i live here please? this temple claims to be the biggest or the oldest or something and inside is a HUGE buddha.

deer in nara that are TAME. although i didn't try to pet any.

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it has been a while since i have last posted, as it is not always easy to come across a computer whose default launguage is english. right now i am in hong kong, but very soon (in several hours, this very afternoon!) i will be boarding a flight to tel aviv, israel to do a little relaxing with the family. i have been in hong kong for only a day and a half, but have really liked it. being here and having spent several weeks in taiwan really makes me want to travel around mainland china, although i hear that things are very different over there. and i would have to work on my chinese. having spent (relativley)so muc time in taiwan, it was maybe a tiny bit like coming to a familiar place here in hk, but not really. i am lucky to be hosted by some family friends, the Weisner's, who have been kind and accommodating hosts, with cute kiddos and an east coast perspective (which, i have to admit, i've been missing).

for the last two weeks, i was in japan. it was unreal and incredible and wonderful and cold and kind of like waking up in a dream. i bet i will feel the same way when i go to london or paris, places i have only heard about and have only heard fabulous, fabled, magical things about. i expected japan to be a little something like disney land mixed with the jetsons plus ten times more people than new york times geisha, samurai, ninja, and zen gardens. plus or minus bullet trains, green tea, and sushi. needless to say, i had high and varied expectations. japan was and was not what i thought it would be, with excellent sushi, women in kimono, a ride on the bullet train (so fast!), and bright lights to even exceed the tristate area. but in some ways (not in tokyo) there is a quite slowness to life in japan. there are temples EVERYWHERE, buddhist and shinto (some both at the same time), the architecture is thoughtful and the food is refined and prepared with both skill and thought.

i spent the first week in japan in and around sakurai, a wee country town south east of kyoto and osaka. living in sakurai is one greg wazowicz, a friend of mine from college who is teaching english through a program called JET. greg has been in japan for 7 months and in that time has acquired all kinds of insider knowledge about japan, some good, some bad, but all of interest. i think japan is a hard nut to crack for foriegners, and perhaps intentionally, but it seems like greg has a fairly good handle on the workings of the world he is in, into which i got a little insight. while staying in gregs tiny, darling, very japanese house, i was able to explore osaka (bright lights!), nara (tame deer!), and kyoto (geisha and cherry blossoms!), as well as around sakurai (temples! small town life!). the thing that struck me most about my time in and around sakurai was sheer abundance of gardens, smaller than the size of our argentine huerta, where folks were growing (in the middle of the city) all manner of veggies. this coupled with, and like in taiwan, so many homes having potted plants near the door or on the balcony, made for such a pleasant, sustainable looking, and environmentally connected landscape. i wonder why we don't do that in the us? and more importantly, why don't I do that in the us? cause i never thought about it, but now i will. oh the joys of travel! but on the flip side of this green paradise is the knowledge that japan burns most of their garbage (waste is shamelessly separated into combustible and non combustible, with plastic in the combustible category) and most items for sale are beneath two if not three layers or packaging. making up for this, at least in the very short term, is the country's national obsession with cuteness. this goes for everything from cartoons, food items, clothing, and little dangly doodads to hang from your cell phone (even old men have them!). and also comfort and personal enjoyment of life, seen in a culture of hot spring appreciation, exquisite food, and a rich history of arts and theatre.

after spending nearly a week in sakurai with greg, meeting his friends, cooking yummy meals, and exploring expat life in small town japan, i went up to tokyo for nearly a week to take in the city. frenetic and crazed, tokyo really is a big city. maybe even the definition of what a big city is. bright lights, tons of people, good shopping, fancy restaurants, fast, fast, fast pace, and always on the cutting edge. in tokyo, i was hosted by some family friends, the Yajima's and the Kuriyama's. keiko (kuriyama) and her parents, mr and mrs yajima, were such excellent hosts! i satyed with keiko, her darling daughter haruna, and cute dog daigoro in the home in shinjuku. it as great to be around a baby and a doggy and a mom. i AM spoiled. keiko took the best care of me, and i enjoyed the luxury of being in a real house. she also took me to a tea ceremony, which was unique and enjoyable. the yajima's are excellent cooks and made the most delicious tempura i have ever had in my life. mr yajima took me in the very wee hours of the morning to the fish market in tokyo and then to a fabulous sushi breakfast, where he picked all the fish and i got to try all kinds of new things! i was truly sad to leave keiko and the family, but am glad for the new friends. so i left tokyo, which was getting to me a little bit (as you all know, i'm not quite a i big city girl and i was actually a little worried that the stress, hustle, and bustle of tokyo might give me an ulcer.. which it didn't), headed to sakurai for one last night, and then on to hong kong.

so this is it, i suppose. i am really, really, really sad to leave asia. i have had a wonderful time here and realized that i NEED to come back. china is calling my name, as are southeast asia and india. ah, but for another trip! i am glad for the time spent here and am so lucky to have been taken care of so well here. AND! i am excited to head to the middle east to be with my family and eat so much hummus that i absolutely explode. as always, i miss you all a ton a ton, and apologize for not being such a good blogger.

love love love love LOVE and hugs and kisses,
katy jane

we love australia

I am standing in the long security line at the airport, trying not to combust with excitement! Singapore, here we come.

It is hard to believe that we have been in this huge country for 6 weeks! Although Laura and I feel that we did the East coast justice, we know that we will return one day and continue to explore australia, because there was no way we were going to see everything in the short amount of time we had. I think what I am coming away with, and what I will miss the most, is all the fabulous people we met in this country. Not just aussie - we miss our campervan mates desperately already! It was so much fun to travel with other people our age. That being said, the Australians we met were incredible in their kindness and generosity. There was rhonda and Toby. Gary, whom we were initially warned about for his ability to "take the piss" and Karen. Fox found some maybe distant relatives in the Australian Foxes. Tom, who introduced us to serenity and putting things in the pool room (everyone go out and rent the movie The Castle) and lovely Maria, who was always ready to talk about a good book. Then, of course, there was david and sue. When we met sue (in a hot tub in new zealand) she generously offered her home to us in cairns. But, in actuality, sue and david gave us so much more than a place to stay. They introduced us to their friends. They threw parties and took us to parties. They acted as personal your guides. They taught us the ins and outs of rugby. They explained Australian politics to us over dinner. They listened to us explain united states politics over dinner. They were the most generous hosts, and I am not sure we will ever be able to fully thank them.

I think my favorite activity in australia may have to be the afternoon spent in caper tribulation with sue and Maria. We had a lovely drive and coffee in the morning in port Douglas before crossing the river into the rainforest of cape tribulation. We walked on the beach, where the rainforest does actually meet the ocean. After lunch, a local directed is to a magical and secret waterhole where we cooled off before going for a short bushwalk. After we stopped for locally made icecream ... Delicious!!!!

So onward to Singapore! We miss everyone in australia already!

Xoxo

VIDEOS!!!!

Hello one and all. I thought I would add some videos to the blog, in addition to the pictures LoFo put up, and the ones KJT put up!!!



This first one is from New Zealand, and I think Katy alluded to it a few posts ago. The video really speaks for itself ...

This next one is ALSO from New Zealand. Ladies and Gentlemen, for your viewing pleasure: Datty Caimi V. River. WHO WILL WIN!!!????????!!!!!!!???

And that's what I've got for today. I also just updated the map, for everyone interested in that.

LOVE, Jca

HAIFISCH!!!

Lake McKenzie on Fraser Island

(image stolen from campervan mate and resident photographer, Antoine)

Hello to one and all! I am pleased to announce that Jessica and I have made it out alive of not one but TWO dalliances with shark-infested water. The first incident happened while we were exploring Fraser Island -- a huge sand island north of Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast of Austrlia -- in which the most popular ways to see the island is to hire a huge 4x4, fill it with people and camping supplies, and set off to swim in pristine lakes while avoiding the baby-eating-dingoes that run the island. Although Fraser is a very popular attraction for travelers, it often felt like we were the only inhabitants and had been sent there on some bizarre mission as 11 of us crammed onto the two benches in the back of our 4x4 and drove on impossibly bumpy sand roads trying not to flip or bog our vehicle. We swam in the cleanest, clearest lake I have ever seen -- you may be thinking, Laura, praytell, why are you swimming in a lake when you are on an island in the South Pacific? I answer you this -- paradise isn't so safe in the Summer months! Fraser Island is surrounded by sharks and jellyfish of various size and killing-ability so we obeyed the advice we were given and (mostly) stayed out of the ocean. We camped on Fraser Island and didn't even hate it so much as we were with a bunch of strapping young lads who were willing to do most of the hard work and we have also come to the realization that our gourmet cooking can transfer not only to life in a campervan, but also to a two-burner camp stove. The island holds particular significance for the Aborigines in Australia as it has been inhabited by their people for thousands of years. We were serendaded by an Aboriginal man with a didgeridoo who ran the campsite we were staying at one night who warned us explicitly not to whistle or spit into the fire as that entices the bad ghosts who have been known to drag around and beat up any dissenting whistlers. Thankfully no one in our group was willing to test out the theory and we left Fraser Island without any major damage to our vehicle or ourselves due to sharks, sand, dingoes, or ghosts!

After Fraser Island, our next major activity was avoiding Cyclone Hamish who was threatening to wipe out the rest of our plans for Australia'a East Coast. Instead of driving directly into its path in our sturdy campervan, we headed inland to the Outback, which is exactly as you may imagine: Kangaroos hopping around, locals in ten-gallon hats, and flat flat flat land with no powerlines, lights, or general sign of life for hours. It was an unexpected yet pleasant detour from our plans to see a part of Oz that we would not have otherwise had the chance to experience.

Our much anticipated sailing trip on the Whitsundays was thankfully unaffected by the Cyclone and was simply incredible. The Whitsundays is a series of nearly 100 hundred islands, most of which are national parks, that have great beaches for lounging and coral-filled shores for diving. Our sailing trip actually wasn't so much about the Whitsundays though...it was more about the Great Barrier Reef which for us was the better of the two options anyways. On our first full day of sailing we arrived just before sunset at what looked like a muddy jetty sticking out of the middle of the ocean aka the Great Barrier Reef at lowtide...the skipper threw us some snorkels and fins and we were left to our own devices to explore the reef for the next day and a half (we did come back onto the boat for meals and sleeping). I can't do it justice but the labyrinth of all the different colors, textures, and sizes of the coral that has been growing for thousands of years seemed like an eccentric's ancient palace submerged in water comlplete with hidden passageways, towers, and sumptuous decoration. A comment Jess made about the Reef was that it really is just like it looks in Finding Nemo so refer to that movie if my description is lackluster for you. We saw said Clownfish nestling in anemone, schools of hundreds of fish that found us in the middle of their migration pattern, and dundundun a shark! We were within a few meters of a proper shark. I saw it lurking near the drop off of the Reef and frantically pulled at Jess' fin to inform her of our swimming mate and may have put more fear into her than the shark did although she admits she is glad that I got her attention as quickly as possible. Although a Great White may have made a better story, it was a wee Reef Shark and thus we parted ways with our lives, limbs, and liberty intact.

After our excellent time on the Whitsundays it was back on the road to make it to Cairns in order to drop off the campervan on time -- the last 36 hours were pretty rough on our van. We almost removed an overhang in a supermarket car park, doused nearly everything in vinegar on, had a bloody massacre of mossies, oh yes and we were heading into the tropics, which lead us all to go temporarily insane with heat exhaustion but thankfully not Dengue Fever! The light at the end of the tunnel was VERY bright for Jess and I upon arriving in Cairns on Saturday as we were whisked away to our hillside retreat by our friend Sue. While at the Marlborough Sounds way back in New Zealand, we met Sue while enjoying the post-hike hot tub and after a most lively conversation considering our exhaustion, she invited us to stay with her and her husband at their home in Cairns. We warned her that we actually do take people up on their offers and lo and behold here we are, spending our last ten days in Australia in a real home with a real family which has been such a treat. We have had a perfect combination of relaxing poolside while sorting out our plans for the admittedly more challenging leg of our trip in Southeast Asia (Jessica hasn't gotten to conjugating the past-perfect verb tense in Laotian yet --egads!) and also being shown around Cairns by our personal tour guide. Cairns is a really beautiful spot -- it is a lush, tropical jungle that runs directly into the ocean and then ta-da the Great Barrier Reef! It's a special spot and we are so fortunate to be ending our Australian adventure here with such excellent company. Speaking of which, last night we celebrated a most unique St. Patrick's Day for the girls accustomed to the Philly/Boston college scene -- rest assured, it is still drunken, debaucherous, and populated by people with painted faces and funny hats. What made this celebration extra special for us was that we were able to meet up with all of our campervan mates before some of them were off to their next destination -- we had so much fun with them and had not realized how much we missed them all until we had the time to step away from the whirlwind of the past three weeks to realize how great the roadtrip was and what special people with whom we did it.

As this is the first time we have had a longish period of time with a computer, we have a lot of photos which may appear to be a bit out of order and unrelated, but we hope you enjoy them regardless!





--The Great Barrier Reef from our sailboat! Have faith that it looks better underwater.

-- Sailing on a "river" constructed by the Coral to allow flowing water and diversified sealife into the Coral in order to ensure a complete eco-system, that's some smart Coral!

-- Cleaning out the campervan on the last day...please note the abandoned emergency blanket in the foreground (how full circle is that representation of our time spent in NZ and Oz?)

-- Fraser Island at sunset

-- Icebergs are really cool (ha). This is way back at Mount Cook in New Zealand with Mr Caimi.

-- The three of us went bungy jumping in the "adventure capital of the world" Queenstown, but waited to talk about it until Mr. Caimi gave my parents the photos over dinner a few weeks ago (all for the dramatic effect) ps -- I almost chickened out

-- Realllly small campervan kitchen, always one knife or pot of boiling water away from a disaster

-- All of our campervan friends on the sailboat! From leftish: Antoine (French) Sebastian (German) Olivier (French) Laurene (French) Daniel (German) and the two of us. It maybe would have been easier for me to have labeled all the people that didn't have huge grins on their face as French -- too cool to smile.

-- All the girls trying to do our best to get cleaned up in the campervan for a night out in Airlie Beach

-- In shark infested waters on Fraser Island!!!

-- A cute and sedate Koala

-- I didn't get kicked in the face!

-- Photographic evidence that we are alive and well, or at least were 5 weeks ago, heh

-- Defending my liberty aka boxing lessons on Waitangi Day in NZ with Mr. Caimi

-- Trying to hold back the advancing glacier with our mind power to save the group of small children and nuns standing behind us, or maybe just trying to throw rocks at the nearby iceberg to see the ice fall off...I don't remember which of those days this photo was taken.

ilha formosa and beyond

at bk, the architects, guest house. all the walls slide open so the inside becomes the outside and vice versa. SO cool! sabrina is obsessed and here captured enjoying what might be the best day of her life.


sabrina and ivy looking like farmers before we went on a wee, but gorgeous, boat cruise down a tree covered waterway.



road ragers!

tiny cute street in lugang, a historic town.



night market in taipei



this is the guy we bought betel nut from. betel nut is some kind of thing off of a palm like tree that when you chew it, it makes you feel all hot and flushed. truck drivers chew it and usually it is sold on the side of the road by busty babes in scandalous outfits who might be monetarily convinced to also give you a "massage." mom, i know you wanted pictures of a babe, but this is all we could come up with.



this is me and sabrina, just outside of kenting, which is a town inthe south everyone goes to for the beach. we are SO excited to be on the beach, alive. because we had just arrived via rented scooters. which was mostly fun because you were actually scared death was imminent and then glad when it wasn't.


this is me and musee and nubby, the ever present stuffed animal, infront of a huge buddha being asian tourists. we've opted for the bunny ear peace sign, and not the regular kind. we think its more authentic.


group shot outside a museum in taichong, sabrinas home town. we're lookin' fly!



SINK IN A TREE TRUNK!
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**pictures came first this time because i couldn't figure out how to make them come last. so, maybe look at them, read the post, and then look again?**
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hi everyone! i figured that for the few more days i have a computer completely at my disposal, i should update the blog and put up some pictures. i am still in taiwan with musee, a friend of the girls and mine from lawrenceville. she is living in taipei and i have been lucky enough to stay with her and her family in their awesome home for the last few weeks. taiwan is and has been so great. i wholly recomend coming if you get the chance. i might even say that you should go out of your way to get here. the people are helpful and accomodating and the food might even be consistently the best that i've had on the trip. so my time in taiwan has been spent mostly eating, but also doing some sight seeing, taichi with mrs wu, getting to know taipei and musees fab friends, and taking an AWESOME road trip with musee and her friend sabrina (and ivy too, for a bit). we were on the road for a week and went around the whole island, starting in taipei, and then working our way south on the west coast (taichong, yunlin, tainan) and around the bottom (kenting) and then back up the east side (dulan). taiwan is really diverse and tropical (we stood on the tropic of cancer!) and has mountains and beaches (sometimes right next to eachother), fruit and coffee trees, temples and the tallest building in the world. the people are also really diverse, with many groups of indegenous people, and various histroical migrations of mainland chinese and japanese. the island is unique to mainland china, and has a really prosperous economy. on the road trip the things that stood out most to me were this: 1. excelent food. in many place here, there are night food markets, like a carnival of food everynight for dinner. here you can get all kinds of delicous noodles, pancakes, puddings, meats on sticks, fruits and veggies and juices, stuff in wraps, soups and dried food. lots of people go for dinner and we do too. sabrina, in particular, is fond of squid. ivy likes these little sweet cakes, i like this spring roll thing, and musee was really into the stinky tofu. so, there are many options, as you can see. 2. the gorgeous and inventive architecture. everywhere we went (including a fabulously fated visit to the home of an architect) the interior spaces were visiually pleasing, thoughtfully arranged/constructed, and so unusually smart. often, we would go into a gallery or a book store or a bar or a restaurant, and there would be a floor or wall smashed out to make a door or a ceiling. i would NEVER have been so bold to think to do that and it usually always look raw and great, really opening the space. 3. i might actually like pop music. sabrina and musee made some delightful mixes for the trip and i have to say, i didn't hate them. so, hopefully the pictures explain what i have been up to for the last little bit. i've been having a wonderful time and will truly be sad to leave here on monday, but excited for the next bit of the adventure - japan! i fly to osaka on monday and will be in japan for two or so weeks. it will be excellent and i am the MOST excited. being in asia is way cooler than i thought it would be and in life, i hope that i am fortunate enough to come back many times. i hope everyone at home is great and i miss miss miss you all!

love katy

Its Official! by: an equally excited and panicked jess and laura

AGHHHHH!!!!! We just bought our tickets to SINGAPORE! For all interested parties, we will fly out of Cairns on Tuesday the 24th into Singapore. The plan is then to take a train through Malaysia into Thailand. We will dive head first into the culture and attend the full moon party at the beginning of April, and then continue North to Bangkok.

Who knows anyone in any of these areas????

LOVE, us

ps. marcus, we are winning

pps. we are about to go sail to the great barrier reef ...... k byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

anecdotes from a campervan

Hello party people! I am currently somewhere between nowhere and everywhere on the East coast of Australia, in the back of a campervan, with Laura laid out over the seat next to me sleeping. Daniel (German) is listening to Linkin Park across from me, and trying to improve his English by tackling World Without End by Ken Follet, so every few minutes I am helping him understand a few words. Antoine (French) and Sebastian(German) are stretched out over two seats in front of the cab, passed out asleep. And at the helm is Olivier, Lauren and Charlotte (all French) who have bravely stepped up to the challenge of navigating this motley crew up the coast this afternoon. All in all, everything is as it should be this lazy, sunny, Australian afternoon.

This past Tuesday Laura, Antoine, Sebastian, Daniel and myself decided to rent a 4x4 and spend 3 days and 2 nights on fraiser island, a VERY tiny sand island off the coast of australias rainbow beach. We met 4 very nice boys from London and 2 great Canadian girls who joined us on our tour. It was awesome!!! The tour is self guided, so it was kinda like Road Rules (grandparents, ask your grandchildren about it) on an adrenaline rush. The 11 of us climed into this major vehicle, and were sent off on our own with a few tents off over the dunes and beaches of the island. We saw wild dingos, lizards, giant sandflies, but thankfully managed to avoid the very poisonous snakes that inhabit the island. We swam in some crystal clear lake water, and avoided the shark infested waters. We hiked up to Indian head, where we could view the sharks (tiger, great white and hammerhead) from a safe distance. We all flew out of our seats more than once when we went over the sand a bit to fast. Unfortunately, the car was manual, so neither Laura nor I felt our skills were good enough to actually drive, but the boys thrilled in sending us flying out of our seats on a few occassions! Fraiser island may be my favorite Australia activity so far, and we were sad to say goodbye to our new friends, but happy to be back in our now beloved campervan.

I am surprised how pleasant the campervan actually is. It makes camping totally doable for me. There are three huge beds that allow plenty of room for everyone, and we have fun cooking gourmet meals. It gets a little hot sometimes, but this is minor ... Phew, Daniel just asked me what a mason is. That took a second to explain. What else fills our time? I taught everyone my friend Meghans favorite game - bowl of nouns - and my brother marcuss favorite game - contact- so car rides and nightimes can get a little rowdy. We all really enjoy eachother, and we are so lucky to have made so many great friends because it means more people to visit in western Europe!

Ok, I think it is my naptime now. Pictures will be uploaded in a few weeks from Cairns where we are staying with a friend. By that time we will have sailed to the great barrier reef, so the picturs will be amazing to make up for the drought!

Love and baci to everyone at home! We miss you so much.
Xoxo jca

For Marcus, world 14, us 130!!!!!!!

VIDEOS: long overdue by Katy Jane

hi all! i am in taiwan and despite being in the southern hemisphere in early spring, it is quite lovely here. it IS spring time, and tho i left the middle of summer in the southern hemisphere, i am in a nearly tropical local and things are starting to bud and smell good. i am eating so many delicious things here and learning to appreciate Q, a positive description of chewy food. my chopstick skills have also been complimented, and today i took the bus all by myself, with a little note musee's mom wrote for me, which said in chinese where i was going to and coming from. it was not so hard! i have learned to say "sheh-sheh" which is thank you and "nee-how" which is hello. i'm just begining my chinese education, but am having doubts as to whether i should continue before mastering spanish. i just asked musee for some input, something she wanted to say to our greater blogging community, and she said this: "everyone should come to taiwan. at some point in their lives." though i have only been here a few days, i have to agree with her. everyone is very nice, taipei is clean and easy to get around and the food is DELISH. this morning, musee's mom took me to a taichi class in a park (just like i wanted! but with fewer old ladies in leisure suits than i had envisioned) and it was great. mom, i learned that "chi" is like breath, but something more. i think it is like a life force harnessed by the breath. i am not sure, but mrs. wu and i have decided to take several more classes while i am here, so we will surely find out. i don;t have any picture to put up yet, i have only taken pictures at night markets (late night food market where yummy street foods are sold en masse, lots of things on skewers and soupy things) but promise to take more and put them up. but! i do have some videos from new zealand that have been long anticipated by me and the girls. so, here goes:




the above video might or might not be a place the girls and i stayed in new zealand - i'm not telling. you be the judge. regardless, please take note of the space suits in the background.

so there is another video of some sheep crossing the road, but thats not for today. more later! don't want to give away all my secrets in one go anyway. so wrap up, things are good in asia. hope everyone is well and miss miss miss you.

love katy