Raphael Mun

Day 96 – Japan (Day 58)

Raphael — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:23:37 +0000

Osaka

Met up with Ryohei for the first time since high school when he came to visit from Japan! It's been such a long time and it was somewhat sentimental meeting him again and bringing back so many memories of the other Chiben students visiting my school. I'll get to see more students too in Tokyo so this is going to be a real new experience for me on this trip to go where I will meet several of my friends.
Ryohei gave us a big tour around Osaka and from what I've heard from him and from Saori, it is a terrific place. I love it. The first thing we did? BUY CLOTHES. This cold is going to turn us into ice cubes very soon and Jay has been borrowing one of my jackets since he got rid of all but his summer clothes. New clothes were nice and I love that I can dress up a bit again. Being the ice skater that I am, cold weather is definitely for me over humid sweaty-ness.
Osaka Castle is quite a view and inside they even had displays where it projected video onto a diorama with multiple depth, making it look 3D. That was SO COOL. Even the old castles are high-tech here and very different from touring temples in Angkor Wat (although that's also an experience in itself).
Dotonbori, the big shopping road in Osaka, is a fun place to walk through with lots of stores and this is where I found my newest most delicious food, Ohagi. It's like a mochi-sushi and I could eat it all day long. Yum.
Today's list of foods: Okonomiyaki @ Yukari, Takoyaki & Ohagi in Dotonbori, Mister Donut's amazing donuts, and mikan (mandarin orange) water, yum.
Tomorrow? Nara!

Day 95 – Japan (Day 57)

Raphael — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:01:31 +0000

Cairns/Osaka

It's travel day, of course, so after the heart-wrenching tennis match last night, there was no way I was going to sleep well. Instead I spent the night watching Source Code (Great movie by the way! WOW.)
In Osaka now though! Going to see Ryohei tomorrow, my Japanese exchange student friend who we hosted when I was in high school. Could not be more excited to see him. He's going to become a doctor soon!
Did I mention it's cold, brrrr? Just spent the last two months following the equator and then down to where it's hot summer Australia and now here. We need new clothes, FAST.
Before heading to bed, we went to get some food and with my rusty Japanese, ordered some food for the two of us and what I thought was "ramune" (a Sprite-like Japanese soda) was a giant, very alcoholic lime drink. So instead of one, both of them went to me and that would be my spicy, very drunk introduction to Japan. Let's see how tomorrow goes...

Day 94 – Australia (Day 56)

Raphael — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:34:36 +0000

Cairns

Kuranda! We decided to go up to the rain forest for our one-full-day stay in Cairns and take the scenic sky cable car back. Of course it's not a trip without its obstacles. Turned out the lightning storm last night where the flight was a bit delayed from landing had also hit the cable car and was now under maintenance for the day. So instead we took the scenic train through the mountains and it turned out to be even better than I had imagined.
Warning to folks, Cairns is HUMID. Very, very humid and hot. You could drink out of the air. Stay in the shade whenever you can because you will tan/burn/melt very quickly. It also gets you to really appreciate our hostel, Traveller's Oasis, where there's a really nice and pretty pool in the middle to cool you down.
Found my newest favorite band at a Scottish ice cream store of all places: Red Hot Chili Pipers! Listen to them below! Also, Irn Bru Soda is really yummy. Imported straight from Scotland!
And then dinner! OOH. We went to the grocery store for us to all get something to make dinner from and I decided to get a bunch of salad and fruits and it turned out to be the best salad I've ever made. Eating that and watching the finals was the best way to close out my Australia trip (Even though I was quite upset that Nadal lost... :p). Japan, here I come!

Day 93 – Australia (Day 55)

Raphael — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 20:26:32 +0000

Melbourne/Cairns

Did you know that an airplane in the air casting a shadow on clouds also makes a circular rainbow around it from the sunlight? I didn't know this until I saw it in the air and it was fascinating!
Off to Cairns, it was a nice but a somewhat longer flight than I'd expected. By the time we got to Cairns it was dark. However, we went to a cool little place called Green Ant Cantina for a delicious dinner and then we were off to bed. What a tiring day. Whew!

Day 92 – Australia (Day 54)

Raphael — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:02:55 +0000

Melbourne

Last full day in Melbourne... and it was spent watching the womens doubles finals, the mixed doubles finals, and an amazing 5-set tennis match! Oh was it worth it, wow. Been in Melbourne for most of our stay in Australia and have been absolutely loving it. There better be tennis playing in Cairns so we can watch the Australian Open Final or at least a bar playing tennis on TV or there will be some rioting going on. Hmm.

Day 91 – Australia (Day 53)

Raphael — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:49:10 +0000

Melbourne

Happy Australia Day!
Wish I could've had tickets to tonight's match but it was just as fun to watch from the hostel. Still have tomorrow though! Murray vs. Djokovic should be just as good with two more fun matches to go with it.
Mostly done and launched the website tonight! Check it out: www.impending.com

Day 90 – Australia (Day 52)

Raphael — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:41:31 +0000

Melbourne

Tonight is the deadline for the website! Yikes. Busy, busy, busy...
Max Brenner's Chocolate Bar? Oh, yes. According to Jay, it's the greatest place ever and his favorite chocolate experience in New York so we had to go. So good!
Andy Murray vs. Ken Nishikori was interesting out at the first-floor Urban Central bar and then more work and Djokovic vs. Ferrer in a very energetic match. Fun and somewhat relaxing day. Plus, I remembered to substitute fries for a garden salad at McDonalds (Did I mention we're still obsessed with this Australian McDonalds?)
Work, work, work...

Day 89 – Australia (Day 51)

Raphael — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:24:48 +0000

Melbourne

Ok, so I was wrong a couple days ago. Today was the greatest day ever for this tennis fan. The Legends matches are known to be funny and to get the crowds ready for the real matches that will begin right after so for many people, it's a chance to see their old-time favorite players and for others, it's just hilarious to see older players funny-ing around and still playing better than most other players that have been training for years. But then to watch 3 more serious matches, one of which was Caroline Wozniacki vs. Kim Clijsters (last year's champion) and yelling out to cheer her on although she ended up losing, and a Federer match with an RF hat and seeing a master at work, effortlessly floating around the court (I'm serious. If you look at his feet, he appears to be floating...), it's just a dream come true. This part of the trip is candy to the tennis player in me and I'm just glad to have an equally big tennis fan for a travel buddy. Thanks, Jay!

Day 88 – Australia (Day 50)

Raphael — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:13:46 +0000

Melbourne

More tennis and rushing to get this website done.
The "Chicken and Cheese" sandwich at McDonalds is just so good here but to change it up finally, we went to an Italian restaurant. Cheesy risotto is delicious!
Going to tomorrow's day session at Rod Laver Arena! Somehow we're missing Nadal again (just not meant to be, maybe...) but 4 matches including a legends match, Federer, AND Caroline Wozniacki (my favorite female tennis player for the past 5 years)? I'll take that any day! Very excited for a full day of tennis.

Day 87 – Australia (Day 49)

Raphael — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:45:35 +0000

Melbourne

Another slow day until we learned about needing to create a website for the company we're doing a small contract project for. Pretty exciting though!
Which leads to the more exciting news for today is that we decided to stay longer in Melbourne instead of going back to Sydney in order to get this project finished and save some money from flights (which we ended up using to purchase 1 more session of tennis for the Men's Semifinals...). Extending stay should be fun! Flight to Cairns booked, hostel in Cairns booked, and hostel for arriving in Osaka also booked. Everything is set for a while now!
Work and Aussie Open in the lounge plus more McD's (I know....) was most of today. Two more days and we'll see more tennis live!