Melbourne and Japan---just like that!

 Well, it's a long time since I wrote my blog.  I have had the busiest, funniest, exhausting time over the past 6 weeks and it will take alot to tell you all.....that is if I even remember half of it.

Firstly my youngest daughter shouted me a weekend in Melbourne at the end of March, to celebrate my birthday which would also enable us to gourmandise and that we did, magnificently.  Stayed in the city and fortunately, as well as "gormandising", the Melbourne Flower show was on as well as was the Comedy Festival, the Yayoi Kusama exhibition and a marathon so the city was pumping.  Weather was perfect and lovely to escape the rain which has plagued us for months (years) here on the Coast of northern NSW.

The South Melbourne markets were our first port of call where we sampled sea urchin, truffle paste smeared over camembert, large mornay oysters, squid in a gorgeous sauce, turkish delights covered in chocolate and pistachios and a pistachio tart, with constant drooling over the delicious array of other foodstuff available. Unfortunately ones stomache can only hold so much!

The Melbourne flower show was next and whilst not as polished as the Chelsea Flower show, it was delightful.  Sooooo many pretty flowers, displays and exhibitions!  Something very uplifting about seeing so much  beauty in one place.  The colours pop out, drawing you to smell and touch them - it's as if they are competing for those accolades and again, the tiny flowers jumped out at me, in such a variety of shapes, sizes and shades. Sitting by a lake, sipping a sparkling wine and watching the swans glide by finised a lovely visit to the show.  We were indeed fortunate to have unknowingly chosen a weekend full of events to go to Melbourne. 

Dinner that night was in Lygon street at a Sicilian restaurant where we shared the delights of Sicily with a friend who lives there.  I'm not telling what we had cos I can't remember....baahhhhh...but I know it was all yummy and very fitting

Saturday saw us scurrying (albeit with abit of a heavy head from too much sicilian wine) to the exhibition of Yayoi Kusama.  She was obviously a wild girl in her hey day with a very unusual slant on the world - her fetish with pumpkins being one.  It was a fab exhibition however with loads of people lining up to see various things and always amazing to discover how others perceive life. Having not one ounce of creativity in my body makes those with talent all the more incredible.

Lunch was  in China town.....how can you not go there ?  Catching up with an old friend was nice and makes me determined not to let old friendships die. It is easy to not keep contact but just as easy to keep contact!  Yum cha was our choice of eating and it was fresh, morish and washed down with the old pot of green tea which suited us nicely.  The usual array of dumplings, chicken feet, barbeque pork and sticky rice was brought promptly to our table and being 3 good eaters, it was all demolished in record time.

Lastly for the whirlwind weekend was the comedy show, set in an old pub.  2 Poms and an Aussie.  It was very funny and so good to have a real belly laugh which I don't think we do as much of as we grow older.  Laughing allegedly has many benefits and releases all sorts of healing, feel good chemicals. So people, laugh loud and long when you can...

And that was our Melbourne weekend...such fun, food, friends and the joy of living. A getaway is so refreshing, uplifting and downright necessary SO do it now and then if you can.

And then there was Japan.  OMG ... what a wonderful, whirlwind, wicked, whacky week....Managed all those W's! All my holidays are whirlwind as you may have gathered by now.  I am not one who likes lazy days mooching around.  It has  to be full on all of the time although a wee bit of time for regrouping is necessary from time to time.

It is such a civilized 8 hour flight there so I guess it is no wonder that half of Australia has realized that.  Just a work day really!  The plan was to see the cherry blossoms in their full bloom (nailed that) and Mt Fuji with no cloud cover and snow (nailed that).  Anything else for me was a bonus. We did a Wendy Wu tour and I now feel I am an authority on tours after 3 in as many years.  SO if you are doubtful, don't be, especially if you are older and the thought of organizing stuff is over whelming.  If you don't mind being herded from time to time it really is the way to go as you would never find half of these places that you are taken to - without alot of research and planning. To each his own however in this world and however you do it, enjoy......Be ready now for a cherry blossom overload.

I won't go into all of the nitty gritty of each day as I have said before, holidays of others are theirs alone and you cannot recreate what you saw and felt whilst there but I will give a general rundown and hope to arouse your interest enough to read on.

Tokyo being the largest city in the world obviously houses alot of people...about 14 million ....so it is busy to say the least.  The people are courteous, well dressed, kind and helpful and they cook damn good food.  I took a list of 30 Japanese food to eat whilst in Japan and must say, we achieved about 25 so that pleased me.  The shrines and castles are immaculately kept with the most stunning gardens, the cherry blossoms of course dominating whilst we were there.  Hotals we stayed at were of small room size but tastefully furnished with of course the gorgeous warm seats and bidets on toilets. Every toilet everywhere is spotlessly clean.  I am not sure how they achieve that but I guess the people themselves have pride in their country and are willing to not litter or graffiti public areas.  The Skytree which is a very, very tall building (630 metres) gives you the chance to grasp just how big that city is

I'll do a food review(!) and mention some of the foods we ate and saw,

Sushi, of course, udon noodles, tempura everything, tofu Yakitori (skewered chicken), Sashimi (raw fish) Donaburi, (fish, meat or veg over rice in a bowl), Tamagoyaki (cooked egg), soba noodles, Sukiyaki (hot pot), Miso soup, Okonomiyaki (pancake), Japanese curry, Eel, Gyoza, Takoyaki (Octupus balls), Kaiseki Ryori (several dishes prepared in small serving and different cooking techniques), Edamame,Yakisoba (fried noodles), Chawanmushi (steamed savoury egg), Wagashi (a sweet) and a sandwich with white bread, cream, strawberries and mandarin segments.  Oddly enough we didn't get to try a ramen, probably the most famous or all.   I loved the fish served at breakfast - smoked,fried, crumbed. Now be ready for a visual food onslaught.  The top one is matcha tea which I wasn't particularly keen on although the ice cream was nice. Oh yes and not forgetting sake.........

The little white strips are the tiniest white bait I have ever seen.

I know it all looks like a mish mash but believe me it was all delcious.  In my humble opinion, Japan has some of the nicest food I have ever tasted in any country.

The beautiful majestic Mt Fuji was at her finest the day we saw her.  Rumour has it that she is shy and covers herself with clouds at times but for us she sprung forth boldly and grandly.  The perfect day to visit and rather nippy up the mountain abit. Mountains are my favourite part of earth and it was all very special for me. I won't post the 300 other photos I took of her!  She is just beautiful!!

.

And then of course there are the onsens.  This was all new to me and for those who aren't familiar with an onsen they are a hot spring and naked communal bathing facility with water temps around 40 degrees C.  The hotel of which 2 had onsens provide an onsen outfit and slippers which one dons and shuffles down to the "onsen" room where one strips, showers and joins any number of women (or men) depending on ones gender, in a perfectly clean pool.  We were lucky enough to be able to sit in an onsen and look at Mt Fuji from the safety of our hot pool.  Theoretically onsen bathing provides any number of health benefits and I imagine if it becomes a daily routine, life could go on forever. For me however, it was short lived but I am sure those few onsens prolonged my life marginally and how good did I feel afterwards! Below is me in my onsen outfit.  My message there is try anything once - you will be surprised at the thrill it gives you.  I must say I did have a sort of an onsen experience in Turkey once but much less gentler with 2 sturdy Romanain masseurs beating the life out of a group of naked women and hurling a bucket of cold water over us to finish. No onsen outfit there!

We saw and did lots more than I have blogged about but I am sure you have a sense of how much fun we had eating and drinking with a friendly group on our bus, exploring so many places, cruising on a river or two, buying junky trinkets for the grandkids, browsing stalls, marveling at the beauty of the flowers and trees and best of all being witness to the famous cherry blossom season and amazed at the variety of colours and sizes with 600 different varieties in Japan alone.  Funnily enough a few of the English people on our tour had cherry blossoms blooming in their gardens whilst they were in Japan----oh well, it wasn't all about the cherry blossoms!

.

Me trying to bow like the Japanese, unsuccessfully.  Not quite as gracious. My knock knees are the problem!

                                                          Goodbye Japan.  

Stay tuned to my trips to Roma and Tenterfield.. I need a brain rest now.