Hello again oztraylia

5am. Monday morning. We touch down at Cairns airport. We are whisked through customs on account of being Australian - they have no interest in checking our bags, as long as we aren't foreigners. Arrive in the lobby. Go to the toilet. The toilet roll has been put in the wrong way and doesn't work. Go upstairs to get some breakfast. The escalator is out of order. Order eggs on toast. For some reason it takes 30 minutes to make. Ah yes, we are well and truly back in Australia. Really, it isn't much to complain about at all, but these small differences between Australian and Japanese culture are at first very striking. We've been very spoilt by the cleanliness, order and general workingness of things in Japan. Luci wanted us to write a little list about the things we are both going to miss most about Japan, so here is mine:

Anni:
1. The thing I'll most miss is the positive and considerate Japanese attitude and culture, particularly of the Kansai (Osaka) people. A friendly chat with an assistant at a shop who would try their hardest to speak English, ask where you were from, and then compliment you, then still be really lovely and thankful even if you didn't buy anything, could put you in a good mood for the rest of the day. The entirely non-ironic friendliness and accommodation of Japanese people is something which I am desperately trying to remember and bring back with me to Australia. It's definitely the thing I will miss most about Japan.

2. Food. Good, good, cheap food. A bowl of udon and tempura and a rice set for $4, always served with ice water or tea and made for you in less than a minute after you order it. Enough said.

3. Everyone being dressed really, really well. And really eccentrically too, especially in Osaka - old ladies in sparkly heels, elaborate kimonos and purple hair. I will miss you.

4. Trains which come every 1 and a half minutes and take you anywhere you want to go really cheaply and really quickly. By far the best public transport system. You would never, ever need a car.

5. Things being open all night. Not great for the poor late night workers at the Convenience stores who have something just a little off about them (and who wouldn't having to work the 12am - 7am shift at a 7/11), but great when you're hungry in the middle of the night and can just pop downstairs and get a really good, cheap, heated up Bento box. And shoten-doris (pedestrian streets) with shoe stores that don't close until 10pm, seedy 24 hr ramen bars and night markets are the best, particularly when you don't get out of bed until really late in the day. Japan is a nocturnal country for sure, which suits me very well indeed.

I'll miss so much more than that, but I think those are the most important ones. We are learning to write Hiragana right now and are determined to get back to Japan within a year, we loved it and miss it that much. Don't know if we'll bother writing anything about Port Douglas - it's lovely, but really not that exciting and a blog post about it would only go something like "so we went swimming again today for a bit... then ate some food I guess... and then we went swimming AGAIN and then it got dark and then it rained and then we went to sleep". So i apologise if there aren't any posts from now on, but they wouldn't be much fun to read anyway. Luci's turn now, sayonara from me!

There are so many things I will miss about Japan. Leaving really was heartbreaking. On the flight back a small toddler sobbed uncontrollably because he didn't want to leave Japan and go home. It was symbolic for me I guess. We are in Port Douglas now and our hostel is really great, more like a resort, it has got a bar, pool, shop and cafe and we have tv and air con so it's great, especially for the price (about $230 each for 9 nights). It's tropical here, warm and lovely. Still, I miss japan a lot, japan is not a perfect place but it suited me and Anni so well. We fell in love with it. Anyway, enough of my ramblings I'm going to do as Anni did and say the things I will most miss about japan.

Being normal sized: everything in japan is built for a slightly smaller person, aka me. Going to a gig and be able to stand at the back of the venue and see over the crowd was great.

Everything is clean: let me be clear about this. Japan isn't clean in an obsessive or fetishistic way. It isn't sterile or cold. It's cluttered, chaotic and often grungey. But where it counts, it's always clean: bathrooms are always clean, train stations are always clean.

Food: everything is delicious and a lot of it is really cheap! The variety, quantity and taste of food that won't be over ten dollars is amazing! Even convenience stores sell pretty decent prepackaged meals, salads, sushi and desserts. The serving sizes are also smaller and you can feel full without feeling stuffed. People have small homes with small kitchens which has led to Japan being one of the best eating out cultures in the world. The food i will miss most is karaage, a kind of Japanese fried chicken that I've never seen in Australia, but in Japan it's everywhere.

People being stylish: in japan everyone takes great pride in their appearance, and whatever look they choose they do it creatively and succinctly. You sometimes see people with bizarre fashions but they make it work because in Japan there is more freedom to mix and match different styles of western dress for the best aesthetic affect. Me and Anni love fashion and clothes but in Japan we never felt overdressed because fashion is something for everyone (in the cities at least).

Politeness, friendliness and positivity: these qualities are so prevalent in Japanese society and our interactions with people, whether they were friends of friends or simply people we met on the street, all left me charged with a positive energy and made me appreciate what a huge difference it can make to have population density force you to have consideration for others. Some of the people we met were deep in the counter-culture but they portrayed non of the ego or apathy I associate with it, and were still so keen to be extra friendly and helpful and to give a good impression of Japan.

Everything works! Appliances, systems, maps: everything actually functions as it's supposed to, with clear instructions in Japanese, English and often Chinese, Korean and Brail. The best example of this is the amazing public transport system. Low fares, trains to anywhere you want to go, easy to use fare system, trains leaving EVERY TWO MINUTES. The transport system even has women only carriages for late night train journeys. In japanese cities not having a car is never an inconvenience with the amazing train system, easy bike travel and the mass of pedestrian streets walkways and bridges.

Pop culture especially visual kei: in japan the pop culture is for everyone not just children or nerds and the proliferation of j-pop, manga and anime makes the cities feel colorful, vibrant and alive, the real and fictional worlds mixing together like salt and fresh water in a tidal estuary. Seeing visual kei without actively looking for it, going to visual kei record stores and seeing visual kei bands live is something I will miss so much.

I'm sure there are so many other things but this post is getting huge, so suffice to say the first thing me and Anni said to each other when we woke up on our first morning in Tokyo was "we have to come back here".

Sayonara from Luci