Hubby's first Mandarin lesson

After weeks and weeks of agonising about what to do with learning Mandarin, which method, which company.. hubby finally decided on getting a personal home tutor with Mandarin H----.

Last night the tutor came over and I was basically bumming around on the net and doing some design work on the computer and eavesdropping (how could I not? They were sitting 2 metres away from me).

Anyway, at one part of the conversation I was trying to hold it all in and not laugh my head off. It was just too funny. It may not seem funny to anyone else but at the time for me it was hilarious.

They were talking about Sydney, our hometown...

The conversation went something like this:

Tutor: "So what do you think tourists find interesting about Sydney? I
hear there is a famous theatre there."
M: "No, it's in Melbourne. Melbourne has lots of theatres."
Tutor: "Oh? Sydney doesn't have theatres?"
M: "It does but not as many."

Then at this point I realised they were both confused and I couldn't resist blurting out, "I think she means the Opera house!"

After a few chuckles and confused looks.. it continued...

T: "So what else is interesting in Sydney?"
M: "There is a bridge.."
T: "A bridge? Do tourists go to Sydney just to see a bridge? Is it a famous bridge?"
(at this point I realised she had probably never heard about the famous Harbour Bridge?!!)
M: "Yeah.. it's a big bridge..."
T: "Hmm..OK."

The island of Okinawa

(above: the sunset that greeted us when we arrived in our hotel and checked in. The two pictures were only taken minutes apart).


Okinawa is a prefecture of Japan encompassing hundreds of islands, the biggest and most populated of which is... (funnily enough), Okinawa.

We flew into Naha, the capital, from Shanghai which took only 2 hours. Love a quick flight (living in Australia everywhere is a mega long flight). Since we had planned to go to the amazing Churaumi aquarium we needed to hire a car. The reason is because it is at least 2 hours away from Naha and the buses don't run that frequently. Also Okinawa can be a difficult place for non-Japanese as there isn't much English signage or international tourists around. It took me a bit of effort but after extensive searching on Google and getting nowhere I actually emailed the Australian consulate in Shanghai and they told me how we could apply for an international licence whilst not being in Australia so I sent off the forms, photocopies and photo and a few weeks later we got our international driver's licence in the mail, which enabled us to drive in Japan. Too easy!

So anyway, I thought it would be best to stay closer to the aquarium so we could get there from our hotel easily. I researched and researched, which was a hard task given most websites were in Japanese and most of the hotels were luxury resorts which were out of our budget.

In the end Mike agreed we could splurge and the hotel I chose was about halfway between Naha and Churaumi. We could also get a great rate with them and they were by no means one of the top end ones! So we ended up staying at the Renaissance Okinawa. We had had a great experience with the Renaissance in Kuala Lumpur (which by the way is part of the Marriott chain) and were in no way disappointed with the Okinawan one.

The resort was out of this world gorgeous. The room was spacious and we had a balcony overlooking the sea. We unfortunately did not have a room on the 'nice' side of the hotel but nevertheless we had a gorgeous ocean view and saw brilliant sunsets. The hotel seemed to be quite full and they did not have any double rooms left so we got a twin but they ingeniously put the beds together and it actually felt like a king size bed.

There were so many restaurants to choose from I don't know where to start. We ate at 3 of them and also had room service. Since the resort is located in a fairly isolated area there was no point looking elsewhere nearby to eat so we just ate, slept and played in the hotel grounds.

One of the main reasons for choosing this hotel too was because I had seen pictures on their website about helmet diving or sea walking. It looked like the coolest thing ever as I can't do scuba and it seemed like a cross between snorkeling, snuba and diving. Mike agreed that I should do it as he likes to get me to do anything sporty because I'm usually so non sporty.

As well as giving us each free buffet breakfasts they also gave us each 3500 yen credit to use towards any of the many water activities. Since the sea walk cost 6000 yen we used both sets of credits for this. Mike still had 1000 yen to use but didn't because he actually fell ill on our very first day in Okinawa!

The next day we woke up and had one of the most amazing buffet breakfasts I have ever seen. The variety was endless and covered Japanese food, Chinese food and typical Western/American food. There was also a cute little low stand for the kiddies. They also had freshly made pancakes, any kind of eggs you wanted, and delicious dessert treats.



(Part of the amazing hotel. There are two restaurants inside the hut.)

After that we headed back to the room for a short rest (we both hate early mornings but had to be up so we could have the breakfast which finished at 9:30am) then I went out to do my sea walk.

Then, I realised that the Japanese are extremely punctual and although I thought I was on time I was in fact late. Major embarrassment! They were still polite and helpful as ever and quickly got me to sign the waiver form, gave me a wetsuit and told me to put it on. The others had left and were on the little floating pontoon thing already.

I was personally escorted by boat to the pontoon. I felt really special. I also had my own personal instructor and demo with his very limited English. On the pontoon we were also asked to take off our thongs and put on the booties.

All I knew was that I had to equalize the pressure inside my nose and go down the ladder slowly. I actually started panicking on the inside thinking what if I missed some major thing and didn't know what to do if something went wrong?

There were 7 in our group including me (they allow up to 12 people per time slot) and one by one we descended down the stainless steel ladder. At the top of the ladder I actually started freaking out. I am actually scared of deep water and it was 3 metres deep.

I took the ladder really really slowly and when the water was around my chin level they plonked the 30kg helmet on me. Due to the buoyancy effect the helmet didn't feel anywhere near that heavy though!

I went down the ladder one rung at a time, each time letting my ears adjust. It was a really weird feeling. My breathing also sounded really slow and loud. Like that moon walk. In fact when I got to the bottom the effect was exactly like the moon walk!

You cannot walk normally. You can only walk really slowly and you sort of 'bounce' along barely even touching the floor. I really did feel like Neil Armstrong for a while. You breathe normally and your face and hair are actually completely dry. Amazing! Anyone can do it and the only discomfort you feel is the pressure in your ears constantly changing but it's by no means painful just a little weird and annoying.

We fed the fish and saw some Nemos and sea anenomes. Our guide had a waterproof magna doodle type whiteboard which he used to communicate to us, and even wrote in English just for me (I felt special!)

After around 10 mins our time was up although it felt much much longer than this and I wanted to stay down there forever. It was just so much fun I really recommend it to anyone who wants to experience the underwater world but can't scuba dive.

Back from Japan

Well I'm back from Japan and had an absolute blast. Where do I even start?

I have now visited almost 20 countries and have pretty strong impressions about what makes a country good to visit and travel in, and what makes it bad.

After 2 weeks in Japan I can honestly say I can't really think of too many negatives.

First of all the people are amazingly humble, polite, helpful and seem happy to help/serve you. OK maybe not all of them but most of them.

Second of all, the information signage is out of this world. I find myself in some sort of mental pain when I'm in a country where I don't speak the language and the signs are extremely inadequate. Even in my home town of Sydney where I DO speak/read the language and have visited certain places thousands of times I can still find myself getting lost. Nope, I'm not stupid. The signage is just seriously lacking and what little signage there is is not exactly that helpful.

Most of the signs are pictorial so you don't even need to know how to read anything and self explanatory.

Eg 1. In the airport coming back to Shanghai near the waiting area there was a sign outside the public toilet with a map of the layout! That's right. The walls and little toilet stalls were illustrated. Also, it had a map pointing you to the next closest toilets should these be closed for cleaning.

2. In most places where there are public toilets it tells you on the door if it is a "Japanese style" toilet (squat) or "Western style" (seated).

3. If you find yourself lost you will sooner or later find a sign telling you which direction to go, and in addition if it's a popular touristy place there is probably also a human directing people.

4. The Japanese are big on safety and there are cute little cartoony illustrations everywhere telling you not to do this or that, or we apologise for ... etc.

Enough about signs. At times I felt like I was a child and the Japanese people were my parents.

1. In our first hotel whenever we were directed somewhere they didn't just point to it or tell us, they actually took us there personally and if there were stairs they pointed them out to us seconds before we hit the stairs.

2. When a staff member took a photo using my camera they handed it back to me and put the strap back on my wrist for me.

3. When I went into the water at the beach they asked me if my camera and watch were both waterproof. I can't imagine anyone else asking or caring. In fact, I have ruined a perfectly good watch when I forgot to take it off one time whilst boating.

4. When I bought something in a shop and was carrying other stuff, they put the handles of the plastic bag into my hand for me... etc.

People in Australia seem to think that Japan is an expensive place to visit. It's been ingrained into everyone's heads. I don't what started this or how it came about but everyone is like "Ooh Japan is SO expensive" and the majority of those people have never even been!

Well I can say for a fact that many things are cheaper than Australia - food and clothes for example. The food is amazing - healthy, tasty, quick and nutricious. and about the same price we'd pay in Australia for a food court meal.

The clothes, shoes, bags are so beautiful and stylish and made to fit Asian bodies - my ideal of heaven (as nothing in Australia ever fits, the sizes seem to get bigger year by year and even the smallest size of clothes and shoes are too big for me now). The quality as well as the design is superb.

The homewares are similar - beautiful, stylish, small and neat, just perfect.

If you are a craft / DIY lover, it is simply heaven. There are about a billion amazing illustrated craft books covering every topic under the sun and there are many shops which sell all the bits and pieces you need. Some rare/hard to find things too - like a t-shirt screen printing kit, leather work and stamping, resin ornament making, anything your heart desires!

I could go on and on... I am dying to get back there soon! :)

Okinawa day 3

Well unfortunately Mike:s cold got worse so he was not very well and coughing and sneezing and this germaphobe was scared!

Anyway we trudged along and made it to the aquarium (1.5 hours drive from the hotel). It was really really hot! Much hotter than the 2 previous days. It was about 30 degrees and the sun was scorching like a hot summer:s day in Australia. Luckily, we were inside most of the time.

The Okinawa Churaumi aquarium is the second largest in the world and one of three to house whale sharks (the other two being the Georgia Atlanta aquarium and Osaka Kaiyukan).

It is located at the most north-westerly point of the island of Okinawa in a specatucular location. The aquarium is nicely set out so you follow a path and you get to see everything (unlike museums and such where you kinda wander around aimlessly and are bound to miss stuff!)

About 3/4 of the way throught we were at a mini theatre. By luck at that exact time we arrived at the theatre a movie was about to start in less than 5 minutes. So we took a seat, put on our English headsets (as it was in Japanese) and watched the documentary. It was really really interesting and showed the beautiful scenery and abundance of life that lives under the ocean. The film ended by the curtains being pushed aside, white screen lifted up and there was a huge window right there! Totally amazing. The window was the size of the cinema screen and we could see whale sharks and other creatures right before our very eyes. I was so awe-inspired I just stood there and watched until we were the last ones and had to be kicked out haha.

I needn:t have worried, the main viewing window was right around the corner. It is so huge, probably the size of an Imax screen? I am not sure but the tank we estimated would have been 10-15m deep. Also there was a scuba diver filming various fish and creatures and you could see that on the big screen next to the window - very cool! Several of the sea creatures seemed to be smiling at us.

I had a weird thought to myself - imagine what would happen if the glass was to crack? haha... I needn:t have worried. The glass is 603mm thick, apparently the thickest used in an aquarium and they had a square pole showing just how thick it was!

Towards the end we decided to take a quick tour of the 'backbone' of the aquarium where we could see the tanks from the top with the spotlights and water splashing down, and metal everywhere.. and well it wasn:t very pretty but fascinating nonetheless.

The dolphin show was on at exactly the same time so we missed it but after the behind the scenes tour we went outside to the dolphin pool and they were still doing tricks for us which was cool.. So we got to see them perform without the huge massive crowd around us.

After spending 3 hours there (and as well as having lunch there) we decided to call it a day.

We drove about 2 hours to Chatan, a cute little town where there is an area called America-town and all these cool shops and restaurants. Actually we werent sure we could find it. I knew the suburb name and that was about it! Amazingly we found it, only because there is a big ferris wheel and we just followed that.

We had dinner there but didn:t stay long. Mike was really tired and we drove to the big town of Naha to our hotel. The traffic in Naha is insane. Imagine going at 40km/hr everywhere you go. It is that bad. Once again I thank my lucky stars I had pre-printed maps of exactly where the hotel was located prior to coming here. As we don:t really know how to input our destination what we]:ve been doing on the GPS is just using our finger to point to the spot on the map. However once we are actually in the right vicinity we still have to find the exact street! Nevertheless we made it without too much drama and luckily there is also a garage we could use too. It is really high tech, you park your car on an exact spot on this metal plate and a robot thingy 'deposits' it in a bank so to speak.

This morning we haven]t done anything except get up and have the free buffet in our cute little hotel. Very budget but it has everything you need, super clean, but it is sooooo tiny, very claustrophobic almost. Oh well. It is still nice and in a great location.

I'm in Okinawa! Yay!

Loving it here. The weather is perfect. Approx 23-27 degrees all day and the water is even warmer. The sky is always blue and the water a gorgeous aqua colour (my favourite). It is so different to China. Geez - where do I start?

For one thing, hubby and I had forgotten all about wearing seatbelts! We never wear them in Shanghai and realised that people here wear them (like back home in Australia) - haha.

Secondly, the people are mega polite and helpful, cheerful and friendly. If they don't know something they:ll ask someone else and find out for you.

Everything is so clean, orderly, efficient, user-friendly, yadda yadda yadda.. need I go on?

Right now we are staying at the Renaissance Beach resort on the main island of Okinawa, about an hour:s drive from Naha, the capital and the airport.

Yesterday we drove up but it took longer than expected because

1) We had to stop for lunch (in KFC where we had chicken wraps with bits of seaweed in it)
2) We passed a 100 yen shop and spent ages there. Well I spent ages there, Mike had to practically drag me out. Here they sold so many cool things ALL for 100 yen. I don:t know how they do it. I am not talking crap either, but quality goods. Some things I had looked for in China and could not find easily, or found and they were bad quality. eg
a) toe nail clippers where the cutter bit is straight and not curved
b) tongs for when I cook pasta (could not find in any supermarket in Shanghai)
3) plastic shield to prevent scratches on LCD screens on mobile phones, cameras, etc (yes I know they are common in Shanghai but I don't trust the quality and they are not THAT cheap)
4) hair collector for the shower so it doesn:t plug the drain and I don:t get told off by the plumber
and more..

All these niggly little things that only I would be searching high and low for, and wanting to buy.. such a chore to find in Shanghai at a good price and know it is good quality - it was ALL there in the 100 yen shop! They sold ordinary stuff too like bowls and cutlery, cosmetics, underwear, stationery, DIY supplies (hardware and crafts) etc ... Amazing!

I didn:t just get ordinary tongs either, they actually sold "spaghetti" tongs, I couldn:t believe it!!

Then, Mike and I have never actually used GPS in a car before. Imagine our accelerated learning curve when we had to use one in Japanese!! Hahaha. We were like two crazy contestents in the Amazing Race show - scolding each other when one of us pressed the wrong button and didn:t know how to get back to the previous screen! However, eventually, we figured the thing out. We ended up accidently setting a new destination which was rather frustrating but thanks to my very forward planning and actually printing out a good map of Okinawa before we left with our hotel:s location marked on it, as well as trying to read a map in Japanese we figured out the location on the GPS and pressed that spot on the screen. I thank my lucky stars I can still read some Japanese from studying it in high school 12 years ago!!

So, 3.5 hours after landing at the airport we finally arrived at our hotel! What an achievement.

The only bummer here is that noone really speaks English so there is a lot of miming, smiling, nodding, etc, involved. I can understand some but not confident enough to make out full sentences. A sumimasen, arigato, ohayo, konnichwa, hai, iie is all about I can manage at the moment!

This morning (our second day) I went on a 'helmet dive' which is where you put on a big white heavy plastic helmet with glass window and walk on the ocean floor (3m deep). It is for people who can:t or don:t want to scuba dive or snorkel. I can:t manage scuba (asthmatic who can't swim 200m!) so thought it was perfect for me. In fact, one of the reasons we chose this hotel! It was so much fun. I can:t even begin to explain what it felt like. It was seriously like walking on the moon. The deep heavy breathing that you can hear inside the mask (where your face is completely dry), the bouncy, slow steps that you take.. all really surreal! And I saw two Nemo fishes!

This afternoon Mike and I watched dolphins. Our hotel is the location of a dolphin research centre and there around five of these beautiful creatures living here. They swim, and jump and do tricks in the air - totally awesome stuff.

Tomorrow we are going to Churaumi aquarium, the second largest aquarium in the world to see whale sharks!