Yokohama Bay Sheraton Hotel

... moped rentals, and atving. Afterwards I went by Andrea's room to chat and see what she was planning on doing in Hawaii. She is from Montana and is also 23 years old. I think that she might go to Bonnaroo with me this summer! We hung out for a while with her roommate Brittany and Trish. I really liked spending time with them and am realizing how sad I am going to be when we leave the ship ...

... the spedometer redline at 750 meters per minute (I actually video'd the speedometer display on the way down). We got to the overservation deck on the 69th floor at about 6pm, which gave us around half an hour until sundown, which was perfect. This enabled us to get photos both in light, and after dark, which we didn't have the opportunity to do at the Umeda Sky building in Osaka. The Umeda Sky ...

... did not seem too obvious that I was coming down with something. Back to our story: An early service started and the Kids, sang a special music, it was neat. One little boy wasn't doing much singing but he sure was having a blast bobbing around shoving his hands down in his pockets. After the special music, we went downstairs and enjoyed the children's sabbath school with 4 or 5 little 2-3 year olds, being told a story by a little japanese lady who did bear a striking ...

... front. They spoke no English there, and didn't have pictures on the menu, but their specialty was eel which I understood so we got some! It was so delicious, but I couldn't eat it all. The owner was really nice, and kept trying to chat to us despite the language barrier! Jo got hit on by an old man who was another customer, that was the highlight of the evening!! We went back to the hotel, where I proceeded to lose all my dinner, and had a solid night's sleep. The ...

... dropped out of the college, choosing to work in a pachinko (pinball) parlour to realise his dream of becoming a professional pachinko player. Like many in our generation he lives with parents at home. What united us was our outcast status. Neither of us excelled in sport. Both of us were interested in world geography, trivia quiz shows, and the state of the world. We were the nerds. I did not think much more and ...

... emu and wallaby were made of cast iron of sorts. They looked so heavy, so heavy they could not move. In fact their movement was severely restricted because they were encased in cages. I was astounded by the audacity of the architect and whoever approved of the plan to let this design be used. The Australian PM, John Howard, would be crying out how "un-Australian" it was to lock up the 'national icons' in cages. Maybe this represents Australia's past and the present: its past as ...

... Anyways I'll try and post pics here. Moving on to work. After having a moan at my old AAM I have been transferred closer to home. I have 7 schools now, 2 of which are in walking distance, 1 is 15 mins, 1 30mins and the other 2 are 50. I go to them once a week max. I'm enjoying my job more now as my new AAM gives me more freedom to run my schools and organise and carry out training etc. So, things on that front are ...

... took a picture with them. Amy and Kurt made it to the Saturday show, and got to witness the insanity first hand. As we were leaving the stage door our cast got spotted by a large group of audience members and we were busy with autographs, pictures, hand shaking and some screaming for a good 15 minutes! Tom came by and helped by escorting us to get our cabs. Who knew Scotty and the crew would be Japanese pop-stars?!?! Surreal.

... wasn't paved and was far less crowded. There were tons of wood & dirt steps at the start, then it followed a stream the rest of the way down. At times the trail actually was in the stream and I had to jump from rock to rock. Lots of fun and I got nice and muddy. There was a small temple near the bottom with candles in a little grotto cut out of the rock. The whole area there smelled like incense and the scene was surreal in the foggy mist. Towards the bottom, I ...

... in the world (Malaysia) - become a mechanical bull queen (Australia) and a limbo champion (Fiji) - sailed through a limestone archipelago and played on my "own" beach (Vietnam) - sang in a karaoke capsule a la Lost In Translation (Japan) - sailed around the Whitsundays with whales and dolphins (Australia) - viewed sky-panoramas of cities and countries - ran up and down a mini-mountain in about 30 minutes (China) and climbed halfway up a mountain in a bikini (Vietnam ...