Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto

We all knew that was coming, being that it's the only Japanese I know. And why am I singing vintage Styx songs? I leave for Tokyo tomorrow morning! I am pretty excited, but super bummed that I am not experiencing the heaven that is business class. I'll try to manage. Anyway, I meet up with Maggie and Allie in Tokyo and we're there until the 19th of January. I'm getting geared up for some sake, karaoke and sumo wrestling.

I also wanted to inform you about the random shenanigans that pursued since I had last written.

My cousin flew into Sydney and we stayed there for two days. Sydney was nice, but it felt like Chicago. We went to all of the normal touristy sites, the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House. Two days were definitely enough. Especially when our last night in Sydney ended like this . . .

Kristine and I were in a 4 person mixed room at a hostel in Sydney. The other two who shared our room flew in from Denmark that day and asked us to be quiet when we got up. [We had to get up at four in the morning in order to catch a flight.] We agreed and then went to bed. In the middle of the night we heard the girl come in half popped — it took her a while to quiet down, but she finally did. Then for some reason I got up at 2 a.m. to find this girl feeling around our bunk bed. [I was on the bottom.] She turns around to look at me and I said 'excuse me?' She turns back around and then back to me and then she drops trou and proceeds to squat in the direction of my face. It was definitely another 'why me?' experience. At this point I figure she's sleep walking and I'm nervous to wake her up. So all I could think of to say was, "I'm not the bathroom!" She turns around to look at me again and then pulls up her pants and goes into the corner of the room. All the while I'm thinking that we only have two hours left in this room and she better not shit in the corner. At this point she's yelling she needs to go the train station and she's ripping stuff off of the walls. She finally finds the door and runs out into the hallway. It was pretty crazy. At least out of all of the hostels I stayed in that was the only problem I had.

After that craziness, we got on a plane and headed to Cairnes for a few days. It was a definite change in weather and it was a gorgeous place. We went on a two day boat trip to the Great Barrier Reef. It was amazing. I was a little nervous on the boat trip out because I wasn't feeling too good. There were quite a few people puking. Luckily, I kept myself together. Anyway, since we aren't divers, we snorkeled a lot. The first boat we were on made it a little tough because we went out with the day trippers and there were tons of people, so it got a little crowded snorkeling. Then later in the day we were transferred to the overnight boat. That was nicer because fewer people and most of them scuba dove, so we weren't running into people when snorkeling.

There were 18 guests and 19 employees. It was great because if you wanted to, you could stay on the boat and be a hostie, which means working in exchange for room and board and getting to dive as much as you wanted to. We were asked if we wanted to stay, but we didn't. First of all, we didn't know it was even an option and second, we had a flight the next day. Maybe if I was a diver it would have been cool, but I think there's only so much snorkeling a person can do.

After Cairnes we flew to Brisbane to pick up another car and drive down to Sydney. The first thing we did when we went to Brisbane was drive to the Australia [Steve Irwin] Zoo. It was pretty amazing. We were able to pet koalas and feed kangaroo and elephants. It was great. Then from there we did a bridge climb that night on Story Bridge in Brisbane.

The next day we left and drove down the coast taking our time, stopping when we wanted. There were tons of gorgeous beaches, friendly people and good food. We drove about three days and then we were back in Sydney in order to make our flight back to LA. This time we had a better night stay. We stayed in the train station and we got to sleep in a rail car. It was neat because we were right next to the real track. When we woke up that next morning there was a steam engine parked right outside our window with people dressed up in flapper dresses and pin striped suits. It was funny because Kristine and I were looking out at the train and then everyone else was looking in, waving at us because they were surprised to see us in the rail car.

We made it back to LA where I stayed for about a week hanging out with family. I can't believe how fast the two months went. It doesn't feel like I even went at all. I think that's why I took so many pictures, just to be sure I won't ever forget. I'll be sure to add a few photos when I return from Japan.