first days

Well, it’s been a while but I finally got around to writing about the trip I took in October and November. Sorry this is so late but I think you’ll all enjoy reading this and seeing the pictures. Here goes:

When I arrived at the airport in Narita where I would fly from Japan to Cairns, Australia with two guy friends and was surprised at how many Caucasians were walking about. I wouldn’t have been expecting so many white people at an Asian airport but it was an international airport. When I finally got on the flight, I had a window seat and wound up sleeping most of the trip, as I usually do. Luckily I woke up and my first view of Australia was looking down over clear blue water with the light green coral reefs just barely visible under the water. After we landed and finally got through customs, we got outside into the hot, smoky air of Cairns. The air was tinged with smoke because the there had been bush fires there. I got to the ship and saw my rack and the two small lockers I was given and started to panic. I was really worried that being on a ship would make me too claustrophobic to work. Luckily I realized that once I got to work the next day and wasn’t thinking about the space or roll of the ship. Anyways, a girl that slept kitty-corner to me in the room took me out with two other friends for supper so I can truly say I was in Australia. We wound up eating at a pub, which, to add a side note, is where I often get some really food. Usually one goes to a pub to drink, but I find their food is usually pretty good. Anyways, I had a local fish and we stopped by a convenience store and I picked up some kangaroo jerky, which turned out to be rather chewy. I found a bead store and picked up a pretty heart pendant and it occurred to me how many bead stores are run by hippies or “new age” believers. I find it amusing that apparently the owners of ever bead store I’ve gone into think that necklaces are the modern tussie-mussies: if you want to use stones, you obviously want the necklace to send a message like “get well soon” or “wear this and you’ll get extra strength” or some other special quality. Sorry if you’re one of those people, but I base my ideas on style, color, who will wear it, rarely do I try to send a message with my jewelry. Okay, tangent over, back to Australia. It was so hot there that almost all the natives were wearing wife-beaters or tank tops and short shorts, some were only wearing swimsuit tops instead of shirts. What I found gorgeous was that there was a lovely lagoon, man-made but still lovely. It was a pool the shape of a peanut with water nearly ankle deep that ended in a walkway that the ocean waves lapped against. It was a lovely view and a lovely pool for the kids to play in that sat in the middle of the city of Cairns. After a few pictures by the lagoon and what little beach there was, we headed across the street to the Night Market where they sold everything from trinkets to fake tattoos to expensive opal jewelry local food. My group all got ten minute massages for twenty bucks, about, in a stand obviously set up there nightly and well visited. Unfortunately, by then it was getting late so we all headed back to the ship for a good sleep, or as good a one as a person can get on those springs lightly wrapped in cloth they call mattresses.