Final notes on the Continents.

Notes on Europe

Small countries that make up for it by making huge buildings.
Reykjavik is always 9 C, apparently winter and summer.
The Grand Place in Brussels is the most spectacular city square in the world.

Notes on Africa

Forgot about all the speed bumps.
For having an all out alert on a water shortage, surely they could fix the taps from leaking.
As the birthplace for man and cradle of civilization, that should have given them a head start on being able to give you a decent hot shower.
Internet is brutal.  And the lovely lady in Swaziland stated in response to Cindy asking if they had wifi, Madame, if you find South Africa’s internet slow, then you will be very disappointed.  In Johannesburg, a rainy day slows down the internet. 
For vehicles, slow down is spelled “STOP”

Notes on Australia

My favorite sound of the trip, the kookaburra laughing in the morning.  Wonderful sound and enjoyed it all through Australia.
Worse sound are the Lorikeets at night.  They are beautiful, but were not gifted with a singing voice to match their beauty.
The trees are enormous.  Europe was the land of big buildings, Africa the land of big animials, and Australia the land of big trees, and beautiful birds.
The Great Ocean Road is spectacular, maybe one of the most scenic roads I have ever been on.
Always thought that paying $65 a night to camp at Clear Lake was ridiculous, now am thrilled to get a campsite for under $70, which does not happen too often.

Notes on Asia

The garbage is back in style.  Everywhere, in the water, on the beaches, on the streets.
Hu Long Bay could be spectacular if not for the over tourism, thanks to people like us.
Tam Coc is spectacular.
The sound of people spitting, all types of people and anywhere and everywhere.
Laos food is incredible, way better than the Vietnam food.
On June 26, Nate lost his sixth tooth of the trip.  That is two in Europe (Iceland and Amsterdam), one in Africa (believe Plettenburg Bay), two in Australia (Adelaide and Burleigh Heads), and two in Asia (Luang Prabang and Vientiane).  That is five continents (North America as well of course) he has loss teeth on, must be some type of world record.  He has also lost a hat on three continents.  This record we are not so happy with.
Phnom Penh is a very stinky city.
Singapore knows how to through a party, and that was just the rehearsals for their National Day.
Japan is one quiet organized polite society.  Lots of people, but quiet.
SE Asia is hot in the summer.  We walked around in 40 C weather for 10 weeks.

Carman

Great to be home.
We have the second slowest internet in the world right here in rural Manitoba.  South Africa you expect poor, but not here.  How disappointing.
We have great family and friends and it is wonderful to be with them again.

In review

192 days on the road
4 continents
13 countries
12 major city centres
4 world class human rights museums
7 missing teeth by Nate
parasailing, AFL, scuba diving, surfing, squid, Thai boxing, meeting people

People ask how our vacation was.  This was not a vacation.  A trip of this length has everything.  Lots of amazing adventures and experiences, but as with life anywhere over an extended amount of time, there are good and bad, stresses, disappointments, and home sickness.
Our boys were amazing.  For the last six and a half months we have lived in very close quarters with each other, and have been together constantly.  Ten and thirteen year olds love to wrestle, not always with the best results, but we always recovered. They allowed themselves to experience life, the food, eating with chopsticks, and other really cool events that are not always available.  Their ability to talk to people we meet was very rewarding for us.  The last two and a half months in SE Asia were hot, often with real feels in the low 40's.  But everyday we went out and did something amazing.  And Cindy is beyond amazing.  My role in the trip was to carry things and to drive.  Cindy organized our accommodation (which is not easy when travelling as a group of five), food experiences, and everything else.

Was it worth taking ourselves and our kids out of their regular lives for half a year?  Absolutely.

The end... until the next trip.

Home sweet... is that our garden?

Monday, August 14, 2017
A day of yard work.  Our next door neighbor kept our lawn mowed, but we said do not worry about the garden beds.  Let them weed up and we will look after it when we get home.  Knew it would be weedy, but certainly did not expect this.  Weeds over 2 meters high.  Wow!  After a mere six hours, it was all back to normal.  The hard days work was needed.  Sleeping at 10 pm and up at 6:30 am - with no laying awake during the night.  Jet lag is officially over.

And just like that, it is done

Sunday, August 13, 2017

Six and a half months, 292 days since we were last in our own beds.  Georgina and Larry pick us up at the airport, and Benny and Sandy are there as well as there flight from Toronto was delayed and they arrived at the same time as us.  We get back to Larry and Georgina's for a short sleep before we drive to Carman.  However, getting to sleep after a long flight is not that easy.  At 3:00 am in Winnipeg, our internal clocks are still 5:00 pm in Tokyo.  We eventually fall asleep but are up at 10 for a great breakfast and some visiting.
On the way out of Winnipeg, we do a quick stop at Soby's for some groceries and home.  The house looks great, and except for some dead bugs, is very clean and undusty.  I guess it is true, dust is dead skin, and with no bodies in the house - no dust.  After sorting mail, and the boys getting a feel for the neighborhood, we go to sleep.  More accurately, we lie in bed for the night.  I fell a sleep at 10:30 pm, was up at midnight, and then lay awake waiting for 5:00 am, my determined time.  Cindy and I got out of bed at 4:45 am as 5 became to far away.

We are not happy until you are not happy.

Misery loves company, and looking at the number of 

delayed flights with Air Canada, we have lots of company.

Saturday, August 12... the second time around
We happily devour our meal on ANA after surviving the first Saturday on toast for breakfast, an ice cream cone for lunch, and candy for a late supper.  We decided that after the walking tour we would eat at the Tokyo Airport, but all we could find of interest was some candy.  The meal was great on the airplane.  We landed on schedule in Vancouver, cleared customs quickly, gathered our luggage and checked it in for our Air Canada flight to Winnipeg.  It is about 3:00 pm and we are happy as we fly out at 7:30 pm.  As we check the departure board to find what gate, we notice a flight delay, and within the next 30 minutes, the delay increases to just under two and a half hours.  Comedian Big Daddy Tazz in a skit says that Air Canada's slogan is We are not happy until you are not happy.  The lady at the information desk believes the flight is delayed because of the wind.  Not sure if she realizes that planes fly based on wind, and that every other airline seems to be able to fly in this same wind.  Oh well, we jump on the train and go to a nearby mall to kill some time.  After a couple of hours, we return to the airport, have supper at Tim Hortons, and board our plane just prior to 10:00 pm for Winnipeg.

It is time...

Saturday, August 12, 2017 - the first time around.
After six and a half months of travelling east, we are now 14 hours ahead of home.  Today we will get to experience Saturday, August 12... twice.  We fly out at 9:50 pm and arrive in Vancouver on Saturday around 2:00 pm, almost eight hours earlier than we left.  Have to love time travel.
We still have one more day in Tokyo though.  This morning we checked out the Nippori section of old Tokyo as this is fabric town, and Cindy loves fabric.  The day is slightly overcast, which is perfect for the four sad looking males waiting outside the fabric store.  Cindy is in seventh heaven, and just over an hour later returns with her spoils of warring the thick crowds inside this store.  Every now and again one of the boys would venture into the store to get an update on her status.  We then jumped the train to Tokyo Station for our walking tour.  We did not leave much time for the change over and ended up missing lunch.  Tokyo Station has over 420 000 people a day pass through it, making it the busiest station in the world.  The tour took us through the Imperial Palace grounds.  Very nice and peaceful.  After the walking tour was completed, we jumped the train to get back to our neighborhood.  We left our luggage with our landlord and needed to collect it before heading off to the airport.  Our bags stink!  The landlord has a couple of smoking roommates and cats.  At 7 pm we are all check in and at 9:55 am we are lifting off, getting ready to experience our second Saturday shortly.  We are excited to be returning home, but not so excited about 13 hours in the air with a five hour layover.

Farewell old friends.

Friday, August 11, 2017
Leaving precisely on time, we left Kyoto on the Hikari Express 464 for Tokyo.  I was forced to bid farewell to my trusted flip flops.  After they have been with me for the whole trip, Cindy said enough was enough.  An unfortunate roll over in South Africa required that the one spend the rest of the trip wrapped in duct tape (glad I brought a roll).  I pleaded that I still had duct tape left to have them make the trip home, but I was voted down.  They were good shoes and I will miss them deeply.

After arriving in Tokyo precisely on time, we did a subway and then Luke managed to direct us to our apartment.  Funny, he is always the slowest one, put a phone with GPS in his hand and suddenly no one can keep up to him.  The apartment is roomy compared to our previous box.  After getting settled, we find a little restaurant down the street.  Although they were tired of it, the boys went for another helping of Katsu don.  Cindy and I changed up our meal for the night.  We then walked into Shinjuku area.  True big city living.  Friday night, lots of people out and bright lights.

Little more crowded than we remember.

Thursday, August 10, 2017
We had visited the Kinkakuhi Temple together 20 years ago.  The Kinkakuji Temple, or Golden Pavillion as it is also called, was quite a peaceful place.  We were there in May last time, a non touristy time and China had not opened up its borders for its' people to travel.  This was different.  The place is still the same, but it was packed.  In our walking tour yesterday, the guide said that tourists to Japan had increased from four million a year to 24 million a year, mainly due to the Chinese influx.  At the end of our time at the Golden Pavillion, one Chinese lady tried taking all of pictures individually as we came out of the washroom.  Just weird.
We then let the boys return to the apartment and Cindy and I did our favorite thing, went shopping for fabric.  Cindy was in her prime.  Me too.

Seeing the trees for the forest

Wednesday, August 9, 2017

We had seen wonderful pictures of the bamboo forest.  A 20 minute train ride and we were there.  It is beautiful, and packed with tourist.  As we worked our way up in elevation, the crowds lessened and we got some peaceful views of the river below.  The typhoon has definitely passed, as we are once again into the high 30’s with a real feel of 43.  Absolutely draining, but everyone pushes on.  Yesterday we had a great lunch of Katsu don, and upon returning from the bamboo forest, we revisited our little restaurant for another feast.  After we were done our late lunch, Nate said he really enjoyed it, but that was probably enough Katsu don for a while.  That evening everyone went and picked out a Japanese hat as a souvenir.  Levi went a little more for the Paulie look (Rockey’s brother in law), and it suits him.  We then walked over to the Milky Way light festival.  A little canal hidden below street level was all decorated up with lights and small bonfires.  Thousands of locals were checking it out, all in the same direction and very orderly of course.  Interesting little hike before we walked back to our apartment for the night.

Is that guy wearing a kimono?

Tuesday, August 8, 2017

A slightly overcast morning, followed by a sunny hot afternoon.  We checked out the mall in the morning.  Long streets covered by a doomed roof.  Very clean and orderly, not your traditional Asian market place.  The afternoon had us join a walking tour.  It was a huge group, over 30 people.  Our guide was good, and we had a good walk around the Gion learning about the Geisha culture.  There are 300 Geisha’s in Japan, and they all train here.  Many women are walking around in kimono’s (and some men) with their wooden flip flops.  Many are tourists who rent the kimono’s for the day, but some are locals on an outing.  In the evening we walked down by the river and checked out some of the action there.  Kyoto is the loudest city in Japan we have experienced, and it is nothing compared to anywhere else in SE Asia.

Typhoon

Levi got into the hair grease that was in the hotel.

Monday, August 7, 2017
A day of travel, into the eye of Typhoon NORU.  Well, maybe a little to the left of the eye. 
Our train ride to Kyoto saw the rain pick up.  By the time we arrived in Kyota, it was windy with a constant rain.  Another experience for the boys, typhoon caused weather.  The rain cools things down to the low 30's.  After settling into our apartment, we walk over to a grocery store.  We are drenched, but for a change it is not from sweat and the rain is warm.  However, the store is well air-conditioned and we freeze in the store.  We end up with a quiet night inside as the rains continue.  Tomorrow the rain is to stop.
In reviewing our rain days on this trip, we have only had one day of heavy rain in Whitsands, South Africa.  There have been some other days of rain (Amsterdam, South Australia), but nothing that prevented us from our days activity.  Truly excellent weather for a trip.  We are looking forward to a bit cooler weather tomorrow as we have been walking around in 40 C weather for the last two months.

Typhoon Noru giving some rain, the first rain in a while for us.

Dunes

Sunday, August 6, 2017

Another hot day, perfect day for the beach.  Tottori have Japan’s highest sand dunes, with the biggest coming in just under 50 metres high.  The race to the top had us all gasping for air, and when told that the dunes in Namibia were over four times as high, they were suddenly glad we missed that part of the trip.  Sand boarding is one of the activities at the dunes, but with the heat no one was out and the boys were not interested.  After an hour of checking the dunes out and realizing that sand does not come off a sweating body, all were prepared to return.  Not even any interest in putting their feet into the Sea of Japan as this would require a long climb back up.  Back in Tottori, the afternoon had a street closed for a dance off which was interesting for about 20 minutes.  Typhoon NORU continues to be of some interest, but no one seems too concerned here.  There is to be some rain in Kyoto tomorrow, so this might be all the effect of this storm.  Disappointing, I was hoping for a bit more wind and maybe a bit of destruction.  Selfishly, all for the experience of saying we were in a typhoon.

Even after emptying our shoes, we were knocking sand out of our shoes for hours.  Sand has the amazing ability to get everywhere.

What a greeting!

Saturday, August 5, 2017

Shikano Junior High School

As we enter the store owned by Cindy's landlord from 26 years ago, the lady looks up and without hestitation says "Cindy-San".  Amazing.  Instantly we are sat down at the table, the three daughters who happen to be home appear with their small children.  The news hits Shikano and soon the husband is here, and the next door neighbor makes an appearance.  A wonderful visit for Cindy, and the boys think the meeting is fantastic.  An old picture of Cindy comes out and we all have a laugh (she use to have pudgy cheeks).  After a great visit with limited English on their side and limited Japanese on our side, we head back to Tottori.  Prior to popping in for the visit, we had walked over to the school Cindy had taught had.  It was open so we had a look around, but did not see anyone.  The school is still exactl
y the same, no reno's here.  Then a walk up to a shrine that overlooks the town.

Rural Japan, the field on the outskirts of Shikano

In the evening, Tottori is alive.  Not a dead city tonight.  Saturday nights during the summer see the main street closed for the evening, and the street vendors are out selling food and lots of live entertainment.  We enjoy some noodles (with fish sauce of course) and chicken.  The boys have some kakigori (shaved ice) to cool off.  We meet a long Canadian (Josh) from Ontario who teaches in Japan and his girlfriend's parents live in Tottori.  He tells us that her parents commented on seeing us.  We are the side show in rural Japan right now.
What a great day!

Cindy's house that she lived in on the main floor for a year.

On the street, Cindy getting help from a local trying to determine the location of neighbors.  Unfortunately could not find the one family that Cindy was good friends with.  Their last name was Okada, but there were several sets of Okada's on this street.  

The daughters of the landlord, and the grandchildren.

Tottori bound

This little guy took a real liking to Nate.

Friday, August 4, 2017
We catch a morning train for Tottori.  Of course it leaves and arrives precisely on time.  We have a short walk to our apartment.  It is 2 pm, but check in is at 3 pm, and in Japan doing something that is not completely straight forward does not work.  Asking to check in an hour early would throw them off.  The other day I asked for two 50 Yen coins instead of a 100 Yen coin (50 Yen coins have a hole in the middle and Nate is saving them), and this caused a great deal of strife with the cashier.  After a couple of minutes of discussion with another cashier, it was finally agreed upon.  Japan is a very rule abiding society.  We have to be careful due to our jay walking habits from the rest of SE Asia.  Here it is not permitted, no matter how quiet the streets - Levi just does it anyway and then looks back at us in disbelief.  A walk around town has Cindy remembering where the McDonald's is.  When we enter, two older ladies are quite taken by us.  Cindy explained later it was because they wanted to see what crazy amount of food I was going to bring back for this big American family.  They were disappointed when it only ended up being a sundae for everyone.
Tottori is truly getting into the non touristy part of Japan.  Very little English, menu's are all in Japanese, and there are no pictures.  And Cindy's town of Shikano (close to here) is even more rural that this.  A walk around at night finds the city of Tottori very quiet (no people or vehicles about).

There's a storm brewing

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Miyajima Island is a very popular tourist destination.  The Tori gate is the third most photographed site in Japan.  The Tori is an entrance to a temple, and it is huge.  With in being low tide, we were able to explore it at close range.  More interesting was the boys trying out the bean paste cookies.  A delicacy in Japan, our memory of the taste was accurate when we purchased a couple for the boys.  The mechanized assembly line to make the cookies is far better than the taste.  The workers enjoyed the boys facial expressions on their taste test.  Then it was time for shaved ice.  The first batch was alright, but then as we left we had another try at a different vendor.  This one was a hit.  The deer on the island are very friendly.
We were going to go to a Carp baseball game, but the Carp are very popular and no tickets were to be had.  The train ride back from Miyajima was packed with Carp fans heading for the game.  After dinner, we went for one last walk around the Peace Park and watched the flying carp in the river.  Checking email at night had us receive a warning from the Canadian Government.  I had registered our trip with Foreign Affairs so that if there were any travel alerts, we would hopefully receive them.  There is!  Typhoon MORU is the largest storm system on Earth for 2017, and it is heading toward Southern and Western Japan.  We might feel the effects of it as we are in Western Japan.  Not overly worried as the Japanese set up several thousand chairs outside yesterday for their August 6 remembrance ceremony, the day the Typhoon is to hit.

Kagura - Japanese Theatre

Wednesday, August 2, 2017
Finding out that today was the only day we could get an English speaking guide at the Hiroshima Peace Museum, we moved our trip out to Miyajima to Thursday.  This is one of the few museums in the world we decided was a must visit for all of us, the others being the Anne Frank House, Robin Island, and The Killing Fields.  The museum has been revamped since our last visit, and is still exceptional.  After several hours, our tour of the museum and Peace Park are over.  The Park is being prepared for the major day of remembrance on August 6, the actual date of the bombing.
Then time for another food experience.  Okonomiyaki is a famous dish is Hiroshima.  We found a little restaurant in the Okonomiyaki Village (a section of an outdoor mall) where the locals where, and then watched.  The island that we sat at is the cooking surface is very hot as Levi found out.  Food is prepared right in front of you.  Okonomiyaki could be described as a Japanese pizza.  We are proud of the boys as they have had a very positive attitude toward trying new foods.  All the boys liked the Okonomiyaki, but would have made it without the dried fish powder.  That being said, no food was left on the grill.  For the evening, we tried out Japanese theatre.  The costumes were incredible.  The story line, not so much.  There were two 45 minute plays.  We did read the story lines prior to give us an idea of what was going to be happening.  Good thing, as the plays involved some speaking (in Japanese of course), and lots of spinning.  For an efficient country of people, they can make a simple story line difficult to follow and last for what seems forever.  Both shows climax with a showdown, music and spinning between combatants increasing until the bad guy is striked down with the sword, and the end.  We knew there was a section of comic relief due to the crowd response.  A good experience that will not be repeated by us.  It was McDonald's sundaes after as our reward for sitting through well behaved, and we all got one.

Don't have time for no slow train,...

Our train, which travels between 270 and 300 km per hour

The Atomic Bomb Dome

Tuesday, August 1, 2017
Six months on the road and I'm going make it home ...  Dad had two records he would play when I was young.  One was Marty Robbins Gun Slinger ballads, and the other was The 24 Greatest Truck Drivin' hits, and the 6 days on the road and I am going to make it home tonight was played often.  There is certainly a reason for him having the country album, but not sure why he had a truck driving album, or liked it as he was never a truck driver and after the war was never away from home for more than a weekend.
My recollection of the promptness of Japanese rail remains accurate.  When it says on the ticket you are leaving at 9:33 am, that means at precisely 9:33 am the train is starting to move.  And when the ticket says you will arrive at Osaka at 12:26 pm, then you will stop at precisely 12:26 pm.  Our second train that we had to transfer onto in order to get to Hiroshima was not as impressive.  It did leave on time, but arrived 15 seconds earlier than scheduled.  Stops for drop off and pick up are one minute.  They often announce on the train to be ready to disembark in order to not miss your stop.
We arrived in Hiroshima in mid afternoon.  Hot in the city today!  After finding our apartment, we went for a walk.  Our apartment is located across the street from the Peace Memorial Park.  After dinner, we went for another walk around the Atomic Bomb Dome, the preserved surviving structure from the August 6, 1945 A Bomb blast.  The A Bomb detonated 160 m SE of the dome, at a height of 600 m.  The devastation caused by the blast as shown by pictures outside the dome is horrific.