Shan in Japan

長い旅が終わった。日本に戻って、たくさんおいしいものを食べれた！日本を出てから１０ヶ月経ったけど、もっと長く感じた。いろんな国を回って、いろんな人と出会って、素晴らしい経験だった。写真を撮りまくったから、整理をしてから写真プレゼンテーションを作りたい。普通の生活にすぐ戻れるかどうか、ちょっと心配だ。今収入がないからまず仕事をゲットすることだ。
ちなみに以下の写真は別に関係ないけど、妹の猫だ。見たら、なんとなく笑えるよね。

Back in NY now.  Upped some pics of NZ and Tahiti here:

http://imageevent.com/shanakin/newzealand

http://imageevent.com/shanakin/tahiti

Big bbq tomorrow for mum's birthday.  Then I'm back out to JFK airport for a 7am flight to Tokyo on Tuesday.  I might end up just going out in the city on Monday and then on to the airport in the evening and camp out! 　Body clock is going berserk now. 

To friends in Japan -  来週日本に戻りますので、皆さんに会うことを楽しみにしています。よろしく！

The brief visit to New Zealand was great and I managed to catch up with most people. Thanks to Air Tahiti Nui, we had a stop-over in Tahiti. The island of Moorea is just beautiful. As a tropical beach paradise, it beats anywhere I went in Asia. Tahitians live up to their beauty - must be that French influence on their diet. Muscular and well tatooed men power paddled their va'a canoes around the lagoon. The women were slim and gorgeous with tiare in their hair. It was a nice place to spend some relaxing time with mum. We stayed in a bungalow by the beach. It was a campsite basically and all the kitchen and bathroom facilities were shared. The Sheraton and Beachcomber resorts were beyond our budget, however that did stop us from using their facilities and lounging around the poolside;-) On Mothers Day, we went sailing on an out-rigger around the lagoon. Stopped off for snorkelling in some of the clearest waters I've ever seen. Friendly sting-rays would come up and you could pat them like a dog.  There were primo reef breaks for surfing -  I envied the guys paddling out.  We met a few Americans on the last few days who were there photographing the Billabong Pro surfing event in Teahupoo.  Good times drinking wine at sunset and having a chat.  The last day we spent on the Lagoonarium - a tiny island out in the lagoon with a marine park.  The place is teeming with fish and coral.  Turtles, rays and reef sharks were everywhere.  The American photographer took some amazing shots which I hope to get of the turtles.  There is nothing I can fault about Moorea.  I'm going to book in with Air Tahiti Nui for sure next time and make NZ a stop over on my visit to Tahiti!

Auckland welcomed us (mum and me) to blue skies and sunny weather yesterday.  First thing we did was go to Mission Bay for a pot of steamed mussels for lunch.  There are a few things that I am looking forward to devouring such as fish and chips, meat pies and plenty of kiwi wine and beer.  These days when I come back to New Zealand, I feel more and more like a tourist.  This is the place I grew up as a kid, but it seems quite foreign to me now.  I only have 4 days here, so got to make the most of it!  My Grandmother turns 90 years old today - bless her. 

"Can you hold the plane for a bit?" was my last plea as I stood at the gates without a boarding pass at 5:15pm for a 5:15pm flight. Travelling light has it's advantages as there is no need to check in luggage. This has also made me complacent about rocking up to the airport less than an hour before the plane is due to depart and getting away with it. If it was an Air India flight, I am certain I could arrive at the airport after the due departure time and still get on the flight as those guys are always behind schedule! I have never missed a flight before and now I missed my long-haul flight to New Zealand. Not exactly a flight you can just hop on the next plane a few hours later.

So how did this happen? It's my own fault for not allowing enough time for unforseen circumstances. Now I appreciate the airlines' mantra of checking in at least 2 hours before departure. Even if it means sitting around bored, eating overpriced and poor quality airport food. Everything was going smooth as I got the E train from New York out to Queens. When I got to Jamaica center and changed to the 'Airtrain' - a computerised train to JFK airport, it had a computer glich. The platform attendant assured me it would be fixed in 5 mins. 5 mins turned into 30 mins, then another train came along, so I changed to that one as then train with a computer glich had an 'out of service' sign on it. As soon as I got on the next train, the computer glich train magically fixed itself, doors closed and off it went. So I had to wait another 10 mins before the second train would depart. From this point I knew I would miss the flight, but a slight optimism of a flight delay compelled me to keep going to the airport. Unlike Asia (excluding Japan) this is the western world. Things tend to run on time and to schedule - except for bloody computerised trains! Ironic.

Air Tahiti were quite good about rescheduling my next flight at almost no cost. I fly out tomorrow - same time and I plan to be the first person to check in!