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!