Melbourne

I am on a one week trip to Melbourne courtesy of NICTA. My first impression of Australia is the wide and expansive landscape. From the airplane, you can really see up to the horizon and to the clouds where flat land and sky meets.

Melbourne city itself is a very pleasant city. There are so many foreigners here that I am sure a that a local might find himself being the foreigner (a joke that a friend shared with me when he was told by a local Californian how he felt about LA).

After being used to the clockwork transportation system in Japan I was a little bewildered when I reached Brisbane international airport. Being a bumbling idiot like I am, I almost miss my connection flight. I was really glad when I found my seat on the domestic plane to Melbourne. I wanted to tell how all that running was the best exercise that I ever got in a year but the guy sitting next to me promptly changed seat when the seatbelt sign was turned out. Go figure. I mean, I was huffing and puffing and that might put some people off, I thought he just went to the toilet but he never came back. That wasn't the best of it. It seemed that my luggage was stuck in Brisbane when I arrived in Melbourne. I had to make 4 calls to get my bag back and it was 1 day late. Not bad huh for my second trip to Australia. I had an exciting day in Melbourne yesterday evening. I locked myself out of my apartment and the key was left in the office which I had no access to. Talk about being a perpetual bumbling idiot. You know that was not the only airport drama that I had while traveling. Did I tell you about the time I forgot about my poster while on the way to my New York flight at Narita airport last September. Which reminds me, I should document that trip on this blog soon.

Anyway, back to Melbourne. There's a lot of things to like about this city. The buildings, the attractions, and most of all the food. I had no idea I would be having claypot chicken rice with Chinese ginseng soup for dinner. It was after dinner that I found out that I was near Chinatown. The tram ride was cool. Just like the tram ride in Frankfurt. These electric trains share the road with cars and they run in the middle of it. What more can I say about this city. It's pretty clean. No, not squeaky clean like Singapore but fairly clean. There are giant vacuum cleaners on the walkway in the city that keep it that way. And I am lucky to be experiencing mild weather during this summer period in Melbourne. I heard it can get a scorching 40degC sometimes here. Boy am I glad that's not happening right now.

OK enough talk. Here are some shots of the city and the university. I wonder if I will have time to see more of it before I head back to Nara this Saturday.

somewhere from Brisbane to Melbourne taken from the airplane

Visitor Center at Federation Square

St. Paul's Cathedral (opposite Flinders St. Station)

Outside the Claypot King restaurant at the end of Chinatown along Swanston St.

Old Quad Upper Theater in the University of Melbourne (looking from the South lawn)