Christmas at the QVB

Hello! 

It is December and everywhere in the city has Christmas decorations! 

It is summer here in Sydney and I will say it feels very strange. I have mostly lived in the Northan hemisphere so it feels very strange in a good way! 

I am just not used to it yet! 

This is a picture of the huge christmas tree in the Queen Victoria Building(QVB) and looking upto the stainglass dorm. This part of the building is my favourite part. I find the colour of the glass stunning! 

It looks a little diffent when you take a photo form the grownd floor and the 3ed floor of the building. 

QVB is one building that I love and visit it quite frequently :) 

 It is in the middle of the city of Sydney and close to Town Hall station. 

I actually have a Instagram that I use.

If you are interested have a look :) 

It is: @ellenkoala

Do you have a favorite building or a part of a building?

See you soon!
Ellen 

Different types of Halloween

Halloween 2016 has been a quiet one for me.
I have been studying most of the day.

On the other hand, the last few halloweens have been different each year.

Most of the years when I was univeristy in Japan I dressed up and went to the halloween event was at the student hall or/and dress up for the halloween IAC(Intercultural Affairs Committee) dancy party as an IAC member.

In Japan Halloween is quite a new thing that the country and society are processing slowly. There have been problems especially in the middle of Tokyo on the Halloween weekend, there are a lot of people walking around in costumes and going to bars and having fun. However, because of the amount of people gathered at one area the traffic stops and the cars can not move at all.

When I was in the UK I had to experience the pumpkin carving and went to a birthday party.
Two of my friends had their birthday on the 31st of October and we celebrated together.
In the UK I also went to a bar which was pop culture themed and it was turned into a halloween event venue. It was quite spooky and I remember half of the time being a little scared of the decorations.

In Australia... I think Halloween is quite a new thing for Australia. The party supply industry loves the promotion and the sales for costumes for children and young adults who participate and enjoys it.
On the other hand there are the older generation where they only see it as an advertising, commercial event for people to spend more money.

I can see both sides of the argument but at the end of the day,  I think if people are enjoying it that is the best thing! For example, I made some ghost biscuits and dressed up as a witch and I enjoyed it.


One day, I would love to experience the true American Halloween in the future.

Ellen    

Watermelon prices in Australia

Recently I have been talking to my friend who now lives in Switzerland about the price of fruit.

As we both grew up in Japan we both agree that it is quite expensive to buy fruit. For example, one package of strawberries might cost you 600 yen/$6 and here in Australia yes it is pricy but it be 2 packages for $5. In switzerland I am not exactly sure but I can imagine my friend saying "expensive".

So, lets talk about watermelons. It was quite a shock to see big watermelons sold at about $1 per Kilo!!
If you would be in Japan It would cost just one watermelon about $15 to $30 each!!
Another thing that shocked me was that the watermelons were all in this huge box in the middle of  the shop!
I am used to buying things by weight in Australia but I feel like going to buy a watermelon or even watermelons would be a whole new level of culture shock and experience.

Australia has areas like Queensland which consider to be the tropical region and have big scale farms. In comparison, Japan has its restriction of land and when it is imported from other countries fruits from its own country becomes more expensive.

In the case of Switzerland and Germany, my Friend say that it is quite cheap to get fruit like Australia but not as cheap as in Australia. When I lived in the UK for a while. I remember it was quite cheap compared to Japan.

I think in quality and uniqueness for having several kinds of varieties for strawberries, mandarins, grapes and also watermelon, I think Japan is ahead with creating tasty fruits.
But also the price difference will be depending on the economic factors and trade agreements but let's not go there.

This is a quite normal thing as an example of a form of culture shock where you get everywhere.
It is just for me, it is quite a difference so it made me curious!

There are so many things in life which is curious and fascinating.

Ellen 

Am I smelling smoke?

One Friday morning, I got off the train and smelt something burning.

In Australia bushfires are quite common and I was quite concerned about it.

It is getting close to summer and there are days that are quite cool and days which are hot.

I arrived at Tech and I looked up where the fires is and what the status of the fire.

Have had experienced some major disasters in the past, I get quite conscious of the change of my surroundings.

It turns out that it was quite close but it was controlled and it was safe.
I was glad that it was not major and I am safe and other people were safe.

As my teacher arrived to the class, I asked about the smoke in the air.

She said, "Ah, do not worry, they are doing Prescribed Burning."

"What is that? Is that like burning to kill the bugs?" I asked.
"In Japan they burn the side of the rice paddies to kill the bugs before they start to grow new rice every year." I continued.

The teacher answered. " No, it is to eliminate the spread of bushfires."

That made so much sense because the college is no where near any farms or paddies that I am used to have back in Japan.

Apparently the first nations people, the people who originally owned the lands of Australia had their own way of control burning which surprised me and made me see another interesting side of Australia.

See you soon!
Ellen 

Thoughts at the art gallery

After finishing my errands in the city, I decided to go to the Art gallery. 

I have realised that I have not been there for nearly a decade. 

There were few things that I have realised while I was walking around the gallery.

First thing was the facet that me walking through the exhibition rooms made me see flash backs from the past. A teenage girl walking, looking at the paintings with her first camera, photographing her favourite paintings. Stopping at paintings pained by people she has read in art class text books and then dreaming to see many more paintings in Europe. 

Another thing was that that dream of a teenage girl seeing more paintings where still there standing in front of those paintings.

Today was a day to reflect on myself and I am glad that I walked to the art gallery and spend some time there. 

Public Transport Australia vs Japan and tips for countryside sight-seeing

Public transport are very different in each countries.

Japanese public transport is always, every day on time even in the countryside. They they some times where they are late, but not that often. If you are in Tokyo there can have the occasional accidents and weather interference can cause a delay but they are pretty good at scheduling the timetables and being on time.

On the other hand in Australia, I have experienced many times where the buses did not arrive at the bus stop for 30 minuets and even longer. It can be good at times because it means that you can just pop into the shops and get a snack and you will still have time to catch the bus. However when you have to arrive at a certain place at a certain time, it can mess your plans drastically. 

Australia has there good points with public transport too! I think they are good in terms of covering a wide range of areas in terms of buses and having quite frequent services. As in Japan, when you go to the countryside it is really difficult to get public transport because some areas they just do not offer them or they are at really odd times and limited services.

There was a time when I did not have a licence and a car and had to go for a job interview. I looked up the time tables for the buses and they were not helpful for the time I had to be there. In the end I had to walked to the station which took 30 minuets, and hop on the train to the next station, then had to get a taxi to the company which took about another 30 minuets. 

Of course when it comes to tourist areas in the countryside of Japan there are more likely to have good public transport. But when you live in places in the countryside, it is best to have a bicycle or a car for mobility. If you want to see more than just the tourist areas, which I really recommend it can be a good idea to bring a international driving licence and hire a car to explore with a group of people to split the cost.


Also when you are traveling from one place to other it is best to have other options in mind too.
When I was living in Akita (Northern part of Japan) at my university, my friend from the US was going back for Christmas holidays. He want to the air port to catch his plane but When he arrived, the airline was announcing that they were not going to fly due to the heavy snow. He had to catch another plane that night from Narita International Airport and he was in panic. Lucky he understood a little bit of Japanese so he was able to change his plan and catch a train down to Tokyo. In the end He did made it in time for his plane.

 Once I got my driving licence and I was able to borrow a car,  it became much more easier.
I still use public transport when I am in the city and I often plan ahead and always double check my transport options for delays and weather interfering.

I hope article has been useful!

See you soon!
Ellen

Beach Culture

Recently my friends and I made a plan to go to the beach.
I was excited and nervous at the same time. In the process of preparing to go to the beach, I found myself asking around what do people normally do when they go to the beach.


Going to the beach has been a big deal for me. I grew up in a prefecture that is well known to NOT have any coast in Japan. The times I have been to the beach was when I was young and on a family holiday or with friends when I was at university.

The beach was something that I always imagined before I went to sleep to calm myself down. I secretly like the beach as much as my bedroom floor was yellow and my ceiling was blue like the sky.  I love the sea breeze which makes you feel that you are free from all of the bad things and I love seeing the sun setting or it rising in the horizon. It felt romantic even for a 16 year old girl. The beach was somewhere special for me.

For my friends here in Australia, I think it is not be that special to go to the beach that it is for me. It is something that is just normal and casual, a thing that people do daily. "Let's go to the beach" is almost equivalent to saying "let's go the cinemas" or even "let's go out for a coffee". They have that geological accessibility to be able to have it in their normal day to day life.  

I think it is just the difference of growing up closer or far way from the beach.
I did not have that culture to casually say "Are you free this weekend? Let's go to the beach!" but if I lived near the beach even in Japan, I might have not felt or recognized the beach culture that I have came a cross. This might be considered to be a culture shock but I think it is not a international culture shock but more of a geological culture shock.

Going to the beach can still be something special. I just need to make it a special thing that I do often :)

I hope I am making sense.

See you soon!
Ellen

Muisc and my own Ukulele

Music has been in my life from when I was little. I was fascinated at how music was played and was always amazed at how people can play musical instruments. 

As being a young girl, I thought playing the piano was easy and just had to "press the keys" in order to make music. 

I was wrong.
I still liked playing the piano but I really disliked and I got board easily from playing the same tune over and over again and eventually stopped going to lessons.
I still continued music by singing in the school choir club until I entered Junior high school.

I still loved music and still had the curiosity to learn. In one part of the Music lessons we had in junior high school we had to learn how to play the guitar and I was really excited.
There were multiple guitars in the house when I grew up because my father played it when he was young and on very occasions he would get it out and play it.
The lessons were fun and we had to play "Stand by me" by Ben E. King. But one thing I struggled the most was holding onto the strings and play chords, and changing between chords. Yes, it is comes with practice but I have quite petite hands and when I hold most of the guitars I struggle.

Time went by and I still wanted to be able to play the guitar or the base or anything that I can join in to enjoy music. I often want to the Jazz salon and met many local musicians in my home town when I was back from university.  In my last year of university I borrowed a guitar called Taylor Mini from my father. it was small enough for my hand to go around it and I loved it!
I practiced and practiced and I was able to play some notes but still I wound difficult.

After playing on the guitar for a while I saw a Ukulele in my fathers room and started strumming and I found it was much more easier than the guitar! Since then I borrowed several Ukuleles from him(he has enough instruments to pen a shop!) and practiced.

After I moved, I wanted my own one. my own one that I like the sound of and fits my hands nicely. I thought back and forth and I found this ukulele which I can call my own Ukulele!
I am going to practice as much as I can to get better! :)

I hope you liked this short story :)

See you soon!
Ellen