Well, I have a very special feeling towards New Zealand. When I visited this country around 15 years ago with my family, I couldn’t communicate with people in English at all even though I was supposed to do so as I’d already started learning English more than a year previously. I was just too shy to utter a single word of greeting. It was quite enjoyable staying though, the strong regret remained in my mind too.

And Grant with whom I stayed in Auckland at this time had in fact helped me to overcome the trauma. In a few years after our visit to New Zealand, he came to Japan with his wife and we went to Tokyo Disney Land together. At the time, my parents were too busy taking care of my younger sisters and they forced me to be a personal guide for Grant and his wife. Considering the circumstances, I must not have kept silent. Although my English was not sophisticated enough, I managed to communicate with them and this event changed my confidence towards English radically.

"No matter how good or bad, I should try to communicate", thanks to the lesson from this experience, English conversation become my favourite subject during my school days. In terms of the 'survival English', I was doing quite well when I started learning English again in Australia though my English hasn't improved yet for some years. Besides, I became painfully aware that I shouldn't be complacent about my English in Australia but it's another story anyway.

All in all, I was so pleased to talk with people in Auckland as I found my improvement. Yeah, no trauma any more.

Grant told me that nothing had changed in the city but I did walk around the Auckland city centre. As I didn't have clear memories in 15 years, the city looked very new to me. The town which is called the City of Sails had many luxurious yachts in the harbour. I wish I could use such beautiful ships someday.

What's more, I found people in Auckland are very gentle. I'd say, there are so many aggressive people in Australia. Not only the contentious Aboriginal people, but many migrants and pure Aussies, I think they, especially for males, are socially forced to be macho in Australia. On the other hand in New Zealand, everyone I saw there was very relaxed and laid back. Even the officers at the airport were smiling at us. This city could be a great candidate in which to stay after retirement.

Meeting with Cousins

I have an aunty in Melbourne and I stayed in their house for 5 days for this time. And what I was most excited at for this visit was meeting with the cousin’s brothers who both converted to Islam and got married. It's very interesting isn't it? The younger cousins were stabilizing their life while I'm literally vagabonding. This state gave me a little doubt about my life but I should stop questioning as they live in a different culture. Anyway, I'll settle down when the time comes.

We got together at the auntie's house and ate Korean BBQ for dinner. Korean BBQ with Muslim people, it was such a rare occasion wasn't it? As I had a prejudice that they are quite ascetic, it was a sort of big surprise that they can eat the BBQ. As a matter of fact, they can't eat only pork which is forbidden by the religious discipline. After eating the dinner we played Monopoly. Though they are all married, we five are in the same age group and naturally we were so excited about the game. Despite the religious difference, I believe we share the fundamental pleasure anyway. Nevertheless, there was an interesting moment when everyone suddenly left me to another room for the prayers although the game had been heating up. Mind you, I don't have any negative feelings about this. Just, it stimulated my thought towards the cultural differences.

Touring around the City

It was only 5 days I stayed in Melbourne and time went by very quickly when I met friends and wrote blog entries. But in spite of the shortage of time, I managed to tour around the city just for one day and realised again how beautiful Melbourne is. I especially like the paved passages with many stylish cafes and the China town with a huge Chinese shrine symbol. I like the mixture of the cultures in Australia. Besides this, I challenged my luck by going to the casino but lost nearly $100. Yeah, I'm not a person who gets rich quick. I'd rather accumulate it slowly.

The Real IMAX

One more notable thing I did in Melbourne was watching the sensational movie AVATAR at the real IMAX theatre. In Japan, we disappointingly don't have the real IMAX though we have some 3D theatres. Therefore, I'd been waiting for a chance to go a real one somewhere around the world and a friend of mine invited me in Melbourne. What's more, the IMAX theatre has got one of the biggest screens in the world and the movie was absolutely thrilling. Although I was tempted to watch it even in Bangkok and Hong Kong, all in all it was worth waiting for.

Claremont

The streets in Claremont evoked a vision of those days as if they had been only a couple of days ago. A park I used for a short cut to the school, a café where I studied ardently after school, a bus stop where I waited for a girl, though there were some new buildings, all the most precious places hadn’t changed at all. I couldn't stop reminiscing about the past although I'd been focusing only on the future ever since I left this town 3 years ago.

Following the same road I used to use on those days, I arrived at the (ex) ECU Claremont Campus. Although the ownership had been transferred to another university due to ECU’s financial issues, the buildings has been preserved intact as it’s a very important national asset of Australia. It used to be very lively as around 200 students including me studied there. Maybe because of the holiday, the campus was filled with silence and during my exploration there I could easily visualise the faces of the friends who were eating lunch on the grass, playing soccer after school and on and on.

Fremantle

Fremantle is my favourite place around Perth. I would never get bored with the sunset over the Indian Ocean observed from the lighthouse on the outskirts of the town. As far as my eyes could see, there are only the ocean and the sky. The big red sun setting over them was absolutely magnificent and somehow a little sentimental. Gazing at the clear gradient between navy blue and deep orange with no clouds, I in fact felt like crying.

Come to think of the past, I'd never suffered the emotion of nostalgia like this time. It was too vivid to avoid confronting although I'd been trying not to immerse myself in unobtainable bygone days. In retrospect, the days in Perth could be my late youthful days. Studying hard, playing with friends, dealing with a love triangle, they were indeed very new for me who had been engaged with the web industry since his high school days and not known an ordinary student life. Although not everything was pleasant, I can embrace all of them as precious memories for now.

Nevertheless, I have no desire to return to those days as this journey has just begun and I have many plans after my return to Japan. Keeping these beautiful memories in my heart, I'll travel to the future again.