I’ve been back in Japan for 3 days now, and I’m just getting caught up enough that I wanted to make a quick post to start off with what happened on my trip Down Under. I still haven’t uploaded pics to Photobucket yet, so I’ll add them in later.

OK, so I took Korean Air, Fukuoka to Seoul to Melbourne, way more direct than any of the other choices, and cheaper than all but Vietnam Air, which would’ve been a lot less convenient schedule-wise (but would’ve given me to option of visiting Saigon…hmm, maybe next time). Anyway, I can recommend Korean Air–not great, but far from the worst airline I’ve flown on. Surprisingly awful kimchee with the dinner, though, and I had this confirmed by Lee, the Korean PhD student I was to meet later. Korean Air’s kimchee was kind of like eating spicy tree roots.

It’s less than an hour from Fukuoka to Seoul, but about 11 hours to Melbourne after that, overnight on the way there. I brought along my MP3 player and listened to This Week in Tech and PC Gamer Podcast and This American Life and Savage Love and so on. One of the last ones I listened to on the way back was the Episode 64 of Chicken-Fried Radio, which features Mary Jo Pehl, aka Dr. Clayton Forrester’s mom from Mystery Science Theater 3000. She’s a hoot, and it saddens me that CFR hasn’t put up any new episodes since October.

Anyway, with the plane less than half full, I could stretch out, and got way more sleep than I usually do on flights.

Arriving at Tullamarine Airport, I queued up and went through the very slow line of people who had something to declare. I knew that Australia’s quarantine laws are strict, and as someone who grew up in Hawaii for awhile, I understand why. But next time I’m not bringing ANYTHING that I have to declare–no snacks, nothing. I got passed through with no problems, but I could’ve gotten out of there a lot faster if I hadn’t put some snacks for friends in my bag.

Then I met Tim Betz, a friend from the Delta Green Mailing List, who must’ve been waiting at least an hour for me. Tim had kindly agreed to pick me up at the airport, because Melbourne’s public transportation leaves a bit to be desired. We headed out and it reminded me a lot of Texas, but with everyone driving on the other side of the road.

As a former student of Monash University, my destination, he still lives in the area, which is great because Monash is pretty far out in the suburbs. Tim dropped me off at Mannix College, which is not a college in the American sense, but rather a Catholic-run dormitory, and a very pleasant one at that, right across the street from the university.

While they were getting my room ready, I went in search of Dr. Andrew Milner, a professor with the Center for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at Monash. I had emailed him earlier and arranged to meet him, and he turned out to be a very friendly, engaging guy who gladly answered all my questions. You see, I’m trying to get started on a PhD that I can do by distance study, and Monash is rated pretty highly, plus it’s almost in the same time zone, making communication easier. I may very well decide to go with Monash, assuming they’ll have me.

After finally checking into my room and dropping off my stuff, I rejoined Tim and we went to meet Rob Shankly, another DGMLer, and they took me downtown to show me around Melbourne a bit. Sadly, I just didn’t have time to do some of the touristy things, like visit the Ned Kelly Museum. Hopefully I’ll be making trips down there once or twice a year, though. But we had some good food, and I bought some souvenirs just in case I didn’t have time later: a plush platypus for Natsumi, an Aboriginal-art tshirt for Sayumi, a coffee mug for a coworker. On the way back, Tim took me to a supermarket where I mainly bought cheese, since cheese is very expensive and limited in variety in Japan.

Finally, I slipped into Mannix College late and quietly went to my room. Not as small as I’d imagined, and with a beautiful view of the flower-filled courtyard. I phoned Junko, failed to get an answer, took a shower and phoned her again–success! Hearing her voice was wonderful, and I fell asleep on my narrow bed soon after turning out the light.

Tomorrow: Utopia!