I arrived in Sydney on Sunday April 6, at 8 am.

I returned to Tokyo hostel from Ueno Park, got my bags out from storage and loaded with my backpack,day bag,a bag full of senbei and pulling along my black bags on wheels I walked about a mile to the subway entrance. There are many steps to get down to the ticket machine and plateform. I gave myself a lot of time because of these steps. Some of the bigger stations have elevators,but many of these smaler ones don't. At Ueno station a kind young girl who works as a ground service crew for Cathay Pacific helped me get my baggage up the steps and helped me get to Qantas Airlines.

I was so happy I did the trial run because there were long corridors from one train to another and it would have been stressful not knowing whether you were going in the right direction. I did not take the Express train to Narita so the train made many stops before finally reaching terminal 2 at Narita airport.

There are many nice eating places on the 4th floor of Narita airport including Mc Donalds. It seemed to be a popular eating place,with comparatively reasonal prices.
I chose a shop where I could have small cup of clam chowder and sandwich.

After I went through customs and security check I realized that I had forgetten to pick up my daily planner when I made a last minute telephone call to Kazue Nosohara.

It really upset me since all my contact numbers and information is in it and they said that could not allow me to go back to get it. I was so releaved when just before departure they were able to retrieve it.

This was my first flight on Qantas. It has comfortable seats and very good food.
The plane taxied off at about 9pm from Narita and arrived in Sydney the next morning about 7:15am.

I think Sydney airport is the most efficiently set up of all the airports I have been through. In most of the others I had to stnd in line for quite sometime Sydney had many many windows and did not take us long. I was happy to see Emily and her parents when I finally was able to get out.

Mr. Cousins was nice enough to deviate from their usual path so I could see the Sydney Opera House and other sights before getting to their lovely home in the suburbs.
Ian Cousins is a partner in a large accountant firm. Kate Cousins teaches kindergarten, but fortunately for me had taken a years leave this year.

In the evening I attended their church,Saint John Episcopal Church. I really enjoyed their services. They had a small 4 piece mixed band of four youths;a pianist,guitarist,trumpet player and drummer. Guess who played the drums? I was surprised to see Emily play the drums. She is good.Her mom says she has weekly lessons after school. The music director is a young woman from a University in Sydney. I was impressed to see so many high school and college students at the service. There were about 25-30 youth. In the morning they hold two other Sunday srrvices. On Monday Kate,Emily's mom,and I spent several hours at a travel agent trying to arrange a bus tour for me. Many Australian I met at hostels strongly recommended the Coastal road tour from Melbourne to Adelaide. This Friday I will be flying to Melbourne. I will have one full day in Melbourne. The six day tour begins early Saturdy morning. I will arrive in Adelaide on the 17th. There I will be staying at the farm of Jon Addisons family. I met Jon on the boat from Turkey to the Greek islands. We went hiking one day and rented a car on another and drove around the island of Naxos. We had a wonderful time. Jon grew up in Adelaide, but had been working as a Marine curator at a museum in Scotland. Last February he returned home to Australia. His family operates an organic farm and also has a vineyard and they make their own wine. I will stay in Adelaide for 5 nights before flying back to Sidney. Kate suggests that I see Tasmania. They have been there many times and love it. I have not yet decided whether to go or not.

It has been wonderful. It has been rainy but less cold than China and Japan.

When I get back from the Coast tour and Adelaide, I will let you know how it was.

Aloha, Joanne