Sapporo, Japan

It was so weird to be sweating from the heat and 7 and a half hours later be shivering from the cold. Our first plane ride took us to Narita, an airport in Tokyo. We then got on a shuttle bus that took us to the hotel. The hotel room was so cool. It was one room with four futons and the table was a very low to the ground. Under the table was a hole were you could put your feet. The chairs were normal except they didn’t have legs.

The next morning we took the shuttle bus back to the airport and went to our gate. We waited for a while and then they said that our plane was delayed. We waited for a while and about a 3 hours later we finally got on the plane. The plane ride was a 2 hour flight.

We took a train to the subway station and hopped on a subway. When we got to the subway Gary picked us up. Gary’s wife Noell is cousins with Josh Pate. If you live in Ketchum, Hailey, or you play on my soccer team, you might know him, his wife, or his kids, Kiki and Walker. Gary brought all the stuff we had shipped from the US in his car. He drove us to our apartment, dropped our stuff and left. The lady who owns the apartments gave us the key and we went inside.

Our apartment is very small! We just keep telling ourselves that we are living in a R.V. Not a big RV, just an RV. When you walk out the main door you don’t walk into a hallway you walk outside. You walk in the door and you come into a very small mud room. It barely fits all of our shoes and jackets and whatnot. In Japan if you don’t take off your shoes before you come in, its like taking a poop on someone’s floor in the US. Then you go through another door and come into our living room/TV room/dining room/bedroom. To the right is the bathroom. There’s a sink and then in another room there is the shower. In another rooom is the toilet. The toilet has a heated seat and has a butt sprayer! I mean, how cool is that!! To the left is the kitchen. The kitchen has one drawer, a microwave, and a stove. There is a tiny table with two chairs. There’s a couch and a TV and next to them there’s a sliding door. In that  “room” there’s a bed which my mom sleeps in and a closet. My brother and I sleep on futons on the floor. My dad also sleeps on a futon but there isn’t enough room in the other “room” so he sleeps by the couch. Obove the couch we put some really cool Topo maps of Sapporo. Our apartment is small but a love it.

Jules

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Ben

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P.S. If you know want to go and read my dads blogs, please note that they are PG 13.

• At 8:00 we drove over to the marina where we got on a boat called Silver Sonic. It took us a hour and a half to get to the first site. Once we got there we put on all the stuff they had given us and jumped in the water. It was amazing! We saw millions of different fish and coral. We also saw these giant clams. Some of them where 3 to 4 feet long! When you got close to them and wiggled your fingers they would close up. It was amazing!! Then we hopped on the boat again and went to the next site. There there was the same thing and just as amazing. We snorkeled for a bit longer and then had a lunch of rice, pasta, and squid. The were little baby squid and looked like someone had surgically removed it’s face. The next site we went to had a bunch of sea cucumbers. A staff member did a little tour for us were we got to hold a sea cucumber and a jellyfish. The sea cucumber was squishy and very slimy. It was like a worm and a tint of a potato. The jellyfish was exactly like jello. Exactly. He also showed us the clams closing and that some coral has lungs that stick out and if you wiggle your fingers close to them they will go back inside themselves. The Great Barrier Reef was so amazing! I want to go back again someday.

  

  

  

  

  

  

When we got off the airplane in Cairns it was raining. We scrambled to the car and buckled up. My dad tried get the GPS working but couldn’t. When I tried to help him he got mad because his 10 year old daughter had to tell him how. You would have to press start but he would think it was loading. He would type in the house number were it said street. You know, typical dad stuff. When I told him to press start he would give me the stink eye. We drove to Port Douglas where we are staying.

Yesterday we went to Hadley’s Crocodile Adventure. They have a crocodile farm that raises 3,000 crocodiles! Each croc lays 40 eggs! They also said that there’s 10-15 adult crocs every 1 kilometer! When we got there we hopped on a boat that took us around a man made lagoon. The lagoon had 25 crocs. The driver attached meat to a stick and stuck in the water. Soon there were crocs everywhere. When the crocs jumped up to get it the driver would move the stick away so you could see it jump up and show its giant teeth and mouth. He put the meat right next to my window so the crocs would jump against me. I kept freaking out.

After the boat ride we went to the croc attack show. The guy talked about croc safety and how to get away if they snag you. He put cow hide on a giant rope and threw it to the croc. The crocs name was Hagred and he was big!

Today we were going to go snorkeling, but it was too rainy so we moved it to tomorrow. We went down to town and window shopped. Decker really wanted to go to Target so we had to go. He got a transformer and I got a dress. He hasn’t let go of the transformer all day. He loves it! I love my dress too! We came back home and are just chilling.

Next we went to my grandpa’s college roommate’s house in Terranora. That’s a town near the Gold Coast. His name is Bo and his wife’s name is Katherine. They told us to go to a animal sanctuary called Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. It had a bunch of amazing and weird animals like the Cassowary bird. They also had a wombat that was laying on its back with its legs sprawled out. It had somehow covered its upper body with a towel. It looked ridiculous! I got to hold a koala and Decker got to pet it. He would have held it but he was too short 🙂 We got to feed and pet the kangaroos. The sanctuary also had a wildlife hospital where they take in hurt animals and do surgeries. On some of the operating rooms there was a giant glass wall where you could see in and see what they were doing. They were working on a bird and doing a check up on a koala.

After we got back from the sanctuary, Bo took us to the beach at Rainbow Bay. Decker and I boogie boarded and Decker tried to surf. He stood up once! The water was warm and the waves funny. They would go in every direction. They would go forward and backward and left and right. When one wave going toward the beach hit another wave going sideways it would make a huge explosion. My dad and I would try to get in the middle of it.

Bo’s dinners were delicious! One night he made bbq Maryland chicken. It was the best chicken I’d ever had. The second night he made amazing steak.

The next day we went to a bookstore and got a book that my new friend Zali from New Zealand recommended called Bad Dad by David Walliams. I already read the whole book and give it 4 out of 5 stars. It is a very funny book and is kind of like a mix between Roald Dahl and Tom Gates. My brother stole it from me and is now reading it 😦

After Bondi Beach we drove to the Blue Mountains. They were really pretty but we didn’t get to do much because we didn’t have a lot of time. Then we started looking for a hotel but we couldn’t find one. At 11pm we finally found one. It was nice but we paid $200 for it even though it was worth way less. But we didn’t have a choice.

The next day we drove for 9 hours to get to Byron Bay. We stayed with my parents’ friend named Angela. She was doing a swap with some Australians. She lives in Telluride. She got the Australian’s house and they got her condo. Her house had a coffee machine that Decker and I would use to make frothed milk. It was delicious! There was also a steam oven that Angela didn’t know how to use. So I read the manual and we got it working. We made a sweet potato and dumplings.

One night we went down to the beach and saw wallabies on the path! A wallaby looks like a tiny kangaroo. One day we hiked up to the lighthouse. It was very windy. On the way down my skirt blew in front of my feet and I tripped. I have a giant hole in my knee and my hip! The cut was white! I fell down so hard I didn’t even scrape my hands at all.

It was so windy that we didn’t do much surfing. We went down to the beach one day and my dad surfed but none of us did. We just played hangman in the sand.

The plane ride to Sydney was nice. Once we got there, we went to our hotel and checked in. We then went to the Sydney Eye Tower. It was so cool! It’s a giant tower way above Sydney. The highest in fact. We got strapped in and got to stand on the edge outside. On the glass. It was scary. The next day we took the ferry over to Watson’s Bay and the Maritime museum. At Watson’s Bay there was a giant pelican. My mom tried to take a picture with it but it lunged at her. She screamed so loud! At the Maritime museum we saw a replica of Captain Cook’s ship that he found Australia in.

Right next to our hotel there was a mall and in it was a Haviaina’s vending machine. There was also a restaurant called Pie Face where we ate meat pies. They were delicious!

We rented a car and drove to Bondi Beach. In Australia they drive on the left side of the road and the steering wheel is on the right side. My parents weren’t used to this and we almost died! The turn signal is on the opposite side so my parents kept turning on the wipers instead of the turn signal. It was hilarious.

Our last day in Fiji didn’t start an a very good note. I woke up with a stomach pain that was horrible. I was supposed to go scuba diving in the ocean but I couldn’t. I was devestated. I’ve always wanted to go scuba diving. Sometime later we got on the boat. Once we got back to the main island, we went to the friends we had made’s hotel. The hotel had four pools.

When I woke up I was hurried to pack up. We got in the shuttle and headed to the airport. Then we got on the plane headed to Sydney, Australia.

Yesterday I was in the pool basically all day. We had dinner and there went in the pool again until 9:00. We got to put the scuba tank on and try it in the shallow part of the pool with the instructor holding us. We also walked to the village on the other side of the island. They gave us these drinks that tasted like dirt, cinnamon, and water. Then they did a few dances for us and did a little market for us. We had to leave before the market so we could do the scuba thing. Then, once we went to bed Decker barfed. The End.