Kangaroo Island ... Day 2

We spent our second day at Flinders Chase National Park. We hiked a bit ... and saw kangaroos, and echidnas ....

... and a platypus (not really - they are apparantly very difficult to spot) ...

and koalas ...


and Remarkable Rocks (that's what they are called) ...



and new zealand fur seals.


Absolutely unbelievable.

Kangaroo Island ... Day 1

Kangaroo Island is amazing. Day 1. We took the ferry to the island and drove to our cabin. Along the way, we saw signs of Kangaroos.


And, when we arrived to Stokes Bay (where are cabin was), we found a beautiful view...

And Kangaroos! About a hundred of them would come and graze every evening. It was unbelievable.


Wallabies came to visit us too. But only in the dark and they were fast. No photos.

Okinawa

Another retrospective on my Japan trip.

I spent the second week in Okinawa. The Okinawans are warm and friendly ... and they like their drink, especially Awamori.

I spent an extra day there (in Naha) and visited Shuri Castle, which was the palace of the Ryuku Kingdom, which ruled the Ryukuan Islands from the 15th to the 19th centuries - the Okinawans that I talked to considered themselves Ryukuans or Okinawans, rather than Japanese.


I also visited Filisji-En Park. OK ... back to Australia.

Wine tasting

Fast on the heels of the previous post - our Australian experiences the past two days entailed:

Getting a sunburn within two minutes ... and applying suntan lotion!


Wine tasting in Barossa Valley at Penfolds (oldest vinyard in Australia), Two Hands, and Torbreck.


Viewing vines


Hanging out at wineries and being silly with Shari!!!

Japan

We are actually in Australia now (see the previous blog). However, I am going to provide a Japan retrospective.

While in mainland Japan, I spent most of the time working but did a bit of site seeing. We went to Tokyo one night. We visited a couple of areas in Shinjuku - here is a photo of the guys that I traveled with in Shinjuku.


We spent one day visiting shrines and temples. We took an incline half way up Mitakesan (Mount Mitake) and then hiked the rest of the way up to a Shrine. It was a rainy and foggy day - which made it quite magical. Here are a couple of photos.