Where in the world is Ashley Churchill?

Greetings from Japan everyone! I arrived the day before yesterday. Before I came here, I thought it would be a fish out of water scenario. I'd be drowning in gibberish and wouldn't be able to navigate around Tokyo at all. But its actually been pretty easy. All the signs are written in english as well as Japanese and alot of people here to speak atleast a little english. Although, food can be an issue. They don't put english on food packaging. When I first arrived here, it was really hot outside and I went into a 7/11. I bought what I thought from the look of it was a strawberry popsicle. After I started eating it, I realized it was a pomegranate popsicle! And Japan is really cheap as well. I just bought a bottle of perfume that would sell in Canada for about $60. I bought it for the equivalent of $30!

Anway, I'll post some pics later.

AC

Everyone mark June 19th on your calender. That is when I will be
making my arrival to the Great White North. I EXPECT PHONE CALLS PEOPLE! I'll be leaving from Beijing and I have a connection in Newwark, USA. When I came home from Europe, I had the absolute WORST jetlag. The second 7pm rolled around, I'd be out cold. I'm wondering what its going to be like this time since I'm 16 hours ahead of Toronto and not 6 hours. We'll see.

And if anyone that I crossed paths with in Australia finds themselves in the Toronto area, let me know and I'd be happy to show you around.

I'm having some drama with STA. Sometimes I wonder if people are bred to be especially incompetent as part of NASA experiment or something. WHY DO I HAVE TO REPEAT THE SAME THINGS OVER AND OVER AGAIN AND STILL NOT SEE RESULTS? I know my ex roomies in Sydney have seen my frustration with this type of temperament before. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

I'm in the last few weeks of my journey through the South Pacific. I know have my ticket to Japan. My ticket to Beijing will arrive soon, and I will be ordering my ticket back to Canada soon. Its always bittersweet at this point in the trip. In the spirit of things coming to and end, I found out what my epitaph will say:

See ya.

AC

I arrived in Mt. Cook this afternoon. Its a pretty small village in the middle of nowhere. One peice of advice I have for anyone heading here, bring lots of cash. There are absolutely no ATMs here. I'm so happy I paid my mastercard bill before coming. I had only had 10 bucks arriving. And one more thing, whereever you go in NZ, bundle up BIG TIME. Tuque, scarf, mittens, the whole deal. They're pretty stingy with the heat out here and it gets damn cold sometimes.
Weather permitting, I'm going to head off for some of the hiking trails out here before heading back to Chirstchurch.

Peace Out.

AC

I can do that all on my own. I went on whats called a 'canyon swing'. Yeah, I just keep looking for ways to nearly kill myself. It was pretty exilerating.

About to jump off...

Jumping off...

Near the bottom...

There was another Canadian girl jumping, Julie from Vancouver.
We're the Official Canadian Canyon Jumping Team.

I saw this, and I was like "Did you have a bad experience with a Canadian or something? But they said its because we can laugh at stuff like that and not take it seriously. Thats why they did it.

In other news, it looks like its starting to clear up here. It was pretty miserable in the morning, but it cleared up for the afternoon. We saw a rainbow today.

Not much else is new. I'm heading off at 7 tomorrow morning for Mount Cook. Then back to Christchurch and then Japan! I bought my ticket to Beijing. But I haven't even had my visa application dropped off yet, so I everyone cross your fingers for me! I'm looking at tickets from Beijing to Toronto (The one in Canada, for those of who are thinking of the one in NSW). Sigh... Its all coming to a close. But that only means I'm closer to my next overseas adventure. Which will be New Zealand in the summer (November).

Oh, and EMAIL ME. I like knowing what the rest of the world is up to.

See ya.

AC