So, in honour of Moet, I thought I’d quote a some which I’m sure he hates :P But, it has been a while since I wrote in this thing so I figure its time for an update. Today’s story: Getting back home. If you’d call it home. I’m not really sure I have a place that feels like home anymore, although I am quite proud of the house I’m living in now, but then pride isn’t always a good thing. Odd fact, when I used to see that tower at uni after a short trip it would feel like I was coming home. I didn’t get that when I came back to Australia :’( So this blog is about getting from Japan to Australia. Now where to start??
Hmm, so I’d moved out of my place and was staying at my mates place for a week before I left. Lots of stories there, but that’s a different entry. Who the hell decides to explore the sewers when it’s raining and cold just for the hell of it? Well, me, but what kind of moron would follow me?? So anyway, I kept postponing leaving because, well, because I didn’t want to leave. Funny that. But eventually I couldn’t postpone it, got my stuff together, that being a cardboard box and my bag, and walked to the nearest convenience store to get a marker and make my sign for hitch hiking to Tokyo. It’s sitting next to me right now actually :) The girls at the store loved it, well at least that’s what I took their laughing to mean :P My first couple of lifts took me a short distances around Nagoya. First lift was two girls who were… nope I can’t remember any of the details. They had a story though. The next was a girl who worked in a company because she could speak English but then never got the opportunity to speak it. Then, I spent half a day waiting next to the toll way on ramp before I gave up and started walking for a few hours. Eventually a Japanese guy who had hitch hiked all through Europe gave me a lift to a store in the toll way. There I met an Aussie guy who convinced his wife to give me a lift. They were just on holidays to meet her family, and on the way her sister seemed to go into shock, we almost got pulled over by the cops and they fed me a whole heap. Just before I got out the car to meet Snave I palmed some money into his hand because I knew the wife wouldn’t approve. Crazy cultural differences :P
Hmm, that paragraph was a bit long. I’ll see what I can do about that. So, I was in Tokyo? Yeah, Tokyo and meeting Snave. So, I met him, borrowed some money to pay a debt, went out for a drink and caught a plane to Australia.
See, that was an improvement ;) When I was booking my ticket my only requirement was that it went from Japan, to Australia. I thought I’d bought a ticket from Tokyo to the Gold Coast. I was wrong. On a side note, the Japanese staff loved my pants and hair (Even the male flight attendant wanted to touch it… wait on!), the Australian staff were rude and snide-ish. Oh yeah, and I only had $30 to get to Melbourne to meet my friend and depending on how that went hitch along the Nullarbor or beg for money. I spent most of my time in the airport cheating their hotel finder to display maps from Cairns to Melbourne and take pictures of them with my phone. Oh yeah, I was in the Gold Coast. Then I chatted to some Japanese girls I’d met on the plane and quickly ascertained that I couldn’t go to any of the interesting places with my $30, so I left.
So, umm, people picked me up and drove me? Who? This is what happens when you wait so long to write. Wait, one guy worked in the mines for half a year, saved, quite his job to sit on his arse and drink and then would start again. Not a bad life. There was an old bloke with kids my age. Then a guy who took me a decent distance and we kept stopping at water holes to go for walks and shit. It would of worked better if I’d had more sleep. He dropped me off near Townsville I think. I had a cat nap till go cold and started walking. The next guy was a champ and gave me a beer. Happiest moment of my life was sitting on that street verge drinking that beer. Then, after getting abused for bogans who mistook me for ‘some cunt who should go the fuck home’, wait that could be me, I was picked up by three African girls who took me back to their parents house where they told them I was a friend from uni and I helped cook and entertain the kids. They also offered for me to got to a party with them and then give me a place to crash. I hadn’t had a shower for a few days and wanted to try to get a lift with a trucky so I said no. I slept on the side of the high way with no blanket or tent freezing for a few hours. Then I walked until I was too tired to walk and then tried to sleep again. Rinse and repeat. I probably could of played those cards better..
In the morning, after waking up behind the bridge I was using to hide, I got picked up by some fishermen. They didn’t say too much. Next was the army guy who wanted to know if I was an emo because then “I should get the fuck out of his car”. He was going to be going all the way to Brisbane but stopped halfway, probably because I was too emo for his standards. Then near some place, the single mum picked me up said I had a face that looked trustworthy and took me back to her place after her parents had left. Sometimes I feel like screaming at people “So does a serial killer!!”. Still, I got a meal cooked for me, a place to sleep, a shower and got to hang with a pretty cool girl and her kid.
The next morning she dropped me off near the supermarket where I picked up some supplies and kept on trucking. Speaking of which, there was a cool bus there that reminded me of the one we used to live in. I think the next lift was the wife who was scared of what the husband would think, but then drove me and tried to get me a lift with some truckies. It failed but I did get my final lift of the trip.
So I was standing there with my thumb out and this guy stops and reverses. I quickly say goodbye to the lady and run up to the car and jump in. The guy who was giving me the lift wasn’t saying that much, but was going all the way to Brisbane so along we go. I started with some small talk.
“So, what do you do?”
“Do you want the truth?”
“Why not?”
“I’m a debt collector”
“Nice, so how’s that go for you?”
“I walk in and take shit”
“Ah, many problems with the cops?”
“Nah, mostly its me that calls them.”
“Shit hey”
It turned out to be quite an eventful drive. He confided in me about his original intent of reversing up close to me then taking off and spraying me in rocks. Great! And then asked if I minded if he stopped for a bong break. I told him it was his car and he could do what ever the hell he liked. So, he has his bong, takes a pill and keeps driving. By this stage the small talk had run out and my sleep deprived body was having trouble staying awake. He simple hunched himself over the steering wheel and kept driving. He stopped a few more times for these breaks, one time scaring the hell out of a school bus full of kids, before he couldn’t find his pills. He asked me to look for them. I did. It was probably time to find out what they were.
“So, what are these pills”
“Well, I probably should have told you before. I’m Schizophrenic.”
Joy!! Well, it did explain a few things. And I did make it to Brisbane alive and in one piece. I hope he went alright in making it to see his girlfriend #3 and cleaning up his property. Hmm… I did miss that part of the story, ah well.
So he left me at a truck stop. I was starting to question the route I’d taken. Maybe I should double check if my Aussie bank account had any money in it. Now where to find a Bankwest on the east coast. I was told there was one and it only took me two hours of solid walking to find it. I got out $100 and had a second wind. I could do this. Quitting’s for… quiters? So I stood near the freeway on ramp, thumb out, hopes held high and… feinted. I still haven’t found out why, but I’m guessing it was my diet of bread and little sleep. Still it had only been three days. I curled up around the corner and tried to get some sleep. When I woke up I decided it was time to call it a day, I needed a friend to buy my plane ticket home. And someone did. Well, to Melbourne where I hung out with Ra for a week and borrowed money off her for the plane ticket home.
About a week later I managed to sneak into my parents house in Balingup unannounced and scare the hell out of them. That was when they found out I was home. What did they do to deserve me as a son.
Anyway, it’s good to be back and to be seeing friends I’d been missing. Now I’ve just got to knuckle under, get rid of this last year of uni and pay off some debts.