Travelog for: Guss Elephant

Hello! My name is Guss Elephant I didn't have a bad life like some of my fellow toyvoyagers by being just dropped off at a salvation army. Or at least I don't think so. They say an elephant has a good memory, I guess mine isn't that great, so can you help me learn new things about your country and your language? I'd love to be a smart elephant like my counterparts! I'd love to impress my mom when I get back home to show her my blog. I'm quite excited!



I'm going to start my travels today, it shouldn't take too long hopefully to get where I'm going - but I wonder what I'll see! Take care mom, and I'll be safe!

Guss has arrived in not so sunny Queensland after a bit of a wait in the Post Office Box!
Guss is off to the Kids Games Closing Ceremony tonight see one of his hosts, Rhiana, receive her medal. Will check back in tomorrow with more news!

Whee! I went on a bus today with my host & her daughter, Rhiana, to McDonalds where one of Rhiana's school friends was having her 8th birthday party.
There were a lot of kids and presents and a fabulous playground area.

(photos coming soon!)

Rhiana & I went for a drive with her Aunty Brenda to Kangaroo Point cliffs, over looking the Brisbane River. You can see the city of Brisbane in the background. Brisbane is the capital of Queensland.

Oh boy! How exciting! Today I am going on a plane trip to Canberra with my host's son Callam! I am clipped onto his backpack so I can see everything that is going on around me.
Callam is going to Canberra for 5 days with his classmates in Year 7. They are going to many different places, as Canberra is the capital city of Australia. I can't wait to get back so I can show all the photos of where we went.

Kung Fu Po & I hitched an aeroplane ride with my host's sister & mum as they were going on a holiday to Bali, Indonesia for 9 days. They are going to be staying in Kuta for a couple of days and then onto the island of Lombok. Sounds like a lot of fun and I hope to have lots of photos to share when we get back

I've moved on, finally I'm ready to travel internationally and the good thing? I'm traveling with a friend, I'm traveling with Percy up to visit his family in Okinawa, Japan. It is a tight fit though so I hope the travel won't take too long... write again soon mom! I'll miss you! :-)

Mommy,
I've arrived in Okinawa and got to get out and stretch my legs! We went to the zoo and guess what! The first thing I saw was a REAL elephant!


This one's playing a drum




We also got to go to the snake house


And see the giraffe


I didn't get too close to the ostrich


And this sign on the lion's cage apparently means I shouldn't get close to them either..


I wonder how a tree gets drunk? Its not swaying much..


This is a neat looking bird


On the way out we stopped by the petting zoo. I didn't want any of the animals thinking I was a snack so I kept back to watch, but they did have a cool iguana


Write more soon,
Guss

Wow mommy sorry it took so long to update about the ball! We all got kind of sick afterwards, but everyone's better now.

First we had to help Jayme get ready for the ball so we did her nails


And make up


I got stuck in her scarf


And then had to find my ticket...


Once all the prep was done we climbed into Jayme's purse. It was kind of crowded!


Here's Jayme when we were all done decorating her, along with her husband. Behind them is the birthday cake! (We're hiding in the purse!)


First the band played the national anthem and Marine Corps Hymn


Then there were two speeches and then the ceremony! During the ceremony they cut the cake. The first piece is given to the guest of honor (who gave the speech). The second piece is given to the oldest Marine present. He then passes it on to the youngest Marine present to symbolize the passing of traditions.


They played the national anthem and Marine Corps Hymn again and the flags left and it was all done!


Unfortunately during the ceremony two Marines passed out. Yikes! One of the men Jayme's husband works with had to go to the hospital because he was holding a sword and hit his head on the way down! But he's all better (and back to work!) now, so it wasn't too serious. After the ceremony we got to have dinner and cake and then we went home! We have to get to packing for the trip to Tokyo... and Thanksgiving is coming!

Write more soon,
Guss

Today is Thanksgiving! Even though Jayme lives in Japan, she and all the people her husband works with are American and so they celebrate Thanksgiving. We had to cook for over 50 people! There were 4 people cooking, so we only had to make one turkey at least... we started very early making cookies.

First the peanut butter cookies.


Then the chocolate chip ones.



Then we got the turkey going... its one big turkey!


We got it out and patted it dry then rubbed it with salt and stuffed with veggies to season.


Mmm. Doesn't it look yummy after cooking for a few hours?


While the turkey was cooking we made mashed potatoes.


Once all the food was done we took it down to cook. Look at all that food!


During the party we also got to watch lots of people play video games. There were 4 tvs with video games! Plus lots of board games and cards.


Jayme said it wasn't Thanksgiving without football, so we sat to watch one of the football video games since the games hadn't started in the states yet.


What a fun Thanksgiving!

More updates soon,
Guss

Since we have to get packing to go to Tokyo, Jayme decided we could do the decorating today to come home to the apartment being decorated for Christmas. Fun! Jayme put up the tree and put the lights on, then we got to put on the ornaments! Everyone in Jayme's family gets one ornament a year, they usually have something to do with that year.

The first ornament we found was a double... it was two identical Shrek ornaments. Jayme said that's because she and Manuel got each other the same ornament last year! I guess there are problems to this ornament buying thing.


There was a pretty panda ornament. Apparently Jayme's son had a panda stuffy he wouldn't let go of for almost a year. Maybe I can meet him later...


Since Jayme's husband is in the US military there's lots of military ornaments (and you can see the Shrek ones in the background).


There's also a small nativity ornament for the tree.


At the bottom of the tree we put the non-breakable Sesame Street ornaments so if the boys got ahold of them, they wouldn't get hurt.


And finally we put the star at the top of the tree.


Can you find five toyvoyagers hiding in the Christmas Tree?


After that we put up the two Nativity sets. This one went up high where little hands couldn't reach it.



Then we put up the child nativity set that the kids can play with.


Jayme doesn't have a fireplace, so we put the stockings on the wall.


We also put some lights over the tv where the NFL jersey's are for the NFL season. Jayme said they could use some decorating. #21 is Manuel's favorite team, the San Diego Chargers, but they lost today


Wow. We got worn out decorating... it may be awhile til the next update since we're headed to Tokyo soon and we don't know if we can update there!

Love,
Guss

Dear Mommy,
Jayme says it’s time to go! All the bags are packed. We’re ready. We had to get to the airport very early because we’re flying Space-Available so we have to sign up. There was more than enough room for all of us going to Tokyo though! Here’s all of us toyvoyagers waiting for our flight.


It seemed like we waited and waited, but we finally made it onto the plane. And guess what! The plane even had these little televisions for us to watch.


Mmmm. Airline food isn’t that bad. The sandwich was pretty good, and you can’t really mess up water.


When we got off the plane we had to take a two hour (!!) bus/subway/train ride with ALL of those bags! Everyone was worn out by the time we got to the hotel so Jayme tucked us all in for some sleep.


When we got up in the morning we went down to get some coffee. It’s a pretty neat little coffee machine.

Then we drank our coffee while reading more about Tokyo.

Pretty soon it was light out, and we were able to get out first day-time view of Tokyo!

Wow! It looks so pretty… but oh no! Jayme said we’re not staying here; it was just for last night! We’re headed a couple hours out to a place called Hakone… well here we go…

More soon,
Guss

Today we took the train to Hakone. We had to get off the train at Odwara. From the train station we could see a castle, but we didn't have time to visit. Do you see it far off in the distance?


Here it is when we zoom in.


From here we took an hour long bus ride to our hotel in Hakone. The hotel we're staying at is called a Ryokan. We were in room 7.

Its was a very pretty room.


And we had a nice little view

We got to sleep on a futon at night!


The Ryokan also had some other nice decorations in the halls.

After checking in we went out for a bite of Chinese to eat. It was very yummy, but Jayme's not sure what it is!


From there we tried to go see a shrine, but it started raining really badly! Since it was rainy we went back to the hotel and decided to make use of the bathing rooms. First you go in and put your towel and other stuff in a basket.

Then you go into the bathing room. Since multiple people use the bathing tub you have to wash well before you get in. Here's the soap and other things for a shower.

Then you get in the bathing tub. Its filled with mineral waters and very nice.
Uhoh. I can't find the picture of the tub! I'll have to go find it and add it later.

From there we went back and went to sleep. I hope we get to do lots of neat stuff later..

Write more soon,
Guss

Today Jayme said we're going to go for a few rides and try to find Mt. Fuji (apparently it regularly hides). Our first stop was the rope way. Here's the entrance to the ropeway and the cars we were riding in.


Here's all of us tv's sitting and chilling.

Its a pretty view, but unfortunately no sign of Mt. Fuji yet.

After the ropeway we took a cablecar to the boat. Isn't the boat pretty?

There were some pretty sites from the boat.

Jayme said Mt. Fuji is hiding behind those clouds! Can you see the base of it?

Unfortunately we didn't get to see Mt.Fuji on our trip to Hakone, it was hiding the whole time. Jayme was able to get this picture on the way home from the train though, the mountain came out for a bit in the morning! But it was moving too fast for us to pose.

Next we're supposed to go to a museum, more soon!
Guss

Today we went to a place called the Open Air Museum in Hakone. It a museum of artwork that is all outdoors. It was very neat. When we first entered there were many statues.


And I liked the row of diamonds.

The egg made me feel a bit hungry.

Many of the art pieces were play areas. The one behind me is a giant series of tubes for children to climb through.

And this is a maze.

I really like this sphere too. You could see your reflection in it.

It was a fun trip! This was our last day in Hakone... we took another bath and decided to head back towards Tokyo. I wonder what we'll see there?

More soon,
Guss