On Saturday I was barely getting above freezing on the slope of Mt. Fuji. Today, I’m at 38ºC at 7pm.

So the first organized tour is over. I now have 3 weeks and 3 days to figure things out on my own (mostly, but I do have a day tour in Darwin and the 3 days/2nights in The Ghan accounted for).

Hopefully I’ve learned to be a better tourist in Japan. That tour didn’t have every minute scheduled, and by the final days the only parts that weren’t wide open were the hotel reservations and we’d do what we liked.

I didn’t try much in Adelaide today, just walked around town looking for a place for dinner. Some areas seem to close early (it is a Monday night after all) but Chinatown still had plenty of places open.

I sorted through some of my luggage, organized my maps and brochures from Japan, and started some hand washing of clothes. When I’m in a room to myself for several nights in a row I can hang stuff up to dry in the bathroom and not be in anyone’s way.

I’m still worried about getting rid of some stuff, especially for the Mayan Adventure tour. That seems like the greatest chance of having to hump everything myself sometime. My rolling duffel is also a backpack, that’s the reason why I got that particular bag, but I still have my regular backpack full of stuff as well. The Machu Picchu tour has explicit points to drop stuff at a hotel and pick it up on the way back, so I don’t think I’ll have a problem there.

I have a 9 hour layover in JFK on Jan. 30 on my way down to South America, so maybe I can sneak out to Howard Beach and mail off some of my surplus. (There’s actually a Post Office at JFK, but as far as I can tell you can’t actually reach it from the terminals without getting a taxi to take you there and wait. The AirTrain runs to Howard Beach and the stop is 1/2 block form the Howard Beach Port Office.)