May 2002 I wrote a trip journal:

It took 10 hours fly from Narita to Sydney.From the North to the Sounth. This was my first time to visit Australia.
I thought it will be not much to tell since this is a business trip, it always like that, you know. But I
was wrong. This time the business trip was a bit different that I want to share with you. I flew to
Australia to conduct a class for Australia and NZ IBMers about International Business, as my role as IFS Coordinator for Asia Pacific. To make it short, the class went smoothly, as I did this many times in different countries before I didn’t find any difficulty, except the ‘different’ Australian english accent that need a while for my ear to ’switch’ and get used to it. The question asked by the students was simple, but the English was complicated : )
There are several IBM offices in Sydney, my class was conducted at the one about 30 minutes drive from the city, a place named Pennant Hill.

The flight landed in the morning while the job start the next day, short time to see around. Sydney is a beautiful harbor city with it magnificent architectural design of the opera house. The beautiful
early autumn weather was just perfect. To my surprised, the city was not so busy (compare any other metropolitan city I ever visited). I took a ferry tour around Sydney harbor from Circular Quay to see the famous Opera house, Taroonga zoo, Darling Harbor and Cockle Bay. Ended up having a steak dinner of the famous Angus. The dazzle view of the harbor at night was splendid. For those who like to have a stroll in fresh air with amazing view, this is a must. So romantic.
I stayed in Radisson hotel, not much to say about that. On the third night, a very good friend of mine, Alan Boddy invited me to stay at his home to experience the Australian live style. Alan was my manager a couple years ago, until he resign IBM after suffered a heart attack. He is in the late 50s. Sue,the wife, was a very nice lady. She also used to work in IBM as Marketing Manager for server for Asia Pacific, but decided to retired together with Alan.
Sue is a very professional lady both at work and at home. If you see their house, you will definitely
agree with me. She manages the house very well without any helper, well decorated (combination of classic and country style)up to the very detail. The Boddy’s own a very beautiful huge house located on 3 acre of land! The house is so huge it has 6 bedrooms, 3 living rooms, 2 dining rooms, a library, a beautiful verandah facing toward their swimming pool. Many flowers, trees
of Australian traditional grow on their big yard. The grass was so green when I was there due to the wet summer that has just passed. Magnolia and Jasmine was in the bloom. They used to own a pony on the back yard, but it was transferred to a brother farm down to the country side. Rick, Sue’s father live in that house too. He is in the mid 80’s, a great painter and horse lover. He used to breed a famous horse that won many races, named Karingga Star.
Alan took me from the office in the evening. We had a very sweet evening, tour around the house and yard, meet their wild pet of cockatoo bird that has a red head (I can’t believe that it is wild, so friendly!)and enjoy the delicious pasta Sue prepared. Alan and Sue showed me the picture of their 2 months holiday around Europe last year, visiting Alan’s homeland Scotland. He also had a trip to South Africa last year. The story was like a dream.
What a lovely evening sitting in their living room, enjoyed the warm Billy tea, had some chocolate, and listening to the CD of violin played by Simon. He is Alan’s youngest son, he is now in Dublin working, and he is a professional violinist ! Stephen, the other son is living and working in Perth.
I slept in a room on the second floor, the window facing the back yard and the pool. In the morning, the sound of the bird awoke me. When I saw through out thewindow, some wild rabbits just play on the yard !
It was a short stay since I have to go back to work that morning, IBM office is just  15 minutes drive from there. Alan drop me as he is going to the same office from this year works part time as consultant for IBM.

It was a nice experience for me but to bad Akhtar was not with me, he will enjoy this more, he loves nature and country living style.

It was only a week trip, but to summarize, I can say :
Sydney is a beautiful city that has friendly people live in it…it seems like a stress-free country for
me!
When I said that to many Australian fellows, they just laughed and say, it is always look beautiful when you see from far and in a short time only. Maybe they are right, but this time, that is the impression I got, and I like it that way ( except the public toilet was not as clean as Tokyo) !

April 2003 I wrote a trip journal:

Jadi ceritanya gue biztrip ke NY minggu lalu akhirnya (setelah usaha biar nggak harus pergi considering: gue musti ninggal Raisa seminggu — so hard, and jaman sekarang I prefer not to travel a lot due to the crazy war and SARS) well, i am just a slave of the coorporate world, risiko tanggung jawab naik….and I have to do it more often, I feel so guilty to Raisa indeed…
Anyway, business is business you don’t wanna know…
I stayed at a posh hotel in Manhattan, NYC located at the best spot, next to Grand Central Station. But that doesn’t make you feel high since station, hotel, every corner of the blocks (left alone the airport!) dipenuhi polisi anti terorist lengkap dgn senjata dan baju item2 ala polisi kayak di film speed itu loh. Serem deh, baru pertama kali gue liat ‘live’ polisi2 kayak gitu. NYC was in alert level: orange (2nd highest) as they got some info from intelligince source for another possible attack. Mereka berhak meriksa siapa saja… mukanya pada serius tanpa senyum.
I managed to get an extended night and went to see a musical play at broadway!! Gue nonton Mamma Mia! a musical yang pakek lagu2 ABBA dalam play ini (music by the real ABBA: Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvales). Seru banget deh, Dancing Queen…Chikita…Mamma Mia! Despite the ticket is hard to get and expensive, USD 106, it worth every cents of it! Jadi kayak kabaret (the way we call in Indonesia) gitu, tapi pemainnya nyanyi life dan suara2 mereka memang top quality. Two of the main role are Tony awards receivers. Asyiknya, karena musik dan tariannya ok banget, the audience pada ikutan dance! Detail, see: www.mamma-mia.com

"Mau ke Tokyo? Gue ada teman tuh disana….."
Kata2 ini yang membuat akhirnya ‘hosting’ dan ‘guiding’ menjadi bagian dari kehidupan gue dan keluarga di Jepang.
Hosting & guiding keluarga my best buddy in Univ, Akim for 10 days minggu lalu merupakan pengalaman hosting tamu dari luar Jepang
ke 22 selama hidup di Jepang sini. Tamu dari luar Tokyo, nggak keitung.
I’m thinking to start a tour company hehe…

Tamu yang datang macam2. Dari yang keluarga dan teman dekat, sampai yang baru ketemu pertama kali di airport, alias temannya teman.
Liat data statistik tamu2 kita, yang termuda berusia 8 bulan, yang tertua berusia 65th. Datang dari negara2: Indonesia, Pakistan, Australia, USA, Malaysia, Thailand, Scotland, NZ. Berprofesi sebagai professor, student, corporate employee, pengangguran, housewive, pensiunan, pengusaha, banker.

Tiap tamu punya minat yang berbeda. Hal ini membuat kita jadi belajar macam2 hal untuk memenuhi kebutuhan our ‘client’.
Ada tamu yang mau cari Sun Clorella, ada tamu yang harus beli tas wanita merek Madmouselle yang di Indonesia katanya top dan buatan Jepang (sementara disini nggak ngetop), ada tamu yang maunya barang2 dari group rock band Kemuri (yang gue sebelumnya nggak pernah dengar,  hehe kurang gaul kalik) ada tamu yang mau cari tanaman yang bisa hidup di dua musim buat ditanam di negara asalnya, ada tamu yang gila branded goods, ada juga tamu yang suka banget trift shop alias used product, ada tamu yang tergila2 toko all 100 yen, ada tamu yang tertarik kehidupan ‘malam’ disini.
Soal makanan pun bervariasi. Ada tamu yang tergila2 sushi, which is easy. Ada yang nggak mau makan kalau bukan nasi (still easy). Ada yang hanya bisa makan kari (not so easy), ada juga yang vegetarian, yang paling susah tamu yang maunya hanya makan home cooking (in which I have to cook 3 times in a day).

Karena harus mengantar tamu2 kita diatas, main tourist attractions di Tokyo sudah jadi bagian hidup kita.  Tokyo Tower, definetely more than 20 times. Ginza, double than that. Shinjuku, Harajuku many many times. Asakusa the market and temple, uncounted. Seorang teman yang sudah beberapa tahun hidup di Jepang, baru minggu lalu bersama kita jalan2 ke Hakone, obyek wisata pegunungan (dekat Mt.Fuji) untuk pertama kali. Sementara our 10 month old baby, Ken, sudah 4 kali ke Hakone. Any 3 hours driving destination around Tokyo selalu jadi target kita: Nikko, Nasu, Hakone, 5 lakes around Mt.Fuji.
Karena pertanyaan dari tamu sangat bervariasi, kita selalu harus membaca dan cari tau facts about Tokyo, more and more. We keep ourself updated.
Ada yang tamu yang tanya sejarah sebelum Meiji era, ada yang tanya tentang samurai, tentang tekhnologi, ada yang pingin tau crime rate, ada yang tertarik tax system, ada yang mau belajar masak sushi, ada yang hobby tanya statistik, ada yang suka belajar culture, etc,etc…

Perilaku tamu pun macam2. Ada yang selalu membedakan negaranya dengan Jepang. Ada yang setiap yen yang dikeluarkan selalu di’translate’ ke mata uang negaranya sehingga mau minum coca cola pun seret rasanya. Ada yang sungguh royal shopping ini itu. Ada yang datang dengan satu koper oleh2 sebagai pengganti biaya nginap katanya (karena di jepang paling elemen paling mahal dari liburan adalah biaya hotel). Ada yang datang membawa segudang bumbu2 Indonesia sebagai oleh (in fact, sampai sekarang lemari supply kita masih penuh dengan macam2 rasa indomie dan bumbu2 hasil pendapatan oleh2 ini). Ada yang datang membawa segudang mainan dan pakaian untuk Raisa dan Ken (karena katanya pakaian di Jepang mahal).
Ada seorang tamu yang sangat senior. Datang membawa koper keras model tua, tanpa handle (sudah patah), tanpa roda dan kunci . Practically, 15 kg harus digendong. Keliling2 Tokyo naik kereta. Karena kesenioran-nya, kita sebagai yang muda musti angkatkan kopernya. Akhirnya kita belikan saja koper baru…daripada…

Karena bagian dari hidup kita, mau tak mau kita musti mengalokasikan jatah cuti untuk host tamu. 30-40% dari jatah cuti tahunan biasanya dipakai untuk hosting.
Karena kebanyakan orang Jepang tidak bisa bahasa Inggris, dan tidak semua tamu tipenya adventurous, banyak tamu yang minta ditemani kemana saja.
Money matter, fund untuk nge-host yang tidaklah kecil apalagi kalau keluar kota dan menginap. Juga, with our both asian culture, we tend to host the guest all in, termasuk serve the dinner, transportation and pay the restaurant, etc. Apalagi tamu2 yang lebih senoir dari kita. It is just heavy karena tingginya frekuensi kita kedatangan tamu. Bila keluarga dan teman dekat, it is ok. Tapi sering juga yang sama sekali tidak kenal sebelumnya.
Dirumah, tidak seperti rumah2 Jepang lainnya yang biasanya tertutup untuk tamu (it is just the culture), kita punya barang2 yang khusus untuk tamu. Handuk tamu, seprei tamu, selimut tamu, dll. Dengan ukuran rumah jepang yang tidaklah besar, it is always the challenge to store this goods.
Fortunately, automotive is my hubby’s business. Jadi sering kali tamu yang datang dengan keluarga, membutuhkan mobil yang besar untuk jalan2. Akhtar sudah beberapa kali beli mobil di Toyota auction untuk dipakai 2 minggu nge-host tamu dan kemudian dijual lagi. So it can save the transportation’s budget.
Sering, karena biasanya tamu datang untuk waktu singkat dan ingin lihat banyak hal, jadwal sangat padat. Anak2 yang jadi kecapekan. Maklumlah disini tidak ada pembantu atau baby sitter yang bisa jaga anak dirumah. Hasilnya, Raisa dan Ken suka kecapekan dan demam/flu kalau habis kedatangan tamu yang menginap beberapa hari.

Saying all the above, buat Akhtar dan gue, it is our happiness kalau kita bisa spend the time with the one we love. Bisa host and guide tamu kita di Jepang. It is all paid of kalau kita lihat dan dengar ekspresi puas/happy dari tamu2 kita.
Selain itu, the circle of friends grows bigger and deeper. We got a lot of new and good friends. More friends, more love.
And that’s what all matter.

Next time you visit Tokyo, let me know….nggak perlu bawa sambal dan kecap ABC.