Since a huge part of why I traveled to Australia was to see wildlife reserves and nature, my friend and I decided to fly to Adelaide for 4 days from Melbourne since this is the place where he grew up. Like Perth, Adelaide is considered to be one of the smaller and more remote cities of Australia, but it actually has a number of unique attractions worth seeing. Not only is it one of the two places in the country where you can hold koalas at the Cleland Wildlife Park, but it also has a yearly event called the Fringe with a number of theater and festive events. Though my time here was very short compared to Melbourne, Adelaide left a huge impression on me and I hope to visit here again in the future!
After landing, the first thing I noticed about the city was the beautiful trees and architecture of the houses. Though the spring season had just begun, the temperature here was much warmer than it was in Melbourne. We were staying with a friend who conveniently lived near the airport so it was fortunately convenient to get around by using Uber and the trams. Since the weather was in our favor we decided to go to Glenelg Beach and soak up the sun for a while. This beach is perhaps one of the most popular because it is near Jetty Square that is filled with shops and boutiques. I enjoyed the laidback atmosphere here and managed to relax a lot. It was just what I needed to rejuvenate myself.
All of the food we had here was absolutely amazing. I had a delicious chai latte sprinkled with cocoa powder at a cafe called Cibo, which I highly recommend. Though I currently reside in Japan, I was curious to try the sushi here so we decided to eat at the conveyor belt sushi chain Kintaro. Surprisingly, their sashimi selection was quite tasteful, and I enjoyed the heaping amount of sauce they put on my avocado crab sushi. Next up were the Japanese Wasabi Doritos we found at Coles Supermarkets. They were almost overpowering, but worth it for the meme factor.
We spent a lot of our time here catching up with friends, watching anime, drinking at home, and relaxing, but we were still able to see a lot of the city in the time that we spent here. My friend went through his anime figure collection and found his Rei Ayanami piece that was actually the top of a pachinko machine in Japan, so it was definitely worth the trip. One of my favorite landmarks here were the silver balls, or “gintama” as you would say in Japanese:
Apparently they are quite a popular meetup spot in central Adelaide–kind of of like a miniature version of the bean in Chicago. We also visited an anime store called Shin Tokyo which surprisingly had quite a good selection of goods (way better than where I grew up in Michigan), and hilariously I found stuffed kangaroo balls at a souvenir shop nearby. There was also something mysterious for sale for $15. This city seemed to be full of humorous content for some reason:
Another awesome place I highly recommend checking out is called MOD. This is a futuristic museum with interactive exhibits that will help you discover “hedonism”, or the pursuit of happiness. They had various happiness simulators here; including one that gave you believable compliments to boost your confidence, and another that had classic games like Solitaire and Minesweeper that would auto-win the game for you with just the press of a button (but it seemed like a fair game at first). They also had surveys regarding what makes the ideal workplace, and we found some interesting results (see the picture of the coffee cups for reference).
I jokingly called this museum the teamLab of Adelaide, because some of the exhibits have similar concepts with lighting and projected images. I was actually really impressed with the technology they used for their giant globe that you could spin and interact with. You could create your own character using touch screens to live out various scenarios through the Symbiosville simulation. In this exhibit, you will learn through trial and error how to keep you and the people around you happy. I think this is a vital skill in life.
In my next blog entry, I will talk about my experience hanging out with kangaroos, koalas, and other wildlife in Adelaide. I hope that more people will make the journey out to this city, because it truly is an interesting place!