Monday, April 23, 2007
The Phuket Picture Post
#1: Stilted Houses on Phi Phi Island
#2: An island near Phi Phi
#3: The road by Patong Beach
#4: Patong Beach
#5: One of the best sunsets I've ever seen
#6: A cave on Maya Bay
#7: Me and mah elephant
#8, 9: Another glo
As promised, here are several, poorly arranged pictures from my adventures in Thailand. Enjoy!
Friday, April 20, 2007
Phabulous Phuket
We got in on Saturday night and walked around one of the main roads in the town. Now I have never really experienced something like Phuket before, a place where as a tourist, you are basically viewed as an open wallet and are haggled every 10 feet by clever (but oh so annoying) Thai salesmen trying to sell everything from wooden motorcycles (SO Thailand, I know) to jewlery to weird looking fish on sticks. I haven't really "haggled" in my life before, but today, when I bought something for my brother, I knew I had come a long way. The guy today offered me 900 baht (about $28) for what I wanted and I got him down to about 400 ($11). NICE!
The town here still has some remnants of the tsumai that happened just over a year and a half ago -- a lot of the stone sidewalks are all chopped up and there is loose gravel everywhere. Phuket was one of the places that was badly affected by the storm and by looking at some of the pictures posted around of the aftermath, it looked devastating. Nevertheless, today you really can't tell that much of anything tragic happened here as all the businesses are thriving and it's as crowded as ever.
The beaches aree absolutely gorgeous here -- long, winding white sand beaches, that aquamarine blue water that you find in the Carribean, and towering mountains in the background, covered in green trees and vegetation. Quite a sight, indeed. However, it's hot. And I mean hot. Did I say it was hot? Because holy moley it is. It's about 90 degrees everyday with about 6000% humidity which makes it, let's just say, uncomfortable. But with the ocean nearby and the gorgeous pool at our awesome hotel (which cost me just over $50 a night and would certainly fetch triple that in the States) it was all okay. And the cheapness of everything certainly helped. Though we did spend a decent amount (mostly on some boat rides, jetskiing, and tours), meals were rarely more than $3 a piece. A bottle of water (you can't drink from the tap here) cost about 14 cents.
Anyways, a sum of the events of the past 6 days:
-Lots of lounging on the beach, which was full of cats and dogs that sat under your chair
-Being haggled by people all over, especially on the beach where they just walk up to you with huge wooden elephant heads or tables and try to guilt you into buying them
-A fabulous ride on an elephant
-A boat tour of Phi Phi (pronounced Pee pee - HAHAHAH!) Island
-Some great meals
-A lot of sweating
-Jetskiing
and more! However there is not much time to explain it all, as I have to leave to catch the taxi in 15 minutes. Anyways, now it's back to Tokyo for 2 weeks of travelling around Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hong Kong with my dad. I'm quite excited to have all the power (langauge, at least) and showing him around the city I lived in for the past 4 months. I'll be home in just over 2 weeks on May 5th. I can't believe it!
And finally, my thoughts go out to anyone affected by the horrible events at VT this past week. I learned about it the day after it happened, and its pretty much not being discussed here, over 5000 miles away. But it still shocked me and I'm just appalled that such a thing could have happened. Hopefully happier days with follow.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Japan -- I hardly knew kimi!
Kimi is informal japanese for "you" -- so DON'T say it to your boss or you may have to chop off your arms like the samurai used to do.
Anyways, I'm feeling sort of in a reflective mood this afternoon, so I figured I’d sit down and write out my last entry as a part of the TUJ program in
1. “Become really really really good at Japanese” – I would probably addend that to one “really”, though I still have miles and bounds to go before I’m fluent. This last half of the semester, when I had speaking partners and just spoke more Japanese in general, contributed to most of this advancement in skill. The biggest thing is that I can read a ton more characters than I could at the start, which is quite nice. I still need to work on my listening – some conversations just sound like people are saying “Whiirrrrrrr” really fast.
2. “Travel. Travel. Travel” – I can say with confidence that I’ve taken this goal head on and beaten it to death. I really have seen a whole lot of stuff. To be specific, in Tokyo: Harajuku, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ginza, Roppongi, Asakusa, Nippori, Yanaka, the Imperial Shrine, Meiji-Jingu, Ikebukuro, Ueno Park, Odaiba – and there are about 50 other places I didn’t list. Outside of
3. “Make friends. Awww. Shut up” – See above. And shut up.
4. “Challenge myself to go outside my comfort zone” – YES, YES, YES, YES and YES.
5. “Eat any 5 (or more) of the following: eel, octopus, a part of the fish besides the yummy parts, fish eggs, some weird vegetable that I can't pronounce, abelone, natto (fermented soybeans), etc.” – well I didn’t actually eat any of those things, but I think chicken penis trumps them all and then some. Yeesh
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Izakaya Redux, the Great Buddha, and the Bamboo Forest
Sorry about the hiatus this last week. It’s not that I wasn’t thinking about my lovely readers, it was just that nothing of note really happened last week (besides a “shopping” field trip with a 3rd grade Japanese class) and I couldn’t really think of much else to write about.
Jaa mata ne!
Picture Guide: #1: Us and our new Japanese friends at Wara-wara, #2: The Great Buddha himself, #3: The fabulous bamboo forest, #4: The rock tunnel, #5 Shibuya
Sunday, April 1, 2007
Phallus Fest 2007
But more on that in a minute.
And this wasn’t just like a drunk Japanese man event – old women and men were parading around and selling (yes) penis-shaped lollipops for all to enjoy! Near the shrine dedicated to the phallus, there was a large, rideable wooden penis that people could get pictures with and “mount” – I saw this dad even put his newborn son on there for good luck – poor kid. Of course, there was more normal stuff, like taiko drumming and traditional music, etc. but boy, it was quite a sight to be seen.
Photo Guide: #1 - Bernie and Yoshi at the Izakaya, #2 - Me as Elvis, #3 - Us and our new friends at the park, #4 - The Iron-clad Penis, #5 - (as if it wasn't evident already) The Pink One, #6 - The huge crowds following the Pink Penis down the road.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Holy Hanami
Throughout my life I’ve pondered over the question of whether God exists. If God existed, would there be wars? Would there be terrorism? Would there be nuclear warfare? Obesity? Cigarettes? Why would God have created these things in the first place if they are so harmful? I’ve struggled over this question for quite some time now.
Jaa mata ne!
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Otaku UNITE!
I know you all have some burning questions to ask me (if it’s burning that bad, you should probably go to a doctor to check it out – HAHA!) and yes, the time will come to ask them. But I know all of you are dying to know (if it’s dying that bad…ah, never mind) where in the world can you find a place where nerdy men who live in their mother’s basement, have two or three clean shirts, and wear shorts three sizes too small can mingle with the most attractive of all Japanese women without having to pay them/go to a maid bar, I’ll tell you! That would be at the 2007 Tokyo Anime Convention at Tokyo Big Sight in