Bangkok - Outside the City

For Day 3, we elected to take a tour out to the floating market about 2 hours west of Bangkok. We (really me) are not normally tour people, but we did this a few times on this trip. First, we couldn't rent a car (you need an international drivers permit, which I don't have) and you learn more about the people, the area, etc. since we had a guide. I think we could manage the navigation (we figured out Ireland after all) but getting in/out of Bangkok would have been a nightmare with the traffic and all of the maniacs on the road. This was much more enjoyable.

So we hopped in a van and headed west. Specifically, we went to Damnoen Saduak. Once out there, we jump in another long tail boat for a trip through the canals. Once at the market itself, we switch over to a small paddle boat to maneuver through the market. There are really two different parts of the market - the people floating in small boats (usually fruit or food or souvenirs) and the stalls on the sides of the canal. If you want something, your boat either moves over to what you want or they pass it across the boats (kind of like buying a hotdog at a baseball game back home).

I say that because a good portion of the time is spent wedged into a traffic jam of long tail boats (with engines going and props being raised and lowered in the water) and paddle boats trying to push through. Like many things, it would have been a lot better with 50% of the people, but you get through it. We tried a couple of things - some spice Thai pancake things, a pomelo (kind of like a grapefruit) and I had some sweet sticky rice with the best mango ever - all right off the boats. Walking through the market later, we were stopped by a fruit lady ended up trying all sorts of crazy Thai fruits like rambutan, lychee, jackfruit, and longan among some other stuff. But no durian as it was not in season. We ended up buying a kilogram of it just because she was so nice. I hope the people in the hotel enjoyed when we left it there (as we went to Cambodia the next day).

After the time at the market, we spent some time walking around the market and buying more stuff we didn't need (a recurring theme of the trip). After the market, we stopped at another temple (or "wat"). It was big and famous and frankly I don't remember the name - wat fatigue had already set in - there are thousands of temples in Thailand and they are all big and beautifully decorated. Despite that, they all start to look the same after a while.

The next day, we headed off to Cambodia and Angkor Wat.

Bangkok - Where does Pier 1 get their stuff?

Frankly, there is not a whole lot to report from Day 2 in Bangkok. We spent most of the day at the Chatuchak Weekend Market. It's kind of difficult to describe and we didn't take a lot of pics. Wikipedia says it has over 5,000 stalls and receives 200,000-300,000 each day it is open. Based on what we saw, that's probably about right.

They really have all sorts of stuff there - furniture, clothes, paintings, ceramics, housewares, pets (probably the quintessential definition of puppy mills), jewelry, antiques, etc, etc, etc. It's pretty much a certainty that anything you have ever seen in a Pier 1 is sold there at about 10% of the cost. But it's a very cool place to spend a day walking around and we bought a bunch of stuff that we didn't need.

We finished off Day 2 with a trip to the Sky Bar - not your normal roof top bar and probably one of the most incredible places I have ever been. It is an open air bar located at the top of a 65 story building. The only thing separating you from the express trip to the bottom of the building is a 3.5 foot railing - if you hop over that rail that you see in the pics you are off the side of the building. I don't normally have a height thing, but when you come out of the building onto the terrace it is really hard to believe how "open" it is. There is no way you could build something like this in the US. Anyway, we spent some time there and had a few expensive cocktails (felt like we were back in Tokyo) and met some interesting guys from Germany (who had a much different Bangkok experience than we did) and enjoyed the view.

Bangkok - Do Not Trust Wily Strangers

First, we feel like we owe everybody an apology for not updating this in a while... it's been a busy couple of weeks since we got back from Thailand, mainly Thanksgiving make-up (something else we probably need to address) and a series of visitors (shout-out to Todd & Tammy and Sandy and Katherine). Jenn is down in Hiroshima/Kyoto with them this weekend so I thought I would spend a little time on the blog and get some pics loaded. I'm breaking the trip up into parts to make it easier to read (and easier for met get through).

The trip kicked off with a 7 hour flight to Bangkok (reinforcing the fact that Tokyo really isn't close to anything) on Thursday night and got going on Friday morning with a long-tail water taxi ride on the Chao Phraya River (which cuts through Bangkok) to the Grand Palace. The long tail boats are interesting - long boats made out of teak wood with car motors mounted on the back with a long shaft running to the water. The motors are mounted on a pivot for steering and to control the pitch of the prop in the water (i.e., trim). The first one we were in seemed like it was going to shatter each time we hit wake, but the rest were in pretty good shape.

"Do not trust wily strangers" is from the sign on the wall of the Palace (in the pics below). There were really only two times we felt like people were trying to take advantage of us on this whole trip and the first was here. Basically anytime a cab or tuk-tuk driver (little motorcyle taxis) saw you looking at a map, they would offer to "help." The "help" usually consisted of telling you that wherever you wanted to go was closed for some unplanned reason, but they knew somewhere better that you should go see and they could take you there. It was really pretty irritating, but fortunately we were warned by several people about this. I'll save the second story for later in the trip.

The Grand Palace is contains various temples that have been built by kings over the centuries, many containing Buddha relics (which are apparently spread all over Asia since there are Buddha relics at some of the places we have been in Japan). The place is really incredible - very opulent with colored tile and gold leaf everywhere. It's also known for its murals (one of the longest in the world) and Wat Phra Keo or the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. It's really Jade, but at 31 inches tall it is pretty amazing. The covering on the statue in the pic is a kind of robe - there is different clothing for each of the four seasons. This winter outfit went on just before we got there. This temple is used exclusively by the king.

After that, we headed for Wat Po (The Temple of the Reclining Buddha) after being told on the way it was closed. This is one of the largest and oldest temples in Bangkok and it has to be large because the Buddha is enormous (hopefully the pics give you some sense of the scale).

After that, across the river on a water taxi to Wat Arun (the Temple of Dawn). This temple was impressive for a few reasons... it's right on the river and had great views of the city. Second all of the color you see in the pics is from ceramics - either whole or broken pieces of pottery (re-used bowls, plates, etc.). The central prang (or tower) is 282 feet tall.

Finally, we capped the day off with a long-tail boat ride through the canals west of the city. These canals apparently used to be all over the city, but they are slowly being filled in as the city continues to sprawl. It was interesting to see such a different way of living.

We found us a good place for dinner that night (the food was cheap and fantastic the entire trip) and called it a day. Here are some more pics from the day...

Halloween revisited...

So I have to give a little "shout out" to my wonderful friend Elaine once again for the awesome Halloween costumes that she sent me last year. We got called away from Tokyo last year so weren't able to put them to good use, so we took advantage tonight. So Happy Halloween from Fred and Wilma!

I feel compelled to fill you in on the blow up doll that is seen in the photo. My friend Jessie's (the one in lederhosen) husband Matt got called away for business this year, so she decided to attend Terri's annual Halloween party with a "friend" instead. So she sends me a text this morning to see if I could go to our local friendly Don Quixote and find a blow up doll to be her other half....well let me just tell you that was most definitely the place. There were several floors that posed likely candidates for locating said doll, but luckily (or unluckily however you look at it) we hit the jackpot and let's just say that I'm glad for a change that I don't read Japanese because there is NO telling what was written on that box.....ewwww. But I must say the doll was a big hit at the party.

Sadly we didn't win the prize, but we had a great time and I was just excited that John agreed to dress up...ha!

Until next time...Jenn

Octoberfest (again)

We went to Octoberfest in Yokohama again this year. And we took some pictures. Enjoy.

Fuji-san

So we've been needing to post this for sometime, but better late than never I suppose.

Way back on September 5, we set out to climb Mt. Fuji. The general plan was to set to start climbing Saturday afternoon, go all night and then catch the sunrise from the summit. So we headed down to Gotemba (near the base of Fuji) on Saturday afternoon, took a bus to the mountain, and got started around 6 PM.

By way of reference, Fuji is a little over 12,000 feet tall and we started around 5,000 feet. It is estimated that 200,000 people climb the mountain each year, most of them between July and August (the official climbing season). During this time, a series of mountain "huts" or stations are open on the mountain (we started at the 5th station). The huts provide a few different services like food and drinks, rest rooms (for 100-200 yen per use) and places to get out of the cold and even sleep. Some people elect to set out earlier in the day, sleep in one of the huts, then get up about 2-3 AM and head for the summit. There is generally a collection of huts about every 1000 feet on the way up.

We looked into the huts, but they were all booked. To tell you how many people are on the mountain any given evening, some of the huts hold 500 people... there is easily capacity for a few thousand people to sleep on the mountain. We were in one for a few minutes just to grab a bite to eat, and they are basically just big rooms with futon mats and people sleeping everywhere... kind of funny to see.

It was also interesting to see how prices changed on the way up. A bottle of water that would have been 100 yen in Tokyo, started at 250 at the beginning of the trail and was about 550 at the top. Somebody has to haul all that stuff up there though.

So we were off by 6 or so. It started off basically like a hike, though it got pretty steep pretty quick. We would stop at each of the mountain huts and rest for around 45 minutes to eat and drink something and let our bodies adjust the altitude. We were really concerned about one of our traveling party getting some sort of altitude sickness, fortunately everybody managed to avoid this. A lot of the Japanese had little cans of oxygen that were broken out the higher we got. That seemed a little overkill as long as you were smart about it.

There are a couple different ways up Mt. Fuji and we fortunately selected one of the less traveled ones. So we didn't really run into a lot of people until we got to the 9th station (probably about 1-2,000 feet below the top) where our trail merged with another more popular trail. This station also has several big mountain huts where people sleep. From this point the rest of the way up was basically a conga line - you waited for the person in front of you to go and then you went. It was also pretty steep... basically climbing up big rocks. This was also the point that I really started to notice the altitude - the lack of oxygen mainly. So that part really wasn't much fun.

But we finally made it to the top around 3:30 AM and managed to find a less crowded spot (there were already a lot of people up there) to watch the sunrise (scheduled for around 5 AM). Temperature-wise, it was probably in the mid-20's, but fortunately there was not much wind. We really lucked out with the weather... we had friends who went the next weekend and experienced rain and snow. So we all tried to stay warm and I even took a nap for about an hour.

The sunrise was really amazing to see. The pics are good, but they probably don't do it justice.

So after spending some time at the top, we decided we had our fill of Fuji and headed down. Coming down sucked... really no other way to put it. Most of the way down is on a "sand slide" which could best be compared to coming down a sand dune. But it has big rocks in it. And you come down it for a good 3.5 hours. It's really hard on your knees and quads (especially after having gone up 7000 feet already).

The whole trip was much harder than I thought it would be, but well worth it. Having said that, don't really need to do it again.

First, a few pics from the trip...

The view from the top, pre-sunrise:

A view of the crater:

Coming down the mountain... this will give you a good idea what these 3+ hours were like...

Doggie Cleaning

You can imagine my surprise when I walk outside my apartment and I see the new bandana that John's parents gave Cosmo sitting there with all the proper dry cleaning tags.  Apparently, it somehow slipped into the cleaning bag unnoticed.  This is a first....Cosmo should be styling it.  

Until next time...Jenn

Sayonara....

So, we had another first in Japan last week.  Some very good friends of ours left, which was so so sad.  However, in proper Tokyo fashion we threw them a Sayonara party to properly say good bye.  Good bye dear friends, we miss you already.  

Until next time...Jenn

Summer Daze....

...are coming to an end.  And one of my biggest accomplishments has been my cross stitch project (I know...seriously entrenched in domestication).  My mom bought if for me like last year, but I just now bothered to put some MAJOR time into it and voila....a life lesson that everyone needs to know.  And what a journey it has been in the last year.

I'm awaiting the "official" start of fall where all the Japanese people will be busting out the fall gear in full force.  They are VERY specific fashion-wise about their seasons here.  The clothing colors change which I am in complete agreement with, however, they also start wearing fur-lined boots and sweaters, which given the temperature will still be HOT seems strange.  I'm still thinking it has to do with the fact that everyone is a toothpick therefore they get colder faster than their huskier American counterparts.  Just a theory I'm working on.  

So, I have to be honest and say that it's been a long time since I've been inspired to write a blog post.  I have no idea why this is as things go on with us all the time.  I'm still surprised by things here in Tokyo or our travels, but nothing has "come to me" in a very long time.  Maybe today I just had a lot to say....who knows.  

We've done a few summer highlights for you along the way (ie. the Notre Dame game, camping, my trip home, etc.) however, there are a few more that are worth noting.  We went to a O'matsuri (or festival) a few weekends ago that was a lot of fun.  It was this area near us, the Juban and was packed but worth it and as you can see John was pretty adventurous with the Japanese culinary delights.  

Associated with this was Bon Dancing at Roppongi Hills, which was okay.  I had gone to the Bon dancing at Hibiya Park the night before, which was one of the most amazing Japanese experiences that I've ever had.  It was for lack of a better word...magical.  The pictures that I took weren't that great and don't do it justice at all...it was one of those lifetime experiences for me.  One that you'll always remember.  Unfortunately, John didn't get to go, but needless to say this will be on my must do list for our entire tenure here.  

Following that up, John decided that we needed to break in our hiking gear and climb Mt. Takao...because what better way to get those boots worn in, right?  Which, if John were posting, you would have all the pertinent information, but since it's me, let's just say it wasn't that hard a hike or so everyone says.  And I'm sure the fact that I've been sore for a week is absolutely no indication that I may not be in good enough shape.  Although even for me it wasn't that bad at the time, but we're tackling Mt. Fuji next weekend.  Needless to say, they aren't comparable.  But John has gotten himself prepared....as you can see.

So be thinking of us next weekend when you are comfy on your couches...we will be climbing overnight.  As a friend of mine said "wow, this just doesn't sound like you at all...you know anti-adventurous and not really into nature" she was right, but I know I'll be glad I did it....theoretically.  Of course, I'm pretty sure that I'll be disgusting afterwards, which let's just face it isn't that exciting.  What we do for our men...can I get an amen?

Well, that's pretty much it from Tokyo.  Things are getting rolling again.  September kicks everything back into gear.  The bible study that I did last year starts up again next week, my rice cake construction (which I didn't really break from) continues, and I started tennis lessons today.  As he walked out the door, John's words of wisdom were "don't hurt yourself"...nothing like a vote of confidence in my athletic abilities.  Regardless, I loved it.  I had heard some interesting things about my instructor from previous students.  For instance, "well, he's a bit of an odd ball".  So I couldn't help but laugh when another one of my novice counterparts turned to me today and said, "there's something about him that reminds me of Pee-wee Herman".  And now you can get a little insight into our lesson.  Other than that we are heading to Dallas next week for a wedding...congrats Terri and Steve.  I hope that you all had a great summer as well.  

So, whenever I've kept a journal (which this feeling like sort of except for the lack of girlhood angst about boys and life and all that) I've always added a song so that whenever I read them again, which has yet to happen, but you never know....I'll know exactly what I was listening to.  Anyway, thought I'd give it a go here too....so here is our first introduction of "Name that Tune".  This is a shout out to our upcoming visit home and to our Texas peeps....

"all the Federalis said they could have had him any day....they only let him slip away out of kindness I suppose...."

Until next time...Jenn

Notre Dame Football - undefeated in Japan!!!

Continuing my homework assignments...

So the weekend after we went to Seoul was American football - Notre Dame Alumni vs. the Japan National Team in the Tokyo Dome.  Notable on the ND team was Tim Rice.  Notable on the JP team were guys who play American football.  I think the ND team out-weighed the JP team on average by like 60 pounds.   They probably out-aged them by about 20 years as well... there were guys on the ND team well over 50 years old.

Unfortunately, the JP team seemed to forget this fact.  Or it could have been that they were simply intimidated by the coaching legend on the other side of the field - Lou Holtz and his national championship 22 years ago.  I have to admit that my favorite teams are the University of Texas, whoever is playing a&m and whoever is playing ND.  But having said that...

1. Who is Charlie Weiss?  How great would ND be if they had kept Lou?
2. ND is #1 right now... what other team is 1-0?
3. ND fans came out of the woodwork for this game.  
4. They trounced JP 19-3.  Don't let anybody tell you ND isn't back.

If I was going to a football game, I felt like I had to wear UT garb.  I ran into quite a few people from Texas because of it.  

All in all, a nice little slice of Americana with tastes of Japan mixed in.

Happy Anniversary to Me.

So my one year anniversary in Japan was this week.  Pretty amazing how quickly it has gone by.  I certainly (still) miss all of our friends back home, but it's been an incredible experience.

Seoul

Okay... this has been a long time coming.  Jenn assigned this homework to me before she went back to the US and I simply failed.  So here you go.

I feel like we need to go back to Korea.  

First, we had a very Malaysia like experience - it rained a lot.  So we dealt with that from pretty much the day we got there (Friday afternoon).  Second, there was really one thing that I wanted to do in Korea - visit the Demilitarized Zone (the DMZ).  We had our reservation for the USO tour where you get to go to Panmunjeom and straddle the border of North and South Korea, go into the tunnels that the North Koreans have built into South Korea, and stare across the most heavily defended border in the world.  You actually have to sign a waiver saying that you acknowledge that military action could break out at any time and that you won't hold the United Nations responsible if you are killed during your tour - how great is that?

But the heavy hand of swine flu swatted those plans aside.  A soldier at one of the military bases on the border contracted this glorified flu and, as a result, the bases were sealed and the tours cancelled.  We found this out when we showed up for our tour.

So we walked around Seoul and saw some markets and a bunch of palaces (in the rain).  Lots of Japanese regularly go to Korea, primarily to shop.  It's a combination of a lack of duties in Korea (as opposed to Japan) and a very strong Yen that makes stuff much cheaper in Korea as compared to Japan.

One highlight for Korea - the food.  We didn't have a bad meal in Korea.  Koreans in the restaurants we went to seemed surprised that we liked the kimchi, but it was really good and there are lots of varieties (not just burn your face off hot).  The soup you see that I had in the pics below was really hot if you ate it alone, but was really good with the noodles in the soup.  We also got to experience true Korean barbeque thanks to our friends Michael and Lee... really good stuff.  

One unique thing about Korea (compared to Japan) - the chopsticks are often metal... a little difficult to eat noodles with.  

Here Comes the Bride....

So, I just get home from a lovely trip home.  I hate to report (yeah right), that I missed all the little earthquake craziness, but thankfully everything was fine and John wasn't too scared without me...ha.  For those of you that didn't know, my dear friend Marcia got married and I was honored to be a part of it.  

The wedding was in Savannah, which is a great little city.  My mom and my old friend Karrie decided to join me in my exploration of the city before the wedding festivities began.  We had the best time sifting through antique shops and touring historic homes.  After they left all the whirlwind that accompanies any wedding began.  It was a wonderful southern wedding and I got to catch up with some great people that I hadn't seen in a long time.  Here are a few pics of my time home.  

Until next time...Jenn

Tokyo... back on top baby!

So Mercer (didn't Jenn used to work for them?) came out with their annual cost of living study and Tokyo is the most expensive city in the world for expats.  Wahoo!!! Take that Moscow.

New York serves as the basis (with a score of 100) and Tokyo came in at 143.7  Most of the change is due to currency movements, not actual increases in prices.  The yen/USD has gone from well over 110 to around 93 since we've been here.  I think it even dipped below 90 for a while last fall.  That's not a bad thing when you get paid in yen... it's like US dollars go on sale.

The flip side (for Japan that is) is that its exports become relatively more expensive.  We get a lot of questions about how the economy is here... unemployment is projected to go over 6% (which would be the highest since WWII), but is not nearly as bad as the 10% projected in the US.  But that number is probably lower than it should be.  There was a story last weekend (can't find a link now) indicating that nearly the same number of people were "over-employed" - meaning their employers would terminate/RIF/fire them if they could, but they are legally prohibited from doing so.

It is really hard to layoff/fire someone here.  As a result it is a big deal when it happens.  I need to catch some photos of this, but there are guys standing around doing a jobs that no one would ever do in the US.  For example, around construction sites there are usually 2 guys at each construction entrance to 1) make sure you don't go into the site, or 2) make sure you don't get run over by a truck.  Road patching crews have at least 2-3 guys at each end of the patch to direct traffic (I've never seen a bad road or a bad patch in Japan).  Pedestrian crossings of roads around the hotels have 2 guys (one on each side) telling you when it is safe to cross (as if you couldn't see the cars coming).  I have even seen a guy who's job it is to clean the phone booths.

It really is amazing and I think it (partially) explains why prices are higher here... there is a lot of extra labor cost being passed on to consumers.  I'm not sure it's always worth it, but it's the way it is here.  

So I was surfing the web and came across a couple of items of interest..

A story about a Lacy (hey, I'm a Lacy) who was missing after 10 months and then found by its owners in Houston.  Good for Daisy.

I'm working on this...



-Cos