Posted on

Japan – Day 3 (Tokyo)

Okay, so I didn’t get up super early today. Failure again. I got trapped in the warm, fluffy cocoon again (fueled by jet lag) and was lazy until around 9am when I finally headed out the door. The first stop was out to Asakusa, to see Senso-ji again. That temple, pagoda, and the Nakamise shopping street in front of it were one of my favorite places in Japan, and it honestly hasn’t changed a bit. Hell, they’re still selling a lot of the same stuff from 15 years ago. I guess if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! I did pick up a new door curtain and coin purse, and ate what seemed like deep fried mochi with a chocolate center, and then some regular strawberry mochi, and then I stopped for some tempura udon. I have a feeling I’m going to gain back all the weight I lost in Europe at this rate!

Before leaving the temple I picked out a fortune card, which ended up being the second best one you can get. I then stopped by the shrine next door and did it again and got the same prediction, so at least the two are consistent. I got back on the subway to Ueno Park and visited the temples and shrines in that area for a while. I was thinking about going to Shinjuku or Akihabara for a bit, but both of those areas are mostly shopping and I already spent way too much money, so instead I went to the hotel to rest my feet, eat some delicious oden soup, and change my clothes.

Once it was dark, I made my way to MariKar Shibuya, where you put on character onesies and ride around in go-karts throughout the city. I picked out Pikachu for my onesie, and opted for the hour tour. I think an hour was perfect. They have 2 and 3 hour tours that take you on the Rainbow Bridge, but I think the novelty of it would wear off after an hour, 2 tops, and my old back wouldn’t be able to handle it. Besides, they have one in Osaka too so I could try that! It was really just a blast, and my riding partner Godzilla was funny as hell. After the ride I swung by Family Mart for an egg sandwich and headed back to the hotel for the night. I also decided to just eat the kitty cake pop I got in Harajuku the other day, which was delicious too. Tomorrow I leave Tokyo and head out to Kamakura. My fortune said I would have good luck in my travels going south, and that was already my plan so huzzah!

Posted on

Off to Japan! – Day 1

JAPAN I AM IN YOU! My God as soon as I stepped foot off the Narita Express at Shibuya it all hit me at once. The neon lights, the endless chatter, the hustle and bustle, the smell of noodles and curry and all sorts of food and desserts of every flavor everywhere…it was like coming back home. I didn’t realize how much I missed it all until just now!

My flight out of Bangkok left at 8am so I had to wake up at 4am to leave at 5am. I forced myself to stay awake during the flight, so by the time we landed in Japan at 4pm I was starving. For some reason an American coming to Japan from Thailand alarmed the customs person (HA!) so I got pulled off to the side to check my backpack, but of course there is nothing bad in there and her asking questions led to me telling her about my trip around the world. She asked if I had been to Japan before, and I told her I used to live here in college and used to be able to speak Japanese conversationally fluent but not so much anymore, so then she switched to Japanese and let me practice for a bit (it wasn’t busy at customs today).

I figured once I got here I’d remember things fast, but I didn’t expect just HOW fast. It’s all coming back to me, like riding a bicycle. Before the end of the night I was at a shoe store talking with the older staff who didn’t know English, since I needed to replace my non-waterproof walking shoes that I threw away in Paris. At first they didn’t seem sure if they should help me, but then I called them over and started asking questions and stuff in Japanese and I think the main guy helping me was surprised at first and then seemed happy and ready to assist. Then again I was buying his stuff so, eh, may be unrelated. The point is I got some decent, inexpensive waterproof walking shoes for the next 24 days and didn’t need to use a word of English nor any charade games to get them.

Prior to that I went to Ichiran for some ramen, but after getting my shoes, walking around Shibuya at the crossing, and saying hello to my old buddy Hachiko my stomach decided it was still hungry. I stopped and got a small udon serving…but although my stomach was now full, my eyes and mouth were still hungry so I got some sushi and an onigiri from 7-11. I had to remind myself that I was going to be here a while and didn’t need to eat everything RIGHT NOW. It was past 9pm at that point, so I hiked back to the hotel to start booking activity tickets for the Tokyo area. This is going to be awesome!

Posted on

Thailand – Day 12 (Bangkok)

I need to start getting into the habit of waking up early. In Japan, you need to get to everything as the sun rises to avoid the crowds. Today I failed at this, again. My alarm went off at 6am but I laid in bed snoozing every 10 minutes until after 7am. Then I got up and made coffee and sat on my balcony overlooking Wat Arun for an hour just reading and getting caffeinated. Then I went down for breakfast, and this place actually has real BACON! Not just cheap ham cut to look like bacon but for real bacon. It was an unexpected surprise and a good start to the day!

My first stop was Wat Pho, which houses this massive reclining Buddha statue. It was super-hot and the place was busy, but it’s a huge place and really neat to walk around and look at everything. After that I headed to Wat Ratchapradit Sathitmahasimaram (no I can’t pronounce it either), and although it was a much smaller temple the elaborate glass work on it was top notch. There were also a lot of birds here, so I sat for a while and listened to them sing. The next stop was the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The temple is supposedly the most famous and most sacred temple in Thailand, and because of that the place was PACKED. This is the first and only place I’ve been to in Thailand where you were really shoulder to shoulder and I had to move my purse to my front and cover it with my hand to avoid pickpockets. It was gorgeous, but for the crowd and the price I don’t think I’d recommend it. Plus the Emerald Buddha statue is tiny and way up on a pillar thing so you can’t even really see it and I have good eyesight. I moved through the temple fairly quickly just to get out of the crowd and went to the Palace, but you can’t even go inside, you can only look at the exterior so that was disappointing too. But, I got to see the Thai version of the “changing of the guards” which was neat, and the ticket included a free shuttle to the Royal Theater where you got to watch a Khon show with English subtitles so you knew what the heck was going on. That was really fun, I enjoyed it. After the show was over I walked back to the hotel and got some cashew chicken and rice for a linner/dunch, and cooled off in my room for a bit while the sun set outside my window.

I didn’t plan it this way, but today is Loy Krathong. In fact, if I had planned it better I wish I was in Chiang Mai tonight since it’s a waaaay bigger festival there with lanterns in the water and in the air. But, I’m in Bangkok, and I read that Wat Arun was a big place to be for the festivities so I hopped on a rickety ferry across the river to check it out. Unfortunately the temple itself was closed, but the party was going on outside. There was food, games, music, theater and hundreds of people walking around with various lanterns to put into the water.

For those not familiar, Loy Krathong is actually a bit of a hypocritical festival. People make these wreath things with candles, often out of plastic, light them up and put them in the river to thank the gods for the water and…apologize for…polluting the water? Yeah, so put plastic trash in the water to apologize to the gods for putting plastic trash into the water, haha! It seems like people are starting to catch on to this and even though there were still plastic krathongs there were more made out of organic plants, fruits and flowers. I wanted to participate, but didn’t want to throw anything into the already polluted river, so instead I donated some money to the temple monks who then gave you a little tea candle type thing in a reusable flower cup and you lit that and floated it in a nearby pool. True, it’s not a zero waste method, but better than the alternative. After hanging out for a bit, I hopped back on the ferry to Wat Pho. In hindsight, I should have done Wat Arun during the day when it was open, because Wat Pho was still open and now for free including the reclining Buddha. So I wandered around there again since there were far less people than in the morning, and watched some of the shows on the stage. It was getting late and I still needed to pack up for my trip to Japan tomorrow, so I called it a night and now I’m packing things up. Can’t believe it’s time for Japan already!