Back to Reality

Long time, no post! Sorry to keep you all hanging for so long... No, I wasn't kidnapped by any coups in Thailand or anything, but thank you for your concern! :) Things have just been pretty busy since returning to Japan since my sister was still here (in fact, she extended her ticket home for a week and just ended up leaving two days ago) so we were busy going places (like karaoke, of course!) in my every free moment outside of school.

We went to the Peace Park in Nagasaki, Mt. Aso for some volcanic hot springs, Kumamoto Castle (here it is... can I entice anyone else to come & visit? It's pretty cool, right in the center of my city!) and even took the ferry over to Pusan, Korea last weekend. She had really wanted to see what Korea was like since she's considering going there to teach next year- and I was happy to be her tour guide. I like going back to Korea any chance I get. In fact, it's quite likely that I will be living in Korea again next year myself... but we shall see.

Of course, Michelle's visit to Japan included me taking her to all my favorite restaurants and having her try all kinds of food and meeting my friends over lunch & dinner here. We sushiied a few times (because it's fast & cheap) and enjoyed Okinomiyaki (shown here on the tabletop-grill, this is "Japanese pancake" with cabbage and your choice of other fillings) as well as my favorite izakaya (Japanese-style drinking establishment.)

As for Thailand, I'm happy to say that we successfully made it through 5 1/2 days of fasting (sorry for all the candor in my last post on this subject, by the way!) so we felt pretty good. Then we finally got to eat some of the delicious vegetarian food at our resort (and yummy Thai food, too!) A real treat after those FANTASTIC detox drinks, as you can imagine!

The day we finished our fast, we had our only night out "on the town." We met up with my friend Peter (on the left) who also teaches on the same program in Kumamoto with me. He happened to be on the same island in Thailand, sightseeing with his friend Jan (right) also from South Africa. We enjoyed the adventure of scootering (literally, on the back of their scooters... with no helmets!) around to a few marketplaces followed by a few drinks on the beach. (I was definitely itching for a "real" drink by then, and it WAS vacation, after all!)


We also did a bit of sightseeing in Thailand, too, finally. I suppose that's a story in itself as we had been chatting to the friendly Thai bell boy at our resort (also known as "Peter") who kindly offered to show us around with his friend on his day off. (Later this turned into a plea for an American work visa, but anyway... think he still meant well and it was better than being herded around in a regular sightseeing tour.)
"Thai Peter" and his friend were both Buddhist so they taught us a bit about their religion (how to pray, when to honk your horn when passing a Buddhist monument to show respect) and driving in their truck was a bit on the surreal side because it was filled with the sounds of Kenny G... the best music for Buddhist meditation, as they informed us.

We saw a really cool gold temple located right on the ocean, a few waterfalls, and this famous phallic-shaped rock known as "Grandfather Rock." I'm still not quite sure why people flock to see it but I suppose it is somewhat of a natural phenomenon. We saw some elephants, but chose not to go "elephant trekking" as we had read about it being really harmful for them- and they are already endangered. (Besides, I'm afaid of heights!)

We left Thailand relaxed and somewhat tan and returned to the cold reality of Japan. (Guess it's always a harsh reality check coming from a warm place on vacation back to cold and work) which is where I stand now, with those carefree days all but a memory... Woe is me.

Pictures, pictures... you asked for `em, so you got `em! (And I even fixed the picture problem from my Christmas post... not sure what happened there- sorry!)