Fuyu Yasumi

K, I have been the worst blogger ever since going on winter break….however, seeing as how I have E-Mailed like ten people about what I have done, I really can’t be bothered to re-type everything. Sooooo, here is my winter break, copied and pasted from other E-Mails. Yes, a very personal blog ;)

So, this entry will be about my first day in Bangkok. It is really long because I didn’t talk to anyone all day, so I took it out on my parents by writing them the longest E-Mail ever.

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble.....blah blah blah blah! (hmm, I don't know if those are the real lyrics or not, but you can pretend)

Anyway, hello! I am currently writing you from my gigantic king-sized bed which I want to take back to Japan with me :) It is weird to be back on a bed, let alone a bed the size of my living room! Hehe. I've had a fun day! I'll tell you about yesterday first, tho.

Yesterday was one of those annoying travel days....Cindy and I agree that it's such a waste of an entire day, I wish we could all just teleport! I took the bus to Narita with Tim, Cindy, and Minako. Fortunately, Minako, Cindy and I were in the same terminal, so we all got to hang out before our flights left. We had lunch together, then I waited in the RIDICULOUSLY LONG AND SLOW United line. It was sooooooooooo annoying, I was about to murder someone! Stupid holidays! The line took a lot longer than expected, as did customs, so Cindy and I literally had to RUN to our gates in order to catch our flights. It felt like a movie or something, it was ridiculous! So, sweaty Jeff then got to sit on the plane for 6 1/2 hours. Unfortunately I had a damn window seat so I had to bug two people in order to get out, so I miraculously only went to the bathroom once? Very rare for Jeff, indeed! My body was about to kill me for not moving around, but oh well.

The flight was a lot longer than I was expecting; Thailand isn't THAT far from Japan! However, I do have to say I love United's "Economy Plus" (something I was unaware I was taking part in). It has a TON of leg room, somehow...I wasn't even uncomfortable! Very nice. We had a very strange mix of movies....Polar Express and KINDERGARTEN COP?! Um, okay! I watched Polar Express out of boredom, but made it more interesting by listening to the Japanese audio and reading the Chinese subtitles to see what kanji were the same as Japanese. Yes, I am a huge huge nerd. I could understand all of the Japanese, tho, so that's cool. I didn’t use the headphones for Kindergarten Cop….I let the early
90’s pastel colors speak for themselves. I really should have listened to the Japanese track to figure out the translation of, “It’s not a tumah!”

I got into Bangkok and randomly saw two Gunma JETs within ten minutes of landing....we are attacking the country this week! I then took a cab to my hotel (after some major language barriers)....the hotel is nice! My room is ENORMOUS, I am not exactly sure what I am supposed to do with all of the space. I am also enjoying the fact that they have American TV (CNN, HBO, MTV, etc.) far too much. I'm watching Harry Potter 3 as I type this!

Today I woke up at 9 and proceeded to walk about 700 million miles. Seriously, it was like NYC times 100! Craziness! I am a bad tourist and didn't really care about what sights may exist in Bangkok, as I was all for the shopping. I asked the concierge for some walkable shopping areas and he showed me a map.....I went exploring and found what I thought he directed me to, which was pretty much a Thai Wal-Mart! Um, not what I was expecting! Sadly, I did buy a couple cheap things while I was there. Anyway, later in the day I found out I needed to walk about four more blocks and would have found two HUGE malls....whoops!

K, this is going to be really long, I sense. Anyway, before I continue, I will tell you about my opinion of Bangkok, as I know you are on the edge of your seats for the moment of revelation. At first I was kind of sketched out by it because it is unlike any city I have been to and the EXACT opposite of super-sanitary and sterile Japan. However, over the course of the day I have decided that's what makes it endearing! On the walk to the shopping areas, I passed tons of carts and stands that served various Thai food....skewers of grilled meat, noodles, rice dishes, soups, fresh fruit, etc. There are little tables on the sidewalks for you to sit at while you eat the food. It is really cool (and incredibly cheap).

The city itself is not clean....it is like NYC, but dirtier. The air is pretty dirty, and everything is kind of dirty, but not too disgusting or anything. I dunno. It's what I expected, since I had heard about it.

It's weird, tho, beecause Bangkok is way more American than Japan. The stores have more American brands than we do, etc. I am also freaking out at the huge amount of foreigners here, it makes me uncomfortable! In Gunma the only foreigners I see are the ones I know and the millions of Brazilians in Ota. Here there are FAR too many Americans, I don't like it!

It is also really really modern in some parts, such as the huge malls I went shopping at today. They have lots of the same shopping as you would find in Tokyo, NYC, etc., plus cheaper places, too. There is also the new sky train system, which is VERY cool. Very new and very nice! It is funny, tho...tourists and Thai people must not like walking because you can literally see the next stop from the stop you start at....hello, just walk there! I guess not everyone is a Santilli ;)

Anyway, yeah, I went shopping pretty much all day long! I only got a few things, tho. I had lunch at the restaurant at the hotel, which was yummy....good noodles! As I got the bill, one of the waitresses told me, "I have something to tell you. See her? She thinks you are handsome. So, she is giving you your coffee for free! Don't tell anyone!" Hehehe. Very funny. Plus, of course this made me give her a huge tip ;) It was 100 Baht, or about 3 bucks, which is a lot here. The lady got really excited and had to go show the girl, who was also happy! So that was fun :)

I found a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge market walking distance from my hotel that is literally hundreds of booths of mainly food, but they also have some with clothes and other things. Everything looked SO good! I got a mid-afternoon snack of a plate of yummy noodles for 30 cents ! Can't complain about that! then for dinner I stopped at a booth and got a rice dish, which was also good. For dessert I walked way too far in order to find a banana crepe vendor (I was told by multiple people that I HAD to have one). It was SOOOO good, and horrible for me. It is a big greasy crepe with banana cooked in it with sugar and condensed milk on top. MMMMMMMM, I want another!