It’s pretty late here (or early, depending on your reckoning), but I’ve got some new pictures posted from Ginza, Tsujiki Fish Market, Asakusa, Imperial Palace Area, Odiba, and Tokyo Tower on my Gallery.

I’ve certainly posted a lot of pictures of Thailand. These are my favorites. There’s a lot of images, so I’ve separated them onto a separate page. Click on the link below.

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After getting an extremely late start, John and I ended up in Ueno with Nick and Ellie, fellow residents of Guess T. Ueno famous as a center of Tokyo’s museums. What a kick! Although I had heard that Asian cultures were more technologically advanced in pre-modern times, I had no idea.

I have a little voice recorder with me and I’ve started to record sound bytes when I find myself in some sort of cool place.

Sound Byte - Recorded @ Tokyo Museum

Some amazing things I saw at the Tokyo National Museum:

• Amazing metallurgy: Samurai swords from 12th-14th Century A.D. that are not only still sharp, but completely pristine and unrusted. They’re still fit for use today.
• Amazing cermamics: The designs on the plates and cemeramics from the 12th century are exactly the same you’ll find on any shelf today. While the colorization and design is crisper on the mass produced verions of today, the basic patterns remain unchanged. Glass strength and quality also appear to be comperable.
• Amazing craftsmanship: Even from BC times, the intricacies of the ceremic and metal works were unparalleled in Europe for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

Nick and Ellie returned to Guess T after the museum, but John and I headed to Ginza instead.

WOW.

Ginza is amazingly cool. Ginza is the super-trendy, super-luxurious, and super-expensive shopping area in Tokyo. The subway system dumped us out into the middle of the biggest food court I’ve ever been in. It spanned two floors, with one floor dedicated to strictly desserts and one floor dedicated to everything else.

Sound Byte - Recorded @ Ginza Food Court

Two words: Free Samples.

At this point, I suspect that many of you are making the word Ginza synonymous with the semantics of Heaven. I’m no different and unashamed to say that I Freaked Out. The prices were high, but how often do I come to Tokyo? I took off with some glazed chicken, three pasteries from the local bakery, a fresh pear flan, and a small box of truffles (a gift). I’ve had the chicken and the flan, and both were double-plus good. John and I are going back there For Sure. There are pictures on The Gallery. For some reason, my pictures have been coming out a little dark on this trip–I’ll have to mess with my camera settings to try and improve upon that.

Side note: If you want to know where to truffles in Seattle like the ones at Ginza, talk to Wings at Star Life on the Oasis, coffee shop on 50th and the Ave.

It’s about 10:30a on the 27th here. John is still sleeping (with flights and everything, it was a really long day).

Akihabara was pretty cool yesterday, but nothing mind-blowing. Most of the electronic gadgetry I saw there could either be found in the US or had very similar versions in the US. The big electronics gap that people speak of seems to have narrowed significantly in modern times. The stuff was pretty overpriced too.

What was cool: Home appliances. The space-constrained Japanese have some very unique designs for washers, dryers, dishwashers, refridgerators, etc. Those of you that know me well will know that I was oogling over all of this stuff. I have pictures that I’ll try and post later tonight.

Traveling in Japan has been interesting. In Bangkok, many of the people there knew broken English. Most places had English on their menus (this is a testament to how much Thai people rely on tourism). No such luck here. All the menus are in Japanese and the staff speak only Japanese. We had reverted to a lot of gesturing and hand waving. It wasn’t until late yesterday when we discovered that the bigger food places had English menus upon request, which saved both of us (esp. John, which his fast-metabolism and constant seeker of sustinance) a lot of trouble.

Okay–time to go figure out what we’re going to see today.

We’ve made it to Tokyo and have checked ourselves in at the the Guess T House in Azabu. The hostel, which costs less than anything listed in our Let’s Go book, is surprisingly nice. It’s split up across three levels, very clean, and extremely well-kept. Two of the floors sleep 12 people in a shared room and the top level sleeps 9 with a plesant common area. About the only downside is that smoking is allowed in the common area.

Bonus:
Bedsheets, blankets, and pillows are all velvet.

Special extra bonus:
The pillows are sculpted memory foam.

We’re headed off to Akihabara now–the electronics capital of the world!

Can’t believe I’m finally here!

John and I are about to head to the airport to head off for the significantly cooler destination of Tokyo, Japan. Since we figure that Internet is cheaper here, we decided to stop off and take care of a few things.

Most of my Thailand pictures are now up–you can find them at:
http://gallery.nanoflux.com/thailand

Sometime in the next two weeks I’ll a list of my favorites here on the Blog—there’s a lot of shots.

I’m in an Apple Store in Bangkok, stealing their Internet, and fixing bugs on my website.

Pathetic eh? I miss having my laptop.

Comments should show up nicer now though. =)

Good stories and pictures coming, both of which will have to wait.

Pattaya beach is absolutely crazy. We made it in after dusk last night and stayed out the Green Park Resort–a nice place that would have easily cost in the hundreds anywhere else. We paid about 40 bucks without advance reservation. Pattaya is the Las Vegas of Thailand and is the embodiment of a tourist destination. It originally made its name in the “military tourism” industry and I’ll leave it to you to interpret that. Without breaking the PG line, I’ll add that Pattaya has remained close to its roots. John and I went last night to the Lucifer Discotique, which is entirely nuts. Lucifer has a cavern theme, which means that all the walls and ceilings are done up (very well) to look like the inside of a gave. It is, by far, the coolest looking club I’ve ever been in. The club is separated into the front and back. The front has a bunch of small tables and a stage where local Thai cover bands do their renditions of American songs. The much larger back is filled with all sorts of party lighting (moving spot lights, strobes, etc.) and is sunken into a pit. It was huge, filled with people, and pretty crazy. Lot of dancing.

Today/Tonight, John and I are currently at Ko Larn, an island about 40 minutes (by ferry) from Pattaya. It’s normally touted as a day trip, but we decided to spend the night here to get away from Pattaya’s resort prices. Our Let’s Go travel guide recommended a place called the Sunrise Cafe and Bar, with clean and spacious rooms. Let’s Go was accurate–it’s nothing especially nice, but we’ve got an immaculate room with two double beds for 450 baht–about 11 bucks. Sunrise is owned by a guy named Steve, who’s originally British but has lived here for the last 11. I showed him the Let’s Go entry for his place and he got really excited about it and started showing it to everyone here. Guess it’s a new addition to the 2005 edition.

Did some jet skiing this afternoon at a local beach on Ko Larn for about half the standard US/Canadian rates. The Thailand way of doing business is pretty intriguing–they’ve a very trusting people and never make you pay until the service has already been performed. What’s best about this place (and most places outside North America) is a lack of paperwork and liability concerns. In other words, doing stuff here is really fun. =)

We had quite a bit of time to kill this afternoon, so John and I started walking around the small town here. The houses here are distinctive for big open areas with no walls and a roof. Seems to be a cultural thing. With the exception of one place we walked by (that was blaring American Hip-Hop and modern), most of the places around here look like they’re falling apart. Looks can be deceiving though–are structurally sound, even if they’re not much to look at. There’s also a lot of what many of you would refer to as “redneck trash”–old boats, jet skis, equipment, etc., just lying around. A lot of the stuff doesn’t look usable beyond being providing the occasional part. It may be an eyesore in some sense, but looking at the bigger picture, it would appear that there’s no place dispose of stuff. So it just ends up piling up. It’s part of the atmosphere and culture here though and I don’t mind.

We found one place that sold clothing in bulk. We finally came across something that I’ve expected to see for some time–an abundance of Made in Thailand clothing. We found branded apparel for Nike, Timberland, Mercedes-Benz, and Porche, along with a lot of stuff that was likely to be sold on the streets of Thailand or perhaps products for lesser known 1st world brands.

Other cool things on our walk. We had two groups of kids that just spontaneously posed for us as soon as I pointed the camera at them. It was funny and sad–one of the poses involved a boy hitting hit on the head by three other boys with empty water bottles. He wasn’t hurt at all, but I didn’t have the camera ready to shoot yet either. We also found a local soccer field, where all the boys our age were hanging out and playing soccer. Good pictures from both, but the Internet connection at Sunrise, while free, is only dialup. My pictures will have to wait until another day.

John (my traveling buddy) has posted some of his Thailand photos thus far on his gallery.

http://www.johnpang.org/gallery/

Some of you already got this in an email. Sorry for the double read.

The rumors you’ve heard about Thailand are true–this place is radically inexpensive. The people are very friendly and hardworking, but living here is crazy. I’ve never seen driving as I’ve seen it here.

Tuk-tuks, which are essentially a motorcycle engine bolted onto little more than a golf cart, are primary modes of transportation. While in Bangkok they are supplimented by taxis, outside Bangkok they’re just
about the only way to get anywhere. Pricing is negotiated in advance with some haggling and despite fares that are equivelent to 1 US dollar, we’ve been unable to shake the feeling that we’re being ripped off.

Today, we’re in Ayutthaya (pronounced Ay-you-thai-ya), an island city to the north of Bangkok. It’s the former capital of Siam and known for it’s ‘wats’ or temples. The temples all have a giant Buhdda as a certerpiece and tons more scattered about their compounds. You’re allowed to take pictures inside, so I’ll be posting pictures at some point. John and I spent about half the day looking at them and I’m just about watted out (haha) for a good portion of my natural life.

More another day!