Bangkok

Our whole trip was fabulous! What I’ve decided to do is make three posts about the three sections of our trip (Bangkok, Angkor Wat, and the beach). So, here goes the first one:

We arrived in Bangkok really, really late at night. We decided to take a cab to our hotel, since we’d read that cabs are very cheap. This was, indeed, true. A 30-minute cab ride from the airport cost about $8. What we didn’t count on was that our cab driver would have no clue where our hotel was. I had actually printed up the name of the hotel in Thai, plus a map that had Thai and English on it. At one point the cabbie actually had to get out of the cab and study the map using his headlights! Anyway, we got to the hotel. And, let me tell you, $36 in Bangkok buys you one nice hotel room. Seriously.

The next day (after the free and yummy breakfast – including mimosas!), we set out to see the city. First, we rode the skytrain/monorail to the big weekend market. I’d thought this would be awesome, but, really, it was just overwhelming. There are over 5,000 stalls there! We bought some sandals for Mike and a beach cover-up for me, and had some lunch there. I was a little nervous about eating the street food, but Mike couldn’t get enough!For the afternoon, we decided to hit two big temples in downtown Bangkok. First, we went to Wat Phra Kaew, the home of the Emerald Buddha (which is actually made of jade, go figure). This temple is amazing. I really feel like our pictures don’t capture how beautiful and shiny it was. It was just gold and blue and glittery everywhere one looked. And big. Really, really big.

Next, we went to Wat Pho, which is the home of the biggest Buddha in Bangkok. The Buddha is 153 feet long! I know our pictures don’t capture that (that's Mike by the toes of the Buddha, by the way)! The grounds of Wat Pho were nicer to stroll than those of Wat Phra Kaew, since Wat Pho was far less crowded.Our second day in Bangkok was the much-awaited cooking class (Mike’s birthday gift). First, the class took a market tour, and then we returned to the cooking school to start cooking!We were the only people signed up for the vegetarian cooking class, so we ended up basically having a private lesson. The class was really fun - this was definitely one of the best things we did on the whole trip! We made our own red and green curry paste (starting with pounding the chiles, which included learning which ingredients to pound in which order, so that the smashed chiles don't splash out into your eyes), green curry, red curry, green papaya salad, mushroom and coconut milk soup, and pomelo salad (pictures of just a few of the dishes are below).Mid-way through the course, we took a break to eat what we’d made so far – and it was spicy! At one point, I really felt like my lips were on fire. Then, a bit fatigued and sleepy from being so full, we went back upstairs and cooked some more. We actually made so much that we had to take the extra food back to our hotel for dinner (we eventually were hungry again, after spending the late afternoon swimming and resting beside the hotel’s pool)!

We have

arrived safely back in Tsukuba. We will be making many posts about our adventures soon.

Thailand and Cambodia

We have just finished a few days in Siem Reap, Cambodia, which is right near the ruins of the city of Angkor. It was abslutely beautiful. Now we are at the Bangkok airport, waiting to head to Koh Chang, Thailand, to spend some time no the beach. We will post plenty of pictures when we get back to Japan.

Mmm . . . . Mexican

So we had tacos (or tacos-su, as they might be called here) the other night.

We did not eat here (this place is in our neighborhood, but it always seems to be closed):Rather, we ate at home.This is Mike’s first Mexican food since August, and my second (since I ate some in Hong Kong).

Also, here’s a hat I made for Stephanie:
And here’s Mike on the swings at the playground near our house.
In other news, we are leaving tomorrow for our little adventure: we’ll be in Bangkok for a few days, then off to Cambodia and Angkor Wat, and then back to Thailand to hit the beach at Koh Chang (the Koh Chang on the Gulf of Thailand side, not the one on the Andaman Sea side). We’ll do our best to post and email, but I’m not sure if it will be possible or easy. Expect good pictures and stories when we return on the 16^th!

Chinese New Year

Well, it was a few days ago, but here’s a shot I took in Hong Kong of some lanterns (this is also a nice illustration of how skyscraper-y some parts of Hong Kong are):

And here’s the art project we did wherein we made and decorated similar lanterns:

My first meme!

Passed to me by rv.

Seven Things to Do Before I Die:
1. Get a Ph.D.
2. Learn to make Pad Thai
3. Learn another language
4. Watch the Detroit Tigers and Detroit Lions succeed again
5. Watch a documentary made by my sister
6. Juggle clubs
7. Star in an interpretive dance show

Seven Things I Cannot Do:
1. Understand Jurgen Habermas' prose
2. Speak Japanese without an accent
3. Win consistently at poker
4. Enjoy shopping
5. Dance
6. A reverse windmill dunk
7. Remeber the French I learned in middle school

Seven Things I Say Most Often:
1. I didn't see you there
2. hai
3. domo
4. sumimasen
5. Felicity's on!
6. I'll make pasta
7. The Pistons won again

Seven Books I Love:
1. War and Peace
2. Anna Karenina
3. Franny and Zooey
4. Patrimony
5. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
6. The Rules of Play
7. Gender and Human Rights Politics in Japan

Seven Movies I Watch Over and Over:
1. The Big Lebowski
2. Annie Hall
3. Hudsucker Proxy
4. Hiding and Seeking
5. Old School
6. Manhattan
7. Star Wars 4-6

Seven Songs I Play Over and Over:
1. Good Vibrations
2. The Boxer
3. Moonshadow
4. I am the Walrus
5. Gigantic
6. She's an Angel
7. One Hundred Names

Seven Things that Attract Me to Blogging:
1. Getting to keep in touch with my friends and family
2. when unexpected people stumble onto our blog
3. I like it when Rob Farley makes fun of us

Seven to Join Me:
1. Matt Rochkind
2. Zo
3. Jomamasan
4. Brenn
5. Eric
6. K

And now for some navel-gazing . . .

It's been a slow weekend here (gearing up for the big adventures next week – or just conditioning the two readers of our blog to learn to do without us over the next two weeks).

First, a word cloud of our blog:Second, a meme from RV:

(keeping in mind that my mother and – occasionally – my grandmother read this, and one wants to make them cry neither tears of joy nor shame)

Seven things to do before I die:
Own another dog
Grow a really, really awesome vegetable garden
Run a marathon
Write a book
Visit Alaska
Take some art classes in painting, drawing, and ceramics

Seven things I cannot/will not do:
Sing solo in front of others
Dance
Clap in rhythm
Accept stupidity or arrogance from those in positions of authority
Ride in a hummer
Smoke cigarettes
bungee jump

Seven things I say most often [recently]:
wakarimasen
Goaty!
I meant . . .
I’m so cold
I’ll do the dishes
Tell me a story
Did it snow last night?

Seven books I love [and that I’ve read in the last ten years, so this excludes any classics read in high school and any childhood books]:
The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell
Small Wonder: Essays, Barbara Kingsolver
Spirit Walker, Nancy Wood
Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner
The Classic Hundred Poems, various
. . . “love” is such a strong word that I might have to stop here – I can think of many books I like, but love . . . I am looking here for something so rich that if one were alone on a desert island, one would never go bored thinking about the multitude of questions raised by said book, which must, of course, also be a pleasure to read. Given those high standards, I might actually take down a few of the above books, but, hey, I just wanted to play along . . . [I am also trying to make an effort to avoid academic (States and Social Revolutions) or pretentious (The Future of an Illusion) books]

Seven movies I watch over and over:
Sadly, there’s only been one - and that was several years ago (since I am generally opposed to re-watching movies or re-reading books): Top Gun. And, yes, I know that the fact that this was the one movie is even sadder.

Seven things I like about blogs and blogging:
Not having to explain what I’ve been up to / what the weather is like / how I like Japan over and over again.
The (quasi) anonymity
The comments people leave
Getting to share my pictures right away with those that are far away
The feeling that I can participate in the lives/experiences/thoughts of those far away and who lead very different lives from mine just by reading (and very rarely commenting on) their blogs
The fact that I could never, ever keep a diary, but somehow keeping a blog is much, much easier
Bitch Ph.D.

Some to join me:
Well, whoever wants to! Any of the people on the blogroll!

The best part about the snow

Is the sparkly day after.
(of course, since it’s now several days later, it no longer looks like this, but rather more patchy and icy)

This is/was near our house:our neighbors made snowpeople:our car:

This is/was at Doho Park:

And this is the art lesson – inspired by the snow - that we did. We talked about same-ness and then symmetry and made paper snowflakes. The older ones got the concept of linear/bilateral symmetry versus radial symmetry; the younger ones, not so much . . .

p.s. I am sorry this is sooooooo booooooring. Not everyone can write about battleships or, better yet, BattleStar Gallactica.

A Snowy Saturday Night

Kate and I passed our first (and perhaps only) snowy Saturday night in Japan playing cards (casino) and drinking hot chocolate with a little kahlua. I'm sure there is another more common name for that drink, but I call it "liquid kahlua bad boys," in honor of my Aunt Jo's award winning brownie recipe.

Snow Day!

Well, it finally happened here – and it might as well, if it’s going to be so darn cold all the time!

The snow is beautiful and magical (but the pictures are a little dark, since I took them first thing in morning through our windows)!

In other news, I just put the finishing touches on this ladybug hat for a baby born in October.

Return to Tsukuba

Well, I’m back – and it’s considerably colder here than it was in Hong Kong. Considerably. However, I’m wearing my nice, new Eddie Bauer flannel-lined jeans (brough to me by Eric), and I’m quite cozy.

I took the bus to and from the airport, and for those visitors who are considering doing this (or who may be forced to consider it if they bring too much luggage), it’s really very easy. And you can speak English to buy the ticket. No worries, really.

I would definitely recommend Hong Kongas a destination – it was interesting and not too difficult to get around - and the food and the shopping are really good there. I’d be more cautious about suggesting you take a day and go to Macau, unless you have as many days as we did.

It was great and fun to see and travel with Eric, and it’s great to be back with Mike.

10,000 Buddhas Monastery

Today Eric and I headed out of the (downtown) city again, this time to Sha Tin to visit 10,000 Buddhas Monastery.

The Monastery isn’t really in the country: you take the light rail, but not even to the last stop. And then you walk by some government offices and a big Ikea before you start climbing the 400 stairs up to the pagoda.

Eric fit right in.

The temple is beautiful.
And so is the pagoda (and you can even climb up inside of it).Also, dogs featured prominently in this temple’s statues. My kind of temple.