The next day Al and I awoke to an interesting sight: we were a bit groggy from the festivities the night before but we got up fairly early because we were in Tokyo and wanted to see all we could in the day. As we roll out of our hotel and walk a few blocks, we find ourselves in front of a building in a literal sea of cute young women- probably aged 16-30… they not only were pouring out of the building, but they filled the sidewalks surrounding the building, and they were going absolutely nuts tearing open shopping bags, and frantically trading these brand new clothes, laughing, crying, shrieking… Al and I couldn’t make heads or tails of the whole scene, yet we were enjoying it all the same! I mustered up the courage to ask one of the girls what was going on and after much discussion with her friend, out stumbled the word, “Sale!” Ah ha! I had forgotten the 1st and 2nd were the famous “Sale” days in Japan. What happens is they have these “surprise bags” that you can buy for a flat price without first seeing the contents. These bags are usually cheaper than the sum of their contents, but stores often sprinkle around some merchandise that doesn’t sell well, just to get it off the shelves. Well these girls were going crazy for these things and this explained the chaos that Al and I now humorously found ourselves within the midst of.

The next day, Al and I saw Erin off at the airport- she was heading back to the motherland. I was sad to see her go, as we had an awesome whirlwind tour of a bit of Japan, and some fantastic Thailand beaches. But, in all, I think she had a good winter break- for me, it would sure beat staying home for the winter. I’ve been so blessed to have a few visitors this year, and I always get so sad after they are gone. I’m so in the moment that I’m never sad until the moment that they have just left, and I’m heading back home and I think… “Wait a minute… where’d they go? I’m all alone!” But then I thank the lord for their company in the first place and I switch to looking at the bright side: at least I have loving, caring friends at all. Thank you, friends!

On the January 1st, Alan and I stayed in one of the many capsule hotels in Japan. These are literally exactly what they sound like: coffin-like rectangular tubes in the wall that you sleep in for the night. They come complete with power outlet, built in TV and radio with headphones, blankie, pillow, free toiletries, and a price that’s hard to beat in Japan($30-40). One floor of the building is pure lockers, for all of your things. The idea is that you get there, and put on a robe and just wear that, and really it is quite comfortable. On another floor is the public bath, showers, coin washer and dryer, ironing board. The interesting thing about Capsule Hotels is that 98% of them are men only. I don’t know why exactly this is, but I figure the recipe of a bunch of single, often drunk young men, an unmonitored multi-floored building, public baths, a non-confrontational society and capsules that don’t have locking doors and well, some sort of sexual harassment or worse would be bound to happen. There are a few capsules that are mixed, but I’ve heard they have separate monitored elevators and these only open at their respectfully sexually-segregated floors. The capsule hotel was a super fun experience. If you’re ever in Japan, guys, check one out for cheap!

Al, E, and I had a great time in Rappongi Hills. It seemed to have more foreigners than Nihon-jin. We went to an Irish Bar, then found another tiny bar that had some decent music and that was where we were for the tic of the New Year minute. As usual, E was getting her groove on!. Here’s some pics from the evening: (Below: Tokyo Tower) (Bottom: random partiers)

(Above: self-portrait, by Al)

I was so impressed by Al. He had mastered Spanish in his five years of working and studying in San Miguel, Mexico. There, he had received his Masters Degree in Art and was currently working at the local university in town. We had kept in touch online a couple times a year from ’96-‘04, but I hadn’t heard from him at all in the past few years because he was so busy and didn’t have the best internet access in Mexico. You can imagine my excitement as I got his response from a mass e-mail I sent saying I was moving to Japan for a year to teach English. I was even more shocked to hear that he was thinking about visiting over the winter if that was ok with me. Of course, I responded, and it was settled. Before coming out he had sent me a link to his website. Al had just had a major show, unveiling all of his artistic mastery to the world. Check it out at http://www.alantarbell.com/ I was impressed! Years ago Al and I discussed the design of the best UC Davis Water Polo shirt in the team’s history and he later went on to create the drawing and print the shirts with our coach, Tom. Now, his artistic skills are honed and refined. If you get a chance, check out the website above! (Below: "Fuego", by Al)

(Above: A chill little ryokan)

ALAN

The day that Erin and I arrived back in Japan, we were exhausted. We had taken the red eye flight from Thailand we were not prepared for the cold of Japan. We took the train back to our ryokan in Narita and crashed for a few hours. It was New Year’s Eve, and we wanted to get out to do some partying that night in Roppongi Hills- a party area of Tokyo. Alan, one of my bestest water polo buddies from Davis, CA had flown from Mexico to hang out for a couple of weeks- he would be my third consecutive, and final visitor before my parents visited me in the spring. It had been 7-8 years since I last saw Al and I was anxiously looking forward to the reunion. Al arrived at about 6PM on New Year’s Eve and we spent the next hour over tea and catching up. We grabbed a bite to eat at an Indian Restaurant that we had discovered close by, then the three of us decided to go big and make the hour train trip into Tokyo. The trains were running all night, so we just decided that we’d go for it and eventually head back when we were tired after the New Year’s Hour of Power. (Below: Alan, a bit tired)

Fantastic Fire Spinners.

At night, there was always something to do on Tonsai Beach. At any given night at least 2 or three of the bars has music playing, whether it’s a band or house music. Tiki torches were often lit and since we were there around the holidays, Christmas lights were sprinkled about. One downside was that these places had loud music going until 2 or 3 am, and I don’t know if this is a year-round thing, but I’m guessing it was because it was peak season. I liked the options at night; besides catching some music, you could go have a drink at one of the mellow bars, play pool virtually right on the beach, head over to an internet café, watch the fire spinners, or head to Andaman Resort for their nightly movie. Thai massages were a few bucks an hour and these went until 9, sometimes 10:00 PM, too. The music was good, the food was fabulous, and the drinks were cold. What more could one ask for? (Top: E, Morgs, Nate and myself toasting life)

(Middle: Our accomodation- Dream View Bungalows)

Thailand Reflection: As a whole, it was very refreshing to be in Thailand. Japan is a culture that is so reserved, passive, indirect, and subdued. Thailand, on the other hand, was quite the opposite with people smiling, warm, happy, and eager to talk. This trip allowed me to decompress, if you will, and take a deep, slow breath of warm, tropical air… and just… relax.

(Bottom: Sunset and longtails)

After the 40 min kayak to Ao Nang, we pulled the boats up onto the shore and noticed clumps of people gathered here and there on the beach. Little grey creatures were scampering around them and upon further inspection we saw that it was another group of Macaques. This time, however, there must have been 50 or 60 of them. The larger, hairless, less intelligent creatures, or, humans, were feeding them nuts, bananas and pineapples. It was fun to watch because if you had some food in your hand and were feeding one monkey, another one would zip by and steal any food held in your hand unawares. Sometimes the human creatures would get mad and turn pink and make a hilarious effort to move their flabby 300 pound flesh in a running/jerking manner to try to get their food back but that was like a sloth trying to catch a chipmunk- it just wasn’t going to happen. But it was funny all the same. I befriended one of the Macaques with a stick and Greybeard, as I call him, rode on the end of our kayak back to Tonsai, stowed away in my luggage on the flight back and now lives with me in Japan. He watches Planet of the Apes and Tarzan movies when I’m at work. Booty stored, we kayaked back to Tonsai and came across some “solo deep” climbers 12-15 up from the water climbing along a rock wall. This type of climbing gets its name because you’re climbing solo (unassisted, no ropes), and the water is deep, so if you fall, you sploosh right into the big warm blue and you’re none the worse for wear- you may even be cooled down and more comfortable actually! I wished I had discovered this sooner because I wanted to try it right when I saw it. Yet, alas, it was late in the afternoon and Erin and were leaving the next day, so this I’ll have to accomplish on a future trip.

Another adventure we decided to take was to rent kayaks and paddle around the point to do some shopping in Ao Nang. Ao Nang was the place for cheap souvenirs, but make sure to touch up on your bartering skills because they would surely be put to the test here. This was one of my favorite days because it felt great to be out on the warm blue sea with nothing below us but clear water, chunks of coral, and beautiful fish. It was nice to get up close with some of the magnificent geologic formations that seemed to rise from the water like molten sentinels, their sides oozing ancient volcanic history, and the purple crabs scurrying about their their sloshy shins. Fish underneath, crabs at the shins, swifts in their abdomens and eagles and gulls at their top, each of these majestic pillars was its own ecosystem and bobbing nearby in our kayak, we were a part of this, too.

One day E and I got up early and headed to “Ao Nang! Ao Nang!” to take a Thai cooking class. Ao Nang is a major tourist hub in the area and differs from the Rai Lei in that it is accessible by car. We hopped off the boat and headed to the meeting point. There we were met by our instructor, loaded up into her car and driven a short 10 minutes to her house. It was a beautiful setting for a cooking class! The cooking structure was above her house on the hill, probably 5-10 feet above the tree line, so you looked out over this sea of green, with the famous pillars of oozing rock bursting up here and there upon the horizon. And lucky us, we were the only two that had signed up that day. The instructor was great and spoke good English. She smoothly took us through all the ingredients used in most Thai dishes. We had pre-selected 4 dishes out of 25 that we would wanted to cook, and one dessert. We were provided a book to record the recipes as we went along, ingredients, steps, cooking times, etc. After cooking our first two meals, it was time for lunch and we sat and enjoyed the splendid dishes we had just prepared. After lunch, it was on to our final two entrees and, of course, the dessert. We just had room for the dessert and took the last two dishes back to Morgs and Nate. For 1000 bht, (about $25), E and I both thought it was well worth the money.

My cousin, Morgan, and her new hubby, Nate arrived and we agreed that we couldn’t come to this rock climbing mecca without actually doing some climbing ourselves, so we decided to do a ½ day session. It was great! The instructor took us on three different routes up just one of the many, many areas to climb in the whole Rai Lei area. The first route wasn’t too tough, while the second and third were a bit tougher. It was perfect for me- just the right level where it challenged and pushed me just enough to where I had to do some positive self talk in order to not give up. It also helped to have your ‘cuz and friends down below shouting encouragement up to you. “You got it! Way to go! Right hand higher, there’s a ledge to you left! Yeah wooo hooo!” We all got to belay each other, too. In the end, it was a perfect amount of climbing. If you plan on going to Rai Lei, for sure bring at least some shoes to boulder around a bit.

The Rai Lei (Railay) area has three bigger beaches and one smaller beach to choose from. East Rai Lei (above) is where all the boats come in from Krabi. It has the cheapest accommodations, but the beach there isn’t really swimmable since it’s a bit rocky and doesn’t get a nice current that cleans it out, so the water can be fairly murky.

West Rai Lei (above) has a very nice beach, so is fairly resorty, especially on the northern end. It also seems to be the place to bring the family. This beach was fairly busy, but, then again, we were there at the peak season, so that is to be expected. We would often go to this beach to spend the day because the water was cleaner, it had a nice sandy bottom, the beach was more wide open, the sand was soft and white, and there was always lots to do there (Frisbee, volleyball, take a boat to other islands.

Prah Nang beach (above with Morgs and Nate) is on the northern-most tip of the piece of land jutting out into the tropical blue waters, creating these lovely beaches. This beach is pretty much just a day use beach since the only accommodation on this beach is a super ritzy place that costs upward of $500 or more a night. This beach is cool because it has one of the huge pillars of stalactite- dripping rock that this area is famous for just 50 yards off the coast. At the eastern end of the beach is also the famous Prah Nang cave. One day, I went on an adventure and swam from Rai Lei West, around the point to Prah Nang Beach. It was a long swim, and on the way I circled the aforementioned pillar of rock to see some cool caves and fish with my goggles. When I got to the beach I was pretty bushed and happy to see that 3 of the longtail boats sidled up to the shore were actually kitchens and offered delicious eats for the cheapest I’d seen. I quick ordered a plate o’ chicken phad Thai, a banana, and an orange Fanta all for the price of about $1.50. After the swim, I had never tasted food so scrumptious. I checked out Prah Nang Cave and also a troop of the local Macuaques that come down from the forest every evening and beg for food from the kitchens. I walked back to West Prah Nang to meet up with E, just as some rain clouds were closing in. As we started our brief hike up over the ridge back to our beach, Tonsai, (see below), we were caught in a small monsoon and hunkered down in the forest till the most severe time had passed. As we reached our beach, we couldn’t resist the urge to go swimming in the rain. It was a really neat effect because the top 2-3 inches of water was cooler, while the water below that was its usual warm 78 degrees or so. It was fun.

Tonsai Beach (above) is the stretch that we decided to call home for our time in Rai Lei. Immediately upon arriving you feel the place is relaxed and laid back. I guess you could call Tonsai more of a hippy beach, with lots of Bob Marley posters and reggae playing from most of the bars. Tonsai beach is also a rock climbing mecca and it didn’t disappoint- there were climbers there from around the world, esp at that time of year. Everyone is fit and healthy, and that always makes people in better spirits and also ready to party at the end of the day. You can’t tell by this picture, but in the forest there in front of the boats are 5-6 different bungalow resorts. Even with it being the peak season, Erin, Morgan, Nate and I were able to score some bungalows without reservations. They were basic, with cold showers, but at a price of about $20 a night during peak season, we jumped at the chance to stay there. Click on the picture to check out the three climbers on the rock wall. Tonsai! Tonasi!

Erin and I said, “Enough with this cold! Let’s go somewhere warm!” So we did. We headed to the sunny beaches of Thailand. It was such a great feeling coming from freezing temps of Japan, and stepping off the plane into warm sweet smelling, tropical air. We had a layover in the Bangkok airport for a few hours and there we tasted out delicious first dish of Thai food. This, too, was a welcome change from the sometimes bland, cold, or slimy food of Japan. These dishes were a new beast altogether! One bite aroused and excited the senses. A cornucopia of fresh flavors; basil, lemongrass, coconut, curry, carrot, lime leaf, the Colonels 11 secret herbs and spices, all danced and made sweet, passionate love to the taste buds, before sliding happily down the throat and settling contentedly in the stomach. Ahhh… Thailand and its scrumptious food!

The new Suvarnabhumi Bangkok Airport was amazing; huge, vast, bright, unique architecture, airy, well lit, equipped with the latest technologies. Unfortunately, I have recently read that it has some problems that are significant enough that officials have decided to repair and re-open the old airport and use it as a domestic hub. I guess the new airport has been a sort of money pit and repairs are expected to take up to 10 years. Strange how these things happen.

E and I took a domestic flight to Krabi, Thailand, a decent-sized hub close to the coast in the south. We had read up on the beaches of Rai Lei, which isn’t accessible by car, but a scenic 25 minute longtail boat ride later and you’re in paradise.

Erin was the next visitor after Chris left. We started off in Japan, visiting Naruko and Sendai. Every holiday season Sendai has a sort of “Festival of Lights,” in which they place mass Christmas lights down the 2 or 3 streets that are thick with trees. Since we have the Festival of Lights at the Grotto near my house in Oregon, I wasn’t thinking it would be too spectacular, but I was wrong- it was beautiful! The amount of lights they put on each of these huge trees is incredible! It must take tremendous effort. It’s kind of funny, at 5:00 PM the street fills with spectators to watch the lights go on, and they let out this big, “Ahhhh!” Then at 7:50, they turn the lights off again and turn them back on 10 min later at 8:00 to another big, “Ohhhhh!” I found it kind of funny that people go just to see them go on at those two times. I never saw it myself, but I think it would be a cool thing to see. This is a very romantic display and the streets are filled with not only with amateur and professional photographers, but with awestruck lovers as well. Erin liked Sendai so much that she went back to explore it by herself when I was at work. She took the bus all by herself and everything- I thought that was pretty amazing. There’s no way I was ready to do that the first week I arrived. You rock, E!