Top Five Favorite and Least Favorite Japanese Foods

Least Favorites:

5.) Konnyaku-Devil's Tongue. It is made from a root, which is ground into a powder and then reconstituted onto a gelatinous form which is eaten plain, in soups, or added to various dishes.

4.) Whale-I like them, just not to eat.

3.) Natto-Fermented soybeans with a very pungent smell and sticky, slimy texture.

2.) Pregnant Fish -Whole fish in general-not into skin, fins, innards, faces, and eyes so much.

1.) I guess I only have four least favorites.

Most favorites:

5.) Yakiniku-Grilled meats and veggies with dipping sauce. The best part is that you get to cook it yourself at restaurants, so it's a fun interactive dining experience.

4.) Nabe-Best food in winter. It's a kind of broth soup and the stock is sold ready to go. You can pretty much throw in anything you like. Super delicious and super easy.

3.) Sushi -it never gets old for me.
2.) Kabocha-Pumpkin. Yum.

1.) Renkon-Lotus Root. Saute it, stir-fry it, steam it, tempura it. I like it any way and every way.


I guess I consider myself lucky becasue there way more foods that I like than those I don't like. There are really only a few foods that I don't particularly care for; and even so, if served them in a restaurant or at friends house I would still manage to choke them down.

Thailand: The Trilogy Episode III

Our final two days in Bangkok were not actually spent in Bangkok. I really wanted to see Erawan National Park and aside from hiring a private driver the only way to do that was to go on a two day, one night tour of Kanchanaburi and Erawan Nat'l Park.

Kanchanaburi is about a three hour drive outside of Bangkok. The first part of the day included a stop at the bridge over the River Kwai (made famous by the movie "Bridge over the River Kwai" which I have yet to see), War Museum, Memorial Cemetary, and a train ride over the River Kwai. I enjoyed the bridge and the train ride (especially because they don't bother to close the train doors while in motion and I sat with my feet dangling out of the train as we went over the river), but not so much the other parts. The museum was an odd collection of found artifacts and objects from the Japanese occupation (watch the movie to get the story if you don't already know) but it looked as if the museum had been abandoned years ago-it was a very strange place. And while a stop at the cemetary was nice, nice to honor those who perished, I really didn't feel that I needed thrity minutes to walk around and inspect/photograph every gravestone. Anyhow-the bridge was awesome-even the part when the rotting wood underfoot cracked and I almost fell twenty feet below into the River Kwai.



The latter part of the day was my favorite though. After eating lunch on a floating restaurant we paddled up and down the river on a bamboo raft, walked across another even more sketchy bridge and then stopped by a beautiful waterfall before riding elephants!

Floating restaurant and hungry puppy:



Paddling downriver and our awesome guide:




Sketchy Bridge II:



Waterfall to refresh ourselves:



And then the elephants:



I think the best part was when Joe dropped is shoe off the elephant. Both of us thought it was gone for good, but our elephant driver (trainer?) muttered something softly in Thai and the elephant behind us picked up his shoe with her trunk and reached it over his shoulder to hand it to him. It all happened smooth as silk without any of the elephants stopping or skipping a beat. It was incredible! I wanted Joe to drop his shoe again so I could video tape it, but he wasn't into it. At the end of the ride we fed them bananas (about 10!) which they inhaled.

That evening we stayed at a totally rustic, floating inn. Our room was shared by several gekkos and probably some other unknown creatures. The toilets didn't flush-just the bucket of water method, no hot water-actually the shower/sink water came straight from the river and went straight back into the river. Our front and back doors opened up to spectacular views of the river. It was beautiful in it's own simple way.




The second day was spent at Erawan National Park. I was so excited for this because it was the main reason that we joined the tour, and the place I wanted to see most. What is so special about the park are the seven main levels of waterfalls. You start hiking at the first waterfall, and as you ascend the mountain you pass the remaining six as well as a few other, smaller waterfalls. The hike itself was beautiful, but never in my life have I seen so many beautiful natural waterfalls. Most of them literally took my breath away. There is something so humbling about being in the presence of such great natural beauty.









My week in Bangkok was perfect and I think one week was just the right amount of time to see everything I wanted to. At the end of the week I felt like I had another separate vacation awaiting me as we headed down to our island destination: Koh Pha Ngan.

Stay tuned for Thailand: The Trilogy Part II-Koh Pha Ngan!!

Koh Pha Ngan: The Trilogy Episode I

We arrived in Ko Pha Ngan on the night of December 30, on what seemed to be the lonnnnngest ferry ride ever. I was expecting 1 hour and it ended up being 4+ hours. I was so excited about getting to the beautiful beaches that it seemed twice as long, too. When I finally arrived there weren't any sketchy tuk-tuks awaiting us, instead there were sketchy taxi trucks. They were flat-beds with benches in the back, one on either side facing each other. And they cram as many people as possible, often times with people hanging on the back as well. It's actually kind of impressive. Our taxi dropped us off at our accommodation on a tiny little dirt road with trash piled up on one side and a funky smelling canal on the other. I was a bit worried. But as I rounded the corner and entered the Coco Gardens Bungalows I found myself in a beautiful little paradise. It was dark so I couldn't see much, but what I could see looked like perfect. Palm lined beach, sun deck and beach bar lit up with twinkling lights, and waves lapping at the shore just meters from our bungalow.

Our first day was December 31st and I was perfectly content with lying on the beach all day until nightfall when we planned to head to Haad Rin beach for the notorious Full Moon Party. After several days of pounding the pavement in Bangkok it was nice to relax and soak in some rays.

Felt like my own private beach

Beautiful bungalow 8

Nothing but fun in the sun

Every month during the full moon, there is huge celebration on Haad Rin beach. December's full moon coincidentally fell on New Year's Eve, so the celebration was expected to be bigger than ever. Haad Rin was quite a hike from our accommodation as we were staying on the western shore and it was on the southern most part of the island. Pretty much everyone on the island was heading in that direction so traffic was heavy and we were afraid we might miss midnight! Luckily we made it with thirty minutes to spare. Using my time wisely I spruced up with the prerequisite body paint and purchased myself a bucket! (I have no idea why or when this started, but the standard drink during the full moon party is a bucket filled with a mean hangover inducing mixture.)

Full Moon

Buckets and paint

The beach was vibrating with excitement. It was both the most exhilarating and overwhelming experience. There were thousands of people, from one end of the beach clear to the other; there were multiple sound stages all pumping out their out beats; there were fire throwers spinning and twirling their blazing batons; and at midnight there was the best, most amazing fireworks show I have ever seen, hands down. I have never been so close to fireworks before-they we shooting them off less than a hundred meters away at the end of the beach. The result was breath-taking and totally sketchy because several of the fireworks went of prematurely, showering the crowd with sparks, smoldering embers, and for an unfortunate few, burning shells.

The fireworks and music were great but my favorite part of the night was the lanterns. They are meant to commemorate the victims of the 2004 tsunami which devastated many parts of Thailand.

At one point during the night there were dozens of them floating up into the night sky. Watching them disappear into the atmosphere was magical.

In summation, what can one find at a full moon party? Thousands of painted people dancing on a beach, drinking buckets; and an amazing fireworks/pyrotechnics show. One can also find hundreds of singular flip-flops who've lost their mates in the mayhem. The not so attractive side of the event is that the beautiful beach is just desecrated beyond belief. There is so much litter all over the beach, it is really disheartening. Despite that, I am still glad I went and had an experience unparalleled with any I've had before.

Thailand: The Trilogy Episode II

So, where did I leave off? First official day was Christmas and that evening Joe and I met my Dad for a nice Christmas dinner-Thai style.

Day Two
My darlings Alex and Phoebe arrived in Bangkok and we met up and went to the Chatuchek Market-supposedly one of the hugest markets in the word; and I don't think they were lying either. It was HUGE!! We perused for hours and probably didn't even see a quarter of it. We ate some amazing food at a tiny food stall, listened to some awesome live music, and bought some cool finds for dirt cheap! At one point it started raining and we welcomed it because it was so intensely hot-about 89 F!

I have made some good friends in Japan but it was so so nice to see my friends from home. We had a great day just wandering through the city and catching up, but it was such a tease becasue we only had one day together.
Some shots of the city:

Day Three
Another day of sightseeing with Joe-we hit all the places that we didn't get to on the first day. Wat Arun was our first stop and oddly it reminded me of a Mayan or Aztec structure. It didn't seem to follow the traditonal Thai architeture that we'd been seeing. There were dozens of stairs and they were sooooo steep!


After Arun we were nearly melting so we decided to take a boat trip through some of the canals and to a floating market. The canals and floating market were a more real side of Bangkok. Houses were falling apart and boarded up again to prevent what appeared to be the inevitable collapse into the canals. Dogs lay sprawled about on every porch, panting in the midday heat. Children swam and played in water I would never dream of swimming in. The market itself was filled mostly with locals and most of the boats were selling prepared meals rather than produce. It blew my mind to see them whipping up meals on these narrow little boats.