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Happy New Year everyone. We rang in the 2010 New Year at the 22nd annual countdown at Zojoji (増上寺), complete with Tokyo Tower in the background, ringing of the temple bell 108 times, and the releasing of thousands of balloons.
I’ll post some more photos and descriptions of the evening’s events in a future entry. For now I’ll leave you with a video of a little piece of the evening.
Our kids were tired after our first day in Bangkok so we left them in their room while we went out to get some Thai food to bring back. Strangely enough, it took time finding Thai food. There were plenty of Indian, Japanese, and Italian restaurants near our hotel, but we walked a while before finding the stall pictured above. We picked up some Pad Thai and Tom Kha Gai.
The kids were more tired than we had thought. They were sound asleep and wouldn’t answer their locked door or phone when we returned with dinner. We had to get another key from the front desk in order to get in their room. They were there, sound asleep of course, and they were too far gone to eat with us.
Suzy’s food was good–especially if you like things spicy. It is just off of Silom Road, down a little alley, between the Holiday Inn Silom (where we stayed) and Patpong, on the Patpong side of Silom Road.
This was the gate to a Hindu temple (Sri Maha Mariamman or Wat Khaek or Maha Uma Devi) on that first evening’s walk.
And here is a shot from the inside of our room. The hotel was not bad for the price, but hotels in Bangkok are generally cheap. We got the rooms through Priceline, which saved us a bit of cash. However, Priceline rated the Holiday Inn Silom Bangkok as four stars. I’ve stayed in better, three-star places to be sure. While the rooms weren’t expensive (although they were on the high side for Bangkok where you can get a room for under $20) everything in the hotel was. For instance, breakfast, which we didn’t ever try, was ridiculously priced considering you can eat breakfast in Bangkok for under 60 baht (< $2). The internet wasn't free, or even reasonably priced, in our room or at the business office in the hotel.
The kids took full advantage of the pool every day though.
On our first full day in Bangkok we headed to the Chao Phraya River, a five-minute walk from the hotel, to catch a boat up to the temples. The above picture isn’t of the boat we took. Finding the correct boat was confusing. More on that tomorrow…
We are back from Thailand, just in time for Japan’s biggest holiday, New Year (正月). We plan on going to Zojoji (増上寺) Temple, near Tokyo Tower, to do the New Year Countdown. If you see on TV balloons being let go in front of Tokyo Tower then think of Ellie as being the one who let them go. 
Tokyo is very peaceful at the moment (especially compared to Thailand) as most businesses are closed and many people have split town for the next 5 days to a week. Most doors have some sort of New Year’s decoration on them. These are called shimekazari (注連飾り). The one above I couldn’t even see before my flash went off, but I was sure Mrs. Uchida would have one.
Above is one more close up.
We didn’t want to be the only ones without something on their door so we put up a poster provided by our friendly, neighborhood Nishi Waseda Culture Association. 2010 is the year of the tiger.
And now back to our Thailand trip…
I imagined Bangkok to be so smoggy that we wouldn’t ever see blue sky. I don’t know if we were just lucky, or if the skies were normal during our three-night stay, but we had blue skies and white, fluffy clouds until the day we departed. The above photo was taken from our taxi on the way from the airport to our hotel.
We arrived in the late afternoon on a Sunday. There is a “weekend only” market called Chatuchak which is only open on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We got on the Bangkok Skytrain after checking into our hotel to get to Chatuchak. We arrived at about closing time. Some vendors were closing up, but many were still open. The crowds are smaller and the temperature not quite as hot so going at closing is not a bad idea.
Some vendors had a sign saying “no pictures” so when I saw the above from far away I took a zoomed picture in case there was such a sign when we got closer. It turns out the above “fruit” is actually all fake.
There were plenty of other colorful stalls though.
The selection was endless and the prices were good.
At gas stations in Japan the service personnel bow to the cars as they drive away. I thought that is what would happen by the ground crew at Narita Airport as we pulled away from the gate on our holiday getaway to Bangkok. Instead, they just waved.
This is the first time I have had a window seat on a large plane in a very long time. Not only that, it was on the right side of the plane so I had good views of Mt. Fuji …
… and Tokyo soon after take off. Our apartment is actually in the above picture, between the Shinjuku and Ikebukuro skyscrapers.
The skies can get crazy blue, at times, this far above the smog and clouds.
Sometimes you can get above some layers of clouds, but still have some other varieties to gaze at hovering at similar levels and above.
Finally, seven hours later, we landed in Bangkok. The new airport, Suvarnabhumi Airport, is very nice on the inside and out.
Stay tuned for our Thailand adventures over the next few weeks.
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