Quick Japan Update

Okay!  So while Bangkok was rather intimidating in the nighttime, in the daytime it’s just plain cool.  Busy and crazy, but cool.  Today I’m heading to the area of the city with all the historical monuments and stuff, so hopefully it should be a cool day.  I’m taking the Skytrain to get there – I took it to get to this Internet cafe, and it is SO COOL to see all the huge buildings pass by.  Going from Tokyo to here was a bit of a shock – both are huge cities, but Tokyo is so impeccably clean and orderly.  Bangkok is just nutty.

Okay, so to fill in on Tokyo briefly – The last day I updated, we were headed to an onsen and to traditional Japanese lunch.  We took our time in the morning and headed out to get Shabu Shabu.  IT WAS SO DELICIOUS.  We got the kind where you cook it yourself – and we managed not to destroy anything.  It was so amazingly delicious, I’m salivating just thinking about it.  We took our time, and after lunch, we took more Sticky Pics – now we have zillions – and then headed to the onsen.  For those of you who don’t know what an onsen is, it’s like Japanese public baths.  There are sections just for women or just for men, or bathing suit sections for both.  It was great!  Cait and I were worried because of our tattoos – they’re not allowed in onsens to keep out gang members, which Cait and I are clearly not, but all the same.  We just covered them with our towels, and it wasn’t a problem at all.  Right when we walked in in our yukatas (pretty robes) this group of Japanese firefighters (no joke) worked up the courage to talk to us – they were giggling and everything – and we sat down with them for a bit.  It was HILARIOUS, especially since they spoke very little English and the only one of us who can speak any Japanese at all is Christine.  Any time we came to an impass in understanding, this one guy would just go, “YES WE CAN!”  a la Barack Obama… we decided to call him Yes-We-Can-chan.  Anyway, it was an amazing day at the onsen.

I am almost out of internet time, so I’ll update the rest later!  Off to Ko Ratanakosin!