Japan and Thailand

In the summer of 2003, I had one of the greatest foreign experiences of my life!  My sister accepted a job to go over to Thailand and teach for about 4 months.  Our plan was to go over towards the end of her stay and get to Japan along the way.  We spent about a week and a half in Japan and two more weeks in Thailand.  It was an awesome trip!

Japan

Japan became my absolute most favorite foreign country during this trip.  I often compare it with landing on the moon.  Seriously, it seemed that different to me!  My father had done some work over in Japan back in the late 90's and I remember watching some of the cultural videos with him on what to expect.

It's so bizare because it is such a technologically and fiscally advanced society and yet so drastically different from what we have in the United States.  We spent the first five days in Japan in downtown Tokyo.  From what I remember, Tokyo was an awesome and huge city.  Construction of buildings seemed different and I remember a drastically different perception of physical space.  People were used to being very bunched up and close together.  I did not mind this at all and actually thought it was kind of cool.

I was going through a bit of an eating disorder at the time so I found the food to be very odd.  Looking back, I wish I had the chance to be a bit more exploritive and hope to go back someday to sample what the food is like through a clearer mind.  The one thing that we never had was sushi.  I can't believe that, but we never got around to eating that one food that everyone always familiarizes with Japan.

The next portion of our trip was in Kyoto.  I remember Kyoto and  much quieter and older city.  I think this was mainly due to the amount of destruction that was done during world war 2.  There were many original pre-war buildings that were made from wood.  This was something that you simply did not see in Tokyo.

Kyoto was lush and beautiful.  It was hilly and full of some awesome history.  I wish I had some of the pictures from that portion of the trip but I don't know where they are.



Thailand

Thailand was full of so many people that spoke English, this was a huge change from Japan where it was very hard to communicate.  We visited 3 places in thailand: Chang Mai, Kho Samui, and Bangkok.

Chang Mai was close to where my sister was working.  It was a nice place that was urbanized but not too urbanized.  I remember it being very different in terms of layout and overall feel.  I felt like I was in a more underdeveloped part of the world and I loved it!  So many dirt streets and beutiful back alleys, yet some internet cafes with faster speeds than the ones that I got back in the US.  Kho Samui is an island and seemed mostly like a tourist destination.  We did not leave the hotel a ton because there was not much to do culturally very close, so it was mostly a relaxing beach part of our vacation.  Bankok was a much more bustling city.  I felt the culture there... Aside from coca-cola and 7-11's on every corner, I felt like I was in a foreign land.  It was dirty, and seemed a little scary at times.  People were very nice and it was easy to get around.



Comparing the two very different countries leaves me with this.  Japan was much more advanced and financially well of, though it seemed much more foreign to me.  Thailand seemed much more open to communicate with American travelers and seemed like the economy relied on foreigners to spend some money there.  I will always look back at this trip with such appreciation that I was able to do this.