Coconut and Cherry Blossom Trees (super long post)

Yep. It is definitely spring! It is in the uper 60's, blue skies and a soft breeze. Today I went with people from work to Yoyogi park to have lunch under the falling cherry blossoms. It is truely amazing how such gentle wind can give birth to such a heavy shower of flower petals. I have pictures on the way but they don't do the feeling any justice. truely amazing.

But today, what I really want to write about is my experience sitting under coconut trees in Thailand last week.

I went to Thailand from the 26th of March until the 4th of April. It was such an awesome time, I can't wait to go back!
The night before departure I stayed at one of the group leader's house since she lives closer to Ikebukuro where we would change trains a few times and eventually get to Narita. The next morning when we managed to scramble out of her house around 5am, a few snowflakes fluttered above our breath. We missed the first two trains by just a hair which set us back pretty far and we ended up getting to the airport half an hour late. As we made our way through passport check, I was pulled aside since I had joined the rest of the group in the Japanese Citizen Only line by accident and I was asked in English (its been a while since someone has spoken to me in English outside of friends and family) "Excuse me ma'am do you have a Japanese Passport? No? This line is for Japanese Only" It was a bit shocking and embarassing. But thankfully, it wasn't just me, Ipuni (the woman i went to the airport with) is Korean so we got to wait together in the extremely long "foriener" line. And as we boarded the plane the airline staff said "ohaiyo gozaimasu" to the people in front and behind me but "good morning" to me. I guess it really doesn't matter what language they greet me in, but within the group i felt seperated(which isn't a very good thing in Japan) But I just laughed it of. Actually, on the way to Bangkok, the airline staff didn't speak Japanese so I could help out when they talked to the kids in English.

We took Singapore airlines which has Amazing service. The meal was actually filling and the inflight entertainment center was sweet. They had a hand set that could also function as the channel remote and a game controller. I played some Game Boy Classic Kurby for about half an hour before playing a Thai Language learning game until finally I decided to just watch movies. There were probably like 20 different movie channels and you could pause, rewind and fastforward. I watched a bunch of new movies like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (on the return trip), Secret Life of Bees, The Day the Earth Stood Still and clips of a couple others that I dont know the names of. The strange thing about watching these movies is that because they were in English, I got really really sucked into the emotions and the stories. (I hardly ever cry at movies but I cried during the Curious Case of Benjamin Button like 3 times and once during the Secret Life of Bees) Probably because its been a while since I've understood what was coming out of a television.

From Japan to Thailand, our flight path took us right over Mt. Fuji. The birds eye view is probably my favorite view of Fuji-san. And flying over Thailand was really spectacular too. Green covered Mountains, rivers farms and villages spread out below us. the sky was riddled with the most volumous and fluffy looking clouds I have seen in a while. At one point the plane passed through what seemd like a cooridor of clouds towering over us. As we got closer to Bangkok you could see long rows and clusters of l ittle monopoly looking houses all with the same color roof. (mostly red but there were green, orange and blue groups too).

When we entered the airport, a couple of monks strolled by and a band of young boys were playing traditional Thail instraments near the entrance. Jungle like flora was all around us and it finnally struck me that I was in Thailand. We took a 30-40 minute bus ride to the hotel. We spent the rest of the evening feasting on delicioius Thai food and chatting. The Thai host organization leader was really awesome. He was always smiling or laughing and cracking jokes. On our walk back to the hotel i noticed really strange light bursts in the distant sky that i couldn't quite make out but seemed like either fireworks, heat lighting or real lighting. I asked the Thai leader and he replied in Japanese with a huge grin " Oh that? It's just the clouds playing." ("それ？雲の遊び")

3/27 After eating a big breakfast, we met our host families and played games together. My host mom and I got off to a good start. We played a game wehre we had to hold a baloon between ourselves and our bost by the hip. And they taught us all how to say " I'm beautiful" in Thai("chan suai") which I often said when my host family took pictures of me as a joke. Afterwards, my host dad picked us up and brought us to a shopping mall where we met up with my host and her friends. We grabbed mango ice cream (with sweet green rice), and i bought some sandals for 90bahts (around 2 or 3 USD). We went to my host family's house where I unpacked my large luggage and packed a small bag for the following 3 days.

My host mom had told me soon after meeting me that they had made plans to take me to a rual place south of Bangkok to stay in their grandmother's sister's house. It took about 2 or 3 hours by car passing through rice and salt fields. Eventually we got to our first destination, Amphawa in the Samut Songkhram Province. This spot is most famous for the large floating market located there. My first experience in the market was pretty shocking. The amount of smells, sounds, sights and people were overwhelming yet facinating. The first 15 minutes we walked through a regular street with food carts busily preparing food along with some booths that were selling toys made out of coconut shells and the like. Eventually we reached a bridge and as we climed over it, the floating market was revealed. Some boats were packed full of fruit while other were cooking up fried rice or noodles. The mixture of smells was a bit much but it all comes with the experience I guess. Over time, as I visisted markets every day, I started to get used to the offensive wave of smells but the 100 humid weather doesn't exactly help matters out.
Around sunset we took a boat down the river to go firefly watching. The fireflies in Thailand only live in one certain kind of tree along the river. As the sky darked, it became obvious which trees they were living in. A delightlful flickering of light came from the leaves and one could have mistaken them for dim christmas lights set to "random". We spent about an hour and a half on the river before returning to the market and buying dinner to go. The car ride from the market to my host grand aunt's house took about 30 minutes but it really felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. My host family and I cracked jokes about seeing ghosts in the forest and all kinds of other funny things. When we arrived it was pitch dark (something i dont see in Tokyo) and there were coconut trees all around. We ate dinner next to the canal in front of the house. After eating we all went swimming/bathed in the river with tons of bats flying about over head, and fish swimming around us. my host dad caught a small needle fish in his hand and jokingly threw it at me. But it was really amazing to be back in nature and away from the lights and sounds of the city. Soon after we got out of the river, we went to bed.


to be continued!