OK, not everyone wants to read the full five part series about my trip to Japan and Thailand. With attention spans ruined by social media, they deny themselves the pleasures of reading thousands upon thousands of words of my masterful writing. Anyway, for such people (frankly, I'd be among them if it was someone else's trip), here's a summary of what was an amazing trip mostly in pictures, with only a little to read.
The genesis of this trip was that I wanted to visit my old friend Peter, who has chosen to spend his retirement years in Thailand. Japan has long been a bucket list destination for me, and so I deided to add some time in Japan along the way.
Tokyo
Shibuya at night
My trip started in Tokyo. I stayed in the Shibuya neighborhood, which is very glitzy, futuristic, high energy, youthful, and fun.
I've come to realize that travel has become unduly influenced by, well, influencers. People want to do activities either that they've seen on Instagram or TikTok, and which they can post about themselves. Tokyo is certainly a place where one can find outlandish, over-the-top experiences. My one foray into this type of tourism was touring Shibuya by go-kart. Yes, I am wearing an Eeyore kigu.
My first day I also visited Chi-Chi's, Tokyo's Grateful Dead themed store. A Great Northern sticker has been added to their iconic VW bus.
Go-karting
Chi-Chi's
The next day I signed up for a bike tour around Tokyo. Well, around part of the city. Tokyo is enormous, with a population almost twice that of New York City. Our six hour bike tour (which included a lot of stops - we weren't riding for six hours) covered only a fraction of the city.
Bike Tour
One evening I booked a food tour. We ate great sushi, okonomayaki, chicken wings at an izakaya, ramen, and had a dessert of red bean cakes at a food hall. And we drank sake. Each and every dish was delicious, and I was so full afterwards that I didn't eat again until dinnertime the next day.
Toasting over our okonomayaki
Food tour ramen
Most of my days were spent just exploring on my own, taking in traditional sites like Senso-Ji temple, modern areas such as the upscale Ginza, home to the Yamaha Flagship Music store where they show off all their musical instruments, seeing the beauty of Shinjuku Gyoen Garden, going to observatories and jazz clubs, and just checking out neighborhoods. I averaged 20,000 steps per day.
At the gate of Senso-Ji temple
The shopping streets around Senso-Ji feel very old school
Trying keyboards at the Yamaha Music Flagship Store
Sunset at Shibuya Sky observatory
At Shinjuku Gyoen garden
This is not food - it's fake display food for restaurants, for sale in the Kappabashi restaurant supply district
Samurai armor at the Tokyo Museum
Shinjuku, another neighborhood which feels like the future
On my last day in Tokyo I watched sumo wrestlers work out at their training gym then boarded the shinkansen bullet train to Kyoto, which afforded a great view of Mt. Fuji along the way (how's that for a a lot of Japan packed into one sentence?!). This was also the day I received news of the death of Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead.
Bantam-weight sumo
Sumo practice
Mt. Fuji, seen from the train
Kyoto
While Tokyo leans into the future, Kyoto seems linked much more to highlighting its past. The city contains many historic shrines and temples, as well as historic neighborhoods.
After checking into my hotel I visited the To-ji temple, a beautiful, serene place. This was also the only uncomfortably cold day of my trip - I enjoyed the serenity for a bit then headed back to the warmth of my hotel.
To-ji temple
The next morning I visited Fushimi-Inari shrine, famous for its thousands of vermillion red gates. You do a meditative walk up the mountainside, passing through gate after gate after gate.
Fushimi Inari
Fushimi Inari
At the historic sights in Japan you'll sometimes see people wearing traditional Japanese dress. In another example of how Kyoto is more linked to its past, traditional dress seems to be more popular in Kyoto than Tokyo.
I visited a number of other temples and shrines, and the shogun's palace.
Kiyomizu-dera Temple
City view at Kiyomizu-dera Temple
Kinkakujicho, the Golden Temple
Maybe my favorite neighborhood of all the places I visited was Arashiyama. It's on the outskirts of Kyoto and has natural attractions like a giant bamboo grove and park filled with wild (well, semi-wild) monkeys, and it's also a cute little town with lots of interesting shops.
Arashiyama monkey park, on a mountain outside of Kyoto
At the Rilakkuma Cafe
In the bamboo grove
Arashiyama street scene
My final stop in Kyoto was Nishiki Market, an amazing food hall experience
Octopus stuffed with quail egg
Food for sale
The most amazing tuna sushi I've ever eaten
Back home, my Grateful Dead tribute band performed at an amazing concert as a memorial to Bob Weir. I missed the show because I was on the other side of the world, but I was able to watch a little of it via a live stream while riding the Kyoto subway!
Watching Great Northern from half a world away.
One last thing. I spent the night at an airport hotel before my flight from Tokyo to Bangkok. In the morning I looked out the window and happened to catch a group of airport workers doing their morning calisthenics. Not something you'd see in the U.S.
Bangkok
I had planned on spending my whole time in Thailand with my friend Peter. "Don't worry about planning anything," he had said, "I'll be your tour guide." However, sometimes life throws you a curveball. When I arrived in Bangkok I got a text from Pete saying that he was in the hospital with a medical emergency. He wound up being hospitalized for five of the seven days we had planned to spend together, so I had to do a lot of improvisation in terms of sightseeing (with Pete's guidance from his hospital bed!).
My first day I went to several of Bangkok's most famous temples, Wat Phra Tep (and the adjacent Imperial Palace), and Wat Pho. After the calm minimalism of Japanese temples, the raucousness of the decor in the Thai temples was mind-boggling. I almost couldn't believe my eyes even as I was standing there looking at these places.
Shops near Wat Pho
With some of the birdmen who guard the temple
Giant statues!
Gold statues, giant stupas, and more detail than the brain can process
Another giant statue!
Buddhas galore!
The 150 foot tall reclining Buddha at Wat Pho
The Emerald Buddha, a major cultural artifact
Chiang Mai
Peter and I had airline and hotel reservations to go up and spend a few days in the northern city of Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is Thailand's second largest city, but the heart of the place - the 1 sq mile old walled city - feels like much smaller and older. Peter, still in the hospital, couldn't go, but I headed up there anyway. The old city of Chiang Mai seems to be a great hangout place which people travel to from around the world. Also, there's history - the old city is chock full of old temples. On the afternoon of my arrival, after lunch at a rockin' vegetarian place, I walked the city and popped into some of them.
Here are some pictures are of Wat Inthakhin, a shrine which holds the city pillar. It is said that if the pillar is properly venerated, it will bring prosperity and keep the city from harm.
Exterior of Wat Inthakhin
People press gold leaf onto statues for good fortune
Interior of the City Pillar shrine - that's the city pillar in the middle
Temple guardian
This is the towering Wat Chedi Luang, a 14th century temple, somewhat collapsed from a long-ago earthquake, but still huge.
Elephant statues at Wat Chedi Luang
There is always another Buddha statue
And another
Chiang Mai has wild night markets, with street vendors selling all kinds of wares, artisans, amazing street food, and entertainment. It seems like all of the city's million inhabitants turn out. There was a big market the first night I was there. The main market street was about a mile long, plus there are lots of little side streets and plazas to explore. It was so crowded that you couldn't really walk; you just had to shuffle along with the crowd.
Night market
Night market musicians
Entertainment on the big stage at one end of the market
Temples lit up at night
Street food in the courtyard of a monastery
Doppelganger
Thai grunge band!
Scorpions and other delicious snacks
Elderly musicians band
I spent my first full day in Chiang Mai at an elephant sanctuary. There are many such places in the area; the one I visited was small, with just four elephants, all rescued from hard work or mistreatment. Peter knows the owners of the place. I was pleased to find that it was an ethical sanctuary, where our interactions with the elephants were limited to feeding, and a guided walk with the elephants to a nearby river.
Hanging with elephants
Elephants by the river
Monday evening Chiang Mai was much quieter than it had been on Sunday. I ignored Peter's suggestions to go out and party with the bar girls on Tha Phae Road. I did try to go to a music club which had been recommended to me by a guy on the plane, but paradoxically, while the rest of the city was quiet, this one place was packed to the gills - I didn't stay.
Even on a quiet night, people are out eating
On my second day in Chiang Mai I took a songthaew "red truck" taxi (a shared ride in a pickup truck with benches in the back) up to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, a striking temple up on a Doi Suthep mountain overlooking the city.
Golden chedi (a monument holding relics)
At Doi Suthep
Visitors circling the golden chedi
White elephant statue commemorating the story of the location of the temple
View down to Chiang Mai
Temple grounds
Riding in the red truck taxi back to Chiang Mai
Back to Bangkok
Our plan had been to spend another night in Chiang Mai, but Peter was finally out of the hospital back in Bangkok, so I grabbed a flight back there a day early so we could finally spend some time together.
Old friends, together at last!
Peter took me around like a local. I ate in a non-touristy restaurant with salmon heads, crocodile, and silkworm pupae on the menu (though I didn't order any of those things). We got around on scooter taxis and via Bangkok's confusing multiple mass transit systems. I got massages for eight bucks an hour at a totally reputable - but off the beaten path - massage place. We went to a Buddhist temple which wasn't a tourist attraction, but was still way cool.
Pete is brave enough to film while riding. That's me two scooters ahead.
Scooter taxi in Sukhumvit
Local Buddhist temple
Pete, the Buddha, and me
Chanting at Wat Suthat in Bangkok
We walked through Bangkok's Chinatown
In the evening we went to the Muay Thai fights
I insisted that we go to Lumphini Park so I could see the giant monitor lizards which just wander freely there
Finally, it was time to say farewell to the land of seaweed meat floss cake and head home
Thailand is almost literally on the other side of the earth from DC (it's 177 degrees of longitude away). With flight time and layovers, it takes about 30 hours to get home. I was happy to be home, despite coming home to a snowstorm.
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