Posted by Jess
12 May 2011

It's been getting harder and harder lately for me to be here and Jason and the girls to be home.  They've moved back into our home in Minnesota now which is good.  It's a start to getting things back to normal.  Our families have been amazing to take us in during this very strange, unexpected, and long transition back to the U.S.  We've relied heavily on the generosity of our parents 7 weeks now and I am sure they are ready to have their homes back!  Currently I am slated to end my time here on June 17th, which means we're over halfway there if that date sticks.  I had a trip planned for this weekend to the U.S. for Jason's little sister's baby shower, and I've been able to extend my time for a few days to work in the U.S. which is great.  But I know at the end of that time it will be back to Tokyo for another month or so of separation. 

I think what's been the most difficult for me is that here in Tokyo in the past few weeks things have returned to pretty much normal.  Some of the escalators and lights that were off before have been switched back on, stores are fully stocked, trains are just as cramped as ever, restaurants are busy, and we don't seem to notice any aftershocks below a 6.0 anymore.  (I guess we've just gotten used to the others because the 4.5-5.9 ones still come 5-6 times a day.)  The news is a lot less nuclear power plant focused and most days I don't think about it much.  

Lately I've been feeling like the hardship of being separated isn't worth it, that there is no risk and they should just be here.  And if we did that, some of the grief I've gotten about making this decision would just go away.  Some of the friends that left have now returned and I've gotten calls asking for playdates with Ella and Abby.  Plus Jason loves it here - it was so hard to see him go and know that he didn't get to do everything he wanted to during our time here.  The things that used to just strike as different or funny before are starting to annoy me because I don't want to be here alone.  I'm worried about this strange time ruining my memories of our experience and fun here.  But I know in the back of mind that there's no going back now and regretting what we felt was the best decision at the time just isn't going to do any good. 

Then today on my twitter feed I see this:

We headed around the island to the other side where the sea was calmer.  We went into Pileh Bay (I think?) and put the anchor down.  This was gorgeous and not as busy.  The water was a wonderful color and looked clear from above.  We were able to jump off the boat here and swim around a bit.  The water was warm like a heated swimming pool.  Once in the water, you could see some fish, but it was cloudier so not a great place to snorkel.








Next stop was Monkey Beach.  This is a small area (not really a beach even!) where there's monkeys that inhabit the trees on the side of the cliff.  People stop a lot so the monkeys come down and get food from the tourists.  We pulled our boat straight up to the cliff and our guide gave the little guys some oranges.  We were probably 1 of 5 boats doing this at the time.  I think these guys get fed pretty well.

We then went around to the next island and laid anchor a little ways out from shore to snorkel.  We grabbed our gear from the back of the boat and dove in.  The coral isn't so colorful here, but the water is crystal clear and the fish are plentiful!  I took an underwater camera along but it's from our honeymoon (read: 7 years) and it turns out that if you don't develop it until 6yrs after expiration, the pics don't turn out so great!  Who knew?!  We had about an hour to paddle around and I took every minute of it.  I was the last one back to the boat.

Next up was our lunch stop on Bamboo Island.  On our way there I saw a dolphin surface near our boat for just a second, but we had some speed on us so I didn't get to see it again.  We were one of the first boats there which was great.  There were picnic tables on the beach and each group had a cooler with our lunch choices for the day.  Unfortunately our lunch choice was filled wrong, but we made the best of it and enjoyed our time.  We had about 2 hours to eat and just hang out on the beach here.   Jay and I walked a little bit of the island and got some sun. 

bamboo island beach

our tour boat

After lunch we were asked if we wanted to snorkel some more.  Most on the boat shrugged their shoulders or turned away, but I nodded emphatically.  Let's do it! 

We stopped off near another island - not another boat in sight.  The water was deeper and the reef was bigger.  There was a pretty strong current so to stay in one spot you had to paddle constantly, but the scene was great.  I saw all kinds of fish - even a pufferfish, the largest oyster I've ever seen, and I think a jellyfish hanging out!  Again I was the last one back to the boat. I'm sure my tour-mates loved that!  When I was getting back in one of our boat guys was looking under the water in a mask and he said he saw 3 reef sharks.  I'm so bummed that I didn't see them!!!  Jason says he's glad we didn't or no more snorkeling for him.  I really think I want to learn how to scuba dive.  I know Ella will love snorkeling when she's a stronger swimmer and eventually maybe we could dive together.  Jay's not into it, but that's ok - I could just sit there all day by myself and watch the world swim by.  Unbelievable. 

After that we headed back to the marina.  About half way there the guy in the back of the boat said "cut it" to the driver and we stopped on the open water while they took out the wrenches and fixed the one of the motors.  About 20 minutes later all was good.  Thank goodness the water had calmed by then or we would have been rocking out there while we were waiting! 

I loved this day and our time out in these somewhat secluded areas.   They are definitely getting ruined by humans though which makes me so sad.  We saw a lot of garbage around and out on the water.  While we were snorkeling, I picked up what I could and put it in Jay's pocket to take it back to the boat.  I wish people would be a bit more careful, but in Thailand there's a lot of garbage everywhere on the land, so what's to keep people from doing the same thing in the sea?  Heartbreaking to know that if we keep doing it, these areas are not going to be a place our grandkids will want to visit.   

Kanpai!
Jess

Table where we ground our curry and ate our dishes

Grinding our spices



Finished curry paste



View from our table

After making our curry paste we started making our first dish 'Tom Kha Kai', or chicken in coconut milk soup.  The process for all of our dishes was to watch the teacher make it and then we went and made it.  After finishing each dish we got to go and eat it.

Cooking school

Soup before

Soup after

Next we prepared 'Poa Pea Tod', spring rolls and 'Som Tam', papaya salad.  Jess was very excited for me to learn how to make spring rolls and they were surprisingly easy.  The papaya salad was really spicy even though I had reduced the number of peppers I put in.

Spring rolls prior to frying



Spring rolls and papaya salad (not sure why this is sideways - the blog doesn't seem to like the picture!)

 Finally we prepared 'Pad Paew Wan Goong', sweet and sour vegetables with prawns and 'Kaeng Panaeng Moo', panaeng curry with pork.  We used our curry past that we prepared earlier in the day for this curry.  Both dishes turned out very delicious and we barely had room for the dessert of Mango with sticky rice.

Sweet and sour and curry (again sideways - what's up with that?)

Chopping Veggies!

So full!

So besides learning how to make these awesome Thai dishes I really started learning how to taste my sauces and food and add different ingredients to bring out the saltiness, sour or sweetness that Thai food is known for.  Overall it was a very fun day with some great people and I am excited to try these dishes in my own kitchen.

Cheers!

Jay

27 April 2011
Posted by Jay

On my original Japan bucket list was climbing Mt. Fuji, lovingly referred to as Fuji-san by the Japanese people.  Fuji-san is 3776m (12,338ft) above sea level and is the highest mountain in Japan. Officially climbing season for Fuji-san is restricted to July and August as these are the only months where it is clear of snow and less windy.  Climbing Fuji-san during climbing season is very popular and can done by most people with some level of fitness (though I have heard that even smaller kids and older people complete the climb.  It is very popular to climb through the night and watch the sunrise from the top.  It is not supposed to be very relaxing on the way up as you are shuffling up the mountain with thousands of your closest friends and family.

Sadly I had planned on doing the climb in July when we were still planning on being in Japan, but alas it is not to be.  I figured since in 8 months I had never actually seen Fuji-san I would make a trek down to a nearby town that has some of the best viewing of the mountain.  The problem with Fuji-san is that he likes to hide in the clouds on many days of the year.  When I set out on my trip it is was a very clear sunny morning, but this would not last once I got to the viewing areas.

It was suggested by a friend to travel to Hakone which is a resort town known for its hot springs and viewing of Fuji-san.  It was a lot of fun traveling on different types of trains to get there and eventually taking a sky tram up to the top of a crater on Mount Hakone on my way to the viewing areas.  The crater is a very active volcanic area that spews lots of sulfur dioxide and steam.  There is a short walking path here where you can buy eggs hard boiled in the boiling sulfur-rich water.  The sulfur in the water turns the egg shells black, not too bad tasting though.

View out the back of ropeway

Ropeway car

Sulfur dioxide and crater

Boiling sulfur pool

Black egg

Luckily I have short hair otherwise it would be going sideways

This Japanese woman was not so comfortable when we started rocking with the wind

Once I got to the top of this mountain I realized that I was not going to see Fuji-san that day.  The clouds were very thick and the wind was gusting so hard it rocked our ropeway tram up and down. At the end of the ropeway is Lake Ashi, or sometimes called Lake Hakone.  Usually you can take a boat ride across the lake to the actual town of Hakone, but they had the boats shut down due to the high winds.

Boats for crossing Ashi, I think Captain Jack is hiding on it somewhere

Lake Ashi

I spent the next few hours hiking around Hakone and visited a neat museum and went up to a Fuji-san observatory, even though there was no chance of seeing him with the clouds.

Plaque showing where to look to see Fuji-san

Me looking in that direction, really it is there!

Observatory

Old road that lead from Tokyo to the rest of the country, trees were planted to show the way.

After exploring a bit, I stopped for a snack and was given some cherry blossom tea which was good but a little spicy.

Tea

I went into town and found a neat little restaurant with an English menu and had some steamed meat and vegetables. Overall a really nice day once you got past the not seeing Fuji-san part.

Kanpai!

Jay

Next up was white-water rafting.  If you notice in the pictures above, there isn't a lot of white-water to be had around here!  The rainy season is just starting in Thailand so at the end of the hot season there's not a lot of water just laying around.  So how did we whitewater raft, you ask?  The company has a few dams built along the river and when they want to send rafts out, they flood it!  It was a bit of a weird journey because we had to stop at times and wait for the water levels to rise.  \We went in a raft with 2 guides and a couple from Florida - she was even from Minneapolis!  So strange especially since there were not a lot of Americans around on this whole trip.  There were about 10 rafts that went out and people had varying degrees of success down the river.  We did pretty well I think and no one fell out, which is good! 

While we were waiting for the water at one point, a boat full of girls started screaming and jumping out of their raft.  Apparently their guides thought it was funny to put a frog in the boat.  Not just any frog - biggest frog I've ever seen.  After doing a little research, I think it's actually a Giant Asiatic Toad.  And they can be up to 10 inches tall.  I'm sure this one was that big!  Our guides threatened to throw it in our raft too but luckily changed their minds.  Thank goodness.  

The whole trip downriver took about 45 minutes or so and was pretty tame, which makes sense since it's artificially flooded.  In rainy season, they can run the river 7-8 times a day since the water levels are much higher.  We didn't take our camera down the river but here's a few pictures of another group going out.  Our raft companions have some photos and I'm hopeful that they will mail them over, but since it's been a week now I'm not banking on it!





We headed back to base camp and Jason and I were served lunch.  We had enough food for 6 of us!  It was nice to just have lunch the two of us there and most of the larger group had cleared out so it was pretty quiet. 

seafood soup, red snapper, rice, mixed veggies, fish cakes, chicken and Pepsi :)

dragon fruit for dessert.  jay's trying to make it fly like a dragon.  yeah, I don't see it either.



happy, muddy jay



can you see where his shinguards were?

Kanpai!
Jess