Time Travel

When you think of time travel you probably think about some science fiction movie or a novel by H. G. Wells. Most people, I for one, didn't think that time travel was possible for humans just yet. As it turns out this is not the case. Anne and I will be traveling back in time! Our flight departs Tokyo at 4:25pm on Monday June 1st. Our flight arrives in Minneapolis at 1:20pm on Monday June 1st. Now I don't know how popular time traveling will be if it takes 11 hours of flying to go back 3 hours in time, but it sure sounds cool to be one of the few people who have broken the time barrier. So the next time you see us you might want to not only ask where we are going next, but when.

Last Full Day in Tokyo

Today (Sunday May 31st) is our last full day in Tokyo. We decided to sleep in a little. Anne skyped her mom and then we went out to eat sushi one more time. The restaurant that we went to was Midori Sushi on the out skirts of Ginza in Hibiya. It was awesome and quite the bargain. After lunch we went to Hibiya park to enjoy Oktoberfest (yep, Oktoberfest in May). It was way too funny to see hundreds of Japanese holding Germany flags, drinking German beer, and eating German fare while listening to polka like music. No one seemed to be able to provide a good answer as to why Oktoberfest is in May, but that didn't appear to hamper the mood. It did however improve my mood thinking of the irony of Oktoberfest in May in Japan. After leaving Hibiya park we enjoyed a 20 minute walk back to our apartment where we packed and relaxed. We then went to Roppongi to cancel my cellphone service and picked up some Sasebo burgers and enjoy the rest of the day (or that is at least the plan - we are actually still on the relaxing and packing part of the day).

All the “Little Things”

Before I came to Japan I asked a couple people who had been there what they thought. Each person said they enjoyed the “little things” and gave a couple examples. It wasn’t until I arrived that I really began to understand. The little details in Japan are like nothing else in the world. What do you mean by little details Bill? Well, let us start with our bathroom.

1 - The bathtub can automatically fill and reheat itself at a touch of a button.


2 - Water flowing from the nozzle of the bath tub rotates in a way that it makes no noise as it crashed into the water at the bottom of the tub, so it is more relaxing.


3 - The shower room has a heater, cooler, and drier so the room is warm/cool before you get in and you can dry it when you are done.


4 - Our toilet – well lets just say we are really going to miss all the cool features (and there are many).


Now each of these are small things and by themselves they are just neat, combined though, you get a bathroom you enjoy spending time in. This is the concept of Tokyo and it starts to really spoil you. Another example is going to a small convenience store (there is literally one on almost every block) and getting some ice cream and a microwave pizza (for US comparison only). In the US you would get a bag to put your purchases in and your receipt. In Japan you would get a plastic spoon for your ice cream (with the same brand name on the spoon as the ice cream), they would microwave your pizza for you and supply you with utensils to eat the pizza with and two bags so that you don’t warm your ice cream. If you were in a nicer store they would have given you dry ice to make sure your ice cream stayed cold until you were ready to eat it. All of this is at no additional charge. It’s like this with everything from food to skyscrapers no detail is too small for the Japanese. The number of small things quickly becomes very overwhelming and you find yourself absolutely loving it.

A & B's Top Ten

When in Tokyo, here are 10 phrases you need to learn to get by:

1. Ohayo Gozaimasu - Good Morning

2. Konnichiwa - Good Afternoon

3. Konbanwa - Good Evening

4. Moshi Moshi - Hello (on the phone)

5. ____ wa doko desu ka? Where is the _______

6. Wakarimasen - I don't understand

7. Eigo o hanashimasu ka? Do you speak English?

8. Hai - yes Iie - no

9. Itadakimasu - Saying before you start your meal

10. Sumimasen - Excuse me / sorry

Bonus phrase: Ebi wa dame desu - I cannot eat / allergic to shrimp

If all else fails, pointing and hand gestures has been a big help. I am amazed how much can be communicated in so few words. My best example - going to the butcher and getting three cuts of steak at 200 grams each, packed in dry ice so I can shop later.

Karma

Before leaving on our travels to Asia, Anne and I signed up for a service that gives us updates on medical issues abroad. Over the last month just about every day we get 3 or more emails from them, stating that the Swine Flu H1N1 has been confirmed in another country (1 email per country).

The Japanese media has also been very focused on the Swine Flu. Most of Japan's cases occurred in the Osaka prefecture. The week (weekend for us) we planned to go to Osaka, several schools were closed and students from the closed schools were told to stay home to prevent any more cases. As a result, when we arrived at Universal Studios Osaka, the lines were short and attendance was low (10-20 minutes waiting per ride instead of 1-2 hours). I found myself thankful for our lucky timing (considering only .002% of people in the area of over 8.6 million people had the flu and all were recovering).

Well, karma reminded me on the next Monday that I should never be thankful or benefit from others misfortunes or health. According to our health consultants in the building (they have an office on the 41st floor) I ate something bad which resulted in a stomach flu. Looking back on all the things I have eaten in the last year, I find it quite amusing what got me sick. He is a list of some of the things I would have expected to get sick from eating (yet I still ate them).

WARNING - If you get nauseous or light headed reading about strange and gross foods, please stop reading now. We will start with the raw foods, salmon, tuna, too many other types of fish to keep track of, squid, whale, crab, scallops, chicken, horse, (yes you read the last 2 correctly - the chicken was pretty good - the horse, not so much) eggs (chicken), and various fish eggs. The raw list actually goes on, but you get the idea. Now to the gross. I have eaten scorpions (a couple different species - some as small as a quarter, some as long as a dollar), silkworms, various animals organs and parts (livers, hearts, gizzards, stomachs, feet, beaks, eyes, skin, kidneys, necks, congealed blood, etc), swallows (the little bird), starfish, and the list goes on in frightening detail.

Yet none of these items gave me any problems. What ultimately did my stomach in was ..... a bowl of rice with some very mild (even by US standards) curry sauce. The US comparison would be like putting a can of Campbell's cream of chicken soup on a bowl of high quality rice. I expected to get sick at least once from my adventures appetite, but the fact that something so mild and basic kept me the sickest for the longest is a true insight to how comical and unpredictable life can be.

Pepto

Well, well, well, Blogger Bill is out of commission this week. After our fun and festive trip to Osaka, he fell ill. Immediate reaction was - is it H1N1? I said, "no way, I ALWAYS catch a cold/ flu before you do... if it is, I'll have it very soon". It's been four days and I'm okay (knock on wood). Anyhoo, I suggested that Bill swing up and visit the health consultation room. Turns out to be the stomach flu. They were awfully nice - gave him meds and everything. Unfortunately, the meds didn't really work. The doctor did say that Japanese med are often not as 'potent' as American meds.


The next evening, the nurses wanted Bill to go to their hospital and get tested for H1N1. I went on the website - he doesn't have cough, sneezing, runny nose, sore throat, and his fever is gone. Hmmm - doesn't sound right. Always questioning things, I said "no". Well, this response did not sit well with them. I have always heard that in the Japanese culture, doctors are rarely challenged. My saying "no" lead to many things including - no cleaning services for room 810 anymore and Bill can't visit the health room. We are now outcasts. Recent update: they felt really bad for making us feel like lepers, housekeeping will resume tomorrow :)

Oh yes - back to the story which is related to the title. I went to the drugstore to pick up some Pepto for Bill. Well... they don't carry Pepto or Pepto-like drugs here mainly b/c of the odd color. Why would they make this stuff pink? Luckily, one of the expats in the office had a large, brand new bottle of CHERRY flavored Pepto. Tom saves the day!! Whoo hoo!! I'm really appreciating Walgreens/ Target/ CVS/ Duane Reade/ Albertsons right now.

Learning lesson - when packing up and getting ready to live out of your suitcase for the next few weeks, don't assume that if you didn't get sick in the last 11.5 months that you won't get sick in the last 5 days before heading back to the states.

Task Master Bill

Anne and I have done a bit of traveling before leaving on our one year assignment. Fortunately for me, Anne had been the one who would plan all of our travels allowing me the opportunity to just sit back and enjoy the ride. I would often affectionately call Anne Task Master Chang as she was very precise about what places we would see and at what time. After arriving in China that all changed. Since Anne had to work I was now the family travel agent. It came as a surprise to both of us that I am much more of a task master than Anne was. I would usually have about 10 print outs (on average) regarding the flights/train/subway details, itinerary, each of the places we would visit, and anything else that I could think of. Many of these forms had English and the language of the area we were visiting to help ask locals for directions. As a whole our travels have been pretty successful but very wearing. Most of our trips required us to leave the apartment/hotel very early and be on our feet constantly squeezing in the most that we can before making it back to the apartment/hotel long after the sun has gone down. To further aggravate the situation rarely do my itineraries have meal plans and so much of the time we have gone with late or light meals. I have really come to appreciate all of the travel plans that Anne has made for us in the past. It is far more stressful that I had thought it would be.

Universal Studios Osaka

As Anne had mentioned in the previous blog we spent last weekend in Osaka. Osaka is the second largest city in Japan and home to our weekend’s destination Universal Studios. In an attempt to save money and following my traveling goal to see as much as possible in as little time as possible we embarked on our journey at 6am on Saturday May 23rd. After taking a couple subway lines to Tokyo station we boarded the Tōkaido Hikari Shinkansen at 7:03am and arrived in Osaka at 10:03am. After taking a couple more train rides we arrived at Universal Studios at about 10:45am. We had been prepared to see long lines at each of the rides, but were surprised to find out that attendance to the park was very low due to the recent concerns over the swine flu. As a result we were able to ride all of the rides we wanted to and watch several shows. Since attendance was low for the day a couple rides were closed as well as a good number of the restaurants/food stands. The Universal Studios in Osaka turned out to be pretty similar to the Universal Studios I had previous been to in Orlando, though I recall the one in Orlando being more fun. This was likely because I had gone in the 80s or very early 90s so most of the movie based rides where less dated. Anne’s favorite ride was the Terminator 2 – 3D, and though I enjoyed several of the rides I am hard pressed to choose a favorite. One major difference we have noticed regarding theme parks in Japan verses the US is that unlike people from the States, who typically where shorts and a t-shirt to the park, the Japanese consider theme parks to be a high fashion event. At least half of the women wear high heels (on average 4 inches), and regularly use large personal mirrors (or take up the ones in the restrooms) to appraise and touch up their appearance. Another difference that Anne addressed in her previous entry is the behavior of children in the park. You very rarely hear screaming or crying regardless of the age of the child/infant. It is really quite impressive. To give you an example of how well behaved children are in Japan I will use the following scenario. First you should know that eating and drinking while walking is consider bad etiquette here. So when parents buy candy for their children at a store, children will hold the candy in their hands and stare at it intently (but with out unwrapping it, eating it, or making any complaint as to wanting to eat it sooner.) until they arrive home. Arriving home on average takes between 30 minutes to an hour. This behavior arises from a very core Japanese ideal that one should always be mindful of the needs of the whole instead of the needs on one’s self as coined by the popular Japanese phrase “the nail that sticks up, gets hammered down”. Anyways, after a quick stop off at a tako (that’s octopus in Japanese) ball food court (remember Anne LOVES tako balls) we headed to Hotel Granvia Osaka and checked into our room at about 10:00pm. The following day we got to sleep in (as we had seen most of Osaka on a previous trip) and took the train back to Tokyo arriving home at about 5:30pm. As a whole the trip was a good one, with the only bad points being that I was unable to prevent our ship captain from stirring into JAWS infested waters and Anne getting lost following the yellow brink road (how did we get to the Ghirardelli in San Francisco?).

Etiquette

Bill and I were in Osaka this weekend. While I will leave the details to him, I do need to blog about two distinct etiquette differences I noticed. First: escalators. In Tokyo, if you are on an escalator wide enough to hold two people on one step, the left side is the "standing" side and the right side is the "walking" side. In Osaka, it is the opposite.

Second: babies and toddlers. In the 5 months that we have been in Tokyo, we've rode on the Shinkasen (bullet train) four times and use the subway almost on a daily basis. Until today, I have not noticed how quiet babies and toddlers are in public transportation. Since we don't have any kids, I think we've taken this for granted. Well, we had quite the rude awakening today. On our ride back to Tokyo from Osaka, a large American tour group boarded our section of the train. How do I know they were American? Men were in polo shirt and cargo shorts (a staple outfit of American men) and everyone had huge pieces of luggage. In addition, some were carting bags of McDonald's. 10 minutes into the 3 hour ride, one of the baby/toddlers started to cry. It wasn't a "I don't feel good" or "I'm hungry" cry - it was a whining, hi-pitched yelping which would diminish when his/her Mom held him/her or gave him/ her a toy/food. We were sitting half way down the car so I didnt' have great viewing for details. What I did know was that no matter how high I turned up my I-pod, it wasn't drowning out the noise. Mom only left the car into the middle section for about 5 minutes during the whole trip. Thanks Mom - we really appreciated those 5 minutes. Everyone in the car was looking at them but Mom and Dad decided to maintain no eye-contact.

I know, I know, everyone with kids are saying "Just wait until you have kids". Trust me, I will definitely make sure I'm standing in the middle section for 3 hours to give the 100 other people in the car some peace & quiet. :)

Ginza

Ginza is recognized as one of the most luxurious shopping destinations in the world. I had once heard that 40% of all luxury items in the world were sold at Ginza. Although I can’t vouch for the accuracy of that statement, I think there may be at least some truth to it. Every single luxury store I can think of is here (and usually more than just one store each) and this place is also crowded. During many of the weekends they close down the central road to allow for maximum shopping. If the weather is nice you can expect to see tens of thousands of people walking around and shopping.

Shimbashi & Shiodome

Shimbashi started as the oldest railway station in downtown Tokyo. It was opened on October 10th, 1872. Just to give you a time reference that was about 7 years after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. This area is now known as a salary man’s hangout. The term salary man refers to male office workers usually in their 30s-50s. Work usually starts at 9am and goes until… well when ever the boss leaves. This can be as early as 7pm or much later. After work (in the office at least) co-workers go out to restaurants/bars and continue working. I am told that a lot of work decisions are not made in the office but at these restaurants and bars. Due to the closeness of the subways, train lines, and the large amount of small and cheaper restaurants and bars, Shimbashi is a haven for this time of activity.

Shiodome is right next to Shimbashi. Once a railway terminal, Shiodome has recently been transformed into one of Tokyo's most modern areas. It is the area where we spent most of our first 2 weeks in Tokyo and where Anne works. It is now home to several restaurants and hotels.

Shibuya

Whenever I was in the US and I saw on TV a story or movie about Tokyo, they would always show a street intersection being swarmed by people. Shibuya is home to that intersection. This place has the busiest intersection I have ever seen. Once the green walk light comes on anywhere from 200 – to a couple thousand people make their way across each time! It is really really busy. On rainy days I wouldn’t be surprised if the intersected stayed relatively dry due to the sea of umbrellas that constantly cover it. This area is also home to most of the teenage and early twenties crowd. It is known as the fashion center of Japan (for this age group) and is a major night life area.

This area is also home to the statue of Hachikō (in Hachikō Square). He was a dog that apparently waited at Shibuya station every day for 12 years waiting for its master to come home. If you recall from previous entries he is the dog Mama Wu took a picture with.

Shinjuku

It is a major commercial and administrative center, housing the busiest train station in the world. Tens of thousand of people work in Shinjuku and even more like to shop there. It is one of the brightest areas in Tokyo at night. It is also one of the most dense places to see sky scrapers in Japan (although they are all over Tokyo). Shinjuku is one of the most popular nightlife areas in Japan. It has many different sections ranging from very expensive restaurants and bars to some of the more shady activities in the city. We have come to realize that the Japanese really enjoy shopping and Shinjuku is one of the better places to go.

Akihabara

This is the Anime, gaming, and electronics headquarters of Tokyo. Whether you are looking for a TV or a cellphone, a computer or a rice cooker, electronic cables or miscellaneous supplies to make your own electronic device this is your destination. There are tons of stores selling everything and anything electronic. Every time I go there I see tons of electronic devices (or features) that I have never seen before. As far as Anime (Japanese animation, cartoons, comics, etc) this place is loaded. They have several stores selling figurines (including auctions or rare ones), they have huge selections of movies, hold enormous Anime Fairs, and are in the process of making the world’s largest Anime museum. They even have coffee shops where you can drink coffee and play board games (like LIFE & Monopoly) with women dressed up as animated characters. More to my liking is the area’s focus on video games. There are several buildings filled with arcades. Many of these buildings are several stories tall with each floor having a different genre of arcade games. This place is always busy and considering Japan’s appetite for these types of things it is only going to get bigger.

Some of the Best of Tokyo

Looking over the blog I noticed that I have mentioned, but have yet to do a separate blog entry of several of Tokyo’s most popular areas. Since we have been to each of these places many times and since most tours of Tokyo are not complete until they have been visited I would like to take the remainder of the week to introduce to you (in more detail) Akihabara, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ginza, Shimbashi, & Shiodome.

The Imperial Palace

On May 10th, the Sunday just after our trip to Phuket, Anne and I went to the Imperial Place. It is located about a 30 minute walk or 3 subway stops away from our apartment. It is home to the Emperor of Japan. The Imperial Palace is surrounded by roughly 1 1/2 square miles of parks which happened to have a lot of walkers, runners, bikers, and picnickers enjoying the day.

Whenever I am near the Imperial Palace I almost always think of a comical mistake that many foreigners make when traveling near here to see the governmental buildings. That mistake focuses on the National Diet Building. When first arriving in Tokyo and hearing about the Diet in situations like... "He works for the Diet", or "A decision by the Diet", or "the Diet is located near there" I started to think, wow these people take dieting a little to extreme for me. I kept imaging an agency that monitored and enforced dietary behaviors. As it turns out the Diet is what their congress is called here and has nothing to do with eating (or lack there of). Though out of fear that this is just some trick to get me near the building so they can put some kind of food tracking device on me I have made it a point to stay away from this building (mostly just out of sympathy for the poor employee that would have to record all of my meals).

Yet another packing day

Once again that time has come where we have to sort through our belongings and decide what we should have the movers pack and what we need for the next 2-3 weeks. It is kind of a sad moment watching most of your possessions being packed up and knowing that you will have to live out of a suitcase for a couple weeks. What makes it worse is knowing that the end of our travels in Asia will soon be coming to a close (at least for the time being). Our flights are booked and we will be returning to the States on June 1st, but don't worry we aren't leaving yet and we still plan on having a couple more adventures to blog about in Japan.

Chon Connery

One of the many things that's different here is how TV commercials are played. In the US every ten minutes or so you are subjected to two minutes of commercials. That is not the case here (at least on our English channels). The show you are watching plays halfway through at which point you will see about 3 commercials. The show will then play through with no more commercials and end about 12-15 minutes before the hour and you will see various commercials until the next hour starts. Most of the commercials are for proactiv, some aging/beauty products, whitening (your skin) products, and auto insurance. My least favorite has to be a commercial which is about 2 minutes long and is basically Japanese people saying the English word "blueberry" about 50 times. This is made worse as most women in commercials show their interest by raising their already high voices (by tradition women are to use high pitch voices to communicate to customers) to irritatingly high voices. We have yet to determine exactly what it is for, but it appears to slow some aging effect. About half the time, instead of commercials you get to see a 10 minute infomercial selling cameras, GPS, or in the case of my picture, a vacuum. The infomercials usually has a salesman who explains the product to two celebrities (I am assuming they are celebrities based on their clothes). It is usually an older man (in his 50-60s) and a women in her 40s. Half of the infomercials star a man we have come to know as Chon Connery as (at least in our minds) he resembles an Asian Sean Connery (in his later years). It is always a pleasure to see his fine crafted eyebrow-raises or blank looks of astonishment when he hears a deal too good to be true.

A Proud Moment

A few weeks ago, I experienced a proud moment. What is it, you ask? I saved someone drowning at the pool? Nope. Leaped into oncoming traffic to catch a toddler from crossing the street? Nope. Give up? Okay. I was walking home from work one day when someone waiting at the light asked me for directions! I know what you're thinking, "Ha, ha... that's your proud moment?" Well - it was, for a few reasons:

1.) I must have looked like a local for her to approach me and ask for directions
2.) I understood what she was asking me.
3.) I knew where she needed to go and how to get there.
4.) I was able to explain to her in Japenglish (my new coined term) how to get there.
5.) She understood me!

It was a moment when I felt - "wow, I'm a local now!" That was followed by "wait a minute, I still can't read this billboard" HAHAHA But.. .I'm one step closer :)

Sensei Bergersan

Once again I have been trying my hand at teaching English. Sensei means teacher in Japanese and the word “san” attached to the end of my last name would be like “Mr” in English. I have been teaching my student (Chan) since January. Chan’s English is very good. I have been teaching him work place English and presentations at a local coffee shop about 2 blocks from our apartment. I have to say I enjoy teaching English and it gets me out of the house at least once every week.

10 Things you didn’t know about Thailand

I complied a short list of things I thought were either interesting, strange, or just worth mentioning.

1) Thailand used to be called Siam until June 23, 1939, when it was changed to Thailand. It was renamed Siam from 1945 to May 11, 1949, after which it was again renamed Thailand much to the frustration of globe and map makers everywhere. In case you were curious this is the same Siam as the now politically incorrect Siamese twins (the famous conjoined twins Chang and Eng Bunker 1811–1874) the Siamese Cat (which is said to be descended from the sacred temple cats of Siam) and the novel Anna and the King of Siam which was made into the musical The King and I.

2) The capital of Thailand is Bangkok (which you might have known) but to the Thai the city’s real name is “Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit” if you force them they will shorten it to just “Krung Thep”. As you can imagine I am sure there aren’t a lot of pen pals in Bangkok because most people get wrist pains from just addressing the letter.

3) There are savage breakfast stealing birds at the Marriott Café that will take your food from your plate if you leave it unattended. No need to worry though the meal is all you (and apparently the bird too) can eat. Also Thai food is HOT check out the picture of the guy below after he ate a spicy spring roll.

4) Apparently the Thai like long names (or titles) this is the title for the King Bhumibol Adulyadej (the guy on their paper bills) “Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramintharamaha Bhumibol Adulyadej Mahitalathibet Ramathibodi Chakkrinaruebodin Sayamminthrathirat Borommanatbophit” (Or if you prefer in Thai) พระบาทสมเด็จพระปรมินทรมหาภูมิพลอดุลยเดช มหิตลาธิเบศรรามาธิบดี จักรีนฤบดินทร สยามินทราธิราช บรมนาถบพิตร. Imagine having to write that as your last job title.

5) Bill written in Thai is “เรียกเก็บเงิน” and Anne (well technically Ann) is “แอน”

6) I learned to hold fire in the palm of my hand (or at least force Anne to take a cheesy picture of me looking like I could do so)

7) Thailand is the 20th most-populous country, with approximately 63 million people, but like most Asian countries it is pretty dense being the 51st largest country.

8) Thailand is one of the most devoutly Buddhist countries in the world. The national religion is Theravada Buddhism which is practiced by more than 95% of all Thais.

9) Taxi drivers (as least in Phuket) don’t drive taxi’s. The look just like regular cars and they have no meters, so you either have to know how much it is to get somewhere or learn to bargain.

10) If you take your camera out of your air conditioned room and try to take a picture in the first couple of minutes the condensation on your lens caused from the rapid humidity and heat change result in your camera taking what I like to call Glamour Shots.

Phuket, Thailand

I apologize for not putting up an entry last week but we were on vacation in Thailand. Like many Asian countries Japan has a week long holiday called Golden Week. It happened to be last week, so we decided to be like many of the locals and do some traveling. We wanted to take an lazy vacation with a beach, some tropical weather and just relax instead of our typical race to see everything agendas. Our vacation started on Sunday 5/03 at 1pm with a bus ride to the airport. Our flight departed at 4:30pm and after a stop off in Taipei we arrived in Phuket at 11:50pm. Apparently Japan only has late night flights to and from Phuket and Anne and I wanted to avoid Bangkok with the social unrest that has been occurring there for some time. We arrived back to our apartment at about 3pm on Friday 5/08.

The week was filled with us recovering from a hectic year. We have probably seen more in this one year then we will likely see for the next 10 years combined. We stayed at the JW Marriott Resort. It is a huge complex covering a lot of land because all of the buildings near the beach can only be 3 stories tall. The reason for the height restriction is that sea turtles use the beach as a site to lay their eggs and lights from tall buildings would scare them away. As it turned out it was not egg laying season so we didn’t need to stir clear of the beach. We spent most of the week just sitting out by the pools and the beach enjoying the sun.

Phuket reminded us a lot of Hawaii, however there were a number of differences. For one, once again we had to familiarize ourselves with another currency (the Thai Baht or just Baht). Based of a currency conversion at the moment $1 US is equal to roughly 34฿ (the B-like symbol is the symbol for the baht).

As a whole, we had a great time. The only downsides to the trip were the long flights (10 hour average each way), a few quick rain showers, some heat rashes, due to my sensitive skin and the combination of tropical heat, sun, humidity, 34% deet insect repellent (it is a low risk malaria area) sunscreen, and high chlorine pools.