April 11-November 14, 2003
WooWoo!!!!! I'm on the home stretch now: we will be going back to Japan on November 23rd. I have exactly four more days of coconut staring left. I suppose I will also squeeze some packing into that busy schedule. This month has really flown by, so I haven't really had a chance to sit quietly and contemplate my leaving. That's fine, really, as I'm not really a good "goodbye" kind of person. I just got back from Koh Chang on Tuesday, so it's been a brief and busy week of sorting out my piles of shells and picking the grains of sand out of everything. Photos are already up! This may be my last update for a while, but who knows how these last few days will work themselves out. We are already in the midst of good-bye party mahem, with no end in sight!
Whew! How was your month? Mine could be summed up in a few words: eventful, busy and travel-icious! Ryota and I had a great time in Lopburi, and you can click here to see some photos. As soon as we got back from Lopburi I was on my way down to Koh Tao to see Krista. Koh Tao is a gorgeous island with lots of fine coral and lovely beaches, but you`re just going to have to take my word for it because I came back without photos. When I arrived on the island, Krista and I found that we had so much idle chatting to do that we could not interrupt our hammock and coffee sessions long enough to go snorkelling. And by the time we had talked ourselves out, rainy season had fallen upon us. The water was quite rough when I left, and rain was reaching floodish proportions. When I returned from Koh Tao, the Bangkok Post was running articles about the navy evacuating the tourists, but Krista seemed to have missed that boat (har dee har). I assume those imaginative journalists just got carried away again, although Krista did report a shortage of bananas and other fresh fruit coming in from the mainland. Fortunately she was not trapped on Koh Tao for all of rainy season, and made it up to Bangkok shortly after me. Last week I headed back down to the big Mango and met up with her again on the always-entertaining and sometimes depressing Khao San Road.
NOW... I have been back in Pakchong for a few days, and I am finally able to update my site and tell you that yes, the rumours are true. I am moving back to Japan this month. We are currently looking at November 15 as our departure date, but nothing is settled quite yet. Before that, Ryota and I will be making two more trips to Bangkok and I intend to get to the lovely island of Koh Chang for one last beach bumming session with Krista.
No goodbyes yet. I am hardly in the mood to wax poetic about my year here staring at the coconut trees. I have grown tremendously fond of certain aspects of Pakchong (namely the cute elephant that wanders around town and barks-- Yes barks!) but I will be happy indeed to return to Japan.
I just got back from hair-raising trip to Bangkok to see about getting a new passport. Ha ha. I say that as if it would be unusual that a trip to Bangkok would be hair-raising. Nope. In other news: thank you, um, Cyber Sexy for the webpage advice. Though I doubt that my site is looking any sexier, it may have found a wee bit more appeal.
This Saturday Ryota has the day off work so we're going to explore some more ruins, this time in Lopburi! I'm telling you, I just cannot get enough of these ancient temples. I'm not even going to tell you what I've got in mind for December-well, not yet, at least. Not until I've figured out how much money I'm going to blow this month playing at the beach with Krista. October is panning out to be a very fine month, indeed. Temple hopping and beach bumming. Zippedee doo!
Happy October! I'm starting to see silver linings on all of these dasterdly clouds. I'm scheming and planning and figuring out all of the things I need to check out in Thailand before January and our return to the land of the rising sun. I'm also trying to brace myself for the culture shock. Check out my new page of photos from Osaka city, and if you need an idea of how much culture shock I'm in for, compare them to Pakchong's markets and homes. Yikes! And you know what else? When we were in Japan, literally everyone we met commented on how fat Ryota has gotten. Shall I repeat that? Ryota is, it would seem, fat. This may come as a terrible surprise to all of you who have seen his photos plastered on this site (could be clever technical wizardry) but even more shocking to those of you who have met and squeezed him. Though I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, considering the slim standards in both Japan and here in Thailand. I have been told on more than one occassion to be careful about eating too much fruit, lest I become fat! (Personally I'm a little more worried about the dripping-with-fatty-yumminess sausages, but whatever.)
*Sigh* I'm only two days back from Japan and badly missing it. After a whirlwind trip to Canada and an almost equally busy trip to Japan, the next few months are looking like a bit of a let-down. We are officially moving to Japan in January, which is the good news. I'm super excited. Osaka is soo vibrant and fun! Plus I found some work that I think I will find especially enjoyable after one year of staring at the coconut trees.
The bad news is that the talk around town is that the government is transporting all Bangkok homeless people to Pakchong so that Bangkok will look nice for the APEC summit. I'll keep you posted on the developments on that one.
Did I mention how great my trip to Japan was? Photos and stuff to come, someday.
Some days are just heavenly, don't you think? Yesterday was my one year anniversary of living in Thailand. As if to celebrate, the washing machine reappeared. And the weather became refreshingly cool (relatively speaking, of course). It was all rather like a dream. Oh yes, and I finished the honeymoon page!
You guessed it: more photos are up. Click here for page two of wedding shots. I have reached critical limit with this website, which means that the 15mb storage was not nearly as ample as I initially thought. Will find a solution to this and get the honeymoon photos up no matter what!
Thank you to everyone for sending me photos. Of course everyone takes photos of different things, and with different perspectives, so it gives us a much more complete photo memory of the wedding. Thank you thank you!!
I am the busiest girl ever! Yay. It's not often these days that I get to say that I'm busy. I'm really becoming quite good at hand-washing laundry, but I can see how the washing machine really revolutionized life for homemakers. I have a new understanding and sympathy for the majority of Thai women who do not have maids to wash their clothes, and even more sympathy for the Thai maids that do all that washing.
Now the good news: the wedding pictures are up. Bit by bit, mind you, but it's a start.
Other news? My husband and I have very stretched stomachs from our holiday in Canada. That means we can eat even more spicy papaya salad! These days my world does seem perfect.
This morning I had to spoon 8 ants out of coffee-I`m hooome! Nevertheless, my life as Mrs. Katayama is off to a booming start. I`m madly working away at uploading photos from our trip to Canada (Yes, that does mean wedding photos, too) but progress is stuntingly slow. My goal is to get them up by the end of this week, but for the moment I`m busy being domestic. Is this the new Tamara Katayama? Let`s hope not. Actually my new housekeeping skills have more to do with the fact that when we came back to Pakchong, we noticed that the washing machine had, well, disapeared. The timing is unfortunate, as we somehow managed to bring back several kilos of dirty laundry. But anyone who has lived in residence in France knows how to recycle socks and wash a sheet in a sink, so I`m doing ok. I spent most of the day hand washing out of a bucket on the balcony, which is charming for an hour or so but gets old eventually. So back to those photos...
A little something to hold you over until the wedding photos get posted- Pattaya. I'm sure the wedding pics will be more interesting...
We're getting on the plane bright and early Sunday morning. Anxiously awaiting our thrilling 30-hour trip home.
Wow. I'm going to be walking down the aisle two weeks from now. And so my days are filled with such activities as making seating plans and deciding music play lists. Very stimulating. Ok frustrating. These things can be easily confused. Am I excited? Hopelessly so. Lots of long evenings staring into Ryota's eyes and saying mushy-lovey stuff.
Ryota and I had a long weekend last week. When I say long weekend, I actually mean he had two days off instead of just one, which is for us reason enough to make a trip to the beach. We went to Pattaya. If you've never heard of the infamous Pattaya beach scene, I'll sum it up here very briefly. It's the place where you can buy sex on the beach (not the beverage), sexy massage, sex from the girl pole dancing, sex from hotel-delivery service, sex from the girls who sit behind the glass window with numbers on their panties, sex from a boy, sex from a boy that you thought was a girl, etc., etc. Of course these are just a few of the sex shopping options available in Pattaya, but I'm sure you get the picture. I'm going to paste a few photos from Pattaya soon, but don't get too excited because there will not be any photos of the sex trade. Just catering to the all-ages audience. Oh and also because we weren't in the market for sex. It was the holiday to celebrate the beginning of Buddhist Lent, so we thought we would abstain.
Not much in the way of celebrations here, but I was very much surprised to learn that the bicycle ice cream guy was giving away free ice cream today. Maybe he's Canadian?
*********************** SHARON DO NOT READ THIS *****************************
(Mom has some phobias to the extent that even reading about them makes her a bit crazy)
I would just like to say, for the record, that I am NOT acting like a princess in an ivory tower. I grew up in the deep deep countryside, and I am no stranger to wildlife. Indeed I thought it not at all disturbing when a cute little mouse ran up Ralph's pantleg. I have stumbled upon skunks and porcupines. I remember being forbidden to go to the neighbour's house on Halloween because of a bear. And I have been chased by a moose. I would go far enough to say that I am pretty damn hardy, though these days I am being pushed to the limits by the dire situation of my washroom. Here is a list of some of the things that have been popping up in there:
preying mantis----------I said, hey, cool!
geckos--------- I said, hey, whatever but stop pooping on my toothbrush!
spiders---------I said, EEEEEEEK, because I am full-on arachnaphobic
tokay lizard--------I said, whoa, you're not nearly as cute in broad daylight and you're way too big to share this little toilet stall with.
some guy---------I said, get the hell out of here. But he didn't understand.
rat---------I said, I am never ever ever peeing again. That rat was VERY big.
and the show stopper from last week (drum roll, please): two f*#%ing snakes getting it on!!!!!!!!!!
... don't get me wrong-I'm no prude and I believe in love for all, even snakes. But must they make love in my bathroom?! Yeah, and here's another thing-snakes ATTACK when you interrupt their romance. Picture Ryota and I beating a hasty retreat, Ryota attacking madly with the only weapon on hand-a mop. We had retreated all the way to the door of our bedroom, having tried all manner of things to get him to turn around, including throwing our shoes at him. But he was really agressive. By this point I was in hysterics and squealing like a pig. Fortunately, Ryota kept his wits about him and defended our room. The snake was positively determined to get into our room and I would have been forced to jump out of the window. No, I am not kidding. Like I said, that snake was in the mood to attack and I was jumping on the bed already unlatching the window.
Well, to make a long story short, Ryota defeated one of the snakes and seriously wounded another before it slid off the balconey. Our heroic neighbour then stepped in to help Ryota go downstairs and finish it off. They got down there and found... another snake! Mr. Kojima took care of that one before looking up towards our washroom and seeing in the drain pip... ANOTHER snake. Yeah, I know that by this point you've lost your sense of amazement, but let me tell you it was pretty damn horrible for me at the time. I am still more or less recovering. On the bright side, I am consuming way less caffeine in my ongoing effort never to use the washroom again. I am serious when I say that I am in constant terror.
Wah! Maybe I am being a princess in an ivory tower, but I wanna go home!!!!!!
***********************SHARON YOU CAN RESUME READING FROM HERE************************
Did everyone survive Friday the 13th? Ryota got food poisoning, and I hold myself somewhat responsible as I opened my big mouth at about 10:00pm and exclaimed, "We didn't have any bad luck on Friday the 13th!" Of course less than an hour later he was burning up with a fever. This morning we headed to the hospital, which has just been newly rebuilt. I love the new building. It has doors. There is something about the presence of doors which makes me feel that a clinic is that much more sanitary. In that respect, I feel it is much preferable to our usual clinic, although the quality of medical care might be another issue entirely. Not that I should be judgemental, as I myself do not have a degree in medicine and might well be overlooking something. But consider this situation: Ryota informs the doctor that he ate some sashimi and now his stomach hurts and he has a fever. If I were the doctor, I would at this point advise the patient not to eat raw fish anywhere outside of the rigid quality standards of Japan. But this doctor thought about and decided that it is probably appendicitis. ...? We are due back there this afternoon to see the results of the blood test. I think that I will have to refuse to let them operate, even if this does mean risking a ruptured appendix. Again I will admit that I am no doctor, but I saw my brother Sean when he was suffering from appendicitis, and I think I can safely say that this is not at all the same thing. Besides, I've never known sashimi to trigger it.
A beautiful white stray cat has been hanging around the factory these days, and this week they found that she had a nest with some kittens here on the factory grounds. Unfortunately animals just aren't permitted here, so the kittens were taken home by one of the workers. Quote of the week:
"Oh, do you like cats?"
"Yes. They're nice fried."
Yes, you got me. I am weirded out. And someone out there knows what I'm talking about. For anyone else, I will try to explain. In Brookfield (the village nearest my hometown and the place where my wedding will be), there is a gas station at the one existing intersection. This gas station has a big sign where people can post messages so that the local traffic can know about, say, Frank's 50th birthday or Donna and Eddie's anniversary. But apparantly it is carrying quite an unusual message, indeed...
TAMARA AND RYOTA GOT MARRIED!
Would the prangster please stand up? Mysterious stuff, these small town rumours. Especially considering that I am living on the other side of the planet and no one (except Becca, of course) has even met Ryota! Hmmmm.... the mysteries continue....
Finally some updates! Check the site map to find links to some very fabulous websites by very fabulous people. If I've neglected you, please tell me! I'll make excuses for forgetting anyone beforehand- I'm sorry but these days I'm a scatterbrain!
I've also updated my reading list. Still eager to hear all of your reading suggestions. I've been stuck on Japanese literature these days, and I feel I ought to branch out a bit.
Ryota bloopers of the week:
" I love you funny" Might have meant 'honey'. Or maybe it wasn't a mistake at all.
" Camera, look at this!" This is not the first time I've had my name mistaken for camera, but I must say I'm not impressed!
I'd like to apologize to everyone for being a terrible email pal. I would like to now make excuses. You see, I lost my temper at the internet cafe. I just cannot stand sitting there and staring at the screen for forty minutes while yahoo or hotmail or anything loads. In order that I might maintain a shred of sanity, I've had to stop going to the internet cafe altogether. The downside to that is that I no longer have regular internet access. Sorry!
Three months from now I will be an old ball and chain. To say I am out of my mind would be an understatement. Excited and feeling very frazzled. As for news in the jungle, there isn't much to tell. I doubt I will have either the time or the money for any interesting adventures between now and my upcoming trip to Canada, though I do desperately need to do something to break up the monotony a bit. Stay tuned.
Wow. I sure am getting married this summer. Not that I'm having cold feet: I don't think that forever with Ryota is even long enough. But wedding planning sure is the craziest mess I've ever gotten myself tangled up in- and I've been tangled up in more than a few crazy messes! The good news is that the local Pakchong printer came through for me and I have some (weird and inappropriate? original and intriguing?) wedding invitations. Ryota and I have stepped up the English efforts to ensure that he will be able to interact comfortably with my loved ones, but I think he is suffering for having only one teacher. "Crazy yummy" is perhaps not standard English, but he sure sounds cute when he says it! Even better is that the guy at the printer shop seemed determined to communicate in English with Ryota, and Ryota caught himself responding "ok, honey." Can't wait to see what he'll come up with in Canada!
Two more pages are up from the Songkran holidays. Chiang Mai and Mae Hon Song. Enjoy! And stay tuned for a much-needed facelift on this site.
Happy Easter! I've got about 4 pages from the Songkran (Buddhist New Year) holiday. Two of them are complete:
Padong village of Ban Huai Seau Tao and Padong village Nai Soi
I'm back from our much needed vacation to Chiang Mai and Mae Hon Son. The north is absolutely beautiful! Nevertheless, I'm a bit dismayed to realize that my culture shock is still flaring. I am turning into that crazy type of girl that gets angry about everything. I would do well to take some of my own advice and get out of here for a while, but I'm going to have to hang in at least until August. Kind words and support much welcome!
I'm posting some photos from my trip, and if they're not up by today, they should be up pretty soon.
I've archived my previous news, so if your burning to see what I'd written prior to April 11th, click here.
This weekend begins the Songkran water festival, and from tomorrow night Ryota and I are on vacation! We're planning a trip up north to kick back and relax a bit. I think I need it. In spite of great things like water festivals and upcoming weddings, I've been a bit foul. I might be able to attribute part of this to the stresses of planning a wedding from a different country/continent/hemisphere. A bigger part of it comes from the fact that I'm soft core and sometimes have trouble dealing. Hear me vent: to view my top ten reasons never ever to live in a remote Thai village, click here.
