So it's been a while since we last wrote - apologies. I blame it on Bianca and her facebook account. Anyway, we are living on the Island of Phuket in southern Thailand, which is kind of like the equivalent of going to Hawaii back in the states. At its best it's dramatically beautiful, and full of culture and friendly people. At its worst, it's busy, and an overdeveloped tourist trap. For the most part we stay away from the worst, and stick to its best. After a fe...

So we were able to get a five-week job as English teachers at a 5-star, beachside resort called Zeavola. The resort is on Koh Phi Phi (pronounced Pee Pee), a small beautiful island not far off of Krabi's coast. This island's claim to fame is that is was used to film part of the movie "The Beach," with Leonardo Decaprio. Once you arrive at the islands main pier in Tonsai bay, our resort is only accessible by boat, or by a 90 minute walk. There are no c...

So we left Japan and flew to Bangkok. We only stayed two days in Bangkok at the Atlanta Hotel, where they have the slogan "at the prices you pay, we don't accept complaints." Although the slogan should more accurately be "at the prices you pay, we don't lift a finger for you." Unfortunately, we didn't see or do much in Bangkok, except rest and buy a cell phone. We soon flew from Bangkok to Krabi, using Air Asia, which is the budget carrier i...

In Sapporo we: saw the largest Shinto shrine in Hokkaido (northern island), saw a car being blessed, had traditional foods made by Yuki's mom, Tomoko, saw taiko drumming, went to the Olympic ski jump, went to Sapporo beer museum, went to Maruyama zoo, went to the local fish market, went to the beer gardens often, went to Nakajima park, ate yakitori.In Kyoto we: stayed at a ryokan (traditional Japanese guesthouse), used public bath (naked hot tub split by gender),...

Monday morning around 11 am we said goodbye to our families and headed to LAX. Our flight from LAX left that afternoon at 4 pm. 13 hours later we arrived in Taipei, Taiwan. We had a couple hours layover there which wasn't bad. We then left and 4 hours later we arrived in Bangkok. This was a bit of a teaser for us because although we will be living in Thailand, our first stop was actually Japan. So we went through customs and then turned right back around and re-e...