The First Impression of Ireland

Before I went to Ireland, I heard the clime there was mild, I heard the temperature was not above 25 degree and I heard it was usually cloudy and rainy. All of them are true. However, I visited Ireland at "wrong" time.

It was really HOT! But people said "lovely weather" to each other as a greeting -- not lovely at all. I prefer the traditional, little cloudy day. But I only meet it several hours.

I arrived at Dublin with no excitement. I don't why. Since this is the first time I come to Europe, I should be exciting for that. Maybe I was tired for the long fight. 

 To the best of my knowledge, Japan has the most beautiful bird's-eye view -- the fields are tiny, clean and in good order; The coast line separates dark green forest and blue ocean by white sand. I looked down from the airplane: fields were divided by bushes.

I took a bus from airport to city center. What I saw reflected my impression of Europe. Because I've never been any country there before, I can't tell the difference among them. But it's exactly European that I read on the books or saw in the movies. The houses beside the road are clean and simple, not like the Japanese style -- they make things complicated. 

I stayed near O'Connell Street, the city center. Daylight gets dark lately in the summer. Though it comes 8 or 9 o'clock, it's still so light that I had time to go around and took picture along that famous street in the evening.

So, the first impression of Ireland or Dublin is hot, field with bushes, European architectures and long daylight. OK, I know what I said is with no nutrition, but it's just the beginning I knew Ireland.

The Day Begins at Galway

I started to like Ireland exactly from that morning.

It was a Sunday's morning. I got up early and went around to the outer of Galway City. I even can't call it a city but town. I walked along the River Corrib with an intent to visit National University of Ireland Galway (NUI Galway). 

I went past a bridge and found a cathedral, Galway Cathedral, was standing just in front of me. It's so huge. Until now, I can't tell which is the cathedral and which is the church. But anyway, it's huge and beautiful enough to impress me. It was near 9 o'clock. People from everywhere went into the cathedral. It seemed there would be a mass. A woman stood in the entrance and greeted to everybody. I, a young lady with Asian face and hung a huge camera, peeped through the glass of the entrance with fear. I don't know much about gods, but I know people should respect them. 

Finally, I got enough courage to walk in. No one stopped me. Inside the cathedral, I saw many colored glass paintings, about gods. I've no idea about them at all. But they have a kind of power to make me peaceful. I think it's really great that people can have a place to make themselves peaceful. And I also think so when I visited other churches or cathedrals the next days.

I left after the mass started. While I was going out the entrance, an old man was just coming in. He smiled to me and said "how are you"? 

I started to like Ireland exactly from that moment.

The First Impression of Ayutthaya

I didn't know anything about Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon before I went there. I had a simple guide book in which this temple was introduced with a large Reclining Buddha. I thought there was only a Reclining Buddha, I thought this was  a common spot as the same as others, I though... I shouldn't think because I did't know anything about Thailand temples. So, I thought wrong.

Actually, Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon is the first really temple and first ruin I visited at Thailan. I even didn't prepared well for it. It is a quiet place far from railway station. It took me almost 20 minutes to get there by bicycle. The light of setting sun was soft and fluid, all the things was covered a golden color, including structures, birds, cats, grass and me. The great Reclining Buddha was there, but it wasn't the point. I saw many tower standing in the flowing golden light, lines of Buddhas and plumerias falling from the trees. The main building is very tall, and,  to my surprise, visitors can clime up it. I even encountered a dog on it.

Everything was great at that time. I was impressed. 

Jim Thompson House

The Jim Thompson House wasn't on my plan at first. I stayed near it, and walked there by the way to Siam shopping center.

When you don't except something very much, it maybe surprise you in another way. According to the guide book, I didn't recognize Jim Thompson House was an interesting spot to see and added it into the ”whichever category ”,  a list of spots I wouldn't visit if no enough time. I didn't think it was so popular, that lots of visitors were there. And it was wider that I thought and more delightful. 

Several Thai-style building stands in the jungle. The first thing attracted me is the jungle landscape. I can hardly tell it's a house with garden or a house in jungle. The tropical plants are great. They grow well and the largest tree almost covers the whole main building. A pond lays in the jungle, the source of which comes from a vase held by a Bodhisattva. Among the green color, red-colored structures are outstanding. A few small rooms are scattered in the jungle and the main one faces a canal. In past time, boat was the principal mean of transportation in Bangkok. The main gate of Jim Thompson House is just beside the canal, and was used until Thompson's missing.

Other attractive thing about this place is the owner, Jim Thompson. He is a fabulous person who worked as an architect, an American spy and a silk designer. He is the father of Thai silk. His life is a legend and his death is a mystery. In 1967, he disappeared. No one knows where he's gone and the house he left became a tourist spot telling his story to the world.

On Arrival Visa

I went to Thailand without getting a visa in advance, and supposed for on arrival visa. Matching the cheap air ticket, the fight arrived in Bangkok lately in the midnight.

After changing money and a long walk, finally, I reached the counter where I could get a application form to fill. But I didn't find any clean forms. There were no staff there but at a mini photo studio for people who forgot to take a photograph. I got one form from them, fill in it and started the endless waiting. 

The first section is check documents. There was only one officer and a mountain of people before me. I must say that officer was really a slow one. Did getting documents together take so much time? After standing more than half an hour, I faced to the officer at last. He said without opening mouth, and worked like a snail. I received a number card and went to the next section, stamping passport. This section was quite quick, and I could waiting on a seat. The stamp of Thailand visa is a big purple one with traditional pattern. 

Since the long wait drove me crazy, I decided to take advanced visa if I would visit Thailand again. But I regretted thinking like that soon. When I got out of the airport joining the line of waiting taxi, I met the old lady sitting beside me in the plane. She had an advanced visa. But now, she just in front of me on another line. 

Anyway, I arrived in Thailand and was waiting my turn to take a taxi in the midnight. I was very tired. 

Tama Cemetery's afternoon

I went to visit Sorge at a warm winter afternoon with a nostalgia for hero. 

Richard Sorge was a Soviet Union's spy who worked as a journalist and arrested and executed  in Japan. Sorge was a genius spy. He collected lots of exact information for Soviet, whereas Stalin didn't believe it and even did no effort when Sorge was arrested. Sorge was hanged at Sugamo Prison in Tokyo, the place where 7 Japanese Class A war criminals was hanged, in 1944, 3  years after the arrest. His Japanese lover Hanako Ishii buried him in Tama Cemetery and had been buried with him in 2000. 

Because there was no sign about Sorge's grave, I found it not that easy. However, I knew the gravestone that I've seen in the TV, so I was confident that I could recognize it immediately. Sorge and Hanako's names was inscribed on a black gravestone with Russian and Japanese respectively. There is also a natural stone beneath it, on which Sorge's name was written in Japanese and English. I supposed it was the original one Hanako settled for him, since Soviet Union refused to admit that Sorge worked for it until 1964.

I wanted to bring a bunch of flower for him, but there was no flower shop around the gate I entered. Glad to see it, someone has come with flowers though they've withered now. 

Beginning with a story

Before I went to Thailand I also read a book about it and learned its history roughly. The history of Thailand as a unified nation is short, and the names of people and temples are difficult to remember, so I went there without well studying.However, I am interesting in other people's stories, and read some posted on blogs.

There is one. 

A Japanese man visited Thailand with his family. Some day they were going to some place with other Japanese visitors by a mini-bus. His daughter, a little girl, was so thirsty that couldn't keep crying. The man asked the driver to stop wondering to buy a bottle of water for her, but the driver pretended not to hear him. The man was worried and got angry, and finally he shouted to the driver loudly :"The child is crying! Stop you car!" The car stopped. All Japanese in the car looked at him weirdly and likely wanted to keep clear of him. Because shouting to others is rude and impolite in Japan. 

I assume what will happen in Japan with the same affair. The driver will stop without doubt. Moreover, he will find a comfortable place to stop where the man buy water easily. So there's no necessary to shout to anybody.

This man isn't a typical Japanese, I think. He said on the blog that shouting is a crisis management and there were too many manners in Japan. If he couldn't get water for his daughter, he didn't know what would happen to her. I understand him very much since I've shouted several times at Thailand. They made me do it. People do different actions to suit various environments. That is.