Tokyo - Ginza

The most expensive area of Tokyo. The roads are closed to traffic on the weekends and opened for pedestrians. Every store you would expect in a Rodeo Drive sort of place. A cafe was advertising a special for Y1000 cups of Darjeeling tea ($11). Had a $17 dark Japanese beer at the beer hall, which is cheaper than a beer in Copenhagen, on the bright side.
Speaking of expensive, Tokyo is not disappointing. I officially will not afford to eat at my hotel. The breakfast buffet is $78, the buffet for lunch or dinner is $130. The fine dining restaurant in the hotel, a french place, has entrees that range from $170 to $380. That's an ala carte entree. The pre-fix menu has no prices.
I'm going to L'Osier, a 3 star michelin french place before the Philharmonic Orchestra on Thursday. I've never been to a 3 star, so I'm quite excited.

Tokyo - Harajuku

Harajuku, made famous by the Gwen Stefani solo project. Its suppose to be where you see all the cos-play, lolita goth, and other crazy people. Unfortunately didn't see any. Just lots of fabulously stylish beautiful people.

Tokyo - Roppongi

First night I went to Roppongi. Tokyo is huge so its broken up into wards, kinda like NY is broken up into boroughs. Roppongi is known as an expat hangout, so I figured it was a good place to start.
The subway system to get to Roppongi was confusing and frustrating, but finally figured it out. Roppongi was packed, people everywhere, places everywhere, great - except the fact that every single street corner had a thuggish black dude that would follow me for half a block trying to coerce me into going into some seedy joint he was peddling. Really reduced the enjoyment of the experience. Found several great places to drink Guinness and scotch. Started at the Tokyo Hard Rock with a couple Guinness and a couple Jager shots and kept rolling down the strip.

Japan - Tokyo

On the ground. Flew Singapore Air First Class. Amazing first class service; great pajamas, great facial products, all Salvatore Ferragamo. All the Dom Perignon you can drink (which is a lot). Huge menu to choose from that spans the globe. One big issue - they don't have lay flat sleeper chairs - just big easy chairs that are like a lazy boy. Very comfortable, but for an overnight flight, a lay flat is key. Horrendously long train ride from Narita airport to Tokyo city center where I'm staying. Very confusing to get a ticket; there are English words scattered around but are really no help. Everyone is friendly so far. Hotel is nice. Heading out on the town...

View from my hotel room

Thailand - Koh Samui

Back to Thailand - Bangkok

Had a long weekend so went back to Bangkok. Because its awesome. A shot of the river at night. Just one night in Bangkok (queue the Chess theme) this time, then off to the tropical island of Samui.

XMas Shogun

A bit late, but just found these on my camera. Its adorable little Shogun hording his christmas presents.

Bangkok - Nightlife

Bangkok - Shagri-La Hotel

Beautiful hotel, sprawling over two towers. Spacious room. Sushi buffet lunch. Great mojitos. Not a single complaint.

Bangkok, Thailand

Hopped over to Bangkok for the weekend with a couple guys from the studio. Its about a 3 or 4 hour flight (I don't know exactly as I pass out before most planes take off) that leaves Bangalore at 12:30am and arrives in Bangkok at the crack of dawn. This makes for a long, wild first day in Thailand. Stayed at the Shangri-La on the banks of the Chao Phraya river (next post). The first night went to a pan-asian fine dining restaurant on the 64th floor of the highest tower in Bangkok, the state tower. The dinner was truly fantastic. The wine list was very complete, and astoundingly over-priced. From a US$6 bottle of grocery store wine (Coppola Claret) going for over US$160 to a US$2000 bottle of '98 Cos d'Estrounel, it was a wine list designed for someone who doesn't give a shit about the price. I settled on one of the cheaper Bordeauxs on the list, a '95 3rd growth from Margaux for about US$600 that turned out to be pretty great. At some point about 2/3 of the way through the meal, there was a tremendous BOOM. No one in the restaurant seemed at all disturbed, but the three of us we quite shocked, called the waitress over, and asked "what was that explosion!?". To which she calmly replied with a bit of a giggle, "hmm, maybe bimb?" and went about filling our water glasses.
Well, turns out it was a bimb. A grenade to be exact. And pretty damn close.

View Bangkok Bimb in a larger map
Crazy. We drove by the bank later that night and saw all the damage, but didn't know about the attack until we got back to India.
We wanted to go to a Muay Thai fight, but Sunday was a holiday so the fight center was closed. Sunday night was spent at a fine dining Italian place with a '99 Barolo and later at an Irish pub drinking delicious Guinness beer from the tap and playing Golden Tee, an evening impossible in so many ways in India so all the better.
So, despite the terrorist attack (which was against the bank, and not people, to be fair) Bangkok was a huge amount of fun and a great escape weekend from India. Excited to return.