Month: January 2025

I received Thai souvenirs, from three people, each with their ideas

What souvenirs do you buy when you go to Thailand? Many stores sell international-branded goods in the Bangkok airport, but what are made in Thailand, excluding illegal and dangerous goods?

I received souvenirs from two Thai people and one Japanese person simultaneously, and I will introduce them with photos. It’s a matter of preference which one is good. However, after visiting for many years, there are very few things buying by myself. My basic policy is “to eat local food and drink locally!” When buying decorations, I buy things that are “practical, cheap, and you won’t get tired of.”
*Famous Thai silk, woodwork, and pottery are also popular.

All the photos are of food except for the beer, but one person bought me a bottle of Thai beer “Singha.” I was surprised that he managed to carry it without breaking it. I like “Biya Chang,” but Singha beer is a few baht more expensive. I like the taste, not the price.

@There are a lot of sweets. There is support from Chinese and Japanese companies (local factories). Most of the ingredients were harvested in Thailand. Fruits, corn, bananas, etc. are abundant.
@The tea grown by the Chinese is also quite delicious. It is grown by Chinese immigrants in the mountains of Thailand. It seems it roasted in Taiwan in the old days, but it has changed.
@There are a lot of high-end products in containers, including the cup ramen shown in the photo here.

Otherwise of the above, Suchitooo likes TARO, which is dried Spanish mackerel. A bag costs 5-10 baht (about 20-40 yen), and dried bananas, which cost about the same, are also delicious as a beer snack.


LRT (Next-Generation Streetcar)-Utsunomiya City tour report

The history of transportation is interesting! “City trams” are still alive and well all over Japan, they will be abolished if they cannot be managed properly.
They run through the city, so the scenery is beautiful, and they use electricity, so they are quiet and pollution-free. The downside is that they run on the same roads as cars in some places, so they are not mass transportation!
That’s why. Recently in Japan, new modern transportation lines have been opened, such as the monorail in Okinawa, since they do not run on roads, there are no traffic congestion problems. The Toyama Chiho Railway, connected to the reorganization of JR lines, is also a good example of the new attempt to change to LRT in some ways.

First, I will introduce the overview and give my impressions.
@; 19 stations (there are few tourist spots other than universities, high schools, and the Haga Town industrial park on the way, there are only four bus connections), 14.6 km, of which 9.4 km is shared with the road and 5.1 km is reserved for expressways. The low-floor carriages are 3 cars (5 cars planned), and the stations are barrier-free, but the stops are in the middle of the road, so you will need to wait at traffic lights to access the line. Payment must be made in cash using transportation cards or numbered tickets, and no change will be given (the fare is set low, a maximum of 400 yen from the first stop to the last stop). Ten local organizations have invested 1 billion yen, half of which is from Utsunomiya City. Utsunomiya City mainly bore the construction cost of 68.4 billion yen, and the western line [scheduled to open in the first half of 2030] is planned to run in front of the Education Hall.

＠＠; The issue of extending the line from the east exit to the west exit was one of the issues in the 2024 Utsunomiya mayoral election, but a pro-mayor was elected. However, the construction and costs of the line to the west exit, which connects the east and west, passing under JR are an issue. The road in front of the courthouse is wide, and there is no sense of the problem of running a light train under the same conditions as the current line by reducing some of the lanes. There is no demand for passengers on any other road. Also, although there is a timetable, the trains run every 10 minutes, so passengers can sit comfortably and not rush even during the day. If I could be greedy, I would reduce the number of traffic lights or make the line elevated to speed up the speed and improve convenience, I think the waiting time at traffic lights in Utsunomiya City is long. If the LRT can be used to stop the population decline and revitalize the economy, it will be a success. The operating income in the first year of operation was in the black, so I hope it can be sustained.