Japan is quite beautiful this time of year as spring begins. The justifiably famous cherry blossoms last many days, and people go to the parks to stake out prime picnic real estate to observe nature's beauty. The whole scene is a bit like Vermont's autumn foliage season. I spent some quality weekend time visiting one of Tokyo's many shrines, a couple parks, and my local neighborhood cherry blossoms to soak in the views. (Photos will appear soon.)
Last week I flew to Bangkok to meet with a major transportation-related company, and the meetings went well. While I was there the opposition parties launched several protests against the current government. The opposition parties asked their supporters to effectively vote "present" in the election on April 2, and they managed to significantly reduce the government's vote totals according to early results. Opposition forces demand the resignation of Thailand's prime minister for alleged corruption. The opposition had a great idea, I thought: use an upscale Bangkok shopping mall as their protest forum. The mall is quite comfortable, has plenty of restrooms, climate control and shelter, and it helps capture their criticism of the PM who also happens to be Thailand's wealthiest man and one of the few Thai who can shop at the fancy mall.
Thailand's newspapers were full of dire warnings about how the protests would disrupt life as we know it, but of course they were perfectly peaceful, and Bangkok's relatively new public transportation system kept the city moving even when the car traffic wasn't. My guess is that Thai newspaper barons like to sell newspapers.
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