My First Overseas Trip, a 2026 Bangkok Travelogue

From late January to early February, I went to Bangkok, Thailand, for a 5-day, 3-night trip. It was actually my first time traveling overseas. Our outbound flight left Haneda around late morning, so we stayed the night before at a hotel connected to the airport. I went with my dad. It seemed best to go from Tachikawa to Haneda, so I took a taxi to the north exit of Tachikawa Station, then caught a limousine bus to Haneda.

After about a seven-hour flight from Haneda, we arrived at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok, Thailand. It had been around 20 years since I'd last been on a plane in the first place.

We arrived in the early evening and took a taxi from the airport to the hotel. According to the route guidance, it should've taken about 30-40 minutes without traffic, but due to congestion and various delays, it ended up taking around two hours. The most surprising moment was when the driver suddenly pulled over, asked, "Toilet okay?", and then just went off to use the toilet.

For lunch on our second day, my dad said he wanted to try Thai ramen, so we took the train one stop from our hotel and found a food-court–style spot inside a department store. The soup seemed to have all kinds of spices in it, it was a type of ramen I'd never tasted in Japan before. It had a really unique flavor, but it was absolutely delicious. Come to think of it, we ended up having ramen for lunch on the third day as well.

At first, I'd actually been thinking it might be fun to eat at local street stalls, but when I thought about it more, I realized English probably wouldn't get me very far there. That felt a bit daunting, so I ended up having most of my meals at places like this or at restaurants attached to hotels.

As usual, I took photos of anything that caught my eye while walking around the city. I wondered if pillars like these, covered in messy stickers and graffiti, exist everywhere in the world. The background plants, though, felt distinctly tropical, and even the street trees had a noticeably different vibe from those in Japan.

Even so, my lack of regular exercise really caught up with me, I was in pretty terrible shape physically. A few years ago, when I went to Niigata, I had enough stamina to walk all over the area from Furumachi to around the station without much trouble. I also kind of wanted to try riding a tuk-tuk, but I gave up on that too because of the same worry about the language barrier. I wonder if there's a country where you can ride a tuk-tuk and get by more easily in English.

I think it was on the second night of our stay that we went to a rooftop bar at another hotel near where we were staying. As it turned out, that day was the last day of early voting for Thailand's general election, so there was a nationwide alcohol ban all day. Since the ban lasted until 6 p.m. the next day, I ended up drinking tropical juices there instead. I did wonder if we'd gone a bit too early since it was still light outside, but after around 6 p.m., more and more people started coming in, and everyone was standing around drinking. In that sense, getting there early might've actually been the right call.

As it got darker, lights like this started coming on from all sides, and the DJ was playing club-style music. The next day, we had dinner at another restaurant nearby as well. Alcohol was allowed again right at 6 p.m., and the staff brought out the beers we'd ordered in advance exactly at six. We had just one drink and a light bite there, then moved on to a Japanese-style izakaya. According to my dad, Japanese izakayas just feel more relaxing, and I can't say I disagree.

Our flight on the last day was in the evening, so we checked out of the hotel around noon and spent some time relaxing by the pool. The breeze felt really nice.

So that was my first trip overseas. It turned out to be a great experience. I had a lot of fun, and I'm glad we made it back home safely. I wonder where I'll end up going next.

See you then.