We left the school early in the morning, a little after 7:00 a.m., to visit an outcrop on the coastline of Khao Pubpa, a peninsula about 100 km to the north. About 20 students and 10 teachers in the school's four vans drove for two hours to finally enter the county where the dolphin is a symbol. From a small harbor, we board a small boat like the one we took five years ago at the Surat Thani dam lake in the north of this region.

The waves are calm, but the toilet you see stands in a place that is about to be submerged. The restrooms are clean, despite being in a tourist area. If you look closely at the white wall, you can see illustrations of men and women.

However, this one did not react to hydrochloric acid. I don't have detailed notes, so this is only based on my memory. 5% thin hydrochloric acid was always carried by M-kun and others to test the limestones.

We boarded four or six boats and headed for an outcrop of cliffs along the coast. Behind the boats, the distinctive limestone peaks can be seen in the distance. The camera is a cheap GoPro-like camera (about 8,000 yen) that I bought for riding my MTB around my neighborhood, but it has quite good resolution.

This seems to be the observation point for geological formations, and although I was not informed of this in advance, it is a great place to observe the formations. This is the point where we are unloaded from the boat on the slope piled up with stones like a quay wall. This is also a still cutout from the video.

The cliff strata are observed on a flat area in front of the cliff, like a rather large park. From a distance, it looks like alternating layers of sandstone and mudstone, but up close, it looks very different. Just to be sure, we gathered the students together and poured some light hydrochloric acid on a fallen stone. It turned out to be limestone. Later that night, I sent a picture to Dr. Bessho, a sedimentary rock specialist whom I know, and he said that it was probably turbidite, which is a calcareous rock. The following photos illustrate this. The upper part of the rock is covered by a stratigraphic plane, but it is probably safe because it is limestone.

It looks like turbidite. I didn't have that idea at the time, so I explained that the pure, slightly white limestone protrudes and the slightly black limestone mixed with mud is concave, but I don't think I was too far off.

Later, Dr. B sensei asked me if I had seen any grading structure, but I did not notice it at that time. but I did see a road cast and a sole mark that I thought might be the next raw trace.

I think this is a trace fossil. It is similar to those of the Cretaceous Izumi Group, in my home town which is composed of alternating layers of sand and mud.

Now, we will get on the boat again and observe the back side of this formation. Focus sensei pointed out that the entire formation is slightly geosynclined. He is a physics major, but he also took a course in physical geology during his college days, so he has a deep knowledge of geology. He was originally a software engineer who taught MatLab, but switched to teaching high school physics. This high school really has a lot of skillful young teachers like him.

The back side of the limestone alternation is beautifully folded (or is it slumping?). It is quite a wonderful scenery. The weather changed to sunny mode a few days ago, which was also very good timing. This is a video taken with iPhone 12. The detail of the texture is much higher resolution than the cheap action camera.

The tour guide sometimes talked with university professors and spoke some English, but most of his explanations were in Thai to students. He was very helpful. I was scolded by the guide when I tried to support myself by holding the head of a stalagmite to take a picture. I apologize for that.

This is a growing stone containing iron with mysterious magnetic properties. It is said that the magnetic mineral grows around it to form a round sphere like this. This limestone cave has a blue-colored copper stain at the entrance, so it seems to be a limestone that contains a lot of such metals. I tried to check the magnetism with a clinometer app on my iPhone, but I could not realize it. F sensei was very interested in mt story that me and my students once tried to measure the magnetic field in the limestone cave. At that time, I expected no magnetic field in a cave like an electrostatic shielding, but the fact is not.

Finally, we took a commemorative photo with the students and the teachers who took care of us, which was the last event at this school. I would like to express my gratitude to Focus sensei and Kung sensei who took care of me, and also to the students who helped me with my poor English.

After the 200-km round trip, NST science teachers threw me a farewell party at a restaurant called Ozone. Everyone seemed to be single and wanted someone to spend Christmas Eve with a steady friend. Only Focus sensei of Physics and me continued to drink the same churned beer with ice. The ladies and the driver avoided drinking. The driver on the right drove us 200 km round-trip and dropped us off here. He is a really nice guy. Thank you!

I was wondering how to get from Don Mueang airport to the hotel, but I had some time to kill, so I decided to follow the rule of taking public transportation as much as possible. I had time to think about how to get from Don Mueang airport to the hotel. However, it was quite hard to move with a big suitcase weighing 28kg. First, I took the Red Line from Don Mueang Airport to the city center.

From there, I changed to the BTS. It was a 400-meter walk from the station, so I just kept walking. It gets hotter in the afternoon in Bangkok, but it was not so hot on this day. But I was worried that the legs of my heavy suitcase (28kg) might be broken.

Well, I got off at the On Nut BTS station and went south for 400 meters to a rather confusing place. The building is very new, and the wifi is very sensitive, and the TV has the standard web and YouTube channels. However, as one would expect in the center of Bangkok, this hotel costs a little over 6,000 yen per night. I watched Japanese news on YouTube for the first time in almost 20 days. I watched the news on YouTube for the first time in almost 20 days, and it seems that the Christmas cold wave has hit Japan very hard. It's like early September here in Japan. It's lower than 25 degrees Celsius at night, so I can sleep without air conditioner.

Last night, I finally had a pizza at PizaHut in Lotus for the first time in about 10 days. 340THB for 2 pizzas, which is less than 700 yen per pizza. That's about half the price in Japan. This beer + pizza dinner continues today. In any case, I have another pizza in the fridge. Tomorrow morning, a car will pick me up from KVIS, my old workplace, at this hotel. I'm going to sleep a little early.

My main purpose for coming to KVIS is to help two M6(12th grade) students of KVIS make a seismograph. I have been helping them online for a long time, but this time I finally got to see their prototype in person. They have decided to make a new simple amplifier and they have just finished it.

Mr. K is adjusting the prototype amplifier. We have been discussing with them online, but this is the first time for me to see the actual prototype. It's quite well done.

Dr. Min and M6 student K-kun, and me were invited by Dr. Min, who asked me to give a lecture on the principles of seismometry to his students when I used to teach at KVIS.

After that, I visited the EEC (Eastern Economic Corridor) with my old friend Dr. Thanit (my mentor who invited me to Thailand in 2016) and KVIS dorm supervisor Dr. Phornsant. The EEC prioritizes environmental conservation, so all the cars are EV (electric vehicle) golf carts. This visit to Thailand was facilitated by Dr. Thanit (on the left in the photo), who has been a great help to me since our first meeting at PCSHS Chonburi in 2016.

This is a part of EEC's research building nearing completion. It looks like a part of a robotic prototype unit. I felt that this building is filled with expectations for the future of science and technology in Thailand.

This is a fully automated greenhouse. They are trying to manage the greenhouse according to the climate of Thailand.

I found a very interesting plant in one of the greenhouses. It is a cannabis plant. Of course, it is cultivated under a medical license.

This ditch around the building is a unique tropical facility. Can you guess what it is? The answer is Ant Trap.

Now, after 3 years, I met again my former partner at KVIS, Dr. Tang, who got Ph.D in Biochemistry from Hokkaido University, she teaches Chemistry and Geology at KVIS now, and has been a great help to me from 2017 to 2019. Her charming smile has not changed at all from 3 years ago. In the background of this picture is my seismograph and 3D seismicity map, still working after 3 years. It is still working after three years. Dr. Theparak, who is in charge of the Physics Labo, took the picture and he also helped me a lot this time.

Dr. Tang is checking the donated rocks. She bought three expensive Zeiss polarizing microscopes for her students' practice. After lunch, she brought them over for me to take a look at them.

The seismograph in the background of the previous photo is this one. The previous seismographs had been working, but the recording had been disturbed due to the ch, so the balance of the vertical motion seismograph and the horizontal motion seismograph was adjusted. This time, the balance of the vertical motion seismograph and the horizontal motion seismograph was adjusted. I made this seismograph with a research grant from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (MEXT).

This is a Zeiss polarizing microscope. It is a type of ordinary microscope with a polarizing plate attached, so it requires a little ingenuity to observe a thin slice. However, the sharpness of the image is excellent, as expected from the famous German company Zeiss.

Impressed by the sharpness of the microscope and Tang sensei's passion for the study of geology, I donated my own polarizing unit and some of the rock thin-sections that I had planned to bring back to Japan. I hope to use them to hold a workshop for observing rock thin-sections at KVIS next year or later.

Dinner with Prof. Punya of Chulalongkorn University, whom I met for the first time at the 2017 Dinosaur Expedition to Thailand and met again this summer at the conference in Shimane, Japan. He is a very famous geology professor in Thailand, and his student, Professor Montree, gave me a lot of rocks when I was at KVIS. He has been doing a lot of joint research with Japanese universities, and has visited Japan many years, sending many students to Japan to study. He is currently collaborating with Dr. Montree on a survey of active faults and tsunami deposits in Thailand. His English was very easy to understand and the topics of geology in Thailand, Japan and the world were very interesting. 4 bottles of Chang beer were consumed by the two of us.

Tom Yung Kung for dinner is a special dish. This roasted coconut goes well with beer, too. I was a little disappointed that I had to leave the restaurant in the middle of our endless conversation, as I have an early flight back tomorrow morning.

We had dinner at a restaurant beside Chulalongkorn University. There is an old looking railroad, but a train was entering so it was very surprising for me. It was a relaxing scene of downtown Bangkok.

Since my flight back to Narita departs early in the morning after 8:00 a.m., I stayed at an inn near the airport that day. The shuttle bus departed from the inn at 4:30 in the morning. I had heard that international flights were crowded, so I arrived at the airport very early. To my surprise, I had to show my vaccination certificate at the JAL reception counter. I thought it was at the time of arrival at Narita, but it was at the time of boarding procedure.

After checking in my luggage, I had breakfast in the lounge of Suvarnabhumi Airport. I ate a little too much, because I had a meal on the plane after that. This is the end of my report on my visit to Thailand in December 2022. Thank you very much for Thai teachers to their kind support.