Heading out

I've been in Tokyo a few days now, hanging out with Panda chan, catching up with old friends and eating well. Tonight, Panda chan and I are leaving Tokyo for a few days, to head back to her parents' place for New Year's.

Unlike in the West, New Year's in Japan is a time for families to get together (conversely, Christmas is usually for younger people, mostly couples). So we're driving to Panda chan's hometown with her brother and her brother's wife. Panda chan's hometown is in Western Japan, north of Kobe and Kyoto. The drive will take 10 hours.

TEN. HOURS.

If you thought Japan was small, you were right. But if you thought small meant you couldn't do long drives, you were wrong. Although, I guess when looked at in comparison to what a "long drive" means in the States, where you can spend 25 hours just crossing a few states, it's not that long after all.

What makes it especially tough, though, is the fact that we're leaving at night, to avoid traffic (10 pm, actually). Because her hometown is a little off the beaten path, I guess much of the driving will be off the freeway, which makes it take longer than you would expect distance-wise. I just hope we can avoid a lot of the crowds of people driving home for the holiday (a lot of Japanese had to work until yesterday, so there will probably be a lot of cars on the road all day today).

Then, of course, there's the fact that we're driving ten hours for around two and a half days spent in her hometown, only to turn around and drive back to Tokyo on the 2nd. All in all, though, I'm looking forward to the trip. It will be good to meet her family and see where she's from. And it's always nice to get outside of Tokyo and explore other parts of Japan.

After the visit home, Panda chan and I are taking another little trip. On the third, we've booked rooms at a cool-looking onsen (hot spring) in Izu, 2 1/2 hours outside of Tokyo. Should be fun!

Duck, duck, duck, Jackass.

Yesterday Panda chan and I went to a Kamo Nabe restaurant. Kamo is the Japanese word for duck, and nabe is like a Japanese hotpot -- great for winter. We had thought about making dinner at home, but one of her friends had recommended this place in Yurakucho, which is only a few stops away, so it seemed like a good idea.

I had eaten Kamo Nabe a few times before, and despite my fondness for duck, wasn't that impressed, because the duck was often hard and chewy, even if it was flavorful. This place, however, was different -- we started with a little grilled duck which was deliciously tender. That was followed by a little duck sashimi.

Yes, duck sashimi, as in, raw duck. I think this was the second time I've had raw fowl, the first time being chicken sashimi in Kyoto, oh-so-many years ago. It was quite tasty -- didn't seem "raw" at all, and as far as I can tell, I haven't died from salmonella yet.

Finally, the main course, the nabe, came. As with the rest of the duck, it was surpisingly tender, and quite delicious. The dashi (soup) was also good, although I wouldn't have minded if there had been a little more tofu or a few more dango (dumpling-like balls of mashed ground duck).

All in all, sounds like a great meal, right? Well, it was, except for the service, which was miserable, to put it mildly. We had made a reservation for 8:30, but when we got there, all of the tables were full, and the old man running the place told us to come back at 9, making it out to be our fault for making an 8:30 reservation (on the phone he had said 8:30 or 9 would have been okay, but clearly he wanted us to make it 9). As requested, we came back at 9, only to have to wait for them to clear one of the open tables -- you'd think if they had known we were coming, they would have cleared it before we got there.

When we finally sat down, it took seemingly forever for the one waitress (an old woman -- possibly the old man's wife?) to come take our drink order, and the beers sat upon the bar for five minutes before Panda chan finally got up and got them herself. A few minutes later, the waitress finally took our food order, and all we got was a "sorry" and an unsympathetic look. Later, when we had unsuccessfully tried calling her over to start our nabe, she spent almost 5 minutes trying to take a picture of the patrons at another table, caring more about their digital camera (maybe it was the first time she'd used one??) than the rest of the customers. All the while, the old man was sitting behind the counter, either doing nothing, washing dishes (a sign of little to do) or, worse, sipping on a cup of sake.

But the straw that broke the camel (duck's?) back was when we got the bill. Panda chan and I had figured out how much the bill should be, and when the waitress brought us the check, it was over 1000 yen (around 9 bucks) higher. When we asked why, the waitress said in a less-than-polite tone that the otoshi was 500 yen each. Not only was the otoshi not very good, but it certainly wasn't worth 500 yen, and there was no mention of the charge on the menu. Plus, after we questioned the bill, the old man behind the counter could be heard grumbling VERY loudly about us, who he clearly hadn't been happy to see since the second we walked in the door. And when we left, not so much as a "thank you", which is VERY rare for Japan. Jackass.

A- for food, B for location, F for service. We won't be back.

The REAL value of a $12 box of chocolates

Or, "How I turned 12 bucks into a better flight and my own private bar"

Several years ago, I had scheduled a trip from Japan to the US that had me flying on Christmas Day. Upon hearing this, one of my coworkers at the time relayed to me a story about her friend who, flying to Australia on Christmas Day, brought a box of chocolates for the stewardesses and proceeded to get upgraded to business class. Knowing a good deal when I saw one, I brought a box of Godiva chocolates on board with me and gave it to the stewardesses. As it was several years ago, I can't remember if I got upgraded or just got a better seat, but I do remember that it definitely paid off.

Fast forward to yesterday, Christmas Eve 2006. At the airport, before boarding my flight, I bought a box of See's chocolates (yes, it was $12). I figured, worst-case scenario, I was out 12 bucks. As I boarded the flight, I asked the flight attendant where my seat was (showing my pass so she'd remember where I was), and then gave the box of chocolates to the purser, wishing them Merry Christmas.

One of the last ones on the plane, I took my seat and got ready for takeoff. The plane started up, we taxid to the runway, and we were off.... except, before we actually got off the ground, the engines powered down and we came to a slow stop. Apparently there was a problem with the cargo door light, so we had to return to the gate and wait. And wait. And wait. When the problem was finally fixed, the pilot came on and said he had some paperwork to take care of, so we waited some more. And a little more. Finally, almost two hours after our original departure time, we had a successful take off.

The next 8 hours were a rather uneventful combination of reading (The Omnivore's Dilemma), watching airline movies (Little Miss Sunshine and Invincible -- both of which were pretty entertaining) and watching downloaded tv episodes on my computer. Until, all of a sudden, the purser came by my seat and asked "you're the one that gave us the candy, right?"

When I said "yes", he apologized for not "taking care of me" earlier, bemoaning how understaffed they were (it WAS Christmas, after all...), and handed me a plastic bag full of bottles of alcohol. He then apologized again, offered me my choice of red or white wine, and said that while there was only two hours left, if I wanted to, I could sit up in business class for the rest of the flight and have breakfast there.

I practically tripped over myself rushing down the aisle to take him up on his offer. And it was all I could do to prevent myself from laughing out loud with glee. In the end, I couldn't sleep (despite putting the seat completely flat and turning on the lumbar massagers) because I was so amped up, so I read a little and watched a little more tv on my laptop. Breakfast was delicious -- roast beef, salmon, a bowl of fruit and coffee cake, with two surprisingly tasty cups of coffee.

When I got off the plane and finally had the courage to peek into the two bags I had gotten, there was a bottle of Schramberg sparkling wine, two FULL-SIZE bottles of red wine (including a bottle of St. Supery, which is in Napa), and 8 or so miniature bottles of alcohol. While I certainly would not have minded sitting in Business Class for the entire trip, considering the fact that the first 10 hours were a sunk cost and I had stopped expecting anything, all in all it worked out in the end.

Not bad for 12 bucks...

On the one hand

I want to say that this video of the opening of the first Krispy Kreme in Japan just shows how much Japanese people LOVE to wait in lines for food. And yet, I seem to remember similar lines when the first Krispy Kreme opened outside of LA 7 or so years ago.

I admit, their donuts are good, in that "Oh my god I'm going to have a sugar-induced heart attack" kinda way. But are they really worth waiting 45 minutes (whether it's in the cold of a Japanese winter or the smoggy warmth of an LA summer)?

Too far

I'd like to think I'm a pretty tolerant guy. I don't really complain a whole lot about others, and in general, I think I make a good neighbor. And, even though I haven't thrown any real parties in my Berkeley apartment (dinner parties don't count), I certainly love to party, and I enjoy good music at a level that's sometimes possibly damaging to my long-term hearing.

But, come on, guys! My whole goddamn apartment is vibrating from the bass of your stereo. And it's 2am...

After 20 minutes of not getting to sleep because of said vibrations, I finally had enough, and went on the hunt for the culprit. As expected, it was the guys downstairs from me. They said they'd turn it down. Let's hope I can get to sleep now.

Theory and Practice

It seems like there are a lot of things that work much better in theory than in practice. A lot of times when I see a really cool shirt in a store, it doesn't look nearly as good on me as it did on the rack.

Another example -- dinner last night. I had gotten a recipe for stuffed & baked artichokes from Andronicos, a local grocery store. Given that artichokes are readily available and fresh here, and they're something I've never really used in cooking (other than serving them boiled w/ butter for one meal when Panda chan was here), I thought I'd give it a try, remembering the delicious stuffed artichokes my mom used to make when I was a kid.

Well, not only was it a lot more work than I had anticipated (how DO you do it, mom?), but it didn't taste quite as good as I remembered. For some reason, the stuffing was really loose; more like sprinkles, than stuffing. Oh well.

Theory-gone-awry # 2: The other day, when shopping at my favorite culinary institution, the Berkeley Bowl, I came across a set for homemade salsa in the vegetable area. Not only did it seem like a really cool idea, but it seemed like the perfect excuse to use my new Cuisinart.


Once again, theory and practice collided. Violently. Instead of being beautiful, fresh salsa, I ended up with a kind of watery salsa-esque mush.

Now, admittedly, it's probably more my fault for not being really familiar with my cuisinart, yet. And it doesn't exactly taste bad. But it definitely didn't live up to my expectations.

On the upside, I'm cooking and experimenting, instead of just heating up boxed stuff (although, I'm doing my fair share of that, too).

Tonight's menu? The one leftover artichoke and TBD.

Finally!

When I left my last job in Japan, I got a video iPod as a going away gift. At the time, I only had my crappy old iBook as a computer, not my shiny new Vaio. The newer iPods only connect over USB, as opposed to firewire, and on my old mac, the USB was REALLY SLOW, meaning it took ages to update my iPod.

It took almost an entire day, but after 5 months, I finally changed my iPod over from my mac to my PC (you have to choose which type you're going to use and stick with it). It was such a big pain because my songs weren't all in one location -- some were on my mac, some were on my pc, some were on dvds/cds and some I had lost and were only on my iPod. Now everything's on both my pc AND my iPod.

Not only that, but I finally put a few videos on it (a couple of things I had downloaded for free from iTunes). I'm still not sure how I feel about watching a tv show on a 2.5" screen, but it IS pretty cool.

And now I have almost all my tunes in my iPod. Perfect timing for my trip to Japan!
Now if I could only find my old iPod that I was planning on using as a portable hard-drive. It's gotta be around here somewhere....

Since I'm doing all this updating...

I might as well post the fact that I'm leaving for Tokyo in 5 days. Hooray! Even though it's only been six months since I was last there, it seems like a lot longer. I lived there for six years, after all.

I'll be there for about three weeks, visiting Panda chan and catching up with some old friends. Should be a good time!

And hey

Check out those labels! Cool, huh? Now if you ever wanted to peruse, say, all my food-related posts, and ONLY my food-related posts, you could. In theory. It's kind of a pain in the ass tagging all my old posts, so I might have missed a few...

Renewal

Hey there. I'm the new blog. Nice to meet you.

Actually, I'm not that new. Same ole' crap, in fact. Just a shinier look. I like shiny, don't you? Shiny's good. So are some of my new features.

Check out my new Flickr Badge! -->
Cool, huh?

Heh heh. Shiny.

Regret?

I. Can't. Believe. I. Gave. Up. My. Digital. Cable. And. HDTV.

What was I thinking? Oh well, guess I'll have to wait until the Blue-Ray/HD-DVD wars are over and pick up the survivor once prices have come down. Wouldn't want to be like my Dad in the 80s -- he still has a Betamax VCR hidden away in his office at home....

Boardacious!

Suhweet! I just got a brand new snowboard. Awesome. And hopefully I'm going boarding tomorrow morning with some friends from school. Day-trip to Tahoe (Kirkwood, where a bunch of us have season passes, and where we're renting a ski house starting in January). At 32, hopefully I'm finally gonna become a good snowboarder! Keep your fingers crossed....

Done!

As of 11:59 am on Thursday morning, I am done with my first semester of business school! Yeah!

I can't tell if it went by extremely qiuckly or lasted four lifetimes... Maybe somewhere in between? (which would be 1 and a third lifetimes??)

I now have a month of freedom -- One week here in Berkeley and then it's off to Japan for three weeks with my Panda chan!

Numbers

Number of classmates I have -- 241
Amount of money I lost in Vegas last weekend -- Don't Ask
Days since I started my MBA -- 107
Number of times my corporate finance professor said "Law of one price!" this semester -- 86
Finals taken so far this semester -- 3
Finals to go -- 1
Hours until I have to turn in my last paper -- 13

Motivation level -- 0

Ever feel like you can take on the world?

What about take OVER the world? I feel like both sometimes. Especially when I listen to this song. Well, actually, not that particular song, although it's great, too. The song I was really listening to in a cafe, earlier today, is called Playstar Vista. But I couldn't find a clip of that one.

Both are from the cd Futurama, by Supercar, whom I've mentioned here before. Because they rock. And because when I listen to them, I feel like I can take over the world. And kind of want to.

Or, at least don't want to study for my finals any more...

I think when I'm in Tokyo over the holiday, I'm going to have to rent all of their cds that I don't have and rip them on to my PC. 'Cause they rock. And 'cause that kind of thing is legal in Japan (no kidding).

The logic is irrefutable

Whether you agree with the premise of the article or not, you have to admit, the final sentence makes perfect sense -- mummies are indeed unable to reproduce.

My latest infatuation

Heard in the Fred Segal on Melrose, in L.A.
Snapped up at Tower Records' Going Out of Business Sale in Santa Monica (40% off).

Dreams, by The Whitest Boy Alive

Rock 'N Roll.

(Be sure and check tracks 1 & 2)

Not quite an update

In the spirit of "Short is better than nothing"...

My parents bought me a cuisinart when they were in town over Thanksgiving. I didn't think I needed the full-on newest model, as it was really big and twice the price, so I got the "Classic" version. I finally opened up the box today, and was a little surprised to find an instructional VIDEOTAPE. Not a DVD. I guess that's why they call it the "Classic"....

Customer Service

I rented a car today from Enterprise. Panda chan is coming into town again tomorrow (yeah!), and I decided it would be better to pick her up in a car, instead of taking BART (the train). Plus, she's getting in at 7:30 in the morning, which means I'd probably have to take a 6 or 6:30 train to make it there in time.

I used Enterprise because a) last time I rented a car through them I had a great experience, b) it's close to my apartment c) it's usually cheaper than other places (though not this time) and d) perhaps the most important part, they pick me up. Last time it worked out great -- I called, and 20 minutes later they were at my school, ready to take me to their location.

This time, however, I waited outside for 30 minutes AFTER the agreed-upon time before they finally came. So, when I made it to the counter, I was somewhat less than pleased. This bad experience had completely colored my image of Enterprise, and not in a good way.

Fortunately, it didn't end there. Sensing I was NOT in a happy mood (and remembering that I had been in a few weeks ago), Kenny, the young guy behind the counter, offered to give me a free upgrade. Not only that, it was from a compact to a convertible (which apparently they had just gotten from the airport). AND, he offered to cut me some slack on the amount of gas I needed to fill the tank with before I brought it back. So he turned a potentially bad situation into a great one. All for the price of MAYBE 2 bucks in gas, and the use of a convertible which otherwise probably would have sat idle on the lot.

So, yes, I'll be going back to Enterprise for my next rental car need.

I was an early adopter

Way back in '93 and '94, I had already started using the internet at Amherst. Unfortunately, at the time all it was good for was sending e-mails to classmates (few people outside of school had e-mail yet), IRC (EARLY version of chat) and downloading crappy quality videos of Tori Amos concerts (it was a long time ago, okay?).

I really wish we had had something like this. I can't figure out if this is officially supported by Amherst or not, but either way it seems pretty cool. Especially the schedule function. Ah, to be young again...

Radicalicious

I want some! I can't recall seeing any Lavazza's in the Bay Area, but I wonder if they're bringing this out here anytime soon... Or maybe the Lavazza's in Japan have it??

Goooooaaalllll!!!!

After a multi-year hiatus, I recently started playing soccer again. A few weeks ago, the soccer club held a first-years vs. second-years match, and so I signed up. I ended up playing in the field for 10 or 15 minutes (talk about out of shape!), and then spent most of the 2nd half in goal.

Surprisingly, despite the fact that I gave up a goal (I was, admittedly, a bit rusty), I was invited to play on one of my classmates' intramural "Speed Soccer" team (basically, 6-aside on a small "field"), because they needed a keeper. My debut game was supposed to happen two weeks ago, but the team roster was full, so I wasn't able to play.

Last Tuesday night (a week ago), I braved the cold, cold weather and showed up, this time with my name on the roster. And in my debut, not only did I manage a shut-out, but in the last 5 minutes I switched with another player and managed to score a goal!! Granted, the other team only had 4 players to our 6, and the final score was an embarrassing 15-0, but still! That didn't take away from the excitement of scoring (my first goal in YEARS...)

Turns out that was the last game of regular season, so in two weeks we have the beginning of the playoffs. Here's hoping for another shutout/goal combination!

This sucks...

I’m writing this post sitting in front of my gate at Oakland Airport, on my way back to Baton Rouge. It’s 5AM, and my flight doesn’t leave until another hour and fifteen minutes. Being 75 minutes early during the middle of the afternoon is bad enough, but at 5 AM it just plain sucks. Especially when getting here this early required me to wake up at 3:40 this morning. Especially when I didn’t get to sleep until almost 1 last night. Especially when I didn’t get to sleep until 4 the night before (although, the extra hour of sleep I got from missing my alarm and being late to class was pretty helpful…)

The first shuttle company I called told me I needed a 3AM pickup for a 6:15 flight. Talk about stupidity. What kind of freakin’ idiots are they?? 2 hours to get to the airport?? Even the San Jose airport doesn’t take 2 hours to get to from Berkeley, especially at 3 o’clock in the freakin’ morning! Morons.

So instead, I called around until I found a place that gave me a (what I thought was) more reasonable 4 AM. Oh well, better than taking public transportation at this ungodly hour.

Now, if only I could figure out why the hell I still have to take my shoes off every time I go through security. And what was up with the TSA guy bitching at me about putting stuff on top of my laptop? Do you mean to tell me that the x-ray machine can see through my bag, and through metal, but it can’t see through my jacket?? Whatever.

Wheels!

Suhweet! After about a month of not having wheels (other than the occasional rental car), I finally got a new bike! Ah, I can taste the freedom. And it tastes kinda like creme brulee! Mmmmmm, creme brulee.....

Anyway, I ended up getting a cool Trek hybrid bike. In this bitchin' red color. And I figured since I was at it, it was best to get some of the options -- helmet (gotta stay safe!), lock (MAJOR Kryptonite U-lock, so the thieves can't strike twice), chain lock (for my front tires, which are now quick-release) and a new mount for my bike light, since the old one was on my stolen bike (but fortunately I had the light itself up in my apartment).

Ready to roll!

PS -- thanks go out to my folks who got me the bike for my (now belated) birthday.

Will it blend?

I don't know why you would ever want to blend a rake handle or marbles (or create cochicken for that matter), but I'll be darned if it itsn't GREAT salesmanship (and a great use of YouTube, to boot).

If

Anybody else is reading this, this one's for you, my loyal readers (who aren't my parents).

Real posting to return shortly....

And

Just so my Mom doesn't feel left out, Mom, this post's for you.

Ouch

Wow. Now even my DAD is giving me crap for not posting. What can I say? I'm lazy (as if you didn't realize that 20 or 30 posts ago....).

Well, here you go Dad. This post's for you.

Hillarious!

One of my friends was recently bemoaning the fact that I haven't been updating my blog much lately, and that when I do, it's just links to stuff on the web. Well, I know I have a lot to catch up on (finals! Trip to LA!), but unfortunately, little time (well, maybe effort is the better word?). And besides, a lot of the great blogs I read do the same thing -- point to other things on the web. That's the viral nature of the internet.

So, in keeping with that tradition, I've posted the above link (in the title) to a ridiculously funny video a friend passed on to me. And the greatest thing about it is it was actually made by Nike in Japan. If you go to their nikeid.com website, you can even "order" a custom version (unfortunately, when I tried to put it in my cart, it ended with "Just a joke!". Would have made an AWESOME Halloween costume....)

Good to the last drop

I've been using my new coffee maker pretty regularly lately. On weekedays, I'll usually make a pot in the morning, before I go to classes. Depending on long a day I have, I sometimes put what I don't drink in a thermos, and take it to school (helps keep me awake during the more boring lectures...).

Never having bought coffee beans before, I've been experimenting with a few different varieties. The Berkeley Bowl sells organic coffee at 8 bucks a pound, which is a great deal, considering the exact same stuff is 10 bucks at another grocery store, and Peet's coffee sells their stuff for 12 bucks a pound in their cafes (not sure what Starbucks goes for, but probably something similar). I tried a couple of different flavors/types, and they were all pretty good (alhtough, I can't really recall if one was better than the other).

Much to my surprise, the Bowl also sells French Market coffee, Chicory coffee from Louisiana. I've had it at my parents' place several times (I think), and since it was only 6 bucks for a pound, I thought I'd give it a try. Not only is it going to last me twice as long as what I had previously used (because you only have to use half as much), but it tastes really damn good! Add some soy milk (vanilla or plain), and it's even better! There goes any attempt at limiting my coffee intake....

Sheer Genius!

And with English supertitles, to boot!

Love it, or get your ass off the internet, 'cause you don't belong!

(and next time you wonder why I like Japan so much, just think back to this video -- what's not to like?!?)

a great idea

Maybe it's just a reminant of my childhood fascination with legos, but I think this is really cool. Can you imagine stacking blocks of ice cubes in your drink glass? Brilliant!

Curry Rice

I made myself a big ole' pot of curry rice for dinner. Mmmmmm! Good stuff. Although I should have cooked it a little longer to make the beef a little more tender.

One of the great things about curry rice is leftovers! I used to make it a lot when I lived in LA, and it always lasted at least till dinner the next night (including lunch!). So guess what I'm bringing to school tomorrow? You got it, a tupperware container full of curry rice!

You learn something new...

File this one under the "I feel a little silly, yet I'm glad I found out" department.

I was talking with one of my classmates yesterday about new bikes, telling him how mine had gotten stolen. We started to talk about gears and what's good on a bike. Then it became clear to me that the reason I was having so much trouble pedalling my (old) bike was because I was using the wrong gears. I had thought high gear was for going up hills, because it seemed like each time I pedalled it propelled me farther. Turns out, high gear (I think it's high gear. 3rd on the left, 5th on the right kinda thing) is for going DOWNHILL. Huh. Who knew?

Can't wait to try it out. Yet I have to wait, at least until I can get a new bike.... Oh the irony.

damn

My bike got stolen the other day. The kicker is, it was chained up INSIDE the gated garage of my apartment building. Whoever stole it was nice enough to leave the cut chain behind...

It was quite the shock finding out. I had gone down into the garage, to hop on my bike and ride to my evening class. My first reaction was "huh. Did I forget to bring my bike back from campus the other day?". Then I saw the chain.

So I had to call the police yesterday morning to file my first-ever stolen property report. Then called the insurance company (my deductible is $250, though, so the chances of me getting anything are slim) and my building's property management company.

Fun stuff....

Chocoglllllrlrlrlrlrh.......

I just got back from a cooking class, sponsored by the Culinary Club at Haas (one of my favorite clubs!). It was held at a place called Kitchen of Fire. I was expecting a similar experience to my cooking classes in China and Thailand, meaning a small class size and individual cooking stations, so I was a little disappointed when 15 or 20 people showed up, and all of us collaborated on 4 different chocolate deserts, at 4 simultaneous stations.

Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun. Only now, I'm suffering from a combination of a chocolate-induced high and a general bluh-feeling caused by too much chocolate. In a good way, though.

I've come to a realization, though, that while I really like chocolate, I'm not that big a fan of chocolate cake deserts. Brownies, yes, cakes, not so much. Even the chocolate lave cake wasn't that awe-inspiring (although, maybe that was just because by the time I had some, I was already suffering from a minor-soon-to-be-major overdoes of chocolate...). The truffles, though, well, that's a whole 'nuther story altogether. Deeeelicious! Whether dark or milk, rolled in almonds, hazelnuts or cocoa powder, they were mmmmm good!

Definitely going to make those again. Maybe tomorrow??

(BTW, this post's title is the sound that comes out of my mouth when I try to say "chocolate" now. See above-referenced chocolate high/chocolate bluh.)

Tipping Point

For those of you who haven't read "The Tipping Point", you should. For those of you that have, I wonder when the global warming topic reached it's tipping point, and what caused it. Whatever it was, I like it!

Check out this video of Ted Turner and David Letterman talking green.

Disgustingly Ridiculous

And yet fascinating at the same time...

"He doesn't know it's a competition..." Of course not, you idiot!!!! He's a freakin' BEAR!!!!

Funny with a capital "Holy crap"

As a youngster, I was always a fan of Weird Al Yankovic. Who can forget classics like "Eat it" and "Another one rides the bus"?

Well, some twenty-odd years later, he's still at it. Just saw his newest video, and as a reformed (?) nerd myself, it was pretty damn hillarious. Check it out.

Massive (Pot) Attack

I went to see a band called Massive Attack last night. They played at the Greek Theater, which is a really cool outside venue on Berkeley's campus. The show was pretty good (not great), but one of the things that left the biggest impression was the amount of smoke floating through the air, most of which was from the weed being consumed around me, not the pyrotechnics on stage.

Panda chan's gone now, so I'll post a quick note on the past week shortly. But for now, I'm off to karaoke!

Less than 12 hours

Panda chan is coming! Yeah! She arrives in San Francisco tomorrow morning. I just spoke to her as she was boarding the plane in Tokyo. It looks like she barely made it in time (she's been working past midnight every night this week, and last night was at the office past 4 am!), but thankfully, she made it.

Tomorrow morning, I'm waking up really early (well, 7 is really early for me) to go get a rental car so I can pick her up at the airport. We'll probably chill in Berkeley for a while, but then when early afternoon hits, it's off to Napa! We're spending the weekend there, at a hotel in St. Helena. It's her birthday on Saturday, so I booked us a table at a swanky restaurant, called La Toque. A friend of mine recommended it, and according to Zagat's, it's one of the top 2 or 3 places in Napa (although, my friend, who's from Napa, said that it's more consistent and maybe even better than French Laundry!).

We get back on Sunday afternoon, at which point I have to start on my midterm for my Organizational Behavior class. Yes, even though I just finished week 3, because of the short half-semester of core classes (7 weeks each), it's already exam time. Fortunately, it's a team paper, so I'll be working with my 3 study groupmates, who are being very understanding about me taking off for the weekend.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'll try to post a Napa recapa when I get back.

Here Here!

See! It's not just for grad students in Berkeley!

Still sore

Last night I went to the gym on campus for the first time (and my first visit to a gym in, what, a year? More?). A friend of mind recommended a total body workout class. I was looking for something to help get me in better shape, and more importantly, something that would help motivate me to do that something.

I've been thinking about doing Boot Camp, which is usually an early morning thing, where you go through crazy exercises and training while a fitness instructor is screaming at you (or something like that). Only problem is, even if it's cheaper through the school gym than normal, it still costs about a hundred bucks. And it starts at 6:30 am. This class was free, and in the early evening. So it seemed like a good candidate.

It was the toughest workout I've ever had. In a good way. There was running, leg exercises, tons of work on the abs, and weightlifting, too. And the instructor was really good. I was pretty tired when I got back from dinner last night.

Then it hit me. Right as I was trying to go to sleep, the soreness snuck up on me and did a number on a couple of my muscles.

This morning was a little worse. And now, oh boy, I'm feelin' it. Yah. While I was exercising, it was a good burn. Now, it just hurts.

Awe. Some.

It's paper. Made out of poo.

I shit you not.

Good News!

By far the most exciting thing to happen to me last week, to the point where I felt it deserved a separate entry, is I found out Panda Chan is going to visit me in two weeks! Yeah!!

She's coming here for her birthday, and she's going to be here a week. I'm really excited to see her (after all, it'll have been over 2 1/2 months since I last saw her in Tokyo!), and I'm glad I get to be with her on her birthday. Plus, if all goes well it looks like we'll be spending the night somewhere in Napa (details to follow), which should be great, especially since neither of us have been (it's actually her first time to Northern California, although she was in Southern California a few years ago).

Only 10 more days!

Week One

Well, week one has been over for a few days now. I had a rather busy weekend, which I'll conveniently use as my excuse for not posting earlier.

Here's my schedule:
Mondays & Wednesdays - Economics for Business Decision Making (Mircoeconomics), 2pm - 4pm
Tuesday & Thursdays - Data and Decisions (Statistics), 9am - 11am, Organizational Behavior, 2pm - 4pm
Starting next week
Tuesdays - Leadership Communications, 6pm - 9pm
Wednesdays - Life as an Entrepreneur, 4pm - 6pm

I know it might not seem like much, but you'd be surprised how busy I was last week. And that's before all of my classes started, and before club activities. Clubs are going to be a big part of life here, as they encompass everything from the "fun stuff" (Wine Club, Culinary Club, sports, etc.) to hard core career focused activities (Technology Club, Entrepreneur's Association). Then there are all of the speakers and conferences, the workshops and don't forget all of the summer internship prep, which believe it or not, is already starting (although it's much worse if you want to be a banker or consultant, because they've got company meetings THIS WEEK, whereas tech isn't until spring).

Classes were good. It's really nice being back in a learning environment. I feel like I'm soaking up so much information in the lectures -- something about being older, I definitely appreciate the atmosphere more. But, on the other hand, getting back into study mode is REALLY REALLY HARD (after all, I'm writing this post when I should be writing one of my assignments....)

We've already gotten a fair amount of work, from reading case studies, to team projects to problem sets. (If you don't know what case studies are, check out this Harvard Business School web page. They pretty much invented it.) And the pace is only going to quicken.

So this weekend I tried to get ahead as much as possible. I sort of succeeded. But I also had a bbq to go to on Saturday (hosted by second-year Japanese students. Five hours of Japanese-style bbq, and 90% in Japanese) and a party last night (hosted by my friend Yang-yang, at her new furniture-less apartment).

Today was a holiday, thankfully. I got some work done, and then fortunately was able to hook up with my brother and his fiancee in the City, for a little bit of sightseeing and dinner in Chinatown, before their redeye flight back to New York. Not only was it good seeing them, but I finally was able to give them the gifts I had bought in China for them (and got a bottle of sparkling wine and a half bottle of red they had picked up in their wedding locale search in return!)

Next up, week two (kinda hard to believe it's only week two! After all, I've been hanging out with a lot of my fellow students for over a month now...)

In 10 minutes

I'm starting my first Business School class (we operate on "Berkeley Time", which means all classes actually start 10 minutes after their scheduled times).

Wish me luck!

BBQ

Went to a bbq today. It was the last activity of Orientation Week.

I went expecting your typical burgers and dogs. So imagine my surprise when I got there and found out it was catered. With 10 different kinds of skewers (everything from beef to portabello mushrooms to lime chicken), awesome mashed potatoes and cous-cous!

It was a gorgeous day, too. The bbq was held at Pinole Point park, about half an hour north of Berkeley. We kind of got lost on the way, but eventually found it.

Ah, what a nice way to spend the afternoon!

6

Today was the 3rd day of Orientation Week. On Monday, we had a good discussion on diversity, including a speech on diversity by the CEO of PG&E (a big California utility company). We also had some team-building exercises, important because I just found out who my "study group" is (a study group is a group of 4 people in the same class that have to work together on certain group projects).

Yesterday featured a pretty lame and uninspiring talk and workshop on innovation, as well as a much better look into and practice of what a typical case study will be like in our classes. Last night, the alumni association sponsored a business formal party at the faculty club, with a pretty cool alumni speaker, an announcement of the demographics of our new class (how many countries, average age, average GMAT score, etc.), and the usual finger food and copious amounts of alcohol.

It was one of my classmates' birthday, so I joined a big crowd celebrating afterwards at Club Med, aka another classmate's SWEET house up in the Berkeley Hills.

I left the party around 1, so I was a little dragging when I arrived at school at 8 this morning (only to find out that we didn't have to actually be there until 8:30...) We spent the first part of the morning talking about the opportunities for learning about and participating in socially responsible business at Haas (everything from non-profit to government to talking about how it just makes plain business sense for everyday businesses to be socially responsible). This is one of the topics that I'm interested, so I'm looking forward to delving into it more.

With that in the backs of our collective heads, we headed out to a local collaborative living establishment, where 200 different families that were either formerly homeless or close to becoming homeless live. It was a really great place, where they have formed their own community, helped out by on- and off-site workers, and where they do everything from tutor kids to grow their own vegetables. We were there to work, donating the labor of 240 vibrant and energetic people to do things like paint the houses, pull weeds, move mulch and build flower beds (which I did. My hammering skillz could use some work...). At the end, we went around the community picking up trash.

The division of labor was done across cohort lines. A cohort is a group of 60 students, all of whom take all first semester classes together (60 people x 4 cohorts = 240 people) As we were doing these various activities, we had kids from the houses walking around judging us on things like participation and enthusiasm. My team, Oski, won this part of the competition. But there was to be more. Much more.

From there, we headed out to a nearby park, where a bbq was waiting for us (along with cohort-specific t-shirts). After eating a quick lunch, the annual Cohort Olympia began.

With events like horseshoes, volleyball, twister and capture the flag, it sounds a little dorky, but keep in mind, all of these involved copious amounts of beer. As did "Sloshball", a take on the traditional kickball of days gone by. The whole thing kinda reminded me of my undergraduate days, in some good, and not-so-good ways. We ended with team-developed skits, poking fun at the personalities and foibles we had already seen in our still-short time here.

Alas, despite our best efforts, and my large amount of cheering, screaming and running around, Oski came in 2nd place, losing to Gold. This was a much better showing then last year, though, when Oski apparently came in 4th place in the competition, because they spent too much time just drinking beer.

Oh, and the number in this post's title? That's how many artificially-flavored strawberry cupcakes I ate in 3 minutes, as part of the speed-eating competition. My group came in 2nd, with 20 cupcakes eaten by the three of us, one short of the winning 21.

Holy Crap.

Wow. Ropes Course. What can I say? Or, more appropriately, what can I say on my blog that doesn't involve four-letter words or other things that would give my parents a heart attack?

I never really thought I had a problem with heights. But I knew I had a problem with falling. That kinda sounds like a no-brainer (who doesn't have a problem with falling?), but it's not so much the going "Splat!" on the pavement below that bothers me (although, of course, that's an issue), so much as the actual sensation of falling that I don't like. The whole "My stomach is in my lungs, and my lungs are about to come out of my mouth" thing. Which is why I never really liked roller coasters.

The only roller coaster I've ever truly enjoyed, to the point of doing it again and again, has been Space Mountain. Because it's dark. So you can't see what's coming up. 'Cause it's the seeing, and the anticipation that really gets me. One of the main reasons I DON'T generally ride roller coasters, is because I start to get queasy just looking at them, and thinking about how sick it's going to make me feel were I actually ride it. All this without even getting in line.

So, imagine that queasiness, that trepidation, that knowing "wow, this is gonna rock when I'm done, but suck while I'm doing it" feeling, and imagine that times 10. No, times 100. And, now imagine that feeling while standing on an itsy bitsy platform on a tree, 100 feet or so off the ground. And then, imagine that you have to jump off said platform, into nothing-ness below. That would be a small approximation of what I felt earlier today, when I went on a "Zip line" at the ropes course.

I'm convinced that jumping off things into wide open space is not a natural concept for humans. Otherwise we'd have winged arms or something. Never mind that I was harnessed in, never mind that I had two different connections to the zip line. It wasn't really about the knowledge of what I was about to do being safe. No matter how much you tell yourself that nothing could go wrong (and for the most part, nothing really CAN go wrong), that doesn't make it any easier to make that leap off the platform (for me, at least).

In the end, it took me about 10 minutes of psyching myself up, including nervous butterfiles, a couple of bouts of pseud0-hyperventilation, and somebody skipping me in line, but I made it. I didn't get a running jump off the platform, like some of my classmates; in fact, I sat down, and kind of eased myself off. Not the most graceful or exciting or manly ways of going. But I made it.

As I told my "guide", it's a lot easier being macho from the BOTTOM of the tree. Things aren't quite so easy when you're standing at the top.

I'm definitely glad I did it, though. Not only the getting over my fear, challenging my limits part, but it was actually FUN! At least, the ride down was. What started as a "holy crap!" scream quickly turned into unstoppable laughter. When I got back down, my legs were still shaking a little bit, but the adrenaline rush was amazing.

Then, there was the buoy-jump. This one was only 40 feet or so, so the climbing up part was MUCH easier. But once you get up top, there's only a teeny tiny little platform (way smaller than the zip line platform), with a narrow plan attached that goes out 10 feet or so. A buoy is attached to an adjustable wire above you, with the goal being to touch the buoy. Meaning when the buoy is farther out, you have to literally JUMP off this tiny plank to grab it.

Like the zip line, I was one of the last people to go. So I KNEW it was safe. I saw people making fantastic leaps off the plank, limbs outstretched as they SMACKED the buoy. I KNEW I could do it. I visualized myself taking a running jump and easily sailing off the platform, grabbing the buoy and then slowly being lowered down to the ground by my teammates.

But, once again, things didn't go quite so well as I had envisioned them. It's really easy to talk about it, and really easy to watch other people do it, but once you get up there, DAMN! That's pretty high! And, as I said before, humankind just wasn't meant to jump off into nothingness.

But, while I didn't make the jump, I did manage to get to the end of the plank, which I was very happy about. They moved the buoy close, so I stepped up to it (more like siddled up to it), and gave it a good whack, before scooting back to the slightly larger platform, so I could be lowered down.

I think I've had enough of high places for a while.

Off to the "Ropes Course"

And I just now noticed the "High above ground" part of our waiver....

Math Camp

A friend and fellow blogger reminded me today in no uncertain terms that I've been crap about updating. Were this a competition, I'd be losing the update battle. Thus the double-posting today.

So far, I'm 3/4 of the way through Math Camp (alternatively known as "Nerd Camp", "Geek Camp", "Math Review", "Summer Camp", "Get used to being back in a classroom for hours on end Camp", "Try not to fall asleep Camp", "Don't worry about the homework Camp" or "Just another excuse to meet a bunch of your future classmates before actual classes start Camp". For the most part, it's been pretty good, and I'm definitely glad that I signed up for it.

Last week was kind of a waste, in terms of actual instruction. We didn't really cover that much material, and a lot of what we did I had already gone over in studying for the GMAT. But as you can see from my "alternate names" list above, it was good for both getting back in to the groove of things, re- school, as well as for hanging out and getting to know a lot of my new classmates.

It's strange how quickly you can get to know somebody in this situation. Even though I've only known most people for a week, a week and a half at most, I already consider many of them my friends. I guess it's a combination of attitude and commonalities that brings us close so quickly.

Yesterday, we found out what "cohort" we're in. A cohort is a 60-person group that you end up taking all of your core classes (like accounting, finance and the other required first-year classes) together with, so they end up being a big part of your experience, because you spend so much time together during the first semester. Despite the fact that I've already met a lot of people through Math Camp, it seems like I don't know that many people in my cohort. Which is sort of a bad thing, in that it means a lot of the people I've been hanging out with and that I like I won't be able to spend as much time with, but I guess it's also sort of a good thing, because it will expose me to new people, which is definitely part of what business school is all about.

Anyway, the past three days of Math Camp have been a lot more helpful in terms of material covered. We went over some of the basics of finance (bonds, discount rate, the time value of money, etc.), which I knew nothing about. Plus, the professor was extremely dynamic, and did a great job of keeping 150 people in a cavernous auditorium engaged, despite the fact that all we wanted to do was either a) sleep off our hangovers or b) hurry up into the production of new hangovers. Tomorrow, yet another professor takes over, for two days of instruction on accounting. Despite the unofficial "don't do your homework" policy that's not-so-quietly handed down from the second years (and probably tacitly endorsed by the professors), like with finance, I got nuthin' when it comes to accounting, so I'm going to try to struggle through some of the reading for tomorrow's session.

Wish me luck.

So tiiiiiiiirrred

I just woke up from a two-hour nap. While some of my (still?) faithful readers might be jealous of my current situation which allows me to go to sleep for two hours in the middle of the day... wait a second. Sorry, no real counter-point to this one. You'd be right to feel jealous. I'M jealous (whatever that means).

But don't worry, it won't last for long. Next week is the start of "O-Week", or Orientation Week, with classes starting the week after. Something tells me that the balance of LNS to LNP (late-night studying/late-night partying) is going to shift dramatically from the current near (but not complete) 0 to 100 to a near-opposite 100 to 0. And with the addition of a full-class schedule (or at least what passes for one in business school), study groups, problem sets and massive amounts of reading, my ability to nap is going to drop dramatically. So I don't feel too bad about one moment of weakness today.

Gourmeh

Here's a pretty amusing article on the attempted "gourmetization" of food in the States.

http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,71561-0.html?tw=wn_culture_2

And the author lives in Berkeley! Cool!

(BTW, he's only half-kidding about the goat cheese thing. Mmmmmmm, cheese!)

I went for a jog today

My first in Berkeley, and the first in several months. But that's not the real reason for this post.

Instead, I wanted to point out the high ppd ratio that I saw all along my run. For those of you that don't know (because I just made it up), ppd is also known as Prius Per Driveway. Given the reputation that Berkeley has as being "liberal", it really shouldn't be all that surprising.

And it's not. But, I was still a little amazed at the number of Priuses (Prii? Prius'? Priui?) I saw during my 30 minute run. There had to have been a ppd of at least 10% in that neighborhood.

Well, tomorrow's the day (Part 1)

Tomorrow, school finally starts. Sort of. Tomorrow is the first day of "Math Camp" (also known as 'Nerd Camp'). It's a two week review session, covering all the math new students should know, but probably forgot since they haven't taken any math since high school (unless you count that freshman year of college calculus course I slept through...)

Anyway, the next two weeks should be a good way to EASE myself into the whole school thing. And the whole regular schedule thing, 'cause for the past 7 months, I've pretty much woken up whenever the hell I wanted, and done whatever the hell I wanted.

Yeah, not really looking forward to getting up at 8am tomorrow....

Soooooo fuuuunnnnnyyyyyyy

Click on the above link to see what magic a little bit of editing skillz (and a little sense of humor) can do....

So cooooolllllddd

At night in Berkeley, you really wouldn't know it's summer right now. Granted, when I chose UCBerkeley over UCLA, I had no delusions about the weather here being as nice as down in LA. But come on! It's in the sixties at night, and maybe even the fifties! Coming home from a bar the other night, I was so cold that I had to break into a jog to keep warm!

And last night, I decided to bust out a blanket, for that extra layer of warmth while I'm sleeping. IN AUGUST!!!!

I guess I shouldn't complain too much, though. If you go 20 miles or so inland, they've been suffereing 100+ degree weather these past couple of weeks (I heard it hit 115 at one point!). And supposedly the winters here are reasonably mild. I just wish I hadn't left two of my favorite jackets in Tokyo a month ago.....

wow....

This is THE craziest (and coolest) music video I've seen in a long time...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pv5zWaTEVkI

Interesting take on the military

I never really think much about the fact that my father was in the Air Force 30-some years ago. With the draft in full effect, it was a different time, and the only way it really seems to affect me now is I have a really cool Air Force shirt of his that I wear sometimes.

But this article on abcnews.com (which I have set as my homepage, btw) was really interesting. The author brings up a really good point about "leading", and the moral obligations that come with being a "leader". Years ago, I had toyed with the idea of becoming an officer in the military for all of, oh, I don't know, 2 seconds. My close college friend, Jason, had toyed with the idea on numerous occasions, as a way to continue to "serve" after his two years in the Peace Corps, as well as a further step on a potential political career path (he decided on grad school, and a life of academia, and Jesus, instead)

In the end, though, two things stopped me (three, if you count my sudden return to sanity). One was the very idea that she talks about, the need to fight in an "unjust" war (combined with a general hatred of the very idea of killing people). The other was the very real need/requirement for people in the military to subjugate the "self", for the greater good of the "group." We're not talking about sacrificing a few things here and there; I mean somebody else makes your decisions for you. That was a concept that I really didn't feel I could go along with.

But I think this article makes a pretty compelling argument for why at least SOME of what she calls the "elite" (not to say that I'm part of this elite, but I think her definition could easily be broadened to the upper-middle and upper classes of America) need to serve. That being said, would I want my future kids to serve? Honestly? Probably not. But I'd like to think I would at least respect their decision to do so, provided it was done for the right reasons.

A fascinating article

I'm a pretty big fan of the Economist. My friend Jason got me turned on to it many years ago (he was living in Ghana, and appreciated the fact that it was a long read, every week). Sometimes they can be a bit on the conservative side, although certainly not as much as WSJ. And I really appreciate their international perspective on the issues facing the world today, which, despite the title of the magazine, don't always focus exclusively on economics.

I just came across the above article, and was really struck by how good a job they do of illustrating one of the major changes that's happening in the US right now, which, while being about economics, has a much more fundamental effect on the course of America's future.

One of the great powers of the internet (besides useless Youtube videos) is the rapid dissemenation of information and ideas, and while admittedly a lot of the crap I read online is, well, crap (although, often extremely entertaining -- pretty much everything on fark.com, for one), at the same time, I think a lot of the things I come across really help keep me informed, and guide my opinions in a way that I didn't until recently experience.

For anybody that's curious, the two sites that for me are both informational and opinion-changing (and, at times, entertaining) are metafi.com and worldchanging.com. Metafilter, as it's known, is an aggregator of links on many different topics, as determined by the very people who read the site. Topics range from slightly silly like Friday Fun (usually quick and addictive online games) and International Talk Like A Pirate Day (pretty much what it sounds like), to seriously political matters (I found the Economist article on there today). Worldchanging is one of the reasons I'm going to B-School at Berkeley, as it's really peaked my interest in using technology to help make the world a better place (I know, sounds a bit cliched...).

Anyway, back to the article. My first thought after reading it, and thinking about how unfair and unpleasant the situation is, was, "well, I AM spending the next two years in business school, and while 'getting rich' isn't the reason, it's certainly a byproduct that I'm hoping for...". But, after a little more contemplation (and writing this entry), I realized that for me the key can be found in the above paragraph. I think Google has it right (in their motto, at least) -- don't be evil. Getting rich is okay (even glorious, if China's Deng Xiaoping is to be believed), but do your part to help the little guy on the way up. In my case, I hope that it will be a combination of the little guy and our planet.

Let's hope I still feel the same two years from now at graduation.

P.S.

I saw my coffee maker on a couple of Japanese websites, and on one of them it was selling for over 200 bucks!!!!

I guess in some ways, it's nice being back in the States....

And I got some coffee at my new favorite grocery store, the Berkeley Bowl (The. Best. Grocery. Store. Ever. Ask Josh.) Their coffee is only $7.99/lb, even for organic coffee. While that's more than the can of French Market they had (Louisiana coffee!! In Berkeley!! Located across the aisle from Tony Chachere's cajun seasoning!), it's still a lot cheaper than buying from one of the local cafe chains, like Starbucks or Peet's (a California-based chain), which are $12/lb and up. I don't even want to THINK about how much coffee beans cost in Japan -- probably $8 for 100 grams (less than a quarter of a pound). I didn't have a maker in Tokyo, so I never had to buy beans. I more than made up for it in weekly Starbucks/Tully's expenditures, though....

I bought a coffee maker today

(Click on the link above to see what I got).

It's not your typical drip brewer, but instead uses a vacuum. The water boils up into the top of the maker, where the coffee grinds are, then when all the water is gone, it gets sucked back down into the bottom as coffee. Cool, huh?

I'd seen this type of maker in Japan before, often at "old-style" coffee shops. This was the first automatic/electric one I'd seen, though (usually they require a burner). Supposedly, they make a better-tasting cup of coffee. And I couldn't really bring myself to buy a 20-dollar black & decker coffee maker. Plus, it's just plain cool! And so what if it's a little more expensive (I paid $60, which was cheaper than the website I linked to, but obviously more than the $20 B&D at Walgreens). That's what I've got a high-paying job for, right? Oh. Wait.

Time to start brewin'!

I don't get it

I was wandering around Berkeley today, after having a cup of coffee at a nearby cafe and spending some quality time with me, myself and a book, when I came across a rather perplexing sign. It read:

Drug-free zone

So, what? Other parts of Berkeley are drug-filled zones? It's cool to shoot up in MY neighborhood, but not on THIS street? Granted, it WAS posted on Telegraph avenue, home to cheap eats, vintage clothing shops, cd stores, and a disproportionate number of Berkeley's homeless/self-talkers/ranters/beggars.

But it still seemed a bit odd. I mean, why shouldn't ALL areas be "drug-free"? My guess is, the designation means stiffer penalties for offenders caught there. But if you're going to give hard sentences to some, shouldn't you do it to all, regardless of the geographical location of their transgression?

Just a thought.

Suh-Weeeeet!

I waited. And waited. And waited. I was afraid to leave my apartment for even a minute. I didn't even want to turn the music up too loud. Becuase I was worried I wouldn't hear the doorbell.

But at 6:30, the UPS lady finally showed up with my brand new computer. Rock 'n roll!

Internet Shopping

When I was in Japan, I was never really that into shopping on the web. It was a combination of factors -- one, the shopping experience in Japan (especially Tokyo) is so great, that it didn't seem worth the hassle. Then, there's the navigating Japanese websites thing. And, despite all the reassurances, security does seem an issue (especially with all of the data that's been getting hacked/stolen lately).

But, now that I'm in Berkeley, I'm quickly starting to realize how AMAZING online shopping can be in the States. Part of it is necessity -- after all, since I don't have a car, I can't make trips to Costco or other cheap stores, nor can I easily take home something like a microwave on my bike.

It's more than that, though. I always knew that online shopping could be cheaper than bricks and mortar, but I guess I never realized how MUCH is out there online. Looking at Amazon alone, they've expanded way beyond just books. I ordered my new computer there (should be arriving in a few hours!!). And I was originally looking at buying some things for my new apartment at bedbathandbeyond.com, but realized that Amazon probably has almost as good a selection, but with a better website and probably cheaper shipping. Plus, I can order other things at the same time (did you know amazon sells groceries??? In bulk, like Costco). And with Amazon, I don't have to pay California sales tax.

Welcome to the 21st century, six years late....

Fitting in

I've decided. If I'm going to live in Berkeley, I really need to get something pierced. Preferably not an ear. And more than one piercing, if at all possible. So I'm thinking, maybe a stud just below my lip, and then something in or around my eyebrow.

And a tattoo or two would probably be cool, too. Oh, wait, that's right, I think tattoos are stupid. They might seem cool now, but what about when you're 50?

Then again, maybe fitting in isn't really my thing, after all. And, of course, there's the fact that I'm a 31-year old entering business school -- not exactly prime life stage for the whole "Rebel, rebel, I'm gonna get tatts all over and nipple rings! Rock on!" kinda mindset. Call me conservative. No, never mind, please don't. After all, I live in Berkeley, California.

Boxes boxes boxes

I finally moved in to my new apartment in Berkeley today. Yeay!

The movers came this morning, and after 2 hours or so had carried in all my boxes and set up all the furniture (although, I found out later they totally screwed up my cd-rack, and I'll have to dismantle and rebuild it...)

So, I spent most of today unpacking, but I still have boxes EVERYWHERE. I guess I forgot how much stuff I have. I was made vividly aware of this fact 6 1/2 months ago, when the movers came to box my Tokyo apartment up, but in the ensuing travel, it had gone from a conscious feeling to just a number (80 boxes). It actually kinda sounds like more than it really is, though. But I digress.

After the whole drama about which apartment to choose, I'm really glad I ended up with this one, even though it was sort of my 2nd choice. Everything just seems to fit (in terms of my kitchen, living room and bedroom). And the shower is good -- VERY important!

The cable guy is coming on Wednesday, at which point I'll have my OWN internet access (instead of "borrowing" the neighbor's wi-fi). When that happens, I'll upload some pics of my place (before and after the move) to my flickr site.

It looks like my next adventure is beginning for real!

Movies

Saw a couple of movies this past week.

Batman Begins -- really enjoyed it. A little darker and more serious than the rest of the series, which was definitely a good thing. I like Christian Bale as Batman -- he definitely fit the role well.

Superman Returns -- Okay. Not as good as Batman Begins. I like Superman okay, but personally he's not as appealing as Batman, or the Marvel superheroes with their own movies (read Spiderman and X-men). Speaking of Spiderman, the 3rd installment, coming out next summer, looks majorly Kick-Ass!! For those of you who have seen the teaser, but don't get what's going on, do a google on "Spiderman" and "Venom".

Alien vs. Predator -- Kinda ashamed to admit I watched this. But it was on, and I was bored. It sucked.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest -- Just got finished watching this with Josh. It was alright. Fun, but not nearly as good as the first one. It seemed a little forced, and while Jonny Depp was good, he didn't really seem to shine as much this time around. Plus, I guess the newness of the first one might have had something to do with its appeal.

Next on my list would have to be "An Inconvenient Truth". And X-Men 3. Can't believe I haven't gotten around to seeing that one yet!

Back in the Bay Area

So, after a week in Louisiana, visiting my folks, I'm back in San Francisco. It was nice seeing the 'rents, and I got a lot of home-cookin', which is always good. Didn't really do much, other than clean up the room I spent 16 years of my life in. It's amazing how much crap I had accumulated, how much crap I threw out, and how much crap still seems to be left....

The good news is, I finally found an apartment in Berkeley! I move in on Monday. I'm pretty excited about getting all my stuff out of storage, and about getting settled in to Berkeley. "Math Camp", which is a two-week reveiw of math before classes officially start, begins the second week in August, so I have about 3 weeks to get "re-adjusted" to life in the US, and get used to life in Berkeley. Hopefully, during those 3 weeks I can also get caught up on my blog. You know, finishing that part about China that I said I'd do a month and a half ago....

I'll post some pics of my new place (maybe before and after my stuff goes in) on my flickr page soon.

Samuel Clemens

Mark Twain said it:

"The coldest winter I ever had was a summer in San Francisco."

Let me tell you, he wasn't kidding. Fortunately, during the day it's been gorgeous. Nothing's worse than a 4th of July bbq with crappy weather. But in the morning and at night, holy crap it's cold!!!!

I can only hope Berkeley is a few degrees warmer.... Otherwise, I'm gonna have to get used to the cold in July (which, all things considered, I'd rather not get used to).

SF/Berkeley

So, I arrived in San Francisco yesterday morning, around 10. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to sleep very much on the flight. I headed into the city, and met my friend Josh at his office in the Ferry Building.

We went to a nearby bar for lunch, and watched the Italy/Ukraine World Cup Quarterfinal match. Italy won. I was surprised at how many people were at the bar watching the game. I mean, granted, it WAS the Friday afternoon before the 4th of July, so I think a lot of people were gearing up for an extra long weekend. But, for some reason, I guess I didn't imagine that many Americans were really interested in the World Cup. I guess things have changed since I was last here.

Anyway, I was going to try to stay up until night time, to try to kick my jet lag, but I was just way too wiped, so ended up taking an hour or so nap in the afternoon. For dinner, we met two of Josh's friends at a Mexican restaurant/bar, which was supposed to be "right around the corner", but ended up being a 40+min walk, with Josh taking a few wrong turns along the way... Oh well.

My fajitas were pretty good, and it was nice to have a cold Negra Modelo, but I was glad when we hopped in a taxi and headed back to Josh's place. By 10:30 or so, I was exhausted, so I crashed on Josh's inflatable mattress. Amazingly, I slept reasonably soundly, and didn't wake up until 6 am, which is better than it sounds.

This morning, Josh and I watched the England/Portugal game, which England managed to lose on penalty kicks. I guess it's kinda cool that Portugal made it to the next round, considering they've never won a World Cup, but I kinda feel it was a lot of wasted opportunities, and talent, on the England side.

After the game, Josh drove me out to Berkeley, so I could make a Noon appointment to see a vacant apartment. The location was great, and it was a decent size, but the apartment was in pretty crappy condition. The place we saw later in the afternoon was similar, with the added minus of it being REALLY dark and poorly lit.

I'm starting to get a little worried about the quality of apartments available in Berkeley. I found a real estate agent's site online that said the average age of apartments in the area is something like 60 years old. And only 5% or so were made within the past 10 or so years. Not a good prognosis.

But, I'm not giving up, yet. I'm trying to arrange more visits over the next few days. Unfortunately, I might have to bump up my budget a little bit. But we'll see what will happen.

I'm off....

Well, after 6 months of traveling (almost half of which I spent in Japan), I'm finally heading back to the States to get settled in to Berkeley. I guess this is where the "Beyond" part of my blog title begins?

There's a lot going on in my head right now -- among other things, trepidation, excitement, sorrow, and a pretty big helping of "Finally!" As my friend Clementine said at lunch the other day, this time is kind of the REAL goodbye to Japan. Even though I know I'll be back, there's something different about knowing it won't be until the end of the year, as opposed to in a month or two, like when I left back in March.

So, anyway, I guess I'm now entering the next phase of my blog. While it might not be as exciting to the casual reader as my traipsing through China, hopefully it will be as exciting for me as I expect it to be, and hopefully my retelling of my upcoming days in Berkeley and in business school won't a) bore you to tears or b) send you running to delete this page from your bookmarks.

Next stop, San Francisco!

Finally

It's Tuesday in Japan right now. I leave for San Francisco on Friday afternoon. And I just finalized my ticket last night.

Everytime I wait until last minute to book travel plans, I always tell myself "Never again". But, somehow it never seems to work out that way. I guess it's part of my indecisive nature -- It always seems difficult to "pull the trigger" and go through with finalizing my plans.

Although, this time it actually worked out BETTER that way. Not only was I able to save almost a thousand dollars by using miles instead of buying my ticket here (which, I only would have used the Tokyo - SF half of anyway), but originally I was told Tokyo direct to SF was sold out, so I was going to have to go through HOUSTON. That would have sucked. But when I called on Sunday to finalize the ticket, a direct flight had opened up. Lucky!

But, never again.

Dreaming about blogging

I had my first blogging dream last night. Well, it wasn't exactly a dream about me blogging. But it was the first time that I can remember thinking in my dream "Wow, I gotta blog that" about something that happened in dreamland.

I even dreamt a title for the entry -- Taco Hell. Apparently, I had gone to the same Taco Bell two days in a row, and had horrible experiences, meeting some really freaky people.

Of course, that was only in my dream. Everybody knows that in reality no freaky people eat at Taco Bell....

Or maybe not

My dad thought it prudent to inform me that Albertson's, a large supermarket chain in the States, has had self-checkout lines for years. Thanks for popping my little bubble of special happiness, Dad. Way to go.

I wonder what other "golly gee whiz!!" moments I've had recently or are going to have will be deflated by similar "Dude, we've had that for ages" comments once I get back to the US.

Japanese Grocery Stores

Until recently, most grocery stores in Japan were either small, local shops or medium-sized stores that were closer in size and spirit to the common American behemoths, but still considerably smaller than some of the crazy-big chains in the US. In the past few years, though, stores like Aeon/Jusco have changed the face of the supermarket in Japan, plopping huge warehouse-sized supermarkets in residential neighborhoods.

There's an Aeon next to Panda chan's apartment. It's open 24 hours. Talk about convenient!
http://www.aeon.jp/index.html (don't ask what "Singing Aeon" means, 'cause I got nuthin')

Aeon has done a really great job of bringing prices down to (relatively) low levels. They've even adopted the American idea of private label brands, and have their own version of a lot of different foods.

But one thing they DON'T have is "10 items or less" a checkout line. So I ended up waiting in line for 20 minutes the other night, just to check out a few things. Luckily I had my iPod with me, but still!

One thing they DO have, however, is a "self-checkout line". For someone who loves gadgets and technology like me, this is pretty much the coolest thing to hit grocery stores since in-house bakeries (even better than sliced bread). Just can't get enough of that fresh-baked bread!

It's pretty much like it sounds -- instead of having someone there checking your items for you, they have four kiosks with bar code readers and plastic bags, so you can do everything yourself. The machines take credit cards, and even cash, including coins! How cool is that? And it's always fun to play with bar code scanners! I've used it 3 times now, and am starting to get the hang of it. I can see it now, my first post-MBA job -- Grocery store checker!!

Chance Encounter

I had lunch with Panda chan in Ebisu, today. One of the benefits of hanging out in Tokyo without a job.

Late in the meal, I noticed a woman sitting behind me that looked kinda familiar. It only took me a second to realize there was a REALLY good chance she was someone I studied in Kyoto with, 10 years ago. I wasn't sure whether to approach her or not, as she was deep in conversation with the woman sitting next to her.

But sure enough, it was her. She's been working in Tokyo for the past 3 years or so. Unlike me, she's kept in touch with one or two of our fellow classmates from that year at Doshisha. But, she hasn't kept in contact with her homestay family the way I have.

Kind of funny how I never ran into her while I was actually living here, but bump into her when I'm here visiting for only a few weeks, especially seeing as I met her in Ebisu, the neighborhood I used to live in. But, then again, I used to have a job, so I was never in Ebisu during the afternoon.

I guess even in the "largest metropolitan area in the world" (according to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Tokyo_Area), you're never really far from someone you know.

Pic Update

Okay, okay, I haven't yet gotten around to finishing my China travels. But, what with the World Cup and broken wrists, I've been a little preoccuppied.

However, using the handy-dandy Flickr Upload program, I was able to put a BUNCH of pics up, with descriptions and tags.

If you have a few minutes, check it out.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/68195876@N00/

Disaster strikes...

Thursday night, Panda chan broke her wrist. It was raining, and she slipped and fell. Luckily, it was only one bone in her left hand. And luckily, she wasn't really hurt otherwise.

Plus, I guess it's a good thing that I'm here, to help her get used to temporary life with one hand... (cooking is pretty much out of the question for her, and things like doing laundry aren't exactly easy)

Panda chan, I hope your wrist heals soon!!!!

Home (sort of)

Well, after being away for exactly 4 weeks, I'm finally back in Tokyo. Even though it's no longer my "official" home, it's been the closest thing I've had to a home since I gave up my residency at the end of last year.

It feels good to be back. But, after 7 hours or so of flights and 6 hours or so of waiting in airports (not to mention the hour and a half trip from Narita), I'm beat. And running on very little sleep. So it's nap time. I'll start my travel update from where I last left it off (Guilin) tomorrow.

Hey, hey, hey I've got it

The year -- 1995
The band -- Air Miami
The album -- Me, me, me
The song -- World Cup Fever
http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,223035,00.html

Written as a tribute to the 1994 World Cup, held in the good ole' U.S. of A., it gained much airplay on WAMH, Amherst College's radio station (some of which was courtesy of yours truly).

And now, 11 years later, I got the fever.

Kind of ironic, actually. I'm more excited about the World Cup now than I was 4 years ago, when I was living in one of the host countries. Back then, you couldn't help but be overcome by some of the excitement, and I was fortunate enough to see the semi-final and final with my brother. But, after working on the adidas account for nearly 3 years, I'm definitely a lot more knowledgeable about the international game than I was before (meaning the players and teams), which has translated into a heightened interest.

I was up until after 3 am last night, watching the two opening day games (Germany 4 - Costa Rica 2, Ecuador 2 - Poland 0), both of which turned out to be really exciting. And in a few minutes, I'll be heading out to find a bar here in Phuket in which to watch tonight's games (at least the first match). Which, won't be hard at all, as they're ALL showing the matches. It's just a matter of finding one that's not TOO crazy, but that's got a little more excitement than watching it by myself in my room (which is what I did for much of last night).

Unfortunately, the two games that I REALLY care about, Japan and the US's first games, both take place late Monday night, when I'll be on a plane back to Tokyo from Bangkok. Maybe I can catch a rerun on Japanese tv on Tuesday. I think I'll be back in the States for the final rounds, which should make watching on TV a little easier than here in Asia, where some of the games don't start until after midnight (especially in Japan's case, which is a further 2 hours ahead of Thailand).

Go USA!

Congratulations!

I'm not really sure if my brother would want me posting this, but I figured enough time has passed that it hopefully wouldn't matter (and that some people reading this would already know).

My brother got engaged!!

How exciting is that?

It came as quite a shock to me, but, to give credit where credit is due, my mom saw it coming.

Anyway, I'm extremely happy for him and for his new fiancee! Congrats!!

Sleepy in Bangkok

After a pretty long day, I made it safely to Bangkok. I had dinner with Ben (love that Thai food!), and am now heading off to bed...

By the way, I decided not to continue the food reports in Thailand. I forgot to bring my camera to dinner, and anyway, I'm not planning on bringing it to Phuket. And I've been to Thailand several times before, so the food, while definitely delicious, doesn't have some of the mysticism and excitement of what I was eating in China (plus, everything's in English, meaning there's a lot less challenge, too)

Please pardon the delay

I'm hoping to get my blog back on track over the next few days. But I ran into an unexpected problem lately, that's made it extremely difficult to update on a daily basis.

China's Internet Bars (cafes)

You wouldn't BELIEVE how crazy these places are. First of all, most of them are HUGE -- 50 or 100 computers is pretty common. But more importantly, there are SO many ways beyond just e-mail and surfing the net that you can kill time. Everything from movies to tv shows to all the latest video games are at your fingertips. All of dubious origin, of course.... They even have webcams, so you can do video chat. So, I find myself getting easily sidetracked away from my blog.

But I head to Thailand in two days, and so, free from some of the distractions, I should be able to get up-to-date.

Yesterday was a LOOOOOONG day

I had planned on an early start (waking up at 8:30), in order to update my blog, do some last minute shopping and get an early lunch in, before heading out to the airport to catch my flight to Guilin (via Kunming). I knew it was going to be a fairly long day, as I had to change planes in Kunmin, which entailed a two-hour layover. But things didn't start out very well, when starting around 7:30 I was repeatedly awoken by a screaming kid next door. That's the downside to staying in the relatively cramped Old Town.

Blog updated, I took care of my shopping, and grabbed

Beef Ramen

I ate at the same place I had eaten two days before (why mess with a good thing?) I took a picture of the ramen, and they're menu, but the computer I'm using doesn't have any visibl USB ports, so I'll have to update them to Flikr later.

Before heading back to my room to check out and grab my stuff, I also stopped for another

Lijiang Baba (Pic to come)

I had eaten one a few nights ago, but it wasn't fresh, and was from a "touristy" place, so I decided to stop and get one at a more "local"-seeming place. It was a little better -- flakier, and with something sweet in it (honey?). I also stopped for my last cup of Yunnan coffee in Yunnan (I'm not sure how Yunnan coffee stands up to international standards, but it's famous in China, and wasn't bad).

When I got back to my hotel, they told me the travel agent had called and that my flight from Kunming to Guilin was cancelled. I realized I wasn't going to get anything solved (or any detailed information) trying to communicate with them, so I decided to put it off until I got to Kunming.

According to Lonely Planet, buses leave from the CAAC office (China Aviation Association of China?) 90 minutes before every flight. My flight was at 2:10, so by leaving at noon, I figured I had plenty of time to walk to their office, which was clearly marked on my map. Only, 45 minutes later, I still hadn't found it. Hot, tired and sweaty, I decided to bite the bullet, swallow my pride and fork out the 10 bucks or so for a cab to the airport (it ended up being just over 11).

My flight to Kunming was uneventful, and, as expected, when I got there, I was told by China Southern Airlines that my flight had been cancelled. I had been worried that I would have to stay in Kunming overnight, as there were no more scheduled flights to Guilin that day. But fortunately (?), they rerouted me to Guilin on another airline. Problem was, I had to go through Chengdu, another city an hour's flight away.

And the flight didn't leave until 6pm, an hour later than my original (direct) flight to Guilin.

With a 2-hour layover in Chengdu, before my Chengdu-Guilin flight.

Original Scheduled Arrival in Guilin -- 6:30
New ETA in Guilin -- 10:20 pm

In Kunming, I asked for, and surprisingly got, a free dinner for my trouble. However, I was in a hurry, and didn't get to take any pictures (my camera was buried at the bottom of my bag).

Potato Soup (with sweet potatoes?)
Potato and cabbage stir-fry
Rice
Some stir-fried ground pork dish (the best of the meal)
Some greens

Quite a lot of food, actually. And not bad, for a free meal in an "Airport Hotel".

In Chengdu, I managed to kill time during my layover by perusing the souvenir shops; it's part of Szechuan, so they had some interesting-looking foods. I ended up buying a spicy tofu pack (individually-wrapped!) as well as what I thought was rabbit jerky (also individually-wrapped). Turns out it had some kind of sauce in it. As well as bits of bone. Pretty disgusting, actually. And the tofu was a little disappointing, too.

When boarding for my flight was called, I hopped on to the little bus and rode out to the airplane. Only to be told that the weather in Guilin was causing them to delay the flight. Back on the bus.

Fortunately, we only had to wait another 20 minutes back inside before they called us out again, and we were finally able to board.

Arrival in Guilin -- 11pm

At the airport, I got the local CAAC bus, and made my way into town. From there, I took a taxi to the best-looking hotel in LP, the Golden Elephant, and checked in (not great, but serviceable).

Final arrival at hotel -- Midnight. Twelve hours after I had left my Lijiang hotel.

After being couped up all day, I needed to stretch my legs a bit, so despite being pretty tired, I went for a stroll. Fortunately, the rain had stopped, so I walked around for 15 or 20 minutes, when I stumbled upon a restaurant that was still pretty busy, despite the time. I wasn't starving, but didn't feel like going back just yet, so I had a plate of "Guilin-style noodles" and a beer. It was kinda like American-style Lo Mein, and just as greasy. I didn't finish it (and I didn't have my camera with me, so, once again, no pics).

Full, I headed back with my newly-purchased bottle of water, and finally went to sleep at around 1:30am.

Oh No!

Well, it was bound to happen. Over the last week, I've missed a few meal photos. I know, I know, I've let you, my loyal reader, down. Some of it was the nature of my meals on the cruise (mostly buffet), and some of it was just plain forgetfulness.

But, here's a quick list, some with pics, some without, of past meals.

5/26
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner -- Buffet

5/27

Breakfast and Lunch -- Buffet

Dinner -- Captain's Farewell Banquet (see menu)

5/28

Breakfast -- Buffet

Lunch -- Spicy Eggplant, Pork Dish (no pics)

Abort! Abort! Abort!

I woke up Tuesday morning, and it was still raining in Lijiang, as it had been for the past 48 hours. So I made an executive decision (after all, I am the CEO of My Life, Inc.). I decided that I wasn't going to do the two-day Tiger Leaping Gorge trek, after all.

Everything I had read said that the trek was pretty dangerous in and after heavy rains. And, more importantly, I decided that I didn't want to spend two days trekking through the cold and the wet. And, well, I was just feeling kind of lazy.

But I still wanted to see the sites, so after eating an early breakfast, I headed out to Qiatou, the town outside of the Gorge. (Part of me thought there was some chance of me doing the trek, but I didn't bring a change of clothes, so I guess the rest of me knew it wasn't going to happen).

At the end of the 2-hour bus ride, I hit the Gorged Tiger Cafe, to find out what I could about the trek, and how much I could do in a day. At the suggestion of one of the people at the cafe, I got a mini-bus (like a local taxi) to take me to the far end of the trek, where there are a few guesthouses to eat lunch at. From there, I would take a mini-hike of about an hour, then head back, stopping at a popular scenic point along the way.

Boy am I glad I made the trip! The scenery was truly breathtaking. As luck would have it, it wasn't raining when I got there, although it had been raining the night before, and was still cloudy. But the clouds were high enough that the road I was on afforded amazing views of the gorge, as the road was actually cut through the side of the mountain itself, and we drove parallel to the Yangtze River.

The gorge and the river were very different here from where I had taken my river cruise. For one thing, the gorge seemed even higher (supposedly it's the highest/deepest in the world). For another, the river is much narrower. I think it might resemble what the Three Gorges area was like BEFORE they started building the dam, and increasing the water level.

While the guesthouse I had lunch at was nothing special, the view from there was incredible. I wanted to walk downhill to the river's edge, but because of the rain, I was told it was too dangerous. So instead, I walked about 30 minutes uphill to a small village above the guesthouse. Very cool. Very slow pace of life there -- if you ignored the telephone and electricity wires that dotted the landscape (and the basketball goal at the local school), it really felt like you were sometime hundreds of years in the past.

On the way back, I had the mini-bus stop at this one spot that is apparently THE place to stop at the Gorge, if you're a Chinese tourist (I guess most Chinese just come here, while most foreigners don't, opting for the trek, which goes through higher ground, instead). What I didn't realize is that you can go all the way down to the river from that point, and it's safer than at the guesthouse, because it's all stairs. Over 570 of them!!!!!! (I counted on the way back up) But I'm definitely glad I made it down to the bottom, because the activity of the river there was amazing. I'm not sure if it was because of all of the rain, or if that spot is always like that, but the fierceness and speed of the water flow at that point was unbelievable. Plus, on the oppposite side of the river they had built a cool little bridge, which overall made for a great view point.

In the end, while I'm sure it would have been great to do the trek, and I'm sure I would have liked having the sense of accomplishment that would have accompanied it, I'm glad I did it my way. In the short hour or so that I had hiked, I was more tired than I would have expected. Also, I narrowly missed slipping on the mud and slick rock 3 or 4 times. By the time I left, it had started raining a little bit at the bottom, so there's no telling how much it was raining up top. And, I later found out from some people who did the trek that up on the trek route it was so cloudy, they couldn't really see much of the Gorge, anyway. And finally, I got to spend an extra day in Lijiang.

The one regret I have from the day is, I lost my hat. Again. At least this time it was only a 6 yuan (75 cents) hat that I bought at the Walmart Supercenter in Chongqing....

Better and Better

If Sunday was one of my worst days in China, Monday was one of my best. Lijiang is an amazing town. It's pretty well touristed, which means that parts of it are really touristy. But if you get away from the stalls and shops and loud bars, the old town of Lijiang really has a lot of charm.

Lijiang is home to a lot of the Naxi minority population of China. They have a language and culture that is distinct from the "Han" majority. And that means that they have their own version of everything from food to dress to the way they build their houses. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naxi

The town is really a great place to wander around and get lost in. Although, in truth, you can never really get lost, as they've posted signs all over the place, that have maps and directions to major places, in both Chinese and English. Really helpful (although, that doesn't necessarily make it easy to find your hotel at night, just easier).

So I pretty much spent all day Monday wandering around town, checking out a few stalls, eating at different places, and taking as many interesting pictures as I could. Since I wanted to get out of my hotel from the previous night, I also looked for a new place to stay, in Old Town. I had found a place on the internet that seemed reasonably nice, but on the way there, I got lost (naturally), and stumbled upon this great little place that turned out to be even nicer than the place I was actually searching for.

Called "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles", other than one guy that's sometimes hanging around, the people here don't speak a lick of English. And that guy's English was limited, but he had this great program on his computer that translates typed Chinese into English, and vice versa. Loads of fun.

It's more of a bed and breakfast-type place, than a hotel, with only 8 or so rooms. I really liked the atmosphere and the overall look and feel of the place, and when I checked out the room, I noticed that the bathroom was brand new and spotless (although, I would later find out that the shower alternated between hot and cold water, and the water leaked through the bottom of the shower wall into the rest of the bathroom...).

Later in the day, I met a group of Chinese people in the hotel, one of whom spoke really good English. He was here visiting his "Shifu", or teacher, who is a Tibetan Buddhist monk (there were 4 or 5 monks hanging out with him). We chatted for a while, and it was really interesting being able to talk to some "real" people, instead of just those in the tourist trade.

All in all, a really fun day, despite the rain.