I'm in Tokyo right now, enjoying my Spring Break. I think it's because I no longer live here, but even being here only a few days, its easy to remember some of the things that make this country so special.
Last night, I did something kind of silly. Leaving a very late dinner, I heard a "thunk", and noticed my book (The Botany of Desire) had fallen out of my bag. It wasn't until a phone call half an hour later (once Panda chan and I were already home), that I realized the "thunk" was mostly caused by my iPod, which had fallen out along with the book, and which the restaurant was now (thankfully) holding for me.
I would hope that in the States, if I had accidentally left my iPod in a restaurant, and if they had my phone number from my reservation, that they would call me and let me know they had found it. I went to Ginza this afternoon to pick my iPod up, and thanked them profusely for finding it and holding it for me. And, here's the kicker, the waiter apologized to ME! For not noticing sooner (in which case, I wouldn't have had to make a separate trip back to the restaurant to pick it up).
Only in Japan.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Weekend in the City
It's still Saturday night (well, technically early Sunday morning), and I've already spent a good part of my weekend in San Francisco. I tend not to go into the city (which, yes, refers to SF, NOT Oakland) very much, because I'm lazy, and because while taking the BART is relatively convenient, it does require a 15 minute walk and a train transfer, for total time of almost an hour. This weekend, though, was different.
My mom was visiting me in Berkeley this past week, but she left yesterday morning. After doing a bit of necessities shopping at BevMo (yes, Newcastle Brown Ale DOES qualify as a necessity, especially when it's only $10 a case!), and taking care of some school stuff, I headed into the city for a night out with my friends Josh and Eric. It was Eric's birthday, and we were celebrating with a big group of his friends at Espetus, a Brazilian steakhouse. I hadn't been to a Churascarria in several years, and in preparation for this meat-eating festival I skipped lunch. Wise move. I gorged myself on several different kinds of excellent meat (and even some veggies) and a couple of caipirinhas (great Brazilian cocktails), but managed to avoid going so over the top that I had to be rolled home.
I had some shopping to do near Union Square today, so I crashed at Josh's place. I got an early start this morning, but ended up spending more time than planned. This was NOT a result of the St. Patrick's Day parade, which only distracted me for a few minutes, because, frankly, it sucked. Mostly just a bunch of kids dressed in green walking down Market Street, followed by the occasional "cable car" full of drunken union members. Anyway, I finished up around 3, making it back to Berkeley a little after 4. After a bit of reading for school and a light nap on the sofa, I headed BACK into the city for a concert.
Bloc Party, one of my favorite bands of late, was playing, and one of my classmates' husband had an extra ticket. Lucky! Ironically enough (for this post, at least), their latest album is called A Weekend in the City, and it rocks as much as their first one, Silent Alarm. The reviews I had seen online for the venue didn't lie (note that the top review was written TODAY, as in, after tonight's show), and it did indeed suck. But the band rocked. They played both of my favorite songs ("So Here We Are" from the 1st album and "Sunday" from the 2nd), and had a great mix of songs from both albums (unlike a lot of bands that tend to only play stuff from their newest release).
Tomorrow, I was SUPPOSED to go see Barrack Obama speak in Oakland, but I realized when I got back home this afternoon that it was actually today. Bummer. But, the upside is I have all day tomorrow to catch up on work, and maybe, just maybe, actually get my summer internship search in gear. Finally. One can only hope....
My mom was visiting me in Berkeley this past week, but she left yesterday morning. After doing a bit of necessities shopping at BevMo (yes, Newcastle Brown Ale DOES qualify as a necessity, especially when it's only $10 a case!), and taking care of some school stuff, I headed into the city for a night out with my friends Josh and Eric. It was Eric's birthday, and we were celebrating with a big group of his friends at Espetus, a Brazilian steakhouse. I hadn't been to a Churascarria in several years, and in preparation for this meat-eating festival I skipped lunch. Wise move. I gorged myself on several different kinds of excellent meat (and even some veggies) and a couple of caipirinhas (great Brazilian cocktails), but managed to avoid going so over the top that I had to be rolled home.
I had some shopping to do near Union Square today, so I crashed at Josh's place. I got an early start this morning, but ended up spending more time than planned. This was NOT a result of the St. Patrick's Day parade, which only distracted me for a few minutes, because, frankly, it sucked. Mostly just a bunch of kids dressed in green walking down Market Street, followed by the occasional "cable car" full of drunken union members. Anyway, I finished up around 3, making it back to Berkeley a little after 4. After a bit of reading for school and a light nap on the sofa, I headed BACK into the city for a concert.
Bloc Party, one of my favorite bands of late, was playing, and one of my classmates' husband had an extra ticket. Lucky! Ironically enough (for this post, at least), their latest album is called A Weekend in the City, and it rocks as much as their first one, Silent Alarm. The reviews I had seen online for the venue didn't lie (note that the top review was written TODAY, as in, after tonight's show), and it did indeed suck. But the band rocked. They played both of my favorite songs ("So Here We Are" from the 1st album and "Sunday" from the 2nd), and had a great mix of songs from both albums (unlike a lot of bands that tend to only play stuff from their newest release).
Tomorrow, I was SUPPOSED to go see Barrack Obama speak in Oakland, but I realized when I got back home this afternoon that it was actually today. Bummer. But, the upside is I have all day tomorrow to catch up on work, and maybe, just maybe, actually get my summer internship search in gear. Finally. One can only hope....
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Comedy Platinum
If there was such a thing as a monopoly on comedy, the writers at Family Guy would have it. I can't believe I had never seen this show until recently. Granted, the whole "out of the country" thing didn't work in my favor, and Family Guy isn't really the type of thing that people would likely get in Japan (I think the Simpson's are mildly popular there, but I'm sure that the different levels of comedy and social satire don't translate very well...).
Anyway, now I'm doing my best to catch up. I came across this clip today, while I was sitting in a cafe taking a break from my homework. I think the people at the tables around me were probably looking at me funny because I was having to contort my face to prevent from busting out in hysterical laughter. It's not comedy gold, it's comedy platinum. 100% hillarious.
Bonne Anniversaire!
Anyway, now I'm doing my best to catch up. I came across this clip today, while I was sitting in a cafe taking a break from my homework. I think the people at the tables around me were probably looking at me funny because I was having to contort my face to prevent from busting out in hysterical laughter. It's not comedy gold, it's comedy platinum. 100% hillarious.
Bonne Anniversaire!
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Food blogs
So, lately I've become a bit addicted to perusing several different food blogs. Yes, that's right, blogs about food. Awesomeness.
Most of them are recipe-based, and sometimes I even end up skipping over all the boring "writing" stuff, and going straight for the recipes. I've been cooking a lot more lately, because a) it's healthier b) it's cheaper and c) the previously-mentioned Berkeley Bowl (now that my class schedule is changing a bit, hopefully I'll have time over the next few months to start going to a local farmer's market, too). While I have a few cookbooks, some of which have some really good recipes, they are a bit limited at times, and it's always nice to find new ones (I think I finally understand a TINY bit of my mom's obsession with buying new cookbooks...)
Anyway, I thought I'd share a couple of the blogs I've been reading, if any of you are curious.
http://www.slashfood.com/ -- the grandaddy of all food blogs (in my mind). This kind of got me started in the whole food blog universe. Sometimes recipes, sometimes food news, sometimes pics, always entertaining. I probably check this 2 or 3 times a day (LOVE the food porn...)
http://www.101cookbooks.com/ -- great collection of healthy recipes (all vegetarian?). The author lives in SF, and is an amazing food photographer, to boot!
http://www.thefoodwhore.com/ -- just found this one today. About a caterer and the troubles she has. Not recipes, but pretty darn entertaining.
http://myhusbandcooks.wordpress.com/ -- pretty good looking recipes (the pecan & chocolate chip cookies turned out great) and an amusing theme/title.
http://www.tastespotting.com/ -- mmmmmmm..... food porn......
Most of them are recipe-based, and sometimes I even end up skipping over all the boring "writing" stuff, and going straight for the recipes. I've been cooking a lot more lately, because a) it's healthier b) it's cheaper and c) the previously-mentioned Berkeley Bowl (now that my class schedule is changing a bit, hopefully I'll have time over the next few months to start going to a local farmer's market, too). While I have a few cookbooks, some of which have some really good recipes, they are a bit limited at times, and it's always nice to find new ones (I think I finally understand a TINY bit of my mom's obsession with buying new cookbooks...)
Anyway, I thought I'd share a couple of the blogs I've been reading, if any of you are curious.
http://www.slashfood.com/ -- the grandaddy of all food blogs (in my mind). This kind of got me started in the whole food blog universe. Sometimes recipes, sometimes food news, sometimes pics, always entertaining. I probably check this 2 or 3 times a day (LOVE the food porn...)
http://www.101cookbooks.com/ -- great collection of healthy recipes (all vegetarian?). The author lives in SF, and is an amazing food photographer, to boot!
http://www.thefoodwhore.com/ -- just found this one today. About a caterer and the troubles she has. Not recipes, but pretty darn entertaining.
http://myhusbandcooks.wordpress.com/ -- pretty good looking recipes (the pecan & chocolate chip cookies turned out great) and an amusing theme/title.
http://www.tastespotting.com/ -- mmmmmmm..... food porn......
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Sci-fi is cool
Looks pretty darn good. Although I just read that it's been pushed back to this December.
Watching this got me thinking about the future, and our vision of what it will be like. It's kinda funny how 40 years ago, Star Trek had this great vision of what the future will be like, and while it's still entertaining to watch, the whole buttons and dials thing just seems silly. 25 or so years later, Star Trek: The Next Generation came out, and it seemed so high tech and futuristic. But even though we don't use computers in that way (random touchscreens), IT too already seems a little old and outdated.
Just goes to show that thinking about the future, especially the FAR future, is really tough. And envisioning it and representing it is even tougher. And I'm sure we're ALL getting it wrong. But it's fun to try...
Watching this got me thinking about the future, and our vision of what it will be like. It's kinda funny how 40 years ago, Star Trek had this great vision of what the future will be like, and while it's still entertaining to watch, the whole buttons and dials thing just seems silly. 25 or so years later, Star Trek: The Next Generation came out, and it seemed so high tech and futuristic. But even though we don't use computers in that way (random touchscreens), IT too already seems a little old and outdated.
Just goes to show that thinking about the future, especially the FAR future, is really tough. And envisioning it and representing it is even tougher. And I'm sure we're ALL getting it wrong. But it's fun to try...
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