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.