On this one day when I finally managed to escape the office by 6, the BART station was closed. A sea of commuters hovered around the entrance to BART, with some walking down to check out the fully shut steel gate and then returning upstairs. “The BART station is closed,” I heard somebody say. My
PF Chang’s
We went last night to P.F. Chang’s, the Chinese-themed TGI Friday. It was a surprisingly cultural experience. This was my very first time. Prior to the visit, most of my knowledge about this chain establishment had been from South Park depictions: (1) its food makes you super constipated, and (2) it’s run by an army
Doin’ DayQuil
This evening, I went to CVS and picked up a box of (the CVS generic version of) DayQuil. Upon check out, the cashier asked me for my birth date. Somewhat stunned and confused by the inquiry, I held back and paused for a second. Then I saw the piece of print out in his hand
I Hate CNY
Every year around this time, I get very depressed. It has become a pattern for a few years, and the intensity only seems to grow. It’s the Chinese New Year, plus minus a few hours depending on where you are. Some prefer to call it the lunar new year or Asian new year, just to
White Christmas-After
The 4.5-day weekend turned into a 5.5-day weekend when the historical storm struck the New York region. Some areas near us reportedly got 32 inches of accumulation in less than a day. I cursed at the people who asked for a white Christmas, although didn’t mind the notice about office closing on Monday. Hong wasn’t
Japan Honeymoon – 100%
Today marked our last day in Japan. We both were sad about ending this fun trip, but at the same time relieved to end this continuous pain from walking too much. After checking out of the hotel, we locked our luggage up in a convenient coin-operated locker at Shinjuku Station. This was the third time
Japan Honeymoon – 90%
At the onset of this trip, I thought we’d have a chance to practice and learn some Japanese. Perhaps I could pick up a phrase or two, or ask for the whereabouts of a restroom. It shouldn’t be hard to at least see some improvement in my pronunciation of the limited vocabulary that I commanded
Japan Honeymoon – 80%
After picking up a couple of heavenly sandwiches from the Family Mart downstairs, we enjoyed them in the brisk morning outside an after school classroom names WAC. Then we decided that it wasn’t enough, and had seconds at a 24-7 McDonald’s filled with trendy youngsters who probably didn’t go home all night. I spotted this
Japan Honeymoon – 70%
The mountain climbing trips did wear us our because we passed out watching TV at 9:30 and didn’t get up until 5:30am. Hong got up and watched another hour of TV around 3, but she also got up slightly later. We took a brief morning walk to Higashi (East) Honganji, a Buddhist temple around the
Japan Honeymoon – 60%
It had become clear that we were adjusting for jetlag backwards: we were mostly awake between 12:30 and 7am, talking, showering, soaking beat-up feet and applying Tiger Balm, watching TV, etc, with a nap somewhere in there. Turning on Japanese TV for the first time was pretty entertaining. Too bad they didn’t play any prime-time