my precioussssss 2

10pm, I got out of bed, turned on the lights, squatted in front of my living room shelf with my pottery pieces and started turning them around in my hands and admiring the way the lights shine on my precioussss...

my preciousssss

my very first pottery piece. i have reason to beleive it's the most beautiful thing in the world. 

yajima

im so upset, three hours later laying in bed i still can't get over how bad that meal was.

mediocre in the worst worst worst sense of the word. 

 

bang first, regret later

fell in love with a girl at the gym. petite little Asian girl, nerdy, glasses, soft body, doing pull ups and twice body weight deadlifts for reps, throwing weight around like no thing, in a black shirt that said "bang first, regret later".

i should have asked her to marry me.

pet peeve #75

urinals with no dividers.

it's two brackets and a piece of wood. just indulge me, please.

rainy day

if scientists can process the smells, sights and sounds of a rainy day in hawaii into powder form....

Pet Peeve #90

when you nearly reach the end of your box of Kleenex® tissues and the last few pieces won't stay erect through the little plastic slot and you have to dig around inside and end up pulling out two or three tissues when you only wanted one.

Doug Jones defeats roy moore

"Alabamans will always do the right thing, after they exhausted all other options"
- Winston Churchill, probably

shame

HNL & China

China is the most populated country in the world with over 1.3 billion people. 

the China Airlines departure check-in area at Honolulu international airport is missing from the sign.

taking notes

foreign airlines > us airlines

my second free bottle of sparkling wine while watching Academy Award  winning movie on 10 inch screen. 

wheres my money!?

where's my money, bitch?!

ephemerality of food

Such fleeting moments of sensation...

my people

there are some people who look and sound like locals from Hawaii in the Osaka airport waiting area.  why does the sound of their Hawaiian accents infuriate me so much right now?

I think it's because they represent the responsibility and obligation  and boredom of going home.

kansai japan in eight days

it's been a long eight days.  14 hour days of walking, standing in ticket lines, standing in entrance lines,  standing in trains, standing in buses,  bad sleep, green tea and coffee.

eating good food,  great food, amazing food and weird food.

doing amazing things I didn't even realize wete on my bucket list until I did them.

pongalla curry

leftover thoughts

I don't know.  maybe it was just because my uncle's family has a totally different way of traveling/vacationing than what I'm used to.

maybe it's been too long since I've done a proper solo backpacking adventure .

traveling feels different now. 

Lost in Google Translation

didn't find my scarlet Johansson :(

first thing i do when I get home is watch Lost in Translation. 

I should buy a suit.

japan pre-departure deep thoughts

i'm in my happy place now: an appropriately high rooftop bar to watch the sun set over a foreign cityscape with pricey drink in hand, after a long strange trip.  

it is time for deep thoughts and contemplations.

japan pro tips 2

get a smart phone and local high speed data plan. t mobile's free low speed data is nice backup, but not great for heavy use. maybe a backup battery pack if you use a lot of gps or Wi-Fi.

tokyo, from what I hear, is straight eating and shopping and all the great weird japanese metropolis stuff.  Kyoto and Osaka in Kansai region has more traditional sightseeing stuff with more than enough modernity and shopping. 

the chinese tourist hordes have found japan, avoid wherever they go. although they are relatively well behaved for Chinese tourists, their sheer numbers ruin the vibe of peaceful japanese temples.

some japanese cities are tourist friendly, many are not.  Kyoto and Osaka is often surprisingly obstinate in their refusal to cater to the large number of tourists by acknowledging English as lingua franca. travel would be really really hard for those with no japanese or Chinese language skills in areas that are less tourist friendly.

be careful you don't nickel and dime yourself to death with all the seemingly cheap or reasonable prices.

train travel costs can add up.  

bring a carabiner or similar hook device for reasons.

shopping street

this shopping mall street is 2.4 km long.

like the other ones,  you literally can't See the end its so long. 

chaco

my spirit animal

owl cafe

an owl cafe...