Musings of a Food and Travel Addict
I tell everyone…
Besides the abundance of bijin (literal translation, not common usage), there are many many forms of booze at many different price points.
When asked what I liked to drink over there, I say “beeru” and “shochu”.
What’s shochu? I really couldn’t explain it very well. Saying Japanese vodka doesn’t give it justice. This does though.
There’s a form of cheap beer that’s not really beer too. Good for a quickie.
Still not going anywhere so far this month. Blah.
Stayed home last weekend. Nothing exciting to blog about since I didn’t go anywhere…
But from the socialist paradise, the following:
There was a blackout (which PG&E will take a lot of heat for) over the weekend.
There was an earthquake today on the Central Coast.
Makes me want to head back to Roppongi so I can smoke and drink and listen to jazz…
Sooooo I woke up early this morning.
Had a healthy breakfast.
Caught the F to Jay Street
Caught the A Train within 5 minutes.
Straight to Penn Station, got on a NJ Transit train within 10 min to EWR.
Get through security. No line!
Right on time.l
Then all the flights to ORD has this ominous word in the place where the departure time should be.
“DELAYED”.
Naturally, the gate staff were absolutely useless. “we Don’t know. Perhaps you’d want to try that gate”.
Flights were being delayed on average, about 3 hours.
I said the magic word, “reroute”. Flying through DEN.
It’s all good tho. I got upgraded on both legs and the DEN-SFO leg is a 747-400 with M-Power in the seat.
Finally!
And the absolute kicker of this trip to NYC: I found a ramen joint on 57th and 5th Ave AND I had a burger at the Burger Joint at the Parker Meridian.
There’s a lot of neat places midtown!
I decided to disappear this weekend to New York City. NYC is all dolled up for Xmas and there’s nothing quite like it.
This is Prospect Park, Brooklyn’s answer to Manhattan’s Central Park. It snowed all morning Sunday and this is pretty much how the neighborhood looked when I trudged (Hey Joe, used yr word!) to the subway to head into town, err, Manhattan.
Me with the big twinkle-y tree at Rockefeller Center while it’s snowing.
As the day went on and it warmed up, the snow from the sky turned into rain and the rain as it hit the ground, melted the snow that was already there.
So at the end of the day, you had slush. Messy icky slush. It would be nice if you could freeze time right after a fresh snowfall and revel in it. I did that today.
But then, it doesn’t snow in San Francisco, does it?
Some big balls to end this post…
I went to LA this past weekend.
Saw the game. Beat the Beavers. Savored the victory and for 12 hours, we all thought we’d be going to New Orleans for the BCS Nat’l Championship. Instead, in theory, we could be playing for a co-championship.
We need out of the BCS, it’s absolute bullshite and it’s biased against Pac-10 teams anyway…
Here’s a shot of an SC tradition…
This is toward the end of the 5th Quarter, when the greatest marching band in the history of the universe plays for the faithful for about 30 minutes after the game.
Then Coliseum security kicks us out!
On the way back, I cruised past LA’s latest landmark and new home of the LA Philharmonic, the new Frank Gehry Disney Concert Hall.
Couldn’t get in though. Or even close because they were doing some kind of shoot that closed all the streets around the Hall. So this pic was taken in the rain two blocks away.
Sunday was visiting friends and former classmates. Wound up at a Burberry’s in South Coast Plaza. Brrrr….! But dinner was fine.
Sunday was a verrrry long day, mostly because of that International Date Line thingy. Here’s how my day went.
Late Sat. PM: Had silly idea about going to sento after more drinking after we got back to Myung-Dong. Silly idea disappeared after shochu kicked in.
Sunday 0700: Woke up. Left hotel. Trudged to bus stop for 1 hour ride to Incheon.
Sunday 1100: Left for NRT after contributing to South Korean economy by spending at Duty Free.
Sunday 1300: Arrived at NRT and cleared customs & passport control. It’s raining here. Again.
Sunday 1600: Retrieved baggage, repacked, moved to Terminal 2, checked in, cleared customs and passport control (again) and waited for late flight. In desperation, I bought a bowl of ramen from airport concession. As I’ve said in the past, it’s a rule that airports gank you when it comes to food being overpriced.
Sunday 1700: Left for SFO on 10 hour flight. Didn’t sleep on long flight. ANA Air Hostesses are awesome, food was excellent but seats weren’t much better than UA. So it’s pretty much SQ for me if I have a choice.
Sunday 1000: Arrived SFO.
Sunday 1030: Cleared customs after being subjected to secondary inspection for food items. It’s raining here too.
Sunday 2300: Finally went to sleep.
That was a freakin’ long day!
Today was my first and only full day in Seoul. Besides breakfast, the one thing I wanted to do was to tour the DMZ.
The DMZ, despite being the most fortified border on Earth, where the nuclear tripwire is still in effect, is a tourist attraction.
There are tour groups that highlight Panmunjom, the village that straddles the border and where there is a line that dissects a building in half. That’s where they held the armistice talks. The two big tunnels that were dug by the North that can move thousands of fully armed troops from North to South without detection. Etc, etc.
Except that you need 24 hours notice to join a tour group, so that the US Army can do background checks and all that stuff.
So instead I saw the Changdeokgung Palace instead. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the few examples of “culture” on this trip.
Also went to a very nice kaiseki (I think) dinner. This was just the beginning of the meal. I think the table has a Kill Bill feel, dun you think?
These were appetizers. Then they were empty.
We all also drank a huge amount of sake, shochu and some Korean (ginseng?) wine. Wound up taking subway back. For 45 minutes.
Also, I was told that no visit to Seoul isn’t complete without running into these guys.
They were assembling at their staging area to return to barracks after a demonstration. Interesting…check out the face of the guy above as I snapped that pic.
IHN is a new airport, built 2 years ago. Very new, clean and nice.
Just wish that they built a rail link while they building the airport because you have to take a bus to town on a road that seems to go on and on and on.
No rail. Just a really long road that seems to go to nowhere. Then you hit Seoul and you know you’ve hit it because there’s a lot of traffic out.
We are staying in the Myung-Dong district. Kinda like the ROK version of Shibuya. I’ve already found the Citibank.
I flew with Yumi to Seoul tonight.
We flew out on UA in Business Class. She said it was almost like when we first met except the seats are bigger and it’s a shorter flight.
The food was atrocious. Bad. Sushi plate looked like 2 day old maki from local 7-11.
The entertainment on the flight was non-existent. Three channels, one being the map, one being a special on the turkey and one with BBC America.
I think SQ really spoiled me…
This is all you need for a smooth trip…
Your JR ticket, an iPod and a brewski…
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