~San Francisco Part 7~

Day 9
Went to Haight street recommended by the girls the day before. We were surprised that there wasn't a lot to see when we got there. Still we found a nice Indian restaurant called Nuts N' Chetsney where the lunch for the day, Chicken Thali tasted pretty good. Even the rice and Naan and Dahl tasted pretty awesome. After a good lunch we took the bus and head of to Castro, the so-called place with most gay people. We switched bus at Divideson which was actually the happening part of Haight Street that we were supposed to go as we later found out.

Anyway, Castro was a pretty harmless place during the day. Got to see a lot of Rainbow Flags around,lots of man holding another man's hand while walking down the street, and lots of sex toy shops with man-manequinne wearing thongs,rabbit ears etc. There were lots of guys shops and bars there seeing the place was mostly occupied by guys. Well,I found the street pretty lively and nothing was really unacceptably-queer. I took some pictures of guys holding hand and I was satisfied.

Next we went to get dessert at Cocola and I got myself a Carribean Passion smoothies at Jamba Juice. The weather was really hot and the smoothies really helped me cool down. My last dinner in SF was beef and shrimp ramen. And we tried the French macaroon and Milfeiure from Cocola's as dessert. Spend the test of the evening buying chocolates as souvenirs and packing and watching Hell's Kitchen.

Day 10
After breakfast Emerson helped me with my luggage to the Bart Station at Powell's. Really nice of him to sacrifise his time to take me around. Took the Bart to SFO and checked in with 2more hours before departure. I noticed the pretty Japanese-American looking couple sitting behind me one the day I came was on the same flight with me back to Narita. Talk about coincident, I even bumped into my sensei while crossing near Powell's. The earth is so small.

Anyway,I was surprised to find that although it took 8 hours to fly to SF,it actually took 10 hours to fly to Narita. That 10 hours was hell of a long one,watched 2 movies, played 3 different games available, slept, went to the WC 4 times,eat,stare at map to read about our flight info etc. After clearing customs, I wanted to buy the 1K tickets to Nippori but was offered by a father there for 900yen. He even told me that my train would be leaving within 1 hour,thank goodness I managed to slip in the train before the doors were closed. One the way from Nippori to Shinjuku, it was actually snowing. To think that it's the end of March already, it should be Spring..why is there snow?

Felt the shivers when I finally got to Clem's place at 7.30pm,changed into thicker clothing then headed out for dinner and karaoke til daylight for LJ's farewell. Really going to miss her..

~San Francisco Part 6~

Day 8
Woke up early at 8.30am to get ready. Went to get tickets for Alice in the wonderland.The movie started at 11am and it was a 3D show. It was a free seating system thing,and we got to chose where we want to sit without being given numbers. The show was pretty alright but the 3D specs really made my ears hurt. After the movie we went for crabs at the Fisherman's Wharf. The crabs were pretty good though I didn't order one cuz I prefered the fish and chips instead..

We passed by a candy shop and Em and CE was really into getting the preserved sour cream and onion flavored CRICKETS to eat..I tried the legs only,it tasted like pistaccio skin. We had frozen yogurt again before heading home. It was fun getting to know Le Ann, Caryn, Eve, Irys and Ciaee.. They are really fun people to be with.

In fact, I was at the girls' place for dinner. They cooked pasta for me and we had quite some talk at their place. Fact is, they know more about Japan,anime-info wise than I do. The only thing that I was better than them was I can speak and read the language better. I should be ashamed that I live in Japan. A lot of them would die to be the place I'm in. Maybe I should learn more about the anime culture in Japan..hmmm.. Spent time watching the girls play God of War til midnight=p

~San Francisco Part 5~

Day 6
Had leftover pasta for lunch and went out shopping alone.I thought of going to Macy's but walked further and checked out the H&M.There was a $15 off jackets and blazers so I went to check it out.After trying 3 different outfits,I got the $34.95 jacket,but after discount and tax it was about $21...so worth it^^And I checked out the Forever 21 there,which was definitely way cheaper than the Forever 21 in Korea or Mlaysia.I got two simple tops witha total of $6.50 there.Walked to Chinatown again after that and got some postcards.

Had my 2nd Starbucks here and waited for Em to come back from his book layout session.Next we had dinner at Louis Dinner which has the jukebox,the 70's convertible as the interior of the diner.Really cool.Next we walked to Civic Centre where the theater for Wicked was located and went in for the 8pm show.Wicked was pretty cool in a sense that it has parts where audience could laugh along for example the antics of Glinda,some so-called rheutorical questions etc.Really enjoyed the 3hours show.Went home after that and I spent 2 hours writing postcards~.~""

Day 7
Woke up early to do laundry,it was pretty amazing to see the clothes spinning in fully covered foam from the transparent door.It's not that I haven't seen a washing machine,its just that I haven't seen spinning clothes covered with whipped-cream-like foam.When the clothes were in the dryer,we walked to the post office to send my postcards.18 stamps actually cost me about $17.94 which was like OMG!! So expensive..Ah well,its not that I could send a postcard from the USA anyway.The stamps were made into stickers,which was pretty convenient.After laundry and lunch of home-cooked ramen,we went for Em's photoshoot for his book.I got to meet more art students who were pretty cool.

I really hated the guard at the door though,he was really strict with ID and stuff.Gah..Anyway,we took the Uni bus back after the photoshoot and had a pleasant surprise when the driver started blasting Wong Fei Hung theme songs.It was really cool.And so happened that most of us in the bus were Asians and a funny-but-interesting guy named Quincy started showing off some kung-fu moves in the bus.It was hilarious but awesome all the same.

Dinner was sushi rolls a few blocks away from Sutter.These sushi rolls are hardly found in Japan,I heard that it's only found in the States actually.The Van Ness,the Crunchy Rolls and the Highway were awesome,the spicy tuma,the Titanic were all great actually.We even had free green tea ice creams.It cost us $26 each for 4 person,pretty expensive actually,but oh well,not like I got to try them anymore anyhow.The next plan was to visit the gay bar,but I sort of ran short of USD so it was cancelled.Spent the night watching Once Upon of Time in China 2 instead:p

~San Francisco Part 4~

Day 5
As usual we went for brunch.Too bad the Japanese restaurant which has fusion cuisine was closed due to the repair for the plumbing system at the restaurant.So we went for Korean food instead.The Korean food was not the best I've eaten,but it was good anyhow and it was pretty cheap in comparison for the rest of the food I paid.It was the same price as the Golden Garlic Noodle I had the day before,and I definitely rather pay for the Korean food.

So the first stop on this day was the Walt Disney Museum which we didn't managed to go the previous day.It was really frustrating to find that it's actually closed on Tuesdays..I was like "celaka betul",Em was going "really potong stim lo"..haha.In a way,our Malaysian-expression was really funny to me,interesting I would say.What can beat the Malaysian language expression weh..hehe.

So then,we spent one and half hour travelling for nothing,and we moved to the next spot of the day,the Coit Tower.Having to walk a few blocks,ascend quite some steps,and paid 5 dollars to get up the tower,we got down after 10 minutes.hahaha.As we were resting by some tree,we suddenly saw "39 Coit Tower",a bus which actually goes up Coit Tower..And here we thought there's no other way to go up then climbing up the stairs..hahaha.Anyway,it was a good exercise.Next we went to Long Bard street,which is a very interesting street whereby its REALLY winding road.Cars can actually go down this road but they have to go really slow.No idea why someone would build a street like this,but it was pretty in a way..

After that we headed back,got some Starbucks to-go,and headed home.Em cooked dinner,pasta to be exact and it was pretty good.*thumbs up*After dinner,wrote some postcards while Em goes on with his assignments (really feel bad bout this).After that I went to bed while he works on and on and on..

~San Francisco Part 3~

Day 4
Had Indonesian cuisine for brunch.I had a Mie Tak Tak soup noodles which was pretty good.No matter how long I've eaten eat,I still couldn't figure out how the soup was made.After that we went to get tickets for Wicked.The theater was a at the shaddier side of San Francisco and one could really see the differences between the downtown area and this side of the town.There was homeless and grafitti everywhere,especially near the Civic Centre.And I'm not exagerrating when I say that out of the 10 people that passes you by there,7 of them have that sourly sick smell of not having to shower for a very long time.We were lucky to get the tickets for Wicked for the 40USD seats.After getting the tickets we took the bus to see the famous must-see Golden Gate Bridge.

I was really lucky that it was sunny and bright on this day.Had a great look at the Golden Gate Bridge and managed to take some pretty good pics.After that we tried walking to the Walt Disney Museum,which according to the guidebook which I read in Japan say,it was just opened last year.We did managed to find our way there,but not after some really tiring and long walk.According to google map,we could arrived at the destination after 22minutes,but apparently they failed to update their map because there was a road construction going on.We stopped to ask for directions,unsure of which road to take as there was a few forked roads.But somehow,we managed to reach the place at 4.55pm.Only to be told:"I'm sorry guys,although this place is closed at 6pm,but the last entrance is at 4.45pm.The museum is pretty big you see,we would want to make it a money's worth for your tickets"

Damn,10minutes too late.If we didn't get lost and ask for directions,we could have made it but oh well..So we walked another 15minutes to the nearest bus station to go back to downtown.By then,we had probably walked more than a few hours on that day itself and our legs were reallllly sore.But since Grace's Cathedral is near Em's place,we decided to pay it a visit before going back for a rest.But man,it was 4 blocks away and it was all uphill from there.I couldn't help complaining,I guess I need to complain at least once before continuing for more..hehe..Anyway,we did managed to go up to the catherdral,took some pictures before resting at home.

Then we went to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner but the place was packed so we got the cakes only instead.Em and I (more of me actually=P)got really "syok" and we ordered 3 different choices of CHOCOLATE cakes.American cakes were huge,so it's actually quite crazy for us to get 3 slices of them,all chocolates some more=p To think I work at a cake shop,I would have been sick fo cakes right now,but haha..there's GODIVA chocolate cake,who could resist that?!After getting the cakes from the Cheesecake Factory which was on the 8th floor at Macy's,we stepped out for the view which was pretty spectacular.It over looked Union Square,and we can see the light ups from there.I love the lightings..

Next we had a Japanese dinner.I tried something which I don't think exists in the real Japanese menu,namely the Garlic noodles.It was alright for the price I paid.We went home early and watched Surroragates while enjoying the cakes.The movie was pretty good but the ending was abrupt,didn't really liked the ending.The cakes were good as well,but the best was still the Godiva Chocolate cake.Ended the night with a few crazy videos from Em's favorites on Youtube.hehe..

~San Francisco Part 2~

Day 3
We had pancakes,omelets and toast for brunch at Sears fine food.The pancakes there were pretty good but the three stacks were a bit too much..don't know why,but I got a token from the diner. After that we walked to the Museum of Modern Art. I couldn't understand nor appreciate art,but since I'm here,a place well known for arts,I figured I should have a look around. After MoMa we went into a few more galleries,some which finally makes sense unlike modern art,before we hopped on the bus to Fisherman's Wharf.

Fisherman's Wharf is another tourist spot in San Francisco. Took some pictures at the pier,saw some pretty interesting gifts like musical gift bags etc. Went to Ghiradelli to look for chocolates as well,learned about the Hooters diner where apparently the waitresses wear very short mini skirts and low-cut tees. Saw more galleries before we stopped by Burger Kings for dinner. Oh,there was this very cool place call Musee Mechnique whereby the games from 1800's were available. It had a coin slot and when you put in a quarter, the puppets will play,the clockwork circus would come alive etc. Pretty interesting. Night at FW is pretty cold because it's near the sea,so it's good to take note of that if one were to visit there. Fact is, the whole of SF's weather is hard to predict,it could be warm and sunny in the afternoon,but can get pretty chilly at night. It's pretty interesting to walk along the street and see some people wearing jackets while some are wearing singlets with shorts*.*

After Fisherman's Wharf, we went to Em's friends place for an arts workshop. Interesting thing I noticed was the intercom of the apartment which is connected to their phone,so that if you are not at home and your intercom is connected to your handphone,you can still buzz the person at the door in.Really cool.Well,we managed to go in his friends place after 10 mins and it's the first time I get to experience what an art work shop was.Apparently it's where a group of art students gather and when one of them poses the rest of them starts drawing the model.It's pretty hard for on person to model actually,having to pose for 10mins staying still..it takes lots of will power,especially if you are doing a difficult pose. So yea,it was fun looking at them pose and sketch..

When we got back it was already pretty late at night but here's the amazing thing in the US,you could do grocery shopping even in the middle of the night. So I did just that,I went grocery shopping with Em and CE at midnight..there was so much stuff lining up at the store that I was so tempted to buy most of them to bring them back to Japan..Gosh,if only I have a grocery like that in Japan..grocery shopping was fun,and by the time I got back it was already 1am..end of day 3^^

~San Francisco Part 1~

Day 1
I was lucky that I got the isle seat on the plane,and was lucky that it was a 17year old girl that sat next to me. The airplane food was so-so (I don't really have an appetite when it comes to plane food),and the ride was 9hours long..didn't really sleep well,less than 2hours to be exact.Anyhow,I arrived safely to SF airport,cleared the customs and immigration before taking the BART to meet Em at Powell station. Inside the BART,I got to see matchboxes-like houses which really gives me a crazy idea that if a fire were to break out,all the houses would have gone 'sayonara' :/Oh ya, I forgot to mentioned that I arrived at 9am on the 19th of March when I departed from Narita on the 19th of March at 4pm;p

Em met me at Powell station and I felt really guilty for waking him up when he only had 4hours of sleep and is actually sick>.< sorry man..well being a sport,he still helped me with my luggage,took me around Union Square before we got to his apartment..it was really warm and sunny that day and i was practically sweating in my oh-too-many layers of clothes because it was too cold in Japan. Anyhow,Em's apartment was pretty cool and near downown area,pretty convenient I would say cuz its near the Uni as well. My jetlag sat in and I had 2 hours of nap before we had out for Chinese food at Chinatown.The New Sun Hong Kong restaurant was pretty good and we can even ask for take-aways with our left-overs. No such thing in Japan til I was a little surprised(^^)"

And of all the Chinatown I visited, this was really the best so far. I got to see those typical Chinese salon, Chinese pharmacy with herbs and dry food, and oh, shops that sells MOPS!! So kedai-runcit lo I tell you!! And the veges here was so cheap,that I wish I could find these in Japan..hehe..Sorry for the sudden "aunti-ness",it's just that all the shops I see actually reminds me of Petaling Street or the Chinese grocery store near my house ;) After Chinatown we got back to his place and I got to meet Jackee,a very out-going bubbly girl whose place I'm goin to crash in for the next 8days..we went to get new mattress as she wants o a new one and I get to sleep in her old one..jetlag really sat in and I was yawning all the way,didn't really talked much..

After mattress,Em took me to downtown where we had frozen yogurt at IceBee..it's a self serve frozen yogurt place where you can fill your cup with different flavors of frozen yougurt(more like frozen ice cream), and we can use any topping we like,payment was based on the weight..it tasted pretty good,not much different from ice-cream actually.Next we went walking around the town,thought of going to MoMa but it was closed,so we walked along and went to a containers shop where they had some very cool stuff..cool but unneccesary I would say. Th one that I found useful was a dustbin where there's an elastic top where you can push to compress the garbage inside.

Next I got to meet a few more cool people like Robert,JC,Angeline and Pierre.. Had dinner at Japan town and had a great time listening to the group speaking. It was really nice of them trying to included me in their conversation but actually with jetlag and all,I was actually having more fun listening to them..the part I enjoyed most is the part whr they compared our lives with games..I forgot the details but it was really something interesting. The day ended soon after and we came back to shower and all. As the mattress would only arrive the next day, Jackee offered me her room while she stayed at her bf's place for a night..Ended day 1 with an almost 12 hours sleep(^^)

Day 2
Woke up at 12.30pm,spent the rest of the day resting at home..been really tired and Em had an assignment due tomorrow. Was glad to get some rest before doing more sight-seeing..had dinner at a great place at Powell's which consists of Chop sirloin,mash potatoes,salad,bread and apple pie(^^) it's a matter of time before I go (-__-) fat like that..strolled around the town and got to see a cool instrument player who used pails as drums..strolling at the downtown area was pretty neat at night,reminds me a lot like Sydney..looking forward to tomorrow(^^)\/