Starry Wisdom

Yes, I’ve done it. pulled my 1 “get out of jail free” card and went to Mcdonald’s. I had the Ebi Filet-o sandwich set… a shrimp sandwich. It’s pretty good. Before I went to Mcdonald’s I fumbled around in the Asakusa Matsuya’s food court. But abundance of choice for the loss. I had an AMPM Onigiri at 10AM – no freaking idea what wa sin it, but it was very good. I walked around Akihabra, good time. Then I went back to Kappabashi Dori and bought some sushi models. Now, I will collect my bags from the hotel and head towards Shinjuku.

At 8AM the tokyo subway is amazingly crazy, just like you’d expect. Luckily half the train got out at Akihabra station with me. I proceeded to get myself nice and lost, but after 15 minutes I found my bearings and found this mr donut.

I woke up at 4:30 AM. Since I was asleep around 9PM instead of my 10PM goal, I said “Eh” and got up, did the typical S & S & S, then walked around outside. I am locked out until 7am, but that’s ok. I took some sunrise pics of the “golden sperm” and a statue and the river. I got Boss coffee from a vending machine. Mr. Donut doesn’t open until 7:30 am. So i decided to go to 7-11. I got some really yummy cherry yogurt and a madeline.

Upon arriving in Asakusa I meanered to my hotel, based on the map I was given by the Welcome Inn people. I stopped on my way and bought a Vitamin C water from a vending machine. I thought it was a decent drink. After only a little bit of extra wandering I found the ryokan, and got my room. I quickly changed out of my heavy cotton shirt, and put on a tshirt and put on sandals. The latter is a mistake – sweaty foot leads to chafing leads to sadness. I sent email to my parents from the lobby, then went out with my camera.

I walked around taking pictures for a while – the pagoda and shrine. Wander around, and found kitchenware town as it was closing down. I will go back there tomorrow. I stop at a vending machine and buy some delicious Pocari Sweat – YUM. I take some pics of the giant chef head and etc. Then I wander down Asakusa Dori and I start to get hungry. I consider getting onigiri at 7-11 but I mentally vetoed it.

After much more wandering I find a typical restaurant with some nice looking models of food out front. I got ebi (shrimp) tempura and it was mighty tasty. After dinner, walking back to the hotel, I got slightly lost and ende dup walking roughly 4 times longer than I should have if I went the right way.

Once I get back to the hotel I decide to use the upstairs bath, which was mighty relaxing. I’m watching TV while writing this journal entry. There is come cooking contest show on. There seemed to have been two themes – purple food, and food cooked with a blowtorch. Now I watch a bit more TV then sleep at 10PM.

I’m sitting here waiting to see if I’ll get on the plane. Well, I got a picture of it anyway. I got to the airport at 8:30AM, and got some food and coffee, andhave been mostly reading. I guess I’ll read more until I find out if I get on or not.

later:

23G – Business class, but with an economy meal is the verdict. What’s funny is that I appear to be the best dressed person in Business class. Hurray for the dress code policy.

I’m about ready to head out to Japan. Be back on 9/30.

The past week has been busy. I will give you all an outline:

Saturday 9/8/2007 (technically the week before, but so bet it): I went up to SF and unlike most times, did not bring a camera. I ventured far and wide across the city, without using my car. I bought 5 books for 13 dollars at Green Apple. I saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in IMAX 3D (for the review fans: this was pretty decent, and it did a better job of adaptation than the 4th movie. The 3d was a bit lame. 6 out of 9 rabbit turds). I had a couple of pints and dinner at the silly bar Zeitgeist. All this by 7pm, when I returned home like the old man that I am

Sunday 9/9/2007 – laundry day. But then I went and done burned my right hand while cooking dinner. Bad enough that I went to the ER (hey, it’s my dominant hand). Sadly, I broke my non driving trend to do this. I had been 6 days up until then. 2nd degree burns on the top joints of 3 fingers, first degree on more parts of my fingers and my palm. Exciting

Monday 9/10/2007 – Nothing interesting

Tuesday 9/11/2007 – I went back to San Francisco to see Ben Gibbard in conversation with Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) as part of City Arts & Lectures. This was really great. On youtube you can find bits. In particular the musical bits with Handler on the Accordion are very interesting. This was a very good show/lecture/whatever you want to call it. I am going to see a similar (but probably not quite as musical) event with Oliver Sacks next month.

Wendesday 9/12/2007 – boring day

Thursday 9/13/2007 – I watched the first part of “Prime Suspect 7” and Little Dieter Needs to Fly from netflix. 10 out of 11 rabbit turds for the film. Reviews of Prime Suspect is awaiting the second disc.

Friday 9/14/2007 – Annie’s Mac and Cheese for dinner
Saturday 9/15/2007 – I went and saw Shoot ’em Up in the theater. This review is rather subjective, and it presupposes you like action films: FANTASTIC. Basically the plot was as bare bones as could be to support non stop action. This was effective because the actors (Paul Giamatti and Clive Owens) were really able to hold their own and give life to characters that were just a tad over 1 dimensional. 5 out of 6 rabbit turds.

Later on, in the evening, I went out and had dinner at the local, closest taqueria (which is mediocre) and then went to a nearby bar and had a couple pints of Newcastle. Then it became 10pm, and the 24 year olds were too annoying, and I fled home like the old man that I am.

Really, I am.

Here is the rundown of yesterday:

Wake up, have breakfast, go get on 9am Caltrain to SF.

Get off at the 4th and king station, and walk up and grab the 38 Geary bus.

Get off at 6th and Geary. Walk up to Clement.

Buy 5 books and a map at Green Apple for 13 dollar. Buy 2 more books for 4 bucks at the crazy warehouse store.

Get on the 38 and head back to downtown.

Setup the wireless on an iMac at the apple store and futz online for 10 minutes.

Look at expensive CDs at Virgin Megastore.

Read for a bit in the park area between Metreon and SFMOMA.

Go see Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix in Imax 3d. The first scene in the movie was great in Imax.
The 3d sequence near the end was a bit silly. The movie dragged a little bit, but it was fairly solid. I think it was 11 out of 14 rabbit turds.

Get on a Metro Streetcar and go to the Mission.

Pick up the book I couldn’t find at Green Apple at borderlands. I didn’t see Ripley this time :/.

Walk up Valencia and get some food and a couple of beers at Zeitgeist. It was a warm and sunny day, so it was very happening.

Decide that I am too lazy to sit and wait for the 7pm Caltrain, so walk down to the BART station. While in the station, reading, a woman sat down near me with a small dog in her messenger bag. The puppy seemed to be very interested in getting out of the bag. I chatted with her a bit about her dog. Take BART to Millbrae.

Hop on the Samtrans Bus down El Camino to home.

All this was over by 7:10PM. Jam packed day.

Oh yes, I am the master of public transit!

Here is what I had for dinner tonight:

3 pattypan squash
1/2 cup corn bread crumbs (crush chunk of corn bread from grocery store)
1/4 cup grated parmigiano reggiano

Preheat oven to 350.
Boil a bit of water in a pot. Put squash in pot and cook covered for about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile – grate cheese and crumble bread into bowl. Mix.
When squash is soft, take out of water. With paring knife, cut off tops. Score inside and with a spoon or melon baller, scoop out the middle flesh, and mix it in with the bread crumb mixture.
Stuff the mixture back into the hollowed out squash shells, overfilling them. Place in oven in baking dish for 15 minutes.

I adapted this from a recipe I found online. It was pretty tasty but next time I think I’ll add some sauteed shallot to the stuffing mixture. Of course, the amount can be varied. I had more than enough stuffing, so I’m sure you could make several more squash. This was a meal for me, but one or two would make a fine side dish.