Santa Cruz and Pescadero, California

Last week I went back to the U.S. for the first time in over a year. My friends and I met from all corners of the world in California to celebrate the union of two amazing people I’m lucky to have in my life.

The most remarkable thing about seeing old friends is how easy it is. No matter how much time has passed, how far you live apart, whatever persona you’ve created in the new social context, there is almost always a seamless transition back to exactly how things were before you parted.  These are the friends you have that are like family. And even though I never lived in San Francisco, the company I returned to made it feel like home.

We spent a day driving around, eating and laughing and running random errands at our own pace. We had In-n-Out Burgers, Animal Style, which if you haven’t tried, I highly recommend it. After, we went to World Market to pick up remaining pieces for the wedding. My eyes were overwhelmed by things I hadn’t seen in such a long time. I stocked up on some simple luxuries:

Santa Cruz

The next day we drove to Santa Cruz for the bachelorette party. It was my first time to the city and it did not disappoint. Ever since I saw the 1980’s vampire classic, Lost Boys, I imagined Santa Cruz as a desert beach town filled with roughed up adolescents wandering the carnival-illuminated boardwalk. It turned out to be sleepier than I thought, the main bar and restaurant area dominated by a hip university presence. We ate tacos, got mani-pedis and shopped along the main strip to find pieces to complete our 20’s themed costumes.

After a very restful sleep at the Bay Front Inn, I woke my friend up early and we borrowed bikes from the front desk and set out to view the coast. We passed the pier where an important vampire battle scene from Lost Boys took place. Further along the beach we saw the fins of several breaching dolphins.

We loaded the cars and got brunch at a phenomenal Brazilian restaurant. Brunch. What a beautiful concept. After living in Japan where the breakfast culture consists of fish over rice and the occasional pancake, I was ready to indulge in a hearty, late-morning meal. I got poached eggs over mushrooms and spinach with a black bean sauce drizzled on top. My friends got their famous and beautiful Acai berry bowl which had bananas, strawberries and granola over an Acai yogurt mix. It was just as tasty as it was beautiful.

After filling our bellies, we separated into cars and took route 1 up the coast to watch the ocean as we made our way back toward the city. I couldn’t believe the view of the coastline. The road winds around the natural curve of the cliffs, which drop suddenly several meters down to rough crashing waters. On the West Coast, a light fog hangs on the horizon of the sea, making the colors really subdued but warm. No wonder Californians love nature.

Pescadero

We turned down a flat road into a old, sleepy mining town, Pescadero. Apparently, the general store had an artichoke bread that brought flocks of foodies from the city. The town really lived up to it’s Americana of the West atmosphere, complete with hand-painted wooden signs and a tiny farmers stand that sold big pumpkins, mini avocados and bushels of brussel sprouts. We bought pumpkins and a big loaf of sourdough artichoke bread to try in the car. The inside was still warm when we dug into it.

That evening there was a party hosted for friends of the bride and groom. We had delicious fajitas and wine by the campfire. I sat on a blanket in a full-bellied stupor among people I hadn’t seen together in years. I was exhausted but I didn’t let myself fall asleep. In that old house in a forest of Oakland, it was such a rare and perfect moment to be all together. I wanted to savor every moment for as long as possible.

Yakitori and a Chilean Feast in Kobe

One of the best things about living in a share house is that you end up running into people from all over the world. My share house is fairly large, with over 20 people together in one house. About half are Japanese, and the rest foreign, mostly from other Asian countries. One of the first friends I made is Pandora, a rockin’ Argentinian with flaming manic-panic red hair and a deep love for Japan.

Torikizoku – Cheap and Plentiful Yakitori

Steak and cheesy meatballs — everything on the menu is 280 yen

Negima (Chicken and Leek) Brushed with a Soy Ginger Sauce

Beer goes much better with yakiniku than Oolong tea (pictured)

The steak was definitely the best one

Pandora and I went to Torikizoku, a famous chain in Japan, to have Yakitori, or grilled chicken skewers. From their colorful picture menu (really, really useful), we ordered several different kinds of meat cuts and vegetables and launched into a casual discussion about the subtle differences we observed between Japan and our native countries, such as in table manners, communication, work environments, dating, etc.

You know, if people saw this at a restaurant in Argentina, they would freak out.

She picked up the damp towelette from the table and dabbed her mouth.

It’s what you use to wipe the kitchen counters.

You know what I can’t get used to? People talking with their mouths full. I don’t mind it as much now, but I can’t bring myself to do it.

Oh really? It’s actually considered rude here if you don’t. When I was here in high school, I was invited to have dinner with the president of my school. He asked me a question while I was in the middle of chewing and because I didn’t answer immediately, I was chastised–SEVERELY–for being so disrespectful to him. And I was trying to be polite! Something I can’t deal with is the slurping, you know while they eat noodles.

Haha, I’m used to that. My dad eats noodles the Chinese way. Still with pasta, I refuse.

 

 

Gran Micaela y Dago – Chilean Food in Kobe

My friend Kari came into town so we could see off Pandora before she moved to Osaka. We decided to investigate a Chilean restaurant down the hill which we were always so curious about. An American, a German, a Chilean and an Argentinian. As always, I was so excited to eat Latin food.

This second floor restaurant with golden stucco walls was tastefully decorated with Chilean crafts and pictures of the owners with famous visitors. Kari immediately noticed the two, large Indio Picaros, wooden Mapuche Indian statuettes, one of which she eagerly lifted to show us it’s fun “little” secret.

The man behind the counter greeted us first in Japanese, then upon noticing the two Latina women, in fluent Spanish. We let Kari guide us through the menu, since it was all of our first times eating in a Chilean restaurant. We ordered a feast.

My first empanadas since eating Julia’s Empanadas when I lived in Washington, DC.

Pan tostada con palta

Seafood Paella

Raspberry cheesecake with apple icecream

I ate way past the point of being full, but I was so happy. The man who cooked the meal was the owners son, half Chilean, half Japanese, and raised in Japan. He pulled a chair beside us and spoke about growing up here. His father, who speaks very little Japanese even now, made a very strict rule about making the home-life Spanish only, which is why he grew up speaking Spanish. I’m always so fascinated when I meet people who are bilingual, or in this case trilingual. His family gave him the option to attend international school, but he chose Japanese schools because that was where his friends went.

This restaurant, which has been here for years, often hosts live music nights for regular Latin and Japanese customers.

Nihonjin, Gaikokujin

Working at an international school and meeting lots of foreign residents often keeps me thinking about the issues that surround raising mixed and foreign children in Japan. If parents are lucky enough to have the option, they have to face the difficult question of where to send their kids to school.

Many people I’ve met have said that they are hesitant to choose Japanese schooling. They’ve heard stories of children who have been through the standard Japanese education system and faced some form of bullying due to their foreignness. Sometimes we hear about discrimination based on the fact that a person’s first name is written in Katakana, the Japanese Syllabary used for non-Japanese words. But the option of sending kids to international school is not only expensive, but potentially isolating. Many of the international schools in our area have only a few Japanese students and do not offer adequate instruction of Japanese.  What is life like when you grow up in a place where you don’t speak the native language?

That got me thinking about my own experience growing up as a second-generation Chinese in America. Growing up, my family moved around between several major cities along the east coast. Boston, MA, New York City, NY, Edison, NJ, Washington D.C. We never joined any kind of Chinese community. I attended public schools, and never considered attending a Chinese language school. I lost touch with speaking Chinese from a very young age, though eventually I studied it in college.

I often wonder how my life would have been different if my dad made a rule that we had to Chinese at home. Would I have made the same friends? Would I have been interested in the same things? How important is the dominant language used between relocated family members to their experience in the new setting? Would we have retained more cultural practices from China at home?

We thanked our chef for the delicious meal and left to conquer the hill leading back to our share house. I thought about my experience of intersecting nations, and how funny it was that the place I chose was considered the little Europe of Japan.

Want to try it?

Torikizoku

Yakitori (famous chain in Kansai)

There are several locations near Sannomiya, near the Hankyu station, near Ikuta shrine across from Tokyu Hands, and just down the street from the Haagen-datz near the concrete statue park.

+81 78-862-3515

Gran Micaela y Dago

Chilean

2 Chome-13-8 NakayamatedōriChūō-ku, Kōbe-shi, Hyōgo-ken, Japan. ‎Open 5:30pm-midnight. Closed Tuesdays.

078-241-0367

Stop-Motion with Japanese Wooden Hedgehog Toys

This came in the mail this weekend: A vintage-inspired invitation to my best friends’ wedding!

I came home from a long day at work on Friday to find this in the mail. What an exciting way to greet the weekend! I’m so excited to be going back to San Francisco and watch two good friends get married. I’ll be a bridesmaid for my first time so it will definitely be a busy trip.  The last time I went back was last June for another friend’s wedding. It was a wonderful trip, but much too short! I’m really looking forward to spending a week seeing friends and eating quality sandwiches!

Saturday mornings, I usually get up to go on my long runs. Unfortunately, due to the rain and lack of proper rain gear, I had to postpone the run. I’ve really come to look forward to these opportunities to clear my mind, meditate on thoughts from the week, or nothing at all. Instead, I spent the day trying to finish some design work in my room to the sound of the drizzle outside.

I ended up finishing a short stop motion film I made for my friend’s birthday. It actually got started accidentally, in the process of completing an assignment for my graphic design course with TGDS. I made a light box using a large cardboard box, white paper, white felt, velcro and two lights. Then I used Adobe Lightroom and iMovie to edit and cut the pictures together.

My homemade light-box

I found these toys when I was hiking Mt. Rokko for the first time in a gift shop. It’s a box full of wooden adorable wooden hedgehogs called Mogu-mogu. They’re meant to be stacked up until the pile falls apart, maybe something similar to Monkeys In a Barrel. I have no idea if they’re based on a comic or anime or if they’re just random characters. In any case, they were so charming, I couldn’t resist the purchase. They’ll be gifted to my friend when I finally get to see him this October 🙂

The star of my film, a wooden hedgehog toy, which came from a game I bought in Japan

My First Stop-Motion Video: Hedgehog and The Lime

The song is With Whom to Dance by the Magnetic Fields.

Seoul

Last week, I took a nice 5-day-long holiday to Seoul, South Korea, where I got to explore sights, sounds and tastes with a friend from home. We had so much delicious food and got to see some really charming and interesting parts of the city. Here are some photos that I took.

Hongdae

Jeon (Vegetable pancake) stand

One of many 60’s and 70’s rock theme bars in the area

Sinchon Insadong 

Ssamzie-gil complex (쌈지길), a spiral art and shopping plaza

Quiet but beautiful residential area of Bukchon

An unidentified mascot

It being a very short vacation from teaching meant I didn’t get to see nearly as much as I want to. Just means I will have to go back sometime soon! 🙂

Explore Bali — Day trip around Ubud

Exploring outside Ubud

After a day of wandering around Ubud, admiring beautiful handicrafts, and taking a head-clearing class at Yoga Barn, my friend and I decided to relax and do a day tour of some sites around the town.

It’s fairly easy to find advertisements for these tours all over Ubud. The owner of our guest house arranged for us to be picked up at 10:00AM. We filled up with toast, coffee and fruit and brought along the necessaries: a camera, some cash, sunglasses and a sarong.

Beautiful and delicious breakfast at Bayu Guest House

At around 10:10 a small white van occupied by a local guide and a French traveller stopped at our corner. We were joined by three more women from Brazil and Argentina before we set off to Goa Gajah, of the Elephant temple.

Goa Gajah – the Elephant Temple

These stone piles arranged in a grid lined the path leading to the elephant temple forest

We were instructed to put on Sarongs before we entered. The entrance to the Elephant Cave was a sinister stone carving of the Hindu Earth God, with his mouth gaping. Although the dark and cool cave was a nice respite from the bearing sun, we didn’t stay inside very long-the low ceiling of packed earth and hollowed out shrines in the wall had very creepy atmosphere.

These were hidden everywhere.

The surrounding environment was a real adventure to explore. After walking past an area filled with piles of stacked stones, we stumbled into a dense forest with winding stone paths and a pleasant waterfall.

Visitors must wear sarongs before entering the temple area.

I ended up wandering a little too far from the group up a path in the forest and bought a coconut for refreshment. By the time I had wandered back, my travel companions were calling my name, worried that I had gotten lost (which admittedly, I did).

Pura Gunung Kawi – Carved Cliff Shrines

Rice terrace at the entrance to the temple

We headed to Pura Gunung Kawi, what I saw as the Balinese version of Mount Rushmore. Hidden in a valley below several rice paddies, are a row of massive shrines carved into the sides of stone cliffs. These shrines are dedicated to 11th century Balinese Royalty. Again, I found myself more amazed by surrounding scenery than the monuments themselves.

Tirta Empul – Holy Water Temple

Beautiful and intricate Balinese architecture

We met the driver and left for Tirta Empul, or Holy Water Temple, where visitors from all over come to bathe and meditate. Men women and children stood in the waist-high pools and splashed the holy water over their face and hair. Knowing I didn’t have a change of clothes, I resisted the urge the submerse my entire body in the water. It was extremely sweltering that day, so I did end up running my head under one of the stone spouts just to cool off.

The sacred water is said to have healing properties

Balinese Coffee Tour

The next leg was a tour of a Balinese coffee plantation, which ended up being my favorite part of the trip. The guide took us around a garden of delicate coffee plants and pointed out some of their fruit and signs of good health. She led us under an awning where wide baskets displayed beans in various stages of processing.

A surprise coffee-making process

One contained Kopi Luwak, Bali’s most expensive coffee, which looked like compacted peanut clusters. To my surprise, the guide told us that these clusters were actually beans which had passed through the digestive system of a Civet, a cat like marmot. She took us around and showed us the small mammal sitting in a raised wooden cage.

A very sleepy and probably irritated civet cat

The coffee tour ended at a small outdoor picnic area which sat at the edge of a cliff overlooking rice paddies. There we were served 6 different types of coffee flavors: mocha, honey, ginger lemon, caramel and hazelnut. Sipping sweet coffees while overlooking the misty valley made the perfect refuel after a long morning of touring temples.

Samples of different coffees

A nice coffee break with a view

Kitamani – Mount Batur

After thanking the guide for the tour, we climbed aboard the van and began climbing the steep roads up to view Mt. Batur. Unfortunately, storm clouds were already beginning to roll in and by the time we reached the viewing point, the elusive volcano was shrouded by dense white fog and heavy rain. We stayed for an overpriced lunch on a balcony and left shortly after.

Rainy season in Bali

A rainy view of Mt. Batur

The final stop of the tour was a viewing of the rice terraces just outside of Ubud.

While beautiful, these rice terraces see grueling hard work and toil from Bali’s tireless rice farmers throughout the year.

 Night Out in Ubud

The path back to our guest house

Some colorful poofs–perfect location for resting our tired feet and writing in our travel journals

At the end of the tour, our new friends invited us out for dinner at a warung near their hostel. We parted ways to take power naps before meeting for some of the best tofu peanut satay and frozen lemon and watermelon smoothies (I wish I still remembered the name of the warung!). My friend and I took a long route back home and one a whim, popped into a cuban restaurant for drinks and impromptu salsa dancing.

Salsa night at a Cuban restaurant in downtown Ubud

The wall decorations had the effect of removing us from Bali and transporting us to Cuba for the night

I had been completely floored by the beautiful beaches around Padang Padang and Uluwatu during our stay at Rapture Surf Camp, but it wasn’t until I experienced the energy and healing spirit of Ubud that I fell in love with Bali.

A quick recap of the day’s activities:

1. Ate breakfast at Bayu Guest House.
2. Explored the rainforest surrounding Goa Gajah, the Elephant Temple.
3. Payed tribute to stoned carvings of Balinese royalty at Pura Gunung Kawi.
4. Experienced holy cleansing at Tirta Empul water temple
5. Learned the process of Balinese coffee preparation and had a tasting overlooking some rice paddies.
6. Viewed Mount Batur and rice terraces in the rain.
7. Danced the night away at a Cuban Salsa club in Ubud.

I don’t always go for the packaged tours because the itinerary and services provided by your guide are usually easy and cheap to do on your own (with a bit of research). However, after a week of surfing in southern Bali, and think both I and my travel companion I were happy to rest and let someone else do the planning for us. And the result was very enjoyable!

Food love

I want to remake this poster