DC Chillin’

So, it’s been a little over a month since I’ve been in the District of Columbia and while I haven’t been to too many places and done too many things (still, I’ve done more than Wale and Lady Gaga have in the Chillin’ music video – seriously – all Wale did was hang out at Ben’s Chilli Bowl), but here are some of my random thoughts:

To be continued at: http://formosanwonderboy.wordpress.com/2009/09/24/dc-chillin/

Parting is Such Sorrow

August 15th was my last big hurrah with my friends in Los Angeles, at least for the near future, and I lived it up as much as possible.  People had been asking me about what I’d do, if anything, as a big “good bye”, and I really wasn’t sure. But in the end, a good night out with friends was just perfect.  As much as I love Boulevard 3, my first choice was not it.  I wanted to have the party at the Standard or Skybar, basically somewhere with a rooftop because, like Chuck Bass, I have a thing for rooftops (and Kanye’s “Good Life” blaring in the backdrop while my friends and I overlook the city with glasses of champagne in hand).  Unfortunately, that didn’t work out, but fortunately, Boulevard 3 did.

First, I want to thank my friend, Amy, for taking care of the party planning.  Everyone made it in trouble-free.

And that’s the most important part – trouble-free entrance to a great venue, complete with free tacos and chocolate fondu bar. Amy also got the club to bump another party from one of the two highly coveted corner tables on the dance floor – two long couches, a single seat sofa, and 8 ottomans, plenty of seating to go around. It was the twin of the seating area of my birthday table. 

First picture honors have to go to the party planner, Amy:

Continue at: http://formosanwonderboy.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/parting-is-such-sorrow/

My Third Home

Day 1

The first thing I saw (waiting for me, I wished) when I got through customs at the Narita airport in Japan was a throng of crazy teenage girls, waiting for someone ... I forgot the name of the person, but I think it was something Watson.  At first I thought it might have been a Harry Potter actor because of that Draco Malfoy lookalike you see on the righthand side of the picture below, but I don't think that was it.   

Continue at: http://formosanwonderboy.wordpress.com/2009/08/23/my-third-home/

I’m the most wanted man on my island. Your island? My island!

I’m so behind on pictures and postings, but I’ll start with my most recent trip back to Guam during the last week of July. It was my first trip back home since December of 2006. That’s almost 3 long years away from home.  Besides seeing my parents, the main goal I had in mind was simply to eat as much food as possible. As a result, my trip back home fell way short of adventurous.

For starters, it took forever to get home.  I had to transfer through Japan.  It took 11 hours to Japan with an extra hour delay – AND NOTHING ON MY ARMREST WORKED.  For starters, delta/northwest from LA to Narita does not have individual video screens. There’s only that one big screen for each section.  Second, because the armrest didn’t work, I couldn’t turn to the audio which corresponded with the movies showing on the big screen.  Well, you must be thinking, “why don’t you just read a book.”  Good idea, except I couldn’t turn on the reading light either because the switch was on the armrest.  So, I’m thinking, maybe it’s just my seat.  I need to call the flight attendant.  But, no! I couldn’t even do that because the flight attendant button is on the armrest!  So, I had to flag one down from across the plane.  It turned out that just my side of the plane and within my little section had malfunctioning armrests.  What did we get to show for this? A $50 voucher for our next ride. I threw it in the trash.

Anyway, it was a long road home…

Continue at: http://formosanwonderboy.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/im-the-most-wanted-man-on-my-island-your-island-my-island/

I’m Running Out of Weekends in Los Angeles

I have 3 weekends left in Los Angeles and I’m trying to make the best of it.  Yesterday (Saturday), I gathered a motley crew of friends for some Ka-ra-o-ke at our regular, Rosen, of which I actually haven’t been so regular in the recent months.  But before that, I headed to what I consider to be quite possibly the best restaurant in Little Tokyo that no one knows about – Hazuki.  I wrote a yelp review for it, but I’ll re-cap a bit. 

For starters, I’m just shocked that more people don’t know about this place. I suppose it may be because of its location – 2nd floor of the Japanese Village Plaza through the west end stairwell next to Ce-fiore.  The restaurant is considered part izakaya and also simply part restaurant, serving many authentic Japanese dishes I haven’t really seen much of at other Japanese restaurants in Los Angeles.  They have a regular menu and they also have a ”specials menu” which is written all in cursive Japanese.  Good luck figuring that out without accidentally ordering squid testicals.  You could also ask the waiter for help. He ain’t Japanese but he can sure as hell read it and understand it.  Gnarley. We ordered 6 dishes and the quality ranged from “above average” to “oh my God this is so droooll….”

Calamari Salad with sesame dressing (A)

Continue at: http://formosanwonderboy.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/im-running-out-of-weekends-in-los-angeles/