California Road Trip

Still a bit exhausted from this trip ^^;. Though my friends and I spent about five days in California, we really only had ONE day for sightseeing and touring (mainly San Francisco). We spent the entire Friday driving there, the weekend at a training camp, one day at Six Flags, which left us with one day to play around before heading back to Boredland. All of us kinda regretted leaving so soon but hey, there is always next time.

SIX FLAGS

Went to Six Flags (my first time!) on Labor Day expecting the place to be crowded as hell but surprisingly, it was fairly empty.

Heh… I like how they installed these safety nets in case of incidents. This looks reassuring…

There were people but there were barely any lines for most of the rides which was pretty sweet.

I didn’t take many interesting photos at the park because my camera was away most of the time; I was not allowed to take my camera onto the rides >_>. A bit disappointed… I was so looking forward to shooting photos while screaming and going through loops and corkscrews! By the way, what is Domo-kun doing at Six Flags?

At the dolphin show. I also recorded some videos so maybe I’ll upload them later when I have time. Wish I can train my dolphin to do some of those tricks… ^^;

While I didn’t get to do any in-ride shots, it was fun to shoot others riding. Some of their faces are just priceless… xD. Shame on my part: I ran out of stamina after five rides and chickened out on the Medusa. I was near the point of throwing up as my stomach was swirling endlessly and my throat itchy from all that screaming… har har. Good times though!

CHINATOWN

Now onto the last day in Cali. Apparently, there are two Chinatowns in SF and the one we stumbled into after dim sum was apparently the new one. The one we wanted to go was actually the old one and we were quite some ways off. Interesting. In this one, all the shops and stuff are mainly just on one strip of road. It is like 8th ave in Brooklyn, NY… if you know what I’m talking about ^^;.

Finally saw some cable cars while on our way to the real Chinatown.

I’m surprised it is legal to be holding onto the car like that…

Okay… now we’re talking. Too bad it was getting late when we finally got here; we shouldn’t have wasted so much time at that Chinatown.

Ahhhh… the smell of trash, Chinese food cooking, produce, cigarette smoke, sewage, and incense all mingled up… even though it’s my first time in SF’s Chinatown, everything felt all too nostalgic for me. The place is just like New York’s Chinatown… but with slopes. In case you’re curious, I grew up in NYC.

Only in Chinatown can you find “Coach”, “LV”, and other “high-end” products just casually sitting outside random shops, waiting for uninformed people to buy. Good to know that the age-old stereotypical image of Chinatown still haven’t changed one bit… xD

Apparently, SF’s Chinatown is bigger than NYC’s but there’s not much here. All i saw were restaurants, souvenir shops, restaurants, souvenir shops, salons, produce shops, clothes shop, salons, souvenir shops, herb market, restaurants… souvenir shops, restaurants and some more restaurants. I’m just amazed that all of them managed to stay in business despite the obvious over-saturation o_O

Just outside of Chinatown, there seems to be a mini redlight district of some sort with loads of night clubs and stuff.

I just had to…

This hill was steep…

Very steep.

Chinatown was still lively before dinner but after, everything begins to look a little sketchy. It was walking around this time though as it was peaceful.

JAPANTOWN

Rewind a few hours back on that same day and we’re in Japantown.

The main stuff to do here is a really huge shopping center… and Daiso. DAISO!

Forgot the name of this structure… ^^;

Cool displays inside the center.

We were in a rush so we didn’t really have the time to absorb the atmosphere or even thoroughly check out the place while the shops were still open.

Japan Collectibles. I checked the place out earlier and found an MG Epyon… for $76.00. I laughed then left the store.

Here’s something more interesting- Osaka Castle.

According to my Kansai friends, this Japantown has a very strong Osaka flavor to it.

We came back to Japantown one last time just for the heck of it after dinner even though we knew all the shops were already closed. We lamented on our short stay and all the food that we wanted to try… and how broke we would be ^^;. We stayed till all the entrances locked us inside and we had to find our way out… it was kinda fun xD.

Last stop before we head home: the Golden Gate Bridge… or what little we see of it. Shame that we came so late and it had to be covered by SF’s infamous fog. さすがだな。。。

And that’s that. There’s so many more things we wanted to do! Just one day for both Chinatown and Japantown was a mistake as we weren’t able to check out everything that we wanted to check out… and eat everything that we wanted to eat. It’s all good though because we had a great time and this road trip was as smooth as it gets (minus SF roads… they are terribly rough). Good times… Good times… I LOVE SAN FRANCISCO! TToTT

Food post next…