My parents left this morning. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this alone. Meh.
Moved into our apartment. It is very pretty and awesome. I think the best part is the location… one or two blocks down one direction is Japantown. This means that, not only is there authentic (and affordable!) Japanese food (bento boxes, real ramen, sushi galore), but that there’s also a Japanese bookstore (that sells game art books at really good prices), but also a Japanese collectables shop (games, giant robot figurines [Dan would love the store], cards) and video shops (anime, movies). Also a Japanese grocery store that sells these tasty things (fresh, not frozen! :D):
Yesterday’s lunch was a tasty bento. Yesterday’s dinner was delicious cold soba and sushi and tempura. I could live like this :D
One or two blocks down the other way is a Best Buy, Mervyns, Trader Joe’s, and a bunch of Kaiser medical facilities (which will be my insurance company). Convenient one-stop shopping, and it’s on the busline that I’ll take home from work, so I can just stay on the bus for a little bit longer and stop by and play Rock Band every day after work.
One or two blocks down another way is a bunch of restaraunts of various cuisines (Thai, Korean, Italian, etc). The other way is a ton of coffee shops.
The apartment itself is really pretty. The layout is actually ideal for two people sharing it, since the single bathroom has two doors (so I don’t have to go through the bedroom to get to it).
Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos for you, since my 28-80mm lens decided to break. I think some of the glass just shifted or something, since it is no longer able to properly focus at things further than 3 feet away at the 80mm end (even in manual focus mode… the focus ring simply won’t turn far enough). It’s probably fixable, but likely not worth the trouble. On the plus side, I now have a nice macro lens that can focus much closer than any normal 28-80mm lens… In any case, this kinda gives me an excuse to drop $300-$500 on the 18-200mm lens that I’ve been looking at.
So yeah. Orientation for work is tomorrow. I’m nervous as hell. Also lonely. People should send me emails and letters (my physical address is on my Facebook profile).
Taiyaki (the fish things) are fuckin’ tasty. In the mall in Japantown they make them fresh, they are great when warm. Also try a place called “Suzu” in the mall, they have great soba.
Good to hear you’re settled in, and very close to most excellent food. Want me to mail you a package of O Fries so you don’t miss Pittsburgh too much? XD
I could live very comfortably in an area like that, it sounds great. Try not to get too lonely over there, that’s the biggest obstacle of all (which is what’s killing me over here).
I hope you get situated in work smoothly and quickly. Just remember: new environments become commonplace fairly quickly. You’ll do well.
Are you still using your Andrew email? I wanna write but I wanna make sure you get it…could you email me with your email, whichever one it is you’re using? Also, I get to SF Thursday morning. Lemme know what your schedule looks like.
Have you scouted out the hot DDR locations yet?
Welcome to the Bay Area!
We at Google are a little disorganized right now, but even so it seems like it would be a good idea to hang out sometime. I have not been able to contact you on AIM (can’t identify your current screen name)… Poke me sometime and let’s see if we can schedule something.