ALWAYS be nice to the front desk personnel. Be EXTRA nice. You just may get upgraded to the $400-a-night suite for the 3rd time in a week - all you have to do is SMILE and be EXTRA courteous. Life is good on the road :)
As usual, I slack at posting for weeks, and suddenly I act all ADD and post multiple posts in one morning - this is the last one for today, picture taken the night before I came back to the U.S. from my vacation in Tokyo and Hakone. Pictures will have to wait a bit, as I am updating my site authoring software right now.
Even though I have been going to Japan (every other year or so) since I was 15 I have never been to Tsukiji Fish Market - even though everyone tells me I must go take a look (c'mon - what's the excitement over waking up at 4:00am to go see people buy/sell fish? Especially when you are IN THE WAY of them doing business, while bothering them by taking pictures and walking slowing through their narrow hallways). My brother and I finally made it there, but just a bit late (got there at around 11:00am, when most of the fish stands have already closed for the day). For those who are still interested to check Tsukiji Fish Market out click here.
The REAL reason why I am writing this post is for Sushi Yamasaki. I should note that while I was reading my copy of the March 2008 issue of GQ on the flight to Tokyo I read this article by Alan Richman, who said that the best oo-toro (fatty tuna) in Japan is found at Sushi Dai at the Tsukiji Market. I told my brother about the article and we decided to go check it out...
When we walked to Sushi Dai we instantly noticed a stupid-as-heck line that is longer than a Hanna Montana concert pre-sale ticket line. While we stood in line I realized that almost everyone in line was a tourist - Korean, Chinese, American (one even had the issue of GQ in hand), and Japanese tourists from out-of-town - everyone had a copy of some tourist guide... that's when I realized that SUSHI DAI IS NOT WORTH WAITING AN HOUR FOR, and got out of the queue...
With my newfound task of finding an alternate restaurant, I had one criterion - the LOCALS MUST LOVE IT - I didn't travel thousands of miles just to eat at a tourist trap! We did a full circle around Tsukiji only to come back to Sushi Dai, but noticed a Tsukiji employee (they have uniforms and badges) taking some suit-wearing men into a smaller restaurant next door called Sushi Yamasaki (γγΎγγ) - this only meant ONE THING - not only is this place good enough for the local fish market employees, it is also good enough to bring *their* clients to! Once we realized that we queued up in line (3 people in front of us instead of the 40+ at Sushi Dai) and I HAD THE BEST CHU-TORO (medium-fatty tuna) AND UNI (sea urchin) I HAVE HAD IN MY LIFE SO FAR.
For those who would like to check Yamasaki out - here is the address of Sushi Dai - just go there and walk next door ;) Although they have set menus (good for those who don't speak Japanese), I would recommend finding a friend who can translate and order a la carte. You won't regret it.
This year our company sales meeting became "International", as we invited our counterparts from Japan, Germany, and South America to Guadalajara, Mexico to share ideas on how to push our company to the next level (and do some R&R together). After three days of non-stop meetings, we took an excursion to Jose Cuervo's Distillery in Jalisco. This picture was taken right after our tour, with Motonori Nagai, director of CGS Japan.
Forgot to post this picture, taken in January when some friends and I boarded at Snow Summit in Big Bear Lake - I've been there once more since then - it's only 2-hours away from L.A. so it makes an easy weekend trip! I hope to go again before the season ends... With the warm weather in L.A. the past week that could be very soon - bummer because I just bought myself a brand new Burton Custom board and new bindings!
Finally - as the season is coming to an end - I have to give props to Sierra Snowboard for the awesome discounts, as well as Whiskey Militia for their daily fill for my gear-shopping-addiction.
More on this post later - I am in a good mood today, and don't feel like spoiling it.
I have heard about what Californians call the "Tule Fog" for a while now, and only a few weeks ago did I experience it myself. While driving from Los Angeles to Fresno (and then to Sacramento, circling back to L.A. over the span of 4 days) there were several instances where I seriously thought that I would not get to my destination safely - the fogs were so thick I swear I was in a John Carpenter horror movie...
No doubt by now everyone know what is happening in La-La Land these days - the Writers are on strike, and the studios won't budge. I fully agree that if the writers are producing scripts for studios to make money off internet broadcasts, they should get their share of profits derived - of course I am just brushing the surface of the disagreement that is causing the WGA strike, but that is not the point of this post.
For those who don't know where I live - my apartment is literally across from a Hollywood film set in downtown Los Angeles. I woke up one Saturday morning at 10:00a.m. to people screaming out the words from Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer". For a moment I thought perhaps American Idol decided to audition downstairs, only to discover that there was actually a protest downstairs and a shoot at the same time.
What I observed was a sequence where the protesters, WGA-picket-waving individuals, would hold their megaphones and gongs but remain silent while the film crew was getting the set ready. The moment the director yells "action", the megaphone broadcasts a rendition of Bon Jovi that would make William Hung proud, while his cohorts start banging on their gong while screaming like they've been robbed.
While I agree with what the strike is about, I am totally appalled by what these (specific) protesters were doing - not only are they protesting against their formal colleagues, but they are purposely sabotaging their livelihood. I would compare that to protesting across the street from a planned parenthood clinic versus stalking a patient to her workplace and announcing that the patient had just visited a planned parenthood clinic.
If I was a director and this happened to me, I would personally go over to find out who these individuals were, so that I can make a point to never work with them again, with or without a strike.
One evening while I headed out for my routine run I noticed that a film crew transformed the downstairs of my building into New York City... pretty cool with these Big Apple yellow cabs all parked and honking like it was actually NYC.
Now if I can only get my favorite New York Cheesecake downstairs as well (yes they deliver, but paying $40 to ship a $13 cheesecake from NYC to LA is just a bit ridiculous)...
