In August, I got an opportunity from my friend, Alan, to work on a reality/game show being shot in San Francisco. I was staying in Truckee at the time, but made the trip to the city for the week of shooting. He graciously let me stay with him in Sausalito!
Rehearsing at the Treasure Island shooting location
The show was based on penalizing contestants for their bad driving. They had a few driving challenges to do around the city, in their own cars, and the driver who did the worst got their car crushed right in front of them (that was fun to watch)!
On location in the Chinatown area
This picture leaves lots to the imagination. Has anyone ever visited for just a "private" bath?
Here's a more of the surrounding atmosphere
"Where good friends and girls meet." Sounds too good to be true.
Good deal!
A great restaurant we shot at
The girl second from the left is the owner of The House of Nanking's daughter. This picture was shot on our rehersal day. We were provided delicious food there for rehearsal and when we came to shoot!
One of the best meals I've ever had in San Francisco
Our crew eating on shooting day
Proof that I was there. Proof that I didn't wear sunscreen.
Our teas expended from pods to flowers right before our eyes!
Lombard Street on a beautiful August day
We stopped by Lombard street on the rehearsal day to scope out where were were going to shoot from. The decision was made to shoot from atop a nearby building.
San Francisco's steepest hill
22nd St at Vicksberg St is said to be San Francisco's steepest decline. It is a one-way street, which allows room for cars to park head first, as shown in the above photo. No parking is allowed on the right side. Check out video from one of the test runs:
The old man and his TV
An elderly man living in this spectacular house at 22nd and Vicksberg paid a coworker and I to take his new tv up his stairs. I asked him if I could use his bathroom, which smelled like marijuana, medicinal, of course!
Unexplainable Canadian craziness
I spotted these guys downtown drinking beers on the street around 11AM. (For the life of me I can't get this paragraph to justify left!)
Lunch with Alan once our week of work finally ended
My most memorable, and also most scary Halloween was my 2006 experience at San Francisco's last official "Halloween at the Castro." Being an intern for the Golden State Warriors at the time, and thus having to pickup food at Panda Express for my superiors, I came up with the idea that it would be easy, and fun to make a Chinese food take-out box costume. I called around and found a shipping store that sold white boxes for four dollars. Then, I found the mask online and printed it out. I then blew it up at Kinkos, and had it laminated. While doing that, I asked the staff if they had any clip-art of "those tall oriental buildings with multiple roofs." They told me that they are called "pagodas," which was all the info I needed to get my own clip-art for free online. I printed out the clip-art, and had my Chinese roommate tell me how to write "please eat me" in Chinese and printed that out too.
On the streets of The Castro!
I hit the streets with my friend Daniel, aka "Tigger." A strong mixture of vodka and orange juice kept us warm and energetic that night, and helped us fit in with the rest of the wild partygoers.
Both Daniel and I were quite eye-catching and we spent a lot of time being asked to take pictures with people. However, we somehow never got any pictures together!
KTVU estimated that 500,000 people filled the streets, most in some sort of costume. There was a stage with a packed crowd of around one-thousand people dancing to trance beats being mixed live by a local dj. As soon as I reached the fringe of that crowd my costume began to get smashed so we ended up keeping our distance.
Julian, AKA "Frenchy"
Halloween 2006 began a trend of randomly running into people that I know on the streets of SF. Julian was a classmate of mine at SFSU, and he was always trying to explain some sort of bizarre thing in Japanese class in the middle of a lecture, and whenever he was presenting in front of class he would somehow always end up on the floor. Anyway, randomly running into him seemed so awesome at the time. haha
Geisha-In-The-Box
Haha, this picture simply makes me laugh. I don't know who gave her the idea to do that!
Identical Couple
Anyway, the fun carried on until late at night. The last sane moment I remember I was with Daniel, and a few other people and suddenly there were a bunch of popping sounds, followed by a stampede of people. I was quite intoxicated, and without seeing, nor saying anything to my friends I joined the stampede of people and sort of jogged out of the area. I ended up by a Muni subway entrance and decided to just go home. I figured it had to be gunshots, and later found out from my friends that a person right by us was shot in the shoulder, and that they were helping that person out! I had no idea, and in the end nine people were wounded. It's said that there was a conflict between two groups, but innocent bystanders were also wounded.
Overall, it was one of the best parties I have ever been to, and I would go again if given the chance. Last year San Francisco had its first official Halloween party since that incident. It was held at AT&T Park, but didn't have too many people show up. It was a really good time, though!
Shortly after helping my dad get into his apartment in San Bruno following his liver transplant, I drove to Eureka to get our dog out of the kennel. I then went to Redway for around a week and a half of dog/house-sitting, and while there the house somehow had an infestation of house-flies. It was impossible that these flies were coming through any doors or windows, but I was never sure where exactly they were coming from. It was a disgusting nuisance, but I would rather deal with flies any day over cockroaches. I was keeping count for a while, and I think I killed between eighty and one-hundred flies. I then drove down to San Bruno to be with my dad since his wife, Jane, had to return to work in Eureka. I was excited to stay with him because I had a huge list of places that I wanted to take him since he had never really spent any time in the Bay Area. During one of our outings we saw the "largest crane on the West Coast" as it came into San Francisco bay on a ship.
Another time we saw ducks and turtles at Golden Gate Park
Finally, on Monday of last week, my dad was given clearance to go home. He has been there ever since, and is only having to see doctors at Stanford once a month or so.
I have been eagerly awaiting the day when I would no longer have to endure what many people have called the most failed US presidency in history. That day will come tomorrow. I have all of my faith in Obama, and I hope he is able to lead our nation towards many positive changes.
You may recall the recent incident where a reporter threw his shoes at President Bush during a press conference. Well, that sort of anger management was unleashed to the public on the streets of San Francisco, as a carnival-type booth was setup for people to toss shoes at the soon to be former president.
I actually had no idea this event was even going on. I left home early and took advantage of free parking downtown because it was a Sunday. I parked near First and Market, and walked along the bay to Fisherman's Wharf. I started to feel kind of sick, like I was getting a cold, so I decided to take a trolley back to Market Street. On the way, though, we passed this booth and I had to see what exactly was going on.
The booth was setup by the Oakland-based "Courage to Resist", which supports military service objectors. Just like the real Bush, it isn't necessarily easy to hit him with a shoe. Bush did a pretty nice job dodging the first shoe that was thrown at him at the conference. I have never been so impressed with him! Check out this link to a professionally done video of the booth, and also check out me as I go two for three. (I didn't feel like I was getting a cold anymore after I participated!)
Miho flew in from Tokyo on the 10th of December, just a couple days after turning in her graduation theses back in Tokyo. I had anticipated her arrival ever since she had to go back to school in September. Unfortunately for her, she arrived right when I was my busiest with school (which honestly wasn't terribly busy). One of my classes I almost stopped attending all together, and just did the online materials, which was the most important thing. My Japanese literature class was tough, and the teacher was very strict, in my opinion. We were reading short stories from the late 1800's to the early 1900's, which were sometimes difficult to understand, and almost impossible to write about analytically.
Classes ended on December 18th, and I could finally be free of sitting through lectures, something I have grown tired of, doing it since September 1990! I had anticipated getting out of school very much, I was just through with it! It really started to hit me in Japan, actually. My second semester in Tokyo, from April to July, was like torture, even though I loved Waseda University and had many great friends there. I simply had "senioritis", just like I had in my last semester of high school. In the end, my grades this semester were A-, B+, and C (the C was from the literature class). This puts my all-college GPA at 3.20, and my SFSU GPA at 3.07. I have completed my Bachelor's in Japanese and my minor in International Relations! I am hoping to find work using my Japanese Bachelor, but I will take anything I can get right now. I might get a month of work for a month on the set of a movie being shot in Carmel. I will keep you posted!
Fort Funston
When Miho wasn't helping me with my homework, we managed to find some fun stuff to do. We finally went to Fort Funston, a coastal park in the south-west corner of the city where many people walk their dogs. The rough, raw power of the Pacific Ocean in the San Francisco is something I love very much. It is what makes hiking around at places like Fort Funston so worth it. There landscape can almost be described as sand dunes. It is quite a unique spot, and I highly recommend it, especially if you like dogs, because there are many!
Twin Peaks
We spent a few different days soaking in the holiday cheer to be found in the Fisherman's Wharf and Downtown areas. I saw Disney's Bolt in 3D, which was my first time to watch a 3D movie. I also granted one of Miho's wishes to see the city from Twin Peaks at night. It was as beautiful, and cold as one could expect. I love how you can easily distinguish Market Street as it goes from the Castro, past downtown, all the way to the bay.
End of Semester Dinner
The only real end of semester celebrating I did was with a couple of classmates of mine who I worked together with on a lot of projects last semester, and two who I studied in Tokyo with, Alex and Davida. We went to the Park Chalet brewery and ate and drank for a few hours. I haven't seen them since the semester ended, but I hope we can hang out again soon! I know that Alex is back in Tokyo already. He is going to go to grad school at Waseda University.
California Academy of Science
Davida, Miho, and I went to the newly renovated museum and aquarium in Golden Gate Park, which I think is called the California Academy of Science. We went on the one free day of the month, as opposed to paying $75 for the three of us on any other day. It was pretty crowded when we got there around 10:30, and by the time we left around 2, there was a two hour wait to get it. Obviously, this is because it was the free day. Anyway, the museum and aquarium are incredible! It is the perfect place to take kids, adults, friends, and family. It is incredibly modern, and is the "greenest museum in the world." The cafeteria looked like it had excellent food too! After that we took the leisurely trail in Lincoln Park. This trail offers some of the most beautiful views in the Bay Area, and it is never crowded. One time my dad and I were walking on this trail and went down to a beach where we saw a woman on a very dangerous looking rock surrounded by water who was just sitting there hugging her knees. We ended up calling 911 because we both thought she was suicidal.
This reminds me of back in November when I was making a long bus transfer by foot through a neighborhood and I look ahead one block and see an old man fall really, really hard. I was the only one around so I called 911 because I was sure he was injured. He was in the middle of an intersection too, so it was dangerous. I was told that an ambulance was sent, but it didn't come for the twenty minutes I was there. The man started to seem alright, but he couldn't communicate with my because he only spoke Spanish. Some high school aged kids came and helped me and we stood him up because he wanted to go home and then he fell again, hitting his head really hard! He kept telling me "No telephono", and finally revealed a Coca Cola bottle from his jacket which looked like it had liquor in it. I couldn't smell liquor on him, but I was sure he was hurt. Finally, one of the man's neighbors came and notified his family who came and picked him up. Oh ya, this was on the way to another free concert in Golden Gate park which was a real let-down. It was supposed to be Mos Def, backed by a symphony, but it was just him and a DJ and the show was really short.
Illuminated Yacht Parade
Another night we went to watch the illuminated yacht parade in the bay. It was a very unique way to ring in Christmas, but was very beautiful. The night was cold, as expected, and there weren't many people out. This was during the cold-spell that even put frost on my car here in the city. That concludes most of our adventures in the Bay Area, I will put up more soon!
I last wrote about my adventure-packed September, where I had a blast hanging out with my girlfriend, going to weddings, and so much more.At that time, I was staying in Ukiah even though I was taking classes in San Francisco.In October, though, I finally found a place in San Francisco of which I am still living in.I moved into one of my classmates’ house that had an open bedroom.
Love Fest
One of my favorite events in the world takes place in San Francisco every Fall called Love Fest.Love Fest is a parade of awesomely decorated flat-bed semi-trucks with electronica music DJs and dancers aboard, slowly making their way down Market Street.They continue, slowly, all the way to the large plaza in front of City Hall where their trucks park, and their trailers act as stages for the DJs who all play non-stop until dusk.The contrast of the loud, colorful party and San Francisco’s glorious City Hall is quite a sight to see.
Myself,Aya,Justin,and Hide
The parade aspect of this event, plus how so many people dress up for it, is why I “love” Love Fest.I was with some friends, and their friends, and we all partied in our brightest, flamboyant attire.I had rainbow Slinkies on my arms, and my friend had on neon fur.Some people leave all their clothes at home and just come naked.
Free Bluegrass Festival
October also blessed me with a free Robert Plant (of Led Zepplin) concert.He played outdoors, in Golden GatePark.I went with my friend, Hide, who ended up making the mistake of “taking candy from strangers” at the show and had himself a miserable night with a wild girl that he met.I ended up having to drive out somewhere to go save him, but I was delayed because I was at a bar with my friend Justin when Hide was in need so he had to wait a couple hours for me to sober up.
With an Oil-Worker Member of the Palin Family
Once I moved in October, I had a fairly large amount of free time, and thus I started to ponder what kind of cool Halloween costume I could make this year.I wanted to come up with something original, and so I thought about what kind of current events I might be able to base a costume off of.There was no way I could make myself look like Obama, and San Francisco’s Sarah Palin look-alike drag-queen contest proved that politics were already overused by others.At some point I came across the term “green energy”, like I had many times before in 2008, and thought about how I could apply it to a costume.I figured I could wear green clothes, and top it off with a homemade, CFL light bulb hat powered by a 12 volt battery and an inverter.I made that hat by tinkering with a tin, shop clamp-light so that the bulb would be placed outside of the bowl, instead of inside.
At the City's Halloween Festival
I had a really good time on Halloween night at San Francisco’s city-run party.It took place in one of AT&TPark’s parking lots, and featured lots of free music, including a fun surprise when the singer of the disco hit “It’s Raining Men” put on a very entertaining set.A low point of that night was when I was in an outhouse, suddenly there was a strong banging on the door.I called out so it would be clear that someone was in there, but about a minute later the firm knock returned.I ignored it, and was taking my time because I had to deal with my costume.Finally, when I stepped out of the outhouse two San Francisco Sheriffs were there and one asked me, “Have you been smoking anything tonight?”, as the other was looking at my eyes with a flashlight.I answered, “No.”And as they continued to ask me questions I interrupted and asked, “Am I free to go?”And one of them said, “Of course.”I went back to the main stage where a really fun Latino band was playing and suddenly one of them said, this one is dedicated to the gringo with the bright idea, as he pointed to me.I was stoked, and it helped me forget the cops invading my privacy.
Brandy's Party
The next night I was able to meet up with my friend Brandy for her Halloween party.It was lots of fun, but I had to keep my light turned off because it was too bright for the dim, Halloween atmosphere.The best costumes were definitely the couple who came as the couple in the movie Juno.With the election nearing, two partygoers spent the whole time arguing about all of the predictable conservative verses liberal arguments.I don’t remember their names, but I remember the liberal was the “naughty teacher” and ironically the conservative was “Joe The Plumber.”I am not sure why they chose to waste a perfectly good party whining to each-other about how much they disagree with one-another's opinions.
Though I didn’t waste my social life arguing about politics, I did follow many things very closely, and passionately.I was very hopeful that Obama would be elected, but I had no idea if America was going to vote for him.On Election Day, my roommates and I all watched NBC news together in anticipation.When the news was announced that Obama had won, we were all smiles, and I really felt proud of my country for electing the first African-American president.The idea that not too long ago African-Americans weren’t even able to vote, and that interracial marriages, like the marriage that produced our future president, were also forbidden.The presidential election, overall, made me feel great about my country, and has me looking forward to Obama’s presidency.The thought of "President Palin" really had me worried. The result of Proposition 8, however, made me feel extreme shame in my fellow Californians.I see it as utterly preposterous that a large number of Californian’s dream of marriage was put up for vote.How would you feel if someone voted on your marriage?I went to two beautiful weddings shortly before the 2008 election and I hope that all men and women of this state will be able to have a day as special as that, with the person they want to spend the rest of their life with.I am disgusted that some individuals’ prejudices are now written on our Californian constitution. I am straight, I grew up attracted to women, and am lucky enough to have a wonderful girlfriend. The thought of being romantic with someone of the same sex is not something my mind can comprehend, but I do know what love is, and I would never try to deny that to anyone.
Thanksgiving Season
November also means Thanksgiving, and I am thankful for so many wonderful things in my life.I spent the holiday with my mom and sister in Truckee, and I even was in charge of preparing the turkey!There was no snow in the area yet, so our recreation was limited to an epic hike near the Northstar resort.
I think I will end this here and talk about December another time. Take care!
**By the way, this was written on warm, sunnyOceanBeach in San Francisco.The sun is about to set, and I am thinking about coming back tomorrow for a barbecue.
All blogs found on this site written before 2009 have been imported from MySpace. Some may not look too pretty, and some of the pictures won't enlarge, but it is a small price to pay to not have to deal with MySpace's primitive blog setup anymore!
I recently graduated San Francisco State University. I majored in Japanese and minored in International Relations, and spent a year studying at Tokyo's prestigious Waseda University. I grew up in a very rural area of Humboldt County California. That remote setting built up a lot of ambition in me to get out and chase my dreams. Thanks for reading!
