Ch^H^H...Train of Thought

SF is big

Yesterday evening, I drove Brian to the San Jose airport. This morning (Friday Oct 9th), I drove Andy to SFO. So while Brian's out in LA visiting Cathy, and Andy's going to be out in Michigan attending a wedding and visiting some friends, I'm still here. Gotta find something to do.....

Well being up at SFO, it's a long drive back home again especially since I would intercept the morning rush hour commute if I drove down. And I considered visiting Joyce for lunch, but now that she's got a job, she wouldn't be home in Daly City on a friday. :P (Not to mention that she'll be going down to LA as well to see the Cal/USC football game.)

So I decide I'll go to SF. Every other time I've gone to SF, I've always gone with some guidance from one of my friends or passengers, etc. since I totally suck at navigating SF. With plenty of time to kill, I take what I think was 280N towards Downtown SF and end up exiting where the highway ends near SBC Park.

Now, the general idea was to go shopping in JapanTown since I haven't been there in a while and was looking for a good place to find gifts. One thing I'm looking for is a place to find Totoro stuff like the buruburu hanging off my car's rear view mirror.

The problem with going to JapanTown is that I don't really know how to get from SBC Park to JapanTown. So I decide I might as well explore a bit first and stumble upon JapanTown. Following the flow of traffic I happen to end up at Moscone Center. A sign says ChinaTown go straight. Recalling that I've been to ChinaTown before and then JapanTown, I get the impression tha they might be close to each other and I follow the traffic that way. Passing ChinaTown, I don't see any streets that remind me of JapanTown, so I just go forward.

I pass North Beach somehow and eventually end up near Fisherman's Wharf and some pier. Turning right, I follow traffic yet again, passing some interesting fountains and some heart sculptures and end up back near Moscone Center but going perpendicular from my previous route.

Continuing on straight, I decide to go find a bathroom so I stop at a hotel and walk purposely to the bathrooms so I don't look like such a mooch. And then come back out again to resume my tour of SF. Eventually traffic directs me in yet another direction and I end up on Van Ness staring at a sign pointing towards JapanTown.

Since all I really remember about the area is the Kinokuniya building, I just walk around there for a while looking at random cute stuff, music CDs, stationary, plastic car models, and stuff like that. Couldn't find any buruburus, so if I were to go buy those later, I'll have to look elsewhere.

At the bookstore there was a really demented Hansel & Gretal book that I decided to skim through..... although it didn't look at all like the original story, it did look a lot like some mutated PowerPuff Girls artwork. They didn't have any of the CDs I was interested in either, but then again it's a bookstore. The parking meter ran out before I made it to the music store though. Oh well. Did manage to buy a crepe with strawberries, whipped cream, chocolate, and ice cream. Also tried calling Jennie, an old high school friend who I haven't heard from in a while, to see if she was interested in lunch. No response.

After the meter ran out, drove around some more, and finally got onto the Bay Bridge to Berkeley where I tried to go buy tickets to the Big Game and pick up my diploma. It sucks that the tickets were sold out. But I did manage to pick up my diploma despite Sproul Hall being closed for safety reasons. (There was a large assembly outside talking about the presidential elections.) A lady who worked there helped me sneak in to pick up my diploma, so my trip to Berkeley wasn't in vain. Did run into Gene, from high school, on my way out. Said "hi," and talked for a few minutes then walked back to my car to go home and take a nap.

Aside from all that, the other thing I did today was type up stuff about my old Acura, which is now posted in the Projects link.

Posted by hachu at October 9, 2004 01:26 AM