daily slice-of-life photo blog of a Gen-X dad
こんばんは。How’s it going?
Well, it was my first day back to the office, and I have to say that it was a bit of a struggle to stay focused and awake. Even though my sleep pattern is more or less normal at night, I feel like I am in a haze and lightheaded. Also, the vacation kind of seems like a dream that I don’t want to wake up from. 😪
I hope you had a nice day!
おやすみなさい
こんばんは。How’s it going?
Today I returned to work, although as luck would have it, Wednesdays are the day I usually can work from home! Yay! And I really needed it because I was so sleepy, I nodded off a couple times during the day. But overall I did ok fighting the jetlag. However, the creative part of my brain was not operating at high capacity so I busied myself with planning and reviewing other designs.
But enough of that. I rarely mention work on my blog and I don’t intend to start now. 😆
Tonight’s dinner was a simple but delicious chicken and rice meal, with three different types of sauces: sweet chili, soy/oyster, and soy/sesame/cilantro. They were all tasty. 😋
I hope you had a great day!
おやすみ！
こんばんは。How’s it going?
Well, I’m back home. It has been a great trip but unfortunately, vacation’s over. As my friend told me, “Even banquets have to end”. 😢
The trip from California to Texas was actually quite good. I made it through security quickly, and while waiting at the gate, the Jetblue gate attendant asked me if I’d like to switch my seat to an “Even More Space” type if I was willing to be in the exit row. I agreed, and the gate attendant assigned me his favorite seat, which is special because the seat in front does not recline! It was so nice. Even though I have short legs, the extra space is welcome. 😀
To add to the “luxury”, I got to feast on a pastrami sandwich that my mom made for me. So good… 😋
It was nice to see my family again after over two weeks of being away. And the super-bonus was that I got to enjoy my favorite meal, oyakodon. ❤
I hope you had a great day!
またね～
こんばんは。How’s it going?
Today our China tour comes to an end, with our scheduled departure from Shanghai at 2pm. But that gives us the morning in the city! So, we start with breakfast at the hotel, which has a wonderful buffet. I have been eating small breakfasts of coffee, juk (rice porridge) with pickles, and maybe a dumpling or two. But today I “splurged” and had some beef noodle soup. It was delicious! 😋
Oh, by the way, the hotel has this display which shows the current air pollution level in the city, and the air quality inside the hotel. Pretty cool, but also kind of sad that it is needed. 😒 Speaking of the notorious air-quality in China, I don’t think it has been that bad. Perhaps it’s been due to the time of year (winter is supposed to be the worst for air pollution), but even though it is relatively good, blue skies were rare.
I still needed to do some shopping, so my brother and I headed to the nearby grocery store to stock up on goodies, including Japanese Kewpie in Chinese containers, some hotpot mix, spicy fish mix, durian candy, chocolate, noodle snacks, and curry. A pretty decent haul. I can’t wait to try the hotpot later. 🌶🔥😀
After saying goodbye to most of our tour group who were on an earlier flight, we waited for our own motor coach to take us to the airport. By the way, I’ve been to eight different airports during this trip: Austin, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Beijing, Xi’an, Chongqing, Wuhan, and Shanghai. 😮
The long flight was without incident and we arrived at my parents’ house in Torrance at around 5 pm the same day we left. Pretty cool traveling across the international date line from west to east!
For dinner, we decided to get Mexican food at a nearby restaurant that we hadn’t been to in a few years: Alfredo’s. The deluxe carnitas burrito I had really hit the spot! I’ll indulge in a huge meal before returning to my smaller portions again. 😁
I technically have one more day of vacation (a travel day) but since I’m no longer in China, I consider my trip over. Very sad… 😢
またね～
こんばんは。How’s it going?
Today I woke up early to go on a short run to The Bund, hoping to catch a nice sunrise, and I was pleasantly surprised to find some amazing weather. Well, maybe it’s always like this, but I’m just happy there were some cool clouds and no rain. 😀 Other early-morning bonuses included seeing some Tai chi and kite-flying. Both were very cool!
Our official morning excursion was to the Yuyuan Garden, which includes beautiful pavilions, shaded grottos, and incredible architectural details. I recommend getting there early to beat the crowds! Plus the morning light will be best for photos.
Adjacent to the garden is Old Shanghai, which is filled with souvenir shops and food vendors. I bought a couple gifts there but didn’t find anything really cool for myself. Still, it was fun to check out all the things for sale!
The afternoon activity was a trip to Shanghai Museum, which features four floors of Chinese treasures, but my favorite exhibit was the collection of ink paintings and scrolls. They were beautiful! Also of note are the various costumes of the different ethnicities of China. They were so interesting and varied… well worth taking a look.
Before dinner, we had a couple free hours so I went in search of some shoes that I had seen earlier in Beijing. Luckily, we found a local shoe store just a few minutes away from the hotel, and I was able to try these on before buying them for $20. I thought they were really cool!
Oh, we also spotted a CoCo Curry house:
The last item on the agenda for the day was a Chinese Acrobat show, which was pretty good! I didn’t take any photos since they weren’t allowed, but that’s ok. I’ll just keep those memories stored in my head. 🤣
I hope you had a great day!
またね～
