Forget it Jake—it’s Japantown
Well, WWDC is officially over, and I’m now on a plane back to Denver. I’m happy to report, though, that today I finally had what I would call a nice day of sightseeing in San Francisco! I had some time to kill before my flight, and for practically the first day since I arrived the weather wasn’t oppressively hot, so I just took off walking east from Union Square to see what I could see. As it turned out, I ended up in Japantown, which, I have to say, was pretty cool!
I stopped for a Bento lunch, of course, but I think my favorite part of Japantown was the cool Japanese stores, which carry all sorts of interesting import items. I stopped at one called Ichiban Kan and perused their wares, which included not only a variety of Japanese foods, but also a profusion of mundane items such as toilet brushes (it’s beyond me why someone would feel the need to import toilet cleaning implements, but maybe the Japanese are actually years ahead of us in the bathroom!). I bought six boxes of Pocky (which I know by reputation) and assorted other candies—including a box of something called “Chelsea Yogurt Scotch,” which I wanted to show Matt Gemmell, since it purports to have “the taste of old Scotland!” You know those Scots and their yogurt :-)…
I’ve noticed that my favorite travel experiences are almost invariably the ones that are unplanned—like the time I changed my travel itinerary to go watch the sunrise at Stonehenge on the solstice—and today was certainly a good example of that. With that in mind, I think I’m going to try to leave more time for “unscripted” activities on future trips!