Mmm, food...

With Ruth getting two weeks off from school, we took full advantage by leaving town for the entirety of her vacation with stops in four countries along the way. There was good food to be had all along the way, so I was easily satisfied :)

California
First was a brief stop in the Bay Area to catch up with some friends and family. The first sign of having been away for a while was stepping off the plane into SFO and remarking at how many Asian people were in the airport.

We were obliged to take some more photos since we were now tourists, although we just visited all the usual spots. We had to eat at Sono Sushi for Ruth, of course, but this time we took a photo with our favorite sushi chef there who reminds us of Gerald, although not so much in this pic:

We stayed at Felix's new digs out in Milpitas, watching my Clinton Portis eek out a fantasy football victory for me in the first week of our playoffs:

We also stopped by the Goog on the way out, enjoying breakfast at the cafes before turning in my laptop and calling it quits. It felt like a lifetime ago that I was actually working there and strange to be back even after just a few months away.

Taiwan
Next stop was Taiwan, where we met up with lots of family in Taipei who weren't able to make it out to the wedding in June. The night markets are full of food both ridiculously good and cheap, so we frequented them often to kick off 10 days of nonstop eating:

We also took an overnight trip out to Sun Moon Lake with my family and grandparents. To get there, we took the newish high-speed train in Taiwan which travels at a few hundred km/h, getting us to Taichung in less than an hour. It was a nice little area sort of like Tahoe with some nice scenery and a relaxing atmosphere:

The trip was capped by a mini family reunion with various aunts, uncles, and cousins, culminating the requisite group photo finale:

More photos from our stop in Taiwan:

Tokyo
From Taipei, we took a short flight to Tokyo. Having passed through the Narita airport dozens of times while living in Singapore, this was surprisingly my first venture out of the airport and into the actual country. It was pretty much as one would imagine: busy and bustling with lots of good food and shopping. I think we stopped by a department store of sorts each day that we were there, mixed in with seeing a few sights and finding good food. We stayed in Shibuya, right next to the hustle and bustle with a great view:

The food was top notch and we managed to try a different type of cuisine for virtually every meal. It was so good that it'll be the focus of my recap :) I'm not sure if I can enjoy Japanese food in the US as much anymore now that I've tasted it cooked in the motherland:

First stop was Curry House! Too bad they didn't have a curry challenge...

The next day consisted of teppanyaki and tempura. Teppanyaki was at the Meridien Hotel in Odaiba while we knew the tempura place (Tsunahachi) was good by the long line that snaked out the door and were not disappointed at either:

Next up was some amazing seafood. This necessitated a visit to the Tsukiji Fish Market. So much fresh seafood everywhere that it was unsurprisingly followed by the best sashimi ever. It was so good that the uni (sea urchin), which I usually detest, was almost tolerable :) For Christmas dinner, we headed to a restaurant serving blowfish for a multi-course blowfish meal. The experience was capped by watching the chef scoop out a fish from the tank before proceeding to kill, skin, and prepare it right in front of our seats at the bar.

After spending the first few days on our own, we were thankful to meet up with a few friends over the next couple days who could help us do the ordering so we wouldn't have to resort to pointing at pictures anymore. We have our guidebook to thank for the reference to a katsu place called Maisen, a popular chain which we managed to find in the back streets of Harajuku. Using pictures started to break down as my order was oysters and Ruth ended up with a fish cake-like dish, so we had to order a separate pork katsu that I of course scarfed down. Dinner was with Megumi at a yakitori place at Ebisu featuring all sorts of yummy grilled food:

The last day included an old favorite from Singapore: Mos Burger, home of the tastiest teriyaki chicken burger ever. They really need to open up one of these in the US, although I guess Dallas probably wouldn't be there first location. Dinner was at a fancy multi-course restaurant with Ruth's friend from Stanford, Hou. It was a nice way to cap off our last dinner and a good balance to fast food for lunch :)

Our final lunch before we had to take off for the airport was at a ramen place called Ichiran where we had to sit in individual stalls but it was so tasty! Throughout the trip, Ruth was constantly on the lookout for mochi. After consuming dozens of mochi, we still bought a few boxes at the airport to bring back, most of which was already eaten during our stop in Vancouver. We did some other stuff too like visit a couple shrines and looking at super expensive department store shopping, but those aren't nearly worth mentioning as much as the food :)

The rest of the pics:

Vancouver
Last stop was a trip to Vancouver, really a stop in Seattle and a drive across the border, to attend Ssonia's wedding. It was ridiculously cold there and we spent most of the time indoors when not at wedding events. Despite the biting cold, we got talked into visiting a gelato place featuring over 200 flavors. We hardly knew anyone at the wedding, but it was still a fun time and we got to catch up with Merisa, Dan, and their two kids:

Alright, that's it. I'm tired of writing now. And hungry too...