So hello, I’m back! I’ve been recovering from my trip (jet lag and a cold).

Taiwan was good, but the days went by fast. We (my parents and I) pretty much went there to see relatives, eat, shop, eat, ride the high speed rail, eat, shop, eat, and EAT. I took many photos of FOOD in both Taiwan and Japan. Unfortunately, I only had the camera on my phone and I have no idea how to get it onto my comp.

Japan was beautiful. We were in Osaka. Got to see many sights and eat lots of delicious food in good portion. I must say that Kobe beef is excellent and that ramen with the thick slab of pork that has the fat that’s melted off is mMm… We had something different every meal and everything was good! Even the all-tofu meal! Besides food, we got to stay at different places each night. I think the coolest place we stayed at was this hot springs hotel in Kyoto where we pretty much got our own little Japanese home with its very own hot spring water tub outside on the balcony! Eat we did, but shop…not so much. Japan’s too expensive! Haha.

Isn’t my dad cute? Haha.

On the waterfront in Kobe.

We visited many, many temples…

More pics here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2257080&l=de3a9&id=2515383

Spending a good week and a half in Taiwan/Japan with my parents was pretty cool. Can’t wait until I get to travel some more…

This past Saturday, Daniel and I went to the opening night of the GR Biennale at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo. I didn’t realize it was going to be such a huge thing. Ran into a bunch of people! So I didn’t even really get to look at the artwork! Pretty much just talked with people the whole time >_< Anyway, I'll prob have to check it out for reals... lucky for me, the exhibit is going from now until January 13, 2008.

Of the people I ran into…Hong Kong superstar, Conroy Chan! (wth, I just saw him in Hawaii)…

And I love these freaks (Karin + Kathy = KracK!). I’m sad because I don’t have any ice cream…

After the GR event, Daniel and I headed out to Crash Mansion to meet up with our friend, Rickey aka Mr. Kim. ‘Twas a good time. Met a few new folks and did a lil’ dancing. There was also an unfortunate domino effect of drink spilling o_O…but I have to blame that on the never-ending supply of 10 Cane Rum! Ha!

So Aiko and I flew into Hawaii last Friday night and stayed until Wednesday. Here’s a brief recap:

Friday night. We just walked around Waikiki and got some dinner and drinks at Duke’s. To our disappointment, the sashimi was horrible (tasted like plastic). But we probably shouldn’t have been ordering sashimi at a place where it’s known for steak and burgers. Ha.

Saturday. Loco Moco breakfast at L&L. Mmm… Then, Aiko and I had to go to 102.7 Da Bomb (radio station) to plug Finishing the Game. After that, we hit up the HIFF headquarters at the Dole Cannery theaters. Caught a shorts program where we bumped into Roman Cortez who was screening two shorts in the program. Later, we caught a local hip hop jazz show at this cool spot called Jazz Minds. Awesome band. Tempo Valley. Check ‘em out.

Sunday, went up to North Shore and got some Matsumoto’s with Roman. Then hit up a filmmakers thing at Tiki Bar and Grill before heading out to Diamond Head (the Beverly Hills of Hawaii) for a bbq party at Conroy Chan and Josie Ho’s amazing house (thanks to the AliveNotDead.com peeps for inviting and to Josie and Conroy for having us!). The company consisted of Alive Not Dead, Heavenly Kings, Finishing the Game, Giant Robot, and film fest folks. Food was so good! *drool…* And to end the night, karaoke with the infamous Anderson Le and peeps! Too bad I was so tired…

Monday! Had breakfast at Eggs n’ Things with Eugene from Tempo Valley and Kim from A-Nation. Pretty good…too bad I didn’t have much of a stomach for it. Afterwards, all of us walked to Ala Moana Mall to shop for a bit and eat some delicious ice cream (Dave’s Ice Cream). Later, Kim, Aiko, and I hit up the beach and took a nap as the sun was setting. At night, we went to the Heavenly Kings screening and afterparty. Heavenly Kings. Really interesting mockumentary about the Hong Kong music industry and great directorial debut for Daniel Wu. The film stars Daniel Wu, Terence Yin, Conroy Chan, and Andrew Lin. For me, it was really interesting to see this film since I’ve been mostly focused on entertainment/media involving Asian American artists. It was interesting to catch a glimpse of what’s going on over on the other side of the world.

Tuesday. Our last full day. Aiko and I had planned on doing something adventurous…like surfing or horseback riding, but when it came down to it, we ended up fulfilling our desire of having ramen and then just shopping, stopping for drinks at the Moana Surfrider, going for a short swim at the beach, and then a stop at the Governor’s Ball, before our main event, the Finishing the Game screening. After the Q&A, Aiko did a little interview with Albert from Ain’t It Cool News. After that, we went karaoke for a few hours. Oh man…I went pretty crazy with “Bullet with Butterfly Wings.”

Wednesday. Moonyung from Ain’t It Cool gave us a ride to the airport while conducting a video interview with Aiko. I got to hold the camera! Haha. Maybe we’ll see that clip on YouTube sometime soon…

All in all…very fun. I love Hawaii. Aloha to Mabel, Amy, Connie, Stephen, Patrick, Anderson, Eugene, Roman, all the HK peeps, Roger, Dustin, Justin, Kim, Jonathan, Moonyung, Titus, HIFF, Da Bomb, and everyone else who made our trip!