Last weekend, I set some tide aside to take a train ride from my home base in Kyoto to Japan’s second city, Osaka. Located in the same Kansai region as Kyoto and Kobe, Osaka is the business capital of central/western … Continue reading Osaka Odyssey Part I
My half-year abroad started just yesterday, with a 12 hour flight across the Pacific Ocean. ANA is always the best airline to fly with if you’re going to Japan. It’s not always the cheapest option, and the seat amenities aren’t … Continue reading Adventure in Amatsu!
This video was a lot of fun to make. We took a day trip up to the Danish themed town of Solvang. If you’re in California around Santa Barbara, it’s well worth checking out. With the expert editing of Ms Buttercup, the video shows parallels between the Schwartzwald Republic town of Hugel and Solvang. Some notes on the town: The pastry that CM Maridah is eating midway through the video is an aebleskiver. It’s cooked in a special griddle and filled with jam. Lots of businesses in the town close in the early afternoon on weekdays so unless you’re coming … Continue reading [Video]Destination Ragnarok: Hugel
I’ll admit, I’m a bit of a nut when it comes to retro stuff. There’s a interesting quality to things that were once popular that have disappeared or that are mostly forgotten nowadays. Luckily, Southern California is one of the las bastions of Tiki culture in the United states, and the place where the Tiki Revival has gotten underway. Every month or so, Tiki fans come together for the International Tiki Marketplace, hosted at Don the Beachcomber’s in Huntington beach. Vendors, musicians and craftspeople bring their best and celebrate “Tiki Culture” in LA. Don’s has several spacious dining rooms where … Continue reading International Tiki Marketplace+Don the Beachcomber’s Trip report
Bahooka: Noun. Translation: Rustic Hut It would be incorrect of me to say that finding the restaurant Bahooka several years ago was solely responsible for my descent into tiki madness, but it wouldn’t be far off. This now defunct tiki bar/restarurant was like a portal backwards in time for me, to an era where you sipped a sweet “umbrella drink” and wore a hawaiian shirt for your night out on the town. Built in the waning years of Tiki, Bahooka nonetheless stood for decades as a living monument to the Faux-Polynesian crazy of the mid 20th century. The architecture, decor, … Continue reading Memories of Bahooka
Bopped on down to the arts district near Little Tokyo to check out the new Barcade (bar-arcade hybrid) called Eighty Two. In what used to be a little used Japanese language bookstore, a rad as heck arcade now exists! When I went in the afternoon, there were a lot of people there, hanging out, being young and playing games. It was kind of a shock to see an arcade with, you know, people in it. The selection of games was good, evenly divided between video games and pinball which suits me just fine. As far as pinball goes they could … Continue reading Sure plays a mean Pinball