Japanese Breakfast

I’ve been staying at my friend Lisa’s parents’ house for the past 10 days and every morning they’ve had a traditional Japanese breakfast, which includes rice, salmon, fermented soybeans, sliced eggs, and pickled vegetables. It’s quite healthy and a great way to start off a day, an very acceptable and amicable alternative to the monotonous taste of oatmeal and eggs. 

So when I arrived at the Westin Miyako in Kyoto, and I saw the “Japanese breakfast” on the menu, I couldn’t resist trying it, even if it was almost $40 after the service charge. To my amazement, it was very comprehensive and included lots of items that would take too much time, if I had to (or even the capability) prepare it myself. Unfortunately, I don’t know what each item I was consuming consisted of, but here are some pics of the morning feast. 

Taste at the Cove

It’s been about a month since my last post, due to my self-induced time constraint to tie up all the loose ends before I officially leave for South Korea in a week. I turned in the keys to my apartment, had to fix my leased car before returning it to the dealer, along with dealing with the dreaded IRS, health insurance, and rolling over my 401k from my previous employer. 

I did manage to squeeze one night in San Diego at an event (Taste at the Cove) that offers the best food of San Diego from a variety of high end restaurants, along with a runway fashion/lingerie show and live/silent auctions. My good friend, Brent, is close with the team doctor of the San Diego Chargers, who has many local sports celebrities help support this great event that helps kids with surgeries and treatment that they otherwise could not afford. Last year, Brent and I, along with our two dates, went to the Playboy Mansion party based on our drunken stupor during the auction. This year, he ended up with a signed REM guitar.

Vancouver Harbour to Victoria Harbour and back.

The quickest way to get to Victoria from Vancouver is by seaplane or helijet. The ferry boat/bus combination is a long, four hour journey, which is not my type of efficiency. I opted for the Harbour Air Seaplanes, which was $135-$140/one way. It’s not cheap, compared to the $40/one way for the ferry/bus combo. So off I went on a DeHavilland DHC-3 Turbine Single Otter.

The view coming back is equally amazing from above: