Thinking outside of the box.

Doing laundry in San Francisco

I just have to say that I've come to the conclusion that San Francisco people are strange. I'm still waiting for the rest of my clothes to arrive from NYC later this week in the mail. I was running low on clean clothes so I had to do laundry today. There's a laundry room in the basement of the place where I'm staying but one of the washing machines is busted. Plus, I prefer those industral front loading washing machines. The top loading ones suck. They never get your clothes really clean. Fortunately, there's a small laundrymat across the street from me.

So I go across the street with my laundry bag to do my laundry. At first, I thought that the place was completely empty but then some old chinese dude came out from behind some door. He said, "Hi.", then left shortly afterwards. Now, my friend, Joon, told me about this a while back but I didn't really believe him. For laundrymats in San Francisco, there's usually not a person there working full time watching the store. That's pretty crazy right? You wouldn't see anything like that in NYC or Philly. You would probably just come back to an empty store with no washers or dryers left. Maybe they might be nice and turn off the water before they leave. I guess San Francisco people are just very trusting or something. Maybe I need to open my own laundrymat in San Francisco.

For most of the time that I was there, I was the only one in the laundrymat. Then one or two people came in to throw their laundry into the washing machine but then left soon afterwards. I think that they thought that I was the odd one because I actually wanted to stay with my clothes to make sure that no one was going to steal them. So there I am thinking that they're strange and they're thinking that I'm strange and we're all having a strange fest. Hmm... I guess they've never seen Fight Club where Helen Bonham Carter needs some cash so she goes to the laundrymat to steal some wet clothes to sell to the thrift store.

Here comes the Rooster... It's Chinese New Year's today (or is it Chinese New Year's Eve?... I forget...) so I had to stop by Chinatown to see if anything was going on. It was pretty quiet. Maybe the celebrations will start tomorrow or later on in the week. There was a street fair in Chinatown this past Sunday though.
 

Xin nian kuai le! 

Now this looks like a really good place to eat. That roasted duck looks so good. They also had some nice roasted squid on the far right. It must be good. There was a line outside the store to get in. Even that old chinese lady with the white hair cut in front of me to make sure that she got a good spot on line. 

Those characters literally mean "Gold Mountain". That's what "California" is in chinese. 

That's the Transamerica Building from Waverly Place in Chinatown. I was reading in one of my San Francisco guidebooks that Amy Tan named one of her characters in the Joy Luck Club after this street.  

It's a little hard to see the street sign but that's Jack Kerouac Street in Chinatown. I could be wrong but I don't remember Jack Kerouac ending up in Chinatown when he went from New York City to San Francisco in "On The Road". Then again... maybe I just don't know Jack... 

I think this clock tower is part of the ferry building near where my office is. I was trying to see how far of a walk it was from my hotel to the office. It's not too bad if I walk around the hills. 

Here's a funky sculpture at the Embarcadero. 

This is another funky sculpture at the Embarcadero. 

Here's today's lunch - one Sourdough Jack with Curly Fries and a large diet Coke.

A couple of years ago when I was in Seattle, I had my first experience of Jack In The Box. It's a truly west coast thing. I knew this girl from Hong Kong and she came to New York City to look for work after finishing up school in Hawaii. She walked all over Manhattan looking for a Jack In The Box. She couldn't understand why she couldn't find one. She just assumed that it was everywhere like McDonald's just because there's Jack In The Box in Hong Kong and Hawaii. I guess that's the west coast version of "the taste that you crave".

Everytime I'm out on the west coast, I try to make at least one pilgrimage to Jack In The Box and order a Sourdough Jack with Curly Fries and a drink. When I was in Hawaii for a friend's wedding, I made sure to pay a visit to Jack In The Box but unfortunately, I forgot to order the Curly Fries and got regular fries instead. That was truly disappointing. I'm never making that mistake again.

I made a great discovery today - Japantown. It's pretty near where my student dorm is now. And all I had to do was walk a couple blocks down Post St.  

Some model of some japanese building in the mall. 

The Peace Pagoda - now no place would be complete without its very own axis mundi. 

I may be a little off on my botany but I think those are cherry blossoms. 

Various views of Japantown. 

Here's some restaurants in Japantown. 

I just thought that this was a really cool florist shop. Notice the heart shaped cactii. 

A Kogepan V-Day display at Kinokuniya: Ok... now I find this kind of strange - Kogepan celebrating V-Day - considering the whole story about Kogepan. I would just expect him to be smoking and getting drunk on milk on V-Day. Anyway, you can read more about Kogepan here.

Sak's Fifth Avenue in Union Square. 

The Levi's Store in Union Square. 

This is special heart thing for V-Day set in front of some palm trees in Union Square. 

This is a downhill view somewhere along Bush St. on my way to my Mailbox Etc. mailbox. 

Here's the Disney Store. (Borders is right behind the cable car.) 

Statue in Union Square. 

Clapping with one hand

Ok... ok... I know... Having a blog is like clapping with one hand but it's probably better for me to post random pictures from San Francisco here than flooding everybody's mailbox with them.
BTW, breakfast was pretty good. I had two cups of coffee, scrambled eggs, ham and hash browns. Thank God they actually served real breakfast. I can't stand that continental breakfast crap. Hopefully, dinner will be just as good.