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Planning Bhutan

Druk Air plane amongst the clouds flying over the Himalayan mountains
Druk Air flight about to land at Paro Airport

I was very fortunate to get a referral from a friend who’s traveled to Bhutan. Gera recommended her friend Xinyi and sent me to Nima’s company, Best Bhutan. She had traveled with this company for both of her trips to Bhutan. It did take me a few months going back and forth. Originally 2 friends were interested in traveling with me but they eventually decided not to. I was still determined to go during my sabbatical and decided to book a 10 day trip there. I know the cost would be $200-250/day spend minimum mandated by the Bhutan Travel Bureau. This does include lodging, guide, driver, 3 meals a day, and entry fee to any sites. Visa is $40 and listed as a separate cost. There is also a surcharge ($30/each person per day)  if you travel with less than 3 folks in your group. I was able to move my trip to Dec. 1 which is the start of the low peak season and Nima gave me a slight discount due to a friend referral. It is a competitive market for tour guides since there are many working in the tourism industry for a country population of 700,000.

I advise folks to plan early because due to limited flights, the cost of flights can be very expensive. Another reason is that Paro airport in Bhutan allows only 17 qualified pilots who are authorized to land on a runway that is surrounded by severe 18,000-foot mountain peaks. The 6,500-foot runway only allows for arrivals and departures during the daytime. You can book flights out of Kathmandu, Bangkok, Singapore, and several locations in India. I read they added Tokyo as a new route as well. I knew that I wanted to fly from Singapore because I wanted to spend a few days in Singapore to visit friends. Initially since it wasn’t until November I committed to my trip to Bhutan, Nima told me that flights were all booked, but he would check to see if there were seats usually reserved for the royal family or government officials that go unused. Since I was traveling alone, it may be possible. It took him about a week to give me the good news that he was able to secure me a seat from Singapore to Paro by Druk Air. The cost was $1000 USD for this leg. Then I booked my flight from Portland to Singapore roundtrip, which was about $690 USD. I was able to score a last minute deal and used my Chase reserve points to redeem my flight. 

I did have to pre-pay all of my travel fees and wire it directly to the travel bureau after my flight confirmation. Nima did have me wire two different amounts at different times, one was for the flight to quickly secure it and the other amount was for the remaining cost of the travel package. The total cost of the 10 day package came out to be $2240. I would recommend next time to do one lump sum to minimize the wire fee, which was $45 each time for me. In my next post, I’ll cover how I prepared for my trip. 

Dreamy Banff

Banff has been on my bucket list for many years. When Carrie asked to plan a birthday trip together for Labor Day weekend, I eagerly suggested Banff. Jessie, my sister, Carrie, and Grace went for a 4 day adventure exploring part of Banff, Canmore, and Calgary. We booked an Airbnb in Canmore, which was about a 20-30 minute drive to the Banff area. There was a lot of driving involved and am glad that Grace took up the helms of that responsibility. I’ve forgotten how to drive a gas car. 😅We had booked Banff Gondola and a sunset hike on the same day. Unfortunately, the sunset hike experience had to be canceled last minute. The guide felt bad and texted me a tip that we could go to the Lake Minnewanka parking lot at 11 PM – 12 AM to stargaze but warned us not to go into the forest because there were bears. After a nice dinner at the Bison, we explored the vibrant shopping district. We saw the famous Canadian pastry, BeaverTails and ordered a pistachio one. It was hot, sweet, and gooey. Luckily in these circumstances, my glucose monitor had miraculously fallen off the night before so I could ignore the angry spikes on my watch and phone app. We explored a darker grassy area and took photos of a small lake. I was playing with the timed night mode and noticed hints of bright green in the sky. It was hard to tell with the naked eye. But we took that as our cue and headed over to the Minnewanka parking lot. There was an annoying bright lamp that shined near the restroom. We were able to capture hues of green, pink, and purple but with a glare. Then we found another parking lot with pitch black darkness. We leveraged the top of the car to hold our arms steady to capture remnants of the Northern Lights the best we could with our phones. It was a sight to behold and felt blessed to revel in this gift.

We had also booked a 4:30 AM sunrise tour of Lake Moraine and Lake Louise. We decided we didn’t want to fight with other tourists trying to score seats on a shuttle. We got picked up from Canmore at 4:20 AM by our guide, Claire. I requested to sit up front based on my recent experience of motion sickness where I threw up in my friend’s car. I didn’t want to repeat history. She at first was reluctant as she had a specific seating arrangement in mind but soon changed her mind, which was the correct choice. We arrived at Lake Moraine around 6:00 AM. She handed out blankets, head lamps, and a cup of coffee and gave us instructions to go up the Rockpiles to catch the first rays that hit Mt. Temple and then to transition back to see it expand towards the lake for the iconic sunrise image. The sun slowly rose around 6:55 AM. It was absolutely beautiful. I was able to walk down a bit to get an unobstructed view of the magnificent lake. Then Jessie and I headed down towards the lakeshore to capture images of the parked canoes bobbing on the lake. At 8:00 AM, we headed over to Lake Louise. We got a pro-tip to wait until we reached Lake Louise for a bathroom break as it was much cleaner. We decided not to rough it and instead brought out our packed onigiri and found a bench spot away from the crowded platform and enjoyed the spectacular view for the remainder of our time there.  

On our way back, I took advantage of where I was sitting and asked Claire for tips for the remaining 2 days of our trip. In Canmore, we took an afternoon nap. Grace packed us dinner sandwiches. I also leveraged ChatGPT to help optimize routes which came in handy. We headed out to Peyto Lake at dusk and enjoyed our dinner sandwiches. We decided not to go any further down Icefield Parkway but we still got to see glacier formations along the route. We then stopped by Bow Lake to see the dewy blue reflected and impressionistic hints of wildflowers amongst the marshy grass fields. It was so dreamy. On the very last day, Claire recommended we check out Grassi Lake which was close to where we stayed. The lake there was translucent with green and blue due to the glacier powder. You can also see beneath parts of an ancient coral reef. The hike was doable for the most part (although I had to take it slow). It was an amazing coda to our Banff adventure. 

Next, I am planning my 2 month sabbatical trip in Asia which I still have many gaps right now. I get to attend a friend’s wedding in Singapore in October and have some alone time to explore countries I haven’t visited before. I really hope to be able to check out the temple and attend a cooking class led by Jeongkwan in South Korea, go to Ghibli Park with Jessie, and work remotely from Hokkaido. I hope that I don’t get too ambitious with the itinerary that I have time to just be present but we shall see about that. 

Unintentional Splits at Pickleball

I sit here on my chair in my bedroom lopsided on my left butt cheek. Although I have a pink round corduroy cushion to help soften the seat and give me a slight lift, I’ve had to tilt to my left side since Monday. I was in Seattle with my friend, Cheryl. She is an avid tennis and pickleball player. I don’t play pickleball outdoors but it was free with many eager players. There was a mix of pickleball and tennis lines on the ground that made it confusing at times. The sun was beating down and I was sweating profusely. Luckily I brought my Airbnb cap with me as I usually don’t fare well under direct sunlight for long periods of time. On my 2nd game, I was partnered with Michael, someone I just met and we were playing against Cheryl and another random partner. On that last winning shot, I ran towards the kitchen line, reached for it and sent the ball low and down the center on the opposing side cementing our win. However, there were loose pebbles I felt roll underneath my shoe and felt the quick descent as my right leg glided forward. I could hear Michael say “good get and wow the splits.” I didn’t quite register what position I was in on the ground because I wasn’t in pain, but I could feel my right hamstring tighten up immediately. I thought I strained my right hamstring. I knew I couldn’t continue and hobbled to the sideline feeling victorious and defeated at the same time.

That evening Cheryl invited me to meet her tennis friends at a local bar. I slowly walked over and noticed the tall backless metal barstools. I gently slid my bottom onto the cold hard seat but immediately felt discomfort and tenderness on my right side. So I had to shift to the right and allow my right side to dangle off the edge hoisting a half seated position with my foot on the ground. I worried about my drive back to Portland the next day. So I opted to stay another day just to give my right hamstring a little time to loosen up a bit. Luckily on Wednesday my driver seat was soft enough although I had to tilt my seat downward to help alleviate some of the pressure.

When my Chiro asked me today, “how does it feel,” I immediately said, “much better but still feel tightness and tenderness.” But when she took a look she shared photos of my thigh and it was marked by deep reds, blue, and purple bruises that I didn’t notice at all. She then taped up my thigh with k-tape. Every chair or seat gives me a visceral response to whether my right thigh is comfortable or not. Its caused me to sit restlessly, constantly adjusting to find that sustainable spot. I’ll have to resort to lazily lounging around with my leg elevated to promote circulation and comfort. At least I know my body is capable of the splits without serious injury and that this won’t hold me back from pickleball for long.

Back in BC

My close friends, Grace, Jeff, and Eddie suggested back in January that we go on a food trip to Vancouver BC over Memorial Day weekend. I booked an Airbnb early on to secure a place for 3 nights. The trip also was a few days from Jeff’s birthday so we made it a foodie birthday trip. Jeff usually is not excited about traveling unless it’s Japan so when Grace said that Jeff suggested it, we were like, “this is a rare moment and we should make it happen.” Grace and I planned and booked all of the restaurants and planned the itinerary. I always look forward to Grace’s detailed itinerary charts. I had personally made reservations at Kirin, one of my favorite dim sum restaurants back in March during my last visit. I also called to book Fish Man, an amazing Chinese seafood restaurant I ate at in March. Grace also ordered a mango birthday cake for Jeff ahead of time. She also reserved gigantic mango mochis for all of us. 

I literally flew back on Thursday morning from San Francisco and Grace stayed with me for a night. We picked up Jeff the following morning from PDX and headed up north on our drive to Vancouver. We made a pit stop at Federal Way for my favorite seolleongtang, Korean beef soup place and charged the car.  The traffic through Seattle was horrible and took me 3 hours just to inch through. The carpool lane did me no good in this situation. Eddie had already arrived around 1pm and he checked into the Airbnb listing around 3pm. I feel that my bladder is no longer as resilient and so we had to make a few bio breaks, one of them being McD. Grace and Jeff ordered a McGriddle and breakfast sandwiches. I’m not that into McD breakfasts and rather save my stomach for soup later. I find it hard to listen to podcasts while driving with others cause I need to have it super loud to drown out the freeway noises, so I opted for a general Spotify playlist as ambient noise. I saw that Grace fell asleep a few times in the back seat. 

I thought we’d miss our Fish Man reservation cause it took us so long to reach Vancouver BC but Eddie said he would take a Lyft to meet us there. Good to know that Vancouver BC has legalized rideshare now. I managed to back into a super tight parking spot and was there exactly at 7pm. We ordered black cod cooked two ways: pickled cabbage soup and grilled with mala spices. We added geoduck two ways: sashimi slice and quick stir fry with green onions. It was spot prawn season so we got a lb prepared in a poached style. I requested a veggie dish which was an asparagus mushroom stir fry. Also can’t go without white rice. The black cod came out to be 5.5 lbs. It was massive. The spot prawns were poached perfectly and we dipped the succulent sweet meat into a green onion soy sauce dip. The pickled cabbage black cod was also buttery silk and it went perfectly with rice. We finished everything. Jeff proclaimed that this is probably the best Chinese food he has had in the last 10 years. We were shocked as he is usually highly critical of all food and drink experiences. So that is high praise coming from him. The trip was kicking off well with this amazing meal.

We had Kirin Saturday morning with another lb of spot prawns (which were cheaper than Fish Man) but the consensus was that Fish Man prepared them better. I still got to enjoy my favorite yuzu malay sponge cake, lotus root meat patty, and rice noodles. Eddie, Grace and I may have hyped it up for Jeff. He was alright with it but we may have tainted his experience as we had him eat a durian mochi to start with, which he hated. 😂 For dinner, we went to an omakase restaurant that a friends’ friend recommended, called Tekkaba. It was in Gastown. The first step we walked in we all noticed the odd eclectic mish mash style of decor. On the right wall, they had Russian style faberge-like eggs on display. On my left, there was a huge poker table. We pre-ordered the premium omakase and sat at the bar. We noticed that this was run by a Korean family. Chef Tom greeted us enthusiastically and jotted down all of our names. He mostly got them right except when Eddie introduced himself, Tom wrote down Eric instead of Eddie. It turned into a running joke.  We all shared a sake pairing. The sake quality was a bit odd. Then the first dish was a chawanmushi, steamed egg. It was rather bland and tasteless and the texture wasn’t silky smooth. He proclaimed he made his own soy sauce and you top it with pistachio nuts. The next dish was tartare was a bit overpowered by gochujang or a Korean style sauce and the tartare was very mashed up. All of us except Eddie still ate it all but Grace and I could hear Eddie and Jeff making side remarks. Then the fried whole shrimp was served but the shrimp head wasn’t crunchy enough and the shrimp body was a bit overcooked. Eddie just skipped it cause he noticed the “poop” was still there. It just seemed off. Chef Tom speaks in hyperbole and notes how expensive the fresh wasabi is, but then he scoops it out pre-grated, which defeats the purpose of fresh wasabi. I noticed that his hands were always very wet so the sushi became mushy when he was creating handrolls and nigiris. He spoke highly of his complex sauces but most were overpowering for the delicate sashimi slices. All the fish slices also were already precut. He also torched half of the sushi he prepared. He asked to use my dish of hotate,scallop as a demo and I said sure not expecting that he would take the scallop and massage the buttery lemon sauce with his bare fingers and then sandwich this dollop of caviar over a ball of rice. I didn’t know how to digest what I just witnessed. I still ate everything but my dining companions were flabbergasted. He had an extravagant story behind his presentation but it didn’t quite live up to or deliver the way you expected. He drove up high expectations with fibs but to only be followed by confused disappointment.  I swear I read many many positive reviews. Eddie was digging through the reviews in real time and found some poor reviews further down. The power of paid social media and food influencers really leads to misleading food experiences. It was an expensive, poor experience and we paid more than Fish Man! At least we got a birthday song and birthday hat for Jeff out of it and for sure jokes as well except Eddie got diarrhea that night.

Belonging with Emojis & Lee Ming Wei

I recently went down to San Francisco for work. I am the global co-chair for the Asians@ employee resource group (ERG) at Airbnb and one of the organizers for the Creating Belonging with Emojis panel discussion for Asian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Heritage Month (ANHPIHM) kick-off event. I felt very fortunate that I got approval to go down to help support this event in-person. I was also grateful that I got to hang out in-person with my fellow Asians@ leaders. 

I was super appreciative that Jamie let me stay with her for 2 nights at her beautiful home in Noe Valley. I organized dim sum at Hong Kong Lounge Bistro with Jamie, her partner, Lisa, Jeff, Chrystal, and Sebby. I remember going to Hong Kong Lounge II almost 10 years ago but the original location burned down. So they reopened in the SOMA area. The dim sum was excellent although their selection was limited. Their fried beancurd rolls, beef rice rolls, and my favorite brown sugar (malai) sponge cake were delicious. 

I also visited the De Young Museum for the Lee Ming Wei exhibit, Rituals of Care. Another friend, Nikki, shared that she was volunteering for the Mending Project but I missed her shift by a few minutes. I loved the Letter Writing Project where there’s a small cozy hut where you take off your shoes and take a moment to write a letter to someone you didn’t have time to write to. If you address it, they sent it for you or you could leave it unsealed for museum visitors to read. I took a few moments to write one to my parents without sending it. It was a therapeutic experience to share with an anonymous reader some of the underlying gratitude and guilt I carry. I wrote it in English. I saw that Jamie also took the time to write in the neighboring hut. 

The next room was the Peaceful Kingdom exhibit where different artists created their interpretation of Edward Hick’s piece displayed in one large room. I missed the in person performance, Chaque souffle une danse, because I didn’t realize it was across the bay. I saw images of it as the video form was playing in the main atrium. Timing didn’t work out for Sonic Blossom but I was able to first experience this in Paris at the Centre Pompidou years ago where I serendipitously chanced upon it. I was immediately drawn to the opera singer in wonderment and watched several performances. It left a lasting impression and drew me to the artist, Lee Ming Wei.

I got to meet up with Tina, Kim and their two girls for dinner. They are always so hospitable. Tina showered me with craft chocolates she bought from a chocolate show. I’m always so grateful they extend their hospitality by inviting me to stay with them. 
I spent a few days working at the office. There are aspects I  miss of being near coworkers and talking to them in-person. So I was very lucky that I got to meet Yiying and Lumen in person who were our panelists. Yiying was the creator of the boba, dumpling, to-go box, chopsticks, and peacock emoji. Lumen was the creator of the arepa emoji and a designer at Airbnb. Jamie invited another design leader to help moderate and it was a very fruitful and interesting conversation. I organized all the food and boba. Ashley helped set up the space and we distributed Agnes Lee’s book, 49 and other Airbnb swag. I felt the energy and excitement as we had a good in-person turn out with online streaming. It’s always hard to gauge and draw in folks to attend. I felt the stress of programming an event but it sure was a dream to navigate it together as a team. There are so many granular details in producing a successful event. I am super grateful I got to hang out with Lisa, Jamie, Ashley, Yun, Mable, and Claire. It’s a rare opportunity for me to see them all in person. Next week I’ll be flying down again for the ANHPIHM mixer and get a chance to meet other ERG members from Twitch, Uber, and Levi’s and to challenge my introverted shy self.

Costco Adventure

Steph and Jason decided that Costco would be the theme of this road trip up to Vancouver BC. I was fortunate enough to be invited to this exciting adventure. Despite being friends for about a decade, this would be our very first road trip together. Steph and I both have motion sickness but Steph is definitely “ahem” the more assertive driver so I luckily got the shotgun seat. 

We were all thrilled to make Costco the central focus of this trip. We are all avid fans and shop there frequently. Jason knew all the price tag symbols like * meaning that this was probably the end of the stock and is on markdown to sell through the products. We all shop there covering the Aloha, Tigard, and NE 138th locations and frequently share notes of deals  or new Asian food products we find. The product mix of Costco has definitely shifted in the last decade to cater to the growing Asian consumer base who often buy in bulk. We all follow Costcodeal IG handles and this article right here illustrates “while Asian Americans only make up 7% of the population, they comprised 10% of Costco’s consumer base in 2023.” Steph created a google map and started to add “boba” emojis to pin the Costcos we should visit on our drive up North. 

I advocated to have lunch at my favorite Korean Traditional Beef Soup place in Federal Way, WA. Timing was perfect as well cause I was starting to feel a tad dizzy and had to pop some ginger Dramamine pills so hearty soup for lunch was the perfect way for me to recover from the onset of my motion sickness. It’s become a tradition for me to make this stop every time. In addition to their soups, their kimchi and  seafood pancakes are also my favorite. 

We decided to make it to the Costco in Richmond as our first Costco stop. We picked up specialty Canadian chips, snacks,etc. Jason even saw his favorite scented Downey beads and stocked up for his entire family. The Costco in Richmond did not disappoint. We also bought some fresh fruit for breakfast. Our first dinner of the night was at Guu Thurlow for izakaya food. Their uni pasta was rich and decadent. Their hamachi carpaccio,  eggplant dish , and garlic fried rice were all so delicious. We had some leftover garlic fried rice to take back to the listing. 

The next morning we went to pick up banh mi sandwiches and Cà Phê Sữa Đá from Banh Mi Saigon were excellent. The coffee drink was not too sweet. We had all their #1 special. The bread was warm, with a light crunch with delectable pâté smeared  across the baguette with a squirt of fish sauce, mayo, and soy sauce. They are cash only and luckily I happen to have $50 CAD on me. We then went to the Burnaby Costco and picked up more goodies. Jason and Steph bought ramen noodle baskets and they got like 4. The cashier questioned our purchase and asked if we owned a restaurant. 

Our next stop was dim sum for lunch at my favorite place, Kirin. While we charged our car, we proceeded to fill the table with geoduck congee, seafood rice noodles, pan fried lotus root, pea sprouts, chicken feet, ha gow, siumai, and my favorite Malay yuzu sponge cake. We were so stuffed that we had some leftovers again. One of the servers came over to be in awe of how much we ate. I am starting to notice a pattern of how we buy and eat. We had to walk around the Richmond Mall to help digest some of it. I picked up a jar of XO sauce from a local purveyor. 

I scheduled dinner at Fish Man at 7 pm to give us a decent gap. I think we were all  in a food coma and went back to the listing for a little bit to rest and nap. We decided to go all out when we studied the menu at Fish Man. We splurged with a “small” king crab of 6 lbs at $55 CAD/lb. Jason kept saying everything was 30% off. 😣 King crab 3 ways  – Beifengtong style, garlic steamed legs, and fried rice. Then we added a starter of steamed scallops which were so-so. We also ordered pickled veggies with ling cod, which was delicious. We also paired it with beer and plum juice. My preferred choice was plum juice and I didn’t make it through the beer (Steph had to cover for me). It was spendy but so worth it. We had A LOT of leftovers. We decided to skip our breakfast plans and just ate King Crab for breakfast.

On our way back to the states, we stopped by to pick up more banh mi and mango mochi and that was divine. Note to buy more for my May trip ! We left BC at noon. Our late lunch  was just a random conveyor sushi place near the Northgate charging station and it was a very spendy and disappointing food moment and a sad way to end our trip. Steph safely got me back home by 7:30 pm. It went by so quickly and I look forward to the next adventure. 

Hints of Spring

I am in the dark gloomy months of the winter but I’m seeing signs of spring. I can see that as a metaphor of where I see myself in life right now. Looking out the window I see the shy sun peeping out from the clouds. The pavement drenched from last night’s torrential rains. I heave a heavy sigh. I feel a bit gluttonous from my habit of evening snacking, a residual holiday habit that has returned. I looked at the digital scale and saw I’ve gained back 4 lbs. My motivation at work has declined over the past year. Even the event organizing I enjoy doing for Asians@ has also been frustrating and tiring. How do you lead and influence while being respectful of others time since this is all volunteer work. On top of work shenanigans, I have to deal with our family home destroyed by squatters and deal with insurance. It’s such a nightmare. 

Although there will be sticky, gummy mud slowing down my pace, there is still a promising way forward. Perhaps I should heed the feedback my manager gave me on goal setting and be a bit more proactive. Hopefully the light can start to peep through at the end of the tunnel. I’ve been starting to dabble in the new work systems. I’ve enjoyed the aspect of learning about customer journey. I’ve gone back to personal training 2x a week. I have had friends and coworkers who have helped navigate some of the insurance processes. I even got asked to paint a piece for his special edition chili crisp label. I’ve enrolled in swimming lessons. I have a sabbatical to look forward to this year. So I have travel plans to look forward to. I also started to read again and appreciate the tactile feel of the pages and see the slow but signs of progress being made. There will always be the dreary part of adulting like taxes, finances, and decluttering. Taking a deep breath and I welcome small baby steps to help carve some mental space to embrace what’s to come.

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Murakami and Yayoi in SF

Jessie and I planned a San Francisco trip so that we could check out the Takashi Murakami at the Asian Art Museum and Yayoi Kusama exhibit at SF MOMA. Grace also flew up to join for an art and foodie fun-filled weekend adventure.

The first two nights we stayed in Pleasant Hill to be near Chrystal, Benji, and Sebby. We had Lanzhou lamian (noodles) the first night. I couldn’t believe that Sebby is 14 already! The most hilarious moment was when all 3 of them were playing Pokemon in a coordinated manner. I’m glad I got to capture that moment. Talk about addictions.

Our weekend adventures began with Ariscault croissants. We indulged in buttery, nutty, blackberry hazelnut croissants. This was my first time seeing a dedicated exhibit to Murakami’s work and the theme was “Monsters.” The walls and sculptures were filled with extravagant, cartoonish, colorful details. He also had many Buddhist references embedded in his artwork. Afterwards, we headed over to Brandon Jew’s fast causal restaurant, Mamahuhu. Loved their mapo tofu and sweet & sour chicken dish, quintessential Chinese-American comfort food. With full bellies, we headed over to SF MOMA to check out the Yayoi exhibit. It basically was just 2 room installations and one deconstructed piece of a polkdot pumpkin that was a bit underwhelming. I found the other exhibit from Pacita Abad to be more intriguing. It consisted of multimedia on textiles canvases descending from the ceiling and adorning the walls with intricate beautiful pieces. Luckily we caught this exhibit on the last day.

In the evening, we hit up Thanh Long to take advantage of dungeness crab season. I got to see Tina, Kim and their two girls as well. We each consumed nearly buttery, garlicky crab with garlic noodles. The next morning we went on a dim sum adventure at Fusion Delight . It’s a favorite from my aunt and now both Chrystal, Benji, and Jeff go to spot. Their Peking Duck was on point and this time we ordered 2. (Last year they forgot to put in my order!) We filled the lazy susan upon layers and layers of dim sum stacked up high. Dim sum is the ultimate best lunch spot for big groups! Tina and Kim’s little one, Mia loved Benji. That evening we went for a fancy dinner with me, Grace, Tina, and Jeff at 7 Adams. It was a new, up and coming popular spot. It was $87/pp for a tasting menu. The dishes were beautiful. I ordered the black cod dish with sun chokes. But nothing really stood out and was that memorable to me. But I was surrounded by delightful company and that’s what all matters.

2024 Intentions

This year I intend to chronicle my travels in more detail. I’ve invested in Travelers Notebooks, fountain pens, and washi tape. It’ll be a fun way to return to analog travel journal writing. My trip to Japan helped jumpstart that desire. The analog can also help me feed into the digital where I can still share, chronicle memory keepsakes through Instagram and include longer musings in WordPress or Substack. I’d also like to chronicle in better detail the meaningful trips with close friends and family. I also want to pair the writing with beautiful photography so that I could better nurture and immortalize the important milestones, journey points, and memories in writing form.

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I Hate Running

I realized I dragged my feet and did not start training for my 10k until I came back from Japan in November. The 10K is scheduled for Janurary 2024. I bought my tickets to the Disney 10k early this year. Originally me, Jessie, Jessica, Stephanie, and Grace were all planning to run together. On the day they released the tickets at 7am, only Grace and I (and Steph’s son, Max) managed to get tickets for the 10k. In my mind, “oh I have almost a year to make it happen” and I’d start training in September. That of course didn’t happen. I justified that my jumpstart was the 10k I walked on the Nakasendo Trail in Japan. But my mindset of ” I hate running” and “why did I do this to myself” kept surfacing and blocked my motivation in starting. Like didn’t I swear this off after my first attempt at a full marathon in Honolulu back in 2016. My internal voice rebutted and reassured me that I can do a 10k so I obliged.

Back in June, when I was in SoCal having dinner with Eddie and Grace. Eddie talked about doing more things he enjoyed like diving. Grace also talked about the physical activities she did and enjoyed like diving, snowboarding, etc. My auto-responses were “no, I can’t swim,” “no, I can’t ski,” or “no, I can’t run.” I caught myself when I listened more closely to my replies. I felt a sense of FOMO and constrained by these limitations perhaps it was time to face some of my fears. So, I did sign up for swim lessons. This holiday season I gifted myself the grace to try and that it would be worth the investment. I signed up for swim lessons with a swim coach that focused on adults with a fear of the water. After 3 lessons, I can manage to float and move through the water for a short distance. It felt liberating. I decided to apply that same grace of starting the couch to 10k training right before Thanksgiving with consistent incremental progress.

My goal is to give myself permission to commit, try, and show more compassion to myself. At the very least 10k at Disneyland will be fun taking photos with Disney characters and I’ll be with Jessie, Grace, Steph, Max, and Jessica. As cliche as it may sound, I hope to transform “I can’t” to its possible. In January 2024, I get to launch into the new year by completing a 10k with friends and family; the gift of health, focus, commitment, and friendships.

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