Hey there guys! How's everyone going? Like last time, I'm gonna put pics up later, as some of my friends have better pics.

Well, after having a crazy tiring day last night, we ended up taking it easy for this day, and cruised around two Asian towns for a while. We ended up leaving the hotel at about 1ish, and decided to grab some ramen in Little Tokyo.

We went to Daikokuya, apparently the restaurant with the best ramen in LA. We had to wait for about an hour to get a seat - I'm not sure if it was really worth it because I was too hungry! It was good I must admit, and I tried a variation of it called Tsukemen. I can't give an honest opinion, because I was too hungry, it was almost 3pm before we could get any good food.

Afterwards, we decided to sightsee Little Tokyo for a bit. To me, it reminded me of some really old Japanese town that was built in the early 1900s. The shops were pretty primitive, but on the whole still a site worth checking out if you love Japan like me!

Before doing some last minute Black Friday shopping, we went to Chinatown too. It reminded me of old Chinese markets, but it was in no way close to being as lively as the San Francisco counterpart. Chinatown is still Chinatown, so it was basically more or less the same. I feel really bad to showing people around our Chinatown back at home, there isn't much to see and do there in my opinion.

We ended up going to Beverly Hills to go do some last minute shopping. Beverly Hills is a nice place basically in Hollywood, with a lot of big brands etc etc. You can tell by the pics, which I'll upload later. The whole street lights up, and it is a really good place to go visit on a tourist destination. I wouldn't mind coming back again to come visit.

For dinner we decided to go the fast food route, and had Yoshinoya. Unfortunately there was a sign to say no cameras inside the premise, so I can't show u what it's like. It was alright in my opinion, but i prefer the HK/Japan version. They actually give you a porcelein bowl.

When we got back to the hotel, we manged to spend about 3 hrs playing uno and card games. A great way to chill out I guess for the evening. Hopefully today will be just as exciting!

This day seemed like a really really long one. It started off with having some brunch at Subway, before heading to the Universal Studios. I'll post pics later.

Subway in my opinion seemed heaps smaller than the Australian counterpart. I grabbed a meatball sub cos I was so hungry, it tasted alright, but it filled my empty stomach. =)

Before going there, we had no idea whether or not to go to Disneyland. We decided to go to Universal studios instead because it is Hollywood, the place where good movies would be at. Personally I thought it was good, because there was only small queues for each ride. But compared to the Japanese one, I thought it wasn't as spectacular, both in terms of shows/parades and souvenirs.

Afterwards, we met up with Kelvin's friend, and had hot pot dinner together. Unfortunately it wasn't too much like hotpot, rather, it was more like Sukiyaki soup with rice. It tasted good though, I might go and make an entry about it on Oishiilog. Check the pic below!

After that we went to what I would call shopping hell. Black Friday as they call it, is the day after thanksgiving where big outlet places/malls/shops have big discounts, and they start from 8pm on thanksgiving. Some started at 5am this morning too. There were heaps of huge lines in front of different stores everywhere, and it basically seemed like chaos. I couldn't pick up anything, it was just not a pleasant experience.

We ended up arriving back at our hotel at 5:15am. It was the first time I had ever slept that late, I guess it wasn't too bad because I had 2 1hr naps. Either way, it's still a once in a lifetime experience, something I wouldn't do again for a while.

I think for the next few days in LA, I'll do my best to blog every morning. Images to come later, currently having trouble uploading some of them. =P

OMG, I finally arrived in LA. There were 3 others that went with me, Kelvin, Yao, and Kristen. After leaving at around 4ish from Santa Cruz, it took us roughly 8 hours to get here. I guess it didn't help that we were basically following the peak hour traffic to arrive.

Horrible traffic!

Hello guys! How is everyone doing? I hope all is well. Week 10 now, it's almost the end of the quarter with Thanksgiving day around the corner too. I basically did not get up to much this week, due to assignments slowly catching up and getting the better of me. Next week should be more interesting perhaps! Here is a quick summary of the week:

• Assignments - they're just so annoying!
• Went to the Italian Culture night, had homemade pizza and tiramisu, check the pics below!
• Had sushi again at totoro! Had some pretty decent sushi too, check the pics.
  
• Spent all of the weekend help painting a soup kitchen's kitchen. Before and after pics below as well.

Homemade pizza, Italian style! It was pretty good I must say...
a lot better than Dining Hall haha.

Homemade Tiramisu!

Me and Marin at a random dining hall night.

Dragon Sushi at Sushi Totoro!

Sujin, Alice and me at soup kitchen

Before

After

Anita and her crew that helped with painting.

Haha, it's been a while since I shared anything cool that I have stumbled upon on Youtube. I have two videos from Japan I think? And hope you guys like them! First off we have a performance of a wonderful world:



Secondly: we have a video of a remake of the Doraemon song, using the final scenes of death note. It has a bit of blood, so not for the squeamish of you out there =P

Week 9, 5 weeks to go! OMG. Time flies! It only just felt like I last blogged yesterday. I've had an alright week, assignments getting the better of me nowadays. I'm still trying to enjoy every moment of here though. I think I'll start to take some more photos from here on, since I basically only have 3 weeks before exams start, and I won't be able to see some of the many cool people I have met in the past 2 months for a long time. Sad, isn't it? But such is life. I really do hope to travel sometime to catch up with these friends that I have made, and wished that the time in the US was longer, though I do miss staying in my own room, with a bit more space. =P Of course, the people too. Okay then, here's a wrap-up of what happened in the past week:

• Going to the Computer History Museum - despite it sounding geeky, it was pretty interesting to see that something so small in computers nowadays, had to have a room to replicate it.
• Going to a Chinese Hot Pot party - involved going to a restaurant place they hired out, and eating some "Da Bin No" which I haven't had for a while. It was good, but there was just too many people to actually enjoy it in my opinion. Good to meet some new people though. =)
• Eating out at Sushi Totoro - despite being based on the character Totoro, I thought it was alright, and more or less similar to I Love Sushi. They had a lot of fusion sushi, as well as soft shell crabs! For those of you that don't know soft shell crabs are crabs that have just changed shell, so the insides of the shell is soft, and when fried. It was good, but I still prefer Oishii at home.
  
• Visiting San Jose! It was the first time I went to a shopping mall, the one in Capitola didn't count. I went to Valley Fair - there were more than 250 stores, but discounts were nowhere near what Gilroy had to offer. =) I also went to get some asian groceries - how I miss mi goreng! I splurged and shared some uni with Kelvin - uni being one of the more expensive of Japanese sashimi. We finished the day off with having some ramen too. I had a Kotteri Miso Ramen. I reckon it was pretty good, but the wait for it was a little bit long. =( Otherwise it was an enjoyable day in San Jose!

The first ever computer.

Fusion sushi at Totoro.

Maya, Me and Patty @ Totoro

Kotteri Miso Ramen

The Japanese supermarket!

The Asian supermarket!

Xmas stuff at Valley Fair!

Hot Pot food!

Uni!

Wow, it's past halfway already, and I have roughly six weeks to go.... I'm starting to wonder what would happen, when I realise that I'm almost on a plane already. Now that I think of it, I kinda wished that I could have stayed for the year, but due to the fact that I'm almost at the end of my degree, it is difficult to extend my stay and actually study, rather than it being a holiday. Enough of the depressing stuff, here's what happened this week!

• Australian dollar dropping at an all time low for a while! 63 cents atm! T_T It is sooo depressing lol....
  
• Went to 3 birthday celebrations: Benedetta on Tuesday, Hiromi on Thursday, Kasane on Saturday. This might basically just be the birthday week! =D
  
• Ernie and his friends dropped by down here in Santa Cruz - managed to get a Cal shirt too.
• Boring assignments that I had to finish...-_-"

Happy Birthday Hiromi!

Ernie and Friends!

Me and Bene, Happy 22nd B'day!

Me and Kasane! Happy B'day!

Me and Ernie!

Well, it's another week gone by, another week til I go back home! =D The rain decided to mark my first mid term as well. So what else has happened this week?

Your weekly round-up:

• Celebrated Halloween: did it American style, which involved a parade downtown, with everyone dressed up in spooky costumes.
• Celebrated Alice's 21st Birthday! It was cool, with a dodgy version of karaoke.
  
• And in doing so, did my first attempt at cosplay with what I had. Guess who, when you check the pics!
  
• Did my first exam: exams at UQ are a lot scarier, over here its basically like a relaxed environment where it's just like class, except you're doing it
• It rained for the second time in the year - in doing so, it was pretty cold, and I think I caught a cold from it >_<

Happy Birthday Alice!

Snacks at the party!

Halloween!