SO. I landed at LAX after connecting through Narita Airport, on Tuesday morning. Went to the work office on Wednesday, and suddenly I find gas is almost $2.50 and we have a black president. Speaking of which, I find it funny that so many people refer to him as a black president…he’s only half, so why is the black so emphasized? haha.

Anyway, looks like this month is full of surprises. I was prepared to go lease a 2009 WRX next weekend, but Sam messaged me saying something about $7000 off + 0% APR for 63 months on an STI. Then I started thinking…sent Renick Subaru a message…guy said ok for 7k off, then Sam messaged me again the next day, saying something about $8500 off at South Coast. How could I NOT buy this car?

Anyhow, 3 hours at the dealer to get the paperwork in order…way slow! And then they suckered me into buying gap insurance, but whatever…$8500 off lol. There were guys two weeks ago buying for $4500 + 4% APR lol!! I had to wait till almost 8PM for them to deliver the car from San Diego…thing already had 191miles by the time I got it in my hands, but I guess that’s not too bad considering it was the THIRD white STI sold TODAY alone. Apparently they are disappearing off the lots like there’s no tomorrow, plus Sam drove it and gave it a thumbs up approval…seemingly no issues. I guess in a sense I need the help breaking it in anyways, cuz I got about 2 weeks to put on 1k miles before Bear Mountain opens up, and I’m going to be taking the train to work in Pasadena starting on the 17th.

Speaking of which, I think they will be turning on the blowers this week??? It’s dropping to freezing at night soooo, looks like this season is going to be off to a great start! Will be fun driving the STI up the mountain :D Time to unpack all my gear that’s been stashed in the closet for 7 months…

Nyahaha. I need to name my car now!
Tentative November mod list:
1 - Headunit (already bought a Kenwood DDX712, DoubleDin DVD unit)
2 - Window tint
3 - All weather mats / Mud flaps
4 - Not sure if I’ll get the tail-light overlays…looks perfectly fine to me now that I’ve gotten used to seeing em…

Woke up pretty early today around 7am…so cold in the morning cuz my grandmas house is oldschool…tatami floors and sliding doors n crap. Anyhow, i’m lying comfortably on my futon, using my laptop. Feet hurt SO bad!!! After all the walking in Beijing, I found myself walking even more here. Japan hasn’t changed much since I last came (spring05)…just a little bit more high tech. My cousin stopped by around 9 then we went off for a 12hour journey…

The Suica JR train cards are still around, but this time there’s a new one? Called PASMO (aka Passnet)…charged it with 20 bucks then used it up in a day lol. Apparently new from 07′, it’s pretty cool now though cuz it works with a lot of the non JR train lines/buses and apparently you can even use it at the grocery store…I’m sure there are probably other places I’m unaware of…

Anyhow, the main objective was to visit Kamakura (one of those old samurai style cities with the stores on the main street, straight out of samurai movie)…but we traveled in a huge arc and hit Enoshima first…by getting off the train at Ofuna then riding the Shonan monorail to the beach at Enoshima…with a few surfers in sight.

Shima means island in Japanese so, obviously it’s an island. You walk across this bridge then theres a tiny island with a shrine on a fkn crazy hill with way too many steps.

After that we jumped over to the Enoshima Electric Railway, stopped in Hase for some crazy soba sampler lunch, then set off to walk to Kamakura. Stopped at some random shrine with more stairs lol…then over to the giant statue dude at Kamakura. By the time we got back to Yokohama station it was dinner time, so we ate at some Hawaiian burger joint where an al merrick board was displayed, signed  by some random dude I didn’t recognize.

We also stopped by at Animeito (manga store)…where I picked up two Soul Eater volumes. I “gaijin smashed” the cashier looool. When I went to pay, he asked if I wanted the plastic removed off the books, but I was like “HUH?! the fuck?” so I shook my head. Then he asked if I had a point card and I was like “no” then he asked if I wanted one and I said “no” in a very casual way (i usually forget to speak in honorifics in these types of situations lol). Anyhow, the guy could probably tell i’m a GAIJIN and I think he was confused, cuz I gave him 5,000Y and he gave me 9,171Y in change…I was like…WTF surprised, then I thought maybe I gave him a 10k bill on accident ($100US), but I looked at the tray and there was my 5,000Y. Then I looked in my wallet and my 10k bill was still there (i only changed about $200US at the conversion place at the airport)….so I was confused as well, I thought maybe I was just being stupid so I left the store thinking HUH?

After speaking to my cousin, I confirmed I was NOT stupid so the guy basically gave me $50. My cousin was like “wow, RUCK-EE”. I felt kinda bad but what’s done is done I guess…

Speaking of gaijin smashing, i gaijin smashed the customs official too. When entering japan, you gotta fill out all this lame shit like where you’re staying, phone numbers, etc…none of which I had on hand loool. My laptop battery was dead from using it during my flight from Beijing, so I didn’t have access to my info, and I know where my grandma lives from memory so I don’t need an addy or anything…SO i didn’t fill out my card properly. The agent was like “wtf?” then I said “nihongo wakanai” then he wanted to search my bags and I was like “NANI?!” then he was like “whats in bag” then i said “choooocoooleeettooo” then he asked where I was staying again, phone number or addy etc, then I was like “NANI?!” then he had that “fuck, whatever” look on his face and let me through. with my counterfeit goods from china.

I’d prefer to post pics to accompany this note, but its taking hours to download all these pics…maybe using 8GB cards wasn’t such a great idea lol.

Hi.
I’m leaving on Wednesday late at night to LAX for my short business trip to Beijing, China! Afterwards, I will be in Japan then Taiwan for a week each. I have a ton of CF cards, so hopefully I’ll be able to take a ton of good pictures….I better bring a lot of batteries!

I had an epiphany the other day…I won’t be having to “drive” to work as much soon! Our office is moving to Pasadena…kinda far but they are trying to make it work for me so I can take the train to Union Station then hitch a bus to the office…this way I can work while commuting instead of getting pissed at all the traffic. Cost wise the tickets aren’t even that bad…its a bit more expensive than gas, but its a major win when you factor in car depreciation/maintenance (plus my boss said he’ll help pay for my commute). THUS I have come to the conclusion, to lease a Subaru WRX now that I don’t have to worry about driving 20k+ miles a year.

• Its only like 1200+ down and 239/month, versus paying 10k down & 500/mo for the STI (which leaves me with little disposable income)
• $239/mo is less than I pay for gas right now…being so cheap I can still afford to move out if I want, or spend money on awesome snowboard trips, buy a new motorcycle, etc…
• With the recent economic turmoil & gas crisis, it wouldn’t be fiscally responsible of myself to spend such a huge portion of my tiny income towards owning a car that will be obsolete for commutes (i’d love to own one for hobby/track when I’m older though)…the 3yr lease would be up right around the time crap like the Teslas are in production ;o
• The improved ‘09 WRX has 265hp, up from 224? in 08…it’s only 35hp under the STI…
• Compared to the STI it’s missing a lot of crap like 6spd, electronic controls, etc, but the wrx is more suitable for my personal preference (i.e. snowboarding trips) since it has heated seats, de-icers, heated mirror
• Heeding advice from a few certain others (lol), can’t really use the STI’s power on the street anyway, and I don’t see myself spending money tracking now cuz i’d rather spend the money snowboarding
• There were a couple other minor issues, but for the most part this is why I’ve made my decision. Satin White Pearl or Obsidian Black is the next problem, which I’ll probably figure out when I go to the dealership after I get back from my trip.

If you want me to pick up anything cool for ya in Asia, better let me know sooner than later :)

It’s Friday, probably going to hang out with allen rachel & jonny tonight. Been having this unsettling feeling lately in the back of my mind, kinda annoying but I don’t feel like dealing with the issues right now. Haven’t really updated much despite having lots of free time. August was a consumer month for me…lots of nice stuff has been popping up on s&c etc. New TNF softshell came in the mail today! Muahaha only paid like $70 or something. One came in the mail earlier this week too. Oops. It’s worth it anyhow…i still have that old softshell that I paid full retail for (like 170 or something), and it’s still in great condition despite being heavily used. TNF products are just so damn HQ… worth every penny. Yay for softshells. Now i REALLY shouldn’t buy anything cept for new socks, but we all know that’s not going to happen. I need to get my boots warranty’d ASAP….

3 memory cards also came in the mail…8GB extreme3 CFs lol. $160 rebate so they only come out to less than $20 a pop. A wireless guitar hero for wii is supposed to be in my mail, but for some reason it hasn’t arrived yet. Probably why I’m bummed, cuz I wanted to play this weekend noooooo. Guess I’ll just go surf? Speaking of which, I finally got around to bringing my shortboard back to the shop for repairs.