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Seoul: Powered by AI

I told Chat GPT to rewrite my Seoul post , in the style of my old Hyperwest blog /voice circa 2000-2010. And look at this beauty. Way better than my actual post right?! We stayed above a subway station named after a bridge we didn’t know was famous. People kept taking photos on it. Once, a small crew set up lights in the middle of the day, like they were filming something no one had told us about. I liked that it stayed unnamed for most of our trip. I liked that the bridge just got to be a bridge. The apartment was larger than we expected—two floors, rooftop access, more space than we knew what to do with. For two weeks it held us, gave our mornings shape. I spent the first few days trying to memorize the view from the windows, like that would help me understand the city better. It didn’t. Seoul was quieter than I’d expected. Or maybe it was just us who were quiet. We’d go out for hours and come back sore, scattered, slightly too full. The streets moved fast but weren’t overwhelming. T...
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Seoul: Two Weeks

Before heading to Korea, I was the most prepped I’d ever been for a trip. For the last few years, my ongoing obsessions have been League of Legends and K-pop, both of which have led me to many activities and friends. I figured that going to the source could only result in an out of body experience. In addition to watching a whole lot of YouTubes about Korean history, doing the usual run through of movies and books and podcasts, I had taken ten weeks of conversational Korean at the local adult school. I was ready! The Birth of Korean Cool: How One Nation Is Conquering the World Through Pop Culture, Euny Hong (2014) Crying in H Mart, Michelle Zauner (2021) Korea’s Place in the Sun, Bruce Cumings (1997) Was it strange that nearly everyone we spoke with said “Two weeks in Seoul? You’re not going anywhere else?” (This was repeated to us often, by taxi drivers there, friends, etc.) Apparently people don’t go to Seoul for two weeks. Frankly, I had pushed for a month there, but was talked down...
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Mexico City: Week Three

For my final week in CDMX, a city I was ready to return to super soon already, I had two friends dropping in from San Diego and Tijuana, for a wedding that weekend. They were to arrive Thursday, so I knew I had to get as much writing done as possible. So on Monday, I laid low and worked, and then emerged to catch my friend at El Pescadito for fish tacos and a walk around the neighborhood. She was sort of working and I ended up following her around as she ran errands. First, to her English school to pay tuition, then we rode the rush hour subway to the end of the line for her to pick up items from a craftsman — he was a no show — before going downtown to Zocolo for a look see and cafe time. Then when it got late, I rode the bus back with her to her neighborhood, so I could see where she lived. The twenty minute ride took us out to an area that was slightly more suburb-y, but definitely still city-like. So that was super fun and simulated exactly what I like to do in cities. The su...
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Mexico City: Week Two

After five days of full on playing I had to get to work, so knowing that, I buckled in for a few days to get some work done. So to begin the week, I only ventured out around Roma for fish tostadas at Marlindo. Everyone kept recommending Contramar for seafood and their tuna tostadas, but when I walked by the other day, it seemed too scene-y and crowded. So Marlindo was the perfect choice and delicious. I sat there, eating and reading, and then eventually wandered over to the movie theater to watch Bi Gan’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, which is the highest grossing independent movie in Chinese history. It features a one-shot for the last hour or so. The film was quite beautiful and surreal, but I didn’t the entire plot because the audio was in Mandarin (heavily accented) and the subtitles in Spanish. I had to see it because I was scared it would be gone from the theaters, and I had already missed it in the States. Afterward I got some boba and then bought shoes for the upcoming we...
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Mexico City: Five Days, Part 2

Fresh off acquiring data, I sat down on a bench nearby and loaded up all the important messages I’d missed in the past hour. After dealing with many pressing issues that demanded my immediate attention, I looked up and noticed a sign two doors down from me that said "Bubba Tea & Co.” Could it be? I had inadvertently run into the only boba shop in all of Mexico City? I hustled in, put down my sixty pesos and got a "blackcat (té negro),” the first thing on the menu. It must be pointed out that this was the first time I’d ever had boba at a non-Asian owned place. Not only was the inside beautiful and designed like a high end coffee shop, I was so thrilled at my discovery that I didn't realize there was another whole sitting area, and only found out online later how beautiful it was. The quality of the boba itself was wonderful as well, with perfect QQ bounciness. Needless to say, I was more than pleased. As I write this a few days later, I realized that not only h...
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Mexico City: Five Days, Part I

Technically I'm in Mexico City for a tattoo appointment but I had been thinking of coming here this year anyway, because a friend from Tokyo used to live here and said I'd love it. Since then, many people have come and gone through CDMX and all of them are infatuated with it. "You'll love the culture," they said. "There's so much to do," everyone raved. So far, they aren't wrong. The only downside is that I do have to write while I’m here. I found out that the next — and final — deadline is end of January and since I’d planned on being here for three to four weeks, that would definitely require me to do some writing. But that’s okay, I deserve it and what is testing out a new city without a looming deadline over your head? Getting to CDMX was easy, once I took San Diegan’s advice that the move was not to fly direct. In fact, there is no direct flight from San Diego to Mexico City and instead I was advised to take the Cross Border Xpress t...
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Tokyo: So, So, So!

Well, here it is, after months of watching Terrace House and scheduling around Tokyo’s weather, I arrived in Japan and it was…cold! Well, not really cold cold but anything around fifty degrees is too cold for me. Within the first few days I’d already bought three warmer weather tops: a hoodie, a cotton duster, and a denim-ish jacket. My light packing — lighter than even my previous two trips — was completely ruined. Also, my friend hated my orange New Balance shoes so much that after a few days of harassment, I turned those in for some fresh white ones. Of course, these newfound beauties, Clearweather Donny , cut into my heel so I had to keep the orange ones around anyway until I could break the new ones in. And that is the extent of anything bad about Tokyo. Everything else is exactly as everyone says. The people are wonderful, the food is terrific, the transportation seems easy, there’s a bajillion places to explore and familiarize yourself with. And the two things that people t...
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