October 31st (Tokyo and San Francisco)

Today we left Tokyo. We got up not too late so we could have breakfast at the hotel and there was nothing that we felt we really wanted to see before we left so we decided to make our way slowly to the airport. We got there 5 hours in advance... but we shopped to get rid of our final yens and ate lunch. We took the time to take our time.

In the train to the airport

From Trip to Japan

From Trip to Japan

For the first time in my life (even though I've flown a bit) I took a plane that had individual screens on the seat in front of you. You can listen to like 20 satellite radio stations but more importantly, you can choose which movie you want to see, in the order you like and you can actually see something!

I chose to watch "The Incredible Hulk" first which was really good. There's a joke reference about Hulk's purple pants in the original comics and I'm pretty sure the actor who played the Hulk in the TV series has a small role in the movie!

The second movie I chose to watch was "Get Smart" which I think is based off an old TV series. It's a comedy/espionage movie. It's not a must see but if you liked "Austin Powers" or comedies in general, I think it could be worth a rental or download.

Once we landed, we went to pick up the car I had rented so that we could go meet our friend Rachel (she used to be Nath's roommate) at Google where she works. She gave us a tour and we ate at one of the many different cafeterias.

Google is really big. There's around 8000 employees so the area looks more like a campus with its many buildings. Everything is free on the campus: food, drinks, gym, etc and there's a lot of other perks. We were pretty impressed with what we saw and what Rachel was telling us about the corporate mentality.

Rachel left work early to come with us. We were staying at her house for the weekend. We dropped off our luggage, brought back the car and took a cab back to a pharmacy near Rachel's house. Since it was Halloween and we were planning on going out, we wanted to try and find cheap costumes. Nath bought a witch hat and I some make-up.

Rachel rents a really nice apartment not too far from Fisherman's Wharf. She had set us up a really comfortable inflatable bed in the living room. After 3 weeks of Japanese beds, which were mostly hard, this bed felt like paradise! We took a 2 hour nap so we wouldn't be too tired after supper. I hadn't slept on the plane and Nath had for only an hour.

So, the nap over, we dressed up. Rachel "80ies style", Nath "witch style" and me I just drew some freaky marionette style make-up in my face. We took a cab to the restaurant named Dosa. There we were meeting 2 of Rachel's friends, Pam and Oliver, and Marie-Claude which is Nath's friend who just moved there 3 weeks ago for her post-doctorate.

Nath and Rachel

From Trip to Japan

The food was really good and the wine also. I suggest you try it if you ever get the chance but I think it's better to make a reservation. When the supper was over, Oliver left because he had a show to go to. The rest of us moved to a bar to go have a drink.

There were a lot of dressed up people and the ambiance was really nice in the bar and on the streets. We stayed at that one for a while and then moved to another so we could dance. It was an African bar with "baobab" in it's name (my favorite word !). We were pretty drunk. We talked with everybody and had a lot of fun.

Funny thing about bars in San Francisco, most of them have only one or 2 toilets... for the whole bar ! And people drink which makes them want to pee more. You end up having huge line ups. Really weird...

Around 2 am we decided to head back home. I think most bars were closing but I'm not sure because I was too drunk :P It was IMPOSSIBLE to get a taxi so Rachel just asked a couple that stopped at the light to give us a lift in exchange for money. They accepted. So we got into their SUV and they drove us close to Rachel's house. Pam was still with us (Marie-Claude had left earlier) and she lived farther so when we spotted a cab, she left the SUV in a hurry and since we were close to Rachel's apartment we did the same. Thing is Rachel dropped her wallet in the the couples car.

We headed back home and Rachel started to call to cancel her cards, just in case, even though the couple seemed very nice. And they were ! Just after Rachel canceled her debit card, they called. They had found Rachel's business card in her wallet. Nath Stayed home to go to bed and I accompanied Rachel to go get her wallet back.

The couple lived more in a suburb of San Fran. We had to take the highway to get there. The taxi ride cost 55$ (go there, wait as Rachel gets her wallet and then back). We went to bed around 4am.