MY FIRST DAY BACK IN PARADISE

Ah, it's Saturday and I'm feeling great after a 24-day adventure.  Hurricane Madeline left south and west, Hurricane Lester veered mostly north and no other ocean storm is on the horizon.  

Incredibly enough, all my plants survived my Rube Goldberg irrigation system.  My lanai herb garden is doing well and the orchids now actually look healthier.  Maybe lack of water was the reason.

So the Hawaii football team got massacred by Michigan in Ann Arbor, perhaps the Rainbow Wahine volleyball ladies will get by UCLA tonight.  You know what, I think I enjoy just watching TV at home more than risking my life on the road and paying for it.  Good thing I'm getting old.

Well, for those who never got around to linking with my Circle Pacific Adventure 2016, here are a few photos with some minimal commentary beginning with a goodbye to Diamond Head:

O-Toro, Uni, Hamachi and assorted sashimi in Tokyo.  Can you believe a $160 mango box set?  In Tokyo, of course.

Above, the view from my room at the Sheraton Ocean Resort in Miyazaki, home of the best wagyu beef:

Good combination, steak with foie gras and scallops.  I walked around Miyazaki and saw this piece of art that was as large as a tank:

One point I made was that, since my cataract surgery, colors are vivid again, and I particularly noted the beauty of the various shades of green all through my Bullet Train rides:

And what is that green?

I almost always had some kind of bento with beer and sake on long Shinkansen trips:

An important reason why I stopped through Japan was to follow up on my possible 2018 World Cruise.  Not really mine, but more the interest of Mayumi and Tadashi.  Well it turned out that after he completes his second term as president of Tokyo University of A&T, he has so many offers that this 4-month trip needs to be delayed, probably to 2020, which is a more visionary year for such journeys anyway.  We had dinner at the brand new Prince Gallery (just opened that week), and that is a view of Tokyo Tree to the left.  So we thought that, perhaps, a Norwegian Line Hawaii cruise was a good preliminary adventure, also of possible interest to Kao and Azumi (who happens to be holding a Norwegian cruise brochure):

You almost never see Mount Fuji from Tokyo in the Summer.  However, Tropical Storm Chanthu had brushed the air clear during the night, so when I woke up the next morning, my view from the Prince Gallery was a glorious spectacle:

Then later that day trained to Matsumoto to say hello to Pearl's Gold Koi:

Well, on my way to Bangkok I had a Dom Perignon on Thai Air: 

I don't have enough space to provide all the photos, but the fifth and final course was very simple, with a glass of Port.  The next day at the Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit, I had a fabulous truffle risotto

The following morning I had a gigantic breakfast, where you can see the fabled Bangkok traffic in the background, and also the Sky Train, which is adjacent to this hotel.  I then moved to the Sheraton Royal Orchid located on the banks of the Chao Phraya.  Here you can see a reflection, and below that photo, a boat sailing by at night:

I'm building up my Starwood stays, so I moved to the Plaza Athenee Grande Meridien, where I went down for my first French meal.  Oops, it was closed, so I instead went next door to Ugetsu where I might have had my best Japanese meal on this trip:

I then switched to the St. Regis, and caught the Sky Train, as the station is adjacent to this property, so that I could have one of those rooftop meals, this one at Zense in the Zen shopping complex.  I ordered a salmon chazuke and the best Hamachi Kama I've ever had.  The total bill with wine and beer was not quite $50, and the view was terrific (left).  Oh a rainstorm came just as I was completing my meal.

Where but in Bangkok would you find Pink Pussy?

My final meal in Bangkok was a two-course foie gras extravagance with truffles:

These past few days I have never had more foie and truffles in my life, and the best is yet to come, for First Class Thai Air from Bangkok to Sydney is a 9 hour feast.

It all starts with Dom Perignon and an elaborate caviar presentation:

The main dish was truffles lasagna.

So I'm now in Sydney, and here is Australia's flag at sunset:

I had a hot dog with beer at the Cal-Hawaii football game in ANZ Stadium, which has a seating capacity of 83,400.  The announced attendance was 62,247, although I counted a lot less.

Sydney is, indeed, one of the best cities in the world.  They are today #8, with San Francisco, Portland and Honolulu generally around 30 as the best the USA has to offer.

I splurged on only one meal, an excellent truffle artichoke soup and much more in Circular Quay:

The flight from Sydney to San Francisco on the Dreamliner was 13 hours long, but I couldn't sleep even for a second:

Had two lunches in SFO, a mini-class reunion and gathering for the Blue Revolution.  Jim, my freshman roommate at Stanford, had a photo taken with Kathy way back in 1958.  Before and now:

In the lobby of the Westin St. Francis is a Chateau Montelena tasting room.  I had the latest version of the bottle  that changed the wine world, their Chardonnay:

Finally, the only four things I bought were a $2 cane, an assortment of my 8th generation safari shirts from Jackie's Tailor in Bangkok, an Emporio Armani watch--an identical version which was 15 times more expensive at an adjacent department store--and a bottle of single malt whiskey from Tasmania:

On my flight back to Honolulu I actually slept for a couple of hours, the first time I've been able to do this in decades, and, therefore, missed taking that aerial shot of beautiful Honolulu.  However, I awoke just as the plane was approaching Honolulu Airport and managed to take this, plus to show where I started, Diamond Head:

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While Hawaii was spared by Madeline and Lester, I might indicate that Tropical Storm Hermine will actually strengthen back into a hurricane:

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CIRCLE PACIFIC ADVENTURE 2016: Day #24--Japan, Bangkok, Sydney, San Francisco and Honolulu

Well, I leave in a few hours from San Francisco Airport on a United flight back to Honolulu.  Hurricane Lester is getting onerous, and you can read the details at the bottom of this posting.

So today I will provide my personal analysis comparing each site I visited, where 10 is best and 1 worst.  Incorporated into the evaluation were the existing weather conditions:

• August is no month to visit Japan because it is too hot and humid.  Further, this was the only country where I visited more than one city:
• Tokyo
• Osaka
• Miyazaki
• Sendai
• Bangkok is supposedly the hottest city in the world that is actually visited by tourists, so when you add the monsoon season when it rains (July to October), that adds another degree of discomfort, for the temperature remains quite high, typically 95 F.
• August in Sydney is like February in the USA.
• San Francisco is always too cold for me.

Let me start, then, with weather:

• Honolulu (8):  temperatures are in the high 80's, with tradewinds.  However, hurricanes can be worrisome.
• Sydney and San Francisco (7):  Both places are similarly cool, from the high 50's into the 60's. Great, actually for walking if it is not raining, and it rarely rains in both cities in the month of August.
• Bangkok and Japan (2):  could be hotter, and Bangkok could be dryer, but if you keep indoors or on trains, you aren't really affected by the weather.  I could have gone to Hokkaido, the northern island, but I did that earlier this year.

Safety is an important travel concern:

• Japan (9):  You feel safe in any city even at night in any Japanese city.  There might be a couple of places to avoid, but safety is one reason people visit here.
• Sydney (8):  There might be some unsafe areas, but not much.
• Bangkok (7):  There is a lot of sin here, but not much of a concern with pickpockets, muggings and the like.
• Honolulu (6):  Yes, more dangerous than Bangkok, but I toyed with giving my home city an eight.
• San Francisco (5):  Relatively safe today, but I just need a relative number.

Beauty of the country:

• Japan and Honolulu (9):  The natural beauty dominates.
• Sydney and San Francisco (8):  Combination of nature and buildings/bridges/etc.
• Bangkok (6):  Interesting architecture and fabulous temples.

People:

• Bangkok (9):  People here are nicer.
• Japan (8):  People here are nice to tourists.
• Honolulu (7):  We have aloha.
• Sydney (6):  Okay.
• San Francisco (5):  Again, doesn't deserve so low a score as 5, but we are comparing cities with great people.

Cuisine:

• Japan (9):  I like Japanese food, and there is a access to fusion with France, Italy, etc.
• Bangkok (8):  I hate Thai food because of the fermented intestines used in their sauce, but they do have the best restaurants in the Orient, none of which is Thai.
• San Francisco (7):  It's only recently that SFO has cracked the Michelin 3-Star level.
• Sydney (6):  There are steeples of excellence here.
• Honolulu (5):  I like Zippy's, Rainbow Drive Inn and the like, but high cuisine is not particularly excellent here.

Hotels:

• Bangkok (10):  For price, service and amenities, like free breakfast buffets and club lounges, best in the world.
• Japan (8):  Same as Bangkok, except very expensive.
• Honolulu (7):  Mixed, but okay.
• Sydney (6):  Also okay, but not many amenities.
• San Francisco (4):  Death Valley for amenities and marginal on service.

Mass transit:

• Japan (9):  The combination of Japan Railway, private lines and city subways takes you everywhere in large cities.  However, only a 9 because they are not combined as one system.
• Bangkok, San Francisco, Sydney (8):  All excellent systems.
• Honolulu (4):  We have The Bus, and fixed rail soon to come.

Thus, in this limited comparison:

• Japan (7.7)
• Bangkok (7.3)
• Sydney (7.0)
• Honolulu (6.6)
• San Francisco (6.3)

In short:

• I did not have much of a nightlife, took no tours and kept mostly indoors.  
• One might wonder why I even left Honolulu, and a case can be made for that.  
• However, I should have accumulated more than 100,000 Star Alliance miles.  
• Reached 25 stays to maintain my Platinum membership in Starwood and really generally enjoyed myself in exotic settings.  
• I did attend the Hawaii-Cal football game in Sydney, and that was a different experience, as I now never go to Hawaii home games.  
• In Japan we did discuss the Around the World Cruise, which now looks like 2020 or so, but the search for a roommate continues.  
• Nice mini-Stanford reunion and Blue Revolution discussion in SFO.

I'm glad I was able to thoroughly enjoy my Circle Pacific Adventure 2016, for I'm getting very close to ending these expeditions.  I hate organized tours, so my travel days might be coming to an end.  Next, my flight back to Honolulu to contend with Hurricane Lester:

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Looks like Hurricane Lester, now at 110 MPH, might be easing by the Hawaiian Islands:

However, if you look at all the computer models, there is high anxiety:

At least Hurricane Madeline did make a quiet departure south of the islands.  I should mention that Hermine was a hurricane when she made landfall over Florida near Tallahassee, unbelievably, the first one in almost eleven years.  I can note that the Big Island, Maui and Oahu have NEVER ENCOUNTERED A HURRICANE IN RECORDED HISTORY.  Kauai did suffer from Iniki in 1992, but Madeline was only a tropical storm when the eye passed south of the Big Island earlier this week.  Let's hope Lester stays reasonably north.

There are eight ocean storms:

Typhoon Namtheun at 110 MPH, which popped up east of Okinawa, could become troublesome as it heads for Kagoshima, then the west coast of Japan:

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CIRCLE PACIFIC ADVENTURE: Day #23--Wining and Dining in San Francisco

While my entire trip thus far has been mostly wining and dining, and nothing much else, my San Francisco meals have been tertiary to the people involved.  I'm now at the Westin St. Francis, and enjoyed another mini-class reunion, plus a discussion session on the Blue Revolution.  The St. Francis is located across the street from Union Square, which has two large hearts (St. Francis in background), with cable cars trundling up and down Powell.  Many decades ago these rides were kind of free.  Today, there is always a long line to get on at Market and Powell, and single ride ticket costs $7.

The current count is up to 131 hearts, inspired by Tony Bennett's I Left My Heart in San Francisco.  These are similar to the CowParade art now found around the world.

First of all, though, the wining part occurred in the wine tasting room of Chateau Montelena in this hotel, the only such opportunity of any winery in the City.  Remember the movie Bottle Shock?  The movie came out in 2008 of that monumental Judgement of Paris in 1976 when foundering Chateau Montelena indeed shocked the wine world by prevailing in the Chardonnay competition.  Each of the two submitted bottles (vintage 1973) could have been bought for $7.  Lesser known was that Stags Leap 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon also won.  Thirty years later, the same type of competition occurred, and California won again!

Further, Bo Barrett, played by Chris Pine (better known now as James Kirk in Star Trek), the son of winery owner Jim Barrett (Bill Pullman), was an unambitious surfer dude, who against his father's wishes, submitted those bottles, and now serves as the chief winemaker for the company.    They're in the above photo.  The person who actually created that Chardonnay was Mike Grgich, who refused to be part of the film, and went on to found Grgich Hills Cellars.

So, anyway, I had to taste the Chateau Montelena Chardonnay, then went on to two Cabernets:

It was three years ago that we gathered at Kathy's home in Napa Valley.  Yesterday, we (from left:  Kathy, Bill, Sue and Jim) had lunch near the Ferry Building at la mar, a Peruvian restaurant:

Jim was my freshman roommate, Bill lived next door and he married classmate Sue, with Jim and I being part of the ceremonies just before we graduated from Stanford.  Here is a recent photo to the left of Jim and Kathy, who with a couple of others, will be visiting Hawaii in January.  You can see what they looked like more than half a century ago by clicking on this.  

We ordered their favorite appetizers, and they turned out to be all raw.  I had a gigantic tuna belly:

The fish was terrific, and the rice dish that came with it might have been even better.  Many of you have been to Nobu's, who at the age of 24 went from Japan to Peru to open a Japanese restaurant.  Nobu Matsuhisa's style is Peruvian fusion with Japanese.

I then walked through the Ferry Building shopping area on my way back to BART, and bought a truffle item:

My Blue Bar Pigeon at the entrance of the Embarcadero Station.

Today I met with a team from the Bay Area interested in the Blue Revolution at Daily Grill, located across the street from the St. Francis.  We discussed how they might want to proceed on building a plantship.  They are in part involved with the Seasteading Institute, and envision the Blue Revolution as an ideal focus for resources, profit and environmental enhancement.

Above, Mike, Jeff, Charlie, John and Tim.  Mike worked on the Freedom Ship concept.  For the record, I had a Capellini Pomodoro with a Prosecco.  Good reason for forgetting to take a photo, as the dish was voluminous but lacking in character.

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In the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Hermine will make landfall just east of Talahasee, making her the first real Florida hurricane in eleven years:

It is looking like Tropical Storm Madeline has moved sufficiently south as not to significantly affect Hawaii:

However, Hurricane Lester at 110 MPH, will weaken a bit, but appears to be leaning closer south towards the Hawaii Islands. 

Looks like Honolulu will be impacted on Saturday, and I return from San Francisco just time on Friday to take precautions.

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