Taiwan.

My bad. I haven’t posted up pics and all that good stuff from my recent China trip like I promised. =( I’ve once again been really busy with work and other stuff going on in my life, and I kind of forgot about updating hahah. Fear not! I’ll FOR SURE post up tomorrow, since I don’t really have an excuse not to, as I’m currently posting from Taipei. Yep. That’s right. TAIPEI. I flew out yesterday from LAX at 2PM, and just arrived here not too long ago, roughly three hours ago at 8:30PM Taiwan time. Flight wasn’t bad at all, since I flew business class as usual (1st class is just too overkill IMO). The only thing that sucked was that I was pretty cracked out throughout the flight, since I purposely didn’t sleep the entire flight in preparation for the time difference here in Taiwan (+14 hours). Other than that, I had my macbook out the entire time, and finished watching seasons 1 and 2 of How I Met Your Mother LOL. Such an awesome show.

Anyway, here are a few pics from today to hold you all over till I post up China pics tomorrow.

The homie Jack dropping me off at LAX.

LAX mad empty. Checked in my baggage and all that in less than 5 minutes. No joke.

Hitting up the VIP lounge to pass some time before boarding.

Free food and booze!

Got leg room? I sure do LOL. Business class like usual. First class is overkill to me.

This made the flight super painless hahah.

Dinner time. Appetizer first!

Main course. I wanted chicken, but they ran out. Beef still mad good though!

Dessert time! Chocolate Mousse Cake and Fruit. Cake was awesomeTOWN.

10 hours in.. cracked out LOL.

Breakfast. Amazing as always.

I have arrived! Hooray!

Sister was throwing a get-together at her new place, so I had to scrape some food. Taiwanese bamboo shoots cooked in a special meat broth. SO GOOD.

Of course, 1st night in Taiwan.. just had to LOL. Lounging it up with some friends. Mad chill place. Ended up throwing down two bottles of macallan 12, and a bunch of other drinks. Also, guy to girl ratio of the entire lounge was like 1/3 LOL. Where in Cali do you ever see that? Yea that’s right NEVER.

Overall, great first night in Taiwan. Tomorrow is going to be LEGENDARY.

LOL. Classic.

Till tomorrow!

- Chaaalz

I have returned!

Alright! So my original plan of posting while I was in China totally didn’t work out too well, since for some odd reason I could not access any wordpress website, as well as other US sites. I did have quite a good time in China, since it was a much different experience since I last went, which was nearly 8 years ago LOL. I did take an overwhelming amount of pictures, but they still need to be resized so I can post them up here. I won’t be posting everything, since that would seriously be way too much overload, so I’ll be choosing a few choice photos and I’ll post them up either tomorrow or Monday, depending on how crammed I am tomorrow. For now though, even though I’m a bit late..

Merry Christmas / Happy New Year!
LOL.

Resolutions for 2009?

- Get back in shape. For real.
- Find a nice daily after the FX’s lease ends in May.
- Focus more on school.
- Become a better track driver/rider.
- Learn to manage my money better.
- Maintain my closeness with friends and family.
- Invest in more profitable companies/opportunities.
- Find a clean Ducati 749 Dark so I can make the R6 a dedicated track bike.
- Continue working on getting rid of bad habits and other problems.

There are probably a few more, but that’s all I can really think of for the time being.

Now then, I won’t be leaving without at least posting SOMETHING with value, so I’ll be posting about my favorite ramen place ever: ASA Ramen

Right off the 405 on Western in Gardena/Torrance. Can’t miss it.

Make sure you walk in this door though, since the place next door with the same name is actually a japanese hostess bar LOL.

Still packed, even at 1AM!

Now then, what to order when you’re here? I always get the Kotteri Shoyu ramen with extra chashu and the shoyu egg, plus an order of Takoyaki, either original or mochi cheese, depending on what I feel for that day.

What’s also dope is that they serve ORION here! Still my favorite japanese beer of all time.

Ramen’s here!

Takoyaki THROWDOWNNNN. Left to Right: Original, Mochi Cheese, and Mochi.

Total came out to be about $93 among three people, but that was because we ordered three bottles of beer, otherwise the bill wouldn’t be nearly as high hahah. Still, very satisfying, especially after having a long day. Drinking hot soup just makes everything better.

I definitely recommend any of you who haven’t gone to Asa before to go whenever you have the chance. It may be a bit out of the way if you’re not in LA or nearby, but it’s definitely worth the trip.

Also, lately I was checking some blogs around, and stumbled upon Shino’s blog, where he posted up about a band in Japan named Aria Asia. Instantly in love.

She makes me want to start playing the violin again LOL. I mean, I played for 14 years of my life… a four year break isn’t that bad right?

I’m sure you all know this one from the guitar dude Jerry C. I prefer the violin LOL.

Now before I’m out for the night, there’s one more thing I’ve got to post. Ohhh yesss, you all know what that is LOL.

I’m out!

- Chaalz