Tsukitaro in US West Coast
	1997/07/19-27 Japanese Version

INTRODUCTION

Kathleen were to go back in the USA, she had taught us English in our company. I and my friends were talking "Shall we go to America to see her?" for fun, but at last we really decided to go to the west coast of America. The new teacher came, she is called Crystal was surprisingly born in San Francisco! When she knew our plan of US trip, she kindly gave us a handmade guidebook of English conversation on trip. She also told us "You can stay my parents' home!" - Then our trip starts from her hometown, San Francisco.

MEMBERS (from right to left)

	Tsukitaro	Born in Nagasaki	Interpreter(?) and sleeping navigator.
	Tamchin	Born in Shimonoseki	Driver. Tsukitaro's band fellow.
	Ms Nagayasu	Born in Sasebo	Substantial leader!
	Ms Uemura	Born in Oshima	In charge of reservation.

TOURING MENU

ARRIVED SFO!

1997/07/19 (Sat) Top Menu

with Kim (center-right)

Moved to Fukuoka the night before, the Korean Air plane took off the Fukuoka Airport at 10:00 of July 19. Transfered at the Kimpo Airport(Seoul, Korea), then passed the Pacific Ocean and arrived San Francisco at 9:00 of the same day. We did time-slip of -1 hour spending 15 hours (time difference between Japan and US west coast is 16 hours).

The first thing we did was making a phone to Kim (Crystal's mother) to meet us. "You'll find a man camonflage colored cap and glasses standing at the arrival gate of Korean Air." - After a while, a black Cadirrac stopped in front of us and we felt greatly relieved when we find Kim.

We arrived Kim's house, located in the town named Colma. The 1st floor, which Crystal used to live, we cold find no fanitures as she had told us before. (Crystal's parents are living in the 2nd floor). She prepared for us a double bed in the room, and an air bed and sack in another room. Looking around the rooms, we could nothing except for thanking Kim.

It was morning yet, so we went out of the house anyway. We walked to the station and took Bart for downtown. We got wrong ticket at the station because the vendor of ticket to ride is difficult to buy. Other American people (maybe not local) had the same trouble, so it wasn't because of our English ability. Showing the wrong ticket to a station employee, she exchanged it for four tickets to the Powell St. Station and the change.

After walking around the Powell St. station, we moved to Haight-Ashbury by bus. From the bus, I found the Blue Meanie appeared on the Beatles' cartoon movie "YELLOW SUBMARINE", on the wall of a building named PSYCHEDELIC SHOP. I got excited to see it, and visited the next day. We arrived Haight-Ashbury where Crystal recommended us to visit, it seemed to me a very lively town of youths.

After having a lunch at a pasta restaurant, we took a free time. I walked around alone and bought : Two stamps (Moon and Shark), Some postcards, an ornament of Chairman Mao, CD-ROM containing criminals' pictures.

[The fact I found later] On the Beatles video ANTHOLOGY 7, the fab four remembers flower movement centered California. John told that he wanted to live Haight and make music, George and Patti really visited Haight-Ashbury to see how the "Summer of Love" was going on. Then Haight-Ashbury is the place where the Beatles once longed for! (added 97/10/7)

Get back to Powell St., Tsukitaro felt an impulse for new shoes, and bought a heavy-duty shoes ($39.99) at the Payless Shoes Shop. He changed his shoes at the transfer station of the Bart.

When we came back home, Kim came down with suppers (Spagetti and Garlic Bread), she made it with her friend for us! And she showed us Budweisers and Cokes in the refrigerator, we thanked her a lot. And also she told us "I'll present Nike shoes to the boys!" (Kim is working at the shoes shop) - at that moment I really regret of my big brand-new shoes!

at the Gate

2nd day in San Francisco, our plan was visiting some sightseeing spots. We moved again to Powell St. Walking by the Union Square, we met a friendly old Japanese woman. She gave us a golden name card (saying her job is a trimmer of pets), and told us "I know a nice shop called AMERICA-YA, it's a bit too early to go Fisherman's Wharf, so why don't you drop in there?" She guided us to the shop, but maybe she was a tout.

Passed the gate of Chinatown, I felt a bit strange comparing with Chinatowns of Yokohama and Nagasaki. Tamchin dropped in at a shop treating uniforms of US sports. The master told us "All items are 50% off price! We'll print numbers for free (he said TADA in Japanese)!" He got excited and bought two hockey uniform, Uemura and Nagayasu also bought some T-shirts. But! the shop was a scam shop.

Heavily disappointed, we went to McDonald's and had breakfasts. Tsukitaro dropped a cup of Coke (M) on the floor, because it was much heavier than the Coke (M) of Japanese size!

North Beach

Switching our mind, we walked the North Beach. San Francisco has many slopes, it was really tough for us. We could see Lombred Street or Russian Hill on the way. We enjoyed view of the Bay Bridge from top of a slope, an airship was also find in the sky.

We arrived Fisherman's Wharf after long long walking. At a souvenir shop, some of us were buying T-shirts saying "I won't see T-shirts any more!" Tsukitaro got sunglasses, and Frozen Banana with chocolate and nuts. Sour Bread, is recommended by Crystal, Tsukitaro didn't eat it so much because he doesn't like sour taste. Although we found many crabs being boiled, they couldn't fascinate our appetite.

We moved to Cable Car Turntable to experience the famous cable car. We were waiting for a long time, but I didn't feel so long because it was fun to see cable cars turning. Tamchin was going to hang outside of the cable car from the beginning, and got his position when our car had come. The girls sat down inside of the car. Tsukitaro also wanted to get outside position next to Tamchin to make a good memory, but failed - he had to stand inside. Once the car began to move, we were surprised to the speed. The slope is quite steep, and the cable car was almost touching cars stopping on the road. Tamchin said he rode the famous cable car for his life. But this was not his last crisis.

Coming back to Powell St., Tamchin and Tsukitaro walked to southwest along the Market Street, to find the Psychedelic Shop. In spite of the psychedelic appearance facing the main street, inside of the shop was dark room, peeping through the door. We got scared to the strange atmosphere, and went back without entering the shop.

After thanking and saying goodbye to Kim, who kindly saw us off at the airport early in the morning, we flew to Las Vegas. Slot machines lined up in the airport building really scared out of our wits.

View from Mother Point

At Las Vegas Airport, we went to Dollar's window and rented a car. We had reserved a compact size, but changed to a medium size Dodge car at that time. As a result, we were very satisfied to the enough capacity of the car. Tsukitaro was the only who couldn't get an international driver's license, so he never drove the car. But nobody expected Tsukitaro as a driver because he hadn't driven a car for years...

Then other three were in charge of driving, they were confused because the wheel and traffic lane in US is opposite to in Japan. The brave first driver was Nagayasu. We went to a post office and the Burger King to have breakfast, then started for the Grand Canyon.

Going out of the city, the road is straight, lead to the horizon. We felt real feeling of America on the way to the Grand Canyon. The Doover's Dam passed, we went on and on, but we could hardly arrive to the destination. On our way, driver was switched to Tamchin. He was interested to a cruise control devise and tried fingering the bottons.

When we got tired of American views, we arrived to the Grand Canyon Park at 17:50. Paid entrance fee ($20.00 per a car, for 7 days) and went through the gate. We stayed at the Yavapai Lodge in the park, we were really satisfied to the clean rooms. Although we missed the sunset view because it was cloudy, the large-scale view from cliff was great! We had a dinner at the self-service restaurant in the park. Ms. Uemura was asked to show ID card when she brought a cup of beer to the checkout, because the woman at checkout doubted if she was an adult.

Drinking Coke at Route 66

Early in the morning it was cloudy, we couldn't see the sunrise. We got up late a bit anyway. We were asked by a middle-aged man to take a picture of him. He said that he came from New York, alone by motorbike, cool! I thought we should had ask him to take a picture together with the man.

After breakfast, we did shopping in the park. I personally bought a booklet about the Grand Canyon, CD of Indian's folk music. Then we started for Las Vegas. We could see the blue sky, it was pleasant drive. We had a rest in Laughlin on the Colorado River. There was many hotels with casino, it's like a small Las Vegas. In the river, people were riding jet skis. Grand Canyon and Colorado River - I felt great scale of American nature, and found how they are friends with the nature.

Driving along Tropicana Blvd., we looked for MOTEL 6 where we were going to stay at. We could find the signboard of large "6" easily, although we were having a shower at that time. The fee was $41.03 for twin (incl. tax). Hotels in Las Vegas are cheap for their classes, maybe because they rely on the income of casino. We walked to the center of Las Vegas, for 10 minutes, and looked many hotels. New York New York was found, all hotels cannot be described but vulgar, in good or bad meaning.

After having a buffet dinner (we call it a Viking) at MGM Grand, we walked and walked around the world's greatest city in night. We played slots a little at Caeser's Palace, but didn't get so excited because none of us would get mad at gambling and we were so tired by a long way trip. Tsukitaro bought a quite real-looking banana magnet ($8.55) and dummy snivels.

There was a lot of strange and interesting buildings sparkling, Goddess of Freedom, Sphinx, the largest bottle of Coca Cola, etc. Tsukiataro regretted that he went out without his video camera, thought of going out alone with the camera after coming back, but gave it up at last.

Looking for Scorpions(??)

In the morning we started for Los Angeles, the final point of our trip, but Tamchin said he got a stomachache. He said he was poisoned by the bottle of water which was left inside of the car. We had to stop for him having toilet breaks.

Then we dropped in a town called Barstow. Women's aim was the market of outlet clothing here. The rest judged that they can't escape from boring if they wait the women's shopping to finish. So the two boys got royality of the car and went for a willful drive. We found a discount store called Wal-Mart on the way, and bought some goods of American taste there: Disney's painting books, skickers and so on. And we found air beds! Although Tsukitaro knew it would be a load, he bought it for himself ($15.96).

After we meet again in front of the outlet market, we had a late lunch ($4.29) at a Chinese restaurant Panda Express. Paul McCartney's new song The World Tonight was played on the cable broadcasting, I was glad to hear the weitress singing along the song. After lunch, we rushed into a long way driving. At last Tamchin the driver couldn't no longer catch up with our direction without clarifying destination, and left driver's seat. Although the relationship between Tamchin's diarrhea and his temper is not clear, Ms Nagayasu took the handle after that.

At last we arrived at Santa Monica, but having been late we couldn't find vacancies. On the way of returning the road to the east, we found a motel on Wilshire Blvd (St.Regis Motel, double $ 57.00). Unfortunately, the owner with a Spanish provincial accent said there were no twin rooms, so I excercised Senior's Right to make Tamchin sleep on the floor. Although there was not a few motels "with a pool", the pool here was directly facing to the traffic (after all, we never used motel's pool during the trip).

But the place was a dangerous zone. After having dinner at Kenny Rodgers's fast-food restaurant, Tamchin separated from the group and went to a store on the other side of the motel across the road, to buy a lighter. The shopkeeper asked Tamchin if he is a Japanese. Then he warned Tamchin saying "Don't take out your wallet here since it's dangerous! I give you a lighter." When he noticed, several black people were gazing at him through the window. Before entering the store, he was still angry with the above driving, so he gave a glare at them unconsciously! Tamchin noticed the danger of himself at last, he immediately walked out by "the fastest walk during his lifetime" and returned alive.

Santa Monica Beach

We went to Santa Monica Beach and walked along the shore in the morning. Tsukitaro, wearing short pants underneath, changed to the sea-bathing mode and jumped into the sea, although it wasn't so hot. Not having spare underwear, he was unavoidable in a direct pants. It was quite beautiful seashore and we couldn't find even a garbage, Japanese people should follow their example!

Then moved to Hollywood. We were going to Sunset but because of one-way traffic at the crossing, we had to go opposite direction - a residential street on the hill. We dropped into a park and it was nice view - we enjoyed a whole view of Disney Land and Universal Studios. Based on the yesterday's reflection, we secured the motel before sight-seeing in early time. It was very beautiful motel, a woman was making rooms and a boy was helping his mother. We played with the boy (Yujin) by teaching him how to fold a paper plane of Japanese style.

BANZAI!

After check-in, three except for Tamchin who were going to walk around the motel went to Hollywood by the car. Parked the car next to the Chinese Theater, then we took a lunch at the McDonald's and we took free time. On the sidewalk around the main street there are a lot of panels that have names of showbusiness stars with star symbols. First, Tsukitaro visited the Capitol Record building and found John Lennon's star. Then around the main street, he was called by two girls who seemed to be also tourists. There was Sylvester Stallone's star at my feet, and they asked me to take my photo there. Since I bathed in the sea in the morning and it was fine and hot that day, he was still wearing nothing but jeans on the upper body (see image). Probably he looked like Rambo Stalon to them! So he paused like a Stalon (?) but he was very ashamed because there was a lot of passerby.

Then Tsukitaro walked to Sunset. GeoCities is using name of American place for its neighborhood, but he had never known there is Sunset Strip in LA before the trip. So he wanted to visit the real Sunset Strip! Although buses should be available, he dared to go there by foot because he wanted to see some places like Guitar Shop on the way (he really repented after all).

As he promised with the two women who went to Beverly Hills to meet at the parking, he could not complete walking through the Sunset Blvd. I went back the way after buying the Beatles' interview CD and a maniac book "Black Market Beatles" at the Tower Record Sunset.

After going back to the motel, they went out again and bought at the VONS store. Tsukitaro was asked for a presentation of ID at the register because of still wearing jeans on bare skin. They also bought tacos and had the last supper at the motel room. Tsukitaro easily fell asleep by a few cups of beer without looking back the substancial journey.

It's the final day of their trip, the group went to the Universal Studio in the morning. Since we got the entrance discount ticket at the motel, we paid $32.64 each. It was clever to going there in early time (8:30), we could enjoy some of very popular attractions without being kept waiting so much. You should aim at the opening time if you go to the Universal Studio!

Those attractions are no charge once we paid the entrance fee, it's quite different from the Japanese amusement parks which needs money for everything. Invited to the music, we found the Blues Brothers show at the outdoor stage. There was a dirty police car beside the stage and we were enjoying the show by the car. When they finished the last song "Shout", the brothers took hand of one of the audience and drove away with her by the police car - it was a property of the show!

Attractions graded by each member (plus Tamchin's comment)		Ms N	Tsukky	Ms U	Tam	Total
Jurassic Park	Escape from the laboratory occupied by the ancient dinosaurs! (Happy & fun even if we got wet to the skins!)	10	10	10	10	40
Backdraft	Based on the fire movie. (Not so fun, like chemical experiments)	7	6	7	5	25
Back To The Future	Tripping time in the 3D screen, thrilling and speedy! (Introducing story was also nice.)	7	10	9	10	36
E.T.	Visiting E.T.'s home on a bike. (It's a fantasy world!)	8	7	10	9	34
Water World	Action play on the stage of water. Enjoyable even if you can't understand English! (Surprised to the scenery faithful to the original movie.)	10	9	9	10	38

We went out there after looking souvenir shops and having lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe because the number of people had increased so much in afternoon. A lot of memorabilia of famous rock stars like the Beatles were displayd in the Hard Rock Cafe, just like a rock museum. Tsukitaro bought a white T-shirts with a HRC logo. Although he also bought HRC T-shirts in Athen and Hong Kong, it was the first time for him to visit HRC.

Manhattan Beach

We were having much time because the flight was in midnight - what shall we do then?
To visit the seaside again, we drove to the Manhattan Beach by our rough map. I felt it was the place of relaxation for the local people looking them enjoying fishing and playing beach volleyball. It seemed to be suitable to the end of our journey that the seashore was resortized so much.

We got into trouble at the very end. We couldn't find the place to return the rent-a-car (Dollar at LA airport). We could find other rent-a-car companies than Dollar in the direction of the sign, so we decided to ride into the same trade AVIS and asked where Dollar was. At last, we found Dollar and refilling fuel was escaped. Above all, it was lucky that we had enough margin of time. Thanks, the AVIS man!

We drove as long as 1,200 miles at the time of returning car, it's great although it included the distance while we lost our way. Arrived at the LA Airport by the Dollar bus, we intently waited for the 1:20 flight. Anyway we could spend really substantial week digesting the schedule which was once regarded as reckless. I want to thank Crystal and Kim who provided us a lot of information and comfortable staying, and three other members, from the bottom of my heart.