little. yellow. different. A weblog by Ernie Hsiung

On Holiday

On Wednesday, I’m hopping on a plane and taking a week and a half trip to Hong Kong and Tokyo. Nothing work-related, just a personal vacation with my friends Ank and Belinda, in another attempt to cross off more items on my “places I want to visit before I die” list. (If you’re in the area, drop me a line at ernie at this domain address.)

To be honest, I’ve been so preoccupied with life stuff that it still hasn’t really hit me yet that in less than 48 hours, I’ll be on a airplane crossing the Pacific. Given my luck, I will probably be sitting in economy class between a family of eight: seven of those eight family members will probably be two year olds, and if I’m lucky, they’ll be throwing temper tantrums or crapping in their pants or slurping on the soup noodles they brought from home or a combination of them all. Also, I’m visiting in the middle of typhoon season. LOVE IT.

I’m going to be visiting some aunts and cousins on my mother’s side of the family, relatives I’ve never met before now. My mom has given me bottles of multi-vitamins to give to them, which seems to be the universal gift of what someone from America gives to family members in Asia. I’m not sure what to really expect, or what they’re expecting, if anything at all - I imagine them waiting at a train station or a restaurant or wherever we’re going to meet and expecting to meet some 6′3″ Harvard grad that enjoys studying medicine and playing concertos as a hobby and then being disappointed that they come across me: a short, tubby, hella loud, sometimes hyper awkward American with a bad Mandarin accent and an awkward haircut.

Holy shit, I hope this doesn’t turn out to be a fucked up version of the last chapter from the Joy Luck Club.

Oh yeah, I’ll also be visiting Tokyo, where I hope to find Pochacco postcards, anime tentacle porn, or anime tentacle Pochacco porn.

My mind is scattered and I’ve been so focused on work, side projects and adjusting to life in San Francisco that I’m looking forward to this trip - where I can just concentrate on what’s in front of me, whether it’s the Hong Kong skyline, shopping for a bunch of pirated DVDs perfectly legal entertainment-based media or even reading a book on the flight there. (That being said, if a two year old kid pukes on me on the plane, heads will roll.)

“Holy shit, I hope this doesn’t turn out to be a fucked up version of the last chapter from the Joy Luck Club.”

Certified jinxed.

Multivitamins! The question really is…. is it Centrum? Or Flintstones.

Pochacco rocks.

Batz maru is better though. :p

As a warning, I don’t know if this is a rumor or what, but I’ve heard customs is REALLY cracking down on piracy so I’d avoid buying “perfectly legal” stuff. This is all friend of a friend info, but I heard a friend’s friend got caught and had to pay thousands for each DVD they had.

And Tokyo rocks.

Ooo, I did Hong Kong & Tokyo just recently too. You’re going to love those “cosplay” teens in Tokyo - the kids who, every Sunday, dress up in Anime/goth/whatever costumes and parade around for tourists.

Heck, maybe you’ll even feel the urge to join them! Ooo!

Just started to read your blog recently and am really enjoying it. Have a great trip. Hope you get to chill and relax some. Looking forward to hearing about your (hopefully) chill adventures.

When I was in Tokyo in 1993, there was a HUGE store - right on a busy corner - that sold nothing but condoms. My group and I didn’t have the collective nerve to go in. I wonder if it’s still there. I wonder if you have the nerve I lacked.

Eric in Seattle

Don’t you mean

anime tentacle Pochacco porn sushi?

Because you like your anime tentacle Pochacco porn raw?

What? You’re not taking beef jerky as presents, too?

Hey have a good time–I just got back from a crazy week of vacation myself!

“On holiday?” What’s with the English vocab? Anyway I was lol at the idea that multivitamins would be considered a desirable present. At least you’re not going to the Philippines, where you would be expected to bring a balikbayan box.

eric — condomania is still there. there’s one in harajuku and i think one in shibuya. i’ve never actually gone in either.

ernie — feel free to send me emails asking for assistance, or if you’re online, AIMs. i can give you on-the-spot tokyo advice whenever you need it!

“My mom has given me bottles of multi-vitamins to give to them, which seems to be the universal gift of what someone from America gives to family members in Asia”

I didnt know that. Do we asians really love vitamins. Hahaha.

Be sure to try the newest craze in Japan: Canned Noodles!

Multivitamins are the new crack in Asia! My friend used to stock up for his parents back in HK…

Think of it this way… instead of a swan feather, you can give them the gift of… health! No words needed, just the flash of the word Centrum Silver is enough for them to understand the cryptic message from your mother…

I’ve never brought vitamins to the Philippines. Just the usual corned beef, spam, and towels. My Indian friend says that they always have to bring almonds to India… If you hit Sanrio, don’t forget your favorite snail mailer!

My friend’s roommate spent two weeks in China last summer, and came back with both X3 (which had hit the theaters here in the US only a week before he returned) and season 3 of Arrested Development. Arrested Development was twice as funny, given that Chinese subtitles were automatically on the screen, and we weren’t able to turn them off because 1) the DVD player sucked, and 2) because we couldn’t figure out what Chinese characters on the menu meant “subtitles off”.

Just catching up on my blog reading. By now, I guess you’re half a world away. I hope you’re having a wonderful, puke-free time!

I brought over a dozen bottles of Centrum to my family in Asia because that’s what Mom ordered me to do only to find that they SELL bottles of Centrum multi-vitamins IN Asia. WTF. Do I get the logic? No, I do not get the logic.

You should have also brought them American chocolate like Hershey’s and Godiva or something. They looooove American chocolate. Which makes no sense because you can buy Belgian and Swiss chocolate for cheap over there. Which is what i do. I buy Belgian and Swiss chocoalte there and lug it back home to America.

My recent trans-Pacific experiences once again confirm that getting there is NOT half the fun. I hope you can ward off the screaming children with your plastic eating utensils. And do have a good time!

“fucked up version of the joy luck club”?

welcome to the world of visiting your relatives half a world away…

[…] Ernie at little. yellow. different. recently went to Hong Kong and Tokyo for vacation and dropped in on some aunts and cousins: […]

Great blog! I added you to my blogroll. I’d appreciate it if you’d consider linking back.

Most blogs allow you to enter your blog url in a special field in the comment section. If the blog doesn’t have that feature, then you will also need to put my url in the comment.

Just stumbled on your blog. Very interesting. Hope you enjoy Hong Kong and Tokyo!!!

Whenever a parental figure likes a particular look, you can pretty much hear the death knell.