I first heard of Japan’s art islands when my friends visited a couple years ago and declared it their favorite place in the entire world. The islands of Naoshima and Teshima are set in the Inland Sea, west of Osaka. They require at minimum a train and a ferry– half a day’s travel– to reach,…
We flew out on Christmas night, skipping over the 26th and arriving the morning of the 27th in Taipei. I hadn’t been to Taiwan since before the pandemic, and Alex hadn’t been in a decade. This would be our first Asia trip together! After dropping off our luggage at the hotel in Gongguan, we then…
December recap! We actually began the month in Los Angeles and ended it in Taipei. But here are some of our adventures around the Bay in between. Our new-old Barbour jackets we got from Goodfight! Mine a re-loved and Alex’s is new. Time to go pick up our very first fake Christmas tree. The Garrisons…
Second Thanksgiving has been an annual tradition with the Yaus since 2011. It happens the Saturday after Thanksgiving, with a full new Thanksgiving feast (not leftovers– that’s for Sunday) and an ever-expanding group of friends and their little ones in attendance. For me it has become a signpost, marking the years with a trek down…
November recap! We begin with pizza at Rose’s in the Mission. Cassie came over for a first-time knitting tutorial. Just in time for her to work at polls on election day. A special meal at Rintaro for their 10-year anniversary, featuring house-made soba Cassie and I visited Nancy at her coworking space inside the Ferry…
One week after we completed section two of the Crosstown Trail, we resumed the hike with section three: “the stair section!” I wouldn’t have guessed it would be my favorite section (since walking up and down a ton of stairs doesn’t sound all that fun), but it turned out to be absolutely beautiful and charming!…
Hiking the Crosstown Trail is still an ongoing project for us, but Alex and I made a lot of progress in the fall before the weather and our travels set in. The Crosstown Trail is a wonderful volunteer-assembled walking/biking trail that extends from the southeast to the northwest corners of San Francisco. We hiked the…
Throughout 2024 I hosted my Taiwanese American Cookbook Club as a way of celebrating and exploring all of the wonderful English-language Taiwanese cookbooks that have been published in recent years. It’s a special potluck series wherein all attendees make and bring a dish from the featured cookbook. Our eighth and final cookbook club of the…
October recap! We start off with my lunch date with Rebecca and a box of my fruit CSA from Frog Hollow Farms. A visit to the glass pumpkin pop-up at Santana Row with the Garrisons. Date night at Showa, a relatively new tasting menu spot in Soma, SF, featuring tonkatsu. Blue Angels flying…
Throughout 2024 I hosted my Taiwanese American Cookbook Club as a way of celebrating and exploring all of the wonderful English-language Taiwanese cookbooks that have been published in recent years. It’s a special potluck series wherein all attendees make and bring a dish from the featured cookbook. In October, we featured two cookbooks! First, the Taiwanese…
Back in October, Alex and I had a little staycation up in Sebastopol. We have been there a handful of times, mostly passing through for photo sessions or weddings or on the way from Santa Rosa to the Sonoma Coast. This time, we went enjoyed a stay in the town and visited the shops, farms,…
At the start of September, we returned from our New York trip, and in the middle, we spent a long weekend in Kansas City. The rest of the month was packed full of birthdays and gatherings! First, some casual hangouts with friends– it was warm enough for a pool day in SF! Plus, visiting Benchmark…