Before I get started, excuse me for being away for a hot minute – it’s just been quite busy with other things going on in my life – whether it be the long hours at work where I’ve surprisingly have been managing my workload as best as I can, religiously working on building up and engaging in a myriad of activities via my island of Minato (which means Port in Japanese – 港 ) via Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the Nintendo Switch, the recent habit of going on more outdoor runs (whilst in the practice of social distancing!) than I would have imagined I would have done in the past couple months, and most importantly – finally being more proactive in socializing with close friends and coworkers in general, and getting out of my slump of having a lot of moments where I just don’t want to talk to people (see “Keepin’ it 235%” Entry 1: Set the Tempo, and a Giant Sea Serpent. (3/26/20) for the scoop behind that one).
It’s been an interesting, unique challenge to have that work/life balance since the whole COVID-19 situation began, and I think it’s one of those things that I realized – it’s about your overall attitude and how you respond, given how COVID-19 has changed our daily lives so dramatically in this “new” normal that we are in today.
Everybody has their own way of living in this “new” normal: for me, I just became more obsessed with “setting the tempo” for this year. I’ve been able to do this not only in my career at my current gig (where I’m honestly surprised that my morale is still holding up with all the work going on and the priorities that I have on my plate to handle appropriately), but also with my mental state – I’ve been just go-go-go with making sure that I get enough gaming time to both aid my talking material for the podcast episodes + recharge the batteries at times, with keeping a well-balanced diet as best as I can, and with my running routine (it’s just been a really welcoming change to my overall lifestyle) – I welcome this challenge and for some reason, I’ve embraced this “new” normal and I’ve just been tackling it head on all day everyday.
I’ve been motivated by my closest of friends, and inspired by the daily happenings from them and from coworker friends – we’re all in this together to work tremendously hard, and get through this storm that is COVID-19.
With everything going on in the past couple months, (to quote similarly from Frank Costello via The Departed (2006) movie) I realize that I’m not a product of my environment, the environment is a product of me. I am one of the positives in the world that the environment can take from me, and I’m pretty confident that what I’m doin’ for others and for my life is working – to those who have shown me gratitude and appreciation for who I am (especially for bringing the energy everyday in the hopes that I can lighten up your day somehow), thank you so much for the support – much love.
…and with that, I will now step out of the territory of cheese and corn (aka being cheesy and corny… lol) and step into the lands of the travel journal – onto “Day 3 (Part 4)” of my first night in Shizuoka! (and yes, this is going to be the last part for day 3 haha I promise!)
By the time I reached outside of the Shizuoka PARCO department store, the sky went from dark blue partly cloudy, to pitch black like BOOM, it’s nighttime! Dang that was pretty quick, considering that the walk from Yakitori Hinode (the small mom-and-pop shop where I had an amazing, local dining experience with the proprietors Kiyoshi and Hinoko) did not take too long.
Even in the nighttime, the downtown Shizuoka area wasn’t as packed as it would be in downtown Tokyo – this is such a drastic contrast that I honestly didn’t expect because I initially thought that Shizuoka was another big time city area like Tokyo… but it’s not, and I love the fact that it’s just big enough of a city and small enough of an area where it’s not entirely commercialized and flooded with an atrocious number of tall skyscrapers and buildings that just hovers over you with both awe and intimidation simultaneously. It honestly reminds me of where I live now in Portland. Even though I haven’t stayed in Shizuoka for that long thus far, I just get those Portland vibes that just makes me feel more comfortable with the environment around me.
You’re probably thinking “well Kevin, maybe it’s because it’s a weekday night, and not a lot of people would be out and about on a random Tuesday night + maybe students are still in after school sessions, and adults are still at work until later in the night.” You could be right haha but still – it’s the main downtown area, and I would have thought that it would be a lot more crowded than it is.
When I first entered the PARCO department store, I immediately got vibes of the ideal asian department stores that I’ve been to in other Asian countries (especially in Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia) – it’s at least 8 floors (including a B1F or 1st basement floor).
~ Side Note #29: As quoted within the About Us section of the official PARCO website (via The Concept Behind Our Name) – “PARCO, is the Italian word for “park.” Like a park, each PARCO location is a space where people come together to share time and space, where they can relax and have fun.“ The fact that such a simple concept can lead to a chain of successful department stores throughout the country is something that I admire and appreciate. I know it may seem like i’m overexaggerating about my interest in the meaning behind the name, but I have a genuine interest in finding out about the behind-the-scenes on things – in this case (due to the fact that I’ve never had of a chain of department stores be called “Parco”), I was just really curious about the meaning behind the name. ~
They definitely stay true to that concept – like in other department stores that I’ve been to in Tokyo, each of the 9 floors has their own sections of things that they specialize in – whether it be men’s and ladies’ fashion & variety goods, or a food & grocery + kids section (particularly in the first basement floor, and later on you’ll pretty much expect that (if I haven’t mentioned this already) a lot of first basement floors are generally catered towards speciality food, snacks, and groceries – it’s pretty standard to be honest).
Maybe it’s because it’s a random Tuesday night, but I felt really at ease just shopping and browsing at my own leisure just because there weren’t as many people (not like in department stores in Tokyo where there are tons and tons of people flocking around and shopping/browsing especially in Yodobashi Akihabara, which is very well known not just in Tokyo, but even with a bunch of people here back in the States who keep up and are interested in all things related to travelling and visiting Tokyo.)
~ The player’s strategy #9 – before browsing anything else, hit up the soccer store that you had an eye on for a minute 🙂 ~
~ Side Note #30 (oh man… just to preface – this is quite a long note haha get ready y’all)
For those who don’t know, I’m also an avid soccer (or football as it is called EVERYWHERE else besides the states) fan. I love the game, and I wish I grew up with it earlier than starting since 2010 (with the whole FIFA World Cup 2010 thing + my cousins obsessed with the English Premier League the last time I visited them, which led me to choosing my club at that time in summer 2010 – Arsenal F.C.)
(Here we go, takin y’all back about 9.5 years ago, a blast from the past!)
I remember the days in summer 2010 when I was doing summer school + when the 2010 FIFA World Cup was going on, and my college housemates were getting me into following soccer, including playing the “2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa” video game on the PS3 (PlayStation 3). Interesting enough, besides rooting for our home soil team, I was also rooting for the two Asian National teams that made it out of the group stages of the tournament – South Korea, and especially Japan.
Combined with the fact that whilst this was going on, I was starting, watching, and finishing up this awesome soccer anime called Whistle! during my downtime when I wasn’t talking with my housemates about the 2010 FIFA world cup (I highly recommend y’all this anime btw!).
Honestly, it was a whole, new world in sports that I never realized how global and amazing it was. Football (in so many countries) is considered to be a religion, and a way of life. I was just captivated by the energy and spirit of the game. I was so enamored of how so many countries around the world come together in this World Cup tournament (held every 4 years like the Olympics) to qualify and be the last, remaining 32 countries out of 211 to compete in this prestigious World Cup Tournament. I know basketball is a global sport, but Soccer is in a different class of its own – it has a rich history of competition and spirit that has been ongoing since mid to late 1800s.
After the 2010 World Cup + visiting my relatives in Asia (which I found out that my cousins were huge fans of certain teams in the Premier League, such as Manchester United, and Liverpool), I started to get even more obsessed with soccer – with the months after, I got into the FIFA games more (especially FIFA 11 on the PS3) with my college housemates, and I engrossed myself in learning about all different domestic leagues around the world (whether it be the English Premier League in the UK, Serie A in Italy, La Liga in Spain, MLS in the States, and others). No joke, I would spend hours reading through wikipedia on the English Premier League – the history and culture about it, the number of divisions and how these leagues are ran, and the different clubs that compete in these domestic leagues (I was particularly fond of the English Premier League since I learned that it was one of the top, if not the top, domestic soccer league that many people watch all over the world). I thoroughly enjoyed every single minute of that, and it was to the point where I would neglect and forget about other sports such as basketball with following the NBA (National Basketball Association) for a long while. ~
You’re probably wondering, “Well Kevin, this is all decent stuff about your history with soccer, but what the hell does that have to do with going to a random soccer shop in Shizuoka?!”
Because of my late upbringing with the sport (especially with my recent interest in the J-League (Japan’s domestic league, and arguably the strongest domestic league from Asia in the world) – seeing the fact that I’ve watched Japanese Animes about it + my fandom for the Japanese National Soccer Team), I made it a point to visit at least 1-2 soccer shops in Japan this time around to see if I can shell out a reasonable amount of money to get a jersey of a club (via the J-League), or even a hat/shirt, just something (but forreal though, a jersey would be soul dope). Since a couple months prior to the start of this solo Japan trip, I’ve always wanted to support and follow a J-League club religiously just because I think it would be cool to be a part of being one of the supporters of a Japanese domestic soccer club from afar to further continue my passion and love for the sport in a country that has given me a good number of influences that have affected my life tremendously by providing me the groundwork to two of my favorite hobbies (in the form of anime, and ESPECIALLY video games). I hope this makes sense to y’all.
Anyway, it was cool to check out Soccer Shop KAMO (on the 5th floor) and what it has to offer – initially, I thought that they would have reasonable prices on jerseys (like they do back in Singapore / Malaysia at those local mom-and-pop shops – one of which I got a Replica Malaysian National Soccer Jersey for pretty cheap – I think I spent about $30-33 USD for that one. Totally worth and I still have it today!) – however, this shop in particular didn’t have any replica jerseys; instead, they had the authentic jerseys that the professional soccer players would wear on match days via the pitch. This is cool and all, but typically Authentic jerseys sell for way more than Replica jerseys.
When I was looking at the prices of the Authentic jerseys they had (including the Shimizu S-Pulse ones) along with a number of J-League teams (unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of those…), they ranged anywhere from ¥12,800 (or $119 – $120 USD) to ¥15,000 (or $139 – $140 USD). Considering the prices of Authentic jerseys of NBA players (that usually go for $300 USD a pop), that’s not bad at all – however, I just don’t see myself wearing an authentic jersey for a club that I’m just starting to choose and support. Given the price and my initial thoughts, it’s just not worth it, and I wasn’t willing to make that commitment right from the get-go, especially with Shimizu S-Pulse (even though their jerseys were pretty cool and vibrant with that orange color though!)
I did consider other J-League teams jerseys there too (especially Sanfrecce Hiroshima’s – their club name (according to the associated wikipedia page) is a portmanteau of the Japanese numeral for three (San) and the Italian word frecce, which means ‘arrows’. ), but I had an initial thought where if I were to get a jersey from a soccer shop in Japan, I would like the club that I would ultimately support be a club in a Japanese City that I’ve visited, and in this case, Shimizu S-Pulse fit just that.
Ultimately, given the price of those jerseys, I opted not to get an authentic Shimizu S-Pulse jersey. It was pretty dope to check out the store though – they did offer different soccer apparel that I don’t normally see online or in sports apparel stores in the states (from brands such as Puma (which I knew they were involved in soccer in some capacity) or New Balance – this one surprised me because I did not know that New Balance made soccer apparel: I found out later on that one of the biggest clubs in the English Premier League (Liverpool) has their jerseys / kits made by New Balance. That is something else.)
~ Side Note #31: For the next two shops that I’ll talk about where I spent a considerable amount of time browsing + shopping within PARCO (as a fair warning) tonight, I didn’t take any pictures while I was at both shops respectively just because I was just focused on figuring out what I want to buy and more importantly – I didn’t want to make it a primary focus to just take pictures of all the different clothes and cool stuff in these shops. Excuse me for that. ~
Moving onto the 6th floor while browsing around, I stumbled upon one of my favorite stores of all-time: Design T-Shirt Store Graniph.
~ Side Note #32: Design T-Shirt Store Graniph is a chain of Japanese art apparel stores that specialize in graphic tees (short and long sleeves) of considerable, high, and durable quality at somewhat reasonable prices. I first stumbled upon this apparel brand when Wesley Chan (one of the main three who’s part of the famous Wong Fu Productions – an independent, digital media company that has had an impact on my life since my high school days) wore one of their shirts. I was intrigued from the get-go, and during my family trip to Taiwan back in October 2011, I found out that there was a Design T-Shirt Store Graniph shop in one of the districts in Taipei – I ended up getting two awesome t-shirts there that lasted me for quite a long while (one of which I still have today!)
I’ve gotten a few more t-shirts from them several years later, when my mom made a trip to Taiwan to visit her close friends and helped me get the following three shirts which I still have today (especially since that same branch in Taipei was about to close down at that time :[ sigh.).
These shirts are made very well, and the material that they are made from feel really nice on the body – I always have a good time rockin’ these tees. ~
Anyway, back to my visit at this particular Design T-Shirt Store Graniph branch in Shizuoka PARCO – I was browsing around, and there were quite a number of designs that were cool and shirts I could see myself wearing, but only one in particular caught my eye:
This “Costumed Performers” long-sleeved tee looks pretty promising. After I looked at it for a bit, I asked the lone employee (who was folding clothes prior to me asking her) if the shop had this particular long-sleeve tee in size small (since the one I was looking at just now is a size medium, and I typically fit in size small shirts as of now).
I asked her the best I can in Japanese with “Sumimasen, eto chiisai size arimasu ka?” (which roughly translates to “excuse me, umm…do you have this in small size”… except I didn’t know how to say size in Japanese so I just said the word size hoping that she would understand well enough lol haha fail.) while holding the medium-sized tee.
She then proceeded to say something in Japanese that I couldn’t understand unfortunately, and then I just said “Hai.” (yes) like yeah I totally understood what she said lmao! JOKES.
Right after, she looked at me like she just realized that I just didn’t register what she just said (and she’s right!). It was immediately conspicuous to her that I barely spoke the language.
I then proceeded to say what I would say (as referenced from “The player’s strategy #7” via the last travel blog post) when I’m caught in a situation where I need to let the person know that I do not understand Japanese very well.
"すみません、わたしわ 日本語があまりわかりません"
(Sumimasen, watashi wa nihongo ga amari wakarimasen – or Excuse me, I do not understand Japanese very well.)
Immediately after I said that, she smiled and chuckled a bit (which did put me at ease, phew) searched a bit at another section of the store via my request for a small-size version of the tee, and found the “Costumed Performers” long-sleeved tee in size small.
She then took both the medium and small sized tees and measured both of them against my back. After doing that, she spoke to me in a little bit of English to describe that the medium size should fit better on me than the small.
I then used hand gestures and a little bit of English to tell her that I usually wear small-size shirts, to which she said: “ehhhhhh?! Sou ka?!” (like ohhhhh is that so? but in a very comical, light-hearted way).
I then smiled + chuckled a bit + responded with “hai.” (yes). I first tried on the medium-size tee first, and then the small-size tee shortly after (right in front of her, and keep in mind, I was trying out this shirt over the shirt that I was already wearing, but luckily the t-shirt that I was already wearing is thin so it shouldn’t be a problem).
After I put on the small-sized tee, the lady was like “ohhhhhh! muscles” – LOL… I thought it was pretty funny that she would say muscles in that sort of surprised, comical, light-hearted way. I was caught a bit off guard since (by her facial reactions) she was surprised that the small size of this “Costume Performers” tee actually fit me decently, and I didn’t know how to respond other than just to smile + laugh right then and there to respond back with “hahah yeahhhhhh I usually like a tight fit.” We both chuckled a bit shortly after that.
She nodded in agreement, and I told her “hai” (yes) once again (as a confirmation that I want to buy this shirt in size small). And that was that, I took off the small-sized tee, gave it to her to ring it up to the register + somehow told her / motioned my way to say “Okay, I’m ready to purchase this shirt”, paid for it with cash (total came out to about ¥2800 or about $26 USD) of and not my BOA travel CC after we tried using that CC to pay (which is fine… I mean this wasn’t a surprise since I’ve already mentioned that there were times throughout this solo Japan trip where my BOA travel CC got denied for whatever reason). I got my change, and I left + said goodbye in Japanese to her… and as you would expect, there were courteous bows from both of us that happened during this transaction haha.
I went to browse a bit more on the 6th floor (which I didn’t find anything else I wanted to buy in particular), went into one of the fitting rooms on the floor, took off my light exercise green short-sleeved t-shirt I was wearing earlier to put on the “Costumed Performers” long-sleeved tee (since I really liked it and wanted to wear it for the rest of the night), went back to the same lady working at the Design T-Shirt Store Graniph store, and I asked her if she had a pair of scissors to help me cut the back tag of the shirt by asking the following:
“すみません、はさみはありますか？”
(Sumimasen, hasami wa arimasu ka? – or excuse me, do you have scissors) while I pointed to her the back tag that I wanted to snip off from my newly purchased tee.
She smiled and I could tell that she was a bit amused that I would come back with this shirt I just purchased to ask her to help me cut off the back tag. She gladly did so, I thanked her, and said another goodbye (courtesy bows included yo you already know…CHYEAH 😀)
The next shop I went to visit more in depth was on the 7th floor where there was a MUJIs! (it’s like Uniqlo where they’re a Japanese based brand that sells clothes but they also carry household goods like humidifiers and stationary! 😀)
~ Side Note #33: MUJI is one of my favorite brands to shop for clothes – we have one here in Portland as well as one back in Southern California (where I first visited the West Hollywood location a few years ago). They always have pretty good clothes (especially their sweaters) that are simple + casual yet stylish and business professional at the same time. ~
I’m not going to lie, I spent a good hour and 15 minutes browsing through MUJIs’ trying different sweaters, pants, and casual shirts until I decided on the following:
This brown sweater was the player’s choice, and for about ¥2500 (or $23.26 in USD), I thought it was a reasonable deal for this. Purchase done. Oh and the kicker, I was able to use my BOA Travel CC – HELL YEAH. ONE OUT OF TWO PURCHASES WITH THIS TRAVEL CC…BETTER THAN ZERO OUT OF TWO. hahaha 😅
~ Side Note #34: btw, I’m sure y’all have noticed, but the pictures taken above of the apparel were pictures I just took not too long ago (as of today – April 25, 2020) just to show y’all what the clothes I was referring to looked like ~
After MUJIs’, I just browsed around a bit throughout the entire dept. store, and eventually I left and walked about a quick 2 minutes to another shopping centre called Cenova Shopping Centre. I got there about 7:45pm, and even though they have over 100 stores in 6 floors (including a pretty big food court area that had quite a number of options), I didn’t have much time to browse and shop since I found out shortly after that the Shopping Centre was going to close at 8pm. Despite that, first impressions of the Shopping Center were good – it definitely had a variety of lifestyle clothing shops (from casual to contemporary / business).
After stopping by, I was itching for some sort of snack or drink as a pick-me-up. I was wondering around for a good 10 minutes until I stumbled upon (see picture above) a Tea Bar called Pearl Lady Cha Bar.
I took a look at the menu (while following the directions on how to order as shown on the top of the menu), and I proceeded to order a “Honey Oolong Tea Latte” (the popular no. 1 choice) w/ brown sugar tapioca (a popular no. 2 choice).
Now here’s the thing, while I was ordering and talking to the lady taking my order, I thought I told her that I wanted my drink cold, but apparently it got miscommunicated and she thought I wanted the drink hot lol… and she ended up making my latte hot instead of cold 😅.
I didn’t know how to communicate to her that I wanted a cold drink instead, so I just took the hot drink as it was and paid ¥420 (or $3.91 USD).
Here’s the thing though with me – usually when it comes to milk tea, I like it hot; however, since I originally wanted boba (or bubbles or tapioca) in my milk tea, I opted to get the drink cold…so when the lady made me a hot milk tea latte with boba…I initially thought that the concept of a hot milk tea drink with boba is going to be weird and not to my liking.
I do recall one of my cousins telling me a few years ago (actually when she came to visit me while I was still in Cali, she ordered a boba milk tea in this fashion) that boba in hot milk tea is pretty good. I recalled telling her that such a concept seems odd as hell, but she paid no mind and said that I should try this out sometime.
What do you know? Guess this was fate lol…I went ahead and tried this hot milk tea latte with boba…and to my surprise – it actually tastes pretty good! wow. Now I can see why my cousin likes boba milk tea hot. It actually fits pretty well, and I honestly wouldn’t mind getting hot boba milk tea drinks in such this way more so than having cold boba milk tea drinks – guess I’m in the minority for this 😅.
Another thing that was interesting was that “hot” wasn’t burning hot – the latte was just warm enough to drink and enjoy – it’s fascinating because I loved how the lady still put the drink in the same plastic container (as opposed to using the usual paper cups) that you would put a cold drink in and that I was able to drink it right away without burning the roof of my mouth. GOOD DEALS. The way they make “hot” drinks this way is clearly intentional.
After that, I finished the drink, got another drink from a local vending machine (a “hot” honey lemon green tea – again, “hot” as in warm enough for me to drink and not to the point where I would burn the roof of my mouth) on the 15 ish minutes walk back to my Shizuoka AirBnb.
I went back to my room, exhausted and just chilled for the rest of the night (caught up on stuff like news + youtube vids of NBA highlights and messages I haven’t responded to from earlier).
Phew, day 3 complete finally! Ahahaha I know, I know…this post was pretty long, but I had quite a lot to say and oh my god… it’s almost 3:30am in the morning 4/26/20 damnnnnn (I started writing this post at around 10pm via 4/25/20 last night).
Day 4 (11/13/19 – second day in Shizuoka – most likely in 3 parts I’m predicting right now haha) travel blog posts are coming up! There’s quite a bit to share that I’ve gotten to try, drink, and enjoy eating + the views! Oh man y’all are in for a treat forreal. Stay tuned.
As I’ve mentioned before, take care y’all, stay proactive and stay safe during these challenging times with the whole COVID-19 outbreak.
Have a great rest of the weekend, and I’ll see y’all in the next post!
Cheers / wave
Listen to what you see. 