In SFO right now. Frenchy dropped me and we are going for a last coffee before I head back to Tokyo.

The cat (probably the most über-zen cat in the world) and the snake live in the same house and are part of the typical california-family yearly round of exotic pets that gets replaced when the kids get tired with them, or, as the case might rather be here, when they get to become a 6-foot long constrictor snake and you feel a bit uneasy letting him share the bed with your kid.

No: the cat doesn’t get replaced every year, he’s part of the furniture… works pretty well as a living trophy-rug.

The dogs just happened to be sitting outside some grocery store and they looked cool like that.

Guest Keitai Log live from Tokyo, Courtesy of Atsushi.
Comment translation left as is, because it sounds so much better this way:
“Last night yoyogi park spontaneous generation & lawless area RAVE was to perform!”

Posting pictures of clubs and parties would get old really quick. So I probably won’t be putting any, save maybe for a few highlights at the end.

Instead, here is a bunch of miscellaneous pictures, arbitrarily sorted by categories rather than chronological order.

This first batch seems to illustrate the fact that all my friends suddenly decided to move into places with breathtaking views: it’s really hard to tell who’s got the most amazing shot of the City, but here are a few serious contenders.

On the pics, respectively:

sunrise at Will’s place

some house on 17th (not even the nicest Victorian, but it had gotten a brand new paint job and was just too flashy to miss)

view from Matthieu’s Castle in Noe Valley (can I hear anybody say two-level decks…), just behind the park

Dolores Park

the Mission

Bernard and Karen’s place in Woodside

Valencia St. (or is it Dolores?)

the Embarcadero, in a strikingly Sunset Blvd.-like shot, save for the hordes of stretch-neon-clad joggers.

the view from Berni’s new house in Woodside, surrounded by redwood trees (they might not look like it, but these things are actually vertiginously high, probably over a hundred feet).

5 Things I did NOT miss about San Francisco:

Coping with annoyingly high level of California sun-baked flakiness

Nights laboriously spent in living rooms: crowded around the coffee table, doing lines and rehashing same tired club stories

A good half of the people on the street: running around, mumbling to themselves and nodding to lamppost, like they’re on crack.

The other half: actually on crack and/or clinically insane.

Obnoxious people: talking on their cellphone every-fuckin’-where, loud enough to let the whole train know how they “like, so totally hate nancy from accounting” or “what’s his name who did that presentation at the meeting”.
And the fact I’m in heavy keitai withdrawal myself has really little to do with the incredibly strong urge I have to shove their cell down their throat before rinsing it down with whatever’s left of their starbuck’s chai mocha soy latte.

5 Things I REALLY missed about San Francisco:

The smell of fresh pine wood: in the morning when walking down 17th St.

Smoking bowls at friends places: on the fire exit of old Victorian houses.

House beats that resolutely stay south of the 130 bpm border: drawing crowds that dance like there’s no tomorrow but stay until tomorrow.

Sunday brunch: with mimosas and egg benedict on the patio at Luna Piena

Friends: to smoke said bowls and eat sunday brunch with.

Overall, the Good outweighs the Bad by a wide margin… though it’s good to realize some of the things I’m getting in the bargain by living in Tokyo…

Now if it only could be the exact same sunny blue skies by the time I return…