I injured my knee 2 weeks ago during Judo class due to someone new doing a technique improperly. I have been planning to go to the San Jose judo tournament for a while, and the injury has made me unsure about whether I should spend money signing up, driving 6 hours each way, and booking a hotel overnight. I stopped going to practice to let it rest and it felt better a week later but it still feels tight and there’s lingering pain after walking my dog for more than a few blocks.

I get asked this question fairly often, and it’s one of those questions I had no problem answering earlier in my life, but as time went on I’m finding it more and more difficult to answer. I get asked this question in all kinds of social situations, from family gatherings to parties and meetups/conferences. “What do you do?” 🔗The answer used to just be, student. Then right after college, the default answer was Consultant, or Software Engineer.

As I’m lying in bed still sore while typing this, I want to go back and compare my judo experiences back then and how I got started, with now and how my view / interest in judo has changed since I picked it back up again. I had my first judo tournament of my adult life 2 days ago. My very first judo tournament was actually right before I quit judo for the first time as a kid.

In one of my previous posts I showcased my first attempt at packing for my Asia Trip at the beginning of the year. I then followed up with my review of one of the bags I took with me and it showed what I ended up bringing with me. A quick list of items. Zanerobe sweat pants Outlier Slim Dungarees Pants Muji Cashmere Scarf Ice Breaker Merino Vneck T-Shirt Outlier Merino T-Shirt Mission Workshop Merino T-Shirt 1 White uniqlo OCBD 2 cotton T-shirts 2 pairs of ankle length Merino socks 1 pair of calf length Merino socks 3 pairs of exofficio boxer briefs 1 pair of Uniqlo airism boxer brief Nintendo 3DS Pikachu coin purse Electric Toothbrush with case 15" Macbook pro with charger Japan travel guide book Bose qc20 noise cancelling earbuds Moleskin notebook Nexus 7 for reading ebooks Three silicone travel size squeeze tubes (not shown in picture above) Bunch of cables and external battery (not shown in picture above) Lessons learned 🔗 I’ll get the most obvious thing out of the way.

Most travel blogs swear by merino wool shirts. They are supposed to be odor resistant,keeps you dry, and works in both warm and cool temperatures. You can find plenty of information out there regarding the pros and cons of merino wool shirts so I’ll cut to the chase. The most popular brands out there for merino shirts seem to be Icebreaker, Outlier and Mission Workshop. I bought one of each shirt before my trip to Asia.

I was asked by a few people since I got back from Japan about the Alchemy Equipment Carry On bag I bought for my trip to Asia. My previous post had pictures and a small review of me putting stuff for my trip into it here. Now that I’ve carried it around New York and Asia for two and a half weeks I feel like it deserves a more in depth review.

I’ve discovered my new favorite place to go to in NYC. I read about this place from another blogger I follow, Eataku. I’ve been dying for an izakaya to open up in Austin, Fukumoto ended up being a great restaurant but I left disappointed since it was more of a Japanese restaurant than an izakaya in terms of prices, types of food and atmosphere. My first impression of hagi after seeing the menu was “this isn’t fukumoto, this is a real izakaya”.

I was meeting my aunt for lunch in NYC chinatown and she decided to bring us to a HK style cafe called iM star (called M star on yelp for some reason). The HK style french toast was nowhere near as good as the ones you can get in Hong Kong but the other dishes were on point. They have a wide selection on their menu and foods for breakfast lunch and dinner.

I tried to pack light for my NYC/Japan/Korea trip. Here is some pictures of my first attempts. I ended up taking out a few more things so I could put my day pack into the duffel bag to consolidate down to one bag if I wanted to. Outlier Slim Dungaree Pants Zanerobe drop shot olive pants Ice breaker Merino V-neck Tshirt Outlier Merino T shirt Mission Workshop Merino T shirt American Apparel Long sleeve Henley (Removed) Long sleeve flannel button down (removed) 1 black and 1 white scoop neck basic cotton T-shirt Uniqlo white OCBD Muji Merino wool scarf 3 travel silicone bottles Eagle creek compression cube (1 pair of uniqlo airism and 2 pairs of exofficio boxer briefs inside) Here’s everything packed into cubes with a doppler bag that I ended up getting rid of and just putting it into the compartments in my duffel bag.

Out of all the restaurants I’ve tried so far in Austin, Daito is by far my favorite. They specialize in homemade udon noodles with homemade dashi broth made from scratch (no dashi packet mix), this isn’t something you find very often in the U.S. If you come here you’d definitely want to order a bowl of udon. You will find their broth to be heartwarmingly satisfying. Though they also serve good sushi with fish from Tsukiji Fish Market similar to Uchi and Uchiko.