iPhone 4S + iPhone 4S back camera 4.28mm f/2.4 at an effective 35mm — ¹/40 sec, f/2.4, ISO 50 — map & image data — nearby photos
“Welcome to America”
In-n-Out Burger

I've been in The States for two days now, getting read to start a drive across America in an RV. In the two days I've been here, I've gotten 5 days worth of stuff done, and had to let another week's worth fall by the side for lack of time. 🙁

Still, I've done plenty.... Highlights, lowlights, and notable experiences so far include:

• Playing Ultimate Frisbee with old Yahoo friend Brian, and getting a tour of the WhatsApp offices and meeting some other old Yahoo friends there, including Jan (who used to play Ultimate with us back in the day, but couldn't join us this time).

  A few photos from Ultimate will appear in a subsequent post.

  Sadly I missed a chance to see Ash Patel from back-in-the-day Yahoo. He holds a special place in my Yahoo heart because he gave me a ride to the airport after my initial interviews back toward the end of 1996. He was already pretty high in the company at the time, but not too high to give an interviewee a ride to the airport. Classy guy.

• Watching Fumie meet her first ballet instructor from 17+ years ago, who at 82 is still teaching at Santa Clara Ballet, and looks to be in her 60s. It'd been more than 12 years since Fumie took a lesson there, but Ms. Reyes remembered her. In the advanced pointe class that Fumie joined in on, the next oldest student wasn't even alive when Fumie started ballet. 🙂

• Spending hour after hour after hour trying to get a friggin' Verizon WiFi hotspot and a couple of pre-paid phones set up for the trip. How hard can it be?! And it's pre-paid, so why do you need my social security number? I wasted so many hours on this that could have been better spent. 🙁

• Spending $400 at an Under Armour outlet. Even a small outlet store has more variety than I can find in Japan, at much better prices.

• Spending about the same amount at Supercenter Walmart for stuff we'll need in the RV, like special TP, blankets, cups, shampoo, etc. etc. etc.

• Not thinking much of the road construction going on in front of the hotel, until I realized that it's part of the construction for Apple's spaceship. Our overpriced hotel is immediate across the street from the south-western corner of Apple's property. I can only imagine how high the prices will go once Apple moves in.

• Checking out a massive super-wide 30' (10m) RV that I'm supposed to drive across the country. Inside is as big as a house, and the outside is even bigger. I'm a bit apprehensive. I drive it for the first time tomorrow.

• Getting over fairly quickly the cold that came on a few hours before leaving Kyoto. The flight was not fun, though the double baggage allowance on American Airlines (compared the United flights I normally take) was much appreciated. The seats had much more leg space as well.

• Having the easiest time with jetlag that I've had in years. The flight left Osaka at 8:30pm, for an hour's flight to Tokyo Haneda, and then the transpacific flight left at midnight. So I took Ambien right away on the second flight and slept through most of it. We arrived to SFO at around 6pm, in the hotel by 8pm, and asleep by 10pm. I was woozy the next morning during the hours at the Verizon store, but otherwise jetlag has not been an issue. Woohoo!

There a week's worth to do before we leave Silicon Valley in two more days...