I've worked in over a hundred cafes by now, probably. One of the most beautiful I've seen is situated on the freeway between Saigon to Da Lat in Vietnam, the 2nd largest coffee-producing country in the world, next to Brazil. The condensed milk variation of Vietnamese coffee is well known around the world, but it's the coffee culture here that really captivates me. The cafe is awkwardly named "Cafe Photo Bike" (pictured top left), a peculiar juxtaposition of english letters, but it gets to the point and you can see why; the shop is decorated with antique bikes and the walls are covered with beautifully shot and framed photographs of Vietnamese landscapes. The balcony on the 2nd floor overlooks the rolling green hills of Bao Loc, a coffee export town in the Lam Dong province that stays cool all year round, a nice contrast to the humid heat of the capitol four hours west. The cafe is surrounded by large windows that opens to the green around and invites in the cool mountain breeze. Opposite this, cafe VCR(bottom left) in the city capitol now known as Ho Chi Minh City, is a cramped, small cafe hidden from plain sight in the small network of alleys in Japan town, but no less beautiful, albeit in an urbanized way. The 2nd floor overlooks just the adjacent walls of the buildings next to it, but for a design junkie like me there's no denying the abstract shapes of windows, torn paint, and symmetry of vents and aged ACs evokes a certain contentedness in my creative consciousness. The owner's passion for pop culture and figurines is made obvious with the shop's decor; action figures and video game memorabilia line the shelves, probably a large reason why I like it here. A corgi even hangs around here sometimes and invites you to pat him, which he'll then proceed to gently nibble on your hands playfully as you reach out. Can't beat that.

Missing Japan. I remember buying a ‘how to speak Japanese book’ 15 years ago in high school and always entertained the idea of going but ‘life always got in the way’. I finally bit the bullet and went in August 2017, with two 3 year old twins and my wife.

First morning I was so excited I was up at 5 am and ran a few miles around Asakusa to Akihabara, to absorb in the charm of the city right around sunrise before the famed bustling streets of Tokyo would occupy. It was a partly cloudy day. The street vendors at Nakamise market were slowly opening their garage storefronts and setting up shop, the locals diligently sweeping the alleys and getting ready for the day.

The only place open was a Don Quixote a few minutes west of Sensoji Temple, the equivalent of a Walgreens in the U.S., if Walgreens had 5 floors cramped with a chaotic but oddly well organized mixture of everyday items and useless, weird, but completely necessary Japanese stuff. Like these little bouncy gelatinous balls that had a nipple at the end, resembling boobs. Got one for my sister.

By the time I was finished I went back to my AirBnB and got the wife and kids ready to tour the nearby markets. We got them picture-perfect ice cream cones at Nakamise and slowly worked our way up Sensoji Temple. The quiet of the early morning had transformed completely to the bustling experience Tokyo was known for. It remained partly cloudy but was a beautiful day, reminded me of California weather.