– By S. Wong, M2 student
It has been exactly one year since I moved from Southern California to Tokyo, swapping the life of a professional engineer for a graduate student at Tokyo Tech. During the summer break, I decided to make a brief visit to my beloved California, in which I have lived for thirteen years.
It was a mere 12-day trip, but it was refreshing and was a great escape from the extreme heat and humidity in Tokyo. I was fortunate to be able to stay with my dear friend in Chino Hills, a suburb in the Inland Empire, about 40 miles (about 60 km) from downtown Los Angeles. Since I spent most of my time all around Los Angeles County, and some time in Orange County, I will simply use “L.A.” or “L.A. area” to generalize my whereabouts in this blog.
For the most part of this trip, I spent time meeting up with friends. The most enjoyable part for me was simply to catch up, especially over a wonderful meal. My friends’ two young kids have grown a lot; a fellow Malaysian girl is getting married; two of my very dear ex-colleagues have started their own engineering company; my cartoonist friend is happily teaching art at Cal State. So many good news!
One of the highlights of my trip occurred when I visited my previous employer, a consulting firm in Orange County specializing in green building engineering. My former boss warmly welcomed me, and then very excitedly showed me the photos of a church project of which I designed the mechanical engineering systems prior to my resignation. The project was rather challenging throughout the design and construction phase for various reasons. Fortunately, the project has turned out well, particularly for the unusual (but green) ventilation and air conditioning system that we designed under the seemingly countless constraints. Hooray to another successful green building project!
Before I left California, I made a list of the things I have missed (and will miss) about life in California:
5. Shopping
I don’t mean that I am a shopaholic walking down Rodeo drive of Beverly Hills, but L.A. is truly a shopping heaven, especially if you were to compare the price of goods to that of Tokyo. Not only does the high value of Japanese yen makes everything (from clothing to coffee) cheaper in L.A., the never-ending sales events in L.A. make shopping simply irresistible!
4. Weather and beaches
Generally, I would say the weather in California is 200% better than Tokyo’s. It is unfortunate that L.A. was experiencing an unprecedented heat wave during my visit, pushing the daily highs to nearly 100 deg F (about 38 deg C) when it should be around 80 deg F (about 27 deg C) at this time of the year. Fortunately, the low humidity, relative to Tokyo’s, made the weather bearable.
I didn’t actually spend a day on the beach during this trip, but I insisted my friend made a “drive-by” along the beach just so I could “feel that I’m back in California”. Here is a shot (not a very good one) of Huntington Beach, one of the most popular beaches for surfers.
3. Fun of Driving
Driving is an essential skill if you want to survive in L.A. Being one of the biggest and most crowded metropolitan areas in the world, L.A. is notoriously known for its inefficient public transportation systems. I was not a big fan of driving while living in L.A. because 1) the traffic was always bad, 2) gas was expensive, and 3) I was never a very skillful driver (but fortunately I rarely had to do parallel parking). Needless to say, I did not mind taking the trains and subways after moving to Tokyo.
Returning to L.A. and to the driver’s seat after one year of out-of-practice was unexpectedly exciting. As soon as I grabbed the steering wheel, I felt totally in control. I was hesitant to go onto the freeway at first, but once I got over my anxiety, I actually enjoyed driving at high speed for the first time. On a L.A. freeway, one got to speed up to 75 mile per hour (120 km per hour), or even faster but then you’re pretty much over the speed limit. (How I have missed the adrenaline rush when I stepped on the pedal).
On the other hand, with driving, I hardly had to walk anywhere since I could always park as close to my destination as possible. What a contrast to my lifestyle in Tokyo, where I have to walk at least one hour every day due to the distance between school/home and subway stations. Unfortunately to say, I became lazy after my stay in California.
2. Food and fruits
L.A. is food heaven! Anyone who has lived long enough in L.A. knows that you can pretty much find food from any part of the world here. With my very food-enthusiastic friends, I “traveled around” (imagine driving 40 miles one way for the sole purpose of having Hainan chicken for lunch, and then another 40 miles to have Cajun seafood for dinner!) to eat Chinese, Hongkongese, Taiwanese, Mexican, Californian-American, Vietnamese, Malaysian… and the best part is, good food does not equal expensive food in L.A.!
Besides, the fresh fruits are to die for! The family of my host runs a produce store, and every day they would bring home fresh fruits like watermelon, cantaloupe, honey dew, strawberries, cherries, peaches and avocadoes. To maximize my “Back to California” experience, every morning I would make myself a breakfast made up of a toasted bagel with cream cheese, served with some fresh fruits. My afternoon snacks are guacamole or salsa with chips.
1. Hugs and kisses
Hugs and kisses simply mean good friendships and our affection towards one another. The Japanese people are polite, respectful and kind, but they are reserved and discreet, when compared with Americans. Every time I meet up with a friend, I get a big hug (and sometimes kisses on both cheeks) after walking up to each other; when the meeting is over, we hug goodbye again.
Now, back in Tokyo, I will be missing California’s sun and warmth, along with the friendships that have not faded away.