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2009.07.02 - San Francisco (part 2)

June 24, 2009 Wed (U.S.) (continued)

Took the SamTrans bus leaving at 10:35. The bus doesn't give change and, without knowing the fact, I paid $5 for the $4.50 ride. (On the way back, I ended up paying $10.50. Let's be careful and prepared next time.)

The bus arrived at downtown San Francisco around 11:00. By mistake, I got off at Mission/9th. (I should have watched the electric panel carefully.) Had a hard time trying to navigate myself to my bank on Van Ness Avenue, but came across a nice vegetable market on the way, near Taylor/Market.

Arrived at Bank of America 1640 Van Ness at 12:00. Spoke to Steven, whom I spoke to last year too, and got some tasks done. I also wanted to wire some funds to my stock broker's account in New York. But we couldn't do that at this time because we were going to wire from my newly installed checking account, and we had to wait at least 24 hours before the new account became able to send out funds.

Took a bus and went to King of Thai Noodles at 420 Geary St., near Union Square, and had rice noodles with beef around 13:30. King of Thai is among the top things I miss about SF when I'm away. The food is so good here. They have several branches across the city.

While eating, I heard a group of male Gospel singers singing on the other side of the street. This soothed my mind a big deal, after the long flight and bank visit and every other little things that had collectively made my nerves tense. I myself had done street guitar-performing before, and at those times I noticed travelers were generally more appreciative to what I did. And when I heard those singers on this San Francisco street, I was convinced about the reason why.

Did shopping at H&M around 14:30. I went to their Tokyo shop a couple days before leaving Japan, and I fell in love with the denim blazer they sold for ¥10,990, which is roughly $114 with $1=¥96 conversion. And here in California, I saw it for $69.90. After adding tax, it's still $76.54, which is a $37 saving. I bought it and other items, taking advantage of the price difference. Prior to departure, I did quite a research on Japan/America prices of American apparel products. (Or perhaps I should say "global" apparel products, H&M being a European brand.)

Checked in at The Opal at 15:00. This was a very nice hotel with free internet connection (although I didn't use it this time) and free breakfast. The breakfast included nice tasting bagels I could toast, cafe au lait and apples. Next time I'll book this hotel directly, not via hotels.com like I did this time. That way they'll give me 10% discount from the best rate found on the internet. (Next)

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