Thanksgiving break summary + City Trip, 1 week later, 11/29/2023

Despite being a very recent and big event I didn't really care much for this holiday, Granted, being of southeast asian ethnicity no american holiday is really going to be at all traditional for me. Hell, I didn't even celebrate thanksgiving on thanksgiving day lol.

Though before all that My girlfriend came down for the break aswell, we did many things, I essentially was with her the entirity of the break, was very happy for her to come down as always, and I was practically with her for the entirity of her break.

Pre-Thankgiving

I would like to say this started when my girlfriend campe down the saturday weekend before thanksgiving, I still had work until thanksgivng day but she was free as a bird, I didn't want to call out of work multiple days, so my girlfriend took me to work all of the days I had too which I greatly appreciated. Gave her time to also do schoolwork while I was gone (Somehow, Professors give out work to do over the break.)

The days before the holiday were great, relaxing, if relatively uneventful, days consisted of not being able to wake up due to being too comfy in bed with me girlfriend, working, then being picked up and doing whatever. As Ideal as can get during this time of year, i found it very enjoyable to do simple things like that.

I wanna say about the only notable thing that happened was when I got the text that my familys old home videos were processed digitally and were ready for pickup at a locl photo place. During the summer I found old MiniDV tapes and I was curious about the contents on them, so a friend lent me their familys old camcorder for me to check em out. After some tinkering with the thing I got to see them, while I can't go into detail about them for obvious personal reason, they were incredibly eye opening to me, just seeing how my family was before me, or when i was too young to remember anything. As much as I have "strong feelings" about my family currently, I did really like to see them and they greatly enjoyed seeing them aswell, so I thought It would be a good thing to get the videos off the tapes and onto a thumb drive or DVD, after getting a job and saving up I decided to do just that, I paid a very pretty penny to do so but I think it was worth it. Alongside that I also had 2 more tapes I was unable to watch transfered aswell.

After all that, It was business as usual, a friend was also there since we were staying at their house, always a pleasure to see her.

Actual Thanksgiving

...Not much happened

I don't really know what a traditional thanksgiving is like, but in my family its just an overly large gathering with some american food, there wasn't even a turkey the day off.

Only super notable thing was that this was my girlfriends first time being at my familys thanksgiving; she didn't like it, was too overwhlemed by the volume and desnity of people but i can't blame her haha.

Notably this took place the day before thanksgiving, for reasons.

I got nothing else, I ate pho atleast.

Post-Thanksgiving

This was definitely the most eventful part of the break.

Day after I was with some more friends, doing whatever, always a good time though admittedly i feel like i didn't get to do asmuch as i wanted to with a few of them. I should get better at doing more stuff with them.

I also finally had traditional thanksgiving food courtesy of my girlfriends familys leftovers. Tried stuff like green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, and stuffing for the first time. Was pretty good, turkey wasn't that good though lol.

I like the idea of the taste of turkey rather than actually eating it, always ends up too dry for me. I'm sure thats not a shared feeling.

That weekend though, me, my girlfriend, and some other friends went up to Flushing, NY. This was a trip I long anticipated for, was meaning to go here with them since the same time last year. But due to alot of scheduling issues we only were able to do It now, but I was quite content with the trip.

Why Flushing? Because frankly, I only went to 2 places in NY growing up, Chinatown, and Flushing. It was the closest I ever really got to being in an mostly asian populated community growing up so it always has a place in my mind considering I never saw many other asian people in my hometown growing up. That topic is for another time though...

I wanted to bring my friends to Flushing cause none of them have ever been, so I thought I could be a good guide. I had a list of a bunch of places to go and all that; did this cause we went to Chinatown last year around this time and It was a bit of a fluke cause I frankly thought I knew the area well enough growing up (I did not, though we still had a good time) so I didn't wanna fuck this one up.

We arrived and we ate at a food court in the New World Mall, ordered from a stall i hadn't tried before and it was quite good; remarkably cheap too for what I got.

Rest of the day consisted of walking to most of the places on my list... which mainly consisted of alot of anime merch shops. It was winter, so doing more outdoorsy stuff round here could a tinge too cold for, especially for me.

First place we hit was an Anime/Manga store called Anime Castle, which I believe is one of the older anime stores in the area, nice looking shop and had tons of stuff. Was also still doing black friday deals so things were more cheapo. Being an older place the store had alot of charm IMO.

Admittedly though there wasn't much I wanted to buy (I'd read more manga if I had the space for em.) I was meaning to possibly get a figure or a wall scroll but there was nothing from series I liked unfortunately (This will be a reccurring, thing btw.) My friends got stuff theyve been meaning to get which made me happy atleast.

BUT

In the back they had a shelf of DVDs and CDs and thats where i blew a bunch of money. They had 4 Guilty Gear CD's and an Ojamajo Doremi CD?!? I was really happy and frankly shocked to find these, I was very curious on how long they'd been there. They were pricey but I saved money for the trip so I was ok with that, was around like $70+ for 5 CD's. Very happy with my purchase, maybe not the case for the GG CD's but I know the Doremi CD I got can go for a very pretty penny online, i especially wonder how long thats been there..

To go on a slight side tangent about the CD's, 2 of the GG CD's are a cover album of music from the games performed by english singers, Their called "Guilty Gear XX in N.Y Vocal Edition" and "Guilty Gear XX in L.A Vocal Edition." Notably had Jason Miller of Godhand and more recently RezoDrone on board for one of the albums. I just love what I can only describe as "Early 2000's Rock" Stank to them, not for everyone... but i like it. I should do more research on these 2 albums.

One of the other GG Cd's is just the korean version of the Guilty Gear XX OST. Why is It different? That's still something thats up in the air. I think the accepted theory is that It was a marketing thing, the band that performed the OST, N.EX.T, reformed in 2003 when the game released alongside the soundtrack, another theory says the series creator Daisuke Ishiwatari being friends with the band and asking them to make music for the game, But who knows. The original OST is iconic but the Korean version does have a few themes I quite like, Specifically Potemkin's, Bridget's, and Robo-Ky's themes

By the way, this is my favorite of the vocal tracks from these albums, I already love May's theme and vocal performance just has a certain stank energy to it like I said. Just love it.

Back on track, the next place we went to was a place called Project KE, another anime merch store; but notably they had claw machines, which I didn't try.

I did find a plush here though, possibly a new favorite. A mother fucking DRACOVISH plush. I was so ecstatic to see this, Dracovish is one of my favorite mons and I also love seeing merch of the more "strange" mons.

Funnily enough on the same wall rack he was on in the corner, It was many of the popular, more typical mons you'd see plushes or generally just merch off, I.E Pikachu, Eevee, Lucario, Tyranitar, but just in the furthest corner was him, Dracovish, It was almost poetic, I think we were meant to be.

Onto the next store, we went to TESO-X, this was more of a general asian toy store, less focus on anime and more on smaller collectables, dolls, and gunpla. Also had claw machines like the previous store. Strangely enough its from a small chain of Japanese drug stores called TESO-LIFE, wonder what thats about because their almost nothing alike.

While I didn't get anything from here, this was certainly the most unique looking place we been to, futuristic i guess is what I'd call it? It was pretty neat but not much appealed to me here. My friend however did get a large japanese bottle of pepsi mistakenly labeled as "Raw Pepsi," It was just a normal pepsi, he did get a freebie Jujustsu Kaisen keychain though.

Next we went to a place called Anime Claw, I spent $30 on credits, wasted a few, then won nothing, cool place, moving on.

Went to the shops at skyview, a huge mall though this was definitely the most "american" mall in the area. Had alot of chain and anchor stores like best buy, target, BJ's etc.

We got a snack from a place called Beard Papa, was solid, though messy. Then we went to Daiso, a chain of japanese dollar stores that have been opening up in the states, admittedly made the mistake of not buying anything from there since I couldve probably used some of the organization items for cleaning my room. Then went to Uni-Qlo, a japanese brand of clothing that i was always enticed by despite being pricey, though since they were doing a black friday sale I treated myself to some stuff.

Should probably say that It came to my attention a few days after that Uniqlo is not a particularly ethical brand due to labor rights violations, alongside many other controversies. I'll definitely not be buying from there again. It can be hard to be an ethical consumer nowadays.

Next we went to you guessed it, another anime merch store called Anime Figure Egg-Cellent, frankly I was feeling like my friends were getting a bit sick of me bringing them to all these kinds of places but they still enjoyed it. The gimmick here is that they had a wheel you could spin at check out to get a discount, was pretty neat. I got myself a Kirby charm for my evergrowing Wad of charms, and a Tom & Jerry figure I'm planning to give as a gift for my grandfather, we used to watch alot of Tom & Jerry when I was younger, I wonder If he cherishes those memories as I do.

Due to a circumstance of a friend we decided to cut our trip a little bit short and get dinner after that, we decided on a revolving sushi spot nearby called Salute, I was a bit excited to go to a revolving sushi place for the first time and It was quite solid, notably I thought the white crab hand roll and what i think was a seared crab meat sushi were remarkably good. Our sushi was delivered by a train above the conveyor belts, and ocassionally by a waiter, I wonder how taking sushi from the actual conveyor belt worked.

The sun had set in the city, and It was quite a pretty sight, but unfortunately we had to head back for the day, while our friends headed to the car me and my girlfriend made some last stops at a bakery called Rainbow Bakery and a boba place called Yi-Fang. Got donuts, and got a cheese foam tea, both were very good.

That marks the end of the trip, I wouldve admittedly like to have stayed for longer, but who says we can't do another trip, I'd like to go in the summer due to nice weather, walks would be alot more enjoyable. Successful trip all in all since my friends were also satisfied for the first time.

Very Pretty in person

Feelings about It all

I had a good time the week I did all this, 2023, like all years, was something, I'll probably do a whole 2023 journal nearing the end of the year.

Like all breaks, I wish It lasted longer, but alas. I really do miss the summer...

Also this was by far my longest journal so far, I do wanna apologize if I come off as like, weird, or anything, I feel like reading back on some of these journals and ramblings i can sound like im full of shit. That's not my intention obviously, I'm just not the best writer at all, but I'm very happy that you read this far, i appreciate you greatly.

Peace.