Hello, VEA at The Wellington in Central, Hong Kong

by   •   Food, Highlights
 

My second-favorite restaurant I dined at during my visit to Hong Kong was VEA, located on the 30th floor of The Wellington in Central. I found this restaurant because I was looking for some spots with local and regional food, and I saw that VEA aims to honor Hong Kong’s heritage by way of sourcing authentic Chinese ingredients. They then add a French twist to integrate an element of innovation and uniqueness to their dishes.

The restaurant was arranged as multiple bar-style tables wrapped around the kitchen area in curves. I was seated at the final spot of one of the center tables. Obviously, this kind of table arrangement isn’t really conducive to privacy, but I feel like I lucked out by getting as private a seat as possible, while also still being in the middle of the action so I could watch all the different areas of the kitchen with a simple turn of my head.

When the host brought me to my seat, there was an envelope already there waiting for me.

The envelope contained two items: the course list for the tasting menu, and a mission statement describing what VEA aims to do with their food.

The tasting menu started with some savory snacks. The first was a delicate pastry-style dish topped with greens and served with a side of a creamy sauce.

The sauce was served in a small music box that played an instrumental melody on repeat that diners could listen to while eating the first snack.

The pastry was already great, but the sauce somehow still made it significantly better. The sauce tasted like it captured the deliciousness of an extremely rich and fatty cream while somehow keeping it light and eliminating any greasiness.

There was a little scroll tucked into the music box. Upon unraveling it, I found the lyrics to the tune to which I enjoyed the snack.

The second snack was another delicate pastry, but this one was topped with some prawns.

This was also served with some sauce. Just like the first snack, the prawns were amazing on their own, but the sauce elevated it to perfection. This was after I was very impressed at the first sauce and my expectations were already raised pretty high, and this sauce still somehow blew them away.

This was quite a large portion of sauce, and I think one sauce bowl was intended to serve two people dining as a pair. I was dining alone for this meal, but I ended up getting a full bowl anyway. That was great news for me considering how much I loved it; after finishing the prawn pastry, I proceeded to finish the rest of the leftover sauce with the side spoon I was given as if the sauce was yogurt or pudding.

While eating the snacks, the waiter came by to finalize my selections for any modifications I wanted to make to the tasting menu.

The first modification was to decide whether I wanted to replace one of the courses with fish maw, Oscietra caviar, and quinoa for a supplemental cost of HK$1,280. What I appreciated was that there was a replica of what the different special dishes were like so that diners could visually see what they would get prior to committing to a large upcharge.

Although I’m a big fan of caviar, I saw that there was already a caviar dish on the tasting menu, and HK$1,280 was quite a large additional fee (especially considering that it is a substitution and not just a bonus dish), so I passed on this supplement.

The second modification was to decide whether I wanted to replace a different one of my courses with 28-head dried abalone pithivier and sweetbread for a supplemental cost of HK$2,030. As you can probably guess, I opted to pass on this one as well, though I did like taking a look at these replicas too.

And finally, the third modification I had to decide on was whether or not I wanted to add on a beverage pairing. I noticed that they had a spirit-free cocktail pairing curated by their executive mixologist. Usually, non-alcoholic pairings like this are more abridged compared to their alcoholic pairings, but the one at VEA had seven drinks listed, which I thought was quite a lot. That sounded like pretty good value, so I ordered the spirit-free pairing.

The first drink of the pairing came out soon afterwards, which had elderflower, yuzu, cucumber, and soda.

For the first of eight courses, I was served Kristal caviar with spring peas in a smoked coconut sauce. Usually, caviar is used as a way to enhance a dish, but to my absolute joy, this was a dish where the main element was a generous portion of caviar.

This was my favorite dish of the dinner. The caviar, as expected, was delicious. The spring peas were small enough that the shape went nicely with the caviar and the roundness of both items made for a fun textural experience. The peas were firm enough that they had their own variant of a “pop” when I bit into them. The smoked coconut sauce was a bit of a phenomenon on its own, because it tasted both rich and mild at the same time; all the positive aspects of coconut were emphasized and strong, while the somewhat “watery” flavor you sometimes detect in coconut was completely absent.

The next drink of the non-alcoholic beverage pairing had prickly pear, apple, cardamom, lemon, and cinnamon.

That went along with the striped jack served with pumpkin and two-year preserved turnip.

It’s a little bit difficult to tell from the photograph, but this was basically a sphere that was assembled with slices of fish and vegetables. It made for an easy eating experience, as I was able to layer one slice of each together and get a well-balanced and refreshing bite each time.

The third drink came in a tall glass and was made with dried plum, Chinese vinegar, and ginger beer. The outside of the glass was affixed with a sugary cinnamon powder.

This was my favorite drink of the night. Just based on the ingredient list, I wasn’t expecting to like this due to the presence of vinegar, but this was not sour at all. The sugary cinnamon on the outside was also amazing, and every modicum of etiquette and class went out the window as I rubbed the lower portions of the glass on my lower lip to get more of the powder per sip (even though powder placed on the bottom of such a tall glass is mostly just assumed to be decorative).

As the next dish was being prepared, they brought out another replica of it so I could see what was coming up.

Here it is in cooked form: sea cucumber in tiger prawn sauce with a few spritzes of aged Shaoxing wine.

The server recommended that I cut the sea cucumber into small pieces ahead of time. I’m glad she suggested that, because it was a great idea—it allowed the sea cucumber more time to absorb more of the amazing tiger prawn sauce and made each bite juicier. The sea cucumber itself had a perfect balance of tenderness and bounciness. I couldn’t really tell what element the Shaoxing wine added to the dish, but that subtleness is probably what was intended.

The next beverage was peony tea with quince and rhubarb.

For the fourth course, I received rough scale flounder with some white turnip in a Longjing tea sauce.

This was a classic, straightforward whitefish dish with nothing too fancy or crazy. The sauce was mild (but still tasty), the flounder was tender, and overall, this checked off all the boxes for what you’d want in a light and clean whitefish dish.

The next beverage was a genmaicha with Paragon white Penja pepper.

This concluded the first half of the tasting menu. Upon entering the intermission phase, I was given a roll of haw flakes to munch on while preparing for the two main entrées.

I took this opportunity to check out the washroom. There was limited space in the restaurant so it was a bit cramped and I couldn’t get a good angle for the photograph, but I think this is quite literally the most luxurious public washroom I have ever been to in my entire life.

Upon returning to my seat, finishing my haw flakes, and catching up on reading the news on my phone, the brief wait was over and I was presented with my first main entrée: Yunnan mushroom congee with preserved turnip. If you remember from before, this is the dish that I could have replaced with fish maw instead.

This mushroom tasted like it had multiple different flavor profiles at once. While chewing, I sensed a bit of nuttiness, savoriness, earthiness, and sweetness at the same time (though I’m not sure which of those were from the mushroom itself and which were from other ingredients in the congee). For a lack of a better way to describe it, it also tasted “meaty,” and if a vegetarian wanted to eat a meat substitute, I think this mushroom would act as a great alternative.

The second-to-last drink of the spirit-free pairing had tangerine, monk fruit, dark plum, liquorice, and Prunellae Spica.

In a similar fashion as the previous dishes, another replica was brought out to show the core ingredients of the next upcoming dish.

To go along with the second main entrée, I was given a small cup of tea. This was just some bonus tea and was not part of the beverage pairing.

As the grand finale, I was served Aveyron lamb with carrot purée and angelica root.

This was the dish that otherwise would have been replaced by the abalone had I opted to order the supplement instead. I actually really like lamb and would consider it my favorite kind of red meat, so it especially would not have made sense for me to swap it out.

The lamb was milder than I expected, and extremely tender. The root vegetables and the sauce were also proportionally mild, so it did not overpower the lamb.

The final beverage of the spirit-free cocktail pairing was strawberry mango tea. It was prepared inside an infusion vessel, and more specifically, The Porthole by Crucial Detail. This probably had the most “basic” flavor profile out of all the beverages, but because of its refreshing and familiar fruitiness, I would still rank it as my second favorite drink of the night.

Each segment of the kitchen had a different course that they specialized in preparing, depending on what kinds of equipment were present in that section of the kitchen. By the time my dinner was soon coming to an end, it was already getting pretty late, and the section of the kitchen right in front of me transitioned from making appetizers to making dessert. I got a nice view of one of the cooks intricately preparing my next dish.

The tasting menu’s first dessert was cucumber and green apple sorbet with stinky herbs. I was spooked when I saw “stinky herbs” on the ingredient list because I didn’t know just how stinky the stinky herbs would get, but they weren’t actually stinky at all, which I assume was a consequence of proper preparation.

The smaller orbs below the sphere of sorbet were actually orbs of cucumber and apple, rather than more sorbet. I enjoyed that textural contrast, as having that soft crisp made the chewing experience more fun.

The second dessert, and the final course of the tasting menu, was black truffle cheesecake with soy sauce toffee.

The truffle was mild and delicious, and the cheesecake had all the positives of the cheesecake flavor you expect, but without any of the heaviness or greasiness. The toffee was also quite special; it tasted like an elevated version of toffee, with the saltiness of the soy sauce enhancing and making more prominent the caramelized flavor caused by the Maillard reaction.

And with that, the eight-course tasting menu came to an end. I was given a mignardise along with the check.

I don’t know if this was just a special thing they were doing that day because it wasn’t mentioned on the course list, but a server came up to me and asked me if I was interested in some durian ice cream as if it was a bonus. Of course, I eagerly agreed; durian is not a flavor that you see often in the United States, so I wanted to have it in Hong Kong while I could.

This was more of a multi-faceted durian dessert than it was just durian ice cream. As expected, it had a bit of that iconic durian stink to it as I brought it up to my mouth, but as I bit into it and chewed, it got replaced by custardy sweetness.

Here is a photograph of a different section of the kitchen. The area with the ovens was furthest away from me, which I guess is a good thing, because that meant my seat maintained a comfortable temperature throughout my meal.

This is the VEA sign by the entrance.

On my way out, the hostess stopped me to give me a little goodie bag to bring home (or in my case, to bring back to my hotel). I opened it after my train ride back to my hotel in Admiralty and found a Chinese hickory nut marshmallow chocolate chip cookie inside, which I enjoyed as a late-night snack before going to sleep.

I’ve eaten a lot of nutty cookies, and I’ve also eaten a lot of chocolate chip cookies, but I don’t often get to have both at the same time. This cookie combined the best of both, and it tasted great. On top of that, the addition of marshmallows added a second dimension of sweetness that complemented the sweetness of the chocolate.

Tasting menu HK$ 2,280.00
Mocktail pairing HK$   580.00
Still water HK$    60.00
Service charge (10%) HK$   292.00
Total HK$ 3,212.00
Converted to USD US$   409.99

The table to the right shows how much I paid.

This is one of the most expensive meals I’ve ever had on a per-person basis (though I guess a decent chunk of it was from the mocktail pairing, which I thought was great, but I still would’ve had no problem just having only water throughout my meal).

With that being said, for me, I think it was worth it. The portion sizes were satisfying, the selection of dishes fit my personal preferences perfectly, the service was fantastic, and I felt great about all aspects of the meal in its entirety.

Although the fish maw and abalone supplements might be alluring to some, I would not recommend them (though keep in mind that this suggestion is coming from someone who did not actually try them). If they were strictly additive to the eight-course tasting menu, then people who really love fish maw or abalone might be able to justify getting them, but keep in mind that they are replacements. They are quite expensive, and they are replacing dishes that are already very delicious and fit well with the flavor storyline of the overall tasting menu.

If a ~US$330 meal (which excludes the beverage pairing) is within your budget, then I highly recommend trying out VEA. It offered all the components of a top-tier tasting menu, both in terms of the food and the overall experience, and everything about it either fulfilled or exceeded my expectations.

 

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Hello, Chef’s Table on Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas

by   •   Cruises, Food, Highlights
 

I am now back on land after finishing my first cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas, and I’m working on catching up on blog posts. (While still on the ship, I wrote about my experience leading up to, during, and shortly after embarkation day, and a few days ago, I published a review of Wonderland, a specialty dining venue on the ship.)

While purchasing my ticket, I added in an unlimited premium dining package that allowed me to go to any specialty restaurant on board without needing to pay the extra cover charge. However, even with that package, there was one dining experience that still had an upcharge—the Chef’s Table.

Upon doing some more research, I found out that the Chef’s Table is the highest-tier dining experience on Royal Caribbean cruises and is basically an interactive prix fixe chef’s tasting menu experience served to a limited number of guests per night. Considering that I have become somewhat of a food enthusiast over the past several years and especially like unique and personalized experiences, the Chef’s Table aligned perfectly with what I was looking for in a nice dinner.

If you read my embarkation blog post, you already know this, but as a quick summary, I had a disappointing experience with the food quality at Izumi Sushi, so I canceled all my future reservations there and looked for other options instead. I replaced one of the Izumi nights with the Chef’s Table. Chef’s Table normally requires an additional US$118.00 payment per person, but because of my unlimited dining package, the cover charge got reduced to US$59.00—a base price of US$50.00 for the experience, plus a mandatory 18% gratuity of US$9.00.

I didn’t see a way to book the reservation on the Royal Caribbean app in a way that would link it to my unlimited dining package, so I went to Guest Services for assistance. I heard that the Chef’s Table is in pretty high demand and often sells out before departure; I was wondering whether that was part of the reason I was having issues with the app, but fortunately, the representative at Guest Services was able to get me a spot for that same evening as the 13th of a maximum of 16 diners.

At 6:25 PM, I went down to the designated check-in spot at the Schooner Bar to wait for everyone to arrive and be walked over to the Chef’s Table. After a brief wait, all the diners showed up and our waiter (who was also the sommelier) led us to the table.

The format of this was quite different than what I’m used to. This felt more like a family Thanksgiving dinner than it did a restaurant. Everyone was seated together around a single large dining table, which made the experience very communal and conducive to conversation among everyone.

The dinner was a multi-course meal that also came with a wine pairing, so everyone’s placemat had wine glasses lining the edge. I don’t drink alcohol, so the waiter took away my wine glasses and said he would provide a special non-alcoholic beverage pairing to go along with my dinner instead.

After our waiter and sommelier explained the basic idea behind the Chef’s Table, the chef also came out from the kitchen to introduce himself. This was apparently his first cruise for which he was the chef for the Chef’s Table.

While we were talking amongst ourselves and waiting for the first dish, the waiter came out with some bread. Each pair got one large portion of blooming bread, but because I was alone, I got to have an entire one by myself. I ate half of it as an appetizer, then saved half of it to use as dipping bread for any leftover sauces that I assumed I would have with some of the dishes.

The first course was scallop carpaccio with crispy quinoa and yuzu vinaigrette.

I understand that the premise of carpaccio is to thinly cut the meat or fish, but I still would’ve preferred for the scallop to be cut a bit thicker so that it had more of a bite. The way that I adjusted for this was that I rolled up each slice of carpaccio into a little tube so that it felt like I had more material to chew down into. I liked the textural contrast between the soft scallop and the crispy quinoa, and dipping each tube into the yuzu vinaigrette added a nice splash of citrus that enhanced the overall flavor profile.

There wasn’t a separate non-alcoholic beverage menu that had all the ingredients of all the drinks listed, so I don’t quite remember what exactly was in every drink, but this first one was (as you can probably tell from the photograph) an orange citrus drink.

To go along with our second course, we received what the menu called garlic focaccia croutons. As you can tell from the photograph, it was definitely just a focaccia and not so much a crouton. The toppings were refreshing, and this served as a great side for the upcoming soup.

The actual second course was smoked tomato soup. I couldn’t really distinctly identify the smoke, but it did taste noticeably more earthy than what you’d expect from normal tomato soup.

The chef came out with a pitcher of cream and individually added a swirl to each of our bowls. Interestingly, the cream maintained its coagulated shape, and even when agitated with my spoon, it didn’t really separate much. I ended up “cutting” the cream with my spoon and including some in each spoonful, which was quite interesting.

The next drink of the beverage pairing was a blueberry nojito, the non-alcoholic version of a mojito.

The third course was Maine lobster salad with hearts of palm, pineapple, cilantro, and vanilla dressing.

This dish was an example of pristine simplicity. The lobster was incredibly tender and very strong in clean, pure lobster flavor. The vegetables added a nice crunch to the texture but did not materially affect the flavor of the lobster. The dressing was incredibly light and also did not affect the core taste of the lobster. If someone wanted to eat lobster because they love the lobster itself, then I think the way that this was prepared is the best cooking method possible to achieve that goal.

The fourth course was roasted branzino with grilled zucchini, peppers, carrot, lemon confit, and pesto.

Similar to the lobster, this was prepared in a very simple and straightforward way that emphasized the natural flavor of the whitefish without having anything else alter or overwhelm it. The skin was cooked very well in the sense that it was a great balance of both chewy and crispy at the same time. Although not listed on the ingredient list, it also came with a slice of citrus that basically acted as a superior substitute for squeezing a bit of fresh lemon on the fish.

Because I don’t consume alcohol, I haven’t really had any high-end wine experiences, and the only things I know about wine come from observing others ordering and drinking wine. That was applicable during my Chef’s Table meal where I saw the usage of a centrifugal wine aerator for the first time, by our sommelier while he was serving the other guests.

He later explained that it was a decanter, though I’m wondering if that was just a language barrier, because I am fairly certain that is just an aerator (and yes, I do recognize the irony here of attempting to correct a sommelier, especially considering that I just disclosed my general lack of wine knowledge). He was using that tool to serve Sequoia Grove Winery’s Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley, California.

For the third installment of my non-alcoholic beverage pairing, I received a fruity pineapple smoothie.

The pineapple went along great with the fifth course, a grilled filet mignon with truffle potato purée, asparagus, and bordelaise sauce.

The waiter went around the table asking people their doneness preference for their steak. I ordered mine rare, and I am relieved to share that nobody at the table requested well-done. I was mindful to cut against the grain for each bite, and the steak was incredibly tender and flavorful.

I liked that there were two variants of the potato purée—one regular, and one with truffle. I especially liked the truffle potato purée because it had a more subtle and earthy truffle flavor (as opposed to a more greasy truffle taste that you find when people just use truffle oil for flavoring). I also noticed that the potato purée here was quite a bit firmer than what I usually get at high-end restaurants, which I actually found to be a good thing; I think that indicates that there is a higher ratio of potato to butter, which I personally prefer because I actually like potatoes.

I also appreciated that there were two additional tiers of textural enhancements. The vegetables were lightly boiled so they were softer but still maintained a good crunch, and it fulfilled the traditional “steak and veggies” archetype. However, the dish was also served with miniature potato chips, which added an unusual but fun extra crisp to some bites.

(The reason the sauce is not pictured in any of the photographs is because the chef came out after everyone received their plates and individually asked whether they wanted the sauce on the steak or in the moat, then served it to the diner’s preference.)

For the final drink of the night, everyone received a salted caramel espresso martini. Because mine was non-alcoholic, I guess it was just a salted caramel espresso coffee.

Dessert was the grand finale of the dinner. They call it the World, and it is a hollowed spherical chocolate orb with peanut butter ganache, Valrhona chocolate mousse, and salted caramel gelato, topped with warm caramel sauce. Surrounding the World were small pieces of caramel popcorn, strawberry, and mint.

For the presentation, the waiter goes to each plate and pours the warm caramel sauce on top so that it melts away the top shell of the chocolate sphere and reveals its inner contents.

This was the only dish of the dinner that I wasn’t able to finish. The inside of the World was delicious, but unfortunately, the chocolate outside was far too sweet. When I supplemented each bite of chocolate with the espresso, that helped balance out the intensity of the sweetness, but after I ran out of salted caramel espresso, I couldn’t down the rest of the chocolate shell.

During the dinner was also when they did special celebrations. One person across the table from me was celebrating his birthday, and a couple sitting to my right was celebrating their six-year wedding anniversary. They each got a little plate with caramel text hoping well wishes for their special occasion, along with a candle planted in an arrangement of strawberry, blackberry, mint, and whipped cream.

And with that, the Chef’s Table concluded. The overall experience took a bit over three hours. The waiter treated us to a quick magic trick to end the night, and then the chef came out from the kitchen to thank us all for our attendance.

This is what the other part of the dining area looked like, which would be the “back side” behind the photographs that I took. This might give a bit more perspective on how exclusive of an experience this was due to its secluded location and limited availability.

The room itself was nestled far in the rear of Chops Grille, an American steakhouse that is part of the specialty dining restaurant collection on the ship.

I had a great time at the Chef’s Table. I go to a lot of chef’s tasting menus and other special multi-course dining experiences, but in terms of atmosphere and environment, I think this Chef’s Table ended up being my all-time favorite.

A lot of omakase or other chef-led dining experiences will seat you at a bar so you have a view of the kitchen and can watch the chef and cooks prepare your food. If they don’t have bar seating available, each party generally gets their own private table. Royal Caribbean’s Chef’s Table is the first time that I have ever been seated at what is basically a residential dinner table that you would usually only share with your extended family for holiday meals.

This may potentially sound like an introvert’s nightmare, especially if that introvert is named Adam Parkzer and decided to go on the cruise by himself. However, I think the interactions and conversations with the other diners are what made this dinner so pleasant and memorable.

Except for the couple directly to my right who were in their mid-30s like I am, everyone else was an older person. They all seemed intrigued and fascinated by my ambitious nomadic lifestyle, especially because of how different it is compared to how they lived their 30s decades ago. Them wanting to learn more about me and my life served as a good conversation starter that carried on throughout the entire dinner.

With that being said, I think I also just got lucky with the people with whom I shared my Chef’s Table dinner slot. Everyone had a laid-back, relaxed, welcoming, and warm attitude that made the experience feel much more cozy and wholesome.

As for whether or not I would recommend the Chef’s Table, this may be shocking considering the fact that I just spent an entire blog post explaining why I loved it, but I actually would not recommend it for most cruisers. Keep in mind that it comes with an additional US$118.00 upcharge per person, so that can add up pretty quickly when you’ve already paid quite a bit for your ticket, and considering the fact that most of the other food options on the cruise are included in your fare. Furthermore, if you have young children, I would actually specifically request that you do not go to the Chef’s Table, because I think your child would feel sorely out of place, and the presence of children may spoil the experience for others.

With that being said, if money is not an issue and you want a high-class, elegant dining experience shared with like-minded strangers who enjoy a premium meal and great conversation, then the Chef’s Table would be a good fit for you. Even though everyone else in attendance came as a couple, I did not feel out-of-place as a solo diner. Furthermore, the waiter was engaged with us throughout the meal, so if you get unlucky and everyone else you end up getting grouped with is extra shy, then it seems like the waiter is trained to take initiative to get the conversation flowing as a backup.

I have one final cruise blog post coming up soon, in which I will share my overall concluding thoughts about the experience.

 

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January 2026 investment portfolio breakdown

by   •   Finance, Highlights
 

Disclaimer: I am not a registered investment advisor, and even if I was, I wouldn’t be your advisor. The information contained in this blog post is strictly anecdotal and should not be construed as financial advice. Everyone’s situation is uniquely different, so if you are seeking guidance, consult a licensed and certified professional for personalized assistance.

 
Another year, another investment portfolio breakdown. My overall investment strategy has remained consistent over time (i.e., dumping a majority of my money into very safe index funds), but compared to last year, there are still a handful of noticeable changes.

As a side note, I used to post updates every quarter, but as of the past few years, I have changed it to just doing annual breakdowns instead. When I did more frequent updates, I would build on previous blog posts and list those as prerequisite reading to supply the needed context, but after I lowered the frequency to once per year, I started writing them as standalone pieces. This means that you won’t have to go back and read an older blog post to understand what I’m talking about, but this also means that you might notice some repeated information here if you’ve read previous investment breakdowns.

 
Before I begin with the breakdown, I figured I would start with a quick story and a broader financial change that would not be apparent just from my categorical allocation breakdown.

On a random day, I received a phone call from someone claiming to be from Fidelity Investments, a financial services company I use as one of my brokerages. My immediate assumption was that it was a scammer trying to gain access to my Fidelity account by pretending to be an employee. Regardless, for my amusement, I still listened to what they had to say.

Rather than asking me for my address or social security number or any other personal information, the employee instead told me that he saw my Fidelity account and reached out to let me know that they have an investor center in Henderson of the Las Vegas Valley in Nevada, close to my home address. He wanted to invite me to stop by in-person for a visit at any time during business hours. That’s it.

I was now even more suspicious at this point, because obviously, the only thing more suspicious than a scammer is an actual real financial services employee trying to be genuinely helpful and welcoming. I thanked him for the call and let him know that I would stop by if I’m in the area or if I have any questions. Afterwards, I checked the phone number on the caller ID and confirmed that it did match up with that Fidelity branch.

Funny enough, this simple single phone call actually had a decent effect on me.

Historically, I only ever used Fidelity to manage my Health Savings Account, charitable giving account, and over-the-counter trades—all services that Vanguard did not offer. However, recently, I set up a regular individual brokerage account on Fidelity and started putting more money into it so I could split my assets more evenly between Vanguard and Fidelity as to serve as a form of risk mitigation in case I were to lose access to one of my accounts or get hacked.

The fact that there now seems to be a “human touch” on Fidelity’s end, with potentially an account manager with eyes on my portfolio, makes me quite a bit more willing to put more money into my Fidelity account while limiting my Vanguard account to just retirement contributions for now. That has been the strategy I’ve stuck with over the past year, so when I do security-by-security breakdowns in some of these categories, you might notice more Fidelity funds popping up.

 
With all that said, here is the percentage breakdown of how I distribute my money in my investment portfolio:

Cash

I have always said this, and I will continue to say it: I always prioritize time in the market over timing the market. As a result, I always encourage people to hold onto somewhere around 3-6 months’ worth of core living expenses, and then put the rest into investments right away, as soon as possible. It doesn’t always matter which investments you pick; the most important part is that you are not just holding it in deflating cash.

I personally err on the side of safety and lean closer to a buffer of six months’ worth of living expenses held in cash. Especially now with my company Tempo going through an uncertain and volatile financial period, I have been giving the company loans and delaying my personal compensation so that the corporation can have more working capital, so it is more important now than usual for me to have a cash buffer in my bank account.

(And in case you’re wondering, no, I did not just leak some exclusive insider information; because AVY Entertainment, Inc., d.b.a. Tempo had a Regulation CF offering, it has to file yearly Form C-ARs available for public viewing on the SEC’s website, so it is public knowledge by this point that our financial state is anything but stable.)

Most of the cash I hold as my emergency fund is inside a savings account at Discover Bank, which was recently acquired by Capital One. A limited amount of it is also inside my brokerage accounts’ settlement funds—Vanguard Federal Money Market Fund (VMFXX) on Vanguard and the Fidelity Government Money Market Fund (SPAXX) on Fidelity.

   1.408%

Domestic broad market index funds

Like usual, an overwhelming majority of my portfolio is still invested in domestic broad market index funds, a very boring but very safe category. Nothing much has changed here—I put little bits of money into interesting investments as I see the opportunities arise, but otherwise, the rest of my money goes into these index funds.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I bought a lot of Vanguard High Dividend Yield Index Fund Admiral Shares (VHYAX) to try and weather out the uncertainty of the market, as dividend funds were not as unpredictable as growth funds. Before and after the pandemic, I mainly bought Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Admiral Shares (VTSAX). As I mentioned above in the introduction, I haven’t been buying much Vanguard non-retirement funds and have been investing in Fidelity funds instead, so the shares of VHYAX and VTSAX I own are pretty old.

As for the new money I’ve been putting into domestic broad market index funds, it’s all been going into the Fidelity ZERO Total Market Index Fund (FZROX). One of the downsides of this Fidelity ZERO fund is that it is non-transferrable, so if I ever need to move this out to a different brokerage, I would have to have a gigantic taxable event to realize all my gains, as there are no in-kind securities at other brokerages. With that being said, I don’t foresee a major scenario where I would have to do that anytime soon, so that is a risk I was willing to take in exchange for the 0% expense ratio.

  43.056%

International broad market index funds

One of my main investment goals during 2025 was to invest more in the international market, and I definitely succeeded at that. During my end-of-2024 investment breakdown, I shared that my allocation in international broad market index funds was only just barely over 5%. Since then, I have doubled that to over 10%.

In 2025, I finished selling my entire position in Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund Admiral Shares (VTIAX) for the purposes of tax loss harvesting. After waiting out the wash sale period, I put all that money (and more) back into the international market via the Fidelity ZERO International Index Fund (FZILX). (And yes, a lot of resources have told me that VTIAX and FZILX likely do not count as substantially similar enough to trigger a wash sale, but I wasn’t in a rush and preferred to just be safe.)

Although I am happy with how much progress I’ve made towards shifting my domestic vs. international ratio in the direction I wanted, I still think I need more exposure to international markets relative to the amount of belief I have in international markets. Thus, throughout this year as well, I will continue investing more into FZILX while not putting as much into FZROX.

  10.078%

Bonds

Back during the COVID-19 pandemic, I purchased Series I Savings Bonds from the United States Department of the Treasury as a hedge against the rampant inflation that was happening as a result of the government printing an insane amount of new money. Although the returns aren’t as crazy right now, I remember the annual rates exceeding 9% during the peak of pandemic relief efforts.

I haven’t sold my Series I Savings Bonds yet because there is a penalty on the interest if you sell it when the bond is less than five years old. However, in case you haven’t been keeping track, it’s already 2026, so my bonds’ five-year maturity dates are either approaching very quickly or have already passed. This is going to be one of my upcoming projects—checking the exact dates when I purchased the bonds, then coming up with a plan on when to sell them and how to reinvest the proceeds.

Apart from that, I also finished selling my entire position in Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund Admiral Shares (VBTLX) in 2025 for tax loss harvesting. After (again, potentially unnecessarily) waiting out the wash sale period, I put that money back into bonds via the Fidelity US Bond Index Fund (FXNAX).

For now, I’m unsure how I’m going to proceed with regards to purchasing more bonds. I am getting older, but I’m still not that old. I would consider myself as having a medium risk tolerance, which is high enough that I don’t want to doomsday prep by pulling out of the stock market and dumping everything into bonds. I will think on this a bit more over the next year and report back during my next investment portfolio breakdown.

   5.127%

Target date funds

I split my target date funds off into a separate category because they are a combination package of different kinds of index funds and bonds that automatically adjust based on which target year you pick. For example, if you elect a fund for 2030, it means that you are retiring soon and need stability (i.e., bonds) in your portfolio; if you elect a fund for 2070, it means that you’re a recent addition to the workforce and won’t be retiring for a long time, so you need growth (i.e., stocks) in your portfolio.

Considering how active of an investor I am, it may be strange to see that I take advantage of these “set it and forget it” kind of funds in exchange for paying a higher expense ratio. The reason I do it is a form of diversification in the sense that, if I ever become incapacitated up to the point where I am no longer able to manage my investment portfolio anymore, target date funds end up being a hedge against my money still being in highly volatile funds at the time of my retirement and potentially tanking due to a neglectful absence of response to a falling market.

When I first started buying target date funds, I bought shares of the Vanguard Target Retirement 2060 Fund (VTTSX). Over time, I realized that I am doing quite well financially, so I foresaw an earlier retirement and put new money into the Vanguard Target Retirement 2055 Fund (VFFVX) instead. Then, with even more time passing, I realized that I am doing better financially than I would’ve ever imagined, so now I’ve been putting all new retirement money into the Vanguard Target Retirement 2050 Fund (VFIFX).

As of today, VFIFX is composed of 51.9% Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund Institutional Plus Shares (VSMPX), 37.7% Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund Investor Shares (VGTSX), 7.3% Vanguard Total Bond Market II Index Fund Investor Shares (VTBIX), and 3.1% Vanguard Total International Bond II Index Fund Institutional Shares (VTILX). The further-out VFFVX and VTTSX are both composed of 52.3% VSMPX, 38.1% VGTSX, 6.7% VTBIX, and 2.9% VTILX.

Note that I am only buying these inside my Roth IRA and SEP-IRA.

  22.253%

Real estate investment trusts (REITs)

I’m still keeping an eye out for good real estate purchase opportunities, but until something comes up, my only real estate exposure is through real estate investment trusts. Realistically, I foresee my first major real estate investment being an self-occupied property, but I’m having a great time being a nomad right now and not rushing to wrap up that chapter of my life yet. I can of course just become a landlord, but that comes with a lot of obligations and locks up a chunk of my capital that I could instead reserve as more liquid securities.

My position in Vanguard Real Estate Index Fund Admiral Shares (VGSLX) is still negative at the moment, so I’ve been selling it off little by little for tax loss harvesting and reinvesting it in other funds. For example, in early January 2026 when my tax-advantaged retirement account limits reset, I sold US$7,000.00 of VGSLX and did a Vanguard-to-Vanguard transfer into my Roth IRA account as a contribution, then purchased VFIFX with that balance.

I do still want to maintain real estate exposure though, so for whatever amount of VGSLX I sell, I end up buying a comparable amount of Fidelity Real Estate Index Fund (FSRNX) at some point in the future (after the wash sale period). In the further future where I finally jump on a property purchase opportunity, I will likely sell my REITs (to whatever extent is reasonable in a capital gains tax sense) and apply it towards a down payment on my mortgage.

   4.482%

Individual stocks and private companies

I had a phase during the COVID-19 pandemic during which I had a lot of fun trading individual stocks, but since then, that interest has faded. As of today, I only own individual stocks in Marriott International, Inc. (MAR), T-Mobile US, Inc. (TMUS), and TKO Group Holdings, Inc. (TKO).

Most notably, I finally sold off my position in Nxu, Inc. (NXU). For those missing the lore, I contributed US$564.80 during one of Atlis Motor Vehicles’ early funding rounds because I thought their electric pickup trucks seemed cool. Since then, the company became an absolute disaster, rebranded, and was fighting a constant struggle against being delisted because their stock price tanked so much. After holding on for a long time, I eventually gave up and sold my ownership for US$0.92, resulting in an overall loss of US$563.88.

For my next individual stock purchase, I’m looking at companies that give discounts or other perks to shareholders. For example, I learned that some cruise lines like Royal Caribbean International will give on-board credits to cruisers who own 100 shares of Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. (RCL). Beyond travel, I also found out that companies like Ford offer special X-Plan Partner Pricing to people who own 100 shares of Ford Motor Company (F). A hundred shares of RCL is a commitment of over US$30,000.00 as of today, so that is something I would only buy if RCL completely crashes, but 100 shares of F is only a little over a thousand dollars, which I think is very manageable and could be useful if I ever end up wanting to buy a Ford or Lincoln vehicle later.

As a side note, I am not including my equity ownership of AVY Entertainment, Inc., d.b.a. Tempo in this portfolio breakdown, not only because it is a private company and pinpointing an accurate and up-to-date valuation is relatively tricky, but also because my ownership in the company is large enough that it would probably skew this breakdown and make it less useful from the general public’s perspective.

   2.416%

Debt instruments

New as of 2025, I diversified my portfolio even more by investing into debt instruments. In simpler terms, I have basically become a lender for people’s loans. Of course, I’m not going out there and literally letting people borrow money; instead, I purchased shares of the Fidelity Investment Grade Securitized ETF (FSEC).

I’ve noticed that people are borrowing a lot of money. After hearing stories that my friends in Los Angeles tell me, it seems like everyone is just buried in debt because they want to pretend like they’re rich and show off to their friends, and people are basically drowning under uncontrollable waves of interest payments. I’ve also noticed the rise of easy-approval “buy now, pay later” platforms that give out no-friction micro-loans for basic, day-to-day purchases that facilitate people going deeper into debt.

I think this is a problem, and I would like educational institutions to teach students more about personal finance so that people do not fall into these debt traps. With that being said, I’m also not going to simply pass on this category of investment. Although FSEC isn’t going to hold a substantial percentage of volatile short-term loans per se, it is still a way for me to try and make some profit from the lending industry.

   0.428%

Cryptocurrency

My cryptocurrency holdings are just as volatile as ever. As I write this, I am looking at the price of Bitcoin that has fallen to lows that have not been seen since April of last year. Fortunately, my cryptocurrency investment started as basically a gambling fund, and in the big-picture scope of things, I still have gargantuan returns from cryptocurrency.

I still have a little bit of cryptocurrency self-custodied in a cold hardware wallet, but my holdings are primarily in the form of the Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund (GDLC), Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (GBTC), Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF (BTC), Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund (BITW), Bitwise Trendwise Bitcoin and Treasuries Rotation Strategy ETF (BITC), and ProShares Bitcoin ETF (BITO). As you can see, even within cryptocurrency, my holdings are decently diversified—I have exposure to Bitcoin, Bitcoin futures, and other smaller coins.

Although holding as much of my cryptocurrency as possible as actual tokens in my personal wallet is the most cost-efficient in terms of avoiding management fees, I still have all these in a traditional brokerage for two main reasons. The first is because I have a substantial amount of unrealized gains on my holdings, and selling all this off to repurchase it as actual coins would trigger a huge taxable event. The second is that most people still don’t know how to manage hardware wallets, so if I ever become incapacitated to the point where someone else has to manage my portfolio, I can rest easy that that’s easy to do on Fidelity, as opposed to my caretaker needing to fiddle around with what is basically a little USB drive.

   7.796%

International currency

As part of my efforts to increase my exposure to international investments, I also started purchasing international currency trusts alongside the aforementioned international broad market index funds. I started dabbling in currency in 2024, then expanded my holdings during 2025.

Right now, I own some shares in each of the Invesco CurrencyShares Euro Trust (FXE), Invesco CurrencyShares Japanese Yen Trust (FXY), Invesco CurrencyShares British Pound Sterling Trust (FXB), and Invesco CurrencyShares Australian Dollar Trust (FXA). There wasn’t really a whole lot of research or a solid foundational methodology behind selecting those currencies in particular; they just sounded familiar enough to me that I bought some. I didn’t feel the need to put a particularly deep amount of thought into it, considering that this only composes a very small percentage of my portfolio.

   1.657%

Precious metals

During the COVID-19 pandemic when I wanted to diversify my portfolio and invest in assets that could hedge against the volatile and crashing market, I bought some shares of Fidelity Select Gold Portfolio (FSAGX) and let it sit in my Fidelity brokerage account without thinking much about it.

Since then, I got some more motivation to look into investing in precious metals, only to discover that FSAGX technically counts as gold exposure, but isn’t quite as gold as it can get. I do have a vague memory of having wanted to invest in actual gold back in 2020 and 2021; I remember buying FSAGX because I wanted it to be a substitute to buying literal gold bars or gold nuggets and storing them in my closet. Thus, I technically made a mistake by investing in a precious metals mining and processing fund instead. Once I had that realization, my thirst for knowledge kicked in and I started doing more research.

I ultimately decided on selling my position in FSAGX and buying SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) instead. Unlike FSAGX, GLD actually holds physical gold bars, even though the shareholder ownership is structured as a paper proxy. As an individual retail investor, I can’t exactly “cash in” my shares of GLD in exchange for the aforementioned gold bars, but for my purposes, it seemed like the most reasonable and reliable way to get exposure to the price of physical gold.

FSAGX and GLD are not substantially identical securities, so I did not have to wait for any wash sale periods; the instant I sold FSAGX, I used that money to buy GLD. I’m glad I did, because gold has been skyrocketing throughout 2025, and my decision to buy exposure to gold has been quite a wise financial decision.

   1.053%

Fine art, and other collectibles

In 2022, I participated in StartEngine Collectibles Fund I, LLC’s Regulation A+ offering as a way to gain exposure to fine art and collectibles. Since then, StartEngine has been horrible to work with, and there has been little to no movement or development in their collectibles department. Even just holding onto this investment is just an administrative burden at this point.

I may subject this to the same fate as my shares in Nxu, Inc. (i.e., liquidating them entirely), but until I make that decision and work on executing the logistics of it, I guess this will just sit here collecting dust.

   0.246%

That concludes another investment portfolio breakdown, as well as an overview of what I’ve been up to investment-wise over the past year. If all goes as planned, I’ll see you again in early 2027 with some more juicy financial updates.

 

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Hello, All Nippon Airways flight 6 from Narita to Los Angeles

by   •   Flights, Highlights
 

For the past two and a half weeks, I have been blogging daily about my visit to Tokyo, Japan to share my thoughts and photographs from various activities I did during my trip.

In case you missed the context of it, I decided to go to Japan because I had some friends I trust who were also going to be in Japan during some of the days that overlapped with my itinerary, so even though I was basically going on a solo trip, I wouldn’t entirely be alone because I would have people to meet up with on a case-by-case basis upon my arrival.

I had a chance to travel under this structure before, but I opted not to do so because I wasn’t sure I could go to a country that doesn’t speak English and be able to get the most out of my vacation. However, after going to Vietnam and having the trip turn out to be a success, I had more confidence to go to Japan and manage just fine on my own. Thus, I seized this opportunity.

If you haven’t been keeping up with my blog since late November, you’re in luck—with this blog post being the concluding post of the “Japan series,” I figured I’d give a preliminary table of contents here in case you want to do some chronological reading prior to this blog post about my flight back to the United States.

(Just to clarify, this is chronological on the basis of when I published the blog posts; I didn’t necessarily do the tourist activities in this order, and I sometimes scrambled up the ordering intentionally so that there would be more variety in the flow of blog posts, e.g., so there wouldn’t be back-to-back museums or back-to-back parks.)

The final verdict from the trip is that I loved it. Tokyo quickly became my second favorite city of all time, only losing first place to Las Vegas, which is literally the city I voluntarily picked as my home and isn’t really a fair comparison.

Everything just makes sense in Tokyo. I love going outside and walking around in big cities, and I like being able to blend in with a crowd and feel like I am just one regular person who is a component of a larger, bustling society. With that perspective in mind, I’m sure it’s easy to tell why I call Las Vegas home and why I decided to live on the Las Vegas Strip. Tokyo reminds me a lot of the Las Vegas Strip, but instead of being composed of degenerate drunk gamblers, Tokyo gives off a well-educated and professional vibe.

All of Tokyo feels highly efficient and optimized. The culture emphasizes the importance of not causing a disruption to others, so you can generally go about your life uninterrupted and gain full benefits from the various systems that are put into place. For example, the public transit system is highly reliable and makes it very easy to get around without a vehicle. Everything is highly intuitive and orderly, so as long as you’re paying attention, you should generally be able to pick up on things and fit in fairly easily.

Everyone I met in Japan was very kind and considerate. Being of Korean ethnicity, I was always told growing up that Japan is supposed to be my “enemy” because of the two countries’ past history, and I was always warned how Japanese people would be racist against me. I’m not necessarily trying dismiss the struggles and hardships that older Korean people faced, but on this trip, I personally found out first-hand that all the Korean people in my life were horrifically wrong about Japan. Although I am thoroughly an American, I am still visually Korean; even then, every single Japanese person I encountered was still very welcoming and respectful.

The food literally everywhere in Japan is just categorically better than the food in the United States. I’m sure a lot of it just has to do with personal preferences, especially considering that Japanese is my favorite cuisine, but even the worst possible food in Japan was above average to American standards, and the average in Japan was on par with some of the best restaurants I’ve been to in the United States. One of my friends who was with me in Japan said that one of her favorite snacks in Japan is to get an egg sandwich and freshly-heated chicken filet from 7-Eleven and combine the two; I tried this, and it was quite literally better than any chicken sandwich I remember ever having in the United States.

Within days of arriving in Tokyo, I was already looking up long-term housing options for my next trip. Because of my loyalty to Marriott, I stayed at the AC Hotel Ginza this time around, but that ended up being pretty pricey. I was willing to spend the extra money because I felt like I would be able to rely on the staff in case something went wrong, but then I realized that I can basically rely on literally anyone in Japan because of how willing everyone is to help out someone in need. I am looking forward to my next visit to Tokyo, and the next time I go, I’m hoping I can find a good serviced apartment so I can stay for longer without having to check out with a very expensive lodging bill.

 
So with that trip summary out of the way, here is an overview of the flight I took back to the United States. I opted for All Nippon Airways flight 6, cross-listed as United Airlines flight 7946, from Narita International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport.

As a side note, I intentionally booked two different airlines of the same alliance—United Airlines on the way out and All Nippon Airways on the way back—so I could experience two different long-haul business class flights serviced by two different carriers. I flew in and out of Narita International Airport because flights to Haneda International Airport were more expensive enough that it wasn’t worth the time savings on the shorter train ride. I flew from and to Los Angeles International Airport because Harry Reid International Airport back at home didn’t have any non-stops to Tokyo.

On the way to Narita International Airport, the timing didn’t quite work out for me to take the Keisei Narita Skyaccess line back to the airport like I took on my way to Ginza, so I instead rode the Asakusa line, which became the Keisei line. Although it took about half an hour longer, I’m glad I got the experience, because this line went through and had stops in the less populated areas between Tokyo and Narita, so I got a glimpse at what “country life” is like in Japan.

Upon arrival, I had a smooth entry into the airport. The lines at both immigration and security were short and quick, and I cleared both without incident.

After arriving at Satellite 5 of Terminal 1, I found an escalator to the upper floor with the airline lounges.

As part of my ticket, I was able to enjoy the ANA Lounge prior to departure. It wasn’t too busy when I arrived, though it did fill up pretty quickly over the next couple hours.

In addition to a standard buffet area that you’d expect to see in an airport lounge, the ANA Lounge also had a noodle bar. I ordered a nice, warm bowl of ramen.

After eating a decent amount of food and getting a good chunk of work done in the lounge, my departure time was approaching, so I headed down to my boarding gate.

After a short additional wait for the pre-boarding passengers, I was able to embark our Boeing 787-9.

Unfortunately, this plane had the older staggered configuration, so I wasn’t able to try ANA’s new The Room seats. If I wanted to fly in The Room, I would’ve had to take a layover in San Francisco first and pay a higher fare on the ticket. Even though I visited and spent time with friends in Los Angeles prior to my departure, it still technically counted as a “layover” from Las Vegas; I didn’t want to then take yet again another layover before flying across the ocean, so I just settled with the staggered business class seats.

With that being said, I was able to secure what is, in my opinion, the best seat of the aircraft: 13K. This seat is the last row of the business class cabin, so it has the most privacy, as nobody is behind you staring at the back of your head. Excluding during takeoff and landing, there is a curtain that blocks the pathway to the premium economy cabin, which adds to the privacy. This segment of the cabin only has six rows of seats, while the front segment has seven, which means there are fewer passengers in this cluster, thus adding to the feeling of peace.

The seat itself is an “inside” seat, meaning the table separates the seat from the aisle; these configurations alternate, so an even-numbered row would have the seat closer to the aisle, creating less distance from those walking by. It is situated on top of the wings for a more stable ride, and it is close to the engines so the engine noise can act as white noise and drown out any potential disruptive passengers. Some people say they don’t like the wing acting as an obstruction in their photographs, but I don’t mind; in fact, I personally like having the wing there, because I take horizontal photos, so I think the wing just adds an artistic element to the picture.

Here is what the rest of the cabin looks like. From this wide shot, you can tell what I mean by a seat being an “inside” seat, and how the seats and tables alternate depending on what row you’re in.

After boarding the flight and settling in, I took out my laptop and squeezed in even more work; I had been spending a lot of time out and about being a tourist, and I hadn’t been getting as much work done as I wanted to over the prior two weeks, so I had a decent chunk to catch up on.

After about half an hour, the boarding process was complete and I stowed my laptop away in the overhead bin to prepare for take-off. During that time, the sun had set and it was already pretty dark outside.

I was not aware of this, but I found out that ANA has a partnership with Pokémon and integrates Pokémon’s intellectual property into their safety videos. This was fun to see, as Pokémon is one of the franchises that I’m actually pretty familiar with because I grew up playing early-generation Pokémon games and watching the cartoons.

As part of the safety video, there was a note about how, if an emergency evacuation ever becomes necessary, photography is prohibited during the process. It might not necessarily be the case this instance, but really specific warnings or rules like this are often rooted in real-life events. It amuses me to think that there is technically a non-zero chance that someone forgot to get off the plane in an emergency because they were too busy taking pictures of everyone else deplaning instead.

After getting airborne, we received our amuse-bouche—pastrami chicken, cheese, and olive in a bowl, accompanied by two black sesame and walnut pistachio sticks. For my beverage, I ordered ANA’s original aromatic kabosu drink.

While waiting for meal service to begin, I also ordered a cup of ANA’s original Shizuoka-cha green tea matcha blend.

After a little while, the first dish of meal service was served—the “selection of morsels.” This consisted of barracuda sushi, herring sushi, vinegar-pickled ginger, fig with sesame cream, and smoked scallop.

Next was the first of two tidbits, marinated grilled mackerel in soy-based sauce with eggplant, green onion, and chili pepper.

The second tidbit was savory steamed egg custard with snow crab meat.

For my beverage to go along with my meal, I ordered some sugar-free cola. They brought out a regular Pepsi rather than a Diet Pepsi or Pepsi Max, which wasn’t to my preference, but wasn’t that big of a deal. The design on the can was unique and did not resemble anything I had seen in the United States before.

Afterwards was the main entrée, beef sukiyaki, served with a side of steamed rice, miso soup, and Japanese pickles.

For dessert, we had three options, two of which included a cheese plate or a fruit bowl. The one I decided on was chestnut mousse with cream and coffee jelly. This also came with a small square of white chocolate.

Although the portion sizes were relatively small, it still ended up being a fairly hearty-feeling meal considering how much food I had already eaten at the lounge. After relaxing for a bit and letting my stomach digest, I got tired enough to lean back and go to sleep for the night.

… Or so I thought.

Usually, long-haul flights will wake you up with about two hours left to go so that they can serve breakfast before landing. However, for some reason, this flight woke me up with a little over three hours prior to arrival. I technically could’ve just kept sleeping, but the cabin lights illuminating and the flight attendants moving around was enough of a distraction that I couldn’t stay asleep.

Eventually, the pilot made an announcement that the second meal service will be beginning earlier than normal due to some expected turbulence coming up about an hour before landing. Reasonably, they didn’t want a bunch of plates, cups, and silverware out on the tables during rough air. Although grumpy from early rising, the rationale was reasonable, so I switched my seat from bed mode to relax mode and waited for breakfast.

My meal this time came out all at once, instead of as separate courses. For breakfast, my main dish was grilled salmon with sake lees and steamed rice with a side of steamed chicken and marinated mizuna greens in sesame sauce, miso soup, and Japanese pickles.

In addition to some plain water, my flight attendant also brought me ANA’s original “Coffee Journal in the Sky.” I’m not enough of an enthusiast to know whether or not this was any special kind of coffee, but I did appreciate that I was able to try all of ANA’s signature beverages on the flight.

For the sake of getting some more value out of my flight, I asked for a second breakfast—negi miso ramen from Megumino, Hokkaido. This was a special soup blend containing medium-thick noodles, onions, sesame paste, and ginger. It was served warm and not hot, so I was able to enjoy it without worrying too much about temperature. This was filling and rounded out my breakfast well.

After finishing all my food, I reclined back and waited for the severe turbulence to begin.

… It never came.

Better safe than sorry though, I guess.

After about nine hours, we made it to Los Angeles airspace. Our runway was longitudinal going westbound, so we had to fly east out to the San Gabriel Valley first before looping around back to LAX. This allowed me to get a nice view of downtown Los Angeles during our descent.

After just shy of nine and a half hours of travel time, we pulled into our gate.

While the aircraft was preparing to deplane, an arrival video played on the screens, and I was welcomed back home to the United States by Pikachu.

After a very brief wait, I deplaned to the familiar sight of the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport.

I don’t know if this observation was exacerbated by having just arrived from a country that is so accommodating as Japan, but I began seeing Terminal B at LAX with a different perspective and noticed how tricky it might be to foreigners. I noticed that everything was written in only English, which I found to be comparable to if I had landed in Japan and all the signs were in only Japanese. That would’ve obviously been a tremendous struggle for me, which implies that foreign tourists entering the United States are actually facing that struggle as a very real scenario.

I’m enrolled in Global Entry, which is a very convenient service for United States citizens that allows me to re-enter the country very quickly by just looking at a few identity-verifying cameras and walking through without any questioning. This is only for people who have enrolled in the service, passed a background check, and attended an in-person interview.

Unfortunately, non-English-speaking foreigners who had stood in the same line as me were getting rejected at the checkpoint over and over again, presumably because they were following everyone else around them and ended up in the wrong line without even realizing it. If having a bunch of common translations is not feasible, then I think it would still be nice to at least have some visual representation on where people are supposed to go upon arrival, e.g., mark the Global Entry line with a gigantic American flag, and then put a sign next to it with a picture of a bunch of different flags of other large countries across the world and draw an arrow to the other checkpoint.

I fly with only a carry-on bag, so I didn’t have to wait for luggage. This meant I was able to get off the plane and make it outside in a matter of only several minutes.

I like walking and getting blood circulation back in my legs after a flight, so I walked around half a mile from Terminal B to the end of Terminal 7 and called rideshare service to whisk me away from the airport. As a secondary reason, I like getting picked up at Terminal 7 instead of Terminal B so that I don’t have to sit in the car in traffic in the LAX horseshoe, and my driver can just take the East Way shortcut from Terminal 1 to Terminal 6 to come get me instead, upon which we can immediately leave airport property and be on our way.

I don’t think I have much more to add beyond the general overview I gave at the top of this blog post, in addition to the various thoughts and comments I shared throughout my 16 previous blog posts. I am very glad I decided to take this trip to Tokyo, and I will definitely be taking such an opportunity again if something comparable were to ever arise in the future.

In addition to revisiting Japan, I have two more countries on my near-future “want to go” list: Singapore and Taiwan. For a long time, Antarctica was the only place outside of the United States that I really wanted to visit, but with these successful Vietnam and Japan trips, I am much more inclined to expand my tourism into more areas of Asia.

 

—§—

 

Hello, EVA Air flights 398 and 12 from Hanoi to Taoyuan to Los Angeles

by   •   Flights, Highlights
 

My time in Hà Nội, Việt Nam has come to an end. I gave some more context about the trip in my blog post reviewing my EVA Air flights outbound from Los Angeles to Hanoi, but long story short, this was a good opportunity for me to go be a tourist in Asia for the first time while also overlapping it with checking out “Catch the Cash” by PK Gaming, the very first community-run in-person esports event for my company Tempo’s video game The Bazaar.

I’ve published several blog posts during my trip showing some of what I’ve been doing—learning about Vietnamese history at the Ho Chi Minh Museum, petting animals at the Baby Elephant Animal Park, looking at art in the Vincom Center for Contemporary Art, immersing myself in the lights of the HLC Starry Sky Art Museum, walking around inside the Vincom Mega Mall Royal City, and taking a serene stroll through the JW Marriott Lakeside Gardens, to name a handful. I also did some general sightseeing in the Ba Đình and West Lake Districts of Hanoi.

Although I’m usually a spontaneous and unstructured one-way flight kind of traveler, I booked a round-trip flight for this itinerary, not only because my Vietnamese travel visa prompted me for return flight details, but also because international round-trips end up algorithmically costing materially less than the identical flights booked as two one-ways. Because of that, I had my flights out of Hanoi already set—EVA Air flight 398 from Nội Bài International Airport in Hanoi to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport servicing the Greater Taipei Area, and then EVA Air flight 12 from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport—the exact mirror flights that I took on my way to Hanoi.

Thanks to the concierge team at the JW Marriott Hotel Hanoi, I had a transport car waiting for me the morning of my day of departure. I had generally just used Grab to call rideshare services throughout my stay in Hanoi, but I figured I wanted to be extra safe in case there were issues with Grab (I had read some horror stories online of people trying to call a ride but having drivers chain-cancel on them), so that I wouldn’t miss my flight, be stranded in Vietnam, and accidentally overstay my visa. After about 40 minutes, we made it to Nội Bài International Airport and I was dropped off at departures.

After a very smooth, quick, and uneventful check-in and security process, I walked into the terminal and went upstairs to enter the SH Premium Lounge. Apparently the “SH” used to stand for Sông Hồng, which means “Red River” in Vietnamese, but at some point, they changed it to stand for “Service from the Heart” instead. … I think I like Sông Hồng better.

As boarding time approached and I was about to leave the lounge, I saw a sign by the exit saying that EVA Air flight 398 was delayed by about an hour. However, when I checked the EVA Air website, there was no such update posted online. In my paranoid fear of somehow missing my flight and being stranded in Vietnam on a visa expiring that same day, I still made my way downstairs to the gate to make absolute certain that I would not be left behind. Once I got there, I was able to confirm that my flight was indeed delayed.

To apologize for the delay, a staff member brought over a ton of complementary meal kits to distribute to the affected passengers. I had just finished eating a meal and a half’s worth of free food at the airport lounge, so I passed on the meal and just accepted a bottle of water, in hopes that a different, extra hungry person would be able to take two meals instead. In my past decade of very frequent travel, I have never seen a United States airline do this, so it was a very pleasant surprise seeing this gesture from EVA Air.

The delay was extended by a bit and I ended up having to wait at the gate for about an hour and a half, but eventually, our Boeing 777-300ER aircraft arrived and was ready for boarding.

I mentioned this in the blog post that I wrote about my outbound flight, but I feel the need to mention this again. Yes, I flew business class for these flights. However, I paid out-of-pocket for my business class ticket. Even though I went to an event related to Tempo, I am not going on luxury trips and expensing the cost of them to Tempo. The company’s revenue is being reinvested back into further development of The Bazaar.

I settled into seat 11K in the final row of the business class cabin, which I selected because I think that it’s the seat that gives the most peace and privacy.

Because this was a relatively shorter flight, meal service started relatively promptly. As my hors d’oeuvre, I received a smoked duck, fruit, and vegetable salad.

For my main entrée, I opted for wok-fried Nile perch topped with crispy garlic and capsicums prepared Hong Kong style, with a side of rice and vegetables.

I picked two beverages to go along with my meal. From their mocktail menu, I ordered a non-alcoholic Amber Dream, made from apple juice, ginger ale, and cranberry juice. I also got a glass of Vigor Dong Shih (VDS) mixed carrot and fruit juice.

One thing I liked about Vietnam was that their juice selection includes a lot of options that are not available in the United States. I was glad to see that the trend continued into Taiwan; this carrot and fruit juice was probably one of the best juices I’ve ever had.

As a palate cleanser after my fish entrée, I received a cup of fresh fruit.

Finally, for dessert, the flight attendants distributed chocolate apricot cake.

After finishing my meal, I put in my earbuds so I could listen to music and relax for the remainder of the flight.

After a little over two and a half hours of travel time, we arrived at our gate at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.

Because this is the same airport in which I had my previous layover, I was more familiar with the layout and didn’t walk around aimlessly in circles this time. I went straight upstairs to the lounge area, passing by the Oriental Club Lounge that I was previously in on my way to Hanoi. To be clear, there was nothing bad about the Oriental Club Lounge; I just wanted to try a different lounge this time to expand the breadth of my experiences.

Because my flight from Hanoi to Taoyuan was delayed, my layover wasn’t quite as long as it would have been, but I still had about an hour to relax and get some snacks in the EVA Air: The Infinity lounge.

With about half an hour to spare before departure, I made my way downstairs to the gate. After a smooth and uneventful boarding process, I sat down in seat 11A, again in the last row of the business class cabin.

The sun had already set over an hour prior to the departure of this flight; it was on the tail end of astronomical twilight, and was already pretty dark outside. Presumably to match the outdoors, the cabin lights were dimmed for takeoff, showing the sparkling ceiling lights resembling a starry night sky.

For my meal, I picked the “celebrity chef’s banquet,” a multi-course tasting menu designed by Wen-Kuang Hsu, an executive chef with a Michelin guide recommendation.

The prelude came with two small bites: a spicy sausage and mushroom tomato tart, and smoked salmon with avocado mousse.

The starter consisted of lotus root and okra with Sichuan pepper sauce, scallop and vegetables with passion fruit sauce, and Chaozhou-style crab aspic.

Next up was chicken soup with apple, dried scallop, and white jelly ear.

The first of the main course was braised abalone with shiitake mushroom in soy and oyster sauce.

The second plate of the main course was steamed lotus leaf rice with braised pork belly and preserved mustard greens.

For the sweets course (which is different than dessert), I was served a sakura blossom encased in Aiyu jelly.

And finally, for dessert, I got some ice cream. The menu said that this was Häagen-Dazs, but it was served in its own miniature glass bowl, so I guess I technically can’t fully confirm what brand it was.

After this hearty and filling meal, I reclined back in my lie-flat seat, replied to some emails and messages (because, by this point, it was already the morning in the Pacific time zone and people were waking up in the United States), and got a solid seven and a half hours of surprisingly restful sleep.

As I was about to complete my eighth hour of sleep, the cabin lights gently illuminated with an orange, red, and blue hue of colors that I imagine were designed to emulate a natural sunrise. This was actually quite pleasant, and I appreciated EVA Air’s nice touch to try and encourage passengers’ bodies to find a new circadian rhythm for the new continent.

To help me wake up, my flight attendant delivered a caffè latte with a crystallized brown sugar stick. I don’t get affected by caffeine so this didn’t quite work as she intended, but I was already pretty well-rested from my session of sleep anyway, and it was a nice warm beverage to sip on while meal service was being prepared.

For breakfast, I was served Chinese plain congee with wok-fried diced chicken and cashew nuts, green bean frittata, and other traditional delicatessens.

To wrap up my meal, I was served a plate of fresh fruit.

After about twelve and a half hours, we approached Los Angeles County. We were approaching eastbound, but our runway faced westbound, so we did a loop around the airport first; during the loop out, I looked out my window and snapped a photograph of the Sawtelle, Westwood, and Century City areas.

We landed about half an hour later than scheduled due to the flight path we had to take over the Pacific Ocean, but I obviously didn’t mind the delay, considering the relative comfort of business class seats.

Overall, I’d consider my trip to Vietnam to be pretty successful. I had originally been hesitant to travel by myself to a country where English is not spoken as the primary language. However, things went a lot more smoothly than I expected, and the language barrier didn’t really cause much of an issue. All the staff in my hotel spoke English, which obviously made things easier, but another major factor that helped a lot was just the advancement of technology. With mobile apps for rideshare and translation, I felt like I was able to handle pretty much any situation, albeit with a little bit of patience.

I had been eyeing a trip to Japan and Singapore at some point in the future, but I did not seize my latest opportunity to go to Japan because I wanted to wait until I was able to travel together with someone reliable, and preferably someone who spoke at least some amount of Japanese, who I could depend on if something were to go wrong. However, considering how well my solo trip to Vietnam went, basically all of my reservations have been relieved and I am far more inclined to take more spontaneous international trips now.

And with that, here is my updated travel map:

I made this map somewhere around a decade ago now, and as you can probably clearly tell, it was designed specifically to keep track of how many states I’ve been to in my home country of the United States of America. I obviously need to update this framework at some point, but until I find a chance to do that, I guess this will have to suffice.

 

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Hello, “The Bazaar: Catch the Cash,” a tournament by PK Gaming in Hanoi, Vietnam

by   •   Face, Games, Highlights, Tempo
 

I already mentioned this in my blog post reviewing my flights on EVA Air from Los Angeles to Hanoi, but one of the major reasons I decided to travel to Hà Nội, Việt Nam was because my company Tempo’s game The Bazaar was having its very first community-run in-person esports event at PK Gaming Ngoại Giao Đoàn. This event happened earlier today (or yesterday, if you convert Hà Nội’s local time zone to my home time zone in Las Vegas).

As you probably expected, while I was in attendance, I took a lot of photographs.

The entryway to the gaming café had a banner advertising the tournament, which invited competitors to wander the bazaar in a paid event with a total cash prize pool of US$750.00.

The interior also had a banner, this one being significantly taller and larger.

Tempo’s Lead of People and Culture was also in attendance, and he was responsible for bringing over a bunch of prizes for the competitors.

There were some embroidered hoodies…

… some specially-branded mousepads in partnership with PK Gaming…

… and the grand prize trophy, a Founder’s Edition collectible statue of Dooley, one of the characters from The Bazaar.

I showed up pretty early, so while the venue was still almost empty, I had an opportunity to walk around and explore the rest of the gaming café.

As the players started trickling in, some of them got set up on the computers in the competition area and started warming up.

After everyone found their way to the café, the tournament started with a small opening ceremony by the casters.

Once all the rules were explained, the players took their positions and started playing.

The event was live streamed on Tempo’s Twitch channel from the “Alaska Zone” streaming booths.

This is a shot I got of the person who eventually went on to win the entire tournament.

As a reminder, I work solely on the corporate side of Tempo and have no involvement in game design or game development pretty much whatsoever, to the extent that I have literally never even played a single game of The Bazaar. It was an amusing experience going around and looking at people’s screens, only to be completely clueless as to what’s actually happening in the game.

The main stage of the gaming café was used to play the live stream for in-person spectators.

One of the spectators, of course, was the Dooley statue.

Once in a while, players would be brought into the casting booth after finishing a round so that they could get interviewed about their most recent game.

The tournament was going on for longer than I expected, so I decided to order some food from the on-site kitchen.

Their menu was in Vietnamese, and I couldn’t understand what their entrée options were, so I just went with the recommendation of one of the staff members at the gaming café. I ended up with some grilled chicken, vegetables, and white rice. This actually ended up being pretty unexpectedly delicious.

A handful of hours into the tournament, we were approaching the end, with only a couple players left needing to finish their final run.

I believe some people left early, but those who wanted to stick around gathered around the stage area to watch the final moments of gameplay.

Upon the conclusion of the tournament, the winner was crowned, and he received his limited edition Dooley statue.

In addition to the trophy, both the first place winner and the runner-ups received an envelope containing their cash prizes, and pretty much all participants got some form of consolation prize, be it a set of earbuds, a desk mat, or apparel.

After all the prizes were distributed, the casters gave their closing speech.

The tournament organizers hired an actual, professional photographer to take pictures throughout the event. I’m not sure what his name is so I can’t give proper credit at the moment, but I found these on PK Gaming Ngoại Giao Đoàn’s Facebook page in the Cộng Đồng The Bazaar group.

He captured this shot of me helping set some of the technical specifications of the live stream software to ensure a smooth broadcast…

… as well as this shot of me joining the casting booth for a little bit while the Vietnamese caster was busy helping tally up the final results.

Here’s a screenshot taken of the live broadcast from the short period during which I was filling in for one of the casters.

It is very amusing (and quite difficult) trying to be a commentator for a game that you’ve literally never personally played before and hardly even know the mechanics for. The other caster next to me hard carried both the play-by-play and color commentary, while I mainly contributed by telling stories of Tempo’s past and how The Bazaar came to become what it is today.

Before parting ways, we took a group photograph with everyone who stayed until the end of the event.

During my time at Tempo, I’ve been a member of the production teams behind a decent number of live events, so this one wasn’t particularly special for me. However, I could tell that everyone else in attendance was very excited for it, which was nice.

I went into this thinking the turnout would be in the low multi-hundreds. I didn’t know how or from where I established that expectation, but as you can see from the photographs, there were nowhere near even a single hundred competitors. With that being said, I might just be used to running events taking place in larger cities for more well-known games, and it’s possible that the turnout for “Catch the Cash” was still considered a success given the circumstances.

I thought the gaming café was decent and comparable in quality to some of the smaller and lower-budget gaming cafés you might find scattered throughout less populus areas of the United States. The food, though, was incredible. I found the chef and the literal full-blown kitchen to be amazing and comparable in quality to a very good street food vendor or a small family-owned restaurant that focuses on replicating authentic flavors derived from their local cuisines. I had two meals there—one on tournament day and one on the day prior during a walk-through preview—and both entrées were delicious.

With that being said, I had a persistent headache and an overall miserable time being in PK Gaming’s facility due to the smoking room.

Cigarette smoking is far more common in Việt Nam than it is in the United States. It is also far more socially and culturally accepted, so this gaming café had a designated smoking room indoors, directly in the center of the café. The smoking room had a door, but every time someone opened the door to go in or out, waves of cigarette smoke would escape and spread throughout the rest of the building.

As long as there’s good ventilation, it’s fine, right? Well, from what I could tell, it felt like they had no ventilation. They had fans running everywhere, so the cigarette smoke would expeditiously get blown around into all corners of the building to make sure everyone would smell it, while none of it got sucked up into the vents to be exchanged with fresh outdoor air.

Marinating in cigarette smoke for about 7 hours was horrific, and that alone was single-handedly enough to make me hate the entire thing. It is insane to me that everyone who showed up to compete had to be subjected to degrading their health from fairly dense second-hand smoke because some people were too lazy to spend one extra minute walking outdoors before smoking.

 

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