Tag Archives: Chinatown

Hawaii – Oahu 2025 Day 1 and 2

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First day we left SFO at 6:30pm, and arrived at HNL at 10pm (40 minutes earlier than expected). Took a taxi to the hotel (next time would take an uber since it’s cheaper and less pressure to pay cash). 

Arrived at the hotel / resort (Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Resort, Ali’i tower) at 10:30. Most of the shops in the resort were closed except the general store. So got some chips and High Noons, watches a bit of Pearl Habor and called it a night.

Next day woke up at 7:30am, and got coffee at a place called Lappert’s Hawaii. They also had ice cream. Wouldn’t probably go back for coffee since they don’t have oat milk, or hazelnut. But may go back for ice cream.

Also tried a spam musubi croissant for breakfast. Without the seaweed on top it tasted pretty good.

At 11am, arrived at Pearl Harbor Visitor Center. Put my name in the standby for the Arizona memorial, and got in at the 12:00pm slot. Visited the road to war museum while I waited near the visitor center.

The USS Arizona Memorial i think was worth it. The memorial is above the ship, and you could see parts of the ship penetrating the water line.

After the memorial headed to the USS Missouri using a shuttle (it is on Ford Island). I took the 35 minute guided tour, which I think is worth it to explain the significance of the ship with respect to WWII (took a tour of the bow, surrender deck where the Japanese surrendered, and the kamikaze deck where a Japanese pilot was found dead, but buried out to sea). After the guided tour, the 2nd deck was interesting. Although no weaponry, it focused on how it was like to live on the ship. It had the cafeteria, quarters, chief mess. Also going up to the bridge after was a different experience as well.

A history on the USS Missouri is that it was started to be built in Jan 1941 and finished 3 years later. It served in WWII, Cold War, and in the 80s. 

Afterwards (after waiting 40 minutes for the shuttle) headed to the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum. Because of time constraints, zipped by it fairly fast. Notable things I did look at was hanger 37 (start of the muses with Japanese Zero as the main showcase), the plane used in the Doolittle project, Hanger 79 (had planes like F-15a, and also mostly survived the attack.. and has a cool flag hanging in it) and the Ford Island control tower (looks like the movie).

Unfortunately was able to check out the USS Bowfin submarine (was 4 minutes late for the last entry).

One clear message from today: Freedom isn’t free.

Afterwards went to the hotel and caught a quick sunset at the beach at our hotel.

Then we headed for dinner near the Downtown / Chinatown area. Restaurant was called Yohei Sushi. Details can be found here:

https://food.johnmatienzo.com/2025/11/26/yohei-sushi/

Then head for drinks at a Tiki Bar in Chinatown. I will say that Chinatown area at night is a bit sketchy. However bars in it are good. Details can be found here on the bar:

https://food.johnmatienzo.com/2025/11/26/skull-and-crown/

Last stop of the night was at a more whisky themed based bar, also in Chinatown, called EP Bar. Details here:

https://food.johnmatienzo.com/2025/11/26/ep-bar/

New York City Thanksgiving 2022

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Spent 3 days in New York for the Thanksgiving break. It was mostly a chill trip, so I’m gonna just have 1 blog post for the whole trip (as opposed to splitting it by day).

So I arrived Friday afternoon (4pm), but ended up getting to the hotel (Hyatt Grand Central) at 6pm (I think EWR has the worst traffic getting into the city out of all the airports).

After getting to the hotel, we hit up a pretty classy restaurant in Noho called Vic’s. More info on it can be found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/11/22/vics/

From there, made some last minute decisions. We decided to go and check out the comedy place, The Stand. Several pretty funny comedians. Like the last New York trip, thought it was pretty good time.

Afterwards we decided to go to Brooklyn to day 1 of TimeWarp. Honestly, from what I remembered, I really enjoyed it. The others have biases against Artbat, so they may have not enjoyed it as much.

For the second day, we decided to have a boozy brunch. Went to this place near midtown called Tara Rose:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/11/22/tara-rose/

Definitely would go back to the above place for brunch. Food and vibe was great for a booze brunch.

Afterwards, we tried another bar acrosss the street, but then ended up going to a pregame at Sam’s place.

Don’t fully remember leaving Sam’s place, but we made it to Time Warp for day 2.

On the third day, went to a couple of places in Chinatown. One place was a dive bar to meet a friends friend:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/11/22/forgtmenot/

Another place was a pizza joint called Scarr’s pizza:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/11/22/scarrs-pizza/

To end the night, we went to another pizza join near flat iron called Joe’s:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2022/11/22/joes-pizza/

Overall, super chill and great trip.

Alberta – 5th Day

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Last day in Calgary and Alberta. I woke up early at 9am so I could get a lot in before my flight.

Since it was raining, I started off with lunch at Ten Foot Henry (I took an Uber, and I have to say, Uber is basically like SF prices. I didn’t travel more than a mile, and I paid $10 Canadian):

Ten Foot Henry

After, since it was still a bit drizzling, I made my way towards a cafe at Inglewood called Rosso:

Rosso (Inglewood)

Sitting in the cafe, it eventually stopped raining, so I was able to walk around Inglewood (which is like a basic old town downtown). I even stopped by a local CIBC to do some banking.

Reaching the end of Inglewood lead me to the RiverWalk, where I past Fort Mason, and China town. I then ended up at Prince’s Islam Park, and walked around there for a bit.

After, I returned to my hotel to grab my car, where I drove to the Saddle Dome to check out the preparations for the Calgary stampede next week.

From there, I headed to the YYC. I was early, so I checked out the Aspire Lounge. The Lounge has a good selection of alcohol, food, and a sleeping area! One of the best Priority Pass lounges I’ve ever been to.