Components Of A Weird Day

[snarp]

1) A job interview.

2) Finding a kind of chocolate you've been on the lookout for for a couple months, and on your way to the checkout being stopped by a woman who'd also been looking for it to ask you what aisle you found it in.

3) Seeing somebody for whom you bought dorayaki last weekend mentioned in an entirely non-dorayaki-related-context on a blog you read every day.

4) The Metro goes aboveground sometimes?!

Comments

[chomiji]

Re Metro - Lordy, yes! It's above ground where I get on at Takoma and doesn't dive underground again until just before Union Station. You need to travel the system a little more ... but this is not the weekend for doing that. There's track work on almost all the lines. But do it sometime. The bit on the Yellow Line that goes over the Potomac is really cool.

[snarp]

I've mostly on been taking the Red line into the city, and then the Blue/Orange a few stops in either direction from Metro Center, I think - I assume it doesn't come aboveground much in the denser areas, which is why I didn't realize it had this mysterious property.

[inkstone]

Yeah, where I get on the Metro (blue line's originating station in Springfield-Franconia), it's above ground pretty much until you get to Crystal City.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Ah ha, yes, it's pretty much all underground in the city proper, but when you get out onto the farther reaches of lines in MD and VA, there are huge above-ground chunks. I live out by Huntington and the Yellow and Blue lines on that side of the map both are totally out in the open until you hit Crystal City, and then they surface again for a bit after the Pentagon station. And I used to work out in Merrifield and IIRC, those last few stops on that end of the Orange line are all above-ground, too.

(And heh, didn't realize you were local-ish! We might have bumped into each other in the crowd during Sakura Matsuri and NEVER EVEN KNEW! *cue dramatic music*)

[snarp]

(Dun-dun-dunnnnh! It's possible! You probably would have noticed because I would have gotten mochi all over you.

I've only been in the DC area since the end of January. It is what I consider to be an appropriate distance from my family, and the job-hunting situation is much better than in Kentucky.)

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Maybe not! I was kind of preoccupied hauling around a bag full of giant creepy dolls, not to mention being in a massive antihistamine haze.

Have you already found your way to Hana Market on U Street?

[snarp]

I have not been there yet, but now I guess I must go! A friend tried to take me to a place called Daruma Market in Bethesda the other day, but it had gone out of business. Thus was my quest for anko thwarted.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Hana is great -- there are a ton of much much bigger pan-Asian markets out in the VA/MD burbs, but they're mostly Korean-based and if you're looking for specifically Japanese products, their selection isn't always as extensive as one might like. Hana is pretty tiny and their selection of fresh/frozen stuff in particular is very small, but for more shelf-stable stuff they probably have the best selection of Japanese nummies in the area, especially now that Daruma and Nani-wa in McLean have both closed. :( (Go on Thursdays if you're looking for vegetables, that's when they get fresh deliveries.)

It's very very Metro-able, too -- only three blocks from the U Street station on the Green or Yellow lines. (If you drive or have a friend with a car, the Fairfax Super H Mart is probably the hugest and nicest of the Asian mega-marts in the area -- or Great Wall in Merrifield is the best bet if you're looking for specific Chinese ingredients, now that the last supermarket in Chinatown is closed. :(

[snarp]

I will definitely check out Hana when I get the chance. Thank you for telling me about it!

[snarp]

(Dolls from the stand where people were making dolls, or anime plushes from the insanely crowded booth down near the J-pop stage?)

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Ah, nope, the crazy resin ball-jointed things...although I know a couple of the girls at the kimekomi dollmaking school booth also had their BJDs hanging out with them there, and lots of the doll forum folks who'd come downtown for a dollmeet in the Haupt Garden were dropping by their booth to say hello.