So I thought I'd post what my normal Saturday routine is... regardless of most releases, I like to make my weekly visit to S7, and have it down to pretty much a science...

I leave my house around 10:00 or so to allow for any traffic, and drive up the freeway to SF. When I get to Japantown, I park in the underground parking lot, and immediately go to the little snack shop area that serves ice-cream and little baked snacks. I root through their selection of baked mochi cake pieces for as many corner pieces (corner pieces are the best like in brownies), and then walk up the street to S7. (I usually eat one or two pieces of the baked mochi squares along the short 2 minute walk.)

Once at the store, I'll say hello to Shibby and Toybot (cuz they're usually there before I am), and we all wave to Joe Bunny or BEYOND through the front window and see if they notice us. Sometimes Isaac will taunt us by waving toys in the front window before the door is unlocked.

Once 11:00 rolls around, they let us in, and we all jump inside to get the new exclusive toy(s), and talk to Brian about this and that... he's usually tight lipped about upcoming stuff, but sometimes he lets something slip...

Then we all head to the locked treasure cases of vinyl... usually something new appears in there every week, and it's a race to claim dibs on anything new.

After we've all paid for our stuff, and we've exhausted all conversation about toys, video games, Battlestar Gallactica, my cat, and other things, we all say hello to Glenn and Lisa who always show up fashionably late.

I then go back to Japantown, and head to "The Bridge" which is my usual lunch spot. I will most likely eat the Katsu Curry Donburi bowl (xtra hot curry), and read some manga that they have lining the restaurant walls... after scarfing that down, I go to Kinokuniya bookstore and look for HyperHobby magazine or something else to I can get my parking ticket validated...

Then it's back home for a well earned nap, and weekend chores... (usually in that order).

You get to leave at 10, lucky! Plus looks like rain this weekend, extra

Sounds like the routine from paradise.

ummmmm, nice saturday routine!!!

See you tomorrow, but will have to do the drive by as we have some stupid baby shower thing to goto at 11:15! if you're not there, i'll leave the goods with Hiro or Joe! (as i quickly grab my ZUGAN)!!!

i'll be saying hello next saturday

your poor kitty is left home alone to fend for himself for hours...or maybe thats when the hooker kitties sho up for their weekly visit...boom!

He's fixed, so he's just end up frustrated... Besides, he's a middle aged cat, so his favorite activity is to sleep 36 hours a day...

I leave around 9, pick up an bag of Maple Leaf donuts, for MaDeRe if he's coming, if not he punches me through the entire trip, pass the Hamburger join,t and for the 100th time , say I think i'll grab lunch there...,pull into the parking garage, say hi to the doorman, I need to properly introduce myself one day....wander the mall if early, look at the sword shop, and window shop, head to the toy shop, and play with all the toys, head back to the car , get dressed, Isaac and Brian refuse to let me in nakkid, go stand outside, wait for Beyond and Joe, see Loco coming up the street, (Now I know what he's eating...), talk shop and speculate. Finally get in, wander to the new stuff, then the cases, hide under the large table and hit my head on the floor for 10 minutes, before figuring how much instant ramen i'll have to eat for the week, go pay, say goodbuys, and tip the newspaper machine upside down for change..

As a minor goal i've been trying to eat at each resturant three times, and write reveiws of each. And the Resturant on the Bridge is so far the best, though the Korean BBQ next to S7 is mighty tasty!

Dude Locomoco, The Bridge is good. I love their mench katsu teshoku.(deep fried hamburger). Have you tried that yet? I recommend it. It's really good and the sauce they use on it is the best.

Shibby, Walgreens got this "WOW $1" instant noodle pack where they sell 6 packs of maruchan shrimp flavored instant noodles for only $1 !!! I usually get those. It's great when you need to save some cash.

That is totally cool (in a geek way) that you have a routine.

When I lived in Hollywood, in the early '90s, ever Saturday, I would go eat Sushi at Flying Fish in Little Tokyo and then to Pony Go Round and the department store (who's name I can not remember) with a toy section on the second floor plus a good amount of candy toys.

It was always easy to get someone to tag along (as long as they liked Sushi)...

Was Pony Go Round the name of the Japanese Toy store in the outdoor mall? With the giant Kamen Rider outside? I just saw that Anime Jungle now has that cool Kamen Rider statue in their store!!

I believe I visited Pony Go Round near its demise and, sadly, saw no Kamen Rider statue.

In fact, the department store (whose name I can not remember) with the toy section was where I purchased lots of stuff. This was '89 thru '92.

Lots of Ultra vinyls and kaiju with weird figures popping up every now and then. I picked up the 12-inch boxed Bandai Ultraman and Ultra 7 for cheap. Plus they always had Kimoto collection Ultraman and Kamen Rider pieces as well as an entire wall section of 6-inch Bandai Ultra and kaiju on pegs.

Usually when I am around, I get a modern yaki at the restaurant next to the crepe place. the ramen place across the way is pretty good too.

Why does Loco's routine sound so familiar? Throw in a stop at Double Punch and you pretty much described the toy tour we did!! I miss the mochi and the grub at the Bridge. I'll be back north soon.

We used to have a Pony Toys, in SJ , I spent too much time there, really miss it!

We did?

It was in the mitsuwa store

That little store inside the market by the "food court"?

it used to be where the pottery store is, then moved to the back where trendy is now, by the food court

Oh wow... I don't think I ever saw it then...

Ah, dreams of Katsu curry on the bridge. I like the little snack shop in the mall too. They've got a great mix of grub, linguica and eggs, yum!

oi, i LOVE linguica!!!

used to get it in provincetown, mass every summer for years (its been awhile ) lots of portuguese peeps on the Cape. YUM!!!

hehe...i always get a chuckle out of you hitting up ptown jackie..maybe you can come down and go with us this summer! many day trips will be made i'm sure

and coincidentally, we had linguica at brunch this weekend...found a new (for us) place that has linguica as the house sausage

sounds like an awesome saturday loco...i can't wait to do a similar routine myself sometime soon!

ooooh! Where's this at? going to be very hungry this weekned!

He's referring to "May's" which is the little open area diner that you see when you come out of the parking lot stairwell... they have special stuff that they only have on weekends, so be sure to look for the weekend dryboard.