Many gaijin take a trip to the United States during their stay here, and these two cities are popular destinations. A few comments about each:San Diego:
A car is highly advisable. If you plan ahead and book online, you can find some great deals. Among the big chains, we've had the most luck with Avis and Budget. The San Diego Reader (http://www.sandiegoreader.com/home/) is invaluable in planning your itinerary and offers real reviews (not advertisements) of restaurants, movies, theatre, and music. Search their food & drink section by neighborhood and find the local gems. Downtown, we enjoyed several hours at Neighborhood (777 G street, at 8th Ave) - great atmosphere, fantastic music at an appropriate volume, a huge beer menu including Hitochino white ale and a slew of local brews (4-8$), quite good beef tacos (10$), and satisfying gourmet burgers (approx 10$). In Pacific Beach on Tuesday nights Turquoise hosts a flamenco troupe from 7 - 9:30pm. Cover is 5$ a head, wine and beer start at 5$, and tapas are 6-12$ approx. Much of the crowd seemed to know the dancers or take lessons together. It is always fun to stumble on a little community of people with an unusual shared interest. We also enjoyed a spicy Thai lunch at an unmarked hole-in-the-wall supposedly called Sab-E-Lee (2405 Ulric street). The tom yum soup is the real deal with loads of kaffir lime leaf, lemon grass, and fresh herbs. Convoy street continues to offer an amazing variety of Asian restaurants and shops. We went to ChinaMax Seafood restaurant for some shrimp dumplings, stir fried Chinese
broccoli, and yummy string bean and meat sauté. There are also some great Vietnamese places on Convoy.We tend to return to a few favored zones when we visit San Diego. We love a stroll through downtown La Jolla, although most restaurants there should be avoided. A walk through the Torrey Pines State preserve offers a glimpse into California’s beauty prior to the development/population boom. For more reasonably priced food and some secondhand store shopping we like Pacific Beach. Balboa Park merits a leisurely stroll and a visit to a museum or two. Across the street from the zoo and Natural History museum is a large rose garden, which abuts a cactus garden, all of which overlooks the Naval Hospital. MCAS Miramar hosts the Flying Leatherneck museum, a fascinating and large collection of helos and planes piloted by Marines over the past 70 years. Afterwards, officers may wish to stop by the Miramar O club, relive a few Top Gun memories, and have a couple beers by the sunny window.
Las Vegas:
We would never normally have traveled to Vegas. We don’t gamble, we don’t wait in line at buffets or pay cover charges at nightclubs, and we like to drink sitting down over dinner. However, we had to be there for a family event and thus tried to make the most of it. We drove out from San Dieg
o, breaking up the trip with a stay on MC Logistics Base Barstow. They offer clean suites with kitchenette for about 50$. We were glad for the safety of on base accommodations – Barstow is rather sketchy and depressed. Food offerings are sparse in Barstow, so we ended up suffering through a meal at Chilis. The food wasn’t terrible, but we despise the chain restaurant sales strategy of continually offering you way more food than any human being should ever eat at a sitting (how ‘bout we start you with some appetizers?...want to add on some double fries?...can I interest you in a chocolate fudge explosion lava cake with 5 scoops of 
ice cream).We bid on Hotwire for a 5-star strip hotel and got the Wynn for under 120$/night. Try betterbidding.com to figure out which hotel you are being offered prior to paying. Having read Trip Advisor, we knew that most hotels in Vegas delight in giving customers trouble during check-in/check-out. Wynn did not fail to deliver on this. Multiple phone calls and chats to different desk staff we
re required to get our requested non-smoking Queen room in the back side of the hotel away from the nightclub. And they were not pleased with our demand that they seek our specific authorization prior to placing any additional charges on our room bill. But in the end, persistence paid off and we got a lovely corner room with a magnificent view. The bathroom and bath amenities – lemongrass scented shampoo/conditioner/soap/conditioner were fantastic. The bed was cozy with plush linens and pillows. The Wynn parking lot is quite navigable, not too far from the rooms, and lets you know how many spots remain on each level.We highly recommend having a car in Vegas. We went out each day to
lunch on West Spring Mountain Road - the Las Vegas Asian shopping zone. We found an amazing Vietnamese place - Pho Saigon 8 (5650 W SMR suite B) - and delighted in their heaping trays of fresh herbs and sparerib lunch set (essentially all dishes <10$).There is some appeal to watching such a broad cross-section of Americans, and global tourists, do whatever they come to do in Vegas. Truly, there is no dress code there - from grannies in nylon track suites to teenagers in hot shorts to high rollers in designer
suits and brides in their white gowns, anything goes.Our final day we drove out to the Valley of Fire State Park. On a clear day, the contrast between blue sky, red rock, brown desert, and green scrub is a sight to behold. In early April, wildflowers were everywhere and improved the asthetic impact further. There is a driving track around the park and some places to stop and walk the trails. We could have spent several more hours there if we had the time. We returned via the North Shore Road (ie of Lake Mead) and were slightly disappointed at the lack of water
views. When leaving Las Vegas with a rental car, be forewarned that the rental car drop-off point is about 10 miles from the airport and requires an extra 20 minutes of your time. Never fear, if you get to the airport too early there are ubiquitous slot machines to help yo
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ass the time.
