
Ah, the raw splendor of the tropics. Gambling at new year on the lawn of the Ho Chi Minh City Botanic Garden and Zoo. What’s the advantage of cold winters?

Ah, the raw splendor of the tropics. Gambling at new year on the lawn of the Ho Chi Minh City Botanic Garden and Zoo. What’s the advantage of cold winters?

We celebrated the start of Golden Week holiday by going to the Tokyo racetrack with Shu’s cousins. I was unprepared for the sheer scale of this gambling palace, like a global airport but much larger. The festive and somewhat sleazy ambiance was familiar, and I imagine if my uncle Yummy (friend of Seabiscuit) were Japanese, he’d have been hanging out in his toe socks, too.
