My fiance is at her bachelorette party weekend trip and I would like to do something nice for her and the party but didn't really begin thinking about it until now.
I texted her maid of honor earlier today asking if there is anything I could do today like a round of drinks or something. In my mind was like have a bottle of Dom Perignon Uber Eats'd to their airbnb.
The maid of honor let me know the name of the restaurant they'll have dinner at this evening and that only 3 of the girls in the party drink, so I could get for the table whatever my fiance likes.
Looking at the restaurant, every bottle of wine is like $36-44, and it feels like a lame gesture to have a $40 bottle of wine sent to the table for half of the girls who would even drink it...
So I called the restaurant and gave them my info to charge all of the drinks and deserts to me. It seems like a big cocktail barestaurant, and rather than get a $40 bottle when people probably will end up with cocktails, I figured made most sense to not order for them but just cover the cost of whatever they get.
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After hanging up with the restaurant I'm starting to have doubts as to whether this is going to turn out to be a nice gesture at all though. What if nobody orders desert? What if they don't have a big "party vibe" going on tonight at dinner and its like $60 of cocktails and 1 or 2 deserts?
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Should I have just ordered something for the table, or asked the restaurant to start everyone with a round of a specific shot (*virgin for non drinkers) and just get one of every desert for the table?
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What do you think? am I overthinking this or do I need to call back the restaurant and give them more instruction to pre-order something so that this doesn't end up being me covering a measly 10% of the tab...

I love a good fireplace, but find it's so rare to stumble upon one in places that are available to the public.
Does anyone know of a good fireplace, whether at a restaurant, cafe, lounge area, mall, community centre, hotel lobby? I'm willing to buy a spendy cocktail or a meal as price of admission if it means I can sit on a comfy couch or chair and bask in its glow and warmth.

Hallo Mädels,
ich habe mal eine Frage an euch, weil ich eine Einschätzung benötige.
Es geht um ein heikles Thema, mit dem die allermeisten von uns mehr oder weniger häufig konfrontiert sind: Die Nutzung von (halb-)öffentlichen Toiletten in Restaurants, Cafés, Messen, Einkaufszentren usw.
In meinem Umfeld gab es mehrmals die Diskussion, wie Frau sich dort "richtig" verhält. Ich bin eine trans Frau und ich oute mich als generelle Sitzpinklerin, nicht nur zu Hause, sondern überall. Für unterwegs habe ich immer Desinfektion in meiner Handtasche, Spray und/oder Tücher, gehe damit vorher drüber und setze mich anschließend ganz normal drauf und erledige so mein(e) Geschäft(e). Ich verspüre keinen Ekel, mich auf einen frisch desinfizierten Toiletten-Sitz zu setzen und sehe das eigentlich als die normale Körperhaltung an, die Frau dafür einnehmen sollte. Ich habe mir bis jetzt auch noch nie etwas geholt und weiß auch, dass es zahlreiche Studien gibt, die belegen, dass WC-Sitze eben keine Keimschleudern sind (wie manchmal angenommen), sondern ganz andere Gegenstände deutlich gefährlicher sind (z.B. Türgriffe, Haltestangen in öffentlichen Verkehrsmitteln, Touch-Displays von Fahrkartenautomaten, Einkaufswagen usw.). Das gründliche Händewaschen mit Seife nach dem Toilettengang ist laut den allermeisten Fachartikeln die wichtigste Hygiene-Regel bei der Toiletten-Nutzung.
Trotzdem gibt es in meinem Umfeld Leute, die meine Einstellung und Haltung dazu nicht verstehen. Die Leute würden sich niemals auf solche Toiletten setzen, auch nicht wenn sie frisch desinfiziert wurden, sondern "hocken" sich nur drüber. Das führt bekanntlich häufig dazu, dass Spritzer auf dem WC-Sitz landen und wenn die Leute es nicht selbst weg wischen, darf die nächste Benutzerin, die sich setzen will, das machen (also z.B. ich). Ich finde es nicht gerade angenehm, das Pipi von anderen Frauen weg machen zu müssen, aber es bleibt dann ja nichts anderes übrig.
Ich bin jetzt 39 Jahre alt und habe in meinem Leben ganze 2 Mal ein Geschäft in abweichender Haltung verrichtet und beides Mal gab es eine riesige Sauerei. Ich habe die Sauerei zwar so gut es eben geht selbst mit Klopapier beseitigt, aber wenn ich ehrlich bin, war das WC danach trotzdem quasi unbenutzbar. Das ist beides inzwischen mehr als 15 Jahre her und ich bin von diesen Erfahrungen "geheilt" und werde das garantiert nie mehr in meinem Leben ausprobieren wollen.
Seitdem bin ich noch überzeugtere Sitzpinklerin als ich es davor auch schon war und ich würde lieber eine Weile einhalten als dass ich eine andere Position noch jemals einnehmen würde.
Ach ja: Im Büro setze ich mich auch ohne Desinfektion einfach so drauf, da wir nur 4 Frauen in der Abteilung sind und ich meinen Kolleginnen gegenüber nicht das geringste Misstrauen habe.
Daher meine Frage an die Schwarmintelligenz auf reddit:
- Wie ist eure Meinung dazu?
- Wie macht ihr das?
- Habt ihr weitere Anmerkungen/Ideen/Tipps dazu?
Bin schon sehr auf euere Antworten gespannt.
Viele liebe Grüße
Regina.

I just stopped in Uptown Shelby after visiting a very vibrant and pretty well populated Main Street in Forest City. At first I thought Shelby was going to be a neat little city, but when walking around damn near everything was closed and sidewalks were empty. What’s the deal? This city has a ton of potential and is quite big, but I was disappointed to get all the shops, cafes and even some restaurants were closed in the middle of a beautiful Saturday…

Anyway ya. I’m also very depressed and just down so it’s so hard for me to want to talk to people. Even if i was happy I wouldn’t though because I’m so afraid. I’m paralyzed by various factors and fear. Too scared to drive places(especially big cities, which I need to go to them soon for a medical treatment), too scared to eat at a restaurant alone. Too scared to be in a crowded area like a grocery store or other store. I’m also in the early stages of a rare disease that atrophies one side of your face, which could eventually make me deformed looking. All these things together make it quite hard to even try to improve

This marks two weeks without a binge. I'm worried because my birthday is coming up and that means my favorite cake plus dinner at a restaurant. But I have resolved to eat only half my dinner at the restaurant and one (big) piece of cake. By thinking ahead I hope I can do it, while also not depriving myself of the occasional treat.
In other progress though, my stomach hurts a lot less. I experience stomach pain and upset every single day. They are still ongoing but I'm hoping that my digestive system will have time to heal, I'm also making an appointment with a doctor to investigate the upset stomach. But a noticeable improvement already.
I feel hungry as fuck and I think about food all day. I don't know when that will end, I hope soon, guess I'll update when it does. Did the cravings eventually stop for any of you? Been using a fiber supplement to try to squash some of it but I'm hungry 24/7.
In other good news though, because I don't feel internally heavy and ill all day, I've been able to exercise a little bit, probably 5 times for at least 30 minutes in the last two weeks. Yeah pretty good for me! By not binging, and exercising I've already lost 6 lbs. I think some of it might be water weight from all the ridiculous amount of food stressing my body, but I'll take it.
Here's to hopefully keeping it up and keeping the improvements going!

In 2021 I had a date with a woman. I was optimistic, and decided to try one of those pills. I thought it wouldn't take effect until something sexually aroused me.
So, we are at the Mexican restaurant, for a late lunch/early dinner. We were having a great conversation about world history, primarily the changes in store fronts after the development of the steak engine when the pills kicked in. I tried to ignore it. It was getting harder to ignore. My pants were struggling. She wondered why the table was tilting towards her. I tried to make her think that it was just her imagination. The table was now no longer touching the floor.
Then the bachelorette party showed up. A bunch of loud, young, women showing legs and cleavage. The table popped up. Thankfully, by this point dinner was done and we were just talking. I heard the bachelorette party cheering for the table popper. My date asked what that was about...I played dumb.
Finally, I excused myself to run to the restroom. I stood up, turned away from the table, tripped over the waitress and the bus boy and slapped a woman in the face as she was celebrating her 80th birthday.
I ran to the restroom...which wasn't easy. I probably should have pole vaulted there. I made it into a stall, but ended up boring a gloryhole into the women's restroom with only my hard on.
Before I pulled out, I got an instant blow job and heard the women's restroom door opening and closing along with some young drunk cheering. As well as one familiar voice saying "So, that is where my date went."
When I finally got back to my table I had to pay the check, and there were phone numbers from the waitress, the 80 year old birthday woman, the entire bachelorette party, including the bride to be, seven other women at the restaurant as well as Javier the Bus Boy.

Hello all! We’d love your advice for solidifying our itinerary for December 31st - January 6th. I know a lot will be shut down, so would appreciate any suggestions of what areas will likely have a few open restaurants & pubs the first week of January (after the holiday). We will self-cater NYE/New Years Day We may split the week between 2 different areas. Our main goal is R&R while enjoying the landscape and Irish culture.
Places we’re considering:
Glencar in Co. Kerry / The Reeks District (Dark Sky area is appealing)
Rossnowlaugh at Donegal Bay
Galway area
Belfast area
We are open to other areas if you think I’m missing a great place to visit during the Irish winter. Thanks in advance!
Additional things we’re factoring in:
We’ll be in Dublin between Christmas/NYE, then heading to the countryside the morning of New Years Eve - looking for quiet, views, and open restaurants/pubs within a 30 minute drive.
We’ve previously been to Ireland on a 12 day trip during the early fall - stayed in Castletown-Bearhaven (Co. Cork) / Beara Peninsula; Lough Mask (Co. Mayo); explored the Mayo International Dark Sky Park; and Dublin. Also enjoyed drives through Killarney National Park, and self toured both Galway and Kilkenny for half days. Ireland has so much to love!
My husband is comfortable enough with the Irish roads and is experienced in winter weather driving.

We normally stay beachside when we go to Rays games (Madera Beach area) but only going for one day so there's no point staying at beach. Any recommendations for hotels close to stadium that are nice with good restaurants in hotel or nearby??

What's the most absurd thing you've ever seen in a restaurant or café?

I've been a longtime horror reader, but stumbled onto Christopher Buehlman because I read his fantasy, The Blacktongue Thief.
I loved the prose, the characters, the world building - everything. So I dove into the rest. I read these books all by audio, so the narration plays into my thoughts.
A word on narration: most authors aren't that good at it, but Buehlman is a killer. He's so adept that he could do other people's books professionally. When an author can narrate, I think it adds a layer of authenticity to it. He knew his intent when he wrote the words, so he can emphasize and push narratives faster and better.
#6: Those Across the River: You can tell that this was his first novel. However, it was clear reading this that the guy has a great command of story and character. Like all his books, this one shines in great part due to the beauty of the prose. Buehlman set his pattern for taking traditional monsters and giving them their own mythology in this novel. The title itself is so ominous that it sold me on the book. I don't know what I expected to be across the river, but not what it ended up being. My mind kept thinking that Frank's ancestor Savoyard was some kind of cursed cultist, and that we'd be seeing him. What we got was more guttural in that the werewolf colony wasn't some wealthy bunch like vampires. They were cursed, lepers and miserable. I didn't like how anticlimactic Frank's final confrontation with the werewolves felt. Usually authors over-write, but this felt a little hurried. I wanted more, given what they'd done to him.
Buehlman didn't narrate this one, and while Mark Bramhall did a fine job, I think Buehlman elevates his books when he narrates them.
#5: The Suicide Motor Club: This was another traditional monster book that sold me on Buehlman's vision of vampires. The book spent a lot of time on characterization and the backstories of both our protagonist and villain. We go from the inciting incident, where Judith's family is murdered into a long run about her recovery and what happened in her life. As we eventually get back into the story, we start getting snippets of Nixon's life. He's a damn compelling villain whose backstory never bores me. The pacing of this book may not be to your taste if you like a faster moving story.
The narration in this one is again excellent, but not as riveting as some of his other forays.
#4: The Necromancer's House: Buehlman made an interesting choice when he chose to write this in a present tense voice. It may be personal preference, but that always takes me out of the story. The first-person, past-tense narrator in The Lesser Dead drew me tight to the story, while this separated me from it to a degree. That aside, I nearly rated this higher because it's so amazingly original and terrifying. At the same time, I think it's the book that showcases Buehlman's humor the most.
Haberkorn does a great job narrating, to the point I didn't miss Buehlman as much, even though I'd prefer that.
This is where it gets hard to rank the novels because everything is so great.
#3: The Lesser Dead: How can I rank this third? It's a compliment to the next two books, not a slight. I love Buehlman's habit of setting his novels in the past, but this one is so good. Joseph's romp through seedy NYC of the 1970s sounds so much better than if it were set in today's NYC, where Times Square has chain restaurants and many of the biggest plays are Disney and Potter properties. Where Suicide put me off a bit with its pace, this grabbed me and never let me go. The dread and discomfiture you feel are all the more compelling when you realize that the protagonist is a relatively powerful vampire and drinker of human blood. The Cvetko twist caught me completely by surprise and I love when someone can do that. Especially when the seeds were there and I didn't see them.
Narration was another reason it scored so well with me. Buehlman's Joey Peacock invested me in him so deeply. The best narrator working is probably Stephen Pacey, and I don't think he could have done this better.
#2: The Blacktongue Thief: Buehlman stretches his fingers off into fantasy, but keeps his toes in horror in Blacktongue. Many fantasy writers think they're actually supposed to build a world in their novels, and it's a trap that always sabotages the story. However, if you're writing a fantasy set in a world of giants, thieves, magic and hungry goblins, you must build that world. Buehlman does this by sprinkling it in, when it's relevant. You don't get the information dump normally associated with fantasy novels, particularly first time fantasy novels. You get the rules of the world when they're relevant as part of the story.
I'm a Dungeons & Dragons geek and in D&D, Goblins are considered trash monsters - minions you kill on the way to the real baddies. Buehlman's Goblins are sheer, man-eating terror. The split city tug-of-war alone was a gut punch. The little, poisonous, sharp-teethed, hungry bastards.
Buehlman's narration elevates this novel more than any other. As great as his Joey Peacock was, his Kinch is somehow better.
#1: Between Two Fires: This is becoming Buehlman's The Stand - his novel that helps define all the rest, but I could just as easily have put Thief or Lesser in this spot. The reason I chose this one is that it's just so different: from his other novels, and from most anything I've read. It's bleak, difficult and has a conclusion I had to read three times. But that's a good thing. If you ever attempted Blood Meridian, I read that conclusion even more and still think I could take something different from it every time. The end of Two Fires isn't quite like that, but you will want to read it more than one time.
The most terrifying scene in the book to me wasn't one of the many great horror scenes, but the battle with the English. The terror I felt when the English archers started raining arrows on the Normans sold me that he could build a fantasy battle even better. I hope we get a large dollop of fantasy battle in any Blacktongue sequels.
My only regret is that I've now got to wait on any new Buehlman novels.

This sub helped me out a lot so thought I'd share my experience in Japan. Hope I can bring a bit of a different perspective because unlike most of the people that seem to post here, we are definitively not early risers and rarely left the hotel before 1pm every day. Still had a great time and crowds were only an issue in a few places.
We're an early 30s Asian-American couple traveling from Germany, so we're coming at this from a bit of an in-between of Western and Eastern perspective. I have been to Japan when I was 15 with family, but remember basically nothing. It was my wife's first time. We had an absolutely wonderful time and both thought it was the best vacation we've had in years.
The trip was pretty last minute (for my standards at least). I started planning the trip from scratch (no flights, hotels or anything booked) in early April and our trip was May 18-30. We spent 5 days in Tokyo including DisneySea, 2 nights in Hakone, 3 nights in Kyoto including day trip to Nara, and 1 night in Osaka. We flew in to Tokyo Narita and flew out of Osaka Itami. We decided to fly from Osaka to Tokyo instead of bullet train back to Tokyo so we didn't have to buy JR rail pass and worry about luggage.
Tokyo

• We stayed in Ginza, which was significantly cheaper than similar hotels in Shibuya or Shinjuku. Maybe it was because I was planning such last minute, but I enjoyed the area just fine. Lots of restaurants and close to Tokyo Station which was convenient.
• Shout out to Star Club in Shinjuku. Had a wonderful Saturday night there drinking til 4am, chatting with other patrons and the super friendly bartender. Mix of locals and tourists.
• T's Tantan Ramen in Tokyo Station was one of my favorite ramen places of the trip (tied with the Michelin star one from Kyoto, but minus the wait). The bowl had a good variety of vegetable ingredients (which didn't seem that common in Japan, most ramen was just noodles and meat) which I really appreciated. Small queue but didn't wait more than 10m.
• The only restaurant reservation we made all trip was at Bon. Vegetarian multi-coursed meal. I would recommend, it was very nice, though sometimes a tad under salted for my taste. My wife loved it though. You get your own little private room to eat, even for two people, which was unexpected and very lovely.
• Asakusa has a tourist center with air conditioning, bathrooms, and an 8th floor view. Nice place for a rest
• Akihabara did nothing for us, as we're not really into anime or games. Pretty skippable if you are similar.
• I thought Ameyoko Shopping District was a disappointment. More like a flea market, it was similar to many Taiwan street/night markets that we've been to before. We also had probably our worst meal in Japan here, at a hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant where the food was extremely mediocre. I would have skipped this place altogether and go to Ueno Park or something instead.
• Character Street in Tokyo Station was very fun to explore, we did a lot of shopping there. Nice place to visit before taking the Shinkansen.
• We enjoyed Takeshita Street in Harajuku. As mentioned before we went at around 8pm and it wasn't too crowded.
• When planning I had thought about skipping Shibuya Scramble but I'm really glad I didn't. Something about witnessing the sheer number of people bustling about was so epic and grand. Reminded me of Saturday midnight at EDC (Electric Daisy Carnival) when the atmosphere is electric and everyone is moving from one main stage to another.
• Golden Gai was interesting to look at, but way too claustrophobic for us. Very small alleys and very small bars.
• I enjoyed Tsukiji Market a lot. This is one of the places I would agree with people here and advise you get there early. Take advantage of jet lag and get here before 7am, and it is literally a buffet of delicious fresh foods. (not much choice for vegetarians though sadly). By 8am it was starting to get REALLY crowded. I prefer picking out my sashimi this way as opposed to a restaurant tbh, you can look at many options and pick whatever looks freshest. First time eating Wagyu here, had it on a stick. Delicious. Not the cheapest, but I figured if I ate it at a restaurant I'd also be paying for table service and atmosphere. I'm not big on the "restaurant experience", I'd rather just eat my food and be on my way.
• I thought Hamarikyu Gardens was wonderful. I love city parks where there is green, peaceful nature in the fore ground, contrasted by enormous skyscrapers towering in the background. Hamarikyu Gardens fits that perfectly. Got there right when they opened after visiting Tsukiji Market and it was a perfect way to walk off the big hearty breakfast. ~1 hour at a moderate pace should do it.
• Ginza Corridor after work was very interesting to see around 5-7pm or so. Simply packed to the brim with business folks wearing suits and having a good time after their work day

DisneySea

• We checked the weather and specifically went on a rainy weekday. I highly recommend, it was not crowded at all. Almost all the rides are indoors anyway and most of the queueing is either inside or covered. We got to the park at 2pm and basically rode everything we wanted before the park closed at 9pm with time to spare.
• Popular rides still had 40m-1hour wait, but we used premier pass for Center of the Earth and Soaring. Most we ever waited was 20m for Finding Nemo (similar to Star Tours, all in Japanese but very fun). I checked the app the next day when it was sunny and saw the wait times for each attraction were 3-4x longer.
• Another thing I think the rain helped with was that the premier passes did not sell out. We were able to buy them as late as 6pm to Journey to the Center of the Earth. (Fun ride, but I can't imagine waiting 1.5 hours for it)
• I think Soaring is pretty meh, I'd probably skip it next time. I've been to the one in CA ages ago and remember thinking it was just okay too, but we had extra time so decided to try it here.
• Sinbad was excellent, the ride that most exceeded expectations. It's basically "It's A Small World" but way better animatronics and story telling.
• Indiana Jones is worse than in the one in California (less exciting, no fire effects), but the line was nonexistent so we went on it twice.
• It stopped raining at night too so we were able to catch the Believe show with no issues. It's a good show but it is very long, about 40m. Much longer than I thought. After show is over, there's only about ~1 hour before the park closes, so good time to catch a last ride at one of the popular attractions while the locals are heading home.
• I love how every restaurant has a display in front that shows you what the food will look like. They were all extremely accurate and not at all misleading!
• (not a tip but a rant, is it really necessary to have 10 thousand parking spots when the vast majority of people are going to arrive on Tokyo's world-class public transit system?)

Hakone

• Open Air Museum was really nice on a pleasant day. It's mostly outdoors. We spent a leisurely two hours there, but you could probably do it in one hour at a brisk pace.
• We left our Ryokan at 1pm to do the Hakone Loop and still completed it comfortably with plenty of time spent on shopping.
• Speaking of shopping, Cat Goods near Gora station was a wonderful little store full of cat stuff!! Our shopping list in Japan was basically to buy as much cat-themed home goods at possible, and we went crazy here. They also do tax-free! Recommend this place if cat-themed goods sounds interesting to you, the shop people were super nice!
• We stayed 2 nights 3 days in a Ryokan. I purchased Hakone free pass for 3 days, which was maybe not worth it. The first and last day we only took transport to leave Hakone to Odawara station, so I think it would have been cheaper to use the IC card to pay for it ad-hoc instead of an entire extra "free pass" day. Might be worth looking in to.
• If you have the Freepass, don't tag IC card at the stations. Show your Freepass to the attendant instead. It can't be a screenshot, they need to see the day
• Google Maps was great everywhere except Hakone. For some reason it was especially unreliable here, it led us stray a few times.
• Busses are faster for getting around, but have very little space for luggage and seemed packed with locals. If time is not an issue, I'd ride the Hakonetozan Line with your luggage, much more comfortable and more space.
• If you can spare the money, getting a private onsen was really really nice. Plus you can drink while you chill!

Kyoto

• Had an excellent time at Gion Bar M16, favorite bar experience we went to in Japan. The owner was super friendly and welcoming, and was himself a very interesting person that has lived a full life and travelled all over the world. Very interesting to talk to. He was also very knowledgeable about whiskey and drank whiskey with us while letting us try some different whiskeys and giving recs about what to buy and bring home. Also gave us lots of delicious and interesting snacks while we got drunk together. We also met a friend of the owner there who is a foreigner that has been living in Japan for 8 years, and gave us some recs.
• One of his recs was Eikan-do Temple as a less-crowded temple option. Good rec! We really enjoyed this place a lot. Probably our favorite temple out of the 5 or so we visited. They have this really extensive "shoes-off" wooden walkway on support beams. It felt like exploring a big tree house, because the wooden part went up the cliff as well. The insides areas were also very extravagant and intricate. Not so many tourists, even Sunday middle of the day. I really recommend as well!
• Another of his recs was Men-ya Inoichi (has a Michelin star). You line up when the shop opens to get a ticket, and then come back at a designated time, though there's still a wait before you actually eat. We probably waited ~50m in total, 20m at the beginning and 30m when we returned. Even then, thought it wasn't worth the time. Don't get me wrong it was very good, but IMO not significantly better than other ramen places.
• Kodai-ji Temple was a miss for us, especially after Eikan-do. Thought it wasn't that interesting, would have skipped.
• Kiyomizu-dera was indeed very nice, but very very crowded. Another place I would actually either going early or late for.
• The shopping street in front of Kiyomizu-dera was super fun to browse, but also very crowded.
• Had lunch at this tucked away Soba restaurant in an alley that was very nice, one of my favorite meals in Japan. Owner was friendly and spoke in Japanese to a translator that replayed his words in English. Noodles nice and chewy. Good experience, felt very personal!
• We visited Yasaka-jinja Shrine and Maruyama Park both in the evening and during the day, and much much prefer it when it's dark. Less crowded and there are cute little lamps that are lit up and make the whole place look magical.

Nara

• Arrived in Nara station at ~2:30pm and left at 7pm. Felt like we saw plenty.
• Nothing new to add, the bowing deer are fun to visit and feed, though they can be quite aggressive. We went on Saturday and there was large crowds of children in their school uniforms, but we didn't really mind it too much.
• Isuien Garden and Yoshikien Garden are both very nice gardens, good place to get away from crowds for some peace and quiet.

Osaka

• Didn't spend much time in Osaka, but Dontonburi was fun to walk through and shop.
• Ate at a very nice Okonomiyaki restaurant. It was our first time eating it so can't compare it to anywhere else, but the staff was super friendly and bubbly and we had an excellent time there. They also have a little dice game you can play to "gamble" on getting a drink for free, or "lose" and get the drink double sized and also pay 2x the price
• Shout out to our hotel, Hotel Royal Classic Osaka. We were only there for one night, but my god this hotel was so convenient. Directly connected to the subway station via an elevator, and also has a 24-hour FamilyMart you can enter from the lobby. It was also only 3m walking away from a airport limousine bus, which made going to the airport super easy. If we ever visit Osaka for a longer stay, we would definitely book this hotel again.

Random Tips

• The flipside to getting to a popular tourist spot early, is to get there very late. We visited Takeshita Street in Harajuku at 8pm at night and it was very comfortably not crowded. Also noticed other tourists spots tended to clear up near closing time, like Senso-Ji in Asakusa.
• As everyone says, toilets are generally as clean as you can reasonably expect, everywhere from parks to gardens to subway stations. Nastiest toilet I saw was in Don Quixote at 1am, trash everywhere.
• 7/11 seemed to have English featured more prominently on their products labels compared to other convenience store chains. All the convenience store food options seemed very similar, so I started to favor 7/11 for the language convenience. (FamilyMart had English in super tiny letters on the side of the label lol)
• In one of those small counter seating type restaurants, I saw someone take the wrong backpack when they left (didn't know it was the wrong backpack at the time ). A few minutes later, the person who's backpack was taken got up to leave, and was very confused trying to find his backpack. He spent a long 10m talking to the restaurants folks (in Japanese), before the original guy came back super apologetic. Anyway keep an eye on your stuff. I know Japan is a safe country, but accidents do happen.
• One trick we had was to tie a little charm or hair tie to the handle of our umbrella, making it less likely someone would accidentally take yours from the sea of indistinguishable white plastic umbrellas.
• Yes there's a lot of walking. My feet tend to get damp if I'm out all day and foot powder works wonders, highly recommend it. Picked up this trick while attending music festivals.
• No issues with tax refunds and customs. We packed some of our stuff in carry-on in case they inspected, but nothing happened.
• Used Ubigi esim and it was perfect. I bought 10gb and used 7gb over our trip, doing most of the navigation and planning. My wife bought 1gb and used about 700mb with just random internet surfing. I will 100% be using this service for travel to other countries in the future, not just Japan, it was so damn convenient.

Transportation

• Definitely leave extra time for navigating subway stations, those things are like enormous underground malls.
• Shinkansen app didn't work for our iphone country (Germany), but I was able to use the mobile web browser pretty easily. Great for free, last-minute rescheduling of Shinkansen tickets when we inevitably take too long shopping.
• Apple Wallet Suica / IC card worked like a charm (with AMEX and Mastercard). One thing though it that it can sometimes take up to 1 minute for the money to load onto the account, so don't wait until the very last minute and accidentally hold up the bus.
• Taxis are green when someone is in it and red when they are free (at least in Tokyo?). Confused the hell out of drunk me at 4am in the morning. I think in Kyoto it is orange instead when someone is in them, and the orange/red difference is quite hard to spot from far away.
• On that note, I had sorta assumed the metro runs all night in Tokyo, but this is definitely not the case. They stop service from about midnight to 5am, so keep an eye on the last train if you do intend to catch it. Otherwise you'll have to take a more-expensive-than-usual taxi (captive markets), but not a big deal. We thought it was typically priced in comparison to most other US and European cities.
• We had a choice between a 1 hour or 3 hour layover in Tokyo NRT and we chose 3 hour because we weren't sure how long it would take to transfer from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1 in NRT. In actuality it took less than 30m, so the 1 hour would have probably been fine. We didn't mind the extra buffer time to relax though.- Absolutely enormous plane flying between Osaka and Tokyo. Like literally it was the size of a transatlantic plane, with 10 seats in each row, for a sub 1 hour flight, completely full with business travelers (judging by their suits and brief cases).

Food

• We aren't big foodies; we like Japanese food a lot but food isn't really a top priority for us while traveling. Some of our favorite meals were from 7/11 (kelp & bonito flavoured tofu stick, sukiyaki beef over rice, fish flavored cheese snacks, grilled squid. Yum!)
• Most meals were good, if a bit straightforward. At least the places we ate at, main courses seemed to be carb heavy, with a side of meat, and little else. I know we could have gotten side dishes, but the portion sizes were too big for us to order more.
• Very few vegetables in general, and if there were some they were pickled. (Guess it makes sense for an island country). I usually bring fiber pills with me when traveling and do recommend it for Japan too.
• Wife is vegetarian, I am not. Japan is not particularly vegetarian friendly if you don't like tofu, which fortunately my wife does. Most places did have at least one tofu option, so it worked out okay for us. She doesn't follow it super strictly though. A few times she would order a dish and I would just pick out the meat from her bowl.
• Portion sizes were a LOT bigger than I thought they would be. I think maybe we are just small eaters. US and European portions are a little bit bigger I suppose, but Japanese portion sizes were too big even for us. Especially ramen! It was crazy to see folks wolf down an giant bowl of ramen, then ask for an extra helping of noodles with their remaining soup, and finish that up too.
• We only made one reservation beforehand and waited in line over 10m once. Worked out fine for us.
• Restaurants tend to do last call an hour or more before closing, so don't get there too late. Happened to us twice before we learned our lesson, got to a restaurant about one hour before the listed closing hours and they turned us away.
• The Japanese palette seems to be much more subtle than typical western palette, and notably less salty. We often find Asian food at US/German restaurants too salty or saucy. Even then, some of the food we ate was bordering on the minimum range of my taste buds to almost be bland. Just my opinion, most of it was good but sometimes the lack of salt was pretty noticeable to me. My wife tends to like things less salty than me though and she thoroughly enjoyed all of those meals no problem. Soup noodle places like ramen and udon are excluded from this, those were usually perfectly salted to my taste.
• Walking while eating seemed fine. I saw at least 3 different instances of Japanese people doing it.
• Apparently there are no laws banning public drinking in Japan. You can drink alcohol on the street no problem, but I rarely saw people doing that (unlike here in Germany where people seem to take full advantage of it and also leave trash everywhere). I did see a few groups of Japanese people doing it at night in Tokyo, usually near bus stops, and the next morning saw the empty bottles and cans. Guess there are litterers everywhere. We had a beer in the park at night, weren't loud about it and took our trash with us. That was very pleasant.

Hotels

• Hotels always have liquid or foam hand soap! I hate the bar soaps that most Western hotels provide in the room, so I usually bring my own liquid hand soap. Was totally not necessary for this trip.
• Lots of people on this sub have mentioned check-in time being very precise, as in you rarely can check in before the designated time. We didn't experience this first hand. But on the flip side, we did find out that check out time is very precise too! They start calling your room about 15-20m after your check out time. This is in contrast to most American/European hotels that we've stayed at, which are in my experience very lax about their check out times. We can often get away with leaving the room at 1-2 hours after the stated check out time (we're late risers). Not so in Japan.
• Agree with other people's advice that booking a hotel close to a big subway station is probably the most important factor. It sucks having to walk 10m to the station every single day, and it is amazing when it is close. Also being close to a 24/7 convenience store was also very nice for late night munchies.

Language

• We only knew sumimasen, konichiwa, and arigato gozaimasu and got alone just fine (lots of hand gestures!). We do know a bit of Mandarin Chinese though so that was helpful with reading signs.Some places knew Mandarin better than English and would switch to that if they thought we could speak it. Chinese tourism seems like big business (we saw a ton of Chinese tourists everywhere) so I guess it makes sense for people in tourism industry to cater towards that. Announcements (like over train stations) always went Japanese, English, often Chinese, then sometimes Korean.

Luggage Forwarding * I thought it was kind of expensive, but it does make things easier.- ○ Tokyo -> Hakone: 2310 yen- ○ Hakone to Kyoto: 2630 yen- ○ Kyoto -> Osaka: 1940 yen. * I feel like for that price you could take a taxi to and from your hotels to the train station and it wouldn't be much more work. There was plenty of space on the Shinkansen to put smaller checked luggage overhead. Then you don't have to prepack things the day before. * For the first leg Tokyo -> Hakone, we shipped two checked luggage which was about ~32 euros. After that we only shipped one, not two. * The middle ground we found was to designate one suitcase as souvenirs and dirty laundry and forwarded it every time. We would then travel with two carry-ons and one checked luggage. YMMV depending on your number of luggage and ease of carrying them.

Looking to go see an apartment there, but I don’t want to move somewhere that’s really far from public transportation, restaurants, grocery stores, etc. Also, is it a safe location? I don’t know much about the area, or Queens in general.

You can download the WesternUnion app and send the payment from your phone and I will pay the fees.

Desktop Users: Comment on this post and Click here to start a trade App Users, please include the following in your PM (Remember to comment on this post as well):

• Type of card(s) and amount of each.
• What payment method you accept.
• How you acquired the GC and why you're getting rid of it.

BTC, Paypal^1, Apple Pay, Chime, Cashapp, Venmo, and Western Union
I only have Steam as a substitute for cash payments in gift card trades.

Want ↓	Cash or a Gift Card ↓	BTC ↓
Apple	60%4	NA
Amazon.ca	50%	50%
Amazon.co.uk	50%	50%
Amazon.com	70%	55%
Amazon.de	50%	50%
Amazon.es	50%	50%
Amazon.fr	50%	50%
Amazon.it	50%	50%
Amazon.jp	30%	30%
Arrow Films	65%	60%
Barnes & Noble	50%	50%
Baskin Robbins	60%	60%
Best Buy	60%	60%
BJ's (not BJ's restaurant)4	60%	NA
Bloomingdales	50%	50%
Burger King4	60%	NA
Clothing Shops (Small Boutique)	contact me	contact me
Dell4	60%	NA
Delta gift cards4	65%	NA
Delta Sky Miles4	PM me	NA
Delta Vouchers4	65%	NA
Dicks Sporting Goods 4	PM me	NA
Disney Plus	PM me	PM me
DoorDash	70%6	NA
Dunkin Donuts4	60%	NA
eBay	70%	70%
Fandango4	10%	NA
Five Guys4	60%	NA
Gamestop	60%	60%
Gas Station Cards4	PM me	NA
Grub Hub	70%6	NA
Gyft	70%	70%
Half Price Books	50%	50%
HBO4	70%	NA
iTunes4	60%	NA
J crew	40%	40%
JCPenney	25%	25%
Jersey Mike Subs4	60%	NA
KFC4	60%	NA
Khols	30%	30%
Macys	35%	35%
Magazines.com	40%	40%
McDonald's 4	60%	NA
Microsoft6	60%	NA
Moe’s Southwestern Grill4	60%	NA
Nintendo Eshop6	70%	NA
Nordstrom	50%	50%
Panera bread4	60%	NA
PSN6	60	NA
PSN Plus 12 month4	NA	NA
Saks Fifth Avenue	50%	50%
Sears	50%	50%
Sephora	50%	50%
Speedway4	80%	NA
Starbucks	55%	55%
Steam6	60%	NA
Subway 4	PM me	NA
Taco Bell	60%	NA
Target	50%	50%
Uber6	70%	NA
Urban Outfitters	50%	50%
Vudu4	50%	NA
Walmart	60%	60%
Wendys4	60%	NA
Xbox (gift cards)6	60%	NA
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (12 month/6 month/3 month/1 month)6	PM me	NA
Other Clothing Stores, Gas Stations, Grocery Stores, Restaurant, & Fast Food gift cards	PM me

¹ When paying via PayPal, I can only send payments via Goods and Services, thus you will be charged a fee. If you'd rather not face this fee there are plenty of alternatives. ² Larger denominated gift cards preferred. ³ PayPal is the only payment option. ⁴ I can't send less than $10 in crypto per Coinbase's rules.

What I don’t buy:

• Amazon.au
• Bass Pro Shop
• buffalo wild wing
• Canadian tire
• Cold Stone
• Dairy Queen
• Fanatics
• Google Play
• Hilton Honors
• Hot Topic
• iTunes from anywhere but the US
• Krispy Kreme
• old navy/gap/banana republic
• Patxi's pizza
• PSN Canada or UK
• publix
• Raceway
• Scheels
• Shell Gas Stations
• Spotify
• Tractor supply
• Xbox Canada or UK
• Xbox live gold

Any fees are built into the price.

Selling

I have:
$500 in Amazon (can be broken up) and am selling at

• 85%: WesternUnion
• 85%: btc
• 90%: Apple Pay or Chime

Here are my GCX Rep profiles with 932 trades worth more than $60,000:

• #1
• #2
• #3
• #4
• #5
• #6
• #7
• #8
• #9
• #10

Important: before you send your codes please make sure your account is secure (if your password is twelve characters or less it's best to assume your account has already been compromised; your password should be eight randomly selected words, see 1 and 2). Scams where compromised accounts are used to leverage reputation to scam an unsuspecting user, used to steal codes during the middle of the trade, and steal unused gift cards the victim was saving for later are increasingly commonplace. If you have any concerns as to your account's security, please reset your password now and force logout of all sessions. Thanks

You can download the WesternUnion app and send the payment from your phone and I will pay the fees.

Desktop Users: Comment on this post and Click here to start a trade App Users, please include the following in your PM (Remember to comment on this post as well):

• Type of card(s) and amount of each.
• What payment method you accept.
• How you acquired the GC and why you're getting rid of it.

BTC, Paypal^1, Apple Pay, Chime, Cashapp, Venmo, and Western Union
I only have Steam as a substitute for cash payments in gift card trades.

Want ↓	Cash or a Gift Card ↓	BTC ↓
Apple	60%4	NA
Amazon.ca	50%	50%
Amazon.co.uk	50%	50%
Amazon.com	70%	55%
Amazon.de	50%	50%
Amazon.es	50%	50%
Amazon.fr	50%	50%
Amazon.it	50%	50%
Amazon.jp	30%	30%
Arrow Films	65%	60%
Barnes & Noble	50%	50%
Baskin Robbins	60%	60%
Best Buy	60%	60%
BJ's (not BJ's restaurant)4	60%	NA
Bloomingdales	50%	50%
Burger King4	60%	NA
Clothing Shops (Small Boutique)	contact me	contact me
Dell4	60%	NA
Delta gift cards4	65%	NA
Delta Sky Miles4	PM me	NA
Delta Vouchers4	65%	NA
Dicks Sporting Goods 4	PM me	NA
Disney Plus	PM me	PM me
DoorDash	70%6	NA
Dunkin Donuts4	60%	NA
eBay	70%	70%
Fandango4	10%	NA
Five Guys4	60%	NA
Gamestop	60%	60%
Gas Station Cards4	PM me	NA
Grub Hub	70%6	NA
Gyft	70%	70%
Half Price Books	50%	50%
HBO4	70%	NA
iTunes4	60%	NA
J crew	40%	40%
JCPenney	25%	25%
Jersey Mike Subs4	60%	NA
KFC4	60%	NA
Khols	30%	30%
Macys	35%	35%
Magazines.com	40%	40%
McDonald's 4	60%	NA
Microsoft6	60%	NA
Moe’s Southwestern Grill4	60%	NA
Nintendo Eshop6	70%	NA
Nordstrom	50%	50%
Panera bread4	60%	NA
PSN6	60	NA
PSN Plus 12 month4	NA	NA
Saks Fifth Avenue	50%	50%
Sears	50%	50%
Sephora	50%	50%
Speedway4	80%	NA
Starbucks	55%	55%
Steam6	60%	NA
Subway 4	PM me	NA
Taco Bell	60%	NA
Target	50%	50%
Uber6	70%	NA
Urban Outfitters	50%	50%
Vudu4	50%	NA
Walmart	60%	60%
Wendys4	60%	NA
Xbox (gift cards)6	60%	NA
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (12 month/6 month/3 month/1 month)6	PM me	NA
Other Clothing Stores, Gas Stations, Grocery Stores, Restaurant, & Fast Food gift cards	PM me

¹ When paying via PayPal, I can only send payments via Goods and Services, thus you will be charged a fee. If you'd rather not face this fee there are plenty of alternatives. ² Larger denominated gift cards preferred. ³ PayPal is the only payment option. ⁴ I can't send less than $10 in crypto per Coinbase's rules.

What I don’t buy:

• Amazon.au
• Bass Pro Shop
• buffalo wild wing
• Canadian tire
• Cold Stone
• Dairy Queen
• Fanatics
• Google Play
• Hilton Honors
• Hot Topic
• iTunes from anywhere but the US
• Krispy Kreme
• old navy/gap/banana republic
• Patxi's pizza
• PSN Canada or UK
• publix
• Raceway
• Scheels
• Shell Gas Stations
• Spotify
• Tractor supply
• Xbox Canada or UK
• Xbox live gold

Any fees are built into the price.

Selling

I have:
$500 in Amazon (can be broken up) and am selling at

• 85%: WesternUnion
• 85%: btc
• 90%: Apple Pay or Chime

Here are my GCX Rep profiles with 932 trades worth more than $60,000:

• #1
• #2
• #3
• #4
• #5
• #6
• #7
• #8
• #9
• #10

Important: before you send your codes please make sure your account is secure (if your password is twelve characters or less it's best to assume your account has already been compromised; your password should be eight randomly selected words, see 1 and 2). Scams where compromised accounts are used to leverage reputation to scam an unsuspecting user, used to steal codes during the middle of the trade, and steal unused gift cards the victim was saving for later are increasingly commonplace. If you have any concerns as to your account's security, please reset your password now and force logout of all sessions. Thanks

Have 10+ years exp in restaurant business, and roughly 2 years in import/export freight forwarding exp. Thanks

Rutgers vs. Pomona
For PreMed Track (Major: Molecular Bio)
Pomona - Very high med school acceptance (85%) w/ grade inflation + accessibility to their pre-health resources - Ability to explore the 5Cs - Has the prestige (in terms of grad school). Next to major city (LA) - Love the liberal arts feel— I am not overwhelmed, I get to know my professors, and I can learn to love learning
Cons - Not sure if Pomona is known to be good with appealing financial aid. - $36k a year ?!!?!?????!? - Location is beautiful but it’s in a quaint old-person town (which is also kind of a pro) - Transportation is limited, cost of living is high in California
Rutgers Pros - If I were to be the TOP premed student at Rutgers, I would have the same chances as anyone for med school - Probably lots of volunteering considering how close its university hospital is - East coast and NY-NJ-PA tristate is good, better than West Coast for jobs (will go back for med school) - Cheaper ($8k/year) - Better accessibility to food (it’s a college town with common-name stores + restaurants) - Traditional feel - Most important: I graduate nearly debt-free
Cons: - Too large 💀, I feel like I’ll miss catching the bus to class all the time - NJ is depressing - Student body isn’t a great fit for me - Asbestos in the dorms, SA assault cancels Orientation Week, Professor Strike— Reputation is….. scary. - More competition with other people for access to resources, less time with professors -Some have told me their premed advisors discourage some med school applicants - Might burn out easily then consider switch
So the thing is, I do not want to be in debt by the time it hits medical/dental school, which we would most definitely have loans to take out. Has anyone had any experiences with paying off their financial aid at Pomona (loans, etc.) to go to law/med/grad school?

When your SO gives zero attention for a week.
When you ask for a hug and get a half-assed grip.
When you ask if anything is wrong and she just shrugs and continues on watching her reality show like a true couch potato.
When you tell her that you miss intimacy (not even the sexual kind) and she blatantly tells you that she doesn't.
Those are the days I don't regret a single action I have done in the past, or plan on doing in the future. I know everyone can have a bad day but when these bad days are too close together, what is a man to think? I'm not perfect, but I try to be a loving husband.
But then the days come where you are alone with the kids and have a "dad day". Where you take them to a nice family restaurant and watch as they enjoy themselves without a care in the world and come running to you to hug you. They say "oh dad next time we have to bring mom!!" and I smile and say I can't wait. Where you text your wife pictures of your family having fun and you get that face with hearts emoji (that you usually send to your AP) in return. That drive back home hearing their stories and how they enjoy "dad day" but "miss mom". Those days are the hardest. You want to be the best father in the world for your little ones but you remember those easy days all too well.
The conflict in your head. The bullshit. I may often say it's easy to cheat or that I don't regret it and really, I don't regret it. But there are these moments where I wish I didn't feel the need to.
Be well, my fellow adulterers.

A while ago I posted this question about the sauces and was informed that it was just an issue at my local restaurant but GUESS WHAT. They finally brought back my beloved barbecue sauce as well as a bunch of other sauces.
But GUESS WHAT! The day I discovered this was the same day I realized that they removed the vegetarian black bean fajitas from the menu. It’s one of two things I can order at Chili’s (and my preferred one due to being more nutritious) and now it’s gone.
Is this a permanent company-wide thing I need to accept or is my local Chili’s is fucking with me?
In the meantime I guess I’m gonna be ordering from Chipotle a lot more now 😕

Does anyone know of any restaurants or bars that can handle hosting a wedding with live music for about 100-115 people? Any info on locations/pricing would be appreciated!

I have several 5 star customer ratings. But not near as many “Customer Feedback” ratings.
And NO “Customer Compliments”.
For those that do have a good amount of any of those- what are you doing to go above and beyond?
My ratings are good, but I’d like to have more customer feedback 🫤.
I have a pleasant smile (aka- I’m not lost in thought, staring at the ground) - from the moment I park at the customer’s house and leave their food on their porch.
If I deliver to them in person, I’m friendly. But not at all chatty. I take the food out of the hot bag in front of them- and pleasantly say thank you and have a great night!
Could it be that I usually don’t park in their driveway? I park on the road in front of their house as to not take a chance on accidentally running into one of their cars. I don’t walk through their grass. I walk up their driveway.
I deliver on time, and I send polite courtesy texts if I’m waiting in the restaurant. I have a neat appearance and clothes.
Am I overthinking this? Should I do complimentary banter about their great choice of restaurant? 🤔😂
What am I missing?