Shopping area in Japantown connected by an outdoor plaza with a Japanese Pagoda. The malls feature some good food spots and as well as Kinokuniya Bookstore.

Stout would go around the world and bring back rare books and that's how the store was born.

I love visiting Land's End early in the morning when the light is new and the city is waking up. There's a spectacular view of the bridge and the north bay. Makes me grateful to live in San Francisco.

One day when I was walking around in the hills behind my house, I happened upon this bizarre street. It was as though someone had taken postmodernism and tried to make it into a block of houses. Each one has its own internally complete theme, involving strange colors and sculptural elements attached to the outside walls (gold eggs, wisps of wrought iron). This led me on subsequent walks to name them: the Corbusier House, the Barn, the Preschool Blocks house, the House of Wicca… and so on.

Great cocktails. Horrible crowd.