Nothing could have prepared America for this election season, as Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaigns continue to bring new drama and new surprises into the final weeks before the election. It had only been days after NY Times released Trump’s tax returns and Wikileaks unveiled hacked emails from Clinton’s private server, when another scandal surfaced – this time a video of Donald bragging about groping women, which all culminated in a very intense and uneasy debate between the candidates last week. As more and more Republicans distance themselves from Trump, I find it ironic that their candidate has done more to fracture the party than any Democrat opponent had in this country’s history. And while the political scene continues to spiral into chaos, my own household’s health was also falling apart. On Tuesday, I left work early with a sore throat and fever of 101, only to find my wife acutely hunched over with 10/10 right lower quadrant pain. After idiotically trying to tough it out for an hour, we finally drove to our local ER, where she was promptly diagnosed with a ruptured appendicitis and taken to surgery. Luckily, my parents had been visiting and were just getting used to caring for the baby. So while Melody was recovering in the hospital and I was juggling my remaining clinical duties, they were able to step in and watch Westley. It will be rough flying out tomorrow, especially since she just got discharged from the hospital today. Fortunately, it’ll be a short itinerary, and I’m looking forward to coming home soon for some much needed rest.

I was in Tokyo this week for the 2016 ISER biennial meeting. It has been 8 years since my last visit there, and I was determined to try something new having already done the touristy stuff. Making reservations was no easy task, however, with language barriers and opposite time zones that necessitated multiple email exchanges with my hotel and an online concierge. I left Sunday morning, and after a muggy layover in Honolulu with bland ramen, landed in Narita Monday afternoon. The hotel was tiny, but perfectly located a block from the meeting venue and a quick walk to Shinjuku station. For dinner, I waited in line at Udon Shin to squeeze in for a hearty bowl with parmesan, butter, and tempura ham, then checked out the bustling scene in Shibuya. Jet-lagged, I got little sleep before attending the conference next morning. For lunch, I had reservations at Sushi-ya in Ginza, but the place was so hidden in an alleyway that it took 30 minutes of getting lost before I enlisted a nearby coffee shop hostess to help me find it. The meal was worth the trouble, however, as Chef Ishiyama, who trained at Michelin-starred Sushi Saito and Kanesaka, prepared an amazing 14-piece lunch set with hamachi, chutoro, otoro, bonito, ika, botan ebi, kohada, ikura, kinmedai, shiro ebi, kanpyou, Hokkaido uni, hamaguri, unagi, and tamago. Every piece was meticulously assembled by the chef himself, despite my belated arrival and off-set preparation of my pieces. After presenting my poster, I went for dinner at Sumibiyakiniku Nakahara. Here, I sat at the counter as the chefs grilled each slice of meat individually before me, with 3 divine cuts of the “legendary” wagyu tongue, followed by the 7-piece omakase course including sirloin, outside skirt, misuji, zabuton, rump, katahana, and kata-sankaku. The size and sequence of each cut were perfectly calibrated, and they even comped a few extra pieces at the end. I returned to the hotel afterwards to bask in utter ecstasy. On Wednesday, I met my old PI for a massive breakfast buffet prior to the meeting. Lunch was at Le Sputnik, but I again got lost from my outdated map app requiring more assistance, this time from the Ritz-Carlton concierge. When I finally arrived, I learned that my reservation was not until the next day. So I spent the next hour wandering Roppongi to locate a ramen shop that I had researched, which again was mislabeled on the app and nowhere to be found. Sweaty, hungry, and frustrated, I returned to Shinjuku where a bowl of tsukemen from Fuunji made me feel better. Exhausted, I napped all afternoon and awoke feeling reinvigorated. A late-night bowl of yummy fish-based ramen at Nagi Golden Gai helped fuel me as I walked through Kabukicho and squeezed past Chinese shoppers at Don Quixote. I stayed up all night but could not keep my eyes open back at the meeting on Thursday. Instead, I checked out and dragged my luggage back to Le Sputnik. Here, Chef Yujiro Takahashi’s 9-course tasting lunch menu certainly earned its Michelin-starred status, with highlights like a divine mushroom sorbet with poached egg yolk, a seared foie gras with orange compote and espresso jelly, and a juicy Hokkaido venison with red wine jus reduction that transcends the game meat genre. Before I left, I inquired about their fine glassware, and was directed to a glass shop in Ebisu which unfortunately did not stock the Kimura tumblers I wanted. I got to Narita early to take advantage of my new Priority Pass membership and enjoyed the amenities at the KAL lounge before my flight home. My visit to Tokyo showed me a different side of the city, and left me with a sense of longing for the beauty, energy, and unique culture of the city.

This month’s travel has been very hectic. Shortly after the DC trip, I flew to La Jolla for a day to present my work at Scripps for the Alcon Research Institute Young Investigator Award symposium. Luckily, the flight was short, and my Global Entry membership arrived just in time to facilitate airport security. The company also helped make things easy by arranging for airport transfers to the hotel complete with black Mercedes and black-tie drivers. Dinner was generic fare, although I did enjoy rubbing elbows with leaders in the field. I returned home for less than 24 hours to spend time with my family and get some dim sum, baked goods, and groceries, before hitting the road again for my flight to Japan. We also broke out our new copy of Uncharted 4, where Nathan Drake’s newest adventure continues to wow us with action-packed cinematography and impressive voice-acting. While my hectic travel schedule will not be as exciting, I look forward to some novel dining experiences in the days ahead.

I headed to Washington DC this week for my first experience in lobbying congress. I was selected by NAEVR as one of 22 “Emerging Vision Scientists” from around the country to represent early-career researchers to present our research on Capitol Hill and promote funding for the NIH. I had forgotten how much farther IAD was than DCA, so I didn’t get to my hotel until past midnight, after a $50 Uber ride. On Thursday, I took advantage of free time in the morning to do my Global Entry interview at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The 5-minute interview was a breeze, and I had enough time to join some friends for the overpriced hotel breakfast buffet. In the afternoon, we attended a presentation as part of AMD awareness week, then joined the organizers of the event for a preparatory luncheon. In the evening, we presented our research posters at a congressional reception, where we interfaced with representatives from congress, the NEI, and RPB. I stayed up late catching up with an old lab-mate over takeout at his house, which made for a rough early morning on Thursday. I was first scheduled with Doris Matsui herself, but only got to meet with her aide when the Congresswoman was stuck on the house floor. In between my House and Senate visits, I navigated the underground tunnels, checked out the cafeteria, and got a souvenir coin from the Capitol gift shop. I also passed the Supreme Court, and checked my email at the Library of Congress. I joined the UCSD delegation to meet staffers from Senator Boxer’s office, but had to leave to catch my flight before Senator Feinstein’s office meetings. Although visiting these three offices was like preaching to the choir, I was nevertheless deeply inspired by the democratic process and the ability as a constituent to visit our representatives’ offices to voice our opinion.

With a recent surge in patient referrals from Kaiser due to a few of their retina specialists being on leave, my usual white cloud has turned into a cumulonimbus of late night surgeries. Between taking call through Labor Day weekend and keeping up with a more mobile Westley, I felt like a zombie on the cast of the Walking Dead, AMC’s compelling drama series that has now gotten me hooked into a second season. With the baby’s schedule, however, our TV-watching over dinner has been kept brief as we embarked also on new seasons of Kimmy Schmidt and F.O.B.. Melody was glad that SYTYCD survived another season as well, but this time featuring kids between age 8-13, much like Masterchef Junior. Despite not getting to do much on weekends, we made an effort to continue dining out each week, including dim sum with the in-laws at New Canton, and lunch at Selland family restaurants Obo’ and Selland’s Market. We also shopped for new guestroom furniture at West Elm, including an upholstered sleigh bed as well as nightstands and dresser. Hopefully, the stuff will arrive in time for my parents’ visit later this month.

We celebrated Westley’s 6-month birthday with strawberry shortcake from Nugget and lots of photos at home. Though he’s still too young to have any cake himself, he has begun putting everything he finds into his mouth, which makes it easier for us as we began introducing him to solids like rice cereal and baby food. Luckily, this year’s ASRS meeting took place in nearby San Francisco, so I was able to just drive in for the sessions I wanted to attend. On Wednesday, I tried out the new In Situ at the SF MOMA, where Corey Lee’s menu of signature dishes replicated from some of the finest restaurants in the world (including Noma’s Wood Sorrel & Sheep’s Milk Yogurt) made for a delicious lunch with my Duke co-fellows. I was invited for a reception and tour at Genentech’s headquarters in the evening, where I got to see how thousands of liters of Lucentis are produced, and rub elbows with their researchers and medical liasons. I returned to lab on Thursday to take my summer lab students out for lunch to thank them for their hard work. I also took my research med students, including my year-long T32 mentee, for dinner at Takumi Izakaya at their soft opening. On Friday, I returned to the City by the Bay to play reporter for Retina Times and present on a discussion panel for Zeiss’ surgical microscope. I joined a colleague for a prix fixe lunch at Volta, but skipped dinner to beat rush hour traffic on my way back. With a lot of upcoming travel, I skipped the rest of the meeting to spend more time at home.

With Westley’s rash under better control and us becoming more used to our routine, we decided to bring the baby out to explore some Sac restaurants – chowing down comfort food at South, satisfying our Korean crave at Hankook Tofu House, and filling on Indian buffet at Pooja and Mehfil. Our outings were interrupted, however, by a GI bug that led to nausea and vomiting for the whole family. The baby’s symptoms outlasted us by almost a week, culminating in yet another ER visit for IV fluids that kept us up all night. We were feeling better by the time we drove down to Stockton for Melody’s 20th high school reunion with her 20 valedictorian friends, but not before infecting grandma and grandpa also. This week, we were back to full speed, just in time for the Olympic Summer Games in Rio. We watched Brazil show off their national treasures (like Gisele) at the opening ceremony, and prepared for 2 weeks of watching sports that Americans would hardly watch otherwise like rugby, volleyball, and swimming. We joined in the Olympic spirit, and ordered us an Amazon Dash button for Westley for speedy Aquaphor ordering, and a Dash wallet for me for speedy credit card spending. With a third person in our household to care for, we need the speed!

Now having settled into our home and undergone most renovations, we decided to host my division’s end-of-year gathering and formally send off our two retina fellows. In preparation, we bought an Ikea island for the patio area, got our propane tank refilled, and even purchased a nice ficus bonsai tree with a gift card from last Christmas. This was our first time hosting more than 10 people, so we decided to make a Costco run to prepare. For appetizers, we got a crudites platter to go with Melody’s quiche. We also prepared a tomato and mozzarella caprese salad, an avocado pasta salad, and pre-packaged Asian sesame salad. For grilling, we had beef tri-tip, chicken thigh, and shrimp skewers; along with burgers and hot dogs for the kids. We got a fruit tart for dessert, which was outdone by a fruit-basket cake from Ettore’s. We started the event at 10am Sunday to avoid the heat, but by noon, most of the kids had retreated under our oak trees’ shade. Even Westley got to enjoy the festivities, chumming with our house guests while mom and dad ran the show. We had so much leftovers that we invited over our in-laws and niece for another round of grilling on July 4th the next day, and still had enough food for the following week. Meanwhile, Westley continues to grow and learn new skills each day. He is getting better at supporting his head, and has learned to flip front-to-back and back-to-front. Now with a new batch of residents and students, I can only wish that they will be fast learners like him!

Coming back from Puerto Rico, it was hard to imagine that I was actually landing in a hot zone. It had been only days since Westley started going to daycare when he broke out in skin rashes on his arms and legs, with a fever of 101. We had received a notice from the school on his first day there, informing us that another baby had hand-foot-mouth disease, so we had an idea of what we were dealing with. But while I was away, Westley’s rash got so bad that his pediatrician sent him to the ER for a dermatology consult, and even Melody was getting sick. By the time I got back, my wife and I were both suffering fevers and chills, sore throats, and lesions on our hands and feet which made it hard for us to walk, let alone do any housework. Fortunately, while we were surviving on rice porridge and egg jello, the baby remained in excellent mood and had no issues with feeding. Worried that we were not taking good care of ourselves and the baby, we finally called in our in-laws (again) to help out as we tried to make it through the work week, donning masks and gloves to keep from spreading our germs. By the weekend, we were both feeling much better and were able to attend our respective resident-fellow graduations. On Father’s day, I awoke to ramen in bed, went for some Asian groceries, and chilled out at home for most of the afternoon. Hopefully, I’ll be in better shape to work with my new summer research students next week. In the meantime, here’re the results of my latest noodle competition – Gangnam style! Pardon the brevity, but I was not that impressed. Again, scores are for soup, noodles.

Ottogi Spice Seafood Noodle (7,9): Amazingly springy noodles are paired with deep, flavorful broth.

Ottogi Jin Ramen – Mild (7,7): Broth of full-bodied but boring, while noodles are good and light.

Bajirak Kalguugsu – Clam flavor (5,7): Clam flavor is bland, and noodles are not that interesting.

Pulmuone Noodles – Spicy Oyster Sauce (5,8): Noodles are springy, but the broth tastes chemically.

Odongtong Myon Seafood (7,8): Very similar to Neoguri, but spicier with a more fermented flavor

Seafood Party (6,7): Despite the name, neither the soup nor noodles are much of a party.

U-dong Nouille De Saveur D’Udon (4,7): The noodles are fine, but soup is just bad.

Nongshim Champong Noodle Soup (7,7): For a Nongshim champong, I expected more but soup was a tad spicy and noodles were tad soft

Samyang Vegetable Ramen (5,7): Spicy but not flavorful broth with oily noodles that are okay.

With the hope of expanding our geriatric population at the California primate center, I was sent down to Puerto Rico to screen rhesus monkeys from the Cayo Santiago colony for ocular diseases. Melody dropped me off at the airport on Sunday evening, right after we discovered spots on Westley’s torso that were highly suspicious for the new hand-foot-mouth disease epidemic at his daycare. Luckily, my in-laws were already prepared to help out while I was away, which made it easier for me to say goodbye. Along with the veterinarian traveling with me, we boarded our red-eye to Atlanta, and after a giant Qdoba breakfast burrito, we arrived in sunny San Juan. To ensure their safe arrival, I carried the eye equipment with me as we picked up our car rental and drove to our hotel. From the concierge’s recommendation, we went to nearby Ropa Vieja Grill, which served up hearty white bean soup and pulled-steak mofongo. After our late lunch, we were picked up from our hotel to head to Fajardo, where our Bio-Bay kayak tour awaited. We were glad to catch the earlier tour, as we got to appreciate the sunset while paddling through the mangroves, watch some plankton luciferase activity in the waters, and only struggled on the return trip, where the heavy currents and pitch-black visibility led to multiple wrong turns and collisions. By the time we returned to the hotel, we were cold, completely soaked, and had missed our dinner reservation. Refusing to call it a night, I took a hot shower and wento the hotel restaurant for some shrimp mofongo which was surprisingly satisfying. On Tuesday, we arrived at the secluded Caribbean primate center bright and early, and managed to finish screening all the animals by lunch, and was able to tour the facilities and appreciate the surrounding flora. In the evening, we ventured to old San Juan to explore El Morro, which was littered with stray cats, large iguanas, and stranded kites. For dinner, we got the tasting menu at Marmalade, where chef Peter Schintler served up a delectable ahi poke appetizer, although the rabbit mac n’cheese and seared tuna with foie gras on curried lentils both sounded better than they tasted. We finished even earlier on Wednesday, but I was glad to get in a nap before dinner at Santaella, which included a baby octopus casserole and a red snapper with pineapple chimichurri and tostones which were both somewhat uninspired. We finished screening the last animals on Thursday, just in time for my afternoon flight home. I had to be back for Friday clinic, and sadly could not join the other researchers to visit the island itself, where the free-ranging colony resides. The return flight was rough, as I began developing a sore throat and shaking chills, which I tried to treat with hot coffee that kept me up for three consecutive in-flight movies. It was hard at the moment to imagine what I was going home to, but it was about to get much worse.