RSS Feed

‘deal’ Category

  1. Review: U-Relax Chinese Foot Massage

    May 11, 2012 by editor

    U-Relax Foot Massage
    Thousand Oaks Location:
    3699 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd.
    Thousand Oaks, CA 91362
    Phone: (805) 777-1668

    I was cruising around Westlake Village, which has become one of my favorite stomping grounds, and I saw a really unique place.  It said Chinese foot massage on the outside.  My feet had been bugging me a little and I thought, “Why not for the purposes of RoadFish?  Let’s go get a Chinese foot massage!”  It turns out, however, that even though it says Chinese foot massage and the sign in front says Chinese foot massage when you go inside it is designed much more like a regular massage place but not any regular massage place you have ever been to.

    Courtesy of www.urelaxmassage.com

    They don’t use regular massage tables instead they had a big open area, which I like because it makes it efficient and keeps the costs down, where there are multiple people in view while you are getting worked on.  You stay fully clothed.  You lie down on this modular padded piece with a piece of face paper for sanitation.  The whole pace is dimly lit.  A guy gets to work on you; he doesn’t speak any English (at least in my case that is what happened).  He began very aggressively and deeply working on my back and neck.

    I signed up for the 30-minute massage, which I believe was only $20.  Which is an awfully good deal because the cost works out to $40 an hour.  Usually a massage in California comes out to be a $1 minute or more and this was less than a $1 a minute.

    If you don’t like really deep painful massage I would not recommend it.   He was sensitive to whether the pressure was okay or not.  The only thing I could communicate with was pointing with a thumbs up or down.   Anything other communication was futile & confusing.

    All in all it was a decent experience and you get your money’s worth.  Due to the communication difficulties I don’t think I was able to relax nearly as much as I would have at another massage place like the Thai place I went to recently, but on the other hand if you are in the neighborhood and you need someone to work on you quickly, deeply, and cost effectively this is a good place to go.

    The other plus was that they had a variety of length of time for the massage.   I believe you could do 20 min, 30 min; they may have even had a 10 min option.  It was very cost effective so it didn’t bother me, but when I went to pay leave my tip on the credit card, I was told there was a minimum $5 tip which I thought was a bit odd.

     

    Category deal | Tags: | No Comments

  2. Awesome Massage at Total Relax Spa

    February 28, 2012 by editor

    For the last 10 years I stopped by Mitsuwa Marketplace, a Japanese market, in Costa Mesa to pick up my most recent craving for Sushi.  I’ve noticed in the parking lot next to theirs a place with a shiatsu sign.

    I’ve always wanted to stop in and for the last month while I went through the final negotiations of my divorce agreement the side of my neck had been absolutely killing me.  Sure, I’ve gotten some chiropractic and sure I’ve been stretching and cracking it myself, but there has just been something in there I haven’t been able to get rid of.

    So, I am on my way up north to see my new girlfriend and I am stopping by Mitsuwa to pick up some snacks for a little surprise picnic I am doing for her kids and I see the place.

    Total Relax Spa
    3040 Bristol Street
    Costa Mesa CA 92626
    714-241-8888
    http://www.yelp.com/biz/total-relax-costa-mesa

    Photo from Yelp

    I pull up and walk in.  It turns out the massage is $65 per hour.  I ask them if there is somebody strong that they’ve got that can really work on my shoulder.  I get the sense that the girl at the front desk doesn’t speak English that well and I am assuming she is Japanese because all the businesses around there are Japanese.

    She tells me they have somebody good.  I tell her that I will be back in 5 minutes and I go and get ready.  When I arrive they send me to a room to change.  It was interesting, for a massage place, I’ve never seen anything like it.

    They have a row of lockers like you’d expect in a gym and a little key for each one so you can put your stuff in and then they have a shower and a bathroom area where you can get ready.  All of those things were very upscale and nice but what really surprised me was the excruciating cleanliness of the place.  It was unbelievable.  I couldn’t see a drop of lint on the floor anywhere.  I felt so comfortable in fact that when I had to go in the bathroom I walked in the restroom without even bothering to put my shoes on and felt totally sanitary leaving my clothes on the floor.

    On the sink, they had everything you could possibly imagine you might need for after your massage. They had razors, shaving cream, q-tips, and mouth wash.  They even had cologne.

    Photo From Total Relax Spa Facebook

    They had a nice stack of fluffy towels also.  Before I went in they hand me a pair of shorts and a t-shirt to wear.  I thought this was interesting as most places I go to for massage have you just walk in take off your clothes inside and get under the towel.   At this place, they wanted you to change.  It was funny when I put on the pair of shorts and large t-shirt they gave me.  I did stretch them out quite a bit and the shorts didn’t quite cover my butt.  I think they are used to a smaller Asian clientele.

    Then I went in for the massage and I met Amy.  Amy it turns out wasn’t Japanese at all but Chinese.  I looked at her with her tiny frame and thought there is no way this girl is going to be ablet o really dig into my muscles the way I needed it.  Boy, was I wrong.

    The first questions she asked me when I laid down on the table was “Okay to step on back?”

    I didn’t know exactly what I was in for, but I said, “Go for it.”

    The next thing I know she is up on the table balancing on the wall with one foot on my left ass cheek and the other foot working her way down the right side of my back kneading deeply into the muscles.  So deeply in fact that I could barely take it.  She kept asking me “Too Hard, Too hard?”  I kept saying “No, Amy you just keep going.”

    It was interesting though that I felt treated a little bit more like a piece of meat than I do by a typical American massage therapist who is into all the frou frou, fluffy, new age, new wave, healing energy, crystal banging, hot stone massage work.  That Amy, she was just in there to rip my pieces of flesh one from the other and boy did she do a good job at it.

    Some of the things she did I didn’t even know were possible like balancing on my back with one foot and the other foot worked my lats and the side of my stomach.

    Amy then went on her knees and seemed extremely comfortable being  on top of my back while I was stark naked on her hands and knees while her hands and knees kneaded into my back and buttocks.

    The odd thing about it is that she was so good at what she did that it wasn’t the slightest bit erotic.  In fact, it was just massively painful in a wonderful way. She was sensitive enough though that every time I would moan and groan she would ask me “Too hard, too hard?”  At one point I finally cried uncle.  I actually tapped out but she didn’t see my hand tapping. Then I realized that she wouldn’t know what I was doing because this wasn’t Jiu Jitsu.  By the time I got up my neck felt the best that it’s felt in a month.  I was absolutely thrilled with the experience.   At the end of the hour, I gave Amy a $20 tip.

    It had probably doubled her hourly salary.  I just couldn’t be happier with the work that they did.

    I asked if I could take pictures and they said, “Sorry, no manager here.”  I highly recommend the Total Relax Spa.  It is not for anybody who is a wimp and is shy with their body, but for somebody like me who is comfortable being naked and having someone jam into them.  It is great place.  By the way, it was never inappropriate.  There was always a towel over my butt, but just barely.

    Category deal | Tags: | No Comments

  3. Store Review: Shun Fat Supermarket

    February 26, 2012 by editor

    After we had Dim Sum we walked into Shun Fat Supermarket to check it out to see what it was like.  I know a lot of you guys haven’t been inside hardcore Asian markets before and there are so many wonderful delightful things.

    Shun Fat Supermarket
    421 N. Atlantic Blvd
    Monterey Park, CA 91754
    (626) 308-3998

    http://www.shunfatsupermarket.com/

    The first place we hit was the produce department.  In the produce department we found all kinds of things you can’t normally find at a regular grocery store.  We found 3 different kinds of asian pears.  Shannon said one of them is called the green pear it looks like what I consider a regular asian pear except it is even more ginormous and it was dark brown.  We found things you would normally get to find like chili paste and we also bought almond cookies.

    And then along the way we also found things that I had just never seen before.  We picked up a bottle of fish sauce which is real common in Vietnamese and specifically Thai food.  Fish sauce is a concentrated anchovy and water mix with a little bit of salt and possibly a little bit of sugar depending on which one you get.  It doesn’t taste as horrible as you would imagine and in fact with the right thing it is absolutely amazing.

    We walked down the tea aisle.  I wanted Shannon to get to try some really expensive green tea.  What was funny is a little man approached us and started telling us about how he comes from a long line of oriental healers and he studied all the big books even though the only degree he could get was mathematics in the U.S.  He couldn’t get a doctor degree because of the language.  He spoke very broken English.  He started taking us through the teas and telling us which teas were good for this and good for that.  One tea was good for handling an infection, another tea is good for women when it is that time of the month, other teas are for being more pretty.  So, we ended up walking out with a big armful of different teas.  The amazing thing is if we had been at Whole Foods buying a thing of green tea could cost $5-$10.  Here a box of green tea was a $1.39.   I think there was even one tea that was $0.79.

    We walked out of the place with a huge grocery basket full of amazing interesting and unique things and we ended up spending $50 for it.  Prices were cheaper than they would be at a Trader Joe’s.




    Category deal | Tags: | No Comments

  4. True Cost of Ownersip for Big SUVs

    December 22, 2011 by editor

    In yesterday’s blog post, I went over how my Toyota Land Cruiser with over 300,000 miles on it had finally blown its engine.  I then went on to compare the 5 year cost if I were to fix and keep it and compared that to the 5 year costs of buying a brand new top of the line Chevy Suburban, buying a two year old top of the line Chevy Suburban, or getting one that is 4 years old.  I also compared this to the cost of getting the deal of the century, a rental from Alamo for a Chevy Suburban and keeping it for 5 years switching it out for a new one every few months.  Luckily, when I got my free credit report all these options turned out to be good possibilities.

    Oddly enough, the price winner hands down was the two year old Suburban which came out to $58,309 which strangely was almost identical to the cost of buying a 4 year old Suburban.  The other possible alternative was simply renting a brand new Suburban from Alamo which ended up costing $67,765, but had the advantage of always having a brand new car, being able to switch it out whenever it needed maintenance, and gave infinite flexibility in case I was travelling, didn’t need a car, wanted to drive a different car for a while, or wanted to give up and buy a car.  I still might very possibly go with the rental option.

    You can read the details of yesterday’s post, True Cost of Ownership.

    Bottom line any way you slice it we are talking a shitload of money to drive a decent car.  All of these options come out to around $1,000 a month.  The next step I took today was to see if there was another car maybe not quite as spacious and maybe without as much haul-assability but that costs a lot less money.  So, I pulled reports again from Edmunds’ True Cost of Ownership calculator.  There are some other cars that I can conceive of driving and even some a step down from that.  The first car I brought up is the 2010 fully loaded, leathered, 4 wheel drive Suburban.  That was the sweet spot from yesterday.  You’ll see that it has a 5 year total cost of ownership of $58,309.

    Chevy Suburban 2010 True Cost of Ownership from Edmunds.com

    The next car I pulled was the 2010 Chevy Tahoe.  This is a badass car.  It seems very similar to the Suburban, but not as nice and ends up costing over 5 years $109.40 less per year.

    Chevy Tahoe 2010 True Cost of Ownership from Edmunds.com

    Next I tried the Ford Expedition which is a smaller car.  I have rented these before for long drives and they were totally cool just not quite as ‘living room’ roomy as the Suburban.  The 5 year cost of ownership on the Expedition was $54,425 which is almost as much as the Suburban so for me totally not worth the money savings for the lack of room.

     

    Ford Expedition 2010 True Cost of Ownership from Edmunds.com

    The next one I looked at is a car I would never drive because it is just too small to throw a party in, the Ford Explorer.  I wanted to see though what it would cost to drive the 2010 version of the most popular car in America.  The 5 year cost for the Explorer was $47,167 which saves you about 20% so considering the comfort difference over 5 years totally not worth it for me.

    Ford Explorer 2010 True Cost of Ownership from Edmunds.com

    Then I looked at a Toyota 4Runner which is a totally badass car but also way too small for me.  The cost on this is $48,750.  Again, a 20% savings, but not worth it for the size difference.

    Remember gas mileage has been included in these numbers.

    Toyota 4Runner 2010 True Cost of Ownership from Edmunds.com

     The big surprise was the 2010 Toyota Land Cruiser.  My Land Cruiser has cost me almost nothing to drive.  I was totally shocked to see that it was $15,214  dollars more to drive a used Land Cruiser for 5 years versus a Suburban.

    Toyota Land Cruiser 2010 True Cost of Ownership from Edmunds.com

    The only way I can make sense of the Land Cruiser price is that because they are such badass, reliable, unreal, off-road vehicles people are willing to pay a premium for the chance to buy one.  I agree a Land Cruiser is much cooler than a Suburban just because of the handling reliability and body style.

    I am going to call the garage tomorrow and figure out the range of costs and probabilities of what it will cost to get my car fixed.  Where I am now is deciding between getting my old car fixed, buying a 2010 Suburban, or most likely for convenience and how busy I am in life just doing a long term car rental.  Another huge advantage of a car rental is they don’t keep track of mileage.  I am driving a shitload right now.  I talked to my friend, Mark, and he just leased a BMW and has to be somewhat conscious of the mileage. That fact made me realize another huge advantage of renting over leasing.

    I’ll keep you posted.

    Category deal | Tags: | No Comments

  5. True Cost of Ownership

    December 19, 2011 by editor

    Well the day has finally come. My Toyota Land Cruiser with 330,000 miles on it has something wrong with a rod, and the engine sounds like Santa’s workshop the few nights before Christmas eve. So Jo Juniors the most rock star Vietnamese auto repair shop in the world said it will be around $4,000 to rebuild the engine. Then I have a bitchen’ 20 year old land cruiser that will cost $2500 a year to keep on the road.

    What are my options?

    When you look at the price of buying a car, the real price isn’t what the car sells for. The real cost includes the cost to insure it, repair it, depreciation, and any taxes or other items. A used Ferrari is a lot cheaper than you would think, because of the crazy repair bills.

    So right now my bro at Alamo  got me a pimp deal on renting a Suburban. The most bad ass car I know of for my needs.

    Let’s take a look at the real cost of ownership.

    Edmunds.com has a tool that allows you to calculate the True Cost of Ownership of a car.

    So if I buy a brand new 2012 Suburban, 4 wheel drive, and leather interior, LTZ and you assume I drive about 15,000 miles per year, the cost to drive that car for 5 years is $71,318.

    suburban 2012 true cost of ownership

    Suburban 2012 True Cost of Ownership from Edmunds.com

     

    And then if we get a 2010, 2 year old, same car, the cost to drive for 5 years is $58,000.

    2010 suburban true cost of ownership

    2010 Suburban True Cost Of Ownership from Edmunds.com

    If we go back another 2 years to 2008, then the cost to drive it is $57,295.

    2008 suburban True Cost of Ownership

    2008 suburban True Cost of Ownership from Edmunds.com

    On the other hand, if I worked out the killer deal of deals at the car rental place, I could rent a Chevy Suburban for $750 a month, or $9,000 a year. On top of that I would still need insurance, for about $1200 a year, as well as gas for $3353, would cost $13,553 per year, or $67,765 for 5 years. That is actually cheaper than buying a new one, and you drive a brand new car at all times, in fact if the car even gets dirty, or breaks in any way, you just take it back to the rental place.

    I may just end up getting a rental car for the next 5 years! LOL

    Or I can just keep doing what I have been doing, which means I would get the Land Cruiser fixed, and then just rent the Suburban whenever I need to go out of town. The 20 year old Land Cruiser would cost me for the next 5 years:

    $4,000 to get the engine fixed now.

    $12,500 – $2500 x 5 years for repairs and maintenance

    $30,000 for gas – Car gets 10 miles per gallon.

    $6,000 ($1200 a year in insurance)

    $9,000 (30 days of renting a Suburban each year, and includes money for parking Land Cruiser by airport, but does not take my time into account)

    $61,000 Total – sheesh!

    The downside with keeping the Land Cruiser, is that it is still an old, potentially unreliable car, so if I go further than L.A., 140 miles away, I would need to rent a Suburban, which would save gas, miles, and repair, but increase by the cost of rental.

    5 year Cost Comparison assuming 15k miles a year:

    1. Buy 2012 Suburban – $71,318

    2. Buy 2010 Suburban – $58,309

    3. Buy 2008 Suburban – $57,2295

    4. Rent Perpetually New Suburban – $67,765

    5. Land Cruiser and Rent when leave town – $61,000

    Option 2, buying the 2010 Suburban, initially looks the best, but….

    If I perpetually rent, I will always have a brand new car, I will return it before it hits $20,000 miles, I can switch it out for a sports car or something if I am in the mood, or even just another SUV, and I never, ever, have the inconvenience of dropping it off at the garage. The only downside I can think of is that I can’t customize the car in any way, but I have no interest in that.

    Another big upside is that I have no commitment. I can literally stop at any point and use another one of the options, or something else.

    I’ll let you guys know what I finally decide, but I might just end up with the perpetual rent.

    Category deal | Tags: | No Comments