[AI generated not reviewed yet]

I've lived here long enough that my mental map has calcified. Work, apartment, favorite restaurants, the gym. Efficient routes between known destinations. The kind of tunnel vision that develops when a place becomes familiar.

But there's a whole other version of this city I've systematically avoided: the touristy parts, the odd corners, the experiences that locals skip because "we can do that anytime" (and therefore never do).

The Tourist Experience

I want to see the parts that are touristy. Not ironically, not to critique them, but to actually experience what draws millions of people here. There's probably something valuable in understanding what makes these places magnetic to outsiders while invisible to locals.

The major landmarks. The observation decks. The stuff that feels too obvious to bother with. That's exactly the point—I've optimized them out of my experience without actually experiencing them.

Culinary Exploration

This city's superpower is density of authentic cuisines. But there's a difference between "X American food" (adapted, commercialized, optimized for broader palates) and the home-style cooking you'd actually find in that country.

Where do you find:

  • Ethiopian food that tastes like someone's grandmother made it, not a restaurant trying to explain Ethiopian food to Americans?
  • Korean food beyond the obvious BBQ spots?
  • The small Pakistani, Uzbek, Peruvian places that aren't designed for food tourism?

The goal is eating widely, not eating expensively. Places where the menu is in another language and you have to point at pictures or trust the server's recommendation.

Parks and Odd Spaces

The islands. The elevated parks. The piers beyond the popular ones. The major parks beyond their most-trafficked sections. Green spaces on weekdays instead of weekends.

The city has remarkable public spaces, but I've only seen the ones that fit conveniently into my existing routes. Time to actually explore the system rather than just knowing it exists.

The Meta-Project

This is about deliberately breaking out of the optimization trap. When you live somewhere long enough, you optimize for efficiency: shortest routes, known quantities, minimal friction. But optimization necessarily means cutting out variability.

Being a tourist in your own city is about reintroducing variability. Seeing familiar places through unfamiliar frames. Trading efficiency for exploration.

The real value isn't in any specific destination—it's in rebuilding the muscle of curiosity about your own environment.