New York

Have any of you ever visited New York?? I lived in the US for over 20 years and I never been to New York. I kept wondering why Japanese people would make such a big deal over New York City.

So for the 1st time, I decided to visit Happy and Bernie in Big Apple. As soon as I arrived in the Big Apple, I never realized how big JFK Airport is. Narita Airport has only 2 terminals, while JFK has about 9. At least JFK Airport is convenient; they have the shuttle cars much like SFO to take you from one terminal to another. Then I see “I love New York” signs everywhere.

I didn’t expect too much visiting New York, but to my own surprise New York was actually much better place than I expected. Time Square just blew me away. There were movie theatres all over the place, I got to see Radio City as well as ESPN and other places. I began to realize that New York City is not a good place for a shopping addict like my sister.

Happy and Bernie actually live couple blocks from Time Square. During my visit, they were both able to take some time off for some necessary shopping. Being from California, I don’t experience seeing much snow nor I never expected that I needed to buy myself an earmuff. I also bought a rabbit magazine and antlers plus a Santa hat for the dogs. I was still jetlagged so I slept when Happy and Bernie tried to show me Giants Stadium in New Jersey. We all went out and have breakfast at this pancake place. The owner was a lady who was bigger than myself so I asked to get my pictures taken with her. In Japan, you don’t see ladies over 200 lbs, so this was a golden opportunity to get my picture taken with her. She asked me, “Why do you want my picture taken?” So I told her, “Your restaurant was very good and I wanted to show other people in Japan about your famous pancake restaurant!” So she agreed to have her picture taken with me. Happy and Bernie laughed because they knew exactly why I wanted my picture taken with her.

Happy’s office is located in the Wall Street District. Actually, she has a very nice office. There was one place where I really wanted to visit, but I was kind of embarrassed to ask Happy and Bernie. Rather than visiting Wall Street, I actually wanted to visit Sesame Street. I wanted to meet Big Bird in person, but I didn’t expect Happy or Bernie to know about the location of Sesame Street. That Sesame Street is a very catchy tune, I used to get really fired up whenever they play the Sesame Street song. Instead, I decided to visit Yankee Stadium and the Statue of Liberty. I really wanted to know how to get to Sesame Street.

Since my sister had an apartment located very close to Central Park and the famous Art Museum, I decided to go visit the place since I had nothing better to do in the morning. Once I was in the Art Museum, it took me 2 hours to find my way out. The place was so big, it was like a giant maze. I bought a book about the Art Museum for my grandmother. Buying an 86 year-old lady a book would be one way to prevent her from being senile. When someone gets old you need to make sure that she doesn’t become senile, and by doing that reading a book can help her utilize her brain. This is something most of us would take for granted.

My last day, I spent time with my sister. Don’t get me wrong, but I much rather go shopping with Happy and Bernie. At least they know how to shop for necessary things. My sister, in the other hand is a reckless shopper and her shopping habit started to piss me off. I already bought what is necessary for my grandmother, but she wanted to buy her a jade ring and sapphire necklace. All together we spent more than $800. It piss me off because an 86 year-old does not need such jewelry. Plus, I can get this stuff in Thailand for $200-$300. I spent more in one day with my sister than I did the 3 days I was with Happy and Bernie. Actually I spent 3 times more with my sister in one day than I have with Happy and Bernie in 3. I wanted to spend time with Happy and Bernie on my last day, but my sister is so disorganized, it was impossible to arrange time. She got carried away when she wanted to go shopping, forgetting that I had to go back to the airport. I barely made it back to JFK. Talking about my sister's careless spending is another story to talk about.