A Birthday Party

My daughter was invited to her friend's birthday party.

A huge tent was set up at the yard of their house and kids had so much fun with jumping or sliding down in the tent.

I was so surprised with gorgeous mansions and large scale birthday parties in our area for the first few months when I moved in here,although I got used to them now.
I am sure that my American friends here would be shocked with tiny houses in Tokyo.

While kids were playing in the tent,the parents mingled together.It's still hard time for me since native speakers talk so fast and I sometimes can't understand their talk well because of other people's voice.

So I needed to pretend understanding the talk with smile unwillingly.It's really frustrating that I can speak only half of what I want to say...

But I will try to take this positive to think that I am very lucky to have an opportunity to talk with native English speakers since once we go back to Japan there are very few chance to speak English unless we go to an English school or something.
Cheer up, myself!

onegaishimasu... ↓



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A gift for a new born baby

One of my friends safely gave a birth to a baby boy yesterday!!
Congratulations!! I was so excited with the news.

I heard that in the US mothers stay in the hospital only for 2days in case of natural delivery,and for 5days in case of Cesarean operation .
Isn't it too short? Mothers can't take a rest even after such a hard event.However,a good point of a child delivery in the US is painless delivery.

In Japan,there are not so many hospitals that deal with painless delivery.Beside,it costs about twice as much as a natural delivery.
As a matter of fact,a natural delivery without drug is common in Japan. And also I think it might come from Japanese culture something like ..a mother has to be tough and strong enough to get over the terrible pain .But I am not sure...

I am just wondering why Japanese hospital wouldn't take painless delivery more .

My Japanese friends who gave a birth in NY were telling me that it was much easier to give a birth in the US than in Japan.

It might help the birth rate increase in Japan .

Meanwhile I am looking for a gift for my friend's new baby now.
And I found very cute socks.

I like these Maryjane socks by Trumpette...,these are for a girl though. (→above picture is Maryjane socks）

Johnny's socks by Trumpette are also cute.

(→Johnny's from Trumpette)
They look like wearing shoes.

I usually get a gift for a baby or a child at
Janie and Jack.I love this shop ,especially girl's clothes are very lovely.

onegaishimasu... ↓



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San Pellegrino (sparkling water)

As you know,San Pellegrino is well known for sparkling water.If you order sparkling water at a restaurant in NYC,most restaurants would serve San Pellegrino.

I didn't drink sparkling water that much in Japan as it is expensive.In the US, sparkling water is cheaper and very common drink.So I came to like it recently.
I bought San Pellegrino sparkling water and sparkling orange at Costco.
Sparkling orange and lemon are in my boom now.
It tastes similar to Fanta ,but more natural taste and not too sweet.


Every time I go to Costco, I end by filling up the huge cart with daily stuffs like toilet papers ,tissues,water,beer....
I ask to myself ,my family should be only 3 including a little child...do I really need all these stuff ??

When I moved in the US,I used to be surprised to see other people's carts filled with lots of stuff at the supermarket.But now my cart is obviously same with the other American people.
I adjusted myself to the way of life in the US very quickly in terms of shopping.

onegaishimasu... ↓



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Catskill hiking

It seems like the spring has already passed so quickly ....it was almost like summer today.
We went hiking to the Catskill State Park which is located in the north part of NY state, regardless we were not familiar with outdoor so much.
We just drove as the GPS indicated and it took about 2.5hours from our house to the Catskill mountain.
I can hardly believe here is also in the NY state same State with Manhattan.It's totally different world.

It was literally an ad hoc hiking so we had no idea where to go in the Catskill state Park.

The only information we had about catskill was a very rough map.We thought we could get a map at the entrance of the park since Catskill is a State park.However,the park was so huge that we couldn't find any entrance ....Maybe there was nothing like an entrance.

Somehow we asked a policeman how to get to Hunter mountain inside the park　and got a map at the Hunter skiing ground. Finally we got out of the car at Kaaterskill Falls.There was a trail toward the North South Lake.

We walked along a hiking trail with seeing a beautiful stream.Although the trail was too steep for my daughter ,she seemed like it.After 15minutes walking,we reached a beautiful water falls.We saw some people soaking their foot into the water.

It might be because of a negative ion from the falls,I felt very relaxed.

Look at this beautiful water falls !!

We are planning to visit here again for a camp in summer.

onegaishimasu... ↓



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Chelsea Market and Pier17

I got off the subway at Union Square,and walked towards the Chelsea Market on 9th Ave.

This was the first time for me to visit the Chelsea Market.
There were tons of great food and some variety stores.As soon as I got into the building ,I got excited.I LOVE this place!I could easily spend time here .

At first,I stopped by a brownie shop, Fat Witch and got some brownies.I tasted a piece of it,it was so yummy...

Next,I bought chocolate chip cookies at Eleni's.There were so many cute decorative cookies in the store.It's almost a shame to eat.They have a lot of cookies for gifts.
Amy's Bread seems to be a very popular bakery.I happened to drop in the store as the smell of breads was so good.I got a walnut bread here.
And at Sarabeth's kichen I got a lemon cake as my friend gave me this cake the other day and it was so good. I wanted to buy some fresh fish at Lobster Place,but I couldn't since I was planning to go another place after this market. I really enjoyed shopping there.If you like food,you would definitely love it.

After that,I walked along meat packing area for a little while.I saw some famous designers shops there.However I didn't get anything here,it was a fun place to walk along.

Then I took a subway(A line) to Fulton Street to go to Pier 17.I was eager to come here.And I have been waiting for this season as it 's hard to stay outside deck during the winter.

On such a warm day like today, everyone seemed to have the same idea.I mean ... to see the river with sitting on a terrace seat at a nice cafe and to go shopping .This area was packed with people.However, the view was really nice.I could see Brooklyn Bridge from the deck.It feels like I am in NYC!!

I was exhausted when I came home as I've spent the whole day walking ,but I enjoyed a full day.
onegaishimasu... ↓



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Samuel Adams Brewery

The last day of the trip was raining.
After we got some gifts at the Quincy market,we took a subway to Stony Brook to go to the Samuel Adams Brewery tour.Samuel Adams is well-known beer company all over the US.

The outside of the building was old and was not so big as I thought.

The tour was free of charge with 3 different kinds of samples and a tasting glass.

We showed up at 12pm but we had to wait until 12:45 tour.It might be because we visited there the next day of the marathon race.I saw many people wearing runners jackets.
The tour itself took about 30minutes and at the end of the tour we could taste 3 glasses of samples.(Lager,Summer Ale and Chocolate )I liked Lager the best!

The tour guide was very friendly and expertized.I liked the way she guided with drinking a big glass of beer.It seemed like a very pleasant job.

My husband and I enjoyed the tour,although I felt badly for my daughter since she looked so bored ....

But if you like beer,it sure is the interesting place to go.

onegaishimasu... ↓



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Boston Marathon tripⅡ

The Boston marathon is the world's oldest annual marathon and is one of well-known racing events. About 23,000 runners joined the race this year.
It's amazing that my husband was qualified for such a big marathon race.Awesome!
He left for the start line by a chartered bus at 7am as the start line was in the far west of the Boston city.
The Boston marathon seems to be regarded as one of difficult courses because of the hills in the latter one-third of the course,which is called "Heartbreaking Hill".

My daughter and I headed for the finish line to cheer him up,which was located at Copley Square in the city.but when we arrived at the area,either side of the street was already packed with the spectators. Somehow we found a spot 500m shorts of the finish line,it was still very crowded ,though.
Every spectators on the side walk kept cheering the runners.It was impressive!!

Like the qualified runners that they were,I could hardly watch the runners well.They passed so fast in front of me...
I was worried about my husband as he didn't show up a few minutes over his expected time.
But then he appeared!! I shouted his name in a loud voice,although he didn't seem to hear that.
Anyway ,He did it !I felt so relieved and I was very proud of him.

We had dinner at a seafood restaurant Legal Seafood to celebrate his run.
A lot of guests seemed to have joined the marathon race as they were wearing original runners jackets.

We ordered Lobster Bisque,Fried calamari,Coconut shrimp,and of course Lobster!!
My daughter ordered Clam chowder ,which is her favorite.

Every dishes tasted great. It's hard to eat fresh fish in NY,so I really stuffed myself.

onegaishimasu... ↓



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Boston Marathon tripⅠ

I came back from Boston last night as my husband joined the Boston Marathon Race on 20th.

However it was still cold in Boston ,we had a great time there.

We left NY at 9:30am on 19th and drove for 4hours .Then we found a lot of brick buildings and the bridge ahead.I really like the view of this city,especially brick buildings and pavements,classical and beautiful.

We had quick lunch at a casual seafood restaurant in north end ,
the Daily Catch .
This place was small and there were only 8or 9 tables.It seems very popular restaurant among the local people.

I ordered Shrimp and Scallop with white wine sauce.
the seafood was so fresh and tasted so good.I loved it.

After we checked in the hotel,my daughter and I went to the public garden to get on a swan boat while my husband picked up his number for the marathon race the next day.
The swan boat was very cute and my daughter enjoyed watching ducks from the boat.

We walked along the Boston Common .Many people were relaxing on the grass despite it was a little bit chilly day.

At night,we had dinner at an Italian restaurant "Marco"also in north end.(I forgot to take pictures ..sorry)All the food that we ordered was so good!

That was the first day.My husband went to bed early preparing for a marathon race.

to be continued...

onegaishimasu... ↓



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