Metropolitan Museum

I went out to NYC with my daughter today as she had no school. There had been so many rainy days this couple of weeks,so I felt like I had to go out on such a sunny day like today.

I took my daughter to the Central Park as usual since my daughter loves watching carriage horses,although I hate the smell...

Inside the park ,it was really beautiful with the new green leaves. I could smell like the spring .

After my daughter played at the playground in the park,we headed for
the Metropolitan Museum.

However I was not sure how long we could stay at the museum with the little girl, I thought she should learn how to behave in different occasions step by step.... such as she has to be quiet and can't touch paintings and arts in the art museum.

At first,I saw European paintings like Monet,El Greco,Van Gogh,Renoir and so on.Although I am not familiar with art at all ,I am very impressed with the paintings.I saw European sculpture and decorative arts next.As you know, Meto was so big that I got tired of long walking.

My daughter was doing great for an hour, but she got a little peevish.So we took a rest at the cafe in the museum.

After that,we went to the roof garden for the first time.Some interesting arts were there.I kept on eye on my daughter not to touch the arts.

The view from the roof garden was very beautiful.

onegaishimasu... ↓



↑click this button please

A coincidence

When I dropped my daughter off this morning,I happened to see "Koinobori" above a roof of a house near the school.(Koinobori means "a carp streamer "in Japanese .It's decorated in honor of sons and in hope that they will grow up healthy and strong.) I was so amazed with it and I thought a Japanese family must live in this house.

In the afternoon, my daughter and I visited kindergarten for school tour as my daughter is going to enter the kindergarten next year.

I was a little nervous as I didn't know almost anybody....

Suddenly I found a boy with beautiful blond hair running into the same classroom with my daughter .He was wearing a Japanese "Happi" .The word "Matsuri"(meaning :festival)was printed on his back.I almost got laughed at the "Happi" as you know nobody in Japan wears "Happi" as a daily clothes.

Then somebody talked to me in fluent Japanese."Hello. Are you a Japanese?"

I turned round and I saw a tall blonde woman . She told me that she used to live in Japan for many years. And she teaches English to Japanese people at her house now.

Also it turned out that the house I saw this morning with Koinobori was her house.
What a coincident!!

"Koinobori" might have been a sign that I would meet her today.

She kindly said to me,"If you need any help, please let me know.I will help you."

I am so lucky to get to know such a nice woman.

onegaishimasu... ↓



↑click this button please

Magnolia Bakery's cup cake

My husband got Magnolia Bakery 's cup cake for me.

This Bakery is very famous for cup cakes in NY.It's also known as Carrie's favorite shop in "Sex and the City".I have been to the store on Bleecker Street in Downtown before,the store was small and crowded .They have a store close to Rockefeller Center,too.

The decoration of cup cakes are very cute,although they were a little bit too sweet for me.

onegaishimasu... ↓



↑click this button please

Parents Dinner Party

My husband and I attended the parents dinner party of my daughter's nursery school last night.

I feel very weird for not bringing children despite this is a school event,which means we must have a babysitter or have to leave our kids at somebody's house at night.

This time my friend recommended us a very nice babysitter and my daughter seemed to have enjoyed playing with her.

The first 1.5hours was cocktail time at a student's house.The house was so fancy that I wanted to take pictures more.But I hesitated it as if it 's like a curious tourist. We mingled with some parents there.

After that,all the parents gathered at the party place and had dinner with drinking .

It was the second time to join the party so we knew how the party was going.We felt much relaxed and enjoyed the party.

Last year we were very confused and we couldn't talk with other parents so much.

We got over it!We have adapted ourselves to this environment.

onegaishimasu... ↓



↑click this button please

Trader Joe's Spaghetti

I went shopping to Trader Joe's to get dried Spaghetti as I read an article on NY magazine,which was
"Last Noodle Standing".
There were only a few Spaghetti left on the shelf and I guess a lot of people might have read that.

According to this article,3 famous Italian chefs and an actor blind-tasted 8 different kinds of Spaghetti and rated each pasta in flavour,texture,and how well the spaghetti conveyed the butter and Parmesan.

And the result was....that Trader Joe's Spaghetti got the highest score.It's amazing because Trader Joe's Spaghetti was the lowest price among the 8brands...It's only 99cents.

Although I am not sure the authenticity of this result as the panellists are only 4 people,why not taste it by myself ?

And I cooked meat sauce with Trader Joe's Spaghetti. It certainly tasted good ,it has moderate texture. However I didn't think Trader Joe's was much better than Barilla which I usually eat and was the second to the lowest score on this blind-tasting .I feel like they are just different types of noodles and both of them tasted good for me.

But still ,this article was useful to me as Trader Joe's spaghetti is good deal..the low price and good taste.

onegaishimasu... ↓



↑click this button please

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... ↓



↑click this button please

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... ↓



↑click this button please

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... ↓



↑click this button please

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... ↓



↑click this button please

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... ↓



↑click this button please