New York City, USA

Early morning tickets

From the very start, when Emiko and I were planning this trip way back in August, she has been saying that she wants to see a Broadway show. I had my doubts, as English is hard enough to understand when spoken at a normal pace, let alone while being belted out by some diva. But hey, I've never been to a show here either and have always wanted to be able to belt out Broadway show tunes while in a locker room shower, filled with other men.

We checked one of the guidebooks the girls had with them, and it pointed us to Times Square to get cheap tickets. We went bright and early, to make sure we got a good place in line.

We took the 6 to 42nd St. / Grand Central and walked north to the ticket booth. I only see this place during New Year's (on TV) and it looked oddly incomplete without Dick Clark in a scarf and ear muffs.

When we arrived there was already a small group of people in line, shivering in the morning chill. The girls went off in search of a Starbucks for breakfast, while I kept our place in line. I can't drink that burnt-ass Euro-crap that passes for coffee in places like Starbucks.

As I stood, a pair of men set up an amp in the little square to my left. One guy pulled out an electric bass and the other a tambourine and a mic. Within 10 minutes, the air around me was filled with Marvin Gaye. My annoyance at being up so early in the morning melted away.

The girls returned with their bounty: nasty, bitter coffee and pumpkin scones. Ugh, give me eggs and bacon over that stuff any day.

The line began moving at around 10 and a decent crowd had formed behind us. After a very short wait, we found ourselves being herded into the ticket-buying area and we picked up tickets to see The Phantom of the Opera at the Magestic. Pretty decent seats and only $45 a ticket (plus a $3 service charge). We made plans to meet up with Ji Eun for lunch, but that still gave us a few hours to kill.

Rockerfeller Center

One item on our "to see" list was the Rockerfeller Center. Since it was in the vicinity, we decided to go take a look. The thing I love about NYC is that no matter where you are, there's always something in the vicinity.

The Christmas tree was still being decorated, so we didn't get to see it. Then again, it doesn't look all that impressive in the daylight anyway.

Seeing the topless mermaid brought back some horrible memories. The last time I was here, my girlfriend convinced me to climb up beside the statue for a photo, despite the sign beside it that clearly indicates you aren't supposed to do so. The second I got up, two enormous (and armed) security guards materialized out of thin air and rushed at me, full-tilt. She got her photo and I got berated.

Lunch

Ji Eun wanted to take us to a Japanese restaurant for lunch, near Grand Central (which was also in the vicinity). We met at the street corner and walked into the restaurant to find it packed to the brim. We navigated through the narrow aisles, bumping partons along the way, to our table in the back.

Even though I lived in Japan for 8 months, I know absolutely nothing about Japanese food (nor culture, language, history, customs, etc.) so I just ordered what Emiko ordered. Always safe to do it that way. You know, I gotta hand it to Ji Eun. Although she isn't a native New Yorker, she picks out some damn fine dining establishments.

Grand Central Station

After lunch, we had a little while still before curtains at the Magestic. I suggested that we cut through Grand Central to

a) save some time

b) see the place.

Again, one of those places I see in movies and television all the time, but have never experienced in real life. I felt like standing in the crowd with a rain poncho on and touching people as they passed by, like Bruce Willis in Unbreakable. But there was no crowd.

I must have lost track of time while still inside my Bruce Willis fantasy, for by the time we got out of there, we only had about 20 minutes to make it to the theatre.

Phantom of the Opera

We picked up the pace and got there with 5 minutes to spare.

Once we got past the main lobby and into the actual theatre, there was a series of about four ushers (each three feet apart from the previous one) who pointed us to our seats, while never actually ushering us to them. Unfortunately, they did not allow photos duringthe show and my hands are about as steady as a Mexican jumping bean in an earthquake, so I couldn't even take stealth photos of the performance.

I'd seen Phantom before, but that was years ago and I had forgotten most of the story. Emiko and Keiko took turns nodding off during the show. It was (predictably) difficult for them to follow along and I wasn't about to take a punch in the nose from the loud women sitting behind us, while trying to explain what was going on to those two. Instead, I just kept nudging Emiko every now and then to let her see some of the show.

After the show, she would claim that she never fell asleep, but being that her recollection of the entire thing was the lights dimming, the intermission, then loud clapping, I'd say that she has a pretty weak case going for her.

Toys R Us

While walking back to the station to head downtown, we passed by a Toys R Us. Emiko wanted to look for some stuff to bring home to her nephews, so we stopped in for a bit.

She bought a Care Bear cousin and we left. When did they start selling those things again?

The sights

Saw this ad outside the Ernst & Young building. Washington Mutual has a fucking phenomenal marketing team. There were other ads that I really liked (and I don't like anything) all over the city, but I didn't think to take pictures of them. I regret that now.

Stenciled all over the sidewalk, along Broadway. I love sweatshop labour as well. It provides quality clothing at reasonable prices to consumers in developed countries, while eliminating 16 hours a day of idle capacity and employing small children in less-developed countries.

The dinner dilemma

We planned to go to Joe's Shanghai (or is it John's Shanghai?) for some soup dumplings, but Emiko pulled us into Dean & Deluca.

Once inside, we were enchanted by the spell of the vast selection of fine food products they offered. We quickly canned the dumplings idea and decided to eat right there in the store. I picked up some bread, olives, goat cheese and a bit of seltzer to wash it all down. The girls got minor variations of the same, with some dried fruit for afterwards.

I love these sorts of impromptu dinners with good company.

South of Houston

Tonight is Keiko's last night with us. She wanted to leave a day early because I'm rather unbearable to be with for so long - hard to believe, I know. The constant bickering between Emiko and I probably didn't help much. You know you have quite a talent when you can spur a normally-passive and genki Japanese woman into screaming at you in the streets of New York.

Since it was Keiko's last night, we asked her what she wanted to do. She knew SoHo from TV and movies and wanted to check it out. Being that it was such a late hour, most everything was closed, but we still had fun walking around, window shopping in the dark.

As we were heading back to the hotel, I looked over at Keiko and she shook her head at me.

"What?" I said.

"I don't know how you two are going to get through tomorrow. Please be nice and don't fight when I am gone."

I just laughed and slapped Emiko with my toque, prompting another barrage of angry English-Japanese melange being sent my way. I ran ahead to avoid the ensuing fists and kicks that often accompany the words.

My younger sister is too old for me to pick on now, which is truly a shame because I enjoyed it so much when we were kids. I thank the gods every single day for sending me Emiko.