New York City, USA

My bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

This morning, I awoke to Keiko fully-dressed, fully-packed and about to leave. She had asked us last night if we could wake up a little earlier this morning, so that we could get a good start on the day, since she had to leave in the afternoon. I'm not exactly a morning person and Emiko takes forever to get ready, so that didn't end up happening.

Quite against my pleas to wait, Keiko left alone and arranged to meet us at the Empire State Building in 2 hours. She was off the Grand Central to check what time the airport bus left the station and to see if she could leave her luggage somewhere.

Although she is a perfectly capable adult who has a better sense of direction that I could ever hope to have, I was positively petrified at the thought of Keiko walking the streets of New York alone, carrying her huge duffel bag. I got ready in 10 and spent another half hour rushing Emiko out the door.

Spring St.

Some photos of the station closest to our hotel. I love the New York subway. It makes me think of Night Court.

99 cent breakfast

As Emiko and I were walking to the Empire State Building, we passed by Macy's and a place that served cheap breakfast. We made a mental note to come back, once we had collected Keiko.

We were a little early for the meeting, so we passed the time by walking around the block. Eventually, Keiko showed, carrying her luggage.

"They don't have a place for me to put it." she said.

Of course they don't. It didn't occur to me that people here are extra cautious now about public lockers and other places you can hide explosives...in Grand Central Station, no less. Man, even in the the fucking Eaton Centre back home, which no self-respecting terrorist would waste his time nor dynamite-vest on, got rid of all coin lockers. Gentleman that I am, I grabbed the luggage from her and insisted on carrying it until she had to leave, later on in the day.

I would come to regret this decision, as they wanted to go shopping and walk through Central Park.

Empire State Building

The Empire State building is impressive. I saw a Discovery Channel documentary on it once and apparently, it's so well-wired that they could have gone another 50 storeys upwards and still have been ok for electricity. They don't build 'em like they used to.

We went through security checks and metal detectors (like you have to in almost every building in this city) and took the elevator to the top.

Keiko claims that she is good luck. Where ever she goes, it's sunny. And when she leaves, it rains. Today seems to be no exception to this strange little phenomenon. The gods are displeased, and have clouded the sky so that we could not see from the top of the building, completely unsympathetic to the fact that we had to pay $12 USD to get up here.

I took the photo below, on the way down from the observation deck. It seemed the two girls were sharing a moment of quiet introspection, as they looked out the window. While no words were exchanged, they both appeared to be in the same place. Quite a tender sight.

One can only guess at what goes through the minds of Japanese people, at such a great height:

"So this is what it's like to be Godzilla."

5th Avenue

So this was it. What the girls came for.

Prada, Coach, Barney's, Tiffany's, Kenneth Cole, The Disney Store, Gucci...I can't remember all the stores we went into. After a while, they all began to look the same to me. I hate shopping to begin with and surprisingly, carrying luggage while doing it doesn't help at all. Of course, seeing the girls have so much fun made it worth it.

As I was waiting outside of Prada for them (couldn't take it anymore), some chick came up and asked me for directions. Picture this: I am leaning against the Prada store window, flipping through the pics on my digicam, with a big duffel bag on my shoulder and a map sticking out my pocket. I was one "I Heart NY" t-shirt away from being the Lord of the Tourists - does it fucking look like I know where shit is?

I gave her a dirty look, said, "Hell if I know." in the nastiest tone I could muster and looked down at my camera again. When I looked up, she was long gone - which is just the way I like my morons.

One huge disappointment was FAO Schwartz being closed! I wanted so badly to take them inside and step on that big floor-piano they have there.

Emiko came out of virtually every store with something. "I can't stop shopping!" she lamented, like someone screaming, "No brakes, no brakes!" as their car whizzes by you and over a cliff.

Central Park

Central Park is one of my favourite places in the city. Unfortunately, Keiko was a little pressed for time (shopping took up more time than we had expected), so we didn't get to go through much of it.

The leaves were falling gently from the trees, to the ground in the autumn breeze. They were like giant flakes of snow wafting slowly down from the sky. If only I could have bottled the moment and brought it home.

Emiko had some honey roasted almonds that she bought from a stand, just outside the park and decided to feed a squirrel. During a recent camping trip, we fed peanuts to a chipmunk that was so tame, it'd climb onto your arm to get the food (pic 1 | pic 2 | pic 3). Emiko wanted to touch the squirrel, but I talked her out of it. Canadian chipmunks are to New York squirrels as tic tacs are to rat poison. Both look harmless and tasty, but choose the wrong one and you'll end up in the hospital, frothing at the mouth.

Dinner and an izakaiya

Come dinner time, Emiko and I found ourselves waiting at the corner of Mulberry and Broome. She was in the middle of punching me for not remembering what she had said about wanting to drink Rockstar Beer ("You never listen to me!"), as Ji Eun appeared at the intersection. We were so smitten with the Italian cuisine here, we had to go back for another round before leaving.

Ji Eun recommended a place (though any of the places on Mulberry looked just fine) and we stuffed ourselves with pasta, sausage, seafood and wine. I've also developed a taste for mozzarella and tomatoes, with basil.

It was still fairly early when the food was gone and none of us wanted to call it a night just yet. Ji Eun suggested that we check out a strip that was packed with Japanese izikaiyas, not far from where we were.

The 25 minute walk to St. Mark's place was welcome, after such a filling meal. By the time we got there, I was ready to eat again. Being in this place was just like being back in Tokyo. Even Emiko was feeling the Japan vibe. If only we knew about this place earlier! Too bad we had non-refundable, non-changeable tickets. I would have stayed an extra day, just for the opportunity to come back here for dinner.

We picked a restaurant called GO, went in and pored over the menu, reminiscing about good times that were had in Japan. God, I miss it there. Can't wait to go back.

Two of us ended up getting a little tipsy that night. One of us who drinks like a fish, was just fine. I wasn't at my sharpest, but I got us back to the hotel without incident.

If the heavens were to open up that night, and mighty Zeus were to strike me down with a lightning bolt, I would have died content.