The first place of our plan was the Metropolitan Museum. We started to walk from the hotel. But there were a lot of intriguing shops in New York. As I stopped at the shops one by one, we could not proceed. It took more than one hour to go 500m. I liked a kitchen ware shop, Lectors.
There was an apartment called Dakota House where John Lennon used to live and Yoko Ono is living. The place in the Central Park next to the apartment is called Strawberry Fields. It is for memory of John Lennon and there was a marble plate on the road and a monument.
In the Central Park, there were woods, forests and hills, and it was quiet. I saw small birds and squirrels here and there. We found the statue of Alice in Wonder Land. We took picture there.
I saw many baby sitters here and there. They are indispensable as many women are working in US. Most of them were African American.
The Metropolitan Museum I looked forwards most. The structure was simpler than that in Europe. But it was more gorgeous than Japanese one. It is said that in the exposition of Metropolitan in Japan, only famous paintings are displayed. I found many paintings that I have never seen. I was quite impressed at Gogh's Iris, Cezanne's still lives, Monet, Turner, Renoir, Seurat, and so on. I wanted to visit the floor of Egyptian Ancient Civilization but concentrated European impressionism in 19th century. It took almost a day.
We took rest at a courtyard where statues like Venus were, as my husband had bellyache. While he taking rest, I visited the floor of American Architecture History.
We got on bus to return to the hotel. The feature of bus in New York is the good manner. People siting on seats offered to older person each other. I was impressed at this. When some old man with grey hair stood in front of me, "Please", said I and offered my seat. But he said, "I am just old fashioned, but younger than I look like. Please have seat, as Lady First." and smiled. I sat again turning red. When I got off the bus, he said to me, "Bye bye" with loud voice. It was very gentlemen's country, America !
On the next day, we went sightseeing on a tour bus. (We call it "Hato Bus" in New York.) As there was no roof on the second floor of two storied bus, we could view the whole street. The bus tour started at the Times Square every 30 minutes. We could get on and off at any place. The sign boards in Times Square were gorgeous but paintings on the wall were also artistic. The bus went to Harlem through west side of the Central Park. We saw famous Apollo Theater.
When going down south along the east side of Central Park, the bus went out of order and we got off it. The bus went back leaking gasoline on the road. I thought it would be quite dangerous if someone would throw away the cigarette.
The museum of Modern Art, MOMA. The features in this museum I like are Picasso's "Goat", Monet's "Water lilies" on the whole 20m wall, Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon", Matisse's "Dance", wondrous modern paintings, etc. The modern paintings were like one painted white on 2m x 2m canvas, painted black or painted blue. Their existence itself rather than a painting overwhelmed me.
We stayed in New York till the weekend and went to New Jersey next week for my husband's work. I went shopping at the shopping center near the office. My friend, Linda, took me to the outlet store. And my friend, Suhong, took me to Prinston University. As she told me there was a Picasso's statue, we went there. It was called "Head of Woman" that is 2m high, and that Picasso donated to the university. Suhong told me that she stayed in Tokyo as a student at Tokyo Joshi University. She lived in Koto-ku. Her impression of Japan was fairly good and people were kind.
On other day, Linda took me to Chester Village which was old country town.
On the weekend, we were in New York again. It was a little bit cold. We bought a bunch of souvenir. We went to Motown Cafe or Hard Rock Cafe. In the Motown Cafe, when we were waiting for the table drinking beer, old man next to us, at the age of about 60 years old, shook hands with us and welcomed us saying, "Enjoy, Wahaha...". I like this kind of situation.
When we bought Joan Baez's CD at Virgin Mega Store in the Times Square and went outside, the street were full of water. They said that a water pipe with 3m diameter was broken in the south of Times Square. It was hard for pedestrians to across the streets. Water poured into the platform of subway and it stopped.
As we had so many luggage that we sent some of them to Japan by sea mail. The 20kg parcel was delivered to us six weeks later. I was worried so much because I heard that it usually took four weeks. I had no way to check it though, as I had any counterfoil.
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Shirakaba Lake looks like a summer resort. We went on cycling around the lake. I like horses since my childhood and I wanted to ride a horse for a long time. I was excited as I could do it here for the first time. Though the horse just walked, a guide taking lead pulling the rope.
There was the Utsukusi-ga-hara High Land Museum where modern sculptures were displayed on the fields. I was very pleased to find "Nike of Samothrace" there that was one of my most favorite sculptures. When I found a sculpture that I liked, I pretended it. My husband also did it. And as I liked corn very much, when I found a huge glittering golden corn, I could not help but bite it !
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I viewed inside the house, looked at the pond sitting on tatami-covered floor and enjoyed the atmosphere created by the pond and the artificial hill. We can have O-hagi (special kind of Japanese cake) and Matcha (powdered green tea) here. (This photo was taken when I came here with Linda and Vicki.) When I visited here, it was middle of Autumn and the crimson foliage was beautiful.
Then I walked around the pond and artificial hill. There was a Kura (storehouse) in the backyard. There were many kind of trees and it was excellent balance of colors of leaves, dark green, green and red. At the corner of the backyard, there was a bell and we can toll it. I did it here for the first time. It was impressive that sound of a bell was floating in the quiet scenery.
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A view from the window of Belvedere Hotel. The Empire State Building was seen dimly on the distance. On the first day, we went to the outlet store called Woodbury Common from Port Authority.
We walked around the Fifth Avenue. We saw the golden statue at the Rockefeller Center. I like a lane with fountains in front of it. My husband bought some books, The complete Pyramid and Crete Civilization, in the Metropolitan Museum Shop on the corner.
We visited The Metropolitan Museum again. We mainly saw Egyptian Art. My husband took a photo of me at a stone coffin, when I was scolded by a stuff there. "Do not touch it !".
On that night, Dave and Vicki who are friends of us in New York invited us to dinner. We went to a new restaurant called Sugar Bar, that is owned by Ashford and Simpson. The restaurant has become famous. Dave told us that when he went there with Vicki, Michael Douglas was on the next table. Interiors were African decoration and cuisine was African taste. It was very delicious.
We walked around 42nd street. A view at the corner of 42nd street and 6th avenue. And we went to New York Public Library. I wondered why two statues of lion were wearing working helmets. There was a female statue on the left of the entrance and a male statue on the right. My husband glanced over the sign board. There was a park behind the library. I looked at the good scene of the combination of trees and buildings.
Then we went to the World Trade Center. In the court yard there were some strange objets. This building is very tall and it is powerful to see it from the bottom. And there was old buildings close to it and the contrast was interesting.
In Soho many old buildings were left. I felt like I was in Europe. And there were many interesting shops. A shop called Evolution, that dealt fossils, was intriguing. Then we walked to Greenwich Village. I also like this town. We can find many Jazz spots here.
Christmas has started in Radio City. It decorated beautiful Christmas illumination. On the opposite side trees around the fountains were also decorated with illumination and it was beautiful too.
The climax of this trip was a musical, Le Miserable. We waited for more than one hour before the opening time at "tkts" that dealt ticket at half price. We could buy tickets of about tenth row at half price. The musical was held in Imperial Theater. I watched a musical for the first time. I did not feel running time, three hours, was long. When near the ending Fantine and Eponin appeared on the bed where Valjean was lying, I was quite impressed and shed tears.
It was second time to visit New York. I liked New York more. I really hope to live there. I am recommending to my husband to work for US company in order to live in New York.
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As we can receive award of mileage of American Air (AA), for two persons in Asian area, we planned to visit Korea. We reserved tickets of Japan Air Line (JAL). AA aligned with JAL. We reserved an inexpensive hotel in Seoul, The Metro Hotel listed in Korean guide book. My husband has been there twice for business trip and Korea is his favorite country. I looked forward to shopping. They have Galaria where I sometimes went shopping in Dallas.
Friday, May 14
We took a shuttle bus at 6:35am to Narita Airport and registered the standing-by list at 7:00 am when the registration just started. At 9:40 am we could reserve seats, then run into the gate. A clerk told us that cancellation of tickets to Seoul on the day occurs more than other lines. About ten people who were waiting could have seats.
We left Narita at 10:00 am and arrived at Seoul at 12:20. Lunch in the flight was not good as usual.
At the airport we reconfirmed the tickets back to Japan. Then an incredible thing happened again. The tickets were cancelled. And no tickets were available due to full reservation. We checked in Metro Hotel and made a phone call to the branch office of JAL in Seoul. After negotiated more than 10 minutes, we could successfully reserve the flight. It seemed that a reservation person of JAL forgot to cancel our tickets of May 13 when she registered us to waiting list, and when we reserve tickets this Morning yesterday's tickets were cancelled because they were for same persons, then relating tickets back to Japan were cancelled at the same time. (Uhm, complicated.)
First of all we went to Lotte Department Store. I enjoyed food floor. There were so many kind of Kimchi I have never seen before. Then we went to Hongik on the subway and walked around. I bought two puppets and a frame for a photo at small shop.
Saturday, May 15
We had breakfast at cafe called Paris Croissant in Myong-Dong.
Then we walked around Namdaemun. I bought a lot of Kimchi and toasted seaweed. And I bought bamboo salt soap, Ginseng mud pack and bamboo salt cleansing cream in Myon-dong. We had lunch at a restaurant close to our hotel. My husband had Kalbi-tang (beef rib soup) and I had Pibimbap.
 | (I bought this on the street. This face can be deformed to various face. I gave these to some children for souvenirs. They liked this very much.) |
Sunday, May 16
We had breakfast at hotel. Breakfast in the hotel is expensive.
This Morning we went to Kyongbokkung and visited National Museum of Korea. Stuff regarding Korean history starting Paleolithic age was displayed. I quite got impressed. I felt that Korea was Japan's elder brother on culture. There was a rich collection of Konryo Celadon and Cho son Porcelain. These were also impressive. (My husband said that grey-green plastic cups used in Japanese diners should be based on Konryo Celadon. It might be...)
There was a magnificent gate in Kyongbokkung. Its coloring of the roof and the roof tiles were excellent. And patterns were painted inside the gate.
We had Japanese style noodle and Kimbap (vinegared rice rolled in lavar) at the Museum. They were not delicious. (I feel difference between delicious food and not delicious food is quit big.)
We took a rest at a coffee house with pottery gallery in Insa-Dong. It was nice place, many ceramics works were displayed and we could buy them. I bought some dish and mug cups.
We had Kalbi (short ribs of beef) for lunch. A waitress served cutting beef with scissors. Taste was different from Japanese one. It has few fat. Juicy, tender and very delicious!
As Mr. Lee, who took care of my husband when he went on a business trip to Korea, invited us this night, we went to Lotte Department to get a cake as present. A cake of Fauchon was much cheaper than ones in Japan.
Mr. Lee with his family and us went to Folklore Museum for dinner. At the entrance old guys' stone statues and wooden statues were displayed. In the building, dolls describing old Korean life. Scenes of the wedding, working at silkworm shelved and kids doing new year greetingwere impressive. And some embroidery of those times were displayed on the wall.
Monday, May 17
For breakfast, we bought bread and had it in hotel room. Then we went to "foot reflection massage". In their pamphlet, explanation, It's certainly necessary for the state of illness like this, was funny. It took one and a half hour for the massage course. Back side of foot was pressed with bar. It was terribly painful and sometimes ticklish. After the course, dropsy of foot was completely removed. And I felt stomach got better. ( I was feeling stomach heavy due to much Korean food.) I thought 6000 Yen was expensive but it deserved it. It would be worth to come to Korea only for foot massage. Returning to Japan, we bought a book of foot reflection massage and press reflection zone sometimes. On the foot, there are reflection points relating to stomach, shoulder, waist, and so on. When a point relating to a part of body is pressed it gets to be better.
We had Samgyet'ang (Ginseng chicken soup) for lunch. The chicken is stuffed with ginseng, jujubes, sticky rice, and garlic, then stewed, As it contained a lot of medicinal stuff, it seemed very healthy. Taste was so light that I put Kimchi.
On the street in Myong-Dong. My husband bought a T-shirts with a figure of a girl playing Taijiquan, a traditional Chinese pugilism.
Our last dinner in this tour was Hanjongshik, Korean traditional formal dinner. It was gorgeous and very delicious, and expensive.
As there was no soap in hotel room, I bought some bamboo salt soap (about 120 Yen per unit) at convenience store close to the hotel on the first day. I found my skin got to be very silky these couple of days. So I bought almost all bamboo salt soap at the convenience store.
Tuesday, May 18
The departure time of a flight back to Japan was 13:30. As we had trouble for the tickets, we went to the airport around 10:00. But there was no problem.
I bought souvenir at shops in the airport. Small size wrapped Kimchi was useful for souvenir. I bought a lot.
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