New York!!

One of the mysteries in my life is that.."I've never been New York!". Whenever I say so, everybody suprised since I was living in US for 5 years. During those days, I've been Washington DC and Florida in the east coast but for some reason, never in New York. Even after back in Japan, whenever I decided to visit US, I ended up in west coast. Flight hours to west coast is already too much and never had energy to fly all the way to the east. But now, as a resident of Europe, it's a different story. It's better to have a short stop in east, before flying to west. We could also adjust to the time difference slowly.

US is my second home. But I haven't been back for 5 years. I was longing to be back in US but when I realized, I was wiped to the other way around from Japan:) So I was absolutely excited for this trip.

But as I arrived, I have to admit that there are so many culture shocks. I tought US is the most familiar country for me beside Japan. But,, was US like this? We decided to take a bus from the airport but how unorganized it is. Driver was making joke all the time(not funny one). We had 2 drivers but both of them are putting strenght on the tips. At the restaurant, the waiter explaing about recommendations in very casual way. "ok, volks?" That was his favorite word. At the shop, staff always come over to me and tell her name like "my name is Cathy, if you need help just let me know". I was surprised that they told their name all the time. I don't remember that I felt this way in the past, either in LA or in San Francisco. It was the first time, I felt a little bit uncomfortable from the way they speak and behave. Without realizing, I got used to the European way of distance. All of the sudden, the American way of distance between people felt too close for me.


Being shocked of the culture and also being shocked that the fact that I feel "shock", we anyway enjoed our time in New York. The room of Mandarin Oriental refreshed us up as soon as we arrived. First night in New York, we met friends of my husband. Such a cool, stylish and kind couple they are. They invited us for drink at their place and also booked a famous restaurant in the city.



Their home with great view. Can't imagine how it's like living in the room with view of Empire state building just in front of you.


The restaurant was full of people but indeed, they serve real Americal grilled food.

At this moment, I was surprised by American style service, which sounds like the waiter is friend.



It's been a while to see foods served in American portion.



Shame but the first day was raining. We needed to take a taxi to go back to the hotel. The taxi for 4 people is quite expensive. One Limousime stoped in front of us. No doubt, we not gonna take it but suddenly Patrick started negotiating with the driver. And he made it!! It came to the agreement and we went it.



First day in New York became as also a first limousine experience. It was huge and has enough space for more than 4 people.

Due to the jet lag, shame that we couldn't continue the party. We went back to the hotel room after dinner. But we had fun in full power from the first night. At this time, I still didn't know this power continue until we leave..