Hyogo Prefecture Party

Last night I went to party for people who is from Hyogo prefecture Japan.
I went there by myself so when I got there I had no idea what to do.
But there was one person who was familiar to me and I checked the name....
He was the father of my classmate in Jr. and high school!!!
What a coincidence!!! I had seen him before once but it was a few seconds. So I didn't expect that he would be there so it was surprising but after I knew there was someone I knew, I relieved:)
I met many people there and only common thing of us was everyone was from Hyogo.
But it was nice to talk with them about where we from, how is work and life in NY.
There was special a guest for that party too. It was governor Ido.
If I was in Japan I don't think I had chance to talk to him so it was good experience for me too.
Now I don't have much time to meet Japanese people and talk in Japanese so it was good for me to talk without thinking and be in conversations of Kansai accent... lol
And also I really like to find how world is small!!! Many people is connecting in many ways. So it was really fun night!! :)

Ayumi Cupcake Topper from mimicafe union!!!

On my birthday my friend and "senpai" Sachiko tagged many pictures of me on Facebook.

When I got those notification email, I was wondering what she tagged me because she didn't take pictures of me for long time. But when I checked Facebook, I was soooooooo surprised and also I was so happy and I cried....

On my wall of Facebook, my cupcake topper was there....

And I was with my dog Sheena too!!!

How amazing present it is!!! 

Thank you thank you so much, Sachiko!!! 

And if you want to get her topper, here is information.

If you send her picture, she can make topper of your face!!!

She is so good at this!!! 

http://web.me.com/mimicafeunion/mimicafe_Union/Welcome.html

Hurricane birthday night

Last weekend hurricane Irene came to NYC.
From Thursday everyone started to worry about hurricane and on Friday everyone went to get food and water and in city was strange atmosphere.
When I went to Trader Joe's on Friday afternoon, they limited customer to go inside of the shop. So there was long line for getting groceries. And when I got inside, already there were so many empty shelves. There was no water!!
From noon on Saturday all of subway were shutdown.
So I work until 11 am and went back home. And after 3 it started to rain but it wasn't that bad.
It was my birthday so I was gonna have party at bar that night but I cancelled it because there was no transportation. So I stayed home all day after I went back home but my roommates made my birthday night very special even Irene was coming to NYC.
But to be honest with you I missed worst part of Irene while I was sleeping.
So when I woke up, already outside was windy but sunny. And some of restaurants in our neighborhood was open!! So we went to one of them for brunch.
After I started to work at One Girl Cookies, I always work on weekend. So I hadn't had brunch for more than one year. But that day they decided not to open shop before so I could have Sunday off and I was so excited to have brunch on Sunday!! So our area has no damage and even Irene came I could enjoy my birthday weekend.
But there were many people who had to evacuate or got flood. So I was so lucky to have nothing.
And subway finally started to work on Monday morning at 6am. So I could go to work as usual at 7am.
I was so glad when I saw the subway would start to run at 6am. Before that I had to think to get car service to work. And everything went back to normal!!!
It was unforgettable weekend in many ways!!!

Empty shelves...

It was shelf for water... completely empty..

Saturday morning when I went to work. Still there was no wind and no rain.

But it looked weird sky.

It was around 3pm on Saturday. It started rain and roommates' cats were checking the weather.

My roommate cook for our hurricane birthday night!!

And they surprised me with cake too

at Aperitivo

Brunch!!

This is after the hurricane on Sunday afternoon.

This is Monday morning. Subway finally started to work.

Monday morning, Rebecca was hanging our sign back.

This happens maybe once in a few year!!

Monday afternoon. Everything became normal then.

Service dog Cynthia

A friend of my dog will be on text book of social studies in Japan.
Her name is Cynthia who was service dog in Japan.

We met her in the park when my dog Sheena was still really young.
Sheena couldn't play with other dogs easily but with Cynthia she could be a friend.
Before I met her I only new guide dog and police dog as working dogs. But she was service dog which is helping and supporting his or her owner. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_dog

Already more than 14 years has past after I met her. While that she and her owner Kimura-san spread about service dog in Japan a little by little and now they will be in text book.

I remember that when Cynthia and Kimura-san came to my school to give us some lectures. I went to Cynthia and patted her face as usual in the park. But when she was in park she was just playing as a dog but when she was working I should've not patted. I learned from them a lot and I really liked Cynthia.
Now she already past away and Sheena is too old to run around park like when Sheena and Cynthia did.
But still it's easy to get image clearly of them running together in my mind.

This is really happy news for me. And this news reminded me many good memories too.

http://mainichi.jp/select/wadai/news/20110830k0000e040004000c.html

Yankees vs Athletics @ Yankee Stadium

August 23rd I went to Yankee Stadium for the first time.
When I was in Japan I used to go to Koshien Stadium and Green Stadium but after I came to NY I only could go to see Cyclons last summer. And finally I could go to Yankee stadium.
I was worried about the weather since these days there were a lot of rain. But yesterday was the perfect night for the ball game!!!
I went there around 5:15 and saw their practice before the game which is my custom of going to stadium.
So I had a ticket upper level but while practicing I could go to close to the field.
And until my coworkers coming I enjoyed walking around in the stadium.
My impression of stadium is just so BEAUTIFUL!!!
And also I was surprised that most of them were Yankee's fan. There were only few fans of Athletics.
In Japan usually there is at least 15% of audience are away team fans even at Koshien. (Hanshin Tigers fans are special as a Yankees... but still not this much... lol)
And the interesting thing I saw was the Yankee fans always threw the home run ball of Athletics back to the field. And if the person who got ball didn't do that, audiences shouted to do so... It was strange moment... lol
But what made me happy is still Hideki Matsui from Athletics is so popular there. The only one who is Athletics player could get cheer in that stadium was Hideki Matsui.
The game was started with not excitement and Athletics got points just by home runs. And Yankees was so quiet. But last two innings were so exciting. They played so well and made us really excited. And that moment I knew how Yankee fans were special.
Here are some pictures I tool at stadium. Enjoy:)

Matsui!!

Even fancy? restaurant is here.

And Sushi too!!

Even sugar is Yankees... lol

Karaburi!!!

Jeter...

Jeter Meter!!!

Shouting to the sky!!

"Let's go Yankees!!!"