BBQ!!

My friend's house is surrounded by beautiful nature.

I was looking at much green and listening birds singing and a gentle breeze.

I could refresh with my eyes, ears and mind♪

And BBQ was.....fabulous!!!!

Chicken, beef, seafood, salad, sushi, cake, and beer♪

We enjoyed hanging out with our friends and their neighbors that we had forgotten all about the time.

BBQ!

I enjoyed a barbecue in the yard of friend's house.

I went there with Junji & Yoshi in Memorial day.

It took about 2 hours from manhattan by a car.

We saw the bi~~~g Stars and Stripes which was hanging over the  George Washington Bridge!

It was beautiful day, so we felt so good !

The last season of stadium

A new Yankee Stadium is being built next to the old one.

I'll be in Japan when the new stadium is opened...

Samurai ICHIRO

The first batter of Mariners was Ichiro.

I cheered for him even though he was a member of enemy team♪

He originally came from Nagoya which is same city of my hometown.

And he is only 1 year older than me.

He used to be a hero of Meiden high school baseball club.

Now he is a hero of MLB!!

Cool.

 

Yankee Stadium

Sun. May 25, 2008

1:05 PM

Yankees vs Mariners 

at Yankee Stadium!!!

Now the game is beginning soon!

Rainbow

What a big rainbow!!

I hope you can see the rainbow in this picture.

I went to Queens with my friend and it was strange weather this Thursday.

Basically it was clear but sometimes there were  local downpours. 

That was the biggest rainbow I 've ever seen♪

So beautiful.

And what I wanted to do in Queens was buying Yankees goods.

You can buy them cheeper than Manhattan.

I'm going to Yankee Stadium to see Yankees vs Mariners game this coming Sunday!!!!

I bought a T-shirt and a cap but Japanese baseball player Matsui's T-shirt was sold out.

So I bought another player's one....

Anyway, the rainbow made me happy~~~~!!!

CSO

I went to Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts in Carnegie Hall for 2days.

Bernard Haitink, Principal Conductor

Keeley O'Connor, Mezzo-Soprano

★Thu May 15 

Maurice Ravel : Menuet antique

Peter Lieberson : Neruda Songs

Gustav Mahler : Symphony No.1

★Fri May 16

Joseph Haydon : Symphony No.101 "The Clock"

Dmitri Shostakovich : Symphony No.4

I was so impressed by their perfect ensemble.

They always listen each other and trust each other while they are playing.

I think there are many star players in the orchestra, but no one play too much, no one play selfishly.

They all have  "musicianship" as a member of the orchestra.

That's why I like CSO very much.

The 2nd day, I found some vacant  seats, so I moved from center balcony (my regular and the cheapest seats.haha...) to the left side of first tear  during intermission.

Usually, I can't afford to buy such a good seats like first tear. So I was really pleased!

Wow.... what a different from the top floor!

Of course you can listen to beautiful sound even though the top floor. That's Carnegie Hall.

But I could see them so close and I felt their breathing at first tear. It was more "Live". 

They played so powerful! but always beautiful.

And every solos were amazing...

Listening to CSO in Carnegie was one of the happiest moments in my NY life.

By the way , I love Carnegie Hall because I can have Ricola (candy) as much as I like for free~~~~♪

Origami

I made many small cranes for a traffic safety supplication which will be held in the temple.

I was folding papers with all my heart.

ITO EN

This poster is  familiar  to Japan, but it's Manhattan!

It's almost written in Japanese except a brand name "Oi Ocha".

That's unique, drastic and Cool!!

But It's funny because the ends of right side is almost hidden and we can't see some important words (^^;)

People doesn't care about it because they can't understand the meaning.

Jumbo bag m&m's

1.6kg of m&m's!!!!!!!! (I already ate much...)

It looks like rice bag. hahaha.

I bought it at Costco.

Small city Manhattan!

She is percussionist and my college friend.

She was playing in the concert which I went last Sunday.

( Refer to the article of May 6)

I was surprised because I didn't know she's in NY!

I see, that's why I hadn't seen her for a long time.....

We went to party today and talked more in the deli after the party with other friends.

I'm so happy to see her again♪

Music in Museum

I listened my friend pianist Hanako and her friend's duo recital in the Chelsea Art Museum today.

The museum is in nice neighborhood as you see in the picture, so I enjoyed walking from the subway station to the museum.

There is a nice space in the museum which we could see the river from the windows while we were listening their music.

Even the noise we could hear from outside , it was getting comfortable sound when it blended with beautiful piano sound.

They played orchestra musics by piano.

Obviously, there was an orchestra in front of me! I could hear various instruments sound from their each fingers.

That was amazing.

By the way, I always think about the entertainment in NY.

We can enjoy any performance not only in the hall or theatre but also anywhere, even though on the street, platform, vacant lot...If there is a space, someone perform something there.

And people enjoy them regardless performers are famous or not.

This is one of the parts that I like in NY.

Okonomi JUN

After Rose's English class in the temple, we had a Okonomiyaki party!

Okonimiyaki is, as it were Japanese Pizza.

We put cabbage, sliced pork, egg, and so on into the dough and grill on the hot plate.

There is a hot plate in the temple♪

Ummm... There are anything in the temple. hahaha...

One of students Junji used to work at Okonomiyaki restaurant when he was a high school student in Japan.

So he organized everything.

That was really delicious!!! though he couldn't get some ingredients which he wanted.

If he open his okonomiyaki restaurant, I would go frequently there~~~!!

Can't Take My Eyes Off You♪

I saw [JERSEY BOYS] .

This musical doesn't have any discount tickets because it's very popular now!

The story is about "The Four Seasons"which is an American pop group in 1960's.

I used to listen 1960's  American pops when I was a junior high school student (Of course it wasn't real time...).

So I enjoyed the show and their songs.

There were a lot of elder people in the audience who might have been young and crazy about Four Seasons music in those days.

A stage setting was also nice. It was simple, not old-fashioned but we could feel 60's atmosphere.

I was singing "Sherry" on my way home~~~♪

Midori Goto & my university friend

I went to Rose Hall with Junko  to listen to Midori Goto's concert on Sunday evening.

The picture is the view from the Rose hall lobby.

Midori played Takemitsu, Ravel, Schnittke and Bach with her friends musicians.

I could listen to rare musics by great musicians so I was really happy.

And I found my friend's name in the program.

Ayano Kataoka is percussionist and my university friend.

She was on stage~~~~!!

I didn't know She's been NY!!

When we went to see Ayano during the intermission, she was really surprised and both of us said same words ,

" Why are you here????!!!!" hahaha...

She lives in Brooklyn and she is active in the US as a percussion player.

I'm proud of her!!

SAKURA MATSURI!!

I and my friends Yoshi-san and Junji went to Brooklyn Botanic Garden today.

And [SAKURA MATSURI]was held in the cherry blossoms area.

The opening of [SAKURA MATSURI]was the performance of Japanese drums group "So Daiko".

My another friends Junko and Teddy played in this group.

We listened their performance in the pink petals snow.

That was powerful, sharp & fantastic!!!

I remembered that I am a Japanese.hahaha...

fog

It's been cloudy and cold lately.

But it was fantastic that the buildings were fogged in♪