Monday, April 30, 2007

Sakura Matsuri

One of the most beautiful things Japan has is its cherry blossom in spring. Huge trees gorgeously bloom only for a week and quickly lose the light pink petals. Not only in Japan and Washington D.C., you can enjoy this beauty in Brooklyn, NY. Annually held, Brooklyn Botanic Garden offers a weekend event in late April called Sakura Matsuri (cherry blossom fesitval). I went with my home-made Japanese lunch box of kara-age (friend chicken), tamago-yaki (egg omlet) and onigiri (rice ball), with of course a bottle of sake. There is a designated area where people can eat and drink. In Japan, we call this hana-mi (seeing flower, translated directly). In the spring, most of the companies send a freshman to one of the public parks early in the mornign to reserve a spot. At night, other workers gather around on the field and drink under the cherry blossom tree. It's nice in the sun, but it's undescribably beautiful at night. Japanese cherry trees are much much bigger and the scale of the blooming trees are rather powerful, yet with such sutle pale pink.


The park is a good spot for families, especially with kids. I was surprised to see so many non-Japanese people that day. People were enjoying taking pictures of not only cherry blossoms but other flowers like iris, tulip and lylac. It's probably one of the biggest park events in NY. I arrived around 2pm on the second day and it was still really crowded. You probably want to avoid going by your car cuz it's a mess around the park with the traffic. Admission $8 ($4 for students). Although I unluckily missed the big parade of Hanagasa-ondo (flower dance), I had a wonderful time.

Monday, April 02, 2007

Florida

For my work, an advertising award, I had to stay at Four Seasons in Palm Beach, Fl. This is a kind of city Donald Trump built his member’s club with his famous big flag for which he pays $1,000 per day. Other celebrities such as Rod Steward, Madonna, Versace and many more also own castle-size houses. To my co-workers and me, they were ugly, fake European-house replica.

It’s a work trip. It cannot be that great, especially at the hotel with racist, yappy, rich, tasteless guests. As I write this blog, I see a group of obnoxious men dressed in free golf tournament t-shirts, short pants with ankle-socks in shiny black leather shoes, behaving like brain-damaged monkeys. Yep, one guy is staring at me. Fine. Never seen an Asian girl? I can stare at you back, sir. On the other hand, the staff is really nice. The other day, we were in the jacuzze with other families and kids. The moment my Afrian-American co-worker joined in, the father of 3 daughters took them out of the bath. Ironically, the girls wanted to stay with us. It could have been my over-thinking but my friend also though it was quite obvious. Unlike bitter New Yorkers, event the immigrant workers here seem to be really happy with their lives and offer hospitality from their heart.

The only and best time I had down here was the cruise dinner on a boat. The sunset was really beautiful. It was a good 3 hours. I had great time talking to my co-workers and simply enjoyed the evening. I’d probably not come back here unless forced. At least, I enjoyed the way people work here and I was happy that I lead my life on their side, not the guests’.

My New Red Shoes

A day before my business trip to Florida, I found a lovely pair of red shoes at a boutique in Bedford. Made in Brazil. The sole is rubber, which is actually better than slippery wood. Instantly, I fell in love. I got many compliment from people during the trip. I enjoyed—though they were not as smooth and soft as the pair I tried. You shouldn’t feel any obligation to give a compliment even if you see wearing them, but you’re totally welcome to if you find them cute.