ココ壱番屋！/Coco Ichibanya!

金曜日私が仕事から帰るなりミツワへ買い物/夕ご飯を目的に行ったんだけど、残念ながら着いた時間にはもうレストランの最後の注文受付が終わっていたので買い物もしたかったんだけど夕ご飯が先と結構前に何度か通りがかる度に行かなきゃと思っていたココ壱番屋へカレーを食べに行きました...メニューも日本にあるのとそっくりかな？ちゃんとマディソン用のお子様メニューもあって、私とデイブは大感激：）待ち時間もほとんど無く、やっぱりこっちのレストラントは違う、特に
1．ちゃんと子供用のフォークとスプーンが出て来る！
2．子供用メニューはとってもかわいいし栄養のバランスがとれてる。
3．最後に貰えるおまけのおもちゃが最高！
4．ボタンを押すと、誰かすぐに来てくれる。
日本に帰った時に一回みんなでココ壱行ったんだけど、今日はマディソンのカレー初体験、とっても気に入ったみたい：）
On Friday night, as soon as I got home from work, we took off for some Mitsuwa shopping/dinner in Torrance, but by the time we got to the store the food court part stopped taking orders and the store was about to close in half an hour so although I had some shopping to do there we left for Coco Ichibanya!(Curry house we found a while back but kept forgetting to go...) Dave was sooo happy the Mitsuwa restaurants closed on us! And you are about to see what I'm missing in kid's menus in the States! We waited for a few minutes for our seats and then ordering is super easy! All they have is Curry you just have to think of what kind of topping you want... and the food came pretty quick which was nice and Madison friendly:-) What I do not like about restaurants here are these...
1. They do not have kids size utensils! Which does not make sense at all! They have kid's menus.
2. Super cute kid's meals that are balanced(I wish they didn't put french fries here but can't have everything right?) and fun to see! I'm always disgusted with their options of chicken fingers, mac & cheese, and grilled cheese! Yuck:-(
3. A surprise gift with kid's meal:-)
4. A buzzer at the table that brings the waitress right when you need her, or even when you don't when Madison pushes it.

When we visited Japan(pre Madison) we all went out for a near by Coco Ichibanya so we knew what we were getting into and as we waited we found out this is the very first US location and actually opened in February of this year... Wish we would have tried sooner!
Anyhow Madison LOVED her first curry rice and the total bill to feed a family of three a dinner was under $25:-) Nearing McDonald levels these days!

写真を撮るからって食べるの待たさせてるのであんまり嬉しそうにしてない...

She is not happy I'm making her wait to take a picture... Hungry girl.

まず最初にフライドポテトを食べたんだけど...
Of course went for the fry first but...

私がほとんど食べました...ポテトを優先して食べなかったのは此れが初めてでした...凄いな、カレーの力：）
I ate most of the fries... This may have been the first time Madison chose something over her fries so we were very happy...:-)

ご飯の後、おもちゃ引換券でこのおもちゃを貰いました...写真を撮るの忘れちゃったんだけど、エリーに似た黒猫のケータイに付けるおもちゃ！
And AFTER her meal she got to pick a toy from a bag and she picked this... I forgot to take a picture of what she got but she got a black kitty key chain that looks like Ellie so that was cool!

土曜日はデイブが仕事があったので私とマディソンはアパートでのんびりお掃除しました。そして、お昼はオムライス！卵ぐちゃぐちゃになっちゃったけど味は懐かしいケチャップライスの味...
On Saturday Dave had to go to a Special Olympics Floor Hockey event so Madison and I spent a relaxing day inside the apartment... I got a lot of cleaning done for our sleep over with the Melton's next weekend(you will find out why in a week:-) For lunch I made us my Omelet Ketchup Rice which tastes so much better than it sounds but a staple menu option for kids in Japan...

松本へ行く…/Visiting Matsumoto...

今日はじいじが仕事を休めたので家族４人で松本まで買い物をしながら、ここ２週間とっても忙しくて会えなかったあすかおばちゃんの顔を見に行ってきました。松本に着いて最初の２時間はパルコで買い物をしながらおいしいクレープを食べたり楽しく過ごしてと～ってもおいしいお昼を食べた後じいじがあすかおばちゃんの働いている松本警察署まで行ってくれる事に…１時過ぎぐらいに駐車場に入ると、１２時半頃までには捜査に行っているって言っていたあすかがちょうど居たから２秒ぐらい顔を見ることが出来ました…そして差し入れの買出しの後あすかのアパートに到着。あすかのアパートは前のアパートよりも断然大きくていい感じ、次に家族３人で泊まりに来るのが楽しみだなー! 帰りがけにさやかの夫の家族に会って忙しい火曜日は終了です…

Today we asked G-pa to take a day off so that all four of us can go visit Matsumoto for some shopping and possibly to fit in a short visit with Asuka who has been super busy for the last two weeks or so... Well we got a fun two hours of shopping at Parco and tried a yummy crepe at a Creperie and only got to see Asuka for a second when my parents took us to where she worked and not supposed to be there Asuka happened to be there and got to say hi really quick... We had her apartment's spare key so after lunch and a quick grocery shopping to fill up Asuka's fridge we arrived at her place... It was really nice and much bigger than her last place:) We waited for a while but since Madison could not get in a mood to take a nap and since Asuka was not looking like she will be off work anytime soon we decided to get on the road and head home... Madison got a nice nap in and we had a nice calm trip back which is always nice! What we finally got to do was to meet Sayaka's husband, Katsuhisa's family... They were really nice and hopefully him and Sayaka will be nice enough to plan something for all the families to get together;-)

パルコの中にあるティンカーベルのお店の横の遊び場でじいじと遊んでいるマディソン...
ちょうどそこのお店で買ったティーシャツを着ていたからお店の人に写真を撮って貰っちゃいました。もうすぐお店の壁のどっかに貼って貰えるらしい...また探してね！
Inside PARCO department store while g-ma and I shopped for more of Madison's clothes, g-pa got to play with Madison in play area right next to the kid's clothing store called Tinker Bell... The sales associate took Madison's picture since she was wearing one of Tinker Bell's tee so she will be found on their picture gallery soon:-)

パルコの地下にあるクレープ屋さん...何かの雑誌に載っていたから試してみる事に...美味しかったけど、やっぱり日本のクレープは小さいなー！
In the basement of PARCO we found a creperie I saw in a magazine so we had to give it a try! They use this black batter that they are famous for and it was very tasty but it could have been a bit bigger!? Oh well we are in Japan after all...

このレストランの大ファンになっちゃいました!!名前なんだっけ!?山と大地となんとか！？もうとにかく美味しい！肉料理は２、３品ぐらいで後はほとんどが野菜とか豆腐料理なんだけど本当においしい：）今日は、３人大人がいたからみんなで交代でマディソンの面倒を見ながらゆっくり食べる事が出来ました...　この小分けの９品乗せれるお皿が良いよね：）マディソンはデザートの豆腐ソフトをじいじとばあばに食べさせてもらって嬉しそうに食べてました...
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this restaurant!! It's a buffet restaurant but all the ingredients are either Organic or Natural and everything is totally fresh. There were probably 2 or 3 meat dishes but everything else is vegetables or tofu dishes so it's perfect for us:-) And everything is sooooo tasty! I love how they have plates with 9 small sections so you can try little bit of everything:-) Madison especially enjoyed her Tofu soft serve for her dessert, Yum!!

上の写真はじいじかばあばのお皿で、下のは私の...凄い欲張っていっぱい乗せてます！
Above picture is either my mom's or dad's plate... and below is mine, you can see how I'm trying to fit more than I have the space for!

ストローで遊ぶの好きなんです：）
She also enjoyed playing with her straws:-)

あすかのアパートで少し休憩...お茶が美味しいなーってマディソン：）
Taking a break at Asuka's apartment... Madison says yummy tea:-)

Madison's sisters deserve a playgroup too!/マディソンのお姉ちゃん達だってプレイグループしないとね！

One of Anna's New Years Resolutions was to be more active and meet more people...hence her finding the meetup website and hooking up with her Japanese Playgroup, a playgroup in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and the doggy playgroup that we attended today :-)
アンナが新年の目標として“もっと活発にいろんなことをする”って言ったの覚えてるかな？ミートアップのサイトで見つけた日本人ママのグループ、ウィリアムズバーグのママのグループ、そして今日行って来たワンちゃんのグループ：）これがその目標の成果。

Since we had both girls we decided to drive into the city in the hopes of finding a parking spot near Union Square which is always an adventure...today was no exception, but we stayed calm and squeezed into a spot we didn't have to pay for so we were off to a good start.
赤ちゃんとバガブー、そして犬２匹を連れて地下鉄に乗るのは大変だからいつも駐車場見つけるの大変なんだけど車で行く事に...今日もやっぱりすぐには見つからなかったけどグルグルと回っていたら無料で止める場所が見つかりました。

While driving around to find a parking spot we passed the Fish and Chips place that Anna took me to on my 30th birthday (Salt and Battery) so we joyously went there and shared a basket at Union Square Park which was packed on this near 75 degree, first official day of spring.
グルグルしている時に丁度通りかかったのは僕の誕生日に行った魚の唐揚げとポテトが美味しいお店(ソルト＆バテリー)、車を止めた後早速そこでお昼を買って春１日目でと〜っても混んでいたユニオンスクエアでお昼休憩。



After eating lunch and a quick trip to Whole Foods for half price Fuji apples, we headed to the playgroup at a place called Biscuits and Bath.
お昼を食べた後ホールフーズで安売りをしていたふじリンゴを大量に買ってプレイグループの場所(ビスケットとおふろ)へ到着。
It wasn't as "high class" as we might have expected for people in Manhattan who own small dogs, but it was really interesting to see how Ellie and Coco reacted to so many other small dogs...they hid. They wouldn't leave our side...we found a spot in a corner so Anna could attempt to feed Madison and the girls, who very rarely get to be off leash, took the opportunity to hide behind Anna's chair...
マンハッタンの小型犬グループにしては思ったよりおしゃれじゃなかったけど、エリーとココが他の犬達にどういう反応をするか見れて面白かったです。なんと僕たちのそばから全然離れなかったんです。マディソンにご飯をあげれるようにわざとすみに場所を取ったにも関わらず、せっかく首輪無しで動き回れるのにアンナの椅子の下に隠れてばかり...

Finally other doggies said enough is enough and came to try to introduce themselves to our two little wall flowers.
何匹か待ちきれすビーンズ達を誘いに来てくれたけど反応無し。

It was really cute to see how Ellie and Coco stuck together and stuck with us...once Anna got up and went across the room they followed her and interacted with the other doggies a little better...One thing Anna didn't like however was that some owners wouldn't pick up after their doggies when they went number 2 on the wee-wee pads...that is until we watched the little video we took and found out that we were that owner...HILARIOUS!!! And Anna blamed the chihuahua :-)
とても可愛かったのがお互いにピタッとくっ付いていたエリーとココ...一回アンナが動き回ったら一緒に付いて他のワンちゃん達と匂いを嗅ぎ合ってたけどね...アンナが気に入らなかった事の一つは飼い主の人達がうんちの片付けをしなかった事...でも家に帰って僕の撮ったビデオを見たらえっ、うちらじゃん...まじで!!!あれチワワがしたのかと思ってた：）

Lastly, one of the dog owners dressed up in a bunny costume so that we could torture both our dogs and Madison simultaneously...that was very nice of them :-) Actually a lady with a very nice camera snapped a ton of photos which will be available for free sometime soon so hopefully she did a better job then I did...it looks like Madison has Coco's ears!!
最後に、来ていた飼い主の一人がこのウサギのぬいぐるみを着て写真を撮らせてくれました...見ても分かる通りマディソンはご機嫌斜めの結果、でもエリーとココは良い子にしてました。そこにいたプロのカメラマンの人がいっぱい写真を撮ってくれてからもう少ししたらその写真を見る事が出来るはず...僕が撮った写真よりも良いのがいっぱいあれば良いんだけど...マディソンがココの耳を着けてるみたい!!

Finally we end with your bonus picture of the day which was taken by Anna Friday...as she was in Times Square she saw Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle's Dad among other things) giving an interview...nice picture baby!! Anna also walked all the way home while Madison slept (probably about four miles) with two flat tires on her bugaboo...impressive and a little silly :-)

最後の最後に、アンナが金曜日に撮った写真...マディソンとタイムズスクエアを歩いている時にちょうどインタビューされていた有名な俳優ブライアン クランストン...上出来ベイビー!!
そして、そのまま歩いてコロンバスサークルのホールフーズに立ち寄りながら寝ているマディソンと家まで約6.5キロも歩いて帰ったアンナ...しかもバガブーのタイヤは片方パンクでもう片方全然空気無しとすごいんだけどちょっとあきれちゃうね：）