Since it was a long weekend, we made another escape this time to Grafton, a sleepy town in Rensselaer County, upstate New York. It was perfectly low-key vacation in the woods. We stayed at a cool stone house that once served as a mountain chapel. We spent all day at a beach on a lake nearby. (We were the first ones on the beach at 10am!) Taiyo was so happy to make his little sand castle. We took a little hike around the lake. We drove over Taconic Mountains and had pizza by a creek in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Visited Peace Pagoda, built by a small Japanese Buddhist sect. Of course I had a naive notion that I'd be motivated to organize some photos into a photo book or a collage, or work on that unfinished video (not one from Tokyo, Taiyo's summer 2014!), but my laptop only brought mild distraction along. I didn't get productive, but certainly rested a little. Mission accomplished.

Yes, we made it there, to Japan. It was our longest, biggest, most expensive trip so far. After spent all my adult life here in New York, a trip back home has been always a big culture shock. And this time, I was going there after six and a half years, and first time with my son. It was a big deal for both Taiyo and myself. We survived! And we survived well. So again, it was like, I can't believe I grew up there! and I don't think I can ever live there, or OMG, OMG, soooo cuuute!! Tokyo's subway and train system was ever so complicated. There were so many signs and instructions and slogans and posters and reminders and all the other rants everywhere but streets have no names. And streets are ugly in pretty much the same way everywhere. So if you don't have a cell phone or GPS, you get lost. And I did because I had neither. It's also hard to rind WiFi, so my tablet was useless. (Later my friend told me Starbucks has WiFi, and it was everywhere.) It was also grey and rainy during most of our stay. So yes, my impression was mixed, but of course food was great to amazing most of the time. Hot spring totally revived me. Then some serious shopping. And of course all the family stuff.... Yes, it was quite intense, but Taiyo asked me a few days ago, "Mommy, can we go to Japan again the next Spring vacation?" So I'm sure he had a blast. I'm glad.

It's only early February and it feels like we're having a long winter. Is it just me, because I've been cooking non-stop for the past month since 1) we are busy, or 2) it's cold? Or we ARE indeed having a long winter because of global warming. Or little bit of both. You can pretty much blame anything on global warming. But I think it was more of still feeling the effect of bank bailout of 2008 that I gave my back out -a little- on Monday. Heat packs and long soaks got me through to Wednesday, and finally I had time to get to a Chinese massage place on St. Marks. Unfortunately I didn't get my usual wonderful therapist and instead I got this young man who gave me a super sissy massage before. Well, he may have read my mind and was going to revenge. This time I got a seriously torturous and horrible massage. It was like everything was wrong. I thought he was really wrong to be working as a massage therapist. Maybe I should've told him. It was really, really, extremely horrible experience. I'm so looking forward to our little vacation next week to a bit warmer place in South Carolina.

Where did June go? It came and went. It was the end of his first school year; the growth of all the children in the class was just amazing. On the last day of school, their teacher Shonelle was telling them to try new things during summer vacation - they have to keep growing without school and her guidance for the next two months.

So we took off to experience a country life in Carbon county, Pennsylvania. We only got here yesterday, but Taiyo has been experiencing so many new things already- like fishing in a lake (or more like a pond.) We are such city folks and decided couldn't handle live worms for bait, so we used more expensive artificial worms. When I pulled out a nice big bass from the water, Taiyo screamed and ran away. I asked him to hold the fish and posed for the picture, but he would not come close. He watched the lady clean out the fish for us at the pond, though. She showed him a tiny fish heart still beating when she gutted. To my surprise, he saw it closely. He's been making a big deal of the bugs at the house we are staying. "We can never live in a country," I said to him. "I can get used to it," he replied. We'll see how much he can get used to it by the end of the week. The dinner was an amazing feast of all fresh local produce: bass grilled on the porch, tomatoes, zucchini, and beets from the farm stand. I could totally get used to these.

We're having a long, cold winter. I'm slacking in my running routine already after attempting to go back to it since Taiyo started school. "Too much snow" has been a good and honest excuse. It feels like we haven't been without snow on the ground for such a long time. Every time I decided to put away the snow shovel, I usually had to retrieve it from the scary basement within days. Last Wednesday's wet one was just so bad. It wasn't much accumulation but it packed down so quickly I had to chip pieces off with a cute little trowel which was like the only useful tool I could think of. Anyway, Lunar New Year arrived and it's a year of horse. I'm afraid this one will go by so, so fast. We had many lion dance sightings around Chinatown and Taiyo also found a little red envelope with two dollars. I think this is pretty good start.

I found some old pictures and had to share this one. How cute is he! But at 20 month he was actually a devil. He was tough and difficult child. He would be cranky, fussy, or simply freak out and be so extremely loud! I seriously wanted to shoot myself every day. I'm glad I don't own a gun- I would be totally dead, more than dead, if I had one. But look at him! I miss this incredible cuteness but I'm so glad I don't have a child that age any more.

Monday- Columbus Day. My favorite holiday because it feels so insignificant and there's no pressure to do something or be somewhere. We were blessed with a beautiful warm extended summer day. Initial plan was to go to Bronx Zoo, but in the last minute we decided to get on a train to Coney Island- one of the items that was never crossed off from "things to do before summer ends." This is the subway trip to Coney Island as recorded by Taiyo- totally unedited.

"I'm going to take a picture of that guy," he said.

He's holding it himself, by the way.

He loves his little feet!

This is my favorite: his palm.

It was exactly a year ago when we visited Coney Island last. I love the irony and contrast of Coney Island. One corner is busy and happening, then one of the landmark Wonder Wheel stands in a unpopular dark alley. You have to walk through some stares of shady characters tending game booths to get there. But Taiyo wanted to get on, so we did. This one is pretty expensive too- $7 each. As we ascended, I realized I am really scared of height. I was simply terrified. The second time around was a bit easier. Taiyo loved it. He seemed comfortable. Then I convinced him for a very jerky thrill ride. He hated it. We stopped at Aquarium, going through serious rebuilding after Sandy. It was barely open, but felt like we had to stop by for support. He had two corn dogs and ice cream on the boardwalk, then played a while at the playground giving me some quiet time staring at the ocean. It was just perfect day in every way.

It was a really long day. I finished the cake last night around midnight, which was much better than the previous year. I failed in two test runs, and per Taiyo's request I was baking vanilla cake with chocolate frosting. It was totally a new territory for me. And although I thought I failed at times, the result was pretty phenomenal. With Elliot's help the food table looked just amazing and they all tasted so incredible. It was wonderful to see little people really enjoying the garden and with all the presents of course it was another BESTEST DAY EVER for Taiyo and I could totally match that, too.