It was Summer Solstice and there was our second annual super low-key 'block party' for Make Music New York on Tuesday. Taiyo came down after a long and refreshing nap when the second band started playing outside the restaurant. We sat on the curve for a while, then he ran into the restaurant and pointed at his uklele, 'Guitar!' He grabbed his guitar and went right back to the band of the street, holding his uklele, and started 'playing' bobbing his head up and down. Immediately he caught attention of the audience, of course. "So cute!" People started taking his photos left and right. Taiyo 'played' through the set, then there was kung-fu demonstration. I had to get back inside to take care of some things while Taiyo and Lynne decided to hang outside. In short while Elliot came in and said, "Taiyo is on the drums, huh?" "Oh, yeah." I thought he was probably playing his imaginary drums on the street, like he always loves to do. After a few minutes, I stepped out, and realized, "Taiyo IS on the drums!" He was sitting on the stool at the drum set, and banging away! They were already breaking down the PA system and all, it was just him at the drums in the middle of the street, and people were still watching and taking pictures. After some banding, he stopped and riased his sticks above his head, howling, "Yeeeaaaahh!!" It was just too much! According to Lynne, average adult only laughs about 14 times a day, but I laugh whole a lot more because of this little guy.
on june 23, 2011 @ 01:19 am [link]

good bye

My best employee has quit on me this week. In the last 6 years, he was always there. He remembered phone numbers and addresses of the customers, even their previous orders. He sent orders to the kitchen, split or combined checks with ease, kept time card of every staff, and so on. But he, my point-of-sale system, was just a computer after all. Being in a rough restaurant environment day in and day out, he was beginning to fail in the past few months. Sometimes he just died and refused to reboot. This week he died during the night, and really refused to wake up again. After I told my computer guys to get me a new system, he eventually started up again to finish his day's work for the last time. But for about two hours during lunch rush I had to go back to hand-writing the checks- that was so painful. I felt stupid- I didn't remember the prices anymore. So the next day, having the new powerful little guy was a lifesaver. Hefty price tag was so worth it. He is going to be the most reliable worker for hopefully many years.
on june 19, 2011 @ 12:32 am [link]

back to the island

It was a beautiful cool sunday. I pointed to the joggin stroller and Taiyo said, "Hashi, hashi, (hashiru -to run in Japanese)" and swung his arms like running. I told him we are taking a ride on a ferry again. "Aaaah." He nodded that he liked the idea. We took a ride to our favorite Governor's Island for the first time this season. The boat was full of people dressed up, in dresses and dress shirts and hats. And there were large trailers transporting horses on the boat. Off the boat, my question was "Where are those horses going?" A guide gave me an info for the polo game. That sounded like an interesting thing to watch, but the game was three hours away. We had a great time at mini golf- Taiyo carried his club on his shoulder from one section to another, and he quickly learned that the game was to put the ball in the hole. Then we headed down to the picnic point and enjoyed rice and beans on the bench. Taiyo is already into climbing trees! Oh, boy how fast this boy is growing. He already know ABCs, thanks to the "ABCs with Elmo" he religiously watched for ten weeks. His favorite phrase for this week was "Oh, man" which he picked up from Dora's friend Swiper. It still gets cuter, Betim says. Her boy is already three years old. He had a major meltdown this afternoon, but still the sweetest cutest baby ever.
on june 7, 2011 @ 02:13 am [link]

Summer is here again

I just noticed that the last entry was before the end of the world, which came and went like any other day. My parents called me and inquired what it was all about. "The end of the world? What did you mean?" Apparently the news never reached Japan. They probably have enough problems within the country they didn't have to be informed about 'the world.' Well, Taiyo and I have been just too busy living our lives to care about 'the world.' We were especially ambitious the last weekend for Memorial Day. We took painfully long train ride uptown to Bronx Zoo, where we still couldn't get on the monorail because the line was way too long- (we are too good to be waiting on line for an hour.) We saw Zebras and Giraffs, and Taiyo had a very close encounter with a Peacock on a lawn, but he kept asking for Penguins. We finally saw some penguins at the other end of the park then he fell asleep. On Memorial day we took another ambitious trip to Staten Island, where we hoped to take a tour of the ship that was forged our of the steel from the World Trade Center. Taiyo on the sports utility stroller, I jogged down to the pier from the ferry, but the line was way too long and we were too good to be standing in line for two hours under blazing sun. I took a few pictures off the pier and we were shooed off by the guard because we were not standing in line. It was the short week after the holiday, but it still felt long enough I have another day of full work with a sold-out sushi making class in the afternoon tomorrow.
on june 4, 2011 @ 01:33 am [link]