Peter's Japan blog

First thing we did was go to the Empire State Building. Fortunately it was not very busy and we didn't have to wait in line very long. The view was of course magnificent, but very windy ;p
After this we went to eat something at Wendy's, and then went to take a look at Madison Square Garden, Nike World, Trump Tower and we are now at the Apple Store at the corner of Central Park, through which we will have a walk in a few minutes.

Cya later for more updates...

Today we went to Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Unfortunately it was a very rainy day. We were quite wet when we arrived at Liberty Island, to top it off, there was a large security check, both at the port and at the entrance of the monument. Typically American, but in the end we had a good view of the statue. Then to Ellis Island, with no more security checks. Ellis Island is where 12 million people entered the US at the beginning of the 20th century. It was a very interesting experience.

After this we went back to the hotel to have a rest and in the evening we went to eat at Riverview restaurant in Queens. The food was very good, but the music was a bit less ;p

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Our actual first full day in New York. We first went to take a walk to Downtown New York. Went past City Hall, Ground Zero, Wall Street and to Battery Park to have a look at the ferry to Liberty Island. Took the metro up to Times Square again to get our tickets for the tour bus from CitySightsNY and the tickets for the Empire State Building and the ferry to Liberty & Ellis Island. Took the whole route with the tour bus and ended back near Times Square to get a hot chocolate at Ben&Jerry's (where they also had some internet pc's).
Now we are going to Bleecker Street and Soho, and going to eat something in China Town.
See you later for the rest ;p

(since we don't have internet in our current hotel, I'm just typing some quick & short posts for now)

We arrived half an hour early in New York. Got into airport shuttle and got to our hotel. The hotel is really still in China Town with lots of chinese shops in the area.
Went to have a quick look at Times Square and go to eat some dinner. We went to Carnegie Deli to eat some famous Pastrami. We ordered something typical from the menu. But man, was that BIG. You could feed 3 people with one. All the portions here were of very large size.

A few pictures for the first day ;p

I'm getting excited, only 13 hours to go until our plane leaves to New York ;p
We will depart in Brussels at 11h45 on Delta Airlines flight DL141. Flight will be 8 hours and 10 minutes, but I think I can say I'm used to long flights after having gone to Japan 3 times which is a 12 hour flight ^^; Of course, I'll try to sleep again, but that won't work.

I will try to keep my usual coverage of japanese stuff on track too, while I'm in the US, but you'll find between my US trip posts ;p
Hopefully my laptop will survive as the screen is starting to have some trouble sometimes.

Next time I will be in New York (where I'll hopefully have internet access in the hotel, but I don't think that should be a problem). Mata ne!

Hirano Aya's newest release is an anime character single called Unnamed World. It is the ED song for the anime Nijuu mensou no Musume (or The Daughter of Twenty Faces) in which she also voices the main character Chiko. Because it is a character song, it is not part of her single series as a solo artist, so it's not her 7th single.
This single also features her new look, which we had already seen on her photo blog. It gives her a less playful and a more serious style and look.

Release date: April 23rd 2008
Catalog number: LACM-4485

Tracklisting:
1. Unnamed World
2. Maybe I can't good-bye
3. Unnamed World (OFF VOCAL)
4. Maybe I can't good-bye (OFF VOCAL)

Support Hirano Aya :
Hirano Aya - Unnamed World on YesAsia

Here's a piece of the PV:

Added a new category "Real-life locations" under the Anime category. On my last 2 trips to Japan I went to check out quite a few real-life locations from anime series, so I decided to make it more accessible by making a separate category. By doing this I noticed I haven't even updated the post from last year when I went to check out the locations from Onegai Teacher/Onegai Twins ;p.
I guess I'll work on that later today. I have to sort out the pictures from this year as well anyway. I have also decided to make English guides for other people as most (read: all) guides are in Japanese.

Updated all posts of my Japan trip with photos. Check it out: Japan 2008