◆　Coney Island　◆

"Nathan's" 　　The famous hotdog shop. 　　( I'm imitating the way of 　　　eating hotdogs.)

07/20/2003

Last weekend, one of my friends Ryoko visited me from Japan.
She is a my co-worker and planning to apply the same training program I'm now studying.

We met her English teacher's friend Dan who lives in Connecticut.
(He is a really nice young guy!)
Being nice day, he recommended us visiting Coney Island.
We can enjoy walking around the beach and also play at the amusement park.

It took one and a half hours to go there from manhattan.
The name "Coney Island" reminds me the song "Rainy Coney Island"(by Seiko Matsuda).
It's an old song.(You guys can easily guess my age. Laugh!)
While I was in the train the song was refraining in my mind all the way.

Getting off the train, there is a famous hotdog shop "Nathan's" at the corner.
This shop is famous for its hotdog competition that is held every July 4th
and some Japanese guy keeps winning.
I guess you must know about that.

AAAAND! There we can see the Astroland Amusement Park!

We rode the ferris wheel and the roller caoster.
Before I rode those, I thought they are the atractions for children.
My co-workers also thought like that.
BUUUT! 　After we finished those, we realized those were the most thrilling atractions in our life!

■Ferris wheel■

It isn't an usual ferris wheel.
There are 2 types of cage, the one is a stable cage and the other is a swing one.
Of course, we chose the swing cage.
When the cage reaches at the some point, the cage begins to swing from the bigger wheel to the smaller wheel.
Can you see the two different wheels in the picture?
When I took this picture(left), I didn't think it scary. I thought it would be a gentle swing.
BUUUT! It was really scary and exciting!
Look at Ryoko's frozen smile in the picture(right). (I took this picture while the cage wasn't swinging.)
We, all the ladies, were screaming while the cage was swinging.
Only Dan was calm. He even could take pictures while the cage swinging.
What a brave guy he is!

■Roller coaster■

After exciting ferris wheel, we rode the roller coaster.
According to the story Dan told us, this coaster was the oldest coaster
in the U.S. (1920's)
The rail was made of wood, it really looked old.
In fact, it did stopped a while for maintenance or something
(I don't know exactly) when we sat on the seat.

Do you think it scary when you see this picture?
No, I didn't think so. There's no screws.
It didn't look so thrilling at first sight.

........................
......My body was floating in the air not once but many times!
I needed to fix my glasses at every corners worring if they mihgt be blown off.

It was really exciting and fun! (for me and maybe for Dan)

For two other ladies, it seemed to be enough.

If you have a chance, you should try!

■Beach■

It was nice.
Blue sky and white sandy beach, it is really beautiful, isn't it?
We took many pictures.

......To tell the truth, I prefer amusement park......