City Of A Thousand Cultures

Times Square, Manhattan, New York.
March 4st

We got up early at 8 in the morning, we were all excited about where we were. The hotel we were in was right in times square, from the room window we could look down at all the people passing by and the screens of the mythical intercession of avenues. For our stay, my girls recommended three double rooms to my mother, but they were connected by a door on the sides between the rooms, so they were all connected and made the space bigger. My mother slept next to my sister, I was together with Tama and Momo, finally, the twins and Lisa were in the room further back, because since they did not want to sleep they still stayed in the farthest one so as not to disturb those who did.  Xian and Cedric were in simple rooms but on the same floor, in case something happened. 

For breakfast, we could go to the restaurant downstairs where there was a buffet, but since Momo was accompanying us, we just decided to ask for room service. When we finished and taking advantage of the fact that we had free today we decided to walk around and visit the stores, Cedric separated from the group because since he was in the city he wanted to stop and visit his Uncle who lived in the city. Xian from his side, it seems that he went to do the paperwork at the UN, for which security was in my charge. The good side of New York compared to Tokyo I think they are inhabitants, who literally do not care about anything. Since, despite her clothing, Momo does not look so strange compared to the rest of the inhabitants. The bad side is the crime that exists in the city because for a small carelessness someone stole my cap without my realizing it in the subway station, the good side was that people also did not care about my ears at all. Now that I consider it, you were even lucky that my gun was not stolen, so I better keep it with tape next to Avalon in case I had the opportunity to visit a bathroom.  In fact, when we got back on the train we ran into a guy dressed so weird that he directly beat Momo, so I think no one would care if I have a foxtail or ears.

As for the places we visited, there was everything we could think of, from a Christmas store even though we were in March. Since Lisa was forbidden to leave my shadow for safety reasons towards others, she could not be seen, and only we could hear her speak, which was terrifying when we were quiet in a quiet place in a store and listening to her talk about it. that he planned to torment the employee who was helping us just because he was a man.  A multi-story high diamond shop, where all the girls were joyous and happy looking at the designs, while I was nervous to see the prices of everything that was in there. Although as a curious anecdote, the store manager seemed to have a good eye for jewelry, because when she saw me she immediately came to talk to me about the ones I had tied to my hair because she said that she had never seen anything like it before and that she liked the style that I had. I told her that they were just an imitation of a Los Angeles store and that I got the idea when I saw them. But it seems that she did not want to let me go so easily because she really offered to buy them at a very good price and give me a great discount in the store, but it goes without saying that I flatly refuse to sell them. When my mother saw me talking to the manager, she almost fainted, because supposedly she was a famous model, but the truth is, I have no idea about those things, although Adelis took advantage of our talk and managed to get a good necklace at a bargain price using me. 

To my great surprise Tamamo with her sixth sense, managed against all odds, managed to find a kimono shop, she said something that her nose guided her there. It was a small store but in fact, she sold them since at the moment the only one who knows about these things was her because we all did not know what we were seeing or if they were good or bad clothes. According to the analysis of the Goddess, the costumes were mostly quite cheap or with inappropriate designs with respect to the message they should give, once again I am not an expert in kimonos but I am sure that the ones Tama usually wears were made for royalty or gods and not for ordinary people, so her sense of well made is different. Although she said there were a few that were pretty, but that the cherry season was almost over, designs with lighter colors and flowers were needed than those in the store. But hey, what else could be done on the subject? This store was in the middle of one of the most multicultural cities in the world, it is most likely that this store is only for people from the rest of the world to try to wear these clothes and that they do not give them importance as the "message transmitted by the kimono". 

Speaking of multi-cultural, a little afternoon we ran into a Mexican food store. And since it was the closest thing to food from our country that we had found at the moment, we decided to eat there. First of all, we asked for a table apart from the rest and we managed to find a more or less hidden one, perfect for Momo to eat as long as we were careful around. All our food was a variation of tortillas along with something else, Tamamo found it fun to eat without utensils, while the girls had problems trying to avoid getting dirty, but it was impossible and I had to clean them with a napkin. My mother did not know how she managed to take a picture of that precise moment and she told me how she also remembered doing the same with me. Everything was beautiful and a fun family moment, until we realized that the restaurant also sold tamales with palm leaf . From then on it became a tournament about who could eat the most before passing out, a tournament where only the fittest survive and there is no concept of allies or family. Despite everyone signing up to try them out, the weaklings were only able to complete a single pair.  The remaining three, Adelis, Maria, and I were the ones who had to stand up for the team. We ate until we were tired and we even fought to try to get the last one left in the restaurant, let's just say that at that moment we said many things that we normally would not have done.  But seeing as the three of us had missed the tamales hunting season at Christmas, we only had to settle for the rare specimens that we might find on the way. Lisa for her part was also eating, but she just put her arm out, took something from the table, and went back to the shadow, although she did not say anything about the food, she always returned the empty plate clean. 

Since it was so close we went to central park, to hang out while we recovered from the wild lunch. Although it was called the green lung of the city, I felt quite strange in it, because although its garden is incredibly cared for. It feels claustrophobic being surrounded by all those skyscrapers. I do not know, maybe for the people here it seems impressive, but for me that I grew up in for the people here in the equivalent of the interior of the jungle in Central America, it seems to me even sad that they see this as a luxury. 

Right next to the park there was also the American Museum of Natural History, so we decided to go see it as well. Where this time I was surprised, because their exhibition rooms were incredible, from giant dinosaur skeletons to a damn full-scale whale in one of the rooms. It was really impressive to see everything they had there, there were animal things from all over the planet and from all dates. There were also several rooms dedicated to various cultures around the planet, from the continence of Asia or Africa, as well as Pacific tribes. The fantasy girls were surprised to see everything that was on the planet, but the truth is that even my mother and I were also surprised by several things, Kazumi and Charlotte on the other hand were basically giving us a tour guide through the museum to how they looked for information about the questions we asked ourselves. 

When we left there, Maria found a magic shop online and wanted to go see it immediately. Due to past experiences, we only agreed if Tamamo first confirmed that whatever my sister wanted to touch or see was completely safe. The shop was not for real magic but rather a shop for tools to do party tricks. Although that also did not make my sister thrill to see everything that was there. They sold mainly decks of cards to do tricks, but they also had manuals on how to do tricks up to more complex things like traps for bears or crystal balls that came with the table. Despite our aversion to the place for what happened the night we were locked in another world, the place was quite curious so it was not bad at all. The one who was disappointed was Tama, because she expected to see real western magicians, but when she saw that it was a place where you simply sold things for tricks with your hands, she did not seem to care in the least about the place. But hey, I don't know what she expected, if there were real wizards in this city they wouldn't be on the third floor of a building selling two-dollar packs of cards. 

As the day was ending and it was starting to get dark, we went back to times square to eat a couple of hamburgers from a fast food store on the red staircase, which is the perfect place to admire this mythical part of the city. The thousands of screens and the large number going everywhere, the bustle of a living city, everything seemed cozy to me, seeing so many things happening at the same time, as if there were some kind of festival. We stayed for about two hours enjoying the moment. More than anything at the insistence of Tamamo who said that it was good for me to enjoy moments like this, and although it is the truth that I liked her, it seemed that she said it for the other thing. On one of the screens, they were giving the news, where they were talking about the visit of the president of the United States to the UN building to give a speech regarding the end of the continental war.

The hotel was right there, so it didn't take long to get back to our rooms, where Lisa was finally able to leave and Momo took off her disguise. Adelis, on the other hand, went with Charlotte and Kazumi to Xian's room to prepare everything for tomorrow. The idea is to take advantage of the president's visit and his speech so that my mother can speak with him, and since there are diplomats from all countries in the same place, a small quick meeting can be held where we hope to achieve more moderate terms towards the Empire. It seems that tomorrow there will be, apart from the general meeting, there will also be the one of the security council where they will discuss these issues more, we hope that the president can convince the other countries to reduce the punishment.