The Ride

Going back to my trip to New York City for a moment, the final thing we did in the city before we left was take a bus tour called The Ride. This is the infamous "sideways bus." Yes, the seats on this particular bus are situated so that all of the passengers have a window view. Instead of facing forward, the seats face the one huge window on the right side of the bus. The seats are set up stadium-style so the top row is higher than the bottom row and everyone has a good view of what is going on outside. The Ride has two tour hosts - Jackie and Scott. It is obvious that both of them have had improv training of some sort. Both of them were absolutely hysterical as they poked fun at the passengers and the people walking past on the street. In this case, the tour operators really do make the attraction much more fun and enjoyable.

It's a little difficult to explain The Ride if you have never been on it. It is a tour so you do get to see some of the touristy things in New York. You get some basic information on Grand Central Terminal and the Chrysler Building and some other notable places. What sets it apart from other city tours is the sidewalk entertainment. There are a couple of stops where entertainers, dressed as regular people on the street, perform for you. For example, a man in a UPS-type uniform sets his package aside to do some breakdancing for us. Since he is right there on the street, there are regular people walking past him. Not only are the performers awesome to watch, it's also funny to watch the reactions of the people trying to get someplace.

The Ride is on the expensive side of things. It costs $59.00 per person for an approximately 75 minute tour. (Note: The box office is located at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. It can be difficult to find but once you get to the museum, it is literally right there.) However, I do think that it is worth the price. All three of us spent the entire ride with smiles on our faces. I would love to do it again the next time I am in New York City.

Sapporo

Just a block or two from Times Square is one of the best ramen shops in New York City. Sapporo is on West 49th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, about a block away from the M&M store. Keep an eye out for the red and white awning. Sapporo is a tiny little hole-in-the-wall type place. It isn't listed in the AAA New York City tour book. But the place is amazing. While they do serve other dishes, their main fare is traditional Japanese ramen. My daughter had the Miso Ramen, which is a basic ramen dish with both minced pork and two slices of roast pork. I had the very similar Tokyo Ramen, which added a fish cake and seaweed to the Miso Ramen. My aunt chose the Tomato Omelette and a mini Chahan - Japanese fried rice.

All of the food was delicious. I don't think I have ever had a better bowl of ramen. The best part was the size of our meals. Both ramen bowls were huge. The omelette and chahan were a bit smaller but both of those are listed either as appetizers or side dishes. And the price wasn't too bad either. Overall, we are extremely happy with our lunchtime choice. I was only disappointed the size of my stomach. I really wanted to eat more!

Aladdin

One of the main reasons we went to New York City was to see Disney's newest Broadway play, Aladdin. The last time we were in the city, we saw The Lion King and Mary Poppins. I know what Disney can do with a stage so I was very excited to see what they would do to the Aladdin movie.

For those of you that haven't seen the movie, Aladdin is the story of a poor street rat who rubs a magic lamp and becomes a master to a genie. He uses the genie's powers to help him win the heart of the kingdom's princess. Meanwhile, the Sultan's royal vizier is trying to get rid of Aladdin and the princess so he can take over Agrabah.

When the movie was first scripted, there were more characters. Aladdin had a couple of friends and his mother had recently died. Due to time constraints, those characters were cut. Aladdin's only friend (before Genie) was a pet monkey named Abu. The musical does cut out Abu (and Raja, for obvious reasons) but brings back the three friends and the parental storyline. With these changes came the reinsertion of a couple of songs that were cut from the movie. If you had the 1994 CD release The Music Behind The Magic, you will recognize the new songs.

The musical is absolutely amazing. Despite having a fairly small cast, they are able to bring so many different characters to life. (Let's put it this way: The 21-member ensemble actually brings the entire parade into the castle during "Prince Ali." So. Many. Quick. Costume. Changes. It is mind-boggling.) Adam Jacobs, who plays Aladdin, is adorable. Not only does he bring the non-threatening wittiness of the character to life, he also has a wonderful singing voice. He did not disappoint with "Proud of Your Boy." Courtney Reed also did a good job with Jasmine. Unfortunately, she isn't really the highlight of the show. She is very pretty and has a lovely voice but it seems like she doesn't spend a whole lot of time on stage. The evil Jafar is played by Jonathan Freeman, who also voiced the character in the animated movie. Much like Jasmine, he was good and it was awesome to hear the voice we all know coming out of Jafar's face but he still seemed lacking somehow.

I think the reason everyone else seemed so small is that the Genie has such a huge stage presence. James Monroe Iglehart plays our beloved Genie and he is amazing. He is somehow able to bring Robin William's manicness into reality. During "Friend Like Me," he slips in a few verses from "Beauty and the Beast," "Under The Sea," "Colors of The Wind," and a few more. I was just stunned how easily he moved between all of the songs. He has been nominated for a Tony, which he richly deserves to win.

If you can get to New York City to see the show, please do. You will not be disappointed. You will be awed, you will laugh your pants off, and you will be left wondering how the magic carpet actually flew. But you will definitely not be disappointed.

Marriott Marquis

I went to New York City with my aunt and my daughter this past weekend. Over the next few days, I'll be giving you reviews of the places we visited. I'm going to start out with our hotel. We stayed at the Marriott Marquis right on Times Square. This is the same hotel we stayed at the last time we visited New York City back in August 2010.

Our room was nice. We were on the 12th floor with a corner room. It was a pretty standard hotel room with two double beds. I was a little surprised to find that the room did not have a refrigerator but it wasn't a deal-breaker.

If you follow me over on Instagram, you would have seen a picture of the view from our hotel room. This was the view on Saturday morning. See the Sony screen almost in the middle of the top of the shot? If you follow those billboards straight up, that is where the New Year's Eve ball hangs. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good shot of the ball from our hotel room due to the massive amount of brightly lit billboards under it. Towards the center of the shot, next to the building roof and near all the orange construction cones, is where all of the characters wander around begging for people to pay them for pictures. (No, we didn't take pictures with any of them.) On the left-hand side of the picture, under the Bachelorette's face, is Toys R Us.

One of my favorite things about this hotel is the elevator system. All of the elevators are located in a circle in the center of the hotel. You go to a number pad and enter the floor number you wish to go to. The number pad then tells you which elevator to get on. The elevators are each given a letter. So if you push in floor 12, it might tell you to get on elevator J. It is much easier than having everyone pile into one or two elevators then having to wait for each floor, especially when you are on a higher floor.

The down part of the elevator system is the way the hotel is organized. The lobby/concierge/registration desk is located on the 8th floor. If you want to eat at the hotel's rooftop restaurant, The View, which is on the 48th floor, you have to go to the 3rd floor to get the only two elevators that go to the top. But if you want to leave the hotel, you need to go to the 1st floor. So if you have a question for the concierge before you leave the hotel, you have to take an elevator to the 8th floor to get your answer before going down to the 1st floor to go outside. And if you have dinner reservations at The View, which we did, you have to go down to the 3rd floor to go all the way up to the 48th. It's a lot of work.

With that said, I do highly recommend the hotel. If you are willing to pay for a room with the view of Times Square, the view is pretty amazing. All of the hotel staff that we encountered were extremely nice and eager to assist. And, best of all, it is right in the middle of everything you would want to do in the Times Square area. I am very likely to stay there again if we can manage another trip to New York City.

Review: Talk Like Singing

Title: Talk Like Singing Cast: Shingo Katori: Tarlow Jay Kabira: Dyson Keiko Horiuchi: Nimoy Shinya Niiro: Brother, Dyson's assistant

Plot: From his earliest days, Tarlow could only sing. People around him tried to get him to talk, but to no avail. Tarlow didn't realize he was different from other people. He thought that he was speaking just like everyone else. For a time, he became a celebrity. One unfortunate day, he sang about a terrible typhoon and society shunned him. Psychiatrist Dr. Dyson and Linguist Dr. Nimoy try to find the reason for Tarlow's singing so they can cure him.

Review: When I went into the play, I was under the impression that it would be completely in Japanese. The play ended up being half in Japanese and half in English. A majority of Dr. Dyon's lines are in English and whenever there was an important scene, it was either performed twice (once in Japanese and once in English) or there were creative subtitles for the conversation. This really did help us in understanding the plot better. It also added a bit of humor to the show.

All of the performances from the actors were excellent. Jay Kabira brilliantly brought the fabulously egotistical Dyson to life and stole almost every scene he was in. Meanwhile, Shingo Katori's singing was spot-on, which amazed me since the show ran for just about 2 hours straight without an intermission. I think this proves what a talent he is. And adding to the mix, Shinya Niiro, who played a couple of very different characters, held his own despite his characters not having a lot of lines. Many of his characters relied totally on body language, which can be extremely difficult in live theater. I will definitely be keeping an eye open for him in the future! Finally, Keiko Horiuchi. She did well in the Japanese sections, but she seemed to struggle just a little in the English parts. Luckily, she still managed to bring across the complete emotional change that Nimoy goes through. Despite not knowing any of these actors personally, I felt very proud of their performances.

Unfortunately, the show has ended it's US run. I believe there will be a short run in Japan, but I do not have any information on that. If you are lucky enough to be able to see Talk Like Singing, please do. I think you will be extremely pleased.

Game review: Turbo Subs

Turbo Subs is a time management game where Rebecca and Robert from Turbo Pizza decide to open a sandwich shop. This time the shop is in New York City and is located on a train. The game plays much like every other time management restaurant game. You make food and serve it to customers. However, the restaurant is laid out a bit differently. Instead of having straight counters, these ones are in a circle. It makes it a little more difficult to click on the actual customers since now they stand sort of behind each other. Also, it's a little annoying that some of the food takes so long to make. The customers can request a toasted sandwich but then they start getting angry when the sandwich takes longer to make.

Overall, it's not a difficult game. Though it's not particularly interesting either. There isn't anything that sets it apart from any other time management restaurant game. A good game but not a great game.