For lunch, Lyanne wanted to introduce me to Hibachi food for the first time, so we went to a restaurant called ‘Kobe Hibachi Sushi Asian Cuisine’ in Poughkeepsie. In America, ‘hibachi-style’ refers to Japanese teppanyaki cooking, which is where gas-heated hotplates are integrated into the tables people eat from, with the chef cooking in front of the diners – often in a dramatic fashion. 
Although of course I don’t have anything to compare it to, I thought that the meal was fantastic. The restaurant was a great blend between modern and stereotypical Asian design. The food was delicious, and I thoughtthe show that our chef put on was very impressive. One of his tricks was lighting a volcano shaped stack of raw onion hoops on fire, which the childish side of me was delighted by!
I also experienced deep fried ice-cream for the first time, another American delicacy that Lyanne insisted that I had to experience. I must confess that whilst it was good fun to try something new, it’s probably not something that I would order on a regular basis!
To give us some time to digest our food we then headed over to the local mall, Poughkeepsie galleria. We didn’t spend much time there but there was a good selection of shops, and it’s definitely somewhere I would go again if I wanted to have ashopping afternoon. I actually spent most of my time in a shop called ‘Travelling Buddha’ which sold oriental clothes, jewellery, decorations etc. I found a cute little anklet there which wasn’t too expensive, so it definitely gets a thumbs up from me!
We ended our day in Beacon, a city in Dutchess County, New York. It seemed like a really cool place, with lots of arty styled shops, and there were even art exhibitions all over the streets which made it really interesting to walk around. The highlights for me were probably a shop called ‘Hudson Beach Glass’ which unsurprisingly, sold objects made out of glass. My favourite finds in there were the glass animals (specifically the birds) which were hanging up in the shop windows. There was a variety there, including owls, parrots and kingfishers. It’s the type of place where, if it was in England and I was able to take it all back home with me safely, I would spend far too much money!
As I said there were lots of art exhibitions all up and down the street. Sadly I don’t know who they were done by, or if they’re for anything in particular, but they certainly made the street more interesting.
I didn’t actually get to see a huge amount of Beacon. We didn’t have much time there and, according to Lyanne, most of the places she wanted to take me were for food – a slight problem since we had already eaten so much that we could barely walk. It was a great place to spend a couple of hours though, and if you’re interested in slightly odd, artistic places then I would definitely recommend it as a place to check out for an afternoon.
‘Not all those who wander are lost’ J. R. R. Tolkien
A list of everywhere 