Kinokuniya, Bryant Park

Around last week, we went out to find a nice place to sit back and relax. Our favorite place is always a nice cafe or a book store that has a good atmosphere. Today I am going to bring you to Kinokuniya, a Japanese franchise bookstore, which I think Thai people are quite familiar with, because they also have a couple branches in Thailand.

Kinokuniya, NYC a 2 floors bookstore situates near Bryant Park behind the public library. It is very easy to go. Actually, I've been there couple of times but here I am going to start writing it down so that I can share with you guys.


If you are a Japanese book lover you will love this place. I think it is one of the biggest Japanese bookstore in NYC. I love Japanese fashion magazines and design book even though I cannot read a single Japanese character. There are a broad selections of Japanese magazines and books, also including CDs, premiums from manga and some toys from Japan.

Also, if you would like to relax for a while, chat with friends or read the book you've just bought, I suggest Zeiya Cafe on the 2nd floor. There's a wide selection of drinks including coffee, tea, soft drinks, etc. The ones I wold recommend are Black Sesame Frappe and Forte hot tea which comes in a nice tea set. There are also small portion Japanese food which are not expensive for those who are hungry.

Please keep in mind that you have to pay first before entering the cafe with any item from the store or else a Japanese aunty will come and get you!

After I went out I also found another nice select clothing store nearby. Its name is TC Supply shop. Here, I've found a lot of nice shoes. They are the supplier for Walk Over shoes brand, which produce a very high quality shoes. I think the prices are acceptable for this quality. You may wanna take a look at them. http://www.walkover.com/

We walked to Hell's Kitchen flea market

Last week I and Nan my friend decided to go out. We planned to have a hotpot party at Pode's place at 8 pm. I met Nan at Union Square at 4. There was still a lot of time to kill, so we decided that today we were going to go to Hell's Kitchen Flea Market.

I had read about this place from the Zinester's Guide to NYC book. It said that this flea market is one of the most famous flea market in NYC where you might be able to meet Vogue staffs walking around. I thought I must be a very good place to visit because both of us LOVE second hand stuff.

I set a destination on Google maps to "Hell's Kitchen flea market." Google maps indicated that we are only a few minutes walk from Union Square! "How lucky!" I thought. Then we started to walk to the destination. Walking is always my prefer method when I want to explore New York because by this mean I can see many things new along the way.

About 7 minutes later, we arrived at the destination. But where was the flea market? We looked around, tried to check the route on the map again and tried to search for something that looked similar to flea market. We found nothing.

I carefully checked again and suddenly realized that Google map fooled us! The address and the destination it pointed weren't matched. I tried put the address instead. Shit! This was not even close! The flea market situated near Time Square on the 9th Avenue. But we are tough girls, so we decided to walk anyway.

It was about 30 streets away. Here are what we have found along the way to Hell's Kitchen Flea Market.

 

A cat in a store window 

Macy's window display for Spring, the theme is flower garden, really cute and fresh

Inside of the mall, so crowded. The whole first floor were decorated by real flowers! My mom is going to love this place!

Finally we reached the place at 5. But the market was almost finished! We took a quick search for stuff. There were many kinds of stuff there; clothes, antiques, shoes...etc. 

Even though the market was almost done then but we both still found some stuff for ourselves. Nan had got a nice wool sweater for 15 and I had got a Wrangler jeans jacket for 20. I can say that the price was not bad compared to the conditions of the clothes. Hell's Kitchen Flea market held on every Saturday and Sunday from 8 am to 6 pm.

P.S. A walk from Union Square to Time Square is not that fun. Do not rely only on Google maps, often times it fools us!!!

The King's Speech movie review

       Stammering could be normal for a kid, but it is not for a king. The King's speech (2011)is a story about a self-overcoming of King George VI who has a bad stammer problem, and since he cannot avoid speaking in public, this could become a very serious problem. Fortunately, there's someone who can help, but the King has to overcome another thing in his life, in order to get the help, and that thing is his heart.

      To begin with, the visualization of the movie has its stunning points. The slow motion opening scene depict great pressure from the public who are waiting to listen to the king's speech. It helps the audience get the feeling of that pressure and put oneself in his shoes. This is clever, because normally it is hard for an ordinary people to imagine oneself as a king, the movie shows an aspect of the king as a normal people who can be afraid of such a great pressure, same as us.

      King George VI, played by Colin Firth, nothing so new or so great in his acting except he looks like a real stammering person. On the other hand, Helena Bonham Carter who plays the role of Elizabeth, the King's wife, has changed from her devilish look into a high-status lady in this movie. She gave a sense of a true-friend kind of wife and also not a very snobbish nobility. She did a great job of being a fine woman, finally. 

     Nothing new has been told, it is a character-driven movie which tells the story of a man who finally overcome himself with a help from his friend and beloved ones. The audience can easily predict the end of the story which probably can be guessed right after watching the trailer. Has this kind of a feel-good movie become a recipe for the Oscars winner? May be it is because what's going on our world now is too cruel to be a story.

     There is no heart wrenching scene, there is nowhere you can lose a drop of tear with.The moral of the story is not so deep. It is easy for everyone to understand, also can be easily forgotten in the next ten minutes.

Shitty First Drafts

This week my teacher asked me to write about a chapter from a book we read in class named "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott. The book is about writing instructions and the chapter name is "Shitty First Drafts".

When we see a beautiful piece of artwork or a very good piece of article or a very good book, we usually think that the artist or the author who has created it must be a genius. That is half true, but if you think carefully, what you always skip while admiring it is the process of making that piece of work. Another half of the truth is that great works are consist of inspiration and the most important thing, the effort.

The writer asserts that a genius writer who has his/her idea flow smoothly is super super rare. If you want to do something you shouldn't be afraid to start. I know how it feels when you see a very nice work. It terrifies you. When I saw a very nice piece of work from my friend. I always felt wow, I wouldn't be able to do something like that. I did skip another half part of the truth that if I tried hard enough, I would have done something good like him/her.

Most of people hate making mistakes and hate the fact that they would look stupid in others' views. I am one of them, I always wanted to look cool by trying to make everything good in the first time. However, concentrating on making it looks good to the others' eyes makes my work become worse. 

While we are working, those noises of self-consciousness and paranoia thoughts are always keep saying something in our head. Something like, this is not good enough! You should be ashamed of expressing this idea! or people are not gonna like this work! The writer suggests that we should keep those noises in a jar and close the lid so that we don't hear what they are saying. Pretend that you are alone in this world and are free to do anything, even the craziest things. By this way you will be able to expand your creativity and create a great work!

"All the good writing begins with terrible first efforts" (Anne Lamott, 1995). I agree with the author that we all should have the shitty first drafts, not just in writing but in everything we do.

Paris Baguette, Flushing

Last Wednesday I was so panic with my tons of homework coming up. Facing unbearable stress, I decided to go to Flushing with my friend instead (see what stress can do to people).

I took 7 train to the end of the line, Main St. - Flushing. Heaven is waiting! For those who never go to Flushing, Queens, I can tell you that this place is a heaven for food lovers! The neighborhood is packed with Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean = ALL YUMMY NATIONS.

I used to come here for a couple of times because my grand uncle lives around here. That day my friend brought me to some nice Korean clothing stores. Well, clothes from Korea are well designed and the quality is also nice if you choose wisely. For the price I would say it is pretty good for a nice designed winter wear. My friend bought a long knit sweater for 90 bucks.

Then after walking for a while we found ourselves standing in front of a bakery shop "Paris Baguette" (PB). I remember from my friend's facebook page that the cake from this bakery looked so yummy. So that day I and my friend decided to try and do some review about its product. Let's go!

Paris Baguette sounds French, but actually this is a Korean Bakery. Most of the bakery they made have some glimpse of Asian fusions which make them look more delicious for me.

Inside the store. There's a wide range of bakery selection. Almost every seats are occupied, I guess it is because this place is nice and not too expensive. Customers have to grab a box (for to-go customers) or a tray (for eat-in customers), then select the bakery you like but putting them on the tray or box and then go check out at the cashier.

This is called "Heavenly Cheesecake", how's that sound?

Baby pancakes look so yummy !!

I can't remember the name of this one because the name is so long.

CAKESSSSSSS

What my friend bought.

After eating them all. I think some of them were delicious and some weren't. The recommend ones would be mini chu- cream, Rice cake with red bean filling, soft cheesecake and another one I cannot remember the name. It is a fried sticky bread with cream cheese filling.

Next time when you go to Flushing, don't forget Paris Baguette.

After that I went to Quickly to grab a cup of milk bubble tea, my favorite drink. While we were walking there we saw a discount store named "Jembro". There are many second hand clothes selling on the rack. Me and my friend we are both vintage lovers so after searching for a while my friend and I got two coats for 10 bucks each and another shirt for 2.88 bucks.

For those who love second hand stuff, Jembro is worth checking out.

LAZY WEEKEND

I decided to make this weekend "my lazy weekend"

On Friday we have a birthday party for my friend at a Japanese restaurant near my place. Oh, I love Supporo Beer ! SUKOI !! Nothing is better than conversations with nice friends :)

Saturday I woke up late. I didn't take shower all day. Lied on my bed and read a short fiction book. I did my homework (this is against my weekend theme but I have no choice). I had noodle soup for dinner before we brought our bed sheets and comforter out to laundry. You guys should try reading in the laundry, it is a nice. We came back with a nice smell comforter and sheets. Ahhhh ! freshhhh !!

Today is Sunday I woke up very late again. I rolled myself in the blanket til late doing nothing but reading. My friend and I spend all afternoon staring into our Macbooks screen and read some gossips from Thailand. We were successfully being very lazy this weekend. After we were fed up with gossips and facebook, we decided to go for a walk in the park not far from our house.

Socrates Sculpture Park situated at 32-01 Vernon Boulevard at Broadway, Long Island City (Queens). We went there first time by chance when we were walking to Costco, the supermarket nearby. This park is a small park on the riverside. It is full of art sculptures. I can see the view of Manhattan from the park. It is a very nice and peaceful place for leisure. A walk in the park once a week is good for your heart and soul :) 

The house made of garbage. One of the artwork in Socrates Sculpture Park.

A big aeroplane shape cloud above Manhattan sky. It was moving forward while I took this picture.

There's more information about this park at this website, in case you guys wanna check it out :)

  http://www.socratessculpturepark.org/

Be lazy guys :D

A Walk In Soho

One of my most favorite neighborhood in NYC is Soho. Last week I have a chance to go walk around the streets of Soho alone. Walking in some streets I've never been before, I felt kinda adventurous.

The New Museum Building on Bowery St. This building caught my eyes since the first days I've been here. The museum is now showing George Condo's "States of mind". The works are awesome ! Go check it out.

Something sweet for the desserts lovers. The shop looks nice and the cupcakes look yummy. I haven't tried it tho.

 This is my first time to see the turkey specialist. The shop looks so authentic. I wish I could go closer but I had to save myself from the traffic.

 This garden was full of antiques. I felt strange when I look at it. it reminds me of the Palentine hill in Rome and it doesn't belong here in the heart of Soho.

 A hard sell sign by Kodak :) Yes, I buy your films !

 From the window of a restaurant.

Japanese designed products. It is worth checking out.

For someone who's looking for a winter reading, working space. This indoor park is free, warm and it provides power sockets. It opens daily 11am-6pm.

 Old buildings in the afternoon sun.

 Cool graffiti near Spring street.

 Next time I will try do some review of these cool places and cool stuff I've seen. I hope this blog might be useful for you guys in some ways :)