Run away! Run away!

[savvyliterate]

I like to joke every so often that I'm running away from home. That's usually when I look around and get so fed up with chores, freelance work, regular work and the like. I also usually have a little bit of extra money I can play with. I go hop in the car and do something fun. I spend money on stuff I like and come home at the very end of it all recharged. Mike thinks it's cute. Just wait until he's here for good. ^_~

I decided yesterday would make a very good day to "run away" and decided to go into New York City on my own and explore the stuff I didn't get to see the last time I was there with Mom and Ronnie. I decided to drive to Newark Penn Station then take the New Jersey Transit train into New York Penn Station, which puts you fairly close to Times Square.

It worked out extremely well with the exception of some minor tourist gaffes. The cost of a tank of gas/parking/train ticket turned out to be $20-40 cheaper than doing the train straight from Harrisburg and in the same amount of time. I love my little non-gas guzzling Fit! When I got to the parking lot, I pulled into line and couldn't understand what the guy with the really, really thick Jamacian accent was screaming at me. Another guy had to come over and tell me that I was to leave my car with them and they'd park it for me. Oops. I've never parked anywhere like that before. I quickly grabbed my backpack and scurried across the street to the train station.


Once I got to New York Penn Station, first order of business was to head to Kinokuniya. I had really wanted to go there since the last time I'd gone was with ichiban_victory in Seattle nearly four years ago. I hiked the mile up toward Times Square and realized I'd forgotten to compensate for the fact that it's June now, not April, and I was quickly getting dehydrated. I headed upstairs to check out the manga and light novels, along with the cafe where I had the most delicious green tea frappe. They had the animation artbook for Tales of Symphonia: Tethe'alla Arc OVA and a nice selection of the Spice and Wolf novels. I grabbed a picture of those for earthstar_moon before seeing the signs saying not take pictures of the merchandise. Oops. Good thing I'd just used my cell phone and no one was around me.

I then wandered down to the basement where I poked through some of the language books and children's books. I was trying to find the recent Slayers-related releases, but sadly they weren't to be had. I glanced at the bilingual section and saw a number of guidebooks, including one about the UK called All You Wanted to Know about the U.K. These were issued by Kodansha back in the late 90s, and I actually don't think they're in print any longer (from what I can tell via Amazon search.) This one's been sitting on the shelf since July 2007 (as indicated by the price sticker on the back).

I randomly flipped through the book, and my eyes caught sight of this paragraph:

Q: Why do the British eat so much chocolate and candy?

The British are not serious about food, but they are deadly serious about snacks. The market for chocolate, candy, and potato chips is -- along with pop music, comedy, and taxi-driving -- one of the few areas where any dynamism can be found in the U.K. economy.

While the Japanese are very serious about getting their three meals a day, the British lack the organization and time-management skills required to either to shop or to cook. They consequently live in an eternal gastronomical childhood, eating only those things guaranteed to make them both fat and spotty.

My jaw dropped. I glanced at the Japanese on the opposite page to see if I could translate it out, but there was no furigana. I quickly flipped to another section and saw some talk on the royals and how the gods were pleased that Princess Diana was killed. Yet another area talked about how Americans had a "can do attitude," but the British have a "can't do attitude." I thought this was a comedy book, but no, it's a serious guidebook for the Japanese wanting to travel to the UK. What's more, the author of the book is British, born in London in 1966 and moved to Japan in 1991.

Before I could decide whether or not to buy it, I realized I was going to be late for lunch with my freelance editor. So, after getting lost thanks to the iPhone GPS, I literally sprinted for the subway only to miss it. I caught the next one to Union Square, where I've never been before. It's a lovely park that has a good-sized farmer's market stretched along it.



I met my editor (I'm an editor too, just a tier below) and bought sandwiches from this awesome little Vietnamese shop. We ate lunch in the park, then he directed me to the New York branch of Forbidden Planet. It's about half the size of the UK one, but had this awesome wall of Doctor Who on the outside with a huge poster of the Eleventh Doctor.

Then, I took the subway all the way back up to Central Park. I've never been to the park before, and have always wanted to go. I entered the park right near my goal:



The Alice in Wonderland statue! It's all sorts of awesome and has the most lovely detail. I took a ton of reference shots for secondlina wandered over to the nearby boat pond.



I found a shady patch under some trees and crossed an item off my bucket list: Lounging in Central Park on a pretty day. I used my backpack as a pillow and dozed off for about 20 minutes as a mother played nearby with her baby daughter. It was very nice and peaceful. I could easily spend a day just exploring the park.

Instead, I began to meander back toward Times Square. It was a pretty long meandering, but I did pass through Central Park Zoo. I didn't visit the zoo itself, but will save that for another day. I still got some neat photos out of it.



I cut back onto Fifth Avenue and walked past the line of high-end shops. I finally rested in the lobby of the main Bank of America building, which has free WiFi thanks to the Starbucks nested in there. I checked in with my freelance on the MacBook Air, which I had carried with me thinking there was a meeting. Said meeting was canceled. Still, the computer's so light that it was no trouble. I also passed through Nintendo World.



Apparently, according to Diane, it used to just be a Pokemon Center, which is why I saw the amount of Pokemon stuff I did. It was OK, and I think if I was a kid, I'd love this place. I did see several DSi/3DS accessories that are useful and played with a 3DS a bit more. Maybe for Christmas.

I wound up back at Kinokuniya where I bought the UK guidebook and two felt craft books explaining all those techniques which had eluded me. Score! I decided I was more than tired and headed back to the train station. I walked nearly five miles yesterday! I wound up getting home around midnight because I stopped for a leisurely meal near the Pennsylvania border (when my appetite finally came back) and construction right when entering the state that closed the lanes to just one and everyone was rubbernecking.

The trip was good for my soul, and even though I didn't get to one of the museums like I'd planned, I'll be going back either in a couple of weeks or in August to attend a meeting at Aol headquarters. Maybe then. ^_~