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I try to get enough vegetables especially while I travel. I stopped by a trendy salad restaurant, sweetgreen. There are a number of sweetgreen stores throughout Manhattan, but I had a late lunch at one in the Upper West Side. |
No sooner had I walked into the store than various fresh vegetables in the shelves caught my eyes. Some of which I had never seen in Japan. |
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The origins of each and every product were listed by state on the blackboard, which I got so impressed! |
There were far too many kinds of salads and dressings to choose from, but I ordered Guacamole Greens that contained avocado, roasted chicken, tomatoes, and plenty of mesclun, which was served with bread. So much volume for a salad! |
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On my way to Barnes & Noble in the Upper West Side, I noticed a big mouse standing on a big pumpkin in the middle of a pedestrian crossing on Broadway. I was very curious to know the title and the creator of this art, but no name was found on it. I rushed to complete the zebra crossing before the signal turned red, not feeling right. And as I came back home, I looked into it and found that the sculpture was the "Brass Pumpkin" created by Yayoi Kusama! Needless to say, Yayoi Kusama is one of the world's most famous contemporary Japanese artists today. What is interesting to me about this sculpture is that the main part is still a pumpkin although a big mouse is proudly standing on it. Obviously, a pumpkin is the most iconic motif for her works! |
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In the age of Amazon, more and more bookstores have closed not just in New York, but anywhere in the world. But I still love physical bookstores and printed books. I also love the smell and feel of a bookstore. This Barnes & Noble in the Upper West Side is my favorite! I never fail to visit this place every time I am in New York City. |
Barnes & Noble changed their logo quite a long time ago, but this Barnes & Noble in the Upper West Side is still using the old version of it, which made me smile and felt so good. |
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Incidentally, it’s very ironic that many lovely bookstores have been put out of business because of the behemoth online bookseller, Amazon, and now Amazon themselves are opening up a bookstore in the US, named Amazon Books. I went to their first bookstore in New York City to see what it was like. It was inside the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle on the 3rd floor that used to be Borders, a big chain bookstore, which was even more ironic. There used to be another bookstore of Barnes & Noble I loved, just a couple minute walk from here, which went out of business several years ago. I got mixed feelings as I saw this first Amazon Books that opened in May 2017. Inside was so clean, simple, and dry. I somewhat felt cold, too. |
I also stopped by at New York City's second Amazon Books, located at 34th Street, which opened in August 2017. |
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It had only been nine months, so the store inside, of course, was still clean, neatly juxtaposed, and well-organized. It was exactly the actual physical version of Amazon.com. In other words, I felt like I had been put inside Amazon.com. But it didn't really excite me much. Something wasn't right. I never felt the ambiance that I feel at Barnes & Noble. I wonder if someday all branches of Barnes & Noble Bookstores in Manhattan will be taken over by Amazon Books. Well, I don't want to think about it for now... |
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