I had an unexpectedly brilliant Friday, with a gallery exhibition and premier, plus my first visit to otaku-haven in NYC, Kinokuniya.

My review of Toshiko Tochihara‘s beautiful exhibition at the chic NYCoo Gallery is just waiting for the film to be processed and the pictures – hopefully – ready to give a sense of the atmosphere. The work on display caught my imagination so much and the atmosphere was so welcoming that the experience deserves a higher quality post than my usual. So, to be continued…

Friday was also my first pilgrimage to the hallowed Kinokuniya bookstore, and how I missed it in my trips past Bryant Park can only be attributed to idiocy on my part. This shop is a Japan-lover’s heaven on Earth, with floor after floor of magazines, books, CDs, DVDs, and fashion – all in beloved kanji and kana! My husband (who heroically journeyed with me on this J-Day) thought he would die with the amount of cute Japanese girls browsing the shelves. Time constraints alone kept me from sampling a – very reasonably priced – bento lunch in the café upstairs.

Now, as returning readers will know, there isn’t much to draw me to the anime and manga aside from the beautifully drawn covers. However, I can attest that there is so much to see and blow money on that is Art&Design and Cinema related. So many titles from my movie list were sat on those shelves, within a $20-25 price range. And the staff…don’t get me started on how great it was to see all these American whippersnappers speaking fluently with the Japanese staff. I thought I was going to burst.

Anyway, that’s my newbie experience; but please check out this post by Animemiz for loads more information from a longtime devotee.

Now to pray to the photography gods that my film from the exhibition turned out!