In N.Y., a Yen for Japanese Shops
With its large Japanese expat population and thousands of Japanese American residents, New York has long offered sushi restaurants and karaoke bars. More recently, the popularity of high-end design and funky pop culture from the Land of the Rising Sun and the Sinking Yen has brought a variety of Japanese-based retailers to town. Several can be found nowhere else in the United States, and they emphasize the wabi-sabi (an aesthetic that emphasizes impermanence and simplicity) and the cheap just as often as they do the Zen and the rarefied.
One such case is Muji, which opened its third free-standing store, in Chelsea, during the Thanksgiving weekend. Muji’s largest branch, though, beckons calmly across the street from the chaotic Port Authority Bus Terminal. There, on the ground floor of Renzo Piano’s supremely climbable New York Times Building, the Tokyo chain’s entire cache of “no-label quality goods” awaits in a sea of white, beige and gray. Your booty might include lovely bone china teapots ($31) and handy bamboo baskets ($15), but the real treat lies in the super-necessities. Pick up toothbrushes, shower squeegees, notebooks and cotton swabs wrapped in brown paper. All are under $5 and bear their original Japanese-language-inflected packaging.
A few blocks away, a bigger and fresher Kinokuniya bookstore has opened, replacing a 26-year-old Rockefeller Center outlet. Its first floor features enough English-language books (covering kimono to kitsch, Mishima to Murakami) to satisfy all manner of Japanophiles. Downstairs, gift items such as stuffed bears made from vintage obi and racks and racks of washi, or Japanese decorative paper, are available. Head for the third floor to check out the vast selection of Japanese-language works and to pick up a bento box lunch at Cafe Zaiya. In winter, the postcard view of ice skaters at Bryant Park is a nice bonus.
A much less fancy Japanese bookstore is around the corner. Book Off carries a wide and eclectic selection of used manga (comics), language books and CDs. Coincidentally, the original Cafe Zaiya sits just a few doors down. During weekday lunchtimes the place is a zoo, but a separate stall of the Osaka-based Beard Papa is a must for the city’s best cream puffs. In the winter ask for a pumpkin-filled puff or take advantage of the chain’s superb Mont Blanc chestnut cream pastry, offered only at this time of the year.
