Earlier this week the Wall Street Journal had a slightly sad-making article about that thing with the horrible name, the “staycation.” The article’s starts out confusing: “Karen Ash is about to take a weeklong Japanese vacation. She’ll buy postcards and souvenirs at a traditional Japanese market. She’ll admire bonsai plants and view Japanese films. She’ll eat ramen, ordering in Japanese. And she’ll never leave the Bronx.”
But where is this secret Japanese district in the Bronx that’s perfectly suited for a Japanostaycation? If it’s out there, Karen doesn’t know it either, because the video makes it clear that her itinerary include such borough-crossing destinations as the Japan Society and East Village ramen shops. I’m still a little unclear on what constitutes “doing stuff where you live” and what’s an honest-to-God staycation, but it’s good to know that you can at least visit other boroughs without breaking the rules.
Perhaps the next staycation wrinkle will be apartment swaps in the same city. Anyone got a Brighton Beach condo they’d swap for an East Village tenement? We’ll leave the Vornados on for you.
Yesterday I went to the Strand with a college friend who was visiting from out of town. The big-box used bookstore was as crowded as possible for any Saturday that’s not leading up to Christmas. First we checked out all the Simon + Schusters, Penguins, Vintages, and New York Reviews of Books laid out on tables, and then we headed deep into the stacks of the poetry section. It was there that a heavyset middle-aged guy with his hands full of books smiled at me and said hello. I thought he was just trying to get to know me in some way that I didn’t really care to be known, so I just smiled and got back to the task of trying to find some Seamus Heaney there. It was only later, when we had to pry ourselves out of Poetry and he said “young men!” that I realized he thought we were both clerks there, ready to help him find whatever we was looking for. I suppose I would have helped anyway, but we were already making good progress in getting through the crowds and heading for the exit.