Since publishing my last post, I’ve been quite busy with starting a new job, but thankfully not too busy to go on some more adventures. Yesterday I went to Kinokuniya Bookstores near Bryant Park. You may remember that I’ve written about Kinokuniya before; I previously went to the Edgewater location. The New York one has an even bigger selection, plus an in-house café selling Japanese sandwiches and sweets. My favorite part, of course, is the third floor which is dedicated solely to anime and manga. I don’t really collect manga anymore (although I still enjoy browsing), but something there that has really interested me is their light novel collection. I’ve always wanted to try a light novel, but most of them are of the “shounen” genre, which doesn’t appeal much to me. Luckily, I managed to find a couple of “girly” titles—or ones with female protagonists, anyway—and I’m really excited to read them~
Small Kinokuniya haul, plus my Tamagezi virtual pet that I’ve started playing recently!
Now to get to the title of this post—today my sister came to visit and we went to Roosevelt Island. There are two ways to get there: the subway train, or the aerial tram. I swallowed my fear of heights and opted for the tram. It definitely was a little scary, but I’m glad I can say I tried it 
I’ve never been to Roosevelt Island, but I’ve been interested in it ever since I read The Address by Fiona Davis, wherein the main character is admitted to the island’s insane asylum. The island used to be called Blackwell Island, and it has a very dark past. As I just mentioned, there used to be a women’s insane asylum, and the patients there were horribly abused. Thankfully, there was some level of reform after a journalist went to the asylum undercover and wrote a piece exposing the abuse. There was also a Penitentiary, where I imagine the living conditions were not much better. Many of the island’s buildings, such as the lighthouse and the Charity Hospital, were built by the prisoners. Most of these original buildings were destroyed in fires or demolished. The only thing that really remains today is the crumbling façade of the Smallpox Hospital. The ruins are simultaneously creepy and beautiful, and really look like something out of a horror movie!
The island as it is today is beautiful. It is much cleaner and quieter than the rest of the city, and there are relatively few cars, which made for a pleasant bike ride around the perimeter of the island. It was so lovely and so interesting to be somewhere so green, where I could hear the cicadas and smell the ocean, and still have a full view of the Manhattan skyline.
Manhattan, as seen from Roosevelt Island. The wooden structure is actually a box with a geocache inside!
Hello again! Glad to see you having more adventures and fun ^-^
In regards to your haul! I’m also not usually a big fan of shounen anime/manga, I’m more of a slice-of-life person, though I’ve had 2 particular fondnesses for 2 shounen-esque animes/manga in the past. One Piece, of course, is one of those, my partner LOVES it and we watch it on anime nights, it’s quite fun! And the other is the manga and anime “Black Cat” about a mysterious assassin. It’s actually cute at times and sometimes I forget that it’s an action genre story. 🙂
Also!!! What is that little figure? Sonny Angel? Is it an art-doll like tokidoki?
As for the island, I think i’ve heard of that asylum actually, the woman who went undercover there…..was that the female journalist Nellie Bly? I know one of her most daring stories involved a long period of being undercover somewhere, perhaps that asylum. I’ll have to look into her more, her story fascinated me when I learned of her in my Mass Communications course in college.
I also find it so cool that there’s a geocache in that little wooden building!! That is so interesting! Have you seen the World of Warcraft geocaching event happening recently?
As always, I love reading of your adventures, and hope you have many lovely days to come!
Your friend,
Luna
I love slice-of-life too, that’s probably my most favorite genre ^_^ I think One Piece is too long and filler-y for me to get into; I’ve heard good things about Black Cat though! My favorite shounen anime that I’ve watched is Hunter x Hunter. It gets veryyyy intense at points though.
That doll is indeed called Sonny Angel. I guess you could compare it to something like Tokidoki or Kidrobot. They’re little figurine blind boxes that come in different themes, and basically they’re all the same naked cherub thing, with the only difference being their headgear. They’re very kitschy, but I’ve always been tempted to buy one and finally bit the bullet 😛 And in case you were wondering…I got the “cauliflower” one.
Yes, that’s right! The journalist was Nellie Bly. It’s really an incredible story! Like I said, I first heard of it through a historical fiction book, and I was pretty amazed to learn that that part of the book was based on true events.
I did indeed see the WOW geocaching event~ (by the way, I haven’t forgotten about your request for a geocaching-related post. I’ve been slacking on the geocaching front lately, but hopefully I will get back into the swing of things before the weather gets too cold for such endeavors.)
As always thank you so much for commenting ^-^