east coast adventure part 2 / ?
09-04-2025
I still stand by my opinion that New Jersey is a super underrated state and it’s cool to not pump your own gas! That’s true by the way, look it up, you don’t pump your own gas in New Jersey, it’s like a whole job itself...
With that said, New York City was right there so it was about time to get to the main attraction. I had a day trip to NYC with a cousin before officially settling in with family in Manhattan for the second half of my trip. We got all the tourist-y stuff out of the way, seeing Time Square and all that. The kind of stuff you do once, never wanna do again, wonder why you did it in the first place, but ultimately conclude “you had to do it once.” (I got footage I’ll show later.)
A day or two later I moved into Manhattan, coincidentally on the day of NY Pride which was awesome to see in person. Unfortunately, I had to experience it as I stressfully carried my luggage through crowds and confetti with my grandpa. It was very awkward but at the same time, maybe squeezing through crowds of sweaty parade-goers with an oversized backpack is actually the perfect introduction to NYC proper. What I lack in photo evidence, I can provide with this artistic rendition.
Upon settling in, one of the first things lined was something I’ve never really done before: meet up with an online friend. A few days prior V, a fellow webmaster I had known for a while, hit me up with this suggestion!
Now, most of us were taught the same basics of Internet safety growing up, mainly that strangers are usually murderers, ne'er-do-wells, and generally malevolent. But on the other hand, V is pretty cool and I've known her since way back when I barely had started out making a website over a year ago. So against the wishes of McGruff the Crime Dog we planned out this meetup and it turned out to be the highlight of the trip. With one day set, we packed as much as we could to plan the nerdiest day in recorded human history. So, allow me to recount our conquests and spoils.
We started off at the famous Nintendo Store, where I was made aware that it used to be themed as The Pokemon Center, which is like way cooler. I don’t know why they got rid of that. Here, we grabbed some goods, played some Mario Kart World, and (at the request of the staff) did not touch, climb, or sit on Link.
The next place V showed me might as well be New York’s own Library of Alexandria for nerd crap. Book-Off! was so cool. It was this big hobby store with an insane collection of toys, figures, books, gunpla, and an insane collection of CDs and DVDs! I think this was one of the places where we spent the most time because there was always something new to discover. V set up shop at the anime CD section while I ventured into the great unknown (the DVD section).
I barely got out alive with a complete DVD set of Mr. Show and a Love Live! Sunshine! CD. V wasn’t so lucky, spending like a hundred bucks or something on a Eureka Seven! figure. I admit, I may have been a negative influence here. If I had a place like this near me, I would definitely become a collector of something.
We took a break at Kinokuniya, a Japanese book-retailer with a cafe inside. Here we pretty much just talked and shot the shit. We both didn’t really know what to expect, if in-person we’d be totally different, but it wasn’t awkward at all and it went real smooth. Y’know I gotta say, hitting up a cafe with a friend in the middle of New York City. I mean that’s the dream, right? Felt like on those 90’s sitcoms like Seinfeld or something.
The next stop was from Manhattan up to Flushing and it was a long train ride filled with many, many, many Simpsons references.
Now this place is something special, Flushing was like nowhere else I’d ever been. A majority Asian neighbourhood with very little English signs in sight, it felt like I was in a different country altogether. And there we visited Tangram, a modern mall in line with the kind you’d see more in East Asian cities. It didn’t feel like just a normal mall I’d be used to but more like a full-on third place. It had a sick arcade, tons of restaurants, uh VTubers on TV screens for some reason...
It even had a swimming pool on the second floor. I didn’t know you could put swimming pools on second floors.
The arcade here wasn’t the usual Dave & Buster’s fare either. It was like a Mecca for rhythm gamers. As someone whose knowledge of rhythm arcade games never extended much past Dance Dance Revolution, it was wild seeing control layouts I’d never thought of before. The place was hardcore; you could smell the sweat in the air as people wearing workout clothes and cosplay outfits alike came to hone their skills. In fact, the smell of sweat was downright overwhelming. There were these two dudes at the Pump It Up! machine that smelled really bad. V was in her element though, so at a certain point I just observed.
After that, we hit up some cool hole-in-the-wall stores for some real niche, imported weeb merch. I don’t know how, V just kinda had a radar for these things, I think all the moe has genuinely mutated her or something. But, with all that done and how long this blog post has been so far, I think you’d agree now was the perfect time to call it.
Well, no. Because we had the brilliant idea to take a quick train from Queens to Brooklyn before she left.
...
Do I regret it? Nah, cuz it was kinda funny in the end. Lesson learned? Yes. Did we see some big rats? Yes, also.
Our last stop was Brooklyn Games & Arcade, and this is a place I definitely want to go into more detail about next time since I ended up visiting multiple times. So long story short for now, it’s a sick old-school arcade with tons of cabinets, CRT setups, and $1 sodas. We played some Kirby Air Ride, 3rd Strike, and even ran into a bunch of middle aged dads throwing down Coronas and blasting music on the Neo Geo machines so you know it was legit!
But soon after we had to wrap things up and start the arduous journey back to Union Square.
This was definitely the highlight of the trip. See, I spent a lot of my time in New York catching up with family, so there wasn’t really much opportunity to just nerd out with someone. So, I’m really glad she came to me with the idea. It was really cool to do something kind of sporadic and impromptu like this. I want to be able to do more stuff like this. Playing it safe doesn’t get you times like that and it’s good to be reminded how much freedom you really got.
Am I suggesting to you, dear reader, to meet online friends in real life? Legally no. Maybe. Yes. I don’t know. Pick a third location. Be responsible but also take a risk sometimes! It’s worth it. Sometimes.
Peep this, though. My most prized souvenir from the trip has gotta be this Ryu Amiibo that V gifted me. It sits atop my shelf, protecting me from the bootleg Dragon Ball figures.
Thanks again, dude! Some day not too far off, we gotta do this again!
Check out V’s website for cool anime, blogs, and fighting game stuff, it’s sick. It’s got her perspective too so you can cross-reference for misinformation and tell me in the comments if I’m an unreliable narrator.
Next up is probably my last post in this extended “What I Did This Summer” essay this has turned into so... stay tuned?