So I went to NYC for a couple days last month with my friend A. While it was spur of the moment when we booked our tickets, it turned out to be a really nice trip. Since we’ve both done the touristy things before, the trip was purely about eating and shopping.

 
Once we landed in Newark, A was insistent on taking the taxi all the way to Manhattan. I wasn’t going to argue with her since she is apparently incapable of taking regular forms of public transit. (And since she paid for it too.) Overall the amount we spent on taxis that weekend was probably more than the cost of my plane ticket to NYC. But thankfully for the rest of our trip she was acting more or less normal, which was quite a relief. =P
 
After surviving a tremulous taxi ride into Manhattan, we arrived at our hotel. We were a little famished after the plane ride, so we stopped by the Original Soupman right next to our hotel to grab a snack. I’ve actually never watched an episode of Seinfeld, but I have heard that the Soup Nazi is pretty famous in the city. I was so surprised when we ordered our soups that it came with a piece of bread, a Lindor chocolate and a banana. It was so yummy!
 
Once we were done eating, we headed out to do some shopping out by Times Square. We went to Muji first and then spent about an hour browsing through Kinokuniya. I really wish we had a store in Toronto because each time I go I always want to buy an armful of books. While we were there, A’s friend H met up with us. Since it was starting to get late, we decided to grab dinner at an izakaya called Decibel in Lower East Side. One of the things we didn’t realize was that it is nearly impossible to hail a cab Friday nights in NYC. We pretty much walked halfway in the direction of Decibel before we managed to find a taxi. It’s kind of insane because if you look out onto the streets the majority of the cars are taxi cabs. LOL.
 
Luckily it wasn’t busy when we got to Decibel because we were absolutely starving. I’ve never been to this kind of izakaya before, so it was really cool seeing the setup inside. We were seated at the bar and the entire restaurant was very dark and grungy. The food was pretty good, except I had no idea what the names were since A and H ordered it all. Hehe. After we had our fill of izakaya food, we ended up wandering around St. Marks Street and stopped by another restaurant to eat proper washoku. I’ve never really been restaurant hopping like that before but it was really fun trying out different places. It’s safe to say I got my fill of Japanese food that evening. =)

 
Good thing it was easier to hail a cab back cause it was starting to get late. Once A and I got back to our hotel we decided to check out the Yuki Karaoke place right next door, except it was very disappointing because it wasn’t even remotely Japanese. LOL. We ended up wandering around aimlessly for another half an hour before giving up and heading back to the hotel.
 
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The next day we started the morning off at Central Park. We had to cut through the park to get to the Loeb Boathouse Restaurant where we were going for brunch. The restaurant overlooks a pond and we could see people renting out boats from where we were seated. Brunch was very classy and we were both really full when we left. We had to take a detour towards the American Natural History Museum because the roads were blocked off for a concert that evening in the park. After getting to the museum, we spent a few hours inside browsing through the collection.

Once we were done we walked towards Bloomingdales where A had wanted to do some shopping. First we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Forty Carrots upstairs, then it was pretty much two hours of intense shopping. I didn’t end up buying anything at Bloomingdales, but I did spend a small fortune shopping at Uniqlo afterwards. Once we were both done emptying our wallets, we took a cab towards East Village for dinner at Butter. Dinner was soooo yummy. Since we were super full from eating we decided to walk over to St. Marks Street again to try our luck at finding a karaoke place. We ended up going to Sing Sing Karaoke and finally got our karaoke fill. =)

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The next day we packed up our bags early in the morning and checked out of the hotel. Then we took a cab over to SOHO to grab brunch. Balthazar was already packed when we got there, but it meant we had time to do some shopping beforehand. Once we got back to the restaurant we were quickly seated towards the back. Since Balthazar is a French restaurant I ordered eggs meurette as it seemed like a specialty. The food was absolutely delicious. I think the one thing I loved about NYC was being able to find such great food wherever we went. I think I would seriously go broke if I spent more than three days in the city purely from eating. Hehe.

After brunch we continued shopping in SOHO for a few hours. Then we walked over towards Magnolia bakery because A was insistent on buying cupcakes to bring back home. Once that was done we headed back towards our hotel and bought some soup next door before grabbing our luggage. Then we took a cab towards Newark and dozed along the way. Overall the trip was really fun and the weather held out for the most part. It was a great weekend to relax and hang out in the city. I’m glad that A didn’t do anything incredibly stupid to embarrass me, although she did lose her wallet when we were leaving Wasan. LOL. I think it might be safe to travel with her again, but I’ll cap it at a week for the sake of my sanity. =P