2/06/10 Book Off x Cafe Zaiya

Woke up late today, decided to head to the city despite the snow and rather cold temperature outside(but like that ever stops me anyway).On the way I thought, Where haven't I been in a while? I've been going to Kinokuniya a lot lately, and I remembered the other book store practically five minutes away.Book Off is on the other side of Bryant park right across from the NY public library on East 41st st.




Book Off has a manga section upstairs that rivals Kinokuniya's. However most of the manga is in Japanese making the selection rather small for those who can't read the language. As you walk trough the aisles you can see small signs announcing specials on different manga, some as cheap as a dollar! This made my wallet very happy. The more I walked through the store the more I realized that most of the stuff in general was in Japanese rather than english. I can't complain though as this is a Japanese store after all not to mention I also liked it because it made the place feel that much more authentic.I decided to get a movie to watch and went to the dvd section. I must say that the Music and dvd sections are pretty impressive and they take up most of the first floor.I ended up buying some cds and on the way out, I found this small notice they put in my bag.





It seems they will be relocating to a larger venue. While this is a good thing I kind of liked the idea of two Japanese book stores so close to one another. Still it could be worse at least it's only a few streets away.By now I was pretty hungry so I decided to eat at Cafe Zaiya which is only two doors down(this is another reason I liked their current location).



Many of you may already know about the branch of Cafe Zaiya located in kinokuniya's top floor. However since this is a stand alone store it was much larger and had more variety. Everything looked so good and I had a hard time deciding what to get. Finally I settled on a Bento box(called the Zaiya special) and a Konbu (seaweed boiled with soy) Rice ball. My friend who was with me had a different bento box and the same rice ball.



As far as drinks go you have the option of coffee or any of the related hot drinks or the usual cold beverages like Aloe water or green tea. I must note that the Bento boxes are cold and there is microwave available for customers to heat their food up.I felt this is important to mention because some people like myself are sometimes oblivious to these things.After enjoying a filling meal I set off to wander the city aimlessly like always. As I walked down the street I looked back and thought "I love little clusters of culture like this". It's one thing to go to an individual place ,but when you have the luxury of going to multiple places of similar cultural backgrounds so close to each other it makes the experience more enjoyable.

Links
Book Off
Cafe Zaiya

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