Brooklyn, Japan

I have a few days off this week, and wanted to do a million things, like pick up the dry cleaning, take stuff to the Salivation Army and of course, I also wanted to take a little trip. Being a clever and frugal traveler, I figured out we could spend the day in Brooklyn and pretend we were in Japan. Clever, right?

First stop was the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens where we caught the last cherry blossom blooms. They were lovely, but not as breathtaking as the cherry blossoms here in Jersey in Branch Brook Park in Newark. Still, it was a perfect place to take a picture of this divine new Taiyo yarn from Noro:


Isn't it dreamy? If only yarn really grew on trees, well, that would be grand.

We continued on to the Murakami exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum which was a Happening, either marred or enhanced by the horrifyingly high prices of tchotkes at the gift store. It made me feel like my American dollar wasn't worth anything in Japan, even when I was in Brooklyn.
It was a pretty eye-popping show that went from clever and cute to satisfyingly menacing and dark. We went early and avoided most of the crowds, but when it got crowded, it got crowded with tremendously cute Japanese hipsters and they seemed more like the art than the art on the walls.

We finished up with a drive to the beach, and a stop at Nathan's for dinner. What's so Japanese about Nathan's? Well, the 2006 winner of the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest was Japanese.

Here is the unofficial 2008 winner: