Introduction
Explore Urban. On this three-day exploration, this guide will bring you to a district within Manhattan and Brooklyn. However, it’s up to you to decide how you want to explore—explore your way. We will be going from corner to corner of popular districts in New York, experiencing culture, cuisines, and nature.
Please bring headphones, a camera, and some money for all locations. You will be traveling on foot and/or via the MTA, so please wear comfortable shoes. For one location, you will be hiking through parts of the wilderness, so please wear hiking boots, or shoes with traction.
Whether you would like to explore in the morning, midday, or night each creates a different experience. The suggested time of day for exploration will be suggested but is not required. Of course, please start your journey before the locations close for the day.
Thank you for choosing Explore Urban.
Recall the Past
Inwood Hill Park
Payson Ave. &, Seaman Ave, New York, NY 10034
More often than not, we attribute memories and events from our younger years to our childhood “core” memories. An unsung hero of those memories lies in the environment surrounding you. Think back to hiking in the forest when you were younger—The deep scent of petrichor piercing the air, the cool, damp, but soft touch of moss and lichen on fallen logs, the lush greenery permeating all the space around you, the peaceful silence of nature.
Unlike Central Park, known for its paved roads and crafted scenery, Inwood Hill Park is mostly untouched. Similar to hiking trails back in San Francisco, you’ll take the Orange trail in Inwood, where you can trek across New York’s natural landscape and escape from the sounds of the city. For this destination, please refrain from listening to music. Instead, listen to the sounds around you, feel the damp bark on trees, and look for the smell of fresh earth. Feel free to capture whatever piques your interest—record the audio of the wind, photograph the scenery, collect small stones.
As you walk, consider the memories and emotions that well up inside of you:
How does it feel to be out of the city, to escape and retreat back into your childhood? What memories appear in your mind when your feet dig into the soil, stamp onto the hard rock? Does this feel like returning to your childhood, or is it something else?
Note:
This hiking trail is labeled as “Moderate” difficulty, spanning 1.5 miles in a loop around the land. Please wear comfortable hiking shoes and bring some food and water. Some parts of the trail are unpaved, others paved.
Looking
for
Visit Van Cortlandt Park, the John Muir Trail, OR, for a more strenuous and mountainous hike, check out Breakneck Ridge.
more?
Live in the Present
Chinatown: Super Taste + Columbus Park
26 Eldridge St, New York, NY 10002
Mulberry Street &, Baxter St, New York, NY 10013
Moving across the country, stepping into a foreign land, and settling down without your family and friends back home is a challenge in itself. New York City is filled to the brim with countless cuisines. NYC’s Chinatown is famous for being one of the largest designated Chinese communities in the United States. With the huge size of Chinatown, there are countless restaurants and experiences still unfound.
As a home cook yourself, it’s easy to simply cook for yourself every day, rather than eating out. However, today, you’ll take to a bowl of warm and rich Beef Noodle Soup and step into Columbus Park, where many Chinese elderly convene to practice Tai-Qi, play traditional Chinese instruments, or play Mah-jong and Chinese Checkers.
Returning to your favorite bowl of noodles in San Francisco, NYC has them too! Super Taste provides a bowl for each taste, but you’ll be ordering their No. 2: Hand-Pulled Noodles with Beef in Spicy Soup today. Request it for take-out, and make your way west to Columbus Park. Take a seat at one of the many benches in the garden, and eat as you observe the life and community around you.
As you sit and enjoy your meal, consider the sounds and the sights you see in Columbus Park, as well as the flavors in the noodle soup. Imagine yourself as a specter, invisible. What is it like, for time to be still for you, like the Japanese Philosophy of Ma? Ma is the fundamental time and space life requires to grow and flourish. How do you feel right now? Do you need to take time for yourself, to allow yourself to grow?
NOTE:
Please start at 11 AM as the park becomes more lively around noon. Additionally, please bring about $15-$20 of cash along, as Super Taste only accepts cash.
Looking for more?
Consider Xi’an Famous Foods in Chelsea (request mildly spicy), Very Fresh Noodle at the Chelsea Market, or Mama Lee in Bayside, Queens.
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Imagine the Future
Japan Village: The Loft
934 3rd Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11232, 2nd Floor
Recall when you visited Japan. Recall when you visited Japantown in San Francisco. Recall meeting your Japanese grandparents, your relatives. While physically you may be slightly different from them, the innate human connection—kizuna—connects you with them.
Your fascination and love for Japanese crafts, architecture, and philosophies extends not just from your background as a Japanese-Caucasian individual, but also from your personal beliefs and influences. Beauty in imperfection, attention to detail, love for human creations—wabi-sabi—are all ideals you will explore as you meander through Japan Village, one of the largest Japanese malls in New York. The second floor, named “The Loft,” is filled with Japanese ceramics, textiles, tea, and culture, and is your main destination for today.
Setonomoya, a ceramics and Japanese wares shop, presents hand-made ceramics, many up for sale. There may even be a rare sighting of kintsugi, fixing broken pottery with gold, at Setonomoya. Additionally, you will be attending a sewing event at Bobinage, creating a pencil case from denim textiles. As a fashion designer, the feeling of a sewing machine and fabrics under your fingertips have become a familiar feeling. While studying at Parsons and beyond, you will no doubt sewing countless yards of fabric. But instead of creating something for a project or for work, you will be creating something for yourself.
In the future, when you are feeling overwhelmed as a student and designer, take a second for yourself, and regather your passion for fashion, sewing, and inventing. Your desire to create practical and longeval garments fuels your love for fashion.
Note :
For your sewing session at Bobinage, please give the attendee the name “Kelly Su.” They should let you enter the session.
Looking for more?
Consider signing up for kintsugi classes at Urushi with Gen Saratani, the only urushi master of the country and a master restorer.
Goldfish (Kingyô)
Symbol of freshness, joy, and prosperity.
ExUr’s adventures embodies these ideals.
Made by Kelly Su