Jonny Numb

“Okay, so it’s the second part. I stuck around for the royal anticlimax of Part 1, so now you’re bound to talk about the actual MUSIC because, after all, Dark Force Fest is a bloody MUSIC festival!”

On Sunday morning, we checked out of the AirBnB and drove to Edgewater, New Jersey.

“WHAT?! What about Friday and Saturday?! What does Edgewater have to do with a freaking MUSIC festival in freaking PARSIPPANY?! Oh, MAN – I am SO over this ambiguous bullshit!”

[Writer’s Inner Critic has left the chat]

One thing you must know about Lizard: he’s never been a “sit-around-temporary-lodgings-watching-TV-until-it’s-time-to-go-out” sort of guy. Whether it’s investigating what Montreal or Toronto has to offer (in the time of Kinetik), or spending a literal afternoon walking the Philosopher’s Way in Heidelberg, Germany, he’s all about going out and experiencing what a new geographical area has to offer.

Granted, this sometimes leads to death marches on par with The Long Walk, but the thing about tired feet is, they eventually heal.

That said, Lizard didn’t have a death march in mind for our last day in New Jersey. He proposed a visit to Mitsuwa Marketplace, which was home to more than a few points of interest.

CW: lots of pictures incoming!

“Hold up – did you say pictures?! Okay, okay…I’m back.”

First stop: Daiso. Imagine a more extensive (and far cooler) version of Five Below, and you got it. Lots of cheap, practical household items in addition to superficial fun things. Unsurprisingly, I got hung up rather quickly on the end-caps featuring cute cat stuff (erasers, stationery, magnets, and much more!). Just before we checked out, I picked up a couple packs of Puchao candy (for some reason, I was thinking they’d taste like the much-missed Bonkers of my childhood. They don’t, but they satisfy my sweet tooth all the same.)

I even paused to take a super-lame and -touristy picture with a big plush cat! (No, it did not come home with me – my real cat would probably take offense.)

We stepped into another store (Little Japan USA, I think?), which was pricier and delineated into two rather distinct halves: household/kitchenware, and toys/anime figures (with other miscellaneous fun stuff). Again, being the boring tourist bumpkin that I am, I honed in on a display of solar/battery-powered maneki-neko (yes, I had to look up the official term). I’ve always been partial to the white versions of these, and have a small one sitting at my desk at work. I’d wanted to acquire a mid-size for my home office for quite some time.

Unfortunately, once I took it out of the box, I noticed a battery case and an empty opening where an on/off switch was supposed to be. Oh well – I can tip the arm manually and it’ll work…for a minute or so.

(I think we went and had lunch at a tempura place after this little sojourn.)

Books Kinokuniya was one of our last stops. Due to time constraints (the Marketplace was a 45-minute drive from the Sheraton), our browsing took on a quicker pace. I wandered around, taking in the cute knickknacks, books, and magazines on display. That said, I found myself – courtesy of my subtle feline-sense – in front of some dog- and cat-centric books and magazines. So I picked up a book on “Cat Island” and a Cat’s Cafe collection.

Before we left, we snapped pictures of New York City from the other side of the Hudson. After that, I got a strong caffe mocha from Oishinbo, which was just what the doctor ordered for the final day of the festival.

“Okay, so some of that stuff is kinda cool. Now are you FINALLY gonna talk about the !@#$*^~ music?!”

To be continued…

“God DAMN it!”

[Writer’s Inner Critic has left the chat…again]