NYC Agenda for 1 Day with 12 year old, details inside
March 17, 2025 7:20 AM Subscribe
I am seeking specific suggestions for places to go during a surprise 1-day NYC visit for my kid's 12th birthday in early April, focusing on things a kid into video games, manga, anime, candy and especially Japanese candy, boba tea, blind boxes and horror movies/spooky stuff, etc. would like. He likes, and I say this in an affectionate complimentary way, 'weird' neighborhoods and people, street art type vibes versus museum art, offbeat stuff.
Lived in NYC years ago so I am all comfortable moving around the city by subway and on foot. We'll take the PATH into WTC because I think he'll be impressed by the Oculus, and I was working nearby on 9/11 so he may want to see the 9/11 memorial. Generally thinking to stay in Manhattan for time reasons but would go to another borough for something that would absolutely delight him, and he'd get a kick out of taking the subway over a bridge anyway. What I am missing is neat, interesting-to-him stuff that is new or that I wouldn't have noticed bc it's not my thing.
Museums if it is something unusual that would really appeal to him. Not the Met, maybe PS1, for example.
An unusual restaurant experience would be fun for him. He's a picky eater to the extreme, so more about a unique experience than seeking a particular kind of food. Like he won't eat sushi but would be interested in a sushi conveyer belt. A dessert conveyer belt or something robotic like that, he would probably love.
If there's a really unique, unusual playground we can hit, he would probably like to visit it.
Things he definitely will not want to do: No tours, no buses, no boats, no helicopters. No Broadway/theater stuff. No sports-related stuff.
Lived in NYC years ago so I am all comfortable moving around the city by subway and on foot. We'll take the PATH into WTC because I think he'll be impressed by the Oculus, and I was working nearby on 9/11 so he may want to see the 9/11 memorial. Generally thinking to stay in Manhattan for time reasons but would go to another borough for something that would absolutely delight him, and he'd get a kick out of taking the subway over a bridge anyway. What I am missing is neat, interesting-to-him stuff that is new or that I wouldn't have noticed bc it's not my thing.
Museums if it is something unusual that would really appeal to him. Not the Met, maybe PS1, for example.
An unusual restaurant experience would be fun for him. He's a picky eater to the extreme, so more about a unique experience than seeking a particular kind of food. Like he won't eat sushi but would be interested in a sushi conveyer belt. A dessert conveyer belt or something robotic like that, he would probably love.
If there's a really unique, unusual playground we can hit, he would probably like to visit it.
Things he definitely will not want to do: No tours, no buses, no boats, no helicopters. No Broadway/theater stuff. No sports-related stuff.
Here's a great day in Astoria for your 12 year old:
Take the N train to Broadway (elevated!)
Museum of the Moving Image (specifically their Video Game Lab)
Newtown HQ: Blindboxes, all the cool toys
Lots of bubble tea (no recommendation, but there's plenty)
Socrates Sculpture Park (street-ish art)
Snack/Beverage at Chateau le Woof (a dog cafe!)
See the Wellington Court Street Murals
posted by Pineapplicious at 7:54 AM on March 17 [5 favorites]
Take the N train to Broadway (elevated!)
Museum of the Moving Image (specifically their Video Game Lab)
Newtown HQ: Blindboxes, all the cool toys
Lots of bubble tea (no recommendation, but there's plenty)
Socrates Sculpture Park (street-ish art)
Snack/Beverage at Chateau le Woof (a dog cafe!)
See the Wellington Court Street Murals
posted by Pineapplicious at 7:54 AM on March 17 [5 favorites]
On a recent trip with a similar kid, Kinokuniya was a real winner. We also had a good time at the Museum of the Moving Image. They have an amazing Henson exhibit right now, and there were some really cool horror movie props and behind-the-scenes type stuff my kid found interesting.
posted by tchemgrrl at 7:59 AM on March 17 [4 favorites]
posted by tchemgrrl at 7:59 AM on March 17 [4 favorites]
Not sure either of these are worth going out of your way but if you happen to be in the neighborhood:
Anime Claw new, narrow storefront with many many claw machines with anime plushies in them (!?) - near the W4th subway station on 6th Ave
Mr Keke Ramen/hotpot around the corner from St. Marks Place. Was there a few months ago right after it opened and they had a robot serving the food (which was fine) - but it was clearly early days so don’t know if they stuck with the robot. Also a server had to accompany the robot to actually transfer the soup to the table, so it wasn’t that impressive. But still, robot.
posted by yarrow at 8:10 AM on March 17 [2 favorites]
Anime Claw new, narrow storefront with many many claw machines with anime plushies in them (!?) - near the W4th subway station on 6th Ave
Mr Keke Ramen/hotpot around the corner from St. Marks Place. Was there a few months ago right after it opened and they had a robot serving the food (which was fine) - but it was clearly early days so don’t know if they stuck with the robot. Also a server had to accompany the robot to actually transfer the soup to the table, so it wasn’t that impressive. But still, robot.
posted by yarrow at 8:10 AM on March 17 [2 favorites]
invader has been to NYC.
(French street artist who does pixelated street art, sometimes of space invaders. Finding where they are is part of the fun.)
posted by nat at 9:36 AM on March 17 [3 favorites]
(French street artist who does pixelated street art, sometimes of space invaders. Finding where they are is part of the fun.)
posted by nat at 9:36 AM on March 17 [3 favorites]
If you're in the Union Square area check out the National Museum of Mathematics (https://momath.org/) on Fifth Ave and 26th Street on the north corner of Madison Square Park. As an added treat one of the first Shake Shakes in the City is in the Southeast corner of the park. The museum has a good selection of interactive exhibits that should be great for your 12yo.
posted by lrm at 10:15 AM on March 17 [6 favorites]
posted by lrm at 10:15 AM on March 17 [6 favorites]
Go to Chinatown, not that far from the WTC Path train. Mott Street alone hits all your kid's things, and just walking around there is enjoyable.
posted by RajahKing at 10:39 AM on March 17 [2 favorites]
posted by RajahKing at 10:39 AM on March 17 [2 favorites]
Yes to the robot barista at Muji in Chelsea Market! You can get also get it to make a hot chocolate, and my 12-year-old nephew got a kick out of that recently. Chelsea Market has a lot of different shops and counter-style eating places that might appeal, and the building itself is pretty fun (an old Nabisco factory). There's a Pearl River Mart and a smaller branch of the legendary LES candy store, Economy Candy.
The Museum of the Moving Image is also really great, if you're up for a trip into Queens.
posted by Jemstar at 10:44 AM on March 17 [1 favorite]
The Museum of the Moving Image is also really great, if you're up for a trip into Queens.
posted by Jemstar at 10:44 AM on March 17 [1 favorite]
Also on the Claw Machine front, you can potentially kill a half hour or so at the Boba Box on 14th street
The Paley Center for Media has some kind of big gaming center, not entirely sure on the details but my friends kids love it.
If you are walking around Chinatown there is a dingey little arcade called the Family Fun Center at the end of Mott St which I always thought was fun. It's nothing special - maybe 25 or so games? But it's cool to see a regular little arcade right there off of the street which isn't really common in any US city.
posted by windbox at 11:02 AM on March 17 [1 favorite]
The Paley Center for Media has some kind of big gaming center, not entirely sure on the details but my friends kids love it.
If you are walking around Chinatown there is a dingey little arcade called the Family Fun Center at the end of Mott St which I always thought was fun. It's nothing special - maybe 25 or so games? But it's cool to see a regular little arcade right there off of the street which isn't really common in any US city.
posted by windbox at 11:02 AM on March 17 [1 favorite]
There’s a somewhat recently opened chain with multiple lower Manhattan/Brooklyn locations called “8 Bit Bites” that has 80s/90s video games to play at the tables and a fast casual menu of hamburgers, chicken fingers, milkshakes, and sugary cereal.
posted by A Blue Moon at 11:31 AM on March 17
posted by A Blue Moon at 11:31 AM on March 17
Yeah Kinokuniya and BookOff are probably must-visits. Maybe Toy Tokyo?
You miiiight do well in Little Korea — maybe New Wonjo??? Just because it feels cool. But it might be overwhelming and you might be left with a starving child.
He might like the Irish Famine monument while you're done by WTC. (I hear it's influencer-central now, ack!)
posted by RJ Reynolds at 12:25 PM on March 17 [1 favorite]
You miiiight do well in Little Korea — maybe New Wonjo??? Just because it feels cool. But it might be overwhelming and you might be left with a starving child.
He might like the Irish Famine monument while you're done by WTC. (I hear it's influencer-central now, ack!)
posted by RJ Reynolds at 12:25 PM on March 17 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Literally ALL of these suggestions are amazing. He would love the idea of trying to catch sight of a specific artist's street art, he will absolutely say something like "This is like being in a video game for real and you're trying to find hidden things." He LIVES FOR claw machines, usually spending at least half of his arcade money trying to win cute things for me (super sweet kid). Adorable pastries??? He would be in heaven. So many perfect options on here, stuff that will give him exactly what I want him to have - a vibey fun day of bopping around the city doing cool stuff. That's what he liked best about our trip to LA last year.
posted by fennario at 1:51 PM on March 17 [1 favorite]
posted by fennario at 1:51 PM on March 17 [1 favorite]
The best one-off place where you can spend the whole day is Japan Village in Industry City. They have Bookoff, Daiso, an Origami Studio, and a traditional Japanese tea room. In the rest of Industry City, they have coffee shops, various art in between the buildings, restaurants and an independent bookstore. They have Hapik and Creainteractivity (an interactive and immersive play space).
posted by ichimunki at 6:32 PM on March 17
posted by ichimunki at 6:32 PM on March 17
Oh, I don’t know if this would be a good match for a 12-year-old, but the See Saw app is great for finding gallery shows nearby as you wander.
posted by yarrow at 5:12 AM on March 18
posted by yarrow at 5:12 AM on March 18
Others have indeed given you a lot of good options already!
Japan Village in Industry City is a decent option, but if you're only spending a day here you'd probably have to choose wisely - it'd be a bit of of a hike from Manhattan, so I'd maybe do one or two specific things and then head to Industry City, or make it an all-Brooklyn day. It sounds like your kid likes to wander so if you're staying in Manhattan that may be wisest.
However, if you DO want to go with an all-Brooklyn day (which would be VERY do-able with the WTC Path station as your start point), here's some ideas:
* Industry City, with the Japan Village as a focus, would be a good place to start.
* Industry City is two blocks from Greenwood Cemetery - which actually is a decent place to run around or use as a "walk from one end to the other" easy travel conduit. It's also pretty close to Sunset Park, which is both a bit of a Brooklyn-centric Chinatown AND a Little Mexico.
* Or - you could just hop the D/N Train at 36th and head to Prospect Park and/or the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden has a couple of Japan-centric areas (a whole plaza of cherry trees that might be JUST starting to bud out in early April, a hill-and-pond garden area with a little model of a shrine tucked in one corner, and a room of bonsai in its conservatory). If you're there on a Sunday the Smorgasburg food festival will be happening in Prospect Park (close to one of the Botanic Garden exits), and you can also hit up the Prospect Park Zoo close by; they don't have any "big" animals like elephants or tigers, but they do have some alapca, baboons, sea lions, and some tiny monkeys like marmosets or tamarins and spider monkeys.
* And from there you're a short hop to a couple other cool spots in Brooklyn - the Brooklyn Bridge Park runs along the waterfront under the Brooklyn Bridge around towards the Columbia Waterfront area, and there are some cool features like a hedge maze with some sound elements, a historic carousel and a whole lot of food options. At the northern part of the Brooklyn Bridge park you'd be up by Dumbo, which would also be worth sneaking out to explore - one of which is Oddfellows ice cream, which sometimes gets really creative with its flavors (possible flavors they may have are cookie butter, ginger miso and something called "Pink marshmallow dream").
* And from the Brooklyn Bridge Park area you'd just be one or two subway stops at most from Downtown Manhattan again. There's also a ferry if you think he can deal with a ten-minute commuter ferry trip.
As an alternate idea:
You would have to take a boat to get there, but it would only be a ten-minute ferry ride as opposed to "we're going on a boat for its own sake" kind of thing - Governor's Island. This is a decommissioned army base that dates back to the Revolutionary War; two forts are still maintained by the Federal Parks Department as landmarks, but many of the other historic buildings are now home to pop-up galleries and shops, and much of the rest of the island has been redeveloped into a park - rent a bike and do laps (no cars are allowed on the island), climb some of the hills built into the southern end for amazing views (and there's a huge slide on one hill), and hit up the food trucks. One caveat is that Governor's Island is more of a seasonal spot and so you may want to check what's open depending on your arrival date. But this would be an easy spot to get to from lower Manhattan, so even if you go there for a bike ride and that's it, you could get back to Manhattan really easily and quickly.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:16 AM on March 18
Japan Village in Industry City is a decent option, but if you're only spending a day here you'd probably have to choose wisely - it'd be a bit of of a hike from Manhattan, so I'd maybe do one or two specific things and then head to Industry City, or make it an all-Brooklyn day. It sounds like your kid likes to wander so if you're staying in Manhattan that may be wisest.
However, if you DO want to go with an all-Brooklyn day (which would be VERY do-able with the WTC Path station as your start point), here's some ideas:
* Industry City, with the Japan Village as a focus, would be a good place to start.
* Industry City is two blocks from Greenwood Cemetery - which actually is a decent place to run around or use as a "walk from one end to the other" easy travel conduit. It's also pretty close to Sunset Park, which is both a bit of a Brooklyn-centric Chinatown AND a Little Mexico.
* Or - you could just hop the D/N Train at 36th and head to Prospect Park and/or the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The Brooklyn Botanic Garden has a couple of Japan-centric areas (a whole plaza of cherry trees that might be JUST starting to bud out in early April, a hill-and-pond garden area with a little model of a shrine tucked in one corner, and a room of bonsai in its conservatory). If you're there on a Sunday the Smorgasburg food festival will be happening in Prospect Park (close to one of the Botanic Garden exits), and you can also hit up the Prospect Park Zoo close by; they don't have any "big" animals like elephants or tigers, but they do have some alapca, baboons, sea lions, and some tiny monkeys like marmosets or tamarins and spider monkeys.
* And from there you're a short hop to a couple other cool spots in Brooklyn - the Brooklyn Bridge Park runs along the waterfront under the Brooklyn Bridge around towards the Columbia Waterfront area, and there are some cool features like a hedge maze with some sound elements, a historic carousel and a whole lot of food options. At the northern part of the Brooklyn Bridge park you'd be up by Dumbo, which would also be worth sneaking out to explore - one of which is Oddfellows ice cream, which sometimes gets really creative with its flavors (possible flavors they may have are cookie butter, ginger miso and something called "Pink marshmallow dream").
* And from the Brooklyn Bridge Park area you'd just be one or two subway stops at most from Downtown Manhattan again. There's also a ferry if you think he can deal with a ten-minute commuter ferry trip.
As an alternate idea:
You would have to take a boat to get there, but it would only be a ten-minute ferry ride as opposed to "we're going on a boat for its own sake" kind of thing - Governor's Island. This is a decommissioned army base that dates back to the Revolutionary War; two forts are still maintained by the Federal Parks Department as landmarks, but many of the other historic buildings are now home to pop-up galleries and shops, and much of the rest of the island has been redeveloped into a park - rent a bike and do laps (no cars are allowed on the island), climb some of the hills built into the southern end for amazing views (and there's a huge slide on one hill), and hit up the food trucks. One caveat is that Governor's Island is more of a seasonal spot and so you may want to check what's open depending on your arrival date. But this would be an easy spot to get to from lower Manhattan, so even if you go there for a bike ride and that's it, you could get back to Manhattan really easily and quickly.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:16 AM on March 18
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Midtown:
Book Off NY
Kinokuniya
Sunrise Mart/Katagiri in midtown for Japanese candy/grocery
If they would be delighted by adorable anime-themed pastries, I can't get enough of Bibble and Sip
East Village:
Toy Tokyo
Union Square:
Forbidden Planet (I haven't been there in a while, I hear it's not what it used to be)
Boba is all over these days, I can't recommend a specific place over any other but if you google it while you're in midtown or the east village you'll find a good place. I know there's at least one conveyor belt sushi place around but not sure if there are any conveyer belt non-sushi places, but there is a robot that will make you coffee at Muji Chelsea Market (I haven't seen it myself) (not saying your 12-year-old should have coffee but maybe if you want a cup he would want to watch a robot make it)
posted by matcha action at 7:36 AM on March 17 [2 favorites]