New York - January 10, 2002

Ah, Romance. . .

Japanese Stationery Shop

Getting yourself organized in the new year? Making your list and checking it twice? (Wait, didn’t we just do that?) Here we go again. Notebooks. Post-its. Staplers. Some proper stationery.

Fortunately for your organizational resolve, paper supplies can be fun, and dirt-cheap, too. Our pick for one-stop shopping? Romantic Music & Gift Shop. This is not a Hallmark enterprise. The little nook is brimming floor-to-ceiling with Japanese stickers and notebooks designed with groovy characters. We like the pretty Barbie-like golfer girl; the dreaming white girl comes in at close second.

And just in case all this get-yourself-together thinking has you breaking out in hives, the shop also carries Japanese Biore-like pads. (At least we think that’s what they are. We haven’t tried scribbling on them.)

Romantic Music & Gift Shop, 151 Mott Street, between Broome and Grand Streets (212-226-0579).