The Singular Smells of NY

In many ways, NY has not changed. For instance I left NY in the late 50th and had not been back till early 80th.

When my plane from Japan landed at JFK the first thing which struck me was the smell. It might be funny to say that the city has a smell but when I got on the airport bus from JF Kennedy to Manhattan there was a familiar scent which I have almost forgotten. It was a scent which I did not encounter anywhere else but in the States. It had been such a familiar scent, a part of every day life when I was living in NY in the early teens.

Now that I live in NY part of the time, this scent is recognizable on many occasions like going into a closet or opening a package, entering a room…

Also the sound of New York has not changed. When I open the widow in my apartment I hear the familiar sound of the city’s traffic which does not cease even during the night. To me the sound of New York sounds like a city’s heart beat that never stops.