Travel around New York is complex, with many overlapping systems—bus, train, subway, taxi—so we highly recommend you find yourself a good guidebook. The "Lonely Planet" series of guidebooks are generally excellent, and, for our international visitors, they publish in German, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese and Japanese. Find a guidebook you like, and definitely read it before you come! There are also many websites to help plan your visit.
A detailed map of New York will be helpful if you plan on doing any sightseeing before or after the convention; transportation maps are available at major bus and train stations.
There are bus stations very close to St. John's University, making it an easy spot from which to launch trips around the city.
And if you think you might need some extra assistance before or during the convention—whether with language, first-timer questions, or any other special requests—please get in touch with us at convention-info [at] origamiusa.org and we'll see if we can help. Please remember that we're all volunteers, and so we cannot guarantee assistance with every special need, but will do our best to accommodate you.