It was big and new, and crowded as hell. They had some nice shops, mostly cheaper stuff. I was on a search for a new winter hat, and of course the only hat I liked came from Swiss Army: not cheap. Overall, the place has a similar feel to an American shopping mall, but better in many ways. For example, it was organized by shop type: a kid's area, a men's area, ect. It also had interesting architecture and design, but that also made finding your way around more complicated. See for yourself...
Three floors, weirdly shaped buildings, and lots of different connecting passageways made for some back-tracking and looking at the map a lot. When we got there, I was starving. They had a lot of interesting options: a gyoza place, yakiniku, Chinese, curry, and on and on. But, as my girls says, you can’t go to the mall without going to the food court. So, we by passed all those delicious options to make our way over to the food court. At the time I was pissed, because food courts irritate me to no end, but damnit, my girl made the right choice again.
It was called Food Circus, and it has to be the most advanced Food Court ever. Before you can enter, you are given instructions by a friendly chap, a card with a barcode, and a reservation sign.
You are then led to your table by a host....a first for me to be sure. This reservation holder is the key. It allows you to walk around to look at the various options TOGETHER, without losing your table, a significant problem in most food courts. Another interesting feature how you pay. When you order, you only have to have your barcode read, you don’t need to pay at that time. When you leave, they read your card and give you the total. There were about 8 options to decide from, plus a drink and dessert bar. I was pleased with my choice of a steak sandwich and my girl was happy with her Pad Thai.
There has been a great leap forward in the food court. People of the world celebrate!
Today was also a shopping day for me. But before I get to another shopping story, it is outfit time again. It was a decent outfit, but not the best ever. I’m still trying to figure out how to work my new kicks. Let's start at the top and work our way down.
The weather called for layers today...and I heeded the call. This jacket is old. (8 years?) But it is the perfect lightweight zip up. It is not the most exciting piece of this outfit, so let's keep moving. My second layer is a gray thermal shirt. It has a military feeling with the shoulder and elbow patches. I love it. My girl and I found it at BEAMS while we were shopping for my birthday present. It is so comfortable. My bottom layer is one of my all time favorite t-shirts. I’ll give you 3 guess who made it and some time to think. Why don't you look at some pics while you think.
Nice thermal shirt....right? Now let’s get to the t-shirt. If you were one of those people out there who guessed it is a purple LEGO t-shirt. Great job! Some pics to make it all clear.
Love the stripes with the purple base. Never seen this t-shirt on anyone else, ever. I bought it in Tokyo a couple years ago. If you ask me, we need a close-up of those LEGO people doing their thing.
And last, but far from least we come to my newest shoes. With my shoe purchases lately I felt like I was neglecting my long time love New Balance. So, when I found a pair that I had almost bought a year ago...on sale, I just had to pull the trigger. I'll hit you with a close-up first.
And before we go any further, let’s see how they look with this outfit.
They are New Balance 586s. I have been into them for a while. The soles are really thick and strong. The mix of different materials is impressive: suede, leather, and mesh all present. And I’m loving the teal and purple highlights. The cherry on top though is clearly the hits of 3M reflective material. Observe...
As you can see, the top row is normal, while the bottom row has an extra punch. The difference is the 3M on the "N", the heel, and a tiny strip on the toe. I am happy about these.
So back to my shopping trip today, I rocked these over to my girl’s work for lunch. After some tempura I was off to Shibuya and Ebisu. In Shibuya I checked the Click Brick store to see if they had any LEGO stuff I needed. Then over to a cheap shoe store where I was extremely tempted by a pair of Adidas that have gone on sale. Stay tuned....I might get them later this week. Then to some book stores and Tower Records before jumping on the train to Ebisu. I wanted to check the real world location of a site I check all the time: PASSOVER. Their site always has kicks that blow me away. Their store however was T-I-N-Y!! Like a closet. They had about 12 pairs on display and maybe 15 t-shirts. They had one pair that I drooled over, but I couldn't justify the price. Check their site, skip their shop.
2 comments:
i want to shop at that mall...and i HATE going to the mall, so that is saying something!
I LOVE the shoes!! The colors are super and thanks for pointing out details I would have missed.
As I was reading about the food court, I thought: why is it that "THEY" all think the USA is so great, when such super ideas seem to come from everywhere else?!?! It seems that here someone comes up with a new idea and that is the end of it...it gets done over and over and over with basically no innovation?!! As though THAT is the end of it and it can't be improved!!??? Anyway, it's fabulous to hear about these new ideas in other countries. THANKS!!
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