hello autumn, you're late
Monday, 24 September 2007
Yesterday, the weather started turning chilly, and it's been said that autumn is finally starting. Today was a cool 20 degrees celsius, and it felt like even the outdoors was air-conditioned. Since there was nothing scheduled for academic matters, my friend and I went shopping at Ikebukuro at somewhere called Sunshine Plaza. I find such names rather corny, but hey, whatever works.
Many Japanese seem to be out to make a fashion statement, and most people are dressed quite funkily, and have cool hairdos. I wonder what it is about Japan to motivates people to strive to look they way they do. Or even if they don't strive, how they all generally got to become fashion trail-blazers. I've noticed that layering is in trend, and many things I saw had around three layers. Boots were everywhere, and I'll get one... eventually. As compared to Singapore, there is a greater variety of shops here, and there are more specialty shops, if you can call them that. For example:
hello kitty! i took this with biyi in mindThere was also a shop that sold only Tonari no Tottoro stuff, and there were stuff like the catbus soft toy and the clock etc. I suppose there are enough people of varied interests in Japan to be able to sustain such shops. In Singapore such places will probably only be a passing fad and go out of business in a year or two. What happened to VonDutch? Even the bubble tea fad died down...
You know how it's said that packaging is very important to the Japanese? It's true, just take a look at these lockers:

I suppose it's also a form of advertisement for the aquarium that's apparently somewhere nearby, but they are so cute, a far cry from the usual boring dull gray. Then there was this area that was full of food, desserts to be more specific, and this display caught my eye:
mother's crepes!Apparently such crepe stores are not altogether uncommon in Japan, and my friend encouraged me to try it so that I can say that I've been to Japan. Haha... Since they weren't super expensive (mine was 420yen I think), I decided to indulge the Dessert Queen in me. And as always, I couldn't resist taking a picture with my food:

my friend's and my crepe!
Wandering around a shopping centre miles away from home felt rather... liberating, and so exciting. I relished the opportunity to get away from my dorm area and explore the area beyond Waseda, so it was great to be able to see what Japanese stores have to offer, and basically travel a little! I couldn't resist good deals, so I ended up buying two tops (a green turtleneck and a purple top with cute guppy-like sleeves!) and an eyeshadow set (hey! it was 30% off!). I am happy. :)
Labels: food, Japan, pics
- supergirl soul-saved @ 8:12 pm :)