At the Aeon Mall

Aeon Mall supermarket

open fish counter

mini soda cans

After dropping Yuki off at his friend's house, we (Natsuko, Maname, and I) went to the Aeon mall.  It has a supermarket on one floor and is like an American mall on the others.  We went shopping for groceries first.  It was so interesting to see all the different types of food.  Not only were the products different, but the way they were sold is different as well.  For example, all the fish and seafood is out in a large bin and people get to walk by it and choose their own instead of having to ask an employee who works behind a counter.  Also, the fruit is sold individually or wrapped in packages, not by weight.  Walking through produce, I saw some grapes.  This might not seem that interesting, but the size difference between the varieties was huge!  Just look at the picture below and you'll see what I mean.

After buying groceries, we went into the mall area.  We left the cold goods in a refrigerated locker (100 yen) and went around through many stores.  We also got some ice cream at Baskin Robins.  Everything was so clean and all the products were displayed beautifully.  At all the restaurants there were displays of the food available and it all looked so nice.

About one-fifth of the manga in this store

We went to a bookstore and about half of it was filled with manga.  I found One Piece, Black Butler, Soul Eater, and many others that I recognized.  In Japan manga is only ¥400-500 (~$4-5).  I'm used to paying up to $13 for new manga!  Unfortunately, all the manga here is (unsurprisingly) in Japanese.  I might not be able to read it, but I might buy some later on during this trip.  We also saw posters from Monsters University and Baskin Robins even had a Mike-shaped ice cream cake!  On our way out, we got some Belgian waffles covered in/filled with different chocolates and flavors.  I got a matcha (green tea)-filled waffle.  It looks so good and I can't wait to try it later!