The Least Useful Guide to Fukuoka

The other day I took a short excursion to a “further Aeon”. It took a short train trip along a beautiful coast line and cherry trees in full blossom. To my great regret, and as my usual, I left my camera at home. I missed a great “Bae”(meaning “showing-off”, basically) chance!

The mall was another typical suburban mall, focusing on relatively young families with decent income and decent job. The price range was well marketed; not extravagant, but not very low. I felt I was by no means within their target group; I am too old and my income is too low to fit into their “ideal”.

Despite this, I enjoyed my short stay there. There were many things I couldn’t find my local Aeon. The most impressive was that the supermarket stocks Part 2 Junko Shimada clothing range, a designer label that used to be rather upmarket around 30 years ago. It now becomes quite accessible and obachan-friendly in many ways (the size, of course, prices, and even display).The price range in particular was amazingly different from what I knew: skirts up to 5,900 JPY, tops 4,000 JPY, and Jacket up to 12,800 JPY (all are spring/summer clothings), which are almost a third of what they used to be in the brand’s heyday.

I also found “all-you-can-eat” Mister Donut. Sounds irresistible! It costs 1200 yen…I am sure it would be a losing game—if only I was 20 years younger!

Basically, shops and restaurants looks not so different from other local malls. There are Muji, Right-On, Starbucks and other household names. But their shelves looked more attractive to me, probably they cleverly focus on more obachian-friendly items. I could say this mall is definitely more “me-friendly” than Mark Is in Momochi, although both malls’ price range look quite similar. It may be a good idea to hit this mall again during summer sale.