Aeon Mall

Aeon is a large shopping mall down at Taniyama, about 45 minutes by tram from Tenmonkan. In fact, the tram line ends at Taniyama station, which is about a 1 mile walk west of the mall (which is just off of Kinko bay). It opened a little bit before I moved to Kagoshima, and I'd only been there once since then (someone I met that had a mutual interest in Gakken kits offered to drive me down there once about 6 years ago). I've been wanting to go back for several months, in part to revisit the music shop, and the massive bookstore I remembered from the previous trip. I finally set aside the time to ride the tram down there back a couple Sundays ago. It was very nice weather for it.



Unfortunately, the bookstore got relocated to a much smaller space, and the music store contracted to just focus on keyboards, guitars, and school instruments. But, I spent an hour mall-walking for the exercise, and I had a small lunch at Saint Marc's, a kind of snack shop that has some sandwiches, a lot of parfaits, and drinks. They're the only place I know of that sells Vietnamese-style coffee, with condensed milk. I love that stuff. There's another Saint Marc's in Across Mall, much closer to home, but still a 20 minute walk from the tram line, near Tempozan.



In a country often rocked by strong earthquakes, I have to wonder who approved this ramp to the top floor parking lots... There's no signal lights or cops at the bottom of the ramp to control traffic, so the line of cars waiting to get out of the lot is backed up all the way to the top. Not a good place to be sitting out a quake.



The one thing I found interesting that day was that there's an enclosed stage area separated from the mall proper that hosts 2 Apanman live stage shows a day on the weekends. There were well over 200 kids and their parents in the seats on the ground floor and another 50 plus standing up on the second floor balcony. Unfortunately, there were too many people between me and the protective plastic barriers to get a clear shot of the stage (I had to shoot through the barrier).



"Anpanman go!"



The view from the third floor outdoor food terrace.



Buses run between the mall and Tenmonkan every 30 minutes, and I'd just missed the one at 5:30 PM. So I walked back to the station, and took the tram back. I returned to Tenmonkan before the next bus did. The tram is 170 yen one way, while the bus is closer to 400 yen. It's 20 minutes to do the walk for the tram, but much cheaper overall.

I probably won't go back for a few years, now that I have this out of my system.