Blink and you missed it, for September

Shinto Ceremony Thing


Ok, on the 25th last week, I was walking through Tenmonkan on my way to the school for a mid-afternoon lesson. As I was nearing the Lotteria burger shop, I heard the ringing of a bell and someone hitting a drum. Then there was a smattering of applause. I got to the corner of the intersection where I had a clear view of the open area, just as someone in bright orange robes and a mask of some sort (tiger, or demon?) disappeared into the dressing tent next to the stage.



The Shinto priests playing the instruments off to the right of the space got up to walk to the stage, and everyone else stood to leave. No idea what I missed.



Kodawari Fair, Friday-Sunday


This isn't the full name in Japanese, but the English translation is roughly "Product Maker's Specialty Products Fair" (Kodawari is "obsession", "determination", "specialty"). I hadn't seen anything about this on the Amu Plaza events page, and didn't know it was happening until I had to go to Bic Camera (on the other side of the train station) Friday afternoon to buy printer ink.



The shops sold green tea, shochu, fruits and syrups. Nothing I wanted to buy, though.



There was a small live stage, but for Friday and Saturday, the events were largely interviews with shop owners for why you should buy their products, and a few mascot shows. I guess there was some music or something, too, but no one I recognized by name from the schedule. Nothing was happening on the stage while I was there on Friday, and I had to work all Saturday. The schedule showed that there was supposed to be something on Sunday, but no times. I found myself stuck in the apartment, trying to set up a new Windows 10 PC, which ended up wasting the entire afternoon. I didn't get out until 5 PM Sunday, and by then all the tables were being torn down.

Sigh.

Sukiya Titan

The Sukiya rice bowl restaurant chain has a new tie-in campaign with "Attack on Titan."



Special design cards and "original goods". Although, if you bite yourself, I'm not sure how much you really need to go to Sukiya...

Bright Chalk Art

New chalk art from Bright. Not sure how much of the "text" was ever intended to be readable...

Deconstruction

Yet more office buildings being torn down.



This one's just south of Tenmonkan. If it follows what seems to be the normal practice now, the land will be turned into a plain parking lot. Then, 6 months to a year from now, the lot will be ripped out and a new high-end apartment building (called a "mansion") will go up there.



One man's trash is another man's trash, too.

Georgia Newtype Tie-In

A few weeks after running their Georgia Gundam can coffee cans, Georgia and Gundam decided to come out with the New Type can art. It's the same marginal coffee, but two new sets of art from the Gundam franchise. You can actually see both sets in the above vending machine display.



The cans have two images each (from the above illustration).



The artwork is a little better than for the earlier Gundam anniversary cans, but not by much. The previous cans can cost between 130 yen down to 100 yen in discounted vending machines (the farther the machines are from high traffic areas, the cheaper the "special price" drinks get), but the New Types cans are 110 yen, at the lowest price I've seen so far.

Peanuts Chalk Art

Chalk art found outside a small neighborhood fruit and vegetables shop. They're advertising their twitter hashtag.

Georgia-Gundam 5-Packs

The Georgia Coffee-Gundam tie-in can art finally made its way into the grocery stores, in 5-packs. Unfortunately, Japan doesn't discount stuff you buy in bulk. All you get for your money is not having to figure out on your own what 105 yen * 5 is. It's printed on the sticker.

June-Sept. articles in the media

Here's the batch of articles to show up in the media from June-Sept., regarding anime, manga and related stuff.

Japan Times

Breaking down the barriers of animation with Hiroyuki Imaishi

'Akira' is all set for its Hollywood remake

Japan's anime industry in crisis despite its popularity

Anime's aging but active artists: Mamoru Oshii on his latest project, 'Vladlove'

'Tokyo Ghoul "S"' - A college, a cafe and a cannibal

At least 33 people dead, dozens injured in suspected arson at Kyoto Animation studio

Kyoto Animation: A unique force in Japan's anime industry

'Weathering With You': Breezy with scattered showers

Shoji Kawamori: 40 years spent designing an anime future

Man arrested for allegedly illegally uploading popular 'One Piece' on manga-viewing website

'Cannon Busters': Bending anime rules in all the right ways

Keep looking for ways to fight piracy websites

Tokyo Tarareba Girls wins Will Eisner award

'Ni no Kuni': Two worlds but little life to be found

Giving anime strength overseas

Fans flock to theaters nationwide to watch first Kyoto Animation film released since attack

Daily Yomiuri

Naoki Urasawa manga exhibit under way in London

Jitterbug The Forties review

From now on, we begin ethics review

Toward twilight review

Fake affair review

Dozens die in suspected arson at animation studio in Kyoto

Peerless artists built KyoAni’s reputation for quality

Asahi

Saku Sakamoto’s ‘Aragne’ to show at festivals in Zagreb, Annecy

'Astro Boy' gets update as tale of android angst at becoming human

2nd season kicks off for ‘Tokyo Tarareba Girls’ manga in Kiss

‘Inuyasha’ creator’s new manga ‘MAO’ now available

‘Tokyo Ghoul’ sequel to haunt cinemas in Japan on July 19

Fourth Tokyo Comic Con to start on Nov. 22 in Chiba

Netflix to stream ‘7SEEDS’ worldwide on June 28

KYOMAF manga, anime fair to be held for 8th time on Sept. 21-22

Theaters packed in China for Miyazaki’s ‘Spirited Away’

Mystery power revealed before ‘Weathering with You’ release

Railway’s anime about seeking love in Chichibu wins award

‘Your Name.’ director battling to meet deadline for his new film

Sprawling Akira mural to come down as Parco reopening nears

‘Lord El-Melloi II’ adaptation of mystery novel to air on TV in July

‘Ghost in the Shell’ director’s new project set for 2020 release

‘Laid-Back Camp’ short anime series to start in January 2020

Set in quake-hit Iwaki, ‘Twilight’ aims to bolster rebuilding effort

33 killed in suspected arson at animation studio in Kyoto

Studio Ponoc joins with IOC on animated short for Tokyo Games

‘Sailor Moon’ manga makes digital debut in 10 languages

One week after arson, father still awaits word on missing daughter

‘Attack on Titan’ exhibition lets you hear the final episode

Gundam coffee machine serves Amuro, Char catchphrases

Tokyo anime award fest set for March 2020 in Ikebukuro

‘Cells at Work’ wins key prize at China’s Magnolia Awards event

Nagoya temple employs Gundam to attract youths during Bon days

New ‘Akira,’ ‘Orbital Era’ films by Otomo in the works

New ‘Yo-Kai Watch’ movie to hit cinemas in December

Fujiko museum event fetes 50th anniversary of ‘Doraemon’

‘Weathering’ has audiences under spell, raking in 10 billion yen

Two-part ‘Sailor Moon Eternal’ movie slated for 2020 release

VR ‘Ghost in the Shell’ ride to compete at Venice film fest

'Dragon Quest' adapted into tale of growing up

‘Fist of the North Star’ characters to appear on manhole covers

40th Doraemon movie to be called ‘Nobita’s New Dinosaur’

Despite arson, Kyoto Animation to meet release date for new film

Kyoto Animation releases 1st film since devastating arson attack

‘Shinkalion’ film teaser shows mysterious ALFA-X

Live-action ‘Hell Girl’ film adaptation to open on Nov. 15

Main voice cast for ‘Beastars’ anime TV series announced

Studio releases ‘Her Blue Sky’ trailer, reveals theme song artist

Animation fest to feature works by college students across Japan

9/21 weekend

This has been a bit of an odd week. Back on the 16th, at about 6:30 AM, Sakurajima belched up a huge cloud of ash that apparently affected airport traffic in Tokyo. No one in Kagoshima talked about this at all during the day. Instead, we were in the path of another typhoon, and that was causing some concern. We had a little rain and heavy winds for a bit on Thursday and rain Friday morning, But that was it. However, Friday, at about 4:30 PM, I was walking out of the English school, and at one of the street intersections I had a clear view towards the volcano. All I could see, though, was a wall of very dark gray, which seemed to be approaching. A few minutes later, it felt like rain drops coming down on my shoulder. Unfortunately, it was actually small balls of ash. At least I'd brought my umbrella with me because I'd thought that we'd get more rain. So, I used that on my way home, and the patting sounds coming off it really did come close to that of a heavy rain. When I got home, I tried brushing the ash off my white work shirt, but that was useless. I ended up taking it in to the dry cleaners.

On Wednesday, I had to swing by the Volunteer Center down by the Reimeikan history museum, and I discovered that workers were putting up food booths and the main stage out on the front lawn for the upcoming KTS Days. KTS is one of the local TV stations, and the event was for promoting the new season's shows. I've seen these events in the past, so I know what they're like. I swung back again on Friday, and they had the schedule boards set up on both sides of the main stage. Mostly, the live acts would be KTS hosts talking about the new season's shows and interviewing the guests, and then some entertainment in the form of manzai comedy, and live music. HKT48 (one of the AKB48 sister groups) was scheduled for Saturday to "sing" and "dance". I use quotes because these women are generally off-key, don't actually sing (they more like chant), and they pose more than they dance. They're mostly popular because they're eye candy in scanty, flashy costumes. The live music on Sunday was by 2 sets of performers I don't know. Regardless, there was nothing on the schedule I wanted to see. I had to work all Saturday, and I had family stuff on Sunday. We got a bit of rain Saturday evening, and it was just a miserable, hot, humid, ashy day on Sunday, with more sporadic showers. Actually, after I first wrote this Sunday morning, I ended up taking a taxi past the Volunteer Center around 2 PM. All the tents were gone and the stage was half-disassembled. Apparently, KTS Days got canceled or postponed for some reason. Huh. So, there was nothing to miss.

There was one highlight, though. My lessons got rearranged on Saturday, with one being canceled and a second being moved forward, so I ended up getting out of the school an hour early. That gave me time to walk the mile to Aeon department store, up by Amu Plaza and the main train station, where I needed to do some shopping (soap and printer paper). There's a Mister Donut shop at the corner of the first floor of Aeon, and after I was done shopping, I sat down to a cup of coffee and a frosted old-fashioned, to read some Scientific American magazines I'd gotten (actually, they're in Japanese, so I just look at the pictures and try to guess what the articles are about.) At about 7:30 PM, I headed out to return home for dinner. About two short blocks away from Aeon, there's the Tokyu Rei hotel. Back in August, the Rei had been advertising a "jazz dinner night" special - 4,500 yen ($40 USD) for a beer garden-style buffet, and live jazz music by one of three artists, kind of early in the evenings on Fridays and Saturdays every week into September. I'd sort of wanted to get a dinner one of those nights, but I kept having plans on Fridays, and work at that time on Saturdays. Anyway, one the guest artists Saturday night was Keishi Matsumoto (organizer of the Kagoshima Jazz Fest 3 weeks ago), along with Akira Wada on vocals and Toshiki Nunokawa on guitar. Going to Aeon, I'd strolled past the hotel to look into the lobby to see if I could tell where the event was being held or if I could spot Keishi. I didn't, so I continued to the department store.

On the way back, I swung by the hotel again, and this time I did see Keishi on the other side of the lobby during the break, near a table where he and the other two were trying to sell CDs and hand out fliers for upcoming shows. Keishi was standing, drinking a beer and talking to two people from the audience. I decided to try my luck and went inside the hotel. As I was crossing the lobby, Keishi turned and recognized me from the fest. He complimented the photos I'd sent in through Facebook (he speaks good, if slightly broken English), and we ended up talking for about 5 minutes, until some more of the audience members came up to chat with him (I broke off to reduce the chances of the hotel management's getting angry with him for ignoring paying guests). He did mention that Toshiki was probably the best jazz guitarist in Japan. I didn't recognize him, and he hadn't played at the Jazz Fest. I didn't want to push my luck with hotel management, so I didn't try introducing myself to him, or taking photos of the artists. I was thinking about buying a CD or something, but the discs were all about 2,500 yen, and I'd spent most of my money shopping earlier, and it was too late to hit an ATM (the ATMs for my bank shut down at 5 PM). Keishi gave me a flier for his next show with his Keishi Trio, on a Thursday night at Caparvo Hall (about a 5-minute walk from the apartment) in mid-October. I don't really like the 3,500 yen cover (doesn't apparently include drinks), and I'm concerned that his "contemporary jazz" will be too slow and subdued for me. But, I'm tempted to go to listen to him just once. We'll see.

Anyway, it wasn't a completely wasted weekend. I got a donut out of it.

Fanta Labels

Fanta has been running a campaign with members of some girls' idol group, where one of the girls will be pictured on the front of the bottle, and a "mask" on the back. The idea is to hold the bottle in front of your mouth to create a visual gag.

Shirodon Family Bus Art

Shirokuma (polar bear) is a popular brand of shaved ice desserts in Kagoshima, and the characters for the restaurant have kind of taken on a life of their own. The left half of the picture is a shirokuma trying to avoid being hit by mud thrown by the family's dog. The right half is the family getting sunburned on the beach.

Shibuya 109 Posters

Shibuya is a district in Tokyo, located on the Yamanote train line. It's a major fashion shopping area, and is very popular with girls and young women. One of the biggest landmarks is the Shibuya 109 tower, a couple blocks from Shibuya station. There's a 109 outlet store in Amu Plaza. While riding the escalator in Amu, I noticed these posters advertising the 40th anniversary of the main store.



I hate taking photos of stuff behind glass. Too much reflection to make out the posters properly.

August Busker

There haven't been as many people playing music in Tenmonkan this summer as there have been in the past.



It's important to bring your own audience to these things.

Conan White Soda Can 2

I wasn't planning on getting any more of these cans in the Conan Case Closed series, but one night I needed a mixer for a small bottle of whiskey I wanted to finish, so here we are.



"Higosenshu e no sashiire ni iin ja nai kashira?"
"This (soda) is fine to give to Higo as a present, isn't it?" (Higo is a soccer player in the Case Closed manga.)

Bright Chalk - Dancer

One of the more ambitious chalk art pieces for Bright men's clothing shop. I think the artist started at the top of the woman's head and got to about waist level before realizing that there wasn't going to be enough room for her legs...

Yamakataya Ad - National Lipstick Day

Ok, so "National Lipstick Day" ran for over one month, but I doubt many people really noticed. All I got out of this one is that the 50' foot woman would probably benefit from a good service and maintenance contract.

Happy Car

Smile.

Open School Viewing

There are posters in the advertising cases along Streetcar Street using manga characters to advertise an open house for a private elementary school. Not sure what the target market is for this, since no one walking on the sidewalks looks at the signs, and the posters aren't facing the street where passing drivers could see them.

Baby Pee

Too many of my stories start out with "this is going to take some set-up." Anyway, after the Kagoshima Jazz Festival, I sent one of the organizers an email with links to the photos I'd uploaded to Facebook. I got a nice reply back, so on Thursday I decided I'd send a second link to the photos I'd uploaded to Facebook for the past Jazz fests. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the photos I wanted in the Facebook Photos or Albums areas, so I went to my "home" page, and just scrolled back through my past posts. Turns out, I hadn't posted photos for 2018, but I did for 2017 (the inaugural year). As I was doing this, though, I found the photos for the absurdist "gekijo" (realistic) roving theater group Dokungo. I'd been wanting to watch another of their shows, but I can never remember their name right, meaning I can't find their website again. With the Facebook page photos, I could get their name, and that let me check their website for upcoming shows. Turns out they'll be in Kagoshima from Nov. 23 to 25. Great.



A little later Thursday night, I decided to run out to a nearby department store, Aeon, across from the main train station, to get more discounted paper towels for the apartment. The store is open until 11 PM, and it was 9:30 PM at that point. I take my normal route to Kotsuki river, and I find the above tents in the middle of Lion's Park. This is almost the exact same location as where I'd seen Dokungo in 2017, and the timing strikes me as incredibly odd. As I approach, I can see a small stage in the lead tent, and one of the women is pouring drinks into paper cups on a table in the stage area. A few people are lingering in and around the tent, and I figure that whatever had been going on has ended and that I'd missed it. However, I took the plunge and asked one of the people standing around closest to me what was going on. He answered that it was a gekijo play by a group called Baby Pee, and that the show had just ended. He then took me to one of the performers and introduced me to him. Turns out that the group is from Kyoto, and they were only performing the one night in Kagoshima before going to Shikoku. That bummed me out, because I would have been willing to pay for the ticket on Friday night if my schedule worked out right.



The thing is, because they'd finished performing in Kagoshima, the troupe was preparing for toasting the audience for coming to their show, and suddenly I'm invited to join them. I get a cup of beer, do the "kampai" thing with everyone, and spend the next half hour talking to another of the performers, who'd taken an interest in my Arale-chan T-shirt. Every so often, someone would come by and refill my beer cup. It was fairly embarrassing - I just wanted to get some paper towels, and now I'm drinking someone else's beer.



A couple of the Baby Pee members were familiar with Dokungo, and we talked about them as well. Someone gave me fliers for both Dokungo and Baby Pee, but it seems that there's no plans for Baby Pee to come back to Kagoshima in the foreseeable future. Now, I really do want to watch them when I can.


(Show flier.)

While Dokungo is absurdist comedy, Baby Pee was doing a more serious story. The idea is that back maybe 100 years ago, a number of Japanese families moved to Brazil for work. After several generations grew up there, their offspring moved back to Japan. The story revolves around those descendants trying to acclimate themselves in their forefather's homeland.

I thanked my hosts for the beer, and went up to Aeon to get my paper towels. We had heavy rains on Thursday, which had tapered off by evening. I brought my umbrella with me, which I promptly forgot at Aeon. After going over to the train station to see what was happening there (they're setting up for Aipaku - the ice cream event), I realized I'd left my umbrella at the cash register in Aeon. I returned there at about 10:30 PM, and it was where I'd left it. The guy running the register was relieved that I'd gotten it back without incident.


(Dokungo flier.)

And now, I feel more compelled to get a ticket for the Dokungo show in November than ever before. Saturday may be out because of English classes, but we'll see what happens Friday or Sunday.

Reimeikan Gate Screen

To hide the construction of the new gate down at Reimeikan, the workers put up a screen image of what the gate is supposed to look like. I guess this is what computer people mean when they say to take a screen shot.

Pure Romance

Poster advertising the 45th anniversary of Hello Kitty.
"Pure Romance - Hello Kitty, the musical."

Baikin and Me

I was walking through Tenmonkan on my way to the English school when I saw this character from Anpanman standing in front of Lotteria. His handler insisted on taking my picture with Baikin. I really should have asked what the reason was for their being there...

Kagoshima Jazz Festival, 2019

Friday


The KJF ran from Friday to Sunday this weekend. I knew it was coming up, but I wasn't expecting it to start on Friday. I had a class at the English school from 2:20 to 3:10 PM, and as I was returning home, one of the guys I know spotted me and told me the music was going to be starting at 6:30 PM nearby, and there was supposed to be free shochu.



I went home, had an early dinner, and then got caught up in online work, so I couldn't get back out until closer to 7 PM. At that point, the first set, with Kano Nami, the sax player above to the right, was just finishing. And all the shochu was already gone.



There were 5 satellite stages this time, one in the normal location in front of 7-11, the above one here in a tiny walkway nearby with the stage set up in front of the McDonald's shop that closed a couple years ago. Two other stages were up at Amu Plaza, and the final one was near the Ten Park band shell. The real stage location was at the band shell, but that was only on Saturday and Sunday. The satellite stages ran Friday and Saturday night from 6:30 PM to 9 PM. Here, Youichi Tashima is on keyboards, with Yasuno Katsuki on vocals. For some reason, I just can't get excited by female jazz vocalists. Most of them try to do old standards covers, and get the English word pronunciations wrong. I just stuck around long enough to take a few photos, then hung out at Starbucks until the next set started.



I've heard Youichi many times before - he has his own jazz trio, and he's the current conductor of the Little Cherries school jazz orchestra.



Chiho Nishida did old, slow American standards, which was ok, I guess. It's just not my kind of music.





Chie Nishimura was a bit more animated, but again, old standards. As with last year, a lot of the backing musicians played multiple sets with different leads. The pianist above is Keishi Matsumoto, the organizer of the Festival, and one of Japan's foremost jazz pianists. I ended up standing behind him at the Shiroyama Hotel beer table on Sunday and we talked for a few minutes in English while he was waiting for his beer (he was making a beer run for some of the older staff members working at the main Ten Park stage). His English isn't too bad, and I found out that he does live in Tenmonkan. So, maybe I'll try introducing myself to him the next time I see him here.







Mabumi Yamaguchi. The one thing that drove me up the wall with the sax players during the entire fest is that they'd never play very long before stepping back and letting the other musicians carry the songs. That made it more challenging to get photos of them actually playing the instrument.



Mabumi led the final set Friday night. It was slow jazz, so I just took a couple more photos then went back home.


Saturday


I had to start work at 1:30 PM on Saturday, which didn't give me time to get over to Ten Park (other side of Tenmonkan) on my way in. As mentioned above, the satellite stages didn't start until 6:30 PM. I was initially scheduled to work until 9:30 PM, but the owner of the school moved a couple of the lessons around and one student that was supposed to have two back-to-back lessons canceled the second one. That let me get out at 8:30 PM, when Nobumasa Tanaka (above) was just about to start his set. I took a few photos, and got really disgusted with the city planners. The stage was in the middle of the arcade walkway intersection, and two dump trucks choose that moment to come through to do trash pickups. Rather than simply drive around the intersection, the drivers insisted on pushing through the crowd, which made recording the music impossible. Sigh. Also, the security guards kept telling people to move out of the way to allow for a walking path for anyone not wanting to listen to the music. I managed to find a place to squeeze in in front of the barrier ropes, but that made it harder to get good photos. So, I put the camera away, and cupped my hands behind my ears to make it easier to catch the music more clearly (the sound system they were using wasn't very good, either). With my hands cupped, I was able to better make out the rhythms and patterns of the piano and bass, and I found that I liked these guys more than anyone else so far.









At the end, I asked the group to pose for a photo, which they did. On Sunday, Nobumasa had another set at the main stage with a trumpet player duet, and he recognized me prior to going up on stage. We ended up talking on and off several other times after that, and I promised to send him these photos to his Facebook account. Funny enough, one of his friends was wearing an Arale-chan shirt and she noticed I had my Arale-chan shirt on also. She insisted on getting a photo with me, and I expect that's been uploaded to Nobumasa's page, too.



Akira Wada did lead vocals for the final set of the night. I took a couple photos then went home for dinner, and to process the 120+ pictures I'd taken (weeded down to just 18 for the two days. There were another 90 pictures just on Sunday.)

Sunday


The music started at 11:30 AM at Amu Plaza, but it was the same group of people as at the previous stages. That ran to about 2 PM, and they had a separate satellite stage featuring people talking about jazz recordings and various artists. I stayed in the apartment until 2:30 PM, then went directly to the main Ten Park stage. Tsuyoshi Yamamoto and his trio were playing then. They were ok, but still too slow for me.









We had heavy rain for parts of Friday. That ended by Saturday, but the skies were still overcast and the air was really humid. Sunday, the weather was near-perfect. Clear skies, extremely hot and still humid. I was sweating just standing and not using the camera. The day started out with maybe 100 people spread out across the park lawn, and had gotten up closer to 1,000 as the time came for the headline act at 5:45 PM. The space in front of the stage was consistently crowded, making it hard for me to get close enough to get the kinds of photos I wanted. Generally, I just hung back, listened to whatever music was going on at the time, talked to the people who recognized me, and wondered just how badly my arms were going to be sunburned when this was all over.





Akira Wada sang again at 3:15, which I skipped. This was followed by Nobumasa Tanaka teaming up with Shinpei Ruike on trumpet (above). I'm kicking myself now for not trying to get more photos of Nobumasa, but I couldn't get a clear line on him behind the big piano on stage.



The Seiji Tada Quartet went up next, and they were good. Kaoru Ohmoto, on flute, was the best female musician I heard during the entire weekend. Unfortunately, the fest website doesn't have a profile page for her.



Osamu Koichi.





They were followed by Mabumi Yamaguchi, again. The music's ok, but Mabumi has no stage presence. The bass and drummer were the best part of the set.



The featured guest artist for the weekend was Taylor Eigsti, with Marty Holoubek on bass. The organizer, Keishi Matsumoto, had said that the real highlight for him for the weekend up to that point was in hearing Taylor play on Saturday. I'd asked what Taylor's style was and Keishi answered "contemporary."









Unfortunately for me, "contemporary" turned out to be something like elevator music. It was ok, but way too slow and low energy for me. I listened for a few minutes, then got a phone call telling me it was time to come home for dinner. That was ok by me - the sun was going down, and it would be too dark to get good photos of the finale at 6:30 PM anyway. As I left the park, I ran into one of my English students who was going home from her part-time job at a nearby cafe. We talked a bit then went our separate ways. Overall, a pleasant enough of a weekend, which did have its upsides. I'm not complaining. Not sure when the next big upcoming event is going to be, though. Maybe the Craft Beer Shower in Maruya Gardens department store in October.