Eighteenth Week

FRANTE SUPERMARKET

Since I have a placement test tomorrow, this week I stayed home and studied... and studied and studied.  But I made time to go to this supermarket I had heard of, which supposedly sells foreign products. It's not very far, just a few bus stops away. 

 Get on the same bus to Hongo station as always, only you need to get off at this stop.  It's the one right after Gokuraku.  Pay attention to the bus stops while on the bus and don't forget to click the button to get off.

 The bus will leave you right in front of this apartment building.

 You'll need to walk to the left, towards the street light.

 At the street light turn left.

 You're going to cross.

 That building straight across is Frante.

 Just follow the building.

 See the little flags say Frante.

 There is the entrance.

 There is also a McDonald's for if you get a craving.  There two other McDonald's in the area, but I think this is the most convenient, since it's just a few bus stops away.

 In front of Frante there is a movie rental place too.  I haven't actually checked it out, though, so I don't know how it works. Most Japanese stores do not allow you to take photos inside the store, so I couldn't take photos. But Frante wasn't what I was expecting.  It does have some foreign items I haven't seen in Aoki or Max Valu, but it is a mostly Japanese supermarket.  The variety of foreign items, at least Western ones, is still limited. 

To get home come back the way you came, only this time go straight across the light.

 Keep going straight for a bit.

 Go past the blue cleaners.

 And past the pink cleaners.

 Past the pink building that has a cafe.

 Right in front of this electronics store, I think it's an electronics store, is the bus stop.

 There is the bus stop.

Now in this bus stop, two bus lines pass by, so careful you don't get on the wrong bus.  You need to get on the bus to 猪高緑地.  It'll say it in front of the bus.

Seventeenth Week

AEON MALL

This week I was still kinda sore from my fall so I took it easy. Just went to a really big mall near a subway station called Nagoya Dome-Mae Yada.

 So, when I went there was a rush of people trying to change trains and I forgot to take pictures of the switch.  It's not complicated. On the same train you always get to go to Nagoya Station, get off the train at the station called Motoyama.  That stations is a change to the purple line called Meijo Line.  Follow the signs that say to Meijo Line. This line is a circle, so it goes clockwise and counter-clockwise. To get to Nagoya Dome-Mae Yada, you need to get on the counter-clockwise train.  Look at the signs that point to the train going to Ozone, another station that is counter-clockwise.  It's four stations away and it's called Nagoya Dome-Mae Yada. You'll need to head to Exit #1.

 When you get off, go past the long line of ticket machines.  There are so many, because this leads to the Nagoya Dome, which is home of the Dragons, Nagoya's baseball team. So you can imagine how full it must get during games.

 Keep following the signs that say Exit 1.

 Now it's a long walkway, so just keep walking you'll get there eventually.

 Not quite there yet.

 Finally you come out into the outside, get on the escalator.

 You get off one, and get on the one right next to it.

 Once you get off that second set of escalators, there is another set to the front.  Get on that one.

 From there you can see the mall.

 Keep following the walkway, which is also bit of a walk

 Go past the library.

 Keep going.

 I can see it getting closer.

 That's the dome.

 Keep going.

 It looks so close.

 There will be another little walkway to the right that leads to the mall's entrance.

 And you're there.  It's pretty big with many kinds of stores and entertainment.  It has some interesting restaurants and they just remodeled quite a bit of it, including the food court, which has a nice variety.

FUN FACT

That has got to be the tiniest excavator I've ever seen.  Everything really is much smaller in Japan.