13 November 2015
Aeon ozone dome walk
Walking to the Ozone dome to go to the Aeon mall in Nagoya
After climbing a mountain, I thought maybe I would go for a really long walk.
It threatens to rain all day tomorrow, and indeed, as I returned to my hotel this evening, it was just starting to drizzle. So there may not be much opportunity for wandering tomorrow.
Thats not before I walked another 10km at least to a shopping mall far off in the distance, and clocked 40,000 steps for the day according to my snazzy watch.
The walk was however, quite boring, there really wasnt much to see along the main roads to get there. A few car dealers, a lot of chain store restaurants, and basically no people apart from lots and lots of cyclists on the footpath with no lights.
Once I got to the mall, there were quite a lot of people, and at least 50 places to eat.
Over the road from Aeon Ozone at the Nagoya Dome, there was some kind of expo going on for the male version of AKB48. I found this very confusing, as you could get some kind of credit card based on your favourite member.
The most interesting thing on the walk was this old mall, which has a statue clearly stating 1989, probably its peak year. Despite all the harsh lighting, nothing was open here.
The food court in the Aeon however, full of people. The restaurants on the other floor all had line ups, so I went for the food court.
My noodle soup with pork and beef was delicious. Also had lots of vegetables. There were no napkins anywhere to be seen, and I saw some other people were using chux superwipes they presumably brought from home.
Therefore I ate extra carefully.
Boring mall pic. Quite a large place for Japan, very modern.
Row after row of claw skill testing machines.
I spent all my money trying to win a small piece of mystery sausage in plastic.
And heres the Nagoya dome. The walk from there down to the subway had pictures of all the players form the local baseball team, the Nagoya Dragons.
They have more than 200 players. All of them are Japanese.
Part of the 2015 touring expo for the non touring 'band', Exile. They are nowhere near as good as GLAY, the greatest Japanese band ever, with the worst name.
And here they are, all 19 of them each with their own unique personality and hair style, but matching leather.
You can get the Exile card which is part of the mastercard network and gets you 5% off all Exile merchandise.
I got my card with a picture of Nesmith, the tough guy with a heart of gold and an evil sense of humor.
UPDATE: It seems Exile were made famous due to a collaboration early in their career with GLAY. Proof I know my stuff.
Back near my hotel, and there were thousands of people out on a Friday night. The local Don Quixote was packed out. There were lots more lights on than other nights.