11 November 2025
The far away food court
YouMe town Takamatsu
Aeon is the main mall in town, but it is very very far away. YouMe town, which is the second mall brand in Japan after Aeon, looked close enough on the map, but was still quite far away. As a result I now have over 45,000 steps for the day and am full of Okonomiyaki. My bingo card of Japanese junk food dinner meals for sad loners is pretty close to full now.
To get to YouMe town just head to the northern end of the Shotengai, and keep going. You will pass a few supermarkets, a formal Coco curry restaurant, a baseball shop and a few Hawaiian themed stores and cafes before arriving at a deceptively large mall with a great food court.
Tomorrow I go to Okayama, I have not been there before, the name of the city is very similar to the name of my dinner.
The end of the famed Shotengai. I think I may have posted the same photo the night that I got here.
The giant drug stores are a weird concept. Complete with a logo that shows a happy girl with sleepy eyes.
A surprise underpass in the middle of nowhere, with no choice but to use it. I spent some time down here trying to figure out why it was here, I could not come up with a reason, the road above was not busy.
Behold, YouMe town. Not the best angle to convey it's substantial size.
Inside reminds me a bit of a Shinkansen station. Most malls are long and narrow with a hole in the middle between floors. This one was more like a multilevel warehouse as wide as it is long.
An excellent food court. It was called Food Marina, despite being far from the ocean. I like all the empty seats, allowing me to sit far away from anyone.
And here it is, Okonomiyaki. 1,000 yen. A real bargain as it was delicious.
To get to Okayama tomorrow takes about an hour on the slow train, I will have to invent new ways to make that take all day.