Anyway, one of the big things to happen in the last month in either city is the re-opening of Onoda Sun Park. Last week Sunday I went to check it out.
I went there by train and promptly got off to a rip roaring start by getting off at the wrong station. Not a problem though. Minami Onoda 南小野田 is only a bit farther to walk than Minami Nakagawa 南中川 and it gave me the opportunity to get some photos of the fun times had by the people driving there:
Someone later told me that they waited an hour to get a parking space. Fun!
I wish I had some pictures of the old Sun Park. Needless to say, the new Sun Park is all shiny and new:
Since it was Sunday, the place was packed (relatively speaking. This is Yamaguchi after all.) Also, it's hard to see from the pictures, but the place is really big (again, Yamaguchi big) and it took ages to walk around to see all the different stores:
One of the big draws at the new Sun Park is that it has the second Starbucks to open in Yamaguchi prefecture (the other being in Shimonoseki):
A couple of other things caught my eye:
I'm not really a pet person but I feel bad for any doggie that gets dressed up as Stitch. I bet the other dogs just pick on them all day long. If you're interested, you can find more things here.
SPAM! I used to have to go to Hiroshima to get SPAM. I actually bought all the cans of SPAM a local supermarket was carrying a couple of years ago.
I also got a kick out of this sign:
SPAM is many things but I wouldn't really call it meat (the sign says スパムミート or SPAM Meat). I tried to explain to some locals what SPAM tasted like one time but when pressed I just couldn't. I bought them cans instead. I didn't even know they sold half-size cans.
I didn't really take many pictures because I was just kind of looking around and didn't want to go Full Metal Gaijin and take all sorts of photos so maybe next time I go there I will (hopefully when it's less crowded). I mean, it is just a shopping mall. It has a mixture of chain stores (ABC Mart, Comme Ca Ism) and local stores. Still, it's something different so it will probably maintain it's charm for a bit longer. Especially, if there are cans of SPAM available.
Finally, at Minami Nakagawa - the steps to nowhere!
