AKA endless shopping pictures from the mecca of department stores – Don Quijote.
Night falls in Hiroshima and casts new shadows on the brooding A dome. Still ominous and dominating the riverside vista after 70 years.
But the horrors of history are not the whole story of Hiroshima, it’s vibrant and bustling with a neon night life just like any other Japanese city.
Here’s a beautiful dark wood sake bar, the man attempts to make off with a vintage ride.
And joy of joys . . we have our first CERK – Close Encounter of the Robot Kind!
This adorable little fellow is Pepper! According to his makers he is capable of identifying the principal emotions: joy, sadness, anger or surprise.
He is also capable of interpreting a smile, a frown, your tone of voice, as well as the lexical field you use and non-verbal language such as the angle of your head, for example.
The combination of all this information enables the robot to determine whether his human interlocutor is in a good or a bad mood.
All we know is he is darn cute!!!!!
After this heady excitement we swiftly stumble upon another unexpected (and non guide book) treat – Don Quijote, the department store to end all department stores!
It is floor upon floor of consumer delights, from the basement department full of all things snackable and eatable!
This included a mind boggling choices of Kitkat flavours.
There have been more than 300 limited-edition seasonal and regional flavors of Kit Kats produced in Japan since 2000.
These include soy sauce, ginger ale, red potato and vegetable juice!!! I can heartily recommend the strawberry flavour ones . .nom nom.
The snack floor is a cornucopia of mainly unidentifiable, but cute, edibles.
Above are some very tasty Brazilian orange Pocky – this crunchy sweet snack also comes in a wide range of flavours.
Pocky has been a part of Japanese life since 1966 when the Ezaki Glico Company created it. It’s since spread around the world, in fact we first nibbled in them in Thailand back in 2009!
As you head upwards the store then takes a turn for the bizarre with a floor of fancy dress, masks and fake facial hair!
I have no idea what most of these things are but if you can see a little yellow blob being poked by chopsticks below – this is Gudatama! Basically a clinically depressed egg yolk . .
As well as adorable plastic toys, there’s also a section for . . rather more grown up plastic toys!! With a certain amount of trepidation we draw back the curtain .. .
My eyes!!!!! Who knew there could be so many whirling, vibrating, horrifically realistic bits of plastic out there!
All in all, we had a spiffing time in what is basically a department store!! *warning – this won’t be the last time that you are treated to us basically faffing around in a shop!*
