Had a Stressful and Tiring Day of.....Shopping:)

My good friend Clotilde, an exchange student from France living in Japan too, invited me to go shopping with her host family today! They picked me up around 12 in the afternoon and we went shopping at AEON mall in Gifu for the whole day. I had a great time. AEON Mall is like Westfield mall (but ten times better), they are pretty much in every city in Japan. This mall had 3 floors of designer clothing stores, dollar stores, a book store, movie theater, sporting goods store, pet shop, school supply shops, electronics store, food court, restaurants, game arcade, countless clothing stores, and so much more! I was on cloud 9.... the clothes for girls were so fashionable and literally the exact things you see in high-fashion magazines but at reasonable prices. For example, I've been wanting to buy these Dr.Martens boots for $120 (about 9,405 yen), but today I found the EXACT same pair that I wanted for about $50 (about 3,919 yen)...I then made my first shoe purchase in Japan, with many more to come.:) There were clothing stores for every age and preferred style. The clothing is made was very,very small, but thankfully I manage to fit in the biggest size sold... embarrassing. I noticed all the clothes were not only stylish, but classy and conservative, not trashy or flashy at all. Clotilde and I shopped for 4 hours! Later, we had lunch in the food court and went to the Japanese photos booths (aka Purikura) in the game arcade. Note: If you ever visit a Purikura booth in Japan you will see a million girls waiting in line to use one of the many photo booths (maybe you can google what Purikura looks like and what it really does).
The service from the workers at the mall is excellent. They are very nice and helpful, but they also keep the store clean and the clothes very organized. Also, when you decided to purchase an item the worker will go to a back room and get you a new one in your size; in other words you would never buy the one displayed on the shelf that other people have tried on as well. Note 2: When you go to try on clothes in a fitting room...do not wear your shoes in there....a small mistake I made today because I'm not use to that rule!
Overall, I has a great time today and I hope to do more shopping here in Japan and bring back some Japanese teenage style clothing to America and make it the "cool" thing to wear. HAHA Hope my mother and father will be ready to finance that...maybe not?!

Here are some photos of AEON shopping mall & my purchases I made today: