The Sanda outlet mall, which I introduced here once before, has been renovated. They doubled the number of stores and on top of that ran a renovation sale, so people were pouring in from all over the country. I had no winter clothes, so I went before it got really cold. The older I get, the more of a chore clothes shopping becomes, so if it weren’t for the desperate need to somehow get through the winter, I never would have gone..
The parking lot
Parking took an hour and a half. -_-; I’d originally planned to go see the Kobe Luminarie after shopping, but I had no choice but to give up on it.. The outlet mall is up there, and a ridiculous number of cars had shown up. At a rough glance it looked like well over 10,000. Even at three people per car that’s 50,000 people. If each of them shops for three hours, that works out to about 150,000 people coming to shop. If each person spent just 100,000 won, that’s 15 billion won changing hands in a single day, which gives you an idea of how popular this outlet mall is.
This is Kannonya
It’s a café famous for its cheesecake, and they’ve opened a branch at the Sanda outlets. There never used to be many decent places to eat here, so at least the choice has widened a bit. If you want to save even more, you can also go to places like McDonald’s or Sukiya around the outlet mall.
Hugo Boss, where I bought my winter clothes this time..
I don’t really know much about the brand, but it was 50% off, so I bought a coat. Even at 50% off it’s not exactly cheap, but anyway I felt pretty pleased with myself.. Is this the charm? the thrill? the trap? of outlet shopping..
A Valentino dress
Pretty nice, I have to say. More luxurious than flashy, and 80% off on top of that.. If I had a girlfriend I’d have wanted to buy her one, but I don’t have a girlfriend. Can you understand this sad feeling of wanting to splurge and not being able to.. (Of course, buying it and wearing it myself -_- is hardly an option)
The fountain
There were lots of other brands too, but with the strong yen it was just so-so. (Armani was fairly good, but nothing else really grabbed me) On my next trip to Korea I guess I’ll check out the Garibong outlets instead ^_^