on wednesday, the new AEON opened in kitakyushu city. well, actually, i think it opened last week, but wednesday was the 'GRAND OPEN' (sic). so, i took the kids over there bright and early (to get there by ten) to find out they open at nine! but it wasn't so bad. it's big enough that the crowds weren't too concentrated in one place. except in kaldi coffee farm. they were having a sale: 50% off coffee beans and 10% off everything else in the store! that was cool for me because i found bisquick and a frozen pie crust (for my pumpkin pie!) plus a few odds and ends. i spent my only cash, though.

i got the kids christmas presents from my mom at the new toys r us. it was crowded, too, but i put hiro in a shopping cart so he wouldn't wander away. unfortunately i couldn't take the cart to the parking lot, so i had to make hiro walk to the car (at that point he was getting hungry!) we managed, though, and dived back into the shopping center!

we had lunch at a tonkatsu-ya, because they were giving away salad dressing to the first fifty customers! yay. then i took hiro up to get some cash (i only had 1000 yen left. i am so skint! hee hee british slang on my blog). on the same floor, there's a hair salon, so i saw my chance to finally get a decent hair cut for hiro! it would have taken magic to make it look how i wanted, but the end result was good. and so, hiro's first real haircut:



we had to give him candy and choco pie to make him sit still! yes, yes, i'm a terrible mother. but he got his hair cut!

i looked around a little more. i couldn't find a kitchen store on the guide map, but i did find a craft store. no DMC thread, though, so i was disappointed. then hiro was getting tired so it was time to go. thankfully he slept in the car on the way home!