on the way to work

So this is the view that I see as I walk to work from Omiya station. Omiya is the largest city in Saitama prefecture, which is where I live. There are enough little eateries, and shopping places to keep you busy for a month. After that, you'll want more and take the thirty minute train ride down to Tokyo.

This is Sogo Department store. It's nine stories tall, and has pretty much everything in it. Most department stores are built similar to this. The basement floor has food, mostly separate stores all operating together on one floor. Each counter has a register, and you buy your food from whatever counter you are at. Kind of like a makai food market. From there up, each floor is dedicated to a different type of product. Men's/Women's/household/kids/ there is even a restaurant floor where you can rest from all your shopping in this one building. The roof almost always has some kind of playground area/restaurant/bar in the summer. Sogo is mainly for older people.




This is the drinking building. Each floor on this building has a different izakaya. Izakayas are the Japanese equivalent of a bar/grill. People go there to drink, and eat pupus. It would be a sport's bar if there were tvs showing sports, and texas hold em video poker machines. Whenever we go drinking in this building, we go up the elevator to one bar, and if it's full, walk up to the next. . . and well you get the picture.




Arche is where the under 22 year old girls shop. Any day of the week you walk in here, and it will be 95% girls in miniskirts and heels. I always feel weird in there because almost all the stores except for Disney store are geared for that demographic.


Lots of restaurants in the side streets.