Village Vanguard, Game Center & Farewell Orchestra Club...

Hello! I want to talk about one of my favorite stores, and that store is called Village Vanguard.

When I first came to Kobe, I had no idea why everyone kept saying, "Hitomi, you wanna go to Viravan (ヴィレヴァン)?" I had no idea what that was, until I actually went there. Viravan is short for Village Vanguard. Japanese tend to make words shorter by combining them for some reason. For example: McDonald's - Makudo (マクド), Starbucks - Staabaa (スターバー) and Party People - Paripi (パリピ). It's amazing how people can even understand it, but I think that's the slang now. Anyways! I don't know when this store existed, but when I first walked into it I was just amazed. I loved it at first sight! Why? They have a lot of things I love all into one store. If I were to compare it to a store in the states, I think it sort of reminded me of Spencer's. A store I always went to when I went to the mall back in the states. There are a lot of weird things in it as well, so before, I always forgot what the name of the store was called. I always told my friends, "Kyou wa sono henna omise ni ikou." (Let's go to that weird store today).

This store is popular in Japan. I think it first started off in Tokyo and then it got big, that it spread all over Japan. However, every Village Vanguard is different. What I mean by different is their products and even the size of their store. I only know of 2 other places here in Kobe, and one of them has nothing I buy from, compared to the other one which was this location and they have so much more stuff. 

I don't really have anything else to say about the place, but here are photos to show a glimpse of what the store is like.

I also get my Suicide Squad merchandise here too~

I recommend this place if you plan to visit. It's really popular among not only Japanese people, but foreigners too, since there are products from other foreign countries as well mixed with Japanese modern culture.

I also want to share with you the little game center they have right next to the store and it's called Molly Fantasy. Every time I come to Village Vanguard, I always have to stop by this game center. My friends and I spend 2~3 hours there. We've been getting too addicted to UFO catchers lately~

Can you believe this place is located at a train station? It's pretty big considering where I'm living and there are so many stores! The main reason why I came to this place on this day, was to see Yui's last performance. As some of you may remember (or not), on my blog post Akashi Park, where I wrote down a little bit about Yui and her orchestra club. Well, just last week on a Saturday, it was her last performance and it was a very touching farewell. They performed here in this building on the 1st floor for everyone to see. I met Yui at the beginning of this year and at first I never went to go see her perform, but after summer vacation, I started to go. Not to only just see Yui, but my students as well. They worked so hard for 3 years without even getting a break! Now that they'll be graduating in their 3rd year of junior high school, they'll be moving onto high school soon. Not all of them will be continuing the orchestra club as they to go to high school. I still don't know what Yui plans to do, but whatever club she decides to go into next, I'll still support her and the others 100%. All I can say is that I'm so proud of them and I'm glad they have more time on their hands now to hang out with their friends and family before graduation. 

お疲れ様でした！！！