I wasn't sure where to post this since it is part news, part story etc. So hopefully this place is ok.
I just had quite a fun experience.
First some background - I had no plans to go to her mother's store, 'hanabi' today, but ended up there by chance. Right now I am living with a family and the mother of the family is part owner of Curves in Japan (the fitness center) and today she took me with her to her Curves office in Roppongi and I did a workout there (knowing the owner has its perks because I can go to Curves anytime I want for free, yay!) Afterwords I realized I needed to do some shopping at the intl. market nearby and after that I realized that Ayu's mom's store is very close to that. So I decided to go check it out because I actually have only been to the place one time before. Well I was in for a surprise because when I got there the place was empty with a rental sign on the window! I was so bummed and even took pics thinking, "I've gotta go tell AHS that the store went out of business."
I continued to walk the street and found out that the store actually moved to the corner! So yay, not out of business and in a slightly better location. So those that want to visit it, it is on the same street as before only now it is on the corner across from Homeworks burgers. I took a pic and debated whether to go in or not - see, I was actually wearing one of my Hamasaki tour t-shirts at the time because I hadn't planned on coming! I thought it might be totally lame to go into Ayu's mothers store while wearing a Hamasaki t-shirt, haha. But I saw in the window that they had a special box for Mother's Day of chocalates and stuff and since I needed to still buy a Mother's Day present, I used that as my excuse to go in.
I did not meet Ayu's Mom, but I did meet the guy that is supposedly Ayu's high school boyfriend who her Mom is now dating. He was super kind and friendly and cute! So I can totally understand Ayu's Mom snatching him up, haha. The store is a bit bigger now because it now has two levels. First floor is flowers and candles, second floor is the chocolates. On the 2nd floor they gave me coffee and chocolates to eat while I was waiting as they prepared the box for my Mother. It is a really upscale shop so don't enter unless you've got some dough to spend, haha. Sort of hidden up there is a back room that I caught a glimpse of and it looked like some sort of VIP poker room or something, haha. I asked them what it was and they said it was a special place where they sold things like hair accessories and stuff, but it isn't really open to the public from what I gather. I got to talking to the two employees and of course since I was wearing an Ayu t-shirt, we talked about her and they asked about how many times I'd been to Japan, what I'm doing now etc etc. They even asked me for my name, address, and phone number.
There is also a miniature antique slot machine up there and at the end they asked me to pull it. This was a slot machine with like 6 or 7 rows and I got 7's in all the rows! They both flipped out like I had just won the lottery! They said that is the first time anyone has ever gotten that. So I was all like "Woo hoo what did I win?! The most expensive preserved flower arrangement in the shop or something?!" lol I wasn't
that lucky but I did get a bunch of free boxes of chocolate and those certainly aren't cheap either!
Then, on top of that they asked to take my picture!
It was a Polaroid type camera and they asked me to sign the picture and said that they were going to hang it up in the shop!! lol, today has been Surreal.
So, I was so happy as I left the store, but then as I walked to the station I thought, "why did this have to happen right after I worked out and am wearing no makeup and my Hamasaki t-shirt?!?! And now my picture will be hung in the store!" lol. So, next time any of you go, check the shop for my picture, haha!
Sorry for the quality of the photos, they were just taken with my cell phone.
The old store, now empty:
The new store:
