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Gotemba Premium OutletsTopics: Shoes I wear 30cm shoes, and it is a real pain trying to find shoe stores that carry anything decent larger than 28.5cm to 29cm (except for a few specialty "big shoe" stores like the one in Shinjuku - which is good and reasonably priced). I have been here a few years now, but usually waited to buy shoes (and other clothing) until I returned home to Sydney. This often meant I spent a lot of my precious time at home shopping. Ugh! Anyway, my wife and some other friends drove down to the Gotemba Premium Outlets shopping bonanza - take the Gotemba exit off the Tomei expressway - the other Friday when the weather was good (not yesterday). The range of stores is impressive (see the website which has a fair amount of English, including a list of all shop names). I have been told that it is best to go on a weekday (as we did) because the Gotemba exit on the Tomei blocks up fast and the queuing is pretty severe on weekends. As an aside, I had recently visited other shopping outlets such as LeFete Tama and the one in Minami Machida, and asked at all shoe stores including Adidas etc. whether they carried 30cm shoes - but alas .... Well, one of the first stores we saw at Gotemba was Timberland and we went in for a quick "check" expecting the same "moushiwake gozaimasen" apology for not carrying my size shoe. To our surprise, however, there were heaps of large shoes, and all moderately priced (it is an outlet after all, and I saw nothing higher than Y15,000 at the top of the line). They were also holding an end-of-season sale and some smaller shoes (for me anyway) were going at Y1,000. To cut a long story short, I walked away with 3 pairs of GOOD shoes for less than Y10,000. The store attendant then said that I would receive another 20% discount on the total if my purchases came to over the Y10,000 mark - well that was enough incentive for me to browse for a few clothing bargains. In sum, I spent less than Y20,000 for some great shoes and casual wear. I LOVE SHOPPING (now)! http://www.premiumoutlets.co.jp/gotemba GT << Good Day Books | Index | Grandberry Mall >> |