early buffet at an outlet park : November 30 2024

at just around 4pm, the sun has set.
and that just means longer nights making the land colder for a longer time.
that colorful sunset is too good not to take pictures of, and pictures can not even capture how colorful it really was.
makes you appreciate life more as we walk on this earth.
this is how my day ended.

but who wouldn't appreciate life if they had it the same as mine this saturday?
allow me to share what happened.

the day started earlier than usual, we headed to an area still within tokyo but pretty much in the suburbs.
it took 2 hours just to reach, we planned to have an all you can eat lunch in a kfc store over there.
you may ask, "why go there when there are so many kfc stores all around tokyo"?
well unfortunately, not all of them offers an all you can eat buffet.

grandberry park

we arrived at this huge outdoor mall, an outlet mall to be precise, and this was situated in machida.
machida is no longer part of tokyo's special wards or ku but is still very much part of tokyo, right on the very edge very close to the neighboring kanagawa prefecture.
and oh my, the whole mall is in full winter or christmas preparation mode.
for one, a christmas tree was already in place and some decorations are set.
as an outlet mall, items are sold at discounted prices normally.
and since "black friday" sale is also ongoing, items are mostly having red tags which pushes prices much lower.

now going back to the food situation, we immediately took a number queue once we arrived.
hours passed and our number was still not called.
it was on second inspection where we found out that 80 more numbers are in waiting before us, that is a lot.
and that number moved at a snail pace, very slow.

on a growling stomach, we gave up on the idea of a an all you can eat kfc food items, gave up on the thought of eating at least 6 fried chicken pieces.
we looked around and finally found this other shop also serving buffet.
not only chicken, but they had a wider selection of japanese, western, and chinese food.
here was my first serving, and we stayed for 90 minutes filling up our empty stomachs.

we had too much, we started walking around the park just to kill time and tried to digest some food.
at one part, they had a knee high pond in front of this outdoor clothing brand.
in it were kayakers, children kayakers paddling.
that was interesting to watch.

equally interesting was this still unopened wide area which looked like the makings of an outdoor skating rink.
so this is how they make ice, thinly packed freezing tubes side by side spanning the whole area.
it is just so exciting to watch this unfold before my "ice", i mean eyes.

after all that walking, it was finally time to go home.
before doing so, we passed by this posh pastry shop.
i bought some for tomorrow's dessert, i am pretty done for today.

and now back at the start, i was very grateful today for all the blessings i received.
at the end of the day, to be filled with great food in the company of good friends, i am happy to be alive on this earth.
witnessing that sunset was just icing.

as always, AMPING KANUNAY!
stay safe!