Shannon’s Adventures: American Dream Mall+ Edgewater store trips!

So while the fare holiday was happening during Labor Day- my boyfriend and I wanted to see if we could get to the American Dream Mall using the bus. As it turned out… the bus was a little more complicated than we thought and it seemed like an easy enough place to get to by car- especially if you get in early… so that’s what we did! My boyfriend also really likes Edgewater and the Japanese stores there- so we went there also!

The first place we wanted to go to at the American Dream Mall was the Bandai Gasha Pon store… but we actually found a different gasha pon store that we thought was the Bandai one before that. Both were good- you put in money for tokens and then you just kind of put the tokens in the ones you’d like to get. They had some cute ones- a lot were a lot of tokens but they had Smiski rings- we didn’t end up getting those but they were cute. At the first store we got a cat that had a whale suit on, a Tom from Tom and Jerry, the bunny from the Disney Duffy and friends and I think we got a pouch that was like a bus there. At the Bandai one we got 2 more little pouches- mine was a tiny rainbow chocolate looking one, I got a tiny shark (I was wearing a Jaws Shirt so I had to), my boyfriend got a cool mask figure… we got some cool ones.

this is a little trinket shelf I put some of them on! Duffy’s bunny friend is on the bottom- the cat figure is on the middle shelf and the shark is right next to it.

We also stopped in the Toys R Us- which had more toys than I thought it would have- they didn’t have a lot of toys when the store first opened- but now they had tons of toys and board games and funko pops… it was pretty cool! I didn’t get anything from there- they also have a cafe that smelled really good.

Next to toys r us was It’s Sugar- which I went into hoping to find my Niece’s favorite candies- which are freeze dried peach rings. They did not have them- they had some cool stuff but I didn’t get anything. I have an It’s Sugar at the outlet mall by me so I could get stuff there too.

We headed to lunch after that and I wanted to try the H Mart Food Hall which I would not recommend trying at lunch… cause it was insane. Had we had lunch early when we first got to the mall around 11- I think we would have had a better time but… we wanted to shop around first and it was crazy. My boyfriend was in line for like 20 minutes at least trying to get Bubble Tea cause the girl didn’t put his order in… we got sandwiches from K Town heroes and the bulgogi beef was really really good. The bubble teas we couldn’t really finish… they put a cheese topping on one of them and it didn’t taste right and I almost finished mine but it was heavy. Otherwise it was okay- there were probably better options than what we got- but I’d get the bulgogi beef sandwich again.

After that I wanted to look at Miniso- which I only got one thing at… and I’ll do a bigger miniso haul sometime in the week- cause I got more when we were in New York- and there is a miniso closer to me now so I’m excited about that.

After that we looked at boxlunch, hot topic… and maybe another store- but we didn’t get anything. There was a cool Beetlejuice bag I regret not buying cause now I can’t find it but I just didn’t know if I would like the new Beetlejuice or not- and of corse I loved it… so yeah.

We did go to P!Q after that and I got a Smiski and I got a smiski toothbrush holder and a zipper pull and a tokidoki unicorno- I got the rock candy one and if you open it there and you don’t like the one you got- you can trade it for one of theirs in the case! They were really nice but I was a bit disappointed in the store… maybe just cause they were out of Sonny Angels. I think they have one right next to Book Off in New York so I might have to go to that one next time and see if I like it better. Also you can see the Smiski and Unicorno I got on the Trinket Shelf!

After that we decided to head to Edgewater- there was a lot more we could have done and would have liked to do I think- but my mom was having a party and we had already spent a lot of money. Plus we really wanted to see Edgewater!

So we went to this one shopping complex that has a bunch of Japanese stores- and the first spot we went to was a really nice Japanese book store called Kinokuniya. My boyfriend loves Manga, animae and he’s been trying to learn Japanese. Kinokuniya is also a really great stationary store and I love their planners there… so I ended up picking up 2 planners. They’re 2025 planners so they don’t start till December 2024… but they’re really good and I just like them. I have a little pocket sized one and a big one. I love these and I can’t wait to use them!

They also carry Sonny Angels and I was really excited that they had Sonny Angel sticker packs and they had actual Sonny Angels for sale too. They had the Animal 3 series I think- and I got the Zebra which I love! It goes with the purse I’m wearing now and I have my Beetlejuice bag clip so it’s perfect. The stickers were also really great- I got the Marine Life pack- I put some on my phone and I have others saved.

They also had really nice Mushroom blind boxes- and I got one of those. Whenever I see more natural type things it reminds me of my boyfriend- so I got it for me because it reminds me of him. I would get more of these- it looks so nice and it was fun to put together. He thinks I should see if they have floral ones- specifically Lilly of The Valley are special flowers to me- so I would like to find one of those. You can see the mushroom on the top shelf of my trinket shelf.

We went to Daiso after and Daiso is a great store… this one was pretty busy and picked over- but we grabbed a bunch of cool things. I got a mini trash can, a tissue case, a carabiner, a hello kitty mini pouch, a clear mini pouch, a cinnamoroll patch, a washi tape organizer… and I think I got more but I don’t remember everything. My boyfriend got a lot too- we kind of went crazy and honestly I want to go back on a weekday maybe when it first opens. It was really great and I would love one closer to us!

This is a view of the city skyline from Edgewater

Here you can see the planners I got from Kinokuniya.