A Long-Awaited Visit to Mercedes me

The other day, I had some errands to run alone in Umeda, Osaka, and decided to drop by Mercedes me at Grand Front Osaka for the first time in a while. Since I’m usually not very tuned into events, it was only by coming out into the city that I truly felt Christmas was just around the corner.

On the first floor of the North Building of Grand Front, a large, stylish Christmas tree was on display.

It’s incredibly chic… these days, Christmas trees aren’t just fir trees with decorations; they’re truly sophisticated designs.

I decided to stop by Mercedes me next to that Christmas tree, and the store was fully decked out in Christmas mode as well.

Since I was there, I thought I’d look around for some nice gifts for the kids or maybe a new everyday bag for myself (the handle on my old bag finally broke after a long time of use, lol).

And right from the entrance, the car that really stood out was this “SL.”

It was wrapped with a huge gold ribbon, and a fir tree was loaded on the passenger seat. I wonder if anyone really ever gets surprised with a ribbon-wrapped SL as a Christmas gift like this. I guess it happens… the world is a big place, after all, lol.

But if it happened to me, before feeling happy, I’d probably think first:

“Wait a minute… what about the car insurance, taxes, parking fees, inspections… would they cover all the maintenance costs? Because if not, there’s no way I could keep up with owning an SL…”

I’d probably check that first. (Not very good at surprises, huh? lol)

Looking around the store, Mercedes-Benz really has a rich variety of merchandise (including Mercedes me goods). Golf bags, hats, key cases, kids’ cars — at first glance, the lineup isn’t that different from Porsche’s merchandise, but the variety of designs is impressive.

For example, just hats alone came in so many styles.

I bet women would love this cute pink one… There were also adorable kids’ backpacks. However, my almost 3-year-old youngest daughter has recently been obsessed with Minnie and Hello Kitty, so I knew she wouldn’t use this bag even if I bought it, so I decided against it.

There were also sale items and tote bags priced in the 2000-yen range, so quite a few reasonably priced products were available.

However, since I was snapping photos quite a lot, maybe the staff got suspicious, and they started talking to me more and more. , so I stopped taking pictures halfway through and just enjoyed shopping.

I looked for a bag for myself and found a cute tote, but it was priced at 14,000 yen.

Since I’d be using it daily and the kids would probably fill it with candy crumbs and sand, getting dirty quickly, 14,000 yen felt a bit too expensive…

While I was debating, a staff member kindly said, “We have other colors available, so please feel free to ask.” But I couldn’t bring myself to say, “No, the problem isn’t the color, it’s the price (-_-),” so I just nodded and left the store without buying anything after a while.

Car Manufacturer Merchandise

I once saw a post on Twitter or somewhere that said, “Just because you like cars doesn’t mean you should wear merchandise from car manufacturers — that’s lame.”

But I think it’s perfectly fine to “wear car manufacturer merchandise because you love cars.” It doesn’t matter what others think, as long as you’re not bothering anyone and you like it yourself. In fact, I use my Porsche backpack all the time.

My husband and I don’t usually exchange Christmas presents — in fact, we never have — but with such a rich selection of merchandise, maybe this is a good opportunity to give car manufacturer goods as gifts. (That said, giving car merchandise to a wife who isn’t into cars might be risky, lol.)