China Capital Arts

As previously mentioned in the first blog, a China Capital Arts used to be in Great Lakes Crossing Outlets.  Though it is no longer there, there are still China Capital Arts stores located in places like Taylor Kalamazoo, and Portage.  I felt it was a unique shopping location worth visiting and blogging about.  Personally, I hope that they open another one closer to the former location in Great Lakes Crossing but I went to the Taylor location that was quite similar to the one in Great Lakes Crossing Outlets.

China Capital Arts has an interesting array of merchandise.  There are a lot of collectibles and décor items.  Most of the themes of the décor are Asian culture.  There are a lot of Buddha type decorations, which include little Buddha to nearly life size Buddha.  There are also stereotypical Asian decorations like gongs.  In addition, there are various cat decorations that I would have to assume are part of the Asian culture.   These are everything from cat clocks to giant white tiger statues.  There are also Chinese tables, lucky bamboo plants, fountains, and incense holders with incense. 

People who are interested in Anime or Japanese culture would love this store.  There are countless anime movies and Manga books.  They have stuffed animals of a variety of Anime characters.  They also have body pillows and blankets of Anime characters.   Pokémon is a huge part of this Anime collection in China Capital Arts.  Along with a few other Pokémon characters, there are Pikachu hats, slippers, mittens, gloves, backpacks, shirts, etc.  There was a whole display of Pikachu merchandise.  There is also Anime merchandise for Naruto, Final Fantasy, Vampire Knight, Bleach, Full Metal Alchemist, Death Note, and Fruits Basket.  There are Cosplay costumes that allow people to dress up like characters in Animes for events like Halloween or Anime Conventions.  They have video game merchandise too.  There is a huge Yoshi stuffed animal bigger than me in addition to Mario toys, stuffed animals, soundtracks etc.  Most of the videogame stuff was Mario but there were other games like Legend of Zelda too. 

China Capital Arts sells a lot of weapons used for things like martial arts or even just decoration.  The biggest selection is of swords.  While there, I saw someone buy a Legend of Zelda sword and shield based off the video game.   This is just one of the many swords and shields that China Capital Arts sells as seen in the picture below.  In addition to swords, there are all different sizes of knives.  Some seem to be a Chinese style but there are others that were military knives.  Moreover, they even sell shurikens, which are Japanese throwing knives that look like stars.  Along with swords, shields, and knives, they sell nunchucks. 

China Capital Arts also sells random items.  There are all types of water pipes, hookahs, and other glass or wooden pipes.  The also sell Harry Potter wands.  There are a lot of Japanese food items too, everything from sushi making kits, to cook books, to Japanese candy like pocki and mochi.  It was sort of ironic that a Chinese store would sell so many Japanese things.  Nonetheless, this store was an interesting and fun place to shop.

Canterbury Village

Canterbury Village is a mystical shopping destination in Lake Orion.  This is definitely perfect for families or couples.  Specifically, Canterbury Village is a year round Christmas store, one of the largest Christmas stores in the world.  It is a historic landmark that Michigan is known for, having one of the largest Nativity scenes in the world.  Just looking at Canterbury Village, anyone could see that shopping here would put you in a cheery Christmas spirit. 

Everything about Canterbury Village is ornate almost looking like an old fashion castle or a medieval town.  I was told that people can have “a fairy tale wedding in an elegant castle ballroom” here, which sounds perfect because of how beautiful the surroundings are. 

As mentioned previously, Canterbury Village is a perfect family destination.   Although it probably goes without saying, most kids love Christmas, so for obvious reasons they would love Canterbury Village.   In addition to the abundance of toys in most of the shops, there is even a building in the middle of the Canterbury Village which has a large merry go round in it.  Also, during warmer months there is usually a small ferris wheel, along with a few other rides for kids.  Near Christmas, Santa is there for pictures with the kids.  Also there are unique displays to entertain kids.  For example, there is a Snow White display that has moving figures to depict the story of Snow White.  Even I sat down to watch the show!

Among the many unique shops, one sticks out in my mind as being particularly curious.  As my boyfriend and looked around checking out all the cool miniature stuff, we picked out a tiny picnic basket, mini cheese, wine and grapes, just to have a souvenir to take home from this interesting place.  Upon purchasing these items the lady said, “These are awesome, do you have a fairy house already?”  Her question answered ours.   All of these miniature items, whether scenic houses or small furniture, were meant for fairies.  Although this was strange, it was kind of a cool concept that surprisingly had enough business to stay open. 

Unfortunately, I do not know the names of all of the shops.  But this is the kind of place you should explore entirely, moving from shop to shop to see everything there is to offer.  This is what I did and would recommend it to anyone interested in going to Canterbury Village.  Some of the other shops included, candy store, Christmas decoration stores, woodwork shops, toy stores, and much more.  One of my favorite parts of the day was when we discovered a few heritage shops.  First, my boyfriend and I went into a Scottish shop, which was cool because he is predominately Scottish.  Immediately after, we went into and Irish shop which coincidently is my primary heritage.  Looking at everything they had and talking to the vendors, we learned a little bit about ourselves.  There were also cool medieval type places to eat and drink but we did not really go in there we just took a quick peak.

In the front of Canterbury Village there is a large clock.  Although I did not witness it during this trip, as a kid I remember seeing a man comically chase a woman around as the clock stuck on the hour.  It was a really cool sight to see, like something you would see in a movie.  However, I am not sure if it still happens. 

Whether in the Christmas spirit looking for Christmas gifts or desiring a Christmas in July, Canterbury Village is some place that I truly believe everyone from the Metro Detroit area should visit at least once. 

Time Travelers

Time Travelers is a small unique store located in downtown Berkley.  As the name suggests, when you enter Time Travelers you feel like you traveled to the past.  For anyone born during the late twentieth century, you will probably experience flashbacks of your childhood, triggered by your surroundings.  More specifically, Time Travelers is full of comics, books, toys, movies, anything from your (or at least my own) childhood that you could possibly imagine. 

Time Traveler’s availability is pretty open: Monday through Thursday 11:00-7:00, Friday 11:00-9:00, Saturday 11:00-7:00, and Sunday 12:00-5:00.  Clearly, even though it is a comic, card, and collectible shop it gets enough business to be open pretty normal hours.  Prior to going there, this would have surprised me, but after seeing how crowded it is, I am no longer shocked. 

Admittedly, Time Travelers is kind of a dorky store.  Having gone there on a Saturday, it was completely packed, so busy it was challenging to maneuver my way around the fascinating store.  The reason it was so packed was because they were holding a Magic the Gathering tournament, which I discovered was one of the many events they hold on a regular basis.  As you can see in the picture below, I captured a glimpse of the many people sitting at tables within this slightly Closter phobic store, who were participating in the Magic the Gathering tournament.  The participants in this tournament were probably regular customers since they sold hundreds, if not thousands of Magic cards at the front counters of the store.  I found the tournament, along with the other events, a great way to keep your customers coming back.  Another perk regular customers receive is store credit for anything they give to Time Travelers. 

One downside of Time Travelers was the attitude of the employees.  While one was very friendly, the older gentleman was mocking a potential customer on the phone for quite some time.  I imagine that working at a place like this where authenticity is everything, they get a lot of people who are dishonestly trying to sell them stuff.  But my friends and I could not help but all notice that the employee was literally swearing at and mocking someone on the phone who claimed to have some sort of Michael Jordan merchandise.  Looking at reviews, many people mentioned experiencing horrible encounters with this man.

Similar to Dixieland, Time Travelers was crowded and seemingly disorganized in some parts of the store.  However, taking a closer look I was able to see that everything had a place and a purpose.  There were walls of comic books, shelves of older magazines, cabinets of every type of older toys, stacks of board games, racks of DVDs, and cases of sports memorabilia.  Comic books were a major seller at Time Travelers, as seen in the pictures below.  Noticeably, there was also a wide array of star wars merchandise.  There were also music items (Beatles, Ozzy, Rob Zombie), Disney, transformers, anime, manga, Legos, Looney Toons, dolls, DC, marvel, star trek, classic trains, and even Stephen King books made into graphic novels

 
Probably my favorite aspect of Time Travelers is the videogames section.  They sell a wide variety of older gaming systems, games, and accessories (controller, connector cables, etc.).  These include Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, various Game Boys, and my personal favorite, Super Nintendo.  The games included everything from Mario to Legend of Zelda to sports games.  This was the frosting on the cake for me because I absolutely loved these games as a kid.

Below are a few more pictures to give you a little more of an idea of what this store offers.