Lazona Kawasaki Plaza, Kawasaki

Having successfully concluded my first week in Tokyo, I thought it was about time to do some shopping, so I decided to head to one of the biggest malls in the city (although I ended up just buying a pair of slippers with the face of a llama printed on them and a couple of other useless things): the Lazona Kawasaki Plaza.

Lazona is a 5 story mall located in Saiwai-ku, Kawasaki. The building adjoins Kawasaki Station, which is operated by the JR East railway company, and it is a three minute walk from Keikyu Kawasaki Station which connects the city to Shinagawa.

Lazona was built in 2006 with a desire to create an American-style shopping center in the suburbs of Tokyo. The structure of the building consists on five circular floors located around a big plaza in which visitors are encouraged to take a seat under the shadow of a tree and relax in between waves of shopping.

Lazona counts over 300 stores, most of which are located in the first three floors. Among these shops are international clothing brands like Zara, Gap, American Eagle Outfitters, Lacoste, Diesel and The North Face, but also traditional kimono shops. All of them are run by screaming ladies that will try to catch your attention at any cost.

Electronics stores (being BIC Camera the most relevant), beauty stores, arcade games, instrument stores and quirky Japanese "random stuff" stores like Olympia (where I purchased a very interesting train-shaped toothbrush) are some of the non-clothing businesses placed in the Kawasaki Plaza.

The fourth floor is assigned almost completely to restaurants. No matter what type of cuisine you like, you are likely to find it in Lazona. Chinese and Japanese restaurants take up most of the space, but Italian, French and American fast food restaurants have also found their place in the mall.

There is a fifth floor which I particularly enjoyed because of how deserted and out of sight it seemed to be. There are no shops here, only a gym and a movie theater, but there is also a long corridor from which you can sit and observe the sweaty crowd underneath the sun rays. After waiting for someone to abandon their bench and quickly taking this privileged position, I watched a free concert that was taking place on a permanent stage down in the plaza.

Walking out of the shopping center, I noticed something familiar on the big screen in the middle of the square: My hometown, Madrid, was being advertised, so I couldn't resist taking a picture.

After I finally decided to leave and take the train back home, I somehow ended up getting stuck in another, completely different mall. There is a whole separate mall, the Atré shopping mall, also connectedd to the train station, which makes it sometimes difficult to know where in the world you are and how to get out!

Lazona Kawasaki Plaza is open every day from 10:00 to 21:00.