Grand Opening of the Shisui Premium Outlets!

Opening day!

Last Friday, April 19, the spanking new Shisui Premium Outlets (酒々井プレミアムアウトレット) opened up just 10 minutes away from Narita Airport. After going to the grand opening of Mitsui Outlet Park Kisarazu last April, my fashion-forward buddy and I decided it would only be fair if we went to Shisui on opening day too.

Random trivia: "Shisui" was listed as one of the most difficult place names to read in the Suumo journal!

More celebrity sightings!

The outlets were all over the news this week!

The short haired girl blinking in the center of this photo is Maiko Sota, the お天気お姉さん (= term for young female meteorologists on news shows) for Mezamashi Saturday on Fuji TV (channel 8 for anyone in the Kanto region!). I didn't get to catch Saturday morning's show, but there is always a segment where Maiko checks out tourist attractions throughout Japan, which I assume is what they were shooting.

We saw another reporter-looking chick as we were leaving - I didn't recognize her, but a ton of people were crowded around trying to snap a photo.

Long-awaited California Pizza Kitchen

I must admit...my actual main goal for the day was to eat at California Pizza Kitchen. I loved CPK back in the States, and when I was studying in Tokyo I was ecstatic that there was a location near-ish my dorm in Kawasaki. But because of the inconvenient distance, I had only been back once during my 5 years working in Chiba.

I was slightly confused when we got into CPK at the outlets and it was...semi-fast food?! You order at the counter, and then they bring the food to your seats. The menu was probably 1/4 of what I remembered it to be (although I must note that they've created a "Sweet Eel Pizza" especially for this location - combining Narita's specialty unagi (sweet eel) and one of Chiba's symbols - nanohana!). I had the original BBQ chicken pizza (pictured above) which was as amaaaazing as expected.

After a bit of research...the Kawasaki location closed down last year?! I wonder if CPK is changed their strategy to a more casual dining experience. If you look on the CPK Japan website, there are currently only 2 locations in Japan now: Shisui and Sano.

In any case...I am excited one of these two locations is just 30 minutes from where I live!

Airport runway theme in the food court

Flight info displayed on the giant monitor setup in the food court

There are all sorts of extras in store for visitors, like apparently drivers who exit through the also newly opened Shisui IC (btw, isn't on Google maps yet, as my friend and I found out when we tried to use our Maps app to get there! luckily there are lots of signs along the way) by 10:30am every day until May 6...I think? will receive a 500 yen coupon for the outlets.

One thing that was pointed out amongst all the hype on the news - and something I've wondered about as well - was the fact that the niche for outlets is already played out in the Kanto region. Shisui is apparently the 10th outlet facility in the Tokyo Metropolitan area (4th in Chiba alone - talk about outlet central!).

But! The Shisui Premium Outlets is particularly targeting visitors from abroad, traveling to/from Narita Airport. For instance, free wi-fi is available to visitors from abroad - all you have to do is show your passport at the Information Desk, located at the center of the complex. Shisui is also apparently the first outlet mall in Japan to have currency exchange services available on-site. I love that they have flight information available in the food court - they are really serious about making the outlets the pre-flight stopover!

Wanna go to the outlets? Here are a couple of shortcut links for your perusal:
Getting to the Shisui Premium Outlets: http://www.premiumoutlets.co.jp/en/shisui/access/
List of shops here: http://www.premiumoutlets.co.jp/en/shisui/brands/index.html?mode=keyword_en&keyword_en=ALL