Friday, August 29, 2014

Sendai-Izumi Premium Outlets

Hubby and I had been to Sendai-Izumi Premium Outlets on 12th July. Sendai-Izumi Premium Outlets is a shopping center located in the rich natural surroundings of elegant Izumi Park Town in Izumi-ku of Sendai City in Miyagi prefecture. The shopping center is operated by Mitsubishi Estate - Simon Co. Ltd. This outlet center originated in the United States of America and belongs to the Premium Outlets Group (formerly Chelsea Premium Outlets). The outlet center building has an image of New England region of the northeast corner of U.S.A., where the climate and latitude is similar to the Tohoku region.


Sendai-Izumi Premium Outlets was opened in October 2008. It is located on a huge site with an area of 75000 square meters and has a lot of green all around. The actual commercial facility area is about 15500 square meters. The facility has a huge car parking area where 1800 cars can be parked at a time. The outlet center features about 80 popular foreign and domestic brands of clothing stores in the facility, where visitors can buy a variety of brand-name items at 25-65% off their full prices everyday. The outlet center also features a restaurant. In addition, there is a supermarket adjacent to the outlet center dealing in food and daily necessities. Visitors can enjoy shopping at this upscale outlet center for various brand-name clothes and other items, and also enjoy all-round shopping in the adjacent supermarket.


Sendai-Izumi Premium Outlets is located about 250 kilometers southeast of our home in Yurihonjo City, and it took us about 4 hours of car ride to reach the outlet center. On our way to the outlet center, our car hit 100000 kilometers, and I took a photo of the LCD circular panel showing the distance. We parked our car at the car parking area and walked up to the front entrance area of the outlet center.
LCD circular panel showing 100000 kilometers mark of our car


Sendai-Izumi Premium Outlets building is huge and we took a few photos from outside the outlet center.
The front of Sendai-Izumi Premium Outlets

Yet another photo of the front area of the outlet center

I am standing on a walkway along with the building of the outlet center in the background

I am standing on the walkway leading to the outlet center


Afterwards we entered inside the outlet center and enjoyed visiting various stores. Hubby and I are not into fashion and brand-names, and usually buy cheap and comfortable clothes from Shimamura, Uniqlo, Aeon Mall or such inexpensive places. So it was a bit difficult for us to shop at this outlet center as everything seemed overpriced. But we loved the experience of entering inside various brand-name stores and just looking at the clothes. In fact, window-shopping was a great learning experience for both of us. In the end, we bought a few clothes that were sold at 60% discount. I loved the cute dresses that hubby chose for me. He bought a few formal shirts for himself. Overall the shopping was fun. After shopping, we went to the restaurant associated with the outlet center and had Takoyaki which was delicious.
I am standing inside the outlet center building

Hubby looking at a few brand-name stores

I am tired after almost two hours of moving around various brand stores

Photos of a couple of dresses I bought at the outlet center. Hubby clicked these photos in late July or early August.

Hubby having Takoyaki at the restaurant associated with the outlet center


We left the outlet center at about 3.30 pm. Next we went to Yonezawa City in Yamagata prefecture. Yonezawa City is located about 120 kilometers southwest of the outlet center and it took us about 2.5 hours of car ride to reach a hotel in Yonezawa City where we stayed for the night. Hubby was very tired due to driving for about 6.5 hours that day, and so he slept immediately on reaching our hotel room. Next day, we went to see Uesugi Jinja Shrine and Uesugi Family Mausoleum in Yonezawa City. I will write about these sightseeing trips after a couple of posts.
Hubby driving towards Yonezawa City

Hubby deep asleep in our hotel room in Yonezawa City