Of the numerous shopping centers in the suburbs of Tokyo, Ebina Vinawalk must be one of the most appealing. Easily accessible from Shinjuku and Yokohama, it's built on three levels around a broad central plaza, and the open-air setting and lively color scheme make for a pleasant shopping experience. It boasts a good range of mid-market stores and eating options and a multiplex cinema.
It's certainly a family-friendly place, with a little amphitheater and a paddling stream for the little ones to splash around in; on one summer day when I visited there was also a clown making balloon animals for a rapt crowd of kids, and a cute little train tootling on a circuit around the second level. There were a lot of people there, but they were well spread out, and with the central plaza and the open sky overhead, it really didn't feel crowded. And if you do become separated or decide to split up, there's a big red pagoda that can serve as a handy meeting point.
Not uncommonly for suburban shopping, there are a lot of clothing stores, among them UniQlo, Lowrys Farm, Global Work and Paris Miki for casual wear, and Suit Select and Brickhouse for more formal attire. There's a large Marui Family department store on one side, inside which you'll find Gap and Gap Kids, The Body Shop, CommeCaIsm and a slightly incongruous hundred-yen store, while its first floor is home to some upmarketish stands with salad and sushi, bento lunchboxes, bowls of pungent kimchi, fancy cakes and imported cheeses and teas.
If you want a sit-down meal then next to Marui Family there's a smallish but lively food court, where you can enjoy fast food from KFC , First Kitchen and Pepper Lunch, or other Chinese, Korean or Japanese dishes, topped off with Baskin Robbins ice cream. Other places to eat and drink around Vinawalk include Outback Steakhouse, a La Pausa with an airy outdoor terrace, and chain izakaya Wan, which provided an English menu. It's also well served for coffee shops, with Dotour, Starbucks and ChocoCro/San Marco all present and correct, the latter two right next to each other.
For food to take home there's a regular supermarket and import store PX, with a wide selection of teas, jams, chocolate and candy, tinned goods and dried fruit; the same kind of fare is also available at a branch of Kaldi in Marui Family.
Food and clothes apart, there are stores selling household and hobby goods such as Passport, Hobby Scramble, Pets Paradise and Lush, which I identified by its fragrance well before I saw it. And if walking around has been hard on your feet then Foot Therapy looks like it offers food massages, a good way to round off half a day's relaxed shopping.
