Strolling at Ario

Ario is a newly-opened mom-and-baby-friendly shopping mall located just 5 minutes on foot from Kameari Station. Unlike in other chains of Ito Yokado (the 16th largest retail conglomerate in the world), this 3-storey shopping center is sooo Western-y. Almost all signages are in Romaji (Japanese roman script) and you can see mostly Western shops.

Except that it is more classy, Ario's overall ambience can be fairly compared to the Philippines' SM Megamall in terms of its sweet appeal to the masses. Since its opening last March, Ario is always crowded with families, mostly moms and babies/kids on weekdays, and with daddys on weekends. Once you get inside, you'll probably think that this place is a home away from home. There is really no need for the mothers to bring strollers as the mall provides cozy character-based kiddy cars. Here, Luke is proudly sitting on a Pooh bear-designed car (Ario is proud to have about 100pcs. of these in various characters). He enjoys it, as most kids do, but then later on, he got sleepy so we have to use the usual baby cart.

And oh, before I forget, Ario has an equally big foodcourt in the ground floor, and a 10 widescreen all-surround MOVIX (cinema/movie theater) at the 3rd floor. As for me, I'd rather venture on tasting what the foodcourt has to offer me than watch a 1.5-hour movie for about 2,000yen. ;)