Kisarazu in Chiba used to be somewhat famous for the TV drama Kisarazu Cat’s Eye. It used to take over two hours to get to Tokyo from here, but since the Aqua-Line crossing Tokyo Bay opened, you can get here from central Tokyo in 40 minutes. I hadn’t really been thinking about it, but there’s a bus from Hamamatsucho to Kisarazu, so I went to Kisarazu Outlet on the weekend. I think it’s probably the closest and most convenient of the outlets around Tokyo.

The view from the bus

It takes a while to reach the Aqua-Line. The traffic wasn’t bad, though.

Industrial zone

It’s a pretty grotesque landscape, but I’d like to go take photos there sometime.

A factory… or natural gas, I’m not sure…

Looks like a scene straight out of The Wizard of Oz.

Across the sea

You go into the tunnel and then come back out over the sea, and bit by bit Chiba comes into view.

Industrial zone

It really is close.

Arrived in Kisarazu.

The Ferris wheel seen from the outlet

So close, but no time to go…

There’s even a place like this.

Doesn’t seem all that cheap, though… (When I went a while ago, it had closed down…)

There’s Riedel too…

There’s quite a wide variety of outlet stores. For premium goods, Gotemba is probably still the best, but this place has pretty much everything you’d need too. Plus, since it’s newly built, the restaurants are good as well… I’ll probably be visiting regularly from now on.

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