Lalaport Fujimi

Great shops, but not a great shopping centre with kids

From the perspective of shopping with children, this mall isn't great in comparison to the more family friendly malls in surrounding cities. However, it makes up for this with the range of shops, the free and well designed parking and some decent grub. I stress the word "some" in the latter, because the food court isn't great in terms of selection and layout. It only opened April 2015 and it is already grubby, dirty and some areas in need of repair. On my last visit there were broken toilets in 2 different places. The centre wasn't well designed for parents with babies. The changing areas are too narrow and there aren't enough of them. They are always crowded and there's no room for buggies, so people line them up outside blocking the entrance to the regular toilets. The nursing rooms are behind electronic doors with a push button up to high for small children, which in case of an emergency wouldn't be very safe. The food court is long meaning you can't leave your children at a table to order as you can't see them from one end to the other. There is only one small free play area inside, despite 3 floors of hundreds of shops. They do have some great shops and a few play centres you can pay into. Of those play centres, one is fantastic and reviewed on City-Cost: Studio Cafe Zoo Adventure Some of the shops have there own little play areas too. Libro bookstore has a lovely play area, but no English books. The Sonic Train is very popular, but be warned you queue for much longer than you ride it. They have some shops that were "Saitama firsts", even "Japan firsts" too. There is a free park and playground equipment outside and in summer there is a splash pad. It is nice to visit once or even a few times, and for a family with older kids or no kids at all, it is great. However, there are a lot better malls for families with small children in the Saitama area.