Mylord East, an in-station shopping mall at Hon-Atsugi Station on the Odakyu Line, opened on May 24th. In conjunction with this, a ceremony and preview of the bronze statue of Atsugi City's mascot character, "Ayukoro-chan," which will be installed in the plaza within Mylord East, was held on the 23rd. The unveiling ceremony for the statue, held at Ayukoro Plaza, featured guests in an Ayukoro-chan costume, Atsugi Mayor Tsuneyoshi Kobayashi, Hon-Atsugi Stationmaster Yukio Matsumura, and Hon-Atsugi Mylord Director Masahiko Yoshimura. Mayor Kobayashi closed the statue after saying, "Atsugi City exists because of the Odakyu Line, so I hope this will become a place of relaxation and also a place to attract visitors." Ayukoro-chan is a pig character from Shirokoro Hormone, with a sweetfish (ayu), a local specialty, on its head. Ayukoro-chan is a beloved mascot character among locals, having won sixth place in last year's Yuru-chara Grand Prix. "Mylord East" is a shopping street built over a period of one year and two months to address the aging of the Central Building Shopping Arcade, which opened under the elevated tracks in 1982, and to reorganize the store layout. Its name, "East," comes from its construction, which completely encompasses the two East Exit ticket gates. The ground floor, renovated while preserving the existing passageway, allows access to the North Exit. This increases accessibility to Mylord 1 and Mylord 2 on the North Exit side, aiming for a synergistic effect of shopping. The site area is 3,300 square meters, with a total sales floor area of 1,983.5 square meters. "The sales target for Mylord East alone, consisting of 28 stores, is 1.7 billion yen per year, while the sales target for Mylord as a whole is 16.2 billion yen, a 13% increase over last year," said Isao Tanaka, deputy director of Hon-Atsugi Mylord. Hon-Atsugi Station handles approximately 140,000 passengers per day. The facility concept of Mylord East is "Daily Amusement, adding a little twist to unchanging everyday life." The design concept is "Atsugi's original landscape." It consists of three zones: the Mountain Walking Path, a trendy select shop zone; the Collected Trees Garden, a city cross zone; and the Riverside Promenade, a life service zone. These are modeled after the topography of Atsugi City, with the Sagami River, downtown area, and Mt. Oyama lined up side by side. The Trend Select Zone is an area centered around fashion, miscellaneous goods, and cafes. Discoat Petit, a fashion and miscellaneous goods store that is the in-station branch of Discoat, which has a presence in many suburban shopping malls; Plame Collome, which sells apparel, miscellaneous goods, and cosmetics; and Free's Mart, a fast fashion store inspired by the lifestyle of a beachside couple in LA, are opening their first stores in the Atsugi area.
The City Cross Zone is mainly lined with restaurants, including Kushikatsu Dengana, famous for its Osaka-style kushikatsu and doteyaki, Ippudo, serving Hakata ramen, and Sempre Pizza/Pearl Lady, offering low-priced pizza, chewy tapioca, and chewy crepes, opening for the first time in the Atsugi area. Osashimi-ya Botan, serving seafood bowls and standing bars, is a new establishment, and Chinese restaurant Shikumen is opening its first location along the Odakyu Line.
The Life Service Zone is lined with stores related to daily life, including Quick Service, which offers shoe repairs and duplicate keys, Eleven Cut, a low-priced hair salon where an 11-minute haircut costs 1,080 yen, and Odakyu MART, a convenience store. To mark the opening, each store will be running promotions such as limited-time price reductions.
