Anyone connected with Saint Maur International School is familiar with its pronunciation in Japanese, based on the original French version: San-Mōru サンモール. (It would be convenient if Yokohama taxi drivers were equally familiar, as they often draw a blank when they hear it as a destination.) We might believe that our Franco-Japanese name is unique in Japan.
Nothing could be further from the truth! A Google search for サンモール yields about 200 hits. (Try it yourself. But you don’t have to open every one of them—I’ve done it for you.) These lead to at least 54 places across Japan, from Hokkaidō to Kyūshū, which are named サンモール. None of them have any connection to the school, though; they are all based on the Japanese pronunciation of “Sun Mall,” a remarkably common name for shopping arcades. However, there are also buildings, parks, bus stops, parking lots, a chain of rural grocery stores, at least one theater, and a library. All of them call themselves “Sun Mall;” all of them are written サンモール; and all of them are pronounced “San-Mōru.” The school’s name is famous . . . in a way.
One of the most famous shopping arcades is Sun Mall Ichiban-chō (サンモール一番町, above) in Sendai, stretching for several blocks in the heart of the entertainment district. Another covered arcade with a similar name is in Hakodate (below), with its roof convenient in a snowstorm. (Paradoxically, many of the shopping arcades are covered, shutting out the sun which was presumably their drawing point.)
At the other end of the country is the Sun Mall Sumiyoshi shopping street (below) and condominium complex in Nagasaki city; not far away is the Sun Mall apartment building, sharing its name with a similar building further south in Miyazaki city.
The most remote is the street leading to the public library in the town of Takko (population 4968), on the border of Aomori and Iwate prefectures. (If you do venture to Takko, don’t miss the Garlic Center, which sells the most famous local product.)
Stores seem to love the name Sun Mall, even if they are not malls: you’ll find a department store in Hiroshima city by that name and another in the small town of Wake (Okayama). The prize (if there is one) goes to northern Gunma prefecture, where a chain of six grocery stores brings the Sun Mall name to the cities of Numata and Minakami and two mountainous villages as well.
Our neighbor Kawasaki features one Sun Mall shopping street near Musashi-Shinjō station on the Nambu Line, and another at Saginuma station on the Tōkyū Den’en-toshi Line.
Small towns boast a Sun Mall: a deserted street near rural Ozuki station in Shimonoseki (Yamaguchi), shown below; a store in Shimotsuma (Ibaraki); another in Asahi, on the Pacific coast of Chiba. While you’re in Chiba, check out the San-Mōru high-rise condominium near Tsudanuma station and the shopping street in Ichikawa, just across the border from Tokyo.
Now that you’re in Tokyo, take a look at the three Sun Mall shopping streets in the capital: the longest, shown below on the right, extends 224 meters north from Nakano station on the Chūō Line (and includes the Sun Mall Building), while another, at the bottom, is part of a mercantile network stretching to the south from the Yamanote Line’s Ōtsuka station. The third meanders near Ebara-Nakanobu station, on the Tōkyū Ikegami Line in southern Ōta-ku. You could even live near trendy Shimo-Kitazawa in the Sun Mall building. And who could resist buying a ticket to see a play at Shinjuku’s Theater Sun Mall?
The Saint Maur name (well, the Sun Mall name at least) pops up in Kansai too, in the suburban cities between Ōsaka and Kōbe. There are shopping streets in Amagasaki, Nishinomiya, and Ashiya; the most memorable is the rather drab New Futaba San-Mōru Shōtengai (ニューフタバサンモール商店街) under the Hankyū Railway tracks. Futaba and Saint Maur next to each other? This might be a coincidence . . . but is it?
What about Yokohama itself, where Saint Maur began? Visit the (grass-free) park in front of Yōkōdai station in Isogo-ku: sure enough, it’s Eki-mae Sun Mall (洋光台駅前サンモール), shown below, surrounded by high-rise apartment buildings. One of them houses a Futaba pharmacy, to add to the effect.
In Izumi-ku to the west, near the Sōtetsu Line’s Ryokuen-toshi station, the Sun Mall street brings you to the headquarters of Sun Mall Corporation; you can wait for the #19 or #87 bus at "San-Mōru" bus stop in front of the corporate building.
If you’ve ever wanted to live in Saint Maur, or at least in a condominium named San-Mōru, you have a choice of twenty Sun Mall locations in Kanagawa, Tokyo, and Chiba, including Hiyoshi, shown above (plus one on Dōgenzaka near the heart of Shibuya). Why not consider Saint Maur Heights or Saint Maur City? They’re both centrally located in Yokohama
Also right in the middle of Yokohama, a short walk from the Sōtetsu Line's Nishi-Yokohama station takes you to San-Mōru Nishi-Yokohama Shōtengai (shown below during tulip season, with Landmark Tower in the background). It has only 37 stores but extends a full kilometer when linked with Fujidana and Kubo-chō streets at either end.
Once you’ve finished shopping, you can board the #4 Sōtetsu bus to Yokohama station from San-Mōru bus stop. But do come back at the end of October for the Hallowe’en street party, and a few days later for the Heso Matsuri (Belly-Button Festival)—so named because the street is located in the exact center of Nishi-ku.
What does all this prove? You can find サンモール almost anywhere in Japan: to shop, to eat, to be entertained, to park your car or check out a library book. Wherever you go, you're always reminded of where it all began!
