Malls in Japan

The malls in Japan are a lot different than what I am used to in America. The average mall is about three to seven floors high.

The mall that was closest to us is called Seiyu. It is a huge mall that has groceries, clothes, gifts, etc., and whenever you go to one of these mall and there is something you want to buy, you have to pay on each floor. If you try to bring something you want to buy with you up to a different floor, they will stop you and asked you to pay on that floor.

They have escalators for all of the malls, and the bottom floor normally consists of groceries. If you enter a mall right when it opens, all of the sales clerks will be standing in front of their section and will bow to you when you go by. It's so different because before Japan, I never had anybody bow to me before! This is kind of sad, but my brother and I always used to play a game how we'd go to the mall early and try to run through it and pass the clerks without getting bowed at.
The top floor normally has a variety of traditional Japanese Restaurants. I've only eaten at an actual tradition Japanese food place and it was very interesting. I ate squid, octopus, and tons of sashimi.

In the malls everyone is very kind and patient. They will bow to you after you make a purchase and are just very kind. In America, most of the time the people working at the malls are only doing it for the money!

"L's" in Japan?

In Japan and in Japanese they cannot pronounce "l's". Even in English writing (not Japanese characters) their words are spelled with "r's" instead of "l's". If you get a Japanese language book you will see that not once there is the use of L. Whenever I talk to one of my English speaking friends who is Japanese they say words like "rove" instead of love and "rean" instead of lean. They just cannot pronounce it. It is so funny listening because that is not how I am used to hearing people talking. All of the restaurants that have "l's" in them in America are pronounced with "r's" in Japan. Like a popular one, Red Lobster. They actually had one of those near where my family lived. They pronounce it Red Robster in Japan!

Words I know in Japanese

Here are all of the words I know in Japanese: (they might not be spelled right but I only pronounced them there)
Arigoto- (arr- ee- got- o)- thank you
gommene-(go-men-e)- excuse me
sumimasen-(sew-me-mass-en)-also mean excuse me
watachi wa Amerika jii desu-(waa-tashi-waa-aa-mer-eeka-jee-desu)- I am American
watachi wa ______ des-(waa-tashi-waa-____-des)- my name is _____
sofuto dorinku-(soft-u-toe-door-en-koo)-soft drink
mizu-(me-zoo)-water
hai-(h-iee)- yes
ie-(eei)-no
e?-what?

And that is all I know... I survived for 6 months with people who only speak Japanese knowing this little amount of their language.

Tokyo to Singapore

Tokyo and Singapore are very different from each other. First off, the weather. The average temperature in Singapore is 80 something degrees each day. But in Tokyo it is a lot colder, and it snows during the winter months. Most people in Singapore speak English, but it Tokyo, very few people speak English.
We use transportation on buses and taxies a lot more in Singapore than we did in Japan. In addition to English, Singaporeans speak Chinese. Of course that is different than Japan, where the common language is Japanese.
We live on the 16th floor of a huge apartment complex in Singapore. In Japan, we were on the second floor.
There is a lot more wildlife here in Singapore than in Japan. All we saw there were pigeons. Here there are water monitors, snakes, turtles, very large fish, and many dogs.
The dollar is worth a more here. Singaporean bills look different than American bills do, but they still call their money dollars and cents.

What I miss about Japan

Right now I live in Singapore, which is a country located under China. I really miss Japan. There are so many differences between Singapore and China.

I miss how everyone in Japan is so polite. I also miss the weather there. I was born in the south and hadn't seen snow until I was 12 years old, when it snowed a couple of times in Japan. It was amazing.

I also miss all of my friends that I made there. Some of them spoke English. Some only spoke Japanese. Those who did not speak my language we translated through hand movements and grunts, which is funny. Some of the friends I had there were Heu, Lina, Sake, Mommi (sounds just like mommy!), Yudi, Archet, etc. We had fun together and played at the park a lot. It was sad because I did not get to say goodbye to most of them (like the ones who do not speak English, they had no idea I left.)

I miss the attractions there and the shopping! I miss going down Harajuku St. and seeing all of the teenagers dressed in their odd outfits and going into all of the high-dollar stores like Louis Vuitton.

It's not that I don't like where I live now, but it's so hot here! I will always keep Tokyo in my memory, and I hope someday when I am married with children, I can take my family there.

Bicycle Riding

As I have said before, public transportation is really big here. But also, riding bikes is very common. You see people on their bikes all the time on the streets and sidewalks.

My mom told me a few weeks ago that they have now made it a law that you can't ride your bike on the sidewalk because it is too overpopulated. I really agree because before that law, I was trying to ride my bike on the sidewalk to the mall- big mistake. I almost fell into a bush because there were so many people.

On the back of big bikes they have this thing that looks just like a car seat. They put their little kids in them and buckle them up. Also, on some bikes there is a car seat- like thing in the front on the handle bars. So three people can ride one bike. It's really cool.

Unlike in America, if you have a bike here and you live in an apartment or a condo you have to pay to park your bike. In front of our apartment complex there is a big parking lot for cars, and a long pavilion to put bikes under. You have to pay for a parking permit. The owner of the apartment complex gives you a sticker, which guarantees you a place to park your bike. This is because there are a lot of bikes, and not many places to park them.

There are people who's jobs are to patrol the bicycles. If you are parked in a public area too long, don't be surprised if you come out to find a ticket on your bicycle.

Tokyo Disney

Last Saturday my parents wanted to surprise my brother and I by taking us to Tokyo Disneyland. They said that it was going to be one of our last weekends together in Japan and they wanted to do something special. I had no idea how close we were to Disney. We took the subway and it was only like a 20 minute ride. Of course it wasn't the crowded hour so there weren't many people at the stations. Just like the Disney in Florida once you got to the Disney station you go on this train that takes you around the park to where you want to go. Well we decided to go to Tokyo Disney Sea which is different than Disneyland and they don't have the Sea in Florida. Once we got there we saw this huge globe of Earth that had water coming down it, like a fountain and Tokyo Disney Sea logo in front. It was really pretty. We went on a lot of rides like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Indiana Jones. They were all really fun. The cool thing about Disney Sea is that it's set up like the Mediterranean village. The center piece of the park was this huge volcano, which was the Journey To The Center Of The Earth ride. It's this huge roller coaster. So. much. fun. It was hard finding a restaurant because all of them were Japanese style food. But for lunch we ate at a New York Style Deli. My mom was born in New York and I asked her if this was what one of the delis there was like and she said that that is the best a New York Style Deli in Japan at Disneyland can be. And than for dinner we ate at Subashton's. Pretty much everything was in Japanese and sometimes with English in very small letters under it. So we didn't get much out of the rides that are suppose to teach you something and talk a lot. They also had gondola rides which was really cool. After half way on the gondola trip our gondolier starts singing at the top of his lungs something in Latin which has the Japanese accent to it. At about 5 o'clock my parents were tired and wanted to go home. So they left and my brother and I stayed at the park until it closed at 10. At 8 they had a firework show which was amazing. It was right over the "Mediterranean" river. My brother and I took advantage of the fact that everyone was watching the show and that the lines were so short, so we went on a lot of rides in that time. At 10 o'clock the park closed and my brother and I went home. By the time we actually entered our house it was 11:30. And that is our trip at Tokyo Disneyland Sea.