Temple Mall and Market

The first thing we did after sleeping was go to the temple.  Nothing culturally different there.  It was a very small temple with the smallest session I've been in, but nothing unusual.  Everything was even in English.

Later we headed to the mall where I saw all kinds of different things.

They had unique ice cream flavors like cheese and avocado.  I did try a cheese flavored popsicle once and it really did taste like cheese.  I couldn't do more than one taste.

Lots of little fish thing for sale everywhere.  We saw them at the market and at the breakfast buffets of our hotels.  They had a pretty strong smell that was hard for me to handle.  I did not taste any of them.

The coolest thing at the mall was the cotton candy stand in the middle.  I got the flower shape for about $2.  Most of their food was amazingly cheap.  Much less expensive than I was used to.  Each different color had a different flavor, one was even buttered popcorn flavor.

The mall was super crowded and loud!  We saw a marching band walking right through the mall.  Another store had Karaoke out front.  I also saw a different band and a guy in full costume blasting music and dancing in front of Dunkin Donuts.  It was like the stores put on a little show to get you to go in them.  The grocery store even had karaoke going on inside.

Another thing that was strange about going to the mall was all the security and employees.  They have tons security gaurds!  We had to walk through a metal detector and get our purses looked through when we entered.  Throughout the mall there was lots of security and they had big huge guns too.  They stores also had tons of employees.  If you are looking in their section they will come up to you and say "Yes Ma'am."  Then they will stand right next to you staring until you move on or buy something.  I was called Ma'am more times in two weeks than I was in my entire life up to this point.  In the tie section there were three employees working.  Each time I switched rows the next worker would come stand next to me.  The same thing happened in the lipstick section.  They seemed to stick to their small sections and if anyone enters their section they stand next to them ready to help.

The last thing about the mall was that we saw many people and they all saw us.  We were not in a tourist area so we were really they only white people.  No one seemed to have a problem openly staring at us.  It was awkward.  The guys seemed worse because they were so blatant about it.  A few women even told me that I was beautiful or something similar.  When in Japan I felt out of place but not anything like here.

Later that night we went to the market.  It was pretty much their version of Pikes Place.  The main differences were that it was sooo hot and smelly.  It was actually pretty hard for me to be there at all.  It was also pretty crowded and I felt like at any minute I was going to get hit by a car or their trike things.  I wasn't used to all their honking and zipping around.

Next is a picture of us out to eat.  It seemed like most of the time I could get a full meal for around $3.

I saw a few help wanted signs like this, mostly at restaurants or sales jobs.  They have no problem specifying age, gender, or even marital status when hiring.  I do not meet the requirements.