Things are different half way across the world..

So, I thought it would be fun to tell you guys all the things that are different in Japan that I've been getting use to for the past week (just in case you never make it to Tokyo!).

The toilets are the more complicated than you could ever imagine. They are like a seat on the star ship trooper or something. They have buttons all over them for different purposes (they are all written in Japanese, so we had to get someone to tell us what they were for!). They have 2 bidets built in- one for the front and one for the back! One button is for a "flushing sound" because here they don't like to hear each other use the bathroom. They have a few that change the water pressure in case you need a little extra power in your flush.. and the way you turn the flush knob depends on how much power you want your flush to have as well. We went to one restaurant and I seriously stood in the stall for 5 minutes trying to figure out how to flush the toilet! I almost asked the girl that was washing her hands how to work it, but figured that was a little embarassing, so I just started pushing buttons.. I had water squirting everywhere and music playing.. but finally hit the right one to flush! Wierd!

They drive on the left side of the road here and in the crowded streets you always walk to the left. That has been really hard to get use to. I always have to remind myself when I am about to cross the road to check both ways so I dont get hit by a car!

On weekends they close down the streets in the middle of the day from 12-5 to accommodate all the people walking around town. There isn't enough room on the sidewalks for the amount of people that come out shopping, so they have to close the streets down! Yesterday we saw them setting up benches in the middle of the road and one of the associates told us what was going on. There was even a Bride and Groom walking down the middle of the road! I asked the associate if it was a tradition to walk the streets on your wedding day and he said no.. I guess the Bride just wanted to be seen!

Sushi here is not like sushi in the states. They don't do rolls like we have they are all balls of rice with the raw fish laying on top. I only like rolls and apparently the California roll is unheard of here.. sooo no sushi for me :)

Here it is culturaly acceptable to sleep in public. On the train everyone sleeps and when you go to restaurants there are people sitting by themselves with their finished plates in front of them just snoozing away! It's wierd though because they don't bob their heads or anything, they just sleep sitting straight up! I'm starting to wonder if they are really sleeping or just resting their eyes... but everyone does it! We went to McDonald's for lunch yesterday and we walked into the dining area and it was dead quiet! Everyone was there by themselves and they were either sleeping, reading, or playing on their laptops.. then us loud Americans came in and interupted their quiet lunch.. oops :)

Hello Kitty is so popular here! The managers told us that in Japan Hello Kitty is equal to wearing a designer fashion label... even the Hard Rock Cafe in Tokyo has a line of Hello Kitty merchandise!

Those are a few of the things I could think of off the top of my head! I'll tell you more throughout the trip I'm sure!

Today is my (one and only) day off! We are going to a few places around Tokyo that we heard are good for souveniers and site seeing! I'll take lots of pictures!

Work is going well- the store is unbelievable!! I am amazed by it every day! Like Milan, there is a mural that spans the entire height of the building, so in this store it is 11 stories high!! We are ahead with our schedule, so as long as everything goes smoothly the next couple of weeks we will be on time to open! The managers are great here! A few of them don't speak English very well, so it's been a struggle with them, but they are getting better. One of their names is Ella and she has become my personal side kick! She is Korean and has only been speaking English for a year. It leads to some very interesting conversations over the walkie talkie! We learned never to say "fourth floor" because that is way to complicated for them! She told my manager that she had the most fun with me and I have pretty good patience with her, so she's my buddy now! She told me yesterday that she really needs to pay more attention when I tell her what to do in English because she messed something up earlier in the day and she had to spend time to go back and fix it. I told her to just make sure she asks a lot of questions when she doesn't understand and she said "well, I didn't know I didn't understand!" haha!

Well, I am off to explore! Hope you are all having a good weekend!! Oh yea, GO COCKS!!

Love you!