The New Mall

This weekend Matt and I went shopping at a brand new mall that was completed just a few weeks ago. Everybody on base was abuzz about this mall because... it has American brands! Gasp! Squeal! This is a HUGE deal because it is the first mall large enough to have so many international brands! Matt needed new shoes, and his feet are hopelessly large in most Japanese stores. Off we went to shop at an American store in our Okinawan mall! Getting parking there was not easy. We hit traffic while several lights away, and once we pulled in the entrance we had to circle the mall's many parking to decks to find a single spot. We spent close to an hour looking for parking. By the time we entered the mall I was STARVING. Fortunately the mall has...

three stories of food court!

We had so many food options! I got Thai, Matt got Japanese, and we both got donuts for dessert. Yum!

If you can tell from the pictures, the mall was gigantic and shiny and new and VERY full of people. They had an "aquarium elevator" that was surrounded by a gigantic tank on the ground floor with sharks and other exotic fish. There was a line for everything, even the elevator, so we did not try it ourselves.

While the brands are familiar, there are some differences. The shoe sizes in  Sports Authority were in centimeters, and Matt could find only three pairs total in his size. I purchased clothing at American Eagle, and the entire store was filled with extra small and extra extra small sizes. Medium was the largest size I saw in the store. We both found what we were shopping for, American brand clothing, but the mall did have its fair share of Japanese stores as well. I was distracted by one store specifically that exclusively sold items of a seal character dressed up as other items. It was cuteness (and strangeness) overload, and I had to take pictures.

This is Sirotan the seal who has a whole mall store dedicated to him. 

Sirotan as sushi.

Sirotan as other animals. 

Sirotan as toast. So kawaii!!!