From Felisa - between lunch and BBQ

While I was busy blogging, Felisa was out and about and had this to report about what we did between eating lunch and eating dinner:

Today (Saturday) was just as full as yesterday. After bowling, many of the kids and parents went off to Youme Mall. I, being less than fluent in Japanese, thought it was You Me Mall. I wondered why it would be called that. Was it because you and me meet at the mall? Or you and me should go to the mall. Bad English aside, I guess it was a single Romaji word whose meaning I have yet to discover.

The girls and boys made quite a splash there. I am told the fairer skinned adults were equally popular staring targets. As I said before, there are very few Americans visiting this part of Japan. Everyone was very respectful in their interactions. It was just teens trying to communicate with limited language skills, mispronouncing each others' names, and laughing and as a result. Our kids found that Japanese teens and tweens do the same thing in malls as Americans do back home . . . they hang out. Here the kids abandon their school uniforms (think catholic gradeschool) and put on a very wide variety of self defining paraphanalia. We saw kimonos, punk looks, hello kitty attire, and even what would pass, back home, as pajama wear (slippers included). I'm not so sure the kids noticed it all, but insofar as I tried to stay a respectable distance from the pack, I had to occupy myself somehow. It was slightly reminiscent of Pearl Street Mall.