While I always tell myself that I don’t want to be “like that,” I must admit that after going to Crestwood Mall today, the differences between America and Japan really hit me. I dunno, just everything seemed different. Maybe it’s because I haven’t really done much since I got back (aside from sleeping at weird times and playing Metal Gear 3), but wow: I’m not in Japan anymore.

Rather than make this some kind of long, boring essay (let’s not forget how lazy I am), here’s a quick list of things that were blatantly different. Actually, it’s a top/bottom 6 list of things, starting with “ya so what” to “oh man lets go back NOW.” It was originally going to be 10, but I can’t think of any more right now. I know it just sounds like a lot of complaints, but c’mon: Japan was a blast and I’m still in that high. Not that I hate America or anything stupid like that, but things are definitley a different world.

6) Things were dirty here. Maybe it’s just Crestwood, but everything was kind of dirty and unkept.

5) Arcades here suck. I instinctively went to checkout what games they had, and the place was totally empty, with lots of empty room, no good games, and only like 2 crane games (can’t hold a candle to the UFO Catchers).

4) Stuff’s a lot cheaper here. I was used to seeing CDs for 3000 yen and DVDs for 5000. I walked into a place today and the cheap DVDs were like 10 bucks. Score one for USA.

3) Stores are huge here. I guess the stores in Japanese malls like LaLaPort really were smaller than here.

2) Drinks are huge here. I ordered a regular from a coffee shop and it looked like I ordered a barrel of coffee. I ordered the large in Japan and it was about half that size.

1) No hot Japanese girls in skirts and boots! Even though like half of the time in Japan, they were ugly from the front, it was always nice to see that everywhere.