on the dash to the left of the steering wheel, there are two buttons on top of eachother. The bottom one is to open up the fuel tank door. The top button is worn with no symbol, what is it?

Also, i went to refuel and when i turned the car on, the gas gauge took about 3 years to creep up to the half-tank mark from the empty line. Is that normal?

 

Well, to me it sounds like you have a different generation es than me (4Gen). I would assume the only two buttons on the dash near the steering wheel are the trunk button and fuel tank. But i'm just speculating since I don't actually know the design or your generation es

As for the gauge, mine takes only about 1-2 minutes after having started the car after fueling up to start showing the true gas level. But I would suggest trying some fuel system cleaner or anything that might also clean injectors. I've never had that problem with my current es. But my previous car had a similar "problem" to yours and the fuel system cleaner worked wonders and the needle would immediately rise upon refueling.

 

Top button is trunk release. If it doesn't work, check in the glove box to see if the release override is on... its a feature to keep the trunk locked if you don't have the key