New Features

I have had some extra time on my hands while here at work and I have spent some time blog surfing (I have no idea if that is really a phrase, but it sounds good to me). I have discovered that if I post my pictures without any justification, you can then click on the picture and it will appear larger on your screen. So from now on, I will not center justify my pictures so that if you want to see them bigger you can click on them. Hope that helps!!!

More Snow!!!

Last Friday, January 25, 2008

It was a wonderful morning!! When I stepped outside to go to work, I noticed that the roof top was white. I looked down and the parking lot was white too...IT SNOWED AGAIN!!! Of course we didn't see it this time as it was during the night, but how exciting to wake up to a white morning in your own home (however temporary it might be). I hope you enjoy the 'tour' of my way to work.


The roof top of the 3rd floor in our building and the street below.






The field at the university that is just east of our apartment




More of the university with snow

The empty parking lot out the back of our apartment. The snow had already started to melt by the time I left for school at 8am.









This is the large garbage collection site in my school all covered in snow.











The roof tops of nearby homes covered in snow










Look at the snow on the truck's windshield!! (Yes I know it snows more than this in other places around the world, but we are very excited!!)



When I arrived at school, there were several students playing in the snow. I asked them to pose and they did. I even got one of my favorite teachers to pose with them. I guess he was having fun in the snow as well.

Naked in a Glass Elevator

Ok, so maybe the title of this blog is a bit much, but I was recently naked in an elevator.

On Sunday I went with Miss. Sara (one of the ALT's from Phoenix who is here in Japan) to a local onsen. Onsen is Japanese for hot spring. We went to the one at the Egret center in downtown Himeji. So what do you do at an onsen you ask, I will tell you.

Once you enter, you take off all your clothes and then go into a very public room and bathe yourself. With LOTS of soap so everyone can see that you are good and clean. Then you choose which 'pool' you will go on. Notice I never said anything about wrapping myself up in a towel or putting on a swim suit. Hence why there are no pictures for this post.

There were several pools to chose from. The first one we choose had spots where you could lay down on some jets. Very relaxing (once you get past the fact that you are basically naked in public). Then we decided to take the elevator upstairs to the other pools. They were all very hot and somewhat relaxing. We were able to look out at Himeji Castle while we were soaking. We even went into one of the sauna rooms. All in all it was an experience. I am not sure if I will go again, but I am glad I tried it at least once.

As for the elevator, it was not glass. But it did have a very large mirror inside! Can you say you have been naked in an elevator? I didn't think so!

Sign Test

The much awaited sign test!! I hope you all enjoy and will send me your results (you can comment here or send me an email merryhammes@hotmail.com)

One thing I would love to relay to all of you back home is how humbling it is to be illiterate. I have taken photos of some everyday signs here in Himeji and I thought it would be fun for all of you to see if you can figure out what they are. So, get a piece of paper out and number it 1 - 25. Make a note of each one and then check the answers at the end when you are done. No cheating. Let me know how you do. (I hope those of you who read this via hard copy at church with Red enjoy this as well. Hello to all of you!)

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

#9

#10

#11

#12

#13

#14

#15

#16

#17

#18

#19

#20

#21

#22

#23


#24


#25

Are you ready for the answers?

#1 no parking

#2 fire hydrant (they are located underground, kind of like a manhole cover)

I wanted you to see the real sign as it is in English (I know I cheated, but it was fun wasn't it) I used Memory Manager software to 'get rid' of the English words.

#3 speed limit (30 kilometers per hour)

#4 bus schedule (the white section is Mon - Fri, the blue section is Sat, and the pink section is Sundays and holidays. Sometimes the schedules are listed top, middle, bottom.

#5 crosswalk for pedestrians only

#6 school children walking during the hours of 7:30am - 8:30am, please limit car traffic (Sundays and holidays excluded)

#7 The bottom sign (the arrow) means one way. The white circle with the blue line means that the one way street ends here.

#8 Children at play

#9 Do Not Enter

#10 Slow down (the triangle sign). The rest of the sign is to tell everyone that bikes and walkers should stay to the right and cars to the left.

#11 Men's staff restroom

#12 Women's staff restroom

#13 Street sign indicating that this is the Shinzaike neighborhood and it is section 5 chrome 1. They do not have named streets in the neighborhoods.

#14 School children commuting (watch out for many school children) Similar to our school zone signs.

#15 speed limit (40 kph) & no parking

#16 Delivery service available. The black mama cat carrying the baby cat indicates that you can buy at this store and have your purchases delivered to your home (for a fee)

#17 Adults, children and bicycles crossing here

#18 no passing & speed limit (50 kph)

#19 No trucks allowed & no parking.

#20 just a traffic sign giving you directions for driving.

#21 the red one is the sign for the the Japan Post office. The green one is a sign for an ATM. You can use your American ATM to withdraw funds from your American account from these ATMs.

#22 elderly people crossing (I pass this one on my way to Shogai every week)

#23 stop sign and it is painted on the street

#24 Safety Evacuation area. I think this is for earthquakes.

This sign is in English too so in case there is an earthquake, we will know where to go. Just about every school is a Safety Evacuation Area.

#25 This was Mitch's contribution. We think it is telling the kids to be careful because the cars will squish them and make blood come out.

I hope you enjoyed this blog. I had fun capturing all the different signs and then asking my Japanese friends to explain some of them.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!

For those of you unaware of the fact that I was born in raised in sunny Phoenix, Arizona, this might come as a shock to you. I GOT TO SEE SNOW FALLING FROM THE SKY TODAY!!! I was in 3rd period with one of my 1st grade classes. My Ayukawa was helping to explain the difference between a living room and a family room (we are learning the parts of a house) and I got so excited and started telling everyone "Look, Look, it's snowing" They all got a big kick out of it. I had to explain that I have seen snow on the ground and played in it, but I have never seen snow falling from the sky. They all thought it was great that I was so excited.

Later when I mentioned it to another teacher that it was snowing earlier (of course she didn't see it) she wanted to know why I was so excited about it. I explained once again that it does not snow in Phoenix. Then she was happy for me.

Today's weather is very cold. It is only 6 degrees Celsius but it feels like -2 (which translates into 43 degrees F but feels like 29 degrees F). It snowed earlier this week on the outskirts of town so I took pictures of the far away mountains.

This is east of our apartment across the field behind the university

This is north east of our apartment. If you remember the blog about the sea of houses, they are on the left edge of this picture

This is the snow on Mt. Shosha as seen from my classroom.

Since I was in class when it was snowing I didn't get pictures, but I did go for a walk outside today (I need to ramp up my exercise since the weight loss has plateaued). Like my new warm coat. I also have new warm gloves and Kelly's wonderful Ugg boots that she so graciously let me bring to Japan (Thanks Kelly!)

Sorry the picture is blurry.

I managed to walk for about 45 mins. I was listening to a taped sermon from church back home. Captain Ron was so kind as to send us the sermons and I enjoy listening to them. It was nice to "hear" everyone from church. I really miss church as we have not been able to attend here on a regular basis.

Himeji Central Park

Sunday, Jan. 13th

I checked the bank book, and some how we managed to have a few extra yen in the account at the end of the pay period and we had a 3 day weekend, so we decided to do something fun for one of the days (we didn't have enough extra to actually go anywhere so we had to find something fun here in Himeji). I had heard about Himeji Central Park from several different people and thought it might be fun for the kids, Mitch and I. So we bundled everyone up in warm clothes and jackets (it was to only be a high of 40 degrees that day) and headed off to the bus station to catch the number 74 bus to Himeji Central Park.

After about a 30 min bus ride, we arrived.

We were a bit shocked initially at the price. I had read it was 2900 yen per adult (1000 yen for RJ) for the amusement park and Safari. What they failed to tell me in the brochures was that was only the admission price. So if you wanted to ride the rides the all day pass was an additional 3200 yen for adults and 1400 yen for RJ. Mitch and RJ got passes (Sara rode for free) and I was the family photographer for the day. We had a lot of fun. So just to get there on the bus, enter the park and buy the ride pass and a ticket for the Safari tour we had already spent 13,900 yen (which is about $139)

After the sticker shock wore off, Mitch and the kids enjoyed the rides. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

We started with the kiddie rides so RJ and Sara could have the most fun.

We started at the helicopters. Both RJ and Sara loved this one because they could both fly.

Then there was Dumbo the flying elephant. Mitch was such a good sport riding the rides with Sara.

While Mitch and RJ waited for the Balloon ride, Sara and I rode the small train.

When the picture is big on my screen, Sara has a huge grin on her face. She loves these rides!!!

This ride reminded me of something out of Alice in Wonderland. RJ rode this one SEVERAL times. Sara really enjoyed this one (I think her and I will get along nicely if we go to many amusement parks. I LOVE roller coasters!!)
Can you see Sara and daddy at the front of the ride??

RJ wanted to drive the trucks so for his first ride, he picked the big black one. Sara was upset because she couldn't ride. Their restrictions were interesting. Some were based on height (which I completely understand due to safety requirements for seat buckles and such) and some were simple age. But trying to read the signs was quite amusing in and of itself. By the end of the day we were able to understand age and height restrictions which helped us from upsetting Sara .

For RJ's second ride on the trucks, he picked the yellow Ford. I thought that Papa and Jeff would be so proud of RJ.

Even though RJ has been fortunate to ride many trains while here in Japan, he still gets excited when he sees yet another one he can ride.

The amusement park is split into different areas. To reach the top area, you can walk up the steep incline, or 'ride' the people mover.

Sara enjoyed the people mover.

I took this picture as we were moving on the people mover so you could see the long twisty roller coaster that Mitch only enjoyed once. He said it jerked his head too much (I think he is getting old, you know he is

37 now :-) )

That is him in the front on the right side with his arms in the air .

When we reached the top of the hill, RJ had to use the restroom so Sara and I looked around. She immediately started quacking. When I looked up, I saw what she saw...Donald Duck. I went to look at the sign and it said 3 yrs and an adult and knew she was going to be very unhappy, so I told Mitch and he said "what do you mean she is not 3..." And off they went.

Sara was so excited when they got off the ride!!!

As there weren't very many kids at the park because it was cold, the lines were very short and they got to ride all the rides they wanted as many times as they wanted. But we decided it was time for Daddy to get to ride one of his rides.

Mitch spotted this one because it is the kind of roller coaster where your seat hangs from the track (The more traditional roller coasters your seat sits on the track). He was ready.

That is him on the right hand side of the first set of seats (you can see his blue jeans). He was stoked when he got off that one.

Now back to the kids rides.

The first time Mitch and RJ rode the Barrel of Monkeys (we made that name up as we still can't read here in Japan), I wasn't able to capture RJ on film, so both of the boys eagerly agreed to ride again.

Mitch said I could have just taken one of the other pictures and turned them upside down and you wouldn't know the difference, I disagreed. Look at that look on RJ's face when he is upside down. He loved it!!

We finally had to stop for some lunch. I took this picture hoping you could see what we could order from (see the menu up on the wall behind Sara)

If you notice closely, there are no pictures, no plastic food, only Japanese writing. Some how we managed to order spaghetti for the the kids and pork and fried rice for Mitch and I. It wasn't too bad.

Now back to the rides. RJ decide he would ride a big coaster with daddy this time. Since he met the height requirement, we let him go.

Sara decided to pose her new body suit that Grandma Leister bought her while in Japan. We were waiting for the perfect picture of the boys on the coaster, but Sara decided it would be fun to pose for the camera.

That is Mitch and RJ in the very front. Mitch had his arms up, but RJ decided it was best to hold on (atleast with one hand. I think that one of those little arms is his in the air). He did have a great time on it.

In Japan they are called Jet Coasters so we took a pictures for all of you to see the big coaster RJ rode with Daddy.

The next ride was the large Ferris wheel. It seems there are plenty of them here in Japan and my kids what to ride them all.

This was a picture Mitch took from the top of the Ferris wheel.

CHEESE!

This a picture looking up at the rides on the hill behind the Ferris wheel. The green track was the Donald Duck ride.

One of the first and last rides we rode was this beautiful Merry-Go-Round. Sara picked the same reindeer both times. And they played America the Beautiful as the song for the ride every time.

We had a great time at the amusement park. Stay tuned for part II, the Safari ride.