January's 12 on 12

Hello everyone. I hope this blog finds everyone doing great! We are doing well here. We are learning to survive the VERY cold weather. I am trying hard not to complain because I do remember what it felt like when it was hot here and it was VERY humid so I don't want to wish for that to come too quickly.

Please take a minute to check out the right hand side of my blog page. It has some great "info" that I update when needed. It also show links to blogs of other people who are currently here in Himeji or who were recently here (The Australians change in Jan. so those who left has some great blogs). Feel free to check out what they are doing. Each of us are having very unique experiences while living in Himeji.

Now on to this month's 12 on 12. I took a lot of pictures of signs here in Japan over several months so that is where most of Jan's blog comes from. Hope you enjoy.

The Japanese people really want to integrate the English language into their culture. The only problem is sometimes the meaning gets lost in translation.

Mitch picked this up at the grocery store for us to use. I am not sure if he was hoping for a happy heart or a clean smelling family. You'll have to ask him.

And sometimes it is just the spelling that gets mixed up which therefore leaves you wondering who is in charge of marketing...

Not too sure I would be excited to try some 'Bland' coffee, but a nice 'Brand' of coffee would be good (we found this while waiting for the return train in Tatsuno, RJ and I had some yummy hot chocolate from this machine)

I am thinking that a 'cut salon' is suppose to be 'hair salon' (we saw this when we were in Tatsuno for the Jazz festival).

This is a wrapper from a milk vitamin. I only know that because some one gave it to me and told me so. I guess the cow gives it away that it has some milk in it. It was actually quite tasty.

I have become very excited about my name while living in Japan (I know my mom is finally happy to hear that). You see Christmas is not such a big holiday here, but the name Merry is used a lot just to mean happy. I saw this chair pillow at the store so my friend Sara took the picture for me. I have seen my name in many other places but I keep forgetting to take a picture. Sorry. Maybe I will get better and I could have a whole 12 on 12 just about 'Merry' in Japan!!!

The second grades (11th grade) went to Korea for a school trip. One of the teachers was nice enough to bring me back a treat. These are stickers and chocolates.

This is a gate leading into a Temple. We pass by this whenever we ride our bikes downtown. There are 2 statutes (one on each side of the entrance) and I think they are suppose to be of Buddha.

This is a shrine near our home. The red things are actually baby bibs. From what I can gather, the bibs are placed there because this is where you pray if you have a miscarriage or if your baby dies. I didn't notice the red bibs until it was getting colder so I thought people put them on the Buddha statues to keep him warm. I was sad when I found out what they were really for.

This is a women's only gym (similar to Curves). There is a Curves here in Himeji over by RJ's school, but this is on my way to work. I just thought it was interesting that they do have gyms here in Japan even though so many people bike or walk to work. And no I haven't join one yet, they are very expensive.

This is something you can see everywhere in Himeji (and Japan). Remember those ditches I showed you along the side of the roads. Well, some of them have covers and that is what these are. The weird thing is, some of them are loose so when you walk on them, they move. Kind of freaks you out the first couple of times it happens.

This is our neighbor Taube. She had the fortunate adventure of getting dressed up in a Kimono. RJ and Sara wanted their picture taken with her, so her you go.

And the last picture of this month's 12 on 12 is of some of the leaves we collected up on Mt. Shosha during the autumn days. RJ sent them to my brother Tommy because I told him how when we were in college Uncle Tommy sent me leaves from Flagstaff all the way to Tucson so he wanted to send some to him.

I hope everyone has a great January.