Bronner’s CHRISTmas Wonderland – Frankenmuth, MI

Happy December everyone! Time to get into the Christmas spirit by blasting Trans Siberian Orchestra’s Carol of the Bells and assemble the artificial tree!

My brother and I went to Bronner’s CHRISTmas Wonderland in Frankenmuth back in October for our bi-yearly buying o’the ornaments and had a really nice time. 🙂 No one else could make the trip with us so the only other participant was Domo who chilled in the back seat during our outing.

Giant Domo Plush

It’s an hour and 45 minute drive away from our hometown and as it is mostly expressway it can be quite boring. Tree tree tree tree tree ooo… bush! We didn’t see any wildlife on our trek upstate, however the trees were quite lovely at that time.

I-75

Before we reached our destination we stopped at Halo Burger…

Halo Burger sign

They are one of the only burger joints that we know of that offer burgers with olives and that is always a yummy must. 😉

MY Halo Burger 🙂

A patron of the establishment noticed my brother and I snapping pictures of each other and offered to take a picture of us together. 🙂

Me and my brother Bob

No too long after, we arrived at Bronners. I was busy annoying my brother at the time and missed out on the opportunity to capture a shot of the whole building. XD

A sign on the wall of the store

The main Nativity display

Garbage can. I believe it says “trash” in various languages… :p

Large overhang over the entrance . Buses use this area to drop off tourists. The signs up top are also written in different languages. 🙂

Once inside I saw this sign and just couldn’t resist. >:}

*poke*

I know that people come to visit Bronner’s from all over the world but I didn’t feel comfortable with snapping pictures… however I did get a pic of two interesting items.

Cute Carrot Bunnies

$30 Glass Green House Ornament

We had a lot of fun exploring the store and bought a variety of ornaments.

Here is my Bronner ornament collection:

Neon Pink Ornaments! XD

I was reminded of Peter Pan with this next ornament….

So magical… *o*

Sparkly sushi platter :3 It is actually quite heavy. o.o;

and my total fave – Merry Christmas (Meri Kurisumasu) in Katakana. :>

Afterwards we strolled around town and visited a number of shops such as the General Store, Zender’s Gift Shop, the Taffy shop and… the Cheese Haus.

Cheese Haus Mascot

Inside we sampled various cheese products and saw a rather *cough* interesting food item…

A** Blaster Hot Sauce at Cheese Haus

Tired but happy, Bob and I packed up our heels and made the journey home. We really enjoyed the trip and look forward to our next Bronner’s outing  in 2015!

Thanks for reading!

-Anna San♥

RosettaStone Japanese

 

Onomatopoeia

Nihongo Pera Pera!

Found this little gem when I was at the thrift store this evening. My sister asked me how I find the good (Japan related) books. My secret? I look through every last book! Lol! Sorry Maru – no shortcuts here!

Onomatopoeia is basically sound effects that Japanese use to describe feelings, sounds, weather etc in every day conversation. If you listen close enough to subbed anime/J-dramas you can hear onomatopoeia in action! It’s always fun to learn something new! :3

I’m Reading Japanese!

I DON’T HUNT WHALES

Whoops! False alarm. This novelty tee by IMPORKCHOPtee gives you the illusion that you have made more progress with your Japanese studies than you really have! Guess I should really hit the books again… =3=

In case you’re wondering… this is a nonsensical blended string of hiragana and katakana characters. :p Wanna jumpstart your kana skills? Check out these awesome charts by TextFugu! Hiragana Katakana

Grammar-ed! Paid vs. Payed

I don’t know about you, but I do more speaking and reading of social media than writing on a daily basis – so when it comes to spelling out certain words, I often second guess myself.  Even more often than that however, the following situation occurs.

Example:

Just to be sure, Anna typed the word into her search bar. The correct spelling popped up instantly. “It’s really spelled like that?” She snorted in disbelief.

With all the social media available, more and more people are having something to say – whether or not they know how to spell. I personally pride myself on my spelling abilities and it totally irks me when I see misspelling or *gasp* make a typo – but I digress.

Today I cleared up some confusion I was developing due to reading too much social media and that was “paid” versus “payed.” Yes, this confusion has had me up wondering at night what the crap this “payed” business is, how I’m supposed to use it and the fear of years of possibly misusing “paid.”

For all that worrying, guess what I found out? Payed is a misuse! For all intents and purposes – unless you are (very) specifically talking about ropes – it doesn’t exist! So I haven’t been misusing it! Yay!

Moral of the Story:
Use:

PAID

Not:

PAYED

Thanks for reading,

-Anna♥