Meet Phil

So we were here for 3 days when we went to a big Haku En Shop, or 100 Yen Store (Dollar Store) where they had some small plants for sale. The price was right, and I figured it would be cool to get a small plant so close to our return to Japan. We could watch it grow and flourish along with the rest of the family in our new home. So I bought the plant below.

I named him Phil. He's a Peperomia. The little "Hello, my name is Phil" tag he is wearing is printed in Katakana. It's a Japanese form of writing to signify words that aren't Japanese in origin. A special alphabet for foreign words.
So here's your Katakana lesson for the day. The 1st two symbols sound like "Peh". #3, the square, sounds like "Low". #4, the 3 horizontal lines, sound like "Mee" and the last one sounds like "Ah."
You are now on your way to ridding yourself of illiteracy in Japanese; congratulations.
Photos By Tokyo Slim