School helmets

Since January is a cold month, I haven't been up to as much on weekends as I usually do. So for your enjoyment, I thought I'd show some interesting things I see in Japan that I wouldn't see back home. One of these are school helmets, as seen on some school children below:All elementary school children in my prefecture are seen wearing these helmets when they go to and from school each day. I've heard that this is only done in my prefecture and is done since a big earthquake is expected to hit here at some point. My region gets large earthquakes (magnitude 8 or greater) every 100 to 150 years, but it has already been 157 years since the last one, so one is due to hit here at some point. And so, to protect their little heads, all school children wear these helmets to school. I'm quite impressed that they don't seem to mind wearing them and I hardly ever see a child not wearing one.

At the beginning of me staying in Japan, I found lots of interesting things to "show and tell" on my blog. Unfortunately these days, they have become regular things for me to see. Still, I'll try to find some more interesting things to show in the future.