Family game night...

What have we been doing at our house? Well with Winter happening and snow still on the ground in our town. Yes there's still snow in the rice fields and in yards in my town, 10-11 days later or so, which is so unusual. @_@ We have been staying home and staying warm. We've also been having family game night as usual. We played three rounds of this Jenga-esque type of game last weekend. Sorry the name brand Jenga game is like 2800 yen (US $25!!!) Which is outrageous. And this knock off/"no name" brand one... was like 750 yen or 800 yen, 10 years or so when we bought it. My kids go through periods of when they want to play this a lot and times when they won't touch it at all. But they've been on a Jenga kick since Christmas/winter break and all January too. This pic was taken last weekend and we played 3 rounds of this. We also played 2 rounds of this the other night after homework. 

Also, important to note is sometimes... games change as kids get older too. However we still play Sorry! About once a month still... that's one of our favorite board games. This pic is of my 3 (2 sons and hubby) all playing a game together. But this game is a survival game and Branden and Noah have been playing this game since November 2017. Branden's classmates also got really into this game too. It's a multiplayer game. So a lot of times Branden and a handful of his classmates will have a private game going and they invite Noah to play with them too. Bran is such an amazing older brother. You can hear your teammates talking which is why they are wearing earphones. Then a month ago...Noboru was intrigued and asked the boys "what are you guys playing" they told him the name of the game and he said...I want to play too. So he downloaded it and Noboru has been playing it for a month now. Then Noboru told his 2 closest coworkers about this and they fell in love with this game so much. And now...they have this group and they all know each other and they all play this survival game. They're *really* into it! Noboru can't wait for the kids to get home from school to play with them. And as soon as Bran walks in the door after I bring him home from the train station after school...he tells his dad and Noah..."let's play after dinner" And so as a girl...I don't personally find this game interesting at all. Gomen-gomen. But I am so happy that they have this 1 thing that they're all reall super into. They want to play this. And so that's what my family has been doing. They laugh at the kitchen table and play this. Sometimes they're all over the living room sprawled out and playing this. It's family time. And they're having an absolutely amazing time together. Dad time is so important. Dad's spending time with their kids is very important and same for us mom's too... spending time with our kids, quality time so important. Heck..family time is important period. : )

I enjoyed watching the 20/20 a few weeks ago about Kim Jong Un's childhood. And his siblings childhood. How they were educated overseas. It was very interesting. 

A new game show in America. I am enjoying it a lot. It's called Child Support. Fred Savage is the host. I adored him on the Wonder Years. A contestant has to answer 10 questions and if they don't know the answer, a group of kids can try to help him or her answer it. The show was created by Ricky Gervais and he is the one who interviews the kids and it's so funny to watch him interact with the kids.

You go Fred Savage. He's a really mellow relatable host. 

Ricky asking the kids a question. Hopefully they know the answer.

One of the answers, one of the kids said...was so funny Ricky did this!!!

Child Support is a very funny game show. My kids love this game show and they watch it every time it's on. 

The Good Doctor is such a phenomenal show. I love this show. This pic was taken a week ago. But this week was a good episode too. It was about organ donors. A man had been in the hospital for ages hoping for a transplant. He was an alcoholic and ruined his own liver. And he was finally at the top of the organ donor list. He was weeks away from dying. And The Good Doctor (Dr. Murphy) and his coworker went to retrieve the organ from another hospital. Anyway it took the entire show for them to get back to their hospital. The guy on the top of the donor list had tested positive for alcohol in his system and they ran the test twice and asked him. Did you drink? And he finally admitted he had 1 glass of champagne because his daughter graduated law school. Yada yada yada. And he wanted to feel "normal" and so it was debated should they still give him the organ? Doctors debated it in private. They argued. One said...rules are rules. And someone said don't tell them he had a drink. And in the end... they did not give him the organ at all. With 30 minutes to spare...to get the liver into someone... they sent the liver to a 3rd hospital to the 2nd person on the top of the organ donor list. And the guy at the Good Doctors hospital was moved to the bottom of the transplant list. 

Last week, I picked up these things from Costco. Frozen pizzas to toss in the oven for a weekend lunch for the kids. Breakfast pastries. Cheese was for pizza and chips for the killer nachos I made last week, they were delicious. And a weeks worth of meat from Joyful Honda meat store. And veggies and regular food from Besia. 

I did buy my final makeup remover. I will not be buying anymore. I am now trying them all out and testing them and deciding which one I like the most. I also bought a Kanebo powder puff for my Becca powder. 

This is what it looks like. I like that it's in a  tube (travel friendly). I like the way it smells. It's light and clean. A scent of somewhere between soap and very light pinch of lemons. It smells clean. Anyway now for some current updates.....

Today is Thursday. Sorry no TBT for today. I went out to lunch this Monday with my 2 girl friends. We had an awesome lunch and whole afternoon chat session at Coco's restaurant. Lunch was delicious and the drink bar is amazing. I love their hot cocoa and so that was nice. Also we, my 2 friends and I are also going to the movies tomorrow morning/Friday. We are going to see, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. In Japan it's just called Three Billboards. However...snow is expected in the area where we live...the snow is expected either tonight or tomorrow. And we have agreed if it snows...we will cancel our movie date. But if it doesn't snow, we will meet up at 9:10 am tomorrow.  Because of the upcoming snow. I went and did my weekly shopping yesterday. Went to Costco. Joyful Honda and Besia. Yet again. But it was necessary because if it does snow...you certainly don't want a house with no food in it. I want to make sure I have a house fully stocked with food. That way...if the snow hits us and hits us hard. We will have a good 6 days worth of food. So phew. Taken care of. I bought a rotisserie chicken at Costco yesterday and so I am making taquitos for supper tonight. Taquitos and refried beans and spanish rice. The beans I boiled and finished this morning. After Noah gets home I will refry the beans. And make the rice. The taquitos are easy to roll. I will roll them... but won't skillet fry them until Bran gets home tonight. Noboru is home from work today, so he will be happy about taquito night tonight. : ) Tomorrow night for supper we're having curry nabe because with me being out at the movies...maybe depending on the snow, I need an easy to make dinner. Anyway that's enough for now, just wanted to touch bases with everyone real quick. : ) 

Noboru's birthday...

Noboru turned 46 years old, on January 18th. I baked him a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and we had vanilla ice cream on the side after we got back from the restaurant for his birthday dinner. 

Luckily for us Noboru didn't have work that day. And Branden didn't have school that day either. The kids had a dentist appointment though... before the birthday dinner. Noah had school and so we could head straight to the dentist and then to dinner a lot earlier since Noah got off school that day at 3pm. The kids had zero cavities and all looked great at the dentist. They got their teeth cleaned. And off to dinner we went. Everyone had a pasta plus mini pizza and drink bar. Their food here is absolutely delicious and Noboru really enjoyed it. 

We ate and talked. And talked and ate. We had many refills of drinks. And had a pretty great meal. 

Branden's hand. He was sitting to my left so... super hard to get a pic. But yep dinner was nice and then we went home and had cake and ice cream. : )

Coca Cola Peach...

Not sure if you can see in the bottom right corner but these brand new Peach Cokes were just released January 22nd for us in Japan!!! I went and did my weekly grocery shopping in the city of Inzai like I do every week and I saw these little beauties January 24th!!! I live way out in in a tiny town with a little under 5000 people and so these have not hit my town yet and many things often do not hit my town at all. However, I am in Inzai city once a week and that's where I always see the new and cool things being sold. I bought 4 of these, 1 for each of my family members, so we could all try and see if we liked it. Yes we did!!! 

Noboru was with me this day, we had a lunch date at the Ohsho after we finished our shopping. And my sweetie pie kindly held this for me, because I Line messaged my high schooler to ask him if he wanted to try this? He messaged me back and said...yes please!!! They get 10 minute breaks between classes and can check their phones then... and it was just perfect timing that he replied. He showed this pic to his classmates none of them had seen it yet... when he showed them the pic I sent, but they have since found it and so many have tried it and they like it too. It's good.

This says..."First in the world!!!!" or "World's First!!!" Peach flavored Coke! How cool and amazing! With a sign like that...of course I wanted my family to try one!!! : ) 

Like I said I bought one for each of us to have our own. They were only 78 or 87 yen at Besia. I also want to say that I love the design and colors of this Coca Cola Peach bottle. It's so cute!!! 

Yep, 4 empty ones. What did we think? All 4 of us liked them!!! Would I buy another one? Would I repurchase it? Yes I would, not every day or anything of course... but sure as a once in a while treat...sure. And ya'll know me...if I don't like it. I certainly will let you know. But this...this was pretty good. So perhaps if you're in Japan and you don't mind having a soda every now and then. You might like to give this one a try. : )

Anyway it's Saturday here in Japan. And I made homemade from scratch pizza dough this morning. We're having homemade pizza for dinner tonight. There is still snow all around the ground and fields in my town. And there is still icy patches on some of the roads. @_@  We're just having a nice relaxing Saturday. Have a nice weekend everyone! : )

The snowstorm that hit our town, with pics...

I snapped these first 2 pics as soon as I brought Noah home from school Monday January 22nd. Many other parts of Kanto started snowing earlier that day. But it didn't get to our town until Noah and his classmates got out of school and then the snow started dropping quickly. This is just the start. 

My backyard and the rice fields behind our home. Branden was already on the train when I snapped this pic. And so he was arriving home, just 1 hour after I snapped this pic. But boy oh boy, did the snow pick up... as you can see in the 2 pictures down below.

Two things I want to point out. First is, yes my town and particular area of Japan only gets snow about once a year. However it *never* sticks to the roads at all. The roads always remain clear maybe wet at the most. But not this time. Also look at my windshield, the part where my windshield wiper didn't wipe off. The amount of snow dropped in an hours time. Wow...insane!!! I was inside my car with the heater on full blast and waiting for my 16 year old to get inside my warm car from the train station. Many cars were behind my car. Picking up loved ones too.

See these roads at the train station, you can agree the snow is actually sticking this time. So our snow storm this time was very different. Noboru was extremely worried about me and he did call me once... while I was at the train station he told me...be careful driving and to get home before the roads get so bad, that I can't drive in them anymore. I drove *so* slow to the train station and back home. I drove about 15 MPH. And at one point I had a road rage person tailgating me so super badly. Everyone else was driving nice and slow and safe about the same speed as me. I already had Bran in the car. And I was telling Branden..."if this road-rager wants to drive like a lunatic fine but... I wish they'd just go around me!!!" But, I was NOT about to feel pressured to speed up, just because they were practically eating my bumper. Stupid no brained person! It's people like that...that cause accidents. And for what it's worth, there was a sheet of black ice under the deep packed snow on the roads all the way to and from the train station. From when it rained all day before the snow started and froze. 

A pic from my front door and facing the street... we had 2 power outages. Monday night around 10:15pm. I was in bed, just laid down. The kids were in their rooms too, they too just laid down. And Noboru should have been home any second. But the whole house just went dark. My clock that wakes me up every morning went black. After 2 minutes the power came back on. And I was resetting my clock again and before I even got to switch to the right time, we had a 2nd and final power outage. @_@ This one lasted about 4 minutes. I had to go downstairs. Reset the clock on the stove. Turn the central heating back on again. And redo my clock settings in my room. But this time, I told the kids grab your cells and set the alarms for 4:50am, Noah set his for 5:50am. Bran and I wake up at 4:50am and Noah wakes up at 5:50am. But we weren't taking any chances in case we had another power outage and missed school the next day. By the whole power outage fiasco ended and I reset my clock... Noboru came home. He shoveled this tiny walkway for us. And I told him about the power outage. We were laughing about the power outage. He told me, he would be driving both kids to school tomorrow/Tuesday in his vehicle. Versus me taking them in mine like I usually do. Because #1 my car is a 100% electric car, which isn't the problem... but she has no snow tires and is not a 4WD. She's just a car car. LOL. Noboru meanwhile drives a 4WD and he has snow tires. Like serious snow tires. So he's more equipped to drive in the snow than my car. 

All the alarms worked Tuesday morning and we had no power outage. So between my alarm clock, my cell, and both the kids cell phones and Noboru's we had quite the chorus waking us all up. Noah stood in bed. Bran got up, went to the restroom, then washed his hands Started brushing his teeth. I turned on my computer. And turned on the hot water pot. I was checking my email because after just looking outside. I was wondering if school was canceled or not? I had 2 school emails in my inbox. First, Branden's school sent an email at 5:30am and said school was canceled. Snow day for Branden. Okay. So told Bran..."Bran, no school for you today, go back to bed if you want" He did and so, he was quite happy. Email #2. Noah's school said, they are on a snow schedule and school will start at 10am versus their regular time. This email was sent at 5:50am right when Noah was about to wake up. However, they had a change of mind, because at 6:50am, we got an email saying, the roads are too bad in our town, and so snow day for all kids in our town. School is canceled. So, I told Noah, go ahead stay in bed and sleep a little longer. The boys did wake up around 7:30am. So they got to sleep in a little bit. And I'm so glad they had a snow day, because the roads were just too bad Tuesday. This pic was taken on the right of my house. Tuesday morning.

That's our fence and again these pics are taken from our backyard of the surrounding area.

Blanket of snow all covering the rice fields. 

Tuesday morning. Snow day. My backyard and the rice field behind our house.

Thick layer of snow on our shed roof.

The walkway turned to black ice. Yikes! That's my black car to the right. She stood home all day Tuesday.

Neighbors car. Snow on bushes of our neighbors house and wow look at those roads.

Umm yes it totally stuck. The roads were dangerous all Monday evening and all Tuesday. 

Two brothers having a snowball fight. Hello Branden, hello Noah...

After breakfast, Noboru took the boys for a drive around town in his vehicle. The kids were thrilled to go. Branden took these pics and sent them to me of what he saw on his drive in our town. Plastic greenhouses and rice fields for days. Yes, I do live in rural Japan. : )

The gorgeous snow and beautiful Japanese rice fields.

Noboru and 1 other car were actually able to drive. All the cars on the opposite side of the roads were abandoned cars. That got stuck in the snow. See how bad the roads were? Yep, no wonder schools were canceled. Safer that way. 

Inaka life!!! Country life! : )

Tuesday evening, while I was finishing up supper. The kids wanted to go outside in our backyard. I certainly had no objections. They made the largest snowball ever. Those silly kids. And for the record. Noah made 5 snowmen in our front yard Tuesday morning. It looked like a snowman convention by the time Noah finished with all of them. : )

I snapped this pic Wednesday morning after I dropped Branden at the train station. So in case you were thinking the snow probably melted. Not by Wednesday morning for us in our town at all. I heard it's all but gone in Tokyo. But it's still here in my town. See the roads, in this pic? That's black ice and treacherous dangerous regular icy roads. Today is Thursday and this road even this morning was still icy in parts. I'd say right now 90% of our roads in our town are free from ice. But 10% are still very dangerous. And Noboru told me that he heard it might snow again next week? @_@ I hope he's wrong. If you are a Celsius person every morning when I took Branden to school this week, even this morning it was -4 degrees Celsius and that's just 24 degrees F for us Americans. That is *freaking* cold. Super cold. And now you know why the ice on this road is still here. The weather right now? It's a nice balmy 34 degrees F. So 2 tiny degrees above freezing. But as soon as 5pm hits tonight... it will start drastically getting colder and colder. And this particular road is always in the shade. So...anyways. Japan has been quite cold lately.