Bits from our weekend. Going to the movies and also hitting the outlet mall...

How was every one's weekend? Ours was pretty awesome! It was such a relief to have an actual full weekend to ourselves meaning...not having to go or attend a town undokai/sports day or an actual elementary school sports day or a Culture Day, YKWIM. It's important for kids and parents too...to be able to get 2 days off a week to refresh...recharge. And start the school week yet again. So yeah...while we will *always* attend these events if our kids are in them and with a smile. It is certainly best to actually get a 2 day weekend. And just chill and relax a bit. So that being said. For us having a normal weekend. Thank the lord. And yes!!! Nice to just chill. Anyways...2 of the 5 DVDs arrived to my house via Amazon.com on Wednesday, October 11th. I have yet to see Everything, Everything. We will be watching that this weekend. So I am completely looking forward to it. Last Friday, we were all happy the weekend started. And enjoyed a nice dinner here at home. However we were all sorta tired. So we decided it was best to watch Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 on Saturday. By the way, it's been raining in our town since last Friday. And it's raining even right now as I type. So non stop rain since last Friday. Friday we all just rested after dinner. Watched The Orville on TV after everyone took showers. Saturday. I baked a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I made a nice supper. And Saturday evening, we all popped some popcorn on the stove. And we watched Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. How did we like it? We loved it. It was honestly better than the first movie. : ) 

Yep, Everything, Everything was indeed a #1 New York Times best seller. I can't wait to watch this with the family this coming Saturday evening. : ) 

Annabelle Creation. Not sure if you can see the date on top in white above the poster? And yes, this movie might be long gone from movie theaters in America. But it barely just came to movie theaters October 13th. Ahem...or should I say...Friday The 13th??? Dundundun!!!! So for Americans in the US, this movie might be old and crusty and just about to be released o DVD... but for us in Japan, it's brand spanking new. So, on Wednesday October 11th, Noboru bought the 4 of us our movie tickets online for Sunday's movie showing. You have to pick your seats. If you are in Japan, then you know this. You just can't sit randomly anywhere in a movie theater. : ) So yep...we have been eagerly awaiting this movie to come out here and as soon as the movie seats and tickets were made available to purchase online, we did. We picked the 12 noon showing, Sunday October 15th. It is also important to note this movie is only being played at 3 places in Chiba prefecture. And 1 place in Ibaraki. As you know we live on the edge/border of Chiba and Ibaraki. And actual Chiba city or Ibaraki city...Ibaraki city is tons closer for us. So we went to the movie theater in Tsukuba City, since that is tons closer for us than Chiba City is. So fwiw, our closer/closest movie theater is in rural Ibaraki and that's the one we mainly go to. This movie theater we went to on Sunday was a different movie theater...and located in the bustling city of Tsukuba at a shopping mall. There's a movie theater in the mall. 

Concession stand. 

We picked 2 large half and half popcorn's and 4 medium drinks. The popcorn's are half caramel and half buttery salt and there is a cardboard divider separating the two types of popcorn.

We love when there are 2 side seats. We also prefer and pick those 2 seats. That way the kids can sit in front of us and we know that nobody can sit near them and we sit directly right behind them and we know that no stranger will sit near us either. So we love those seats and always pick to sit there. Anyway the movie was awesome. And it ended around 2pm. After the movie our plan was to head to the Ami Premium outlet. We wanted to get some jeans and winter clothes for Branden. 

Gap...

These are slim fit.The style of jeans.

And these are slim stretch. Branden tried on many different styles on Sunday. But he prefers the slim style and so he got 2 pairs of Gap jeans on Sunday. 

Two different shades of blue. Bran wears a school uniform, 5 days a week. So, I am relieved at least that now he has enough for a weekend. I do want Branden to get another pair of pants or jeans. But I am relieved at least that he has 2 new pair that he loves. 

Branden also got a new pair of Gap sweatpants and a new Gap long sleeve top. 

Also...for whatever reason... an usually high amount of Japanese high school and college aged girls and ladies (stylish moms) were buying men's sweatpants and not women's and no none of these ladies were big girls either...so it wasn't a size issue at all. @_@ Perhaps the girls sweats were too pink and stuff. I don't know the reason, I can only tell ya what I saw. The boys were basic and gorgeous and preppy colors. They came in 2 styles of navy and 2 shades of gray (one lighter and the other more of a darker charcoal gray) there was also a charcoal black (was the name on the tag), it looked like a light black... were the choices. So very wearable color choices. Perhaps why the ladies preferred these versus a pink pair with hearts on them. Anyways...after seeing the 4th skinny girl pick a pair of men's sweats. And after seeing Bran just try them on and see how cute they were with the words down one of the legs. I said to Noboru and Noah...I'm gonna go try a pair on.  And...I'm sorry... but they were just too cute for words. I picked a smaller size than Bran. But yep...I asked Bran if he minded if we could be twinsies? And he said...I don't mind at all. These were so popular at the Gap outlet. Are we done winter clothes shopping for the kids yet? Not yet. And we're going shopping for Fall/Winter clothes again this coming weekend too. Hopefully we can be done and get it all over with...as soon as humanly possible. It's not fun for any of us, having to waste a day in the dressing rooms but...it's just something we gotta do.  But...the weather has switched to cold. Remember how last time I said...Noah was wearing sweatshirts, but not needing to wear his new pants yet? Well...Friday the 13th morning...the weather outside was so cold that...it was the first official day Noah wore jeans, and a long sleeve shirt and a sweatshirt. He hasn't needed to wear a coat just yet...but you know... he he a new one. From Gap at 45% off too. Anyways...hopefully the kids can get sorted and finished with winter clothes soon. 

There are many Ohsho restaurants in Chiba prefecture, but only 1 in Ibaraki. After finishing with shopping at the Gap outlet. We were all starving by then. And so we went and had Chinese food at the Ohsho, in Ibaraki. We didn't get home to near 7pm. Everyone took turns showering. And Branden went to his room to chill for the rest of the night. Noah went to his room. And I kicked it on the couch until bedtime, Noboru kicked it in the living room with me, watching TV too. How was our weekend? Pretty nice. We saw 2 new to us movies. We saw Guardians of the Galaxy part 2. We saw Annabelle Creation and we even managed to get Branden 2 pair of jeans, 1 pair of sweatpants and a long sleeve top too. His size in tops is still a size large at American stores like the Gap. So...same size in tops as last year. So...he still has about 5 long sleeves in size large from last year, that are practically brand new, though he's still getting new ones too. And his legs/height has changed a lot since last year, though he was still tall last year too...Branden grows like a weed. So...he needed new jeans, the ones from last year were highwaters. He's already 5 foot 10 *and* a half and he's only 15 years old and *still* growing!!!!! He'll more than likely be 5 foot 11 by Thanksgiving, at the rate he's going . All the teachers at his school ask Branden...do you play American football? And his gym teacher asked Branden when he first saw him, do you lift weights??? And at the movies to watch Annabelle Creation the lady taking our tickets... flat out asked to see Branden's high school ID because she thought he was an adult!!!! Branden has a very American body frame, tall, broad shoulders and muscular, where as in Japan... Japanese guys tend to have very petite narrow extremely thin body frames. And that's fine too. But Branden has a very different body type than most Japanese 15 years old's for living in Japan. @_@  Anyways...long story short. A fantastic weekend. We're getting there regarding Fall/Winter clothes shopping for the kids. And we're still going for more shopping this coming weekend too.

Today's Tuesday. I did my weekly grocery shopping yesterday. I also scrubbed toilets and also did a load of laundry yesterday too. The jeans and sweatpants Branden just got from Gap, I washed on the fast cycle and dried them so he can wear them anytime now. We had chicken chow mein last night (Monday). And tonight, I am making karaage (Tuesday). Tomorrow we're having curry soup (Wednesday) I prepare that like nabe in the center of the kitchen table, the family loves when we eat dinner like that. And the day after we're having tacos, ground beef and also chicken ones too (Thursday). Friday will be homemade cheeseburger night to kick off the start of the weekend.

I have a load of bath towels in the dryer as I type. And a load of clothes in the washer. I also washed both Branden and Noah's bedding on Saturday afternoon. I have been washing every one's bedding weekly now that my washing machine is big enough. 

How we spent our Sunday Funday...

Sunday, February 7th our family went to the Ami premium outlet, because we wanted to get Noah 2 more sweatshirts from the Gap outlet. 

Gap outlet

So many sales!

Noah got a really pretty orange zip up sweatshirt and a navy blue pull over sweatshirt with bright happy yellow Gap wording/letters. And this Mr. Mustacho tee shirt was hilarious and out of all the tee shirts at Gap, this was the only stack almost sold out. They only had 1 of these in Noah's size. We picked everything you see here in size 150cm. The sweatshirts are a pinch big. However to be fair the 140cm fit him *exactly* as is...meaning not 1 dot of extra room. If it shrunk in the dryer even by 1mm, it would be out grown. If Noah grew 1cm between now and the end of March...which...is possible... if you know kids...yes definitely possible. So...that is why we decided to err on the safe side and get everything in size 150cm. The tee shirt though...the Mister Mustacho one...was freakishly tiny in size 140cm and Noah is as skinny as a twig. Height wise, he's average...but for it... to look skin tight on him and almost like a half shirt...no way! So yep...everything needed to be in size 150cm this trip. Also, Gap was having amazing sales and everything was 50% off. The Mr. Mustacho tee was 50% off plus my online 15% off coupon, it was 800 yen or so, for the mustach tee. And the sweatshirts were super reasonable too. Plus...I went to Pasceos (sp?)...a few weeks back to buy both the boys school socks and underwear...remember? And I did have a look at their sweatshirts at Pasceos. And I was shocked to see....their prices were like 2400 yen for a cheap looking sweatshirt there and they weren't nearly as cute and stylish as the Gap ones. And the quality was horrible...very cheap quality on the sweatshirts for Noah at Pasceos, which is why we didn't buy any...and super paper thin sweatshirts at Pasceos for 2400 yen. No thanks. So, even Noboru said...for that price and quality we better stick with Gap. And I agree. So...that's just why... we prefer shop at Gap for the kids clothes in Japan. If we were in the states, Target and Gap outlet would both be options, but here...Gap outlet considering the cost is not really any different then the prices at Paseos. Yet the quality is *way* higher at Gap. 

After shopping at Gap, we went to get a pretzel each. And we sat in the crowded food court and enjoyed our pretzels. People watching and munching, then we left. 

Noboru wanted to go to a few shops in Narita before we went to dinner. Again...Noboru is a good dad in that... he wants to make sure both the kids have everything they need while he is away. So, he bought Bran 2 extra mechanical pencils, some pencil lead, an eraser, for grading...he bought him a blue pen and 2 red pens. They correct their own school/home work at school. 

Noah has an orange watch from Gap. However he very badly wanted this watch on Sunday. When he goes to play... he uses a watch to know when to come home. : ) And a black pen, because now the 4th graders may use pens in class. At times for projects. Before now... it was pencils only. And it still is 98% of the time, but he got a new one just in case. Bran made sure to tell Noah..."get this brand it's the only brand my friends and I use at JHS, also get the 0.7 width of the pen" Noah was like..."okay, thank you." : ) Aww, he's a very good older brother. Making sure his little brother is doing things right. : ) 

The good thing...the cool thing of living close-ish to Narita is that Narita caters to tourists from all over the world. And they have so many souvenirs available right in Narita. People from all over the world (just said that...now twice, lol)...are in love with all of Japan's special flavor Kit Kats. Many of these are region specific, meaning you have to visit that specific area, part of Japan... to be able to find or buy that specific Kit Kat. While others are not region specific, some are. So they vary. Some are available all Japan wide and some you need to visit that area of Japan. However...with living close-ish to Narita. I can get my hands on any of these special edition Kit Kats, any time I want to. Also, same with Starbucks tumblers. A few years back, people overseas but visiting Japan... were collecting region specific Starbucks coffee tumblers. Then someone said, as they were flying out of Narita airport they realized that Starbucks at the airport in Narita...they had all the regions at Narita airport. And everyone was going...okay who lives closest to Narita airport. And I suddenly got really quiet. @_@ Hahaha. : ) I was just a fly on the wall and not actually commenting on that thread. Just reading/listening to that conversation...so I didn't feel I needed to say it was me. I live near there. But yep...it is true. I have access to lots of the cool things, with living so close to Narita. : ) 

Strawberry cheesecake

Houji-cha. A roasted tea flavor.

This one is apple flavored and from Shinshu or the Nagano area. Famous for their delicious apples.

Beni imo.

Rum raisin.

Kumamoto tea. This is that areas mascot.

Anyway after going to a few shops on Sunday...just enjoying a nice family Sunday. We went to dinner. Yakiniku!

Noah and his brother talking away. Noah also munching on a fry. We always have free coupons for fries and a free drink bar. : )  Noboru meanwhile frying up some meat.

Goodness is that a lot of rosu (lean beef) on the boys grill. It's really important to me that the boys always remember these times. The going out to eat as a family. Or making sure everyone had everything they needed. Socks, underwear, dress shirts for JHS or sweatshirts for elementary school. The movie nights at home. The going to an actual movie... every once in a while. Even the regular nightly dinners at home...are super important. You know what I mean...I hope. They need to know...that family is the most important thing, we have in this life. It may sound corny but that's okay. But I want them to know, the important things in life.  In this life...there are no do-overs. : ) So enjoy it with the ones you love. And to just be a good person. : )

Little hands reaching into the communal fries at our table. I love that! Sunday was pretty awesome around here! : )

American Horror Story Hotel, Fall clothes shopping, a Costco run and homemade peanut butter cookies from scratch...

I love the TV show/series American Horror Story. I like how every new season it has new stories and a new theme. Last time for example, it was American Horror Story Freakshow. This time around it's American Horror Story (AHS, for short) Hotel. I remember a long time ago, I read when Lady Gaga signed on to do this season. I was like wow, it will be very cool! And so with great anticipation, I could barely wait for this season to start. It starts very late at night, Guam time 10pm, Japan time 9pm. Noah goes to sleep at 8:30pm school nights. And Bran heads upstairs at 8:30pm too, but has a wind down time in his room, with his tablet or books. For about an hour. 

Kathy Bates, walking two of the hotel guests, to their room. Kathy Bates is so amazing!

A tad blurry, because I used my camera phone. But it's okay, it says Lady Gaga! 

This is going to be an interesting season, I can just tell! : )

About a year ago, Besia started selling curry in their deli. It's cheap, like 250 yen or so, for as much as you can fill in the dish/container. It smells amazing! Seriously every time we shop there, it smells so good! So anyway, I was making curry that week and I saw the Besia brand of curry and thought. Gee, we always think how amazing it smells while we shop, perhaps I should buy a box and we can try it! I also purchased 1 box of beef stew. I bought 2 boxes of curry because we make double and like I have mentioned before, we have curry pasta the next day/leftover night. : ) How was the store brand Besia curry? Freaking amazing! #1 it's only like 98 yen a box. I admit, I was expecting to not like it. Maybe it would be no different than any other billions of brands or varieties out there. Boy was I wrong! Noboru summed it up in 1 word. He said as we were eating it. He said it tasted like "luxury curry" and it's a funny term, but if you live in Japan, you see regular curry roux's for like 150 yen or so. And then you see the luxury boxes of fancy shmancy curry for like 500-600 yen a box. I have never personally bought one of those. Or if you go to a restaurant not a chain...they will make fancy curry/luxury curry. Sounds silly, I know. But there ya go. : ) As for my description. Of the curry...at first glance Branden noticed it first, it's much darker then regular cheap curry. Not black, but yes definitely darker/deeper in color. But the taste for me...was like wow! This is the most amazing tasty curry ever! I love this curry roux! Can't believe it was like 98 yen. Would I repurchase this? Yes? Would I go out of my way to buy it? Honestly...yes. What I mean by that is. I have a closer-ish Besia to me and my 2nd closest Besia is right near Costco Inzai, and I am there every 2 weeks or so. So, while I am at either one, yes I can see myself stocking up and buying 4 boxes (just enough for 2 dinners/well 4 dinners worth, since we do leftover curry pasta too) So, yes I would hold off on buying regular curry for this...yes I actually would. Am, I telling anyone to go out and buy it? Nope. Just saying and mentioning in passing... what I am loving lately. And our family is in love with the Besia brand of curry. : ) 

Also, salsa is semi hard to find here. You can get a huge bottle at Costco, of Pace, but as soon as you open the bottle, the shelf life goes away on that right away. Kaldi has some salsa, but it's pricey. This was at Besia too. Each can is 115 yen? Super cheap, perfect size for a taco night or dip with chips. And the interesting thing is. I would bet this came from America. Wrong, this comes from Mexico, pleasantly surprised. I was like...worth a shot! I have since tried 1 can. My thoughts? Noboru right away said though... it is listed as medium in hotness level. It is hotter than the American salsas we buy. And he liked it. The flavor? Best! So good, like you were at an authentic restaurant. Seriously! Our family's only complaint is that is is super chunky. Granted if you like chunky salsa, no problem. But it could be just a weird... our family thing... because even Pace Picante is too chunky for us too and I throw that Pace into a blender to liquefy it. So, no worries, next time we will just liquefy 1 of these cans. However, next time I go to one of my Besia stores, I plan to buy, about 5 of these cans to stock up! These are so good! Flavor? Spot on! Price? 115 yen for a can? Perfect! If you like chunky, perfect. If you like smooth, just pop in the blender. 

Medium in heat. But definitely spicier then what we were buying. This is a keeper and I hope they keep restocking these. 

I have been using Mac Mineralize Natural Skin Finish powder (what a long name, omg, hahaha sorry) as a setting powder. I love it, but don't like how it doesn't come with a puff or a place to put a puff. Like how the Mac Studio Fix does. Anyway, I love it though. And so, I remedied that by purchasing a Shiseido puff. What else have we been doing?

Last Friday evening, as soon as the boys were out of school, we quickly ate dinner at home that I made earlier. And we headed out to our nearest outlet mall to us. Which is the Ami Premium outlets. They have an Auntie Anne's pretzel place there. We love this place! After we hit the Gap outlet, we 4 went and picked up a fresh hot hand twisted pretzel each, ate them there. Then we headed home. 

Yep, that's the right size for Noah. : ) 

We picked up 1 sweatshirt for Noah. 

And 3 long sleeved shirts for Noah as well. Branden still has 4 long sleeve tops from last year, that he still fits. Size medium men's tops, so no doubt Bran can wear those all Fall and winter. Plus Bran wears a school uniform 5 days a week now, he'll still get new long sleeve tops but not yet. Noah, however needs tops, asap, because he outgrew all his from last year and plus he wears regular clothes to school. We bought this nice San Francisco one. 

The Japan one. 

And this one too. Just 3 long sleeve tops and 1 sweatshirt. Again, little by little, we are getting there! : ) What else. 

The boys and I, together baked these homemade from scratch peanut butter cookies. These were so good! We baked these October 10th, Saturday. These were amazing actually, I will be baking these again this Fall for sures! : ) 

Last Sunday, October 11th was supposed to be the town undokai. But as expected it was canceled because of the heavy rains. Each area, orders food for their area. Our housing community passed around the kairanban (information booklet) a month or so ago and asked you to pick which obento you'd like. The choice was between 2 Japanese obento or 1 sandwich obento. I knew the kids and I were to pick the sandwich ones, because I asked them and showed them the pictures. But, Noboru also wanted the sandwich as well. The sandwiches were being made by a pretty well known (for our area) bakery in the small city nearest us. So because the undokai was canceled, we just had to walk to the building near the tennis courts and pick up our meals at noon. Egg salad, tonkatsu (pork cutlet sandwich), tuna fish, and ham sandwich combo. Nobody wanted the egg salad and that's my favorite. So, I had 1 whole egg salad sandwich (2 halves) and Bran only wanted 1 half of a tonkatsu sandwich and 1 ham sandwich. Noah had 2 mini ham sandwiches. And we told Noboru you can eat the rest. He ended up with a ton, sandwich overload, haha,  3 tonkatsu sandwiches (half sandwiches), 4 tuna fish sandwiches, 2 egg salad sandwiches. He had plenty, Noboru didn't even finish them all, just too many. We all sat and enjoyed our free day of a canceled Town Sports Day. 

My latest Costco run, picture. I went. October 15th. One rotisserie chicken, 1 (2 pack of mozzarella, yes homemade pizza is in our future and something else Italian,  but I haven't decided what yet : ) And some maple pecan danish. 

These are so good. Anyway, that's a tiny pinch of what we have been up to. : )