Stepping into the Gap Tuesday night. Gap Inzai/Chiba New Town

I swear the people who read my blog are the nicest! : ) Kind,  helpful, info sharers! And I try to do the same too. Anyway, it was mentioned to me in the comments section below that Gap.co.jp ships now and was having a sale and free shipping to boot. So, I went to the website. I saw 3 things I liked. I was really on the fence on choosing a size for Noah in particular since he's so thin. And I went to sleep. The next morning, I get online to order the 2 things and decide to just go to the actual Gap shop to try the shirt in question with Noah in a day or two. However get this, the 2 things were sold out already! Bummer. You know, I have only myself to blame, I should have ordered faster.  Anyway, the info did help me a lot because it made me realize I should get myself to Gap kids and see if the sale was happening also in the stores too. Which they were. My closest Gap is Gap Inzai. Unless you count the Ami Premium Outlet.

They had 2 of the 3 things I was looking for, so a good trip down there. So feeling quite happy.

I would have never known about this sale on this particular scarf if I wouldn't have gotten the helpful comment about the Gap sale, so thank you! Originally 2,400 yen about $25 US. But we got them on sale for 390 yen about $4 US. So a great deal.

Dark navy blue about the same color as the bag, hahaha. And bright happy yellow. Fleece so it's washable. And with boys these will need a weekly washing I'm sure. : )

Pure yellow on the other side with navy border. A really good deal. This was the deal, I was most happy about when we went to Gap this Tuesday evening after the boys got out of school.

I had been eyeballing this particular long sleeved top for weeks at Gap.com. And the comment that  a grandma left on Gap.com saying how she usually buys only Ralph Lauren for his grandsons and she loved this particular shirt etc etc. Yes I do read those Gap comments and they help me often decide which size, does it run big or small, though size wise I pretty much know anyways if it's from Gap or ON. Did it look like the picture, you know those types of questions. Anyway that grandma's words were etched in my brain. However someone also left a comment saying it ran big? @_@ That was what made me hesitate ordering from either Gap.com and gap.jp. This was the shirt I needed Noah to actually try on. Because he's usually a 130cm. In tops however as you know, he's freakishly thin, super thin. Pants he's usually a slim, when he was 6 he wore a 6 slim. This year he got size 7's slim. So yeah someone saying this shirt ran big? Sorta made me hesitate especially for my skinny minnie. Anyway, I went to Gap Inzai and Noah tried this on and the 120 fit him width wise best. But considering arm length, he has long arms and legs. Noah's arms were a better fit for 130cm. Plus he's constantly growing not shrinking, lol. So I got the 130cm size for Noah. I will roll the sleeve a pinch at first but I think that was the best size for him. That's all we got the 2 scarves and this 1 top. I wanted sweatpants for Branden. But the pair they had were slim fit, which Branden needs a normal fit not a slim fit. And the price was absurd, 4500 on sweatpants. No way am I spending $46 US on 1 pair of sweatpants. Sorry but not happening. especially slim skin tight ones on my normal build/to athletic build older kiddo. Nope. *shakes head*

Also, this shirt was sold in one or two other colors at Gap US (some of the colors are sold out now but they had more originally). Where in Japan it's only being sold in red with blue stripe,green with white stripe and navy with yellow stripe and the cream color with navy stripe (we bought the cream for Noah). I wish they'd make all colors available here for us in Japan. So, since I had to get the sweatpants for Branden anyway from Gap or ON US. I ended up also getting this color for Noah in size medium. From Gap.com the US site. I love this color and think it will look fantastic on Noah with a pair of khaki shorts and his brown leather flip flops this coming Summer. And I had a 35% off coupon and the price was $14.99 to start with so 35% off of that made it a super deal. : )

I also picked up this dress since it was affordable. The second I saw this dress I loved it. I have my Gap leather ballet flats already. And think this will be perfect for the warmer weather months. I picked this up from Old Navy.

And I like this one too and ordered this one also. 2 LBD's (little black dresses) to switch back and forth with once the weather heats up. Pair it with a little gray cardigan or pink cardi. Ballet flats. I'll be ready. I'd also love to own this dress in the orange color it's currently being sold in, but I'm holding off for now.

I have been going full throttle on my treadmill lately. I am way past this number now. But I am going strong on this.  I'm #3 now. Yay me! Go me! ; )

Two pair of these sweatpants in gray from Gap.com at $16.95 each. For Branden. Picked them in size 12, he's only 11, but that way he can wear them next year also. And we got these with the 35% off coupon since Gap was having that sale, so even cheaper. I was much happier about the price after the 35% off was totalled. : )  Anyway, nothing hugely important or life altering in this post, I know. But it's what we've been up to lately. : )

Costco in Chiba New Town opening next year!

Information share, if you already know or don’t live so close, this won’t matter so much to you. But the new Costco location is opening by the end of next year. Should open by the end of 2013, in the Chiba New Town area/Inzai area.

This to me, would be the closest and most convenient Costco for me! So, I am REALLY looking forward to it. I think I could definitely swing a trip there once a month for sure! No long high way tolls for me either. And could actually zip there and back before the boys would get out of school.

Anyway just thought I’d share this, could be helpful for someone else. I know for most folks it’s easier getting to Makuhari. But for me living on the outskirts between/bordering Chiba and Ibaraki, this would be much closer. So, I’m looking forward to next year. Hope this info helps someone. : )

The last bits from GW, like heading to the sento for Children's Day, etc.

These little cuties are the koi nobori (carp streamers) that Noah made at yochien this year. : )
Over the Golden Week holiday, one day while Noboru was at work, the boys and I went to Chiba New Town/Inzai. I have blogged about that place many times before. They have the closest Gap to us (haven't been into it in a long time though ; ). And they also have a great big homecenter and the Japan Meat (name of store) is really nice there. So, I wanted to get some ricotta at the Japan Meat store. They have a huge cheese selection.

The store was so packed. You know, you go in there for 1 item, meaning the ricotta cheese and I ended up getting marinated miso pork we had for dinner that night. And I also picked up some chicken leg quarters for teriyaki chicken also. And the cheese too. Didn't do huge amounts of shopping in there just ended up with about 4 things. Three things more then I planned though. : )

The drive was longer then expected because the main way to get there was detoured. So knowing we'd have an even longer drive back home, I let the boys get 100 yen shakes at McD's on the way back. Yep, the lady gave us this huge giant bag for 2 tiny choco shakes. Go figure. If I were in the McD's myself, I would have politely declined and said... we don't need the bag etc. But as I was only looking through the glass and guarding the shopping cart with items while the boys ran into the Mc Donald's. We ended up with the huge honkin' bag. Aw well. : )

And at a red light trying to get us on our way home. Listening to music, the boys happily sucking their shakes.

On a totally different day, it rained buckets. That's the kind of weather we've had lately...real nice almost Summery type days and then...real rainy sort of semi chilly type days. ; ) Definite Spring weather.

The rice fields are so filled with water.

Miso pork, potato salad. Made some rice and some chopped up stir fry veg, I made real quick and dinner was fast that night.

So yummy. My family's came out lighter, and I like mine really really super well done, so mine were slightly darker then every one else's. We really enjoyed dinner that night. We love miso pork.

The next day in Golden Week, Noboru cooked me dinner. I loved that. He made Indian style curry.

Carrots and onions are blended up in the food processor.

I meanwhile finally got around to using the apple crisp from Knott's Berry Farm. I cut lots of apples, sprinkled with cinnamon. And then melted some margarine and mixed with the crumble/crisp part and baked in the oven while Noboru continued making us curry.

It was so good. And we all enjoyed the naan.

The apple crisp was really good. I am not even counting how many apple crisps we've eaten these past few months. : )

Another night we had buffalo wings.

Buffalo wings, the last bit of the potato salad we got at Joyful Honda in Chiba Newtown. A salad with carrots since we were having the ranch for dipping anyway. ; ) It was a really good dinner.
The different color in wings, some were mild for the kids and some were extra spicy since Noboru prefers extra spicy.

The flowers we ordered 2 weeks ago got here (we wanted them to arrive after we got back from Osaka). We were so happy.

And we ordered new hanging baskets for the front porch as well.

The plastic liners with holes.

Noboru and I each worked on the hanging baskets. My job was to pull off all the flowers. So they grow bushier and fuller.

I felt badly pulling them all off, but after doing this for a few years I know it works. Noboru meanwhile placing coconut liner little pieces at the bottom for extra soaking up of water.

The boys playing soccer like crazy. And both Branden and Noah's comforters hanging outside.

Sheets and any extra blankets also hung out.

Another day, thinking about school starting shortly I washed all the boys sneakers. See that stuff on the grass, Noboru has been working hard on the grass. he has been throwing all sorts of things on it.

Towels all drying up. Gym uniforms. And I think you can sort of make out...my bright pink short sleeve top for the hotter months/weather and periwinkle blue night tee. Many chisai towels (from using at the sento the night before) and handkerchiefs and undies drying for the boys. If the weathers good the clothes are out there. If it's crappy weather, then they're in the dryer.

Everything jeans for the boys, pants and shorts. And 2 summer dresses of mine on there, navy and the other black (have had them for ages). Noah meanwhile riding on the terrace.

Lasagna night. The reason I made the drive earlier in the week for Golden Week in the first place. : )

This was so good. Seriously, Noboru said, can you make this again. Okay.... So, I'm going to be making that drive back to Chiba New Town again soon to get more cheese. LOL.
Hopefully the road work and detour are finished by now.

Man dinner was good that night. This was the night we went to the sento by the way.

After a very good dinner. Noboru said..you know what, let's do something! I was sorta feeling a little tired. Ready to take a shower upstairs and relax on the couch for the night. But I'm game for anything... so I said..like what? He said, let's go to the sento. This happened because we had mentioned to Branden while we were in Osaka..we used to go to Senbayashi a lot and go to the sento there. Branden loves sentos and onsens of any kind. So he really wanted to go to the sento in Senbayashi in Osaka. And we even briefly thought about going until we realized we had no towels or shampoo etc to go. So we nixed that idea while in Osaka. Anyway Branden really has been wanting to go. So I think that's why it was in Noboru's mind. So, I said yes, the kids were really happy. I went upstairs and got everyone a chisai towel (which is why there were a ton hanging on the laundry outside in the pic up above) packed both Branden and Noah some clean underwear and fresh pj's. My own fresh undies and a pair of comfy shorts and a tee. Some deodorant for me and off we went.

Yep, if you have a tattoo you cannot come into the sento.

The koi nobori hanging nicely in the sento. Branden and Noboru went into the guys. And Noah went in with me. I told Noah this is the last year I'll let him go with me. : ) But we went in and enjoyed ourselves. He washed himself next to me, where I washed myself. I washed his back and went over his hair a bit before he rinsed himself. I threw my hair in a pony tail and we started going from bath to bath. We went into a bright purple one. It smelled of lavender. There was 1 little girl and 4 other little boys. 3 of the boys were around Noah's age and 1 of them was older. After the purple bath Noah wanted to head outside, so we went to the 5 different baths they had outside. One even had a big hanging flat screen TV. I recalled reading on a lovely bloggers blog last year how in Japan TV's are everywhere. And I chuckled when I saw one hanging at the rotenburo. I thought....yep she was so right. ; ) We went to all the different baths. And we had agreed to meet in the lobby at 8:30pm. So at 8:10pm, Noah and I headed to the dressing room. He got into his pj's and I got dressed as well and we met up in the lobby.

One of the best parts of the sento is getting a snack afterwards. Noah had a vanila icecream in a waffle cone. Branden had a Pino brand icecream from the machine that he really wanted. And I chose the lemon shave ice. And Noboru picked this big Pepsi. However...everyone wanted some shave ice, so they all ended up sharing my shave ice. : ) Which was totally fine. So anyway there you have it...for Golden Week 2011, we went to Osaka. Went to the sento (public bath), we mostly stayed home, the boys played tons. And we planted flowers in the hanging baskets. Noboru worked on the grass to get it ready for the Summer months. I did heaps of laundry (because it really is just absolutely endless isn't it : ) We had many warm nice days and 1 rainy GW day.

We've still been renting plenty of good movies from Tsutaya Discas still. And I've been loving the new episodes of Glee and America's Next Top Model, a lot lately... have also been watching a lot of cooking shows lately too. : )

Today we spent our day getting ready for Noah's upcoming birthday next week! : )

Well with Monday being a day off for Noboru and with Branden also having the day off, since he had that day of school on Sunday. We figured today would be a good a day, as any to go and look for something for Noah's upcoming birthday next week! First stop, Toys r us.

Looking at high powered water guns! We bought Noah one for his birthday and also bought the rest of us a water gun each as well! Because we will be having a water gun shoot-out extravaganza this summer! Ha ha ha! : )

After finishing our Toys r us shopping, we were starved and ready for lunch! : ) We went to one of our favorite Chinese restaurants! This was my combo. Gyoza, fried rice, karaage and a small salad and it also came with egg drop soup, which I gave to Noah, since Noboru gave his to B! : )

We ordered the kids an adults size of their own fried rice and they split that. We also shared karaage with them. And Branden had 2 egg drop soups (their fried rice, also came with egg drop soup), and Noah had half the adults size fried rice, 1 bowl of egg drop soup and 1 gyoza and 1 karaage. Kids were stuffed, we were stuffed and we left and went to the Aeon mall with the Gap in it, in Chiba New Town. It was about a 3 minute drive from this restaurant.

Noah enjoying his lunch! : )

The boys, being silly, decided to skip into the Gap, lol! See the pic? They really did! Ha ha ha! : )

I wasn't looking for it. But oddly as we had finished our Gap shopping and riding the escalator down to the Starbucks. This tiny birthday decorations place just opened up! How unusual and what a coincidence! Uncanny! They were missing a #7 and the bottom row of more normal # candles (meaning not the flashy rainbow ones) only had 3 numbers, 3, 5 and I think it says, 8 or 9? Well whatever, again as luck would have it, Noah will indeed be age 3! So, we bought the bottom normal style #3 candle for Noah's cake for next week! And the price, was pretty near the price in the US. Super cheap price on the candle, under 150 yen! It really is sorta downright odd, how we lucked out like that! Ha ha ha. But no complaints! : )

Went in and we ordered ourselves 2 iced caramel machiattos. The medium sized ones. And we went home! Pretty darn uneventful, I'd say, ha ha ha! But heck...it was good to get this type of stuff outta the way. That way we don't wait for the last second before his birthday! : )

Heading out of the mall and on our way to the minivan. Branden and Noah walk closely together. And Branden keeps a hand on the back of Noah. He's very protective of his little brother! Good big brother, very good big brother! : ) I also asked Noah, do you wanna hold your Gap bag Noah? he said, no thanks! Ha ha ha. But Branden said, "I'll help you mommy" and so he carried it! : )

The birthday bags, what's in those? Well, I can't tell! Ha ha ha! Okay, maybe I'll give you a peek at a few of the things but not all.

We got these cool jean shorts for Noah! I loved the big "G" on these. And the stitching of Gap 1969 or whatever on the little pocket in the front. We got these in a 3T, which is a 95 at Gap. Hmm, he usually wears a 100cm all over Japan, whether it is at Nishimatsuya or anywhere. Aeon, or any place. These pants ran a bit big though (and most of his Gap bottoms are indeed 100cm, so hmm), also the size 100cm of the other pair we got Noah the same day were the same exact size, yet they were a 100cm ones. Hmm. Also, Noah is really thin, so that didn't help! Ha ha ha. : ) Good thing they have that adjustable waistband thing. Winks.

I liked the back of these too. The back tag that says Gap and the line stitch on the pockets. All those odd little details that would never matter to a single person on earth but I found pretty cool! Ha ha ha! : )

These look like jeans but they are not! They are stretchy and I swear these feel as comfortable as "room wear"! Ha ha ha. Play comfy pants, type pants but he can wear these anywhere because they still look cool! : ) The price of these was almost as insane as the gap shorts with the "G" on them but....it's a birthday, so we said, why not! : )

Hmm, don't these 2 shorts look about the same size? Actually if anything the ones with the G on them look bigger then the other ones. Yet, the ones with the G are 95/3T and the other's are a size 4/100cm. I am glad I always have the boys try their stuff on at Gap because the sizes really do vary from item to item. And I really don't care what the size says, as long as it fits, that's all we care about. So, yeah, 1 pair in 1 size and the other in a different size. Hmm. : )

We also got him this cute little summer T, at Gap too. Something about sand castles. : )

And just because it's Noah's birthday doesn't mean we didn't look for anything for B. We found him a new pair of flip flops. Yes he has freakishly big feet for a 6 year old! LOL. Size 1/2.

Okay enough of sharing. Okay one more....we also got him the "Bee movie" DVD! Since this one is a Japanese DVD, they can watch this in our minivan! Ha ha ha! : ) Hmm, he's not going to do so shabby with regards to his birthday pressies! Though we are keeping things as simple as always though. We have never been the type of parents to buy them 100 presents for their birthday or anything sorta like an "over kill" type way, lol. Just a few, just enough to make him feel it was indeed his special day, is all! : )

Noah's water gun! After searching through the water gun aisle! My husband searched through them all. (must be a guy thing) He wanted a pump action one for the boys. And one that shot the farthest distance. And how much water does it hold? All that stuff, he was working out and he came up with this one! We are talking some serious water gun fights, that will be going on in our backyard this summer! And yes, I also picked out my own gun! I went with the "cute and pretty water gun" though (I'm such a girl) Noboru thinks I shoulda went with a tougher one. Hmm, hope I don't get whooped by the guys outside this summer! ha ha ha! : ) All our neighbors know how silly we are...what on earth will they think when they see us all running through the yard with mammoth water guns, squealing through the yard! Ha ha ha! : ) I think I am going to have to ask a few of Branden's friends to get some guns too and perhaps we can have a flat out, water gun war out in the backyard! Ha ha ha! : ) That sounds like a ton of fun to me! : ) Whoopsies nearly forgot, we also got Noah a sword, just a foam safe one though. : )

And what size of bubbles are these? Like a 2 gallon or 3 gallon sized one? And this was so cheap, like 744 yen. But it will make sure the boys are fully stocked for bubbles all summer long. A few more gifts here and there today. But, I think, if you think about it. Just 2 nice pair of shorts, 1 nice t shirt. And a good DVD to add to the collection. But the rest is just like cheaper affordable but really fun type stuff. And shoot presents being fun or not fun, doesn't necessaily depend on price, right? : ) Sometimes the funnest presents are the cheapest ones, aren't they? Isn't that the way it goes? : ) I recall, getting a whole expensive little kitchen when I was a wee little girl, fridge, kid size stove and oven, sink and the whole bit, yet I enjoyed the *box* better then the gift inside. I had my dad cut me out some windows. And I designed and colored my own flowers on the box and everything! So yeah...I think Noah will enjoy blowing bubbles and even have a blast with his *very* cool, yet under 1000 yen water gun as well! : ) I think he will enjoy his birthday next week! : ) I hope! : ) Only thing that's left is to phone the restaurant and make a reservation and order the cake! : ) Oh yeah and wrap the presents! Ha ha ha! : )