Getting there is half the fun...

The days leading up to us leaving were a little busy, but nothing major. We had made sure the boys did their homework assignments ahead of time. Because of a note my husband wrote 2 weeks beforehand. And the week beforehand the boys were doing an extra math lesson or an extra Japanese page each night to ensure they'd be all caught up by the time we came back to Japan. So that was peace of mind and it helped a ton. The boys were swimming right up to the day before we left. So again I had to make sure swim bags for elementary school were packed. Swim bags for the swim club were also packed and unpacked. Meanwhile I wrote myself a list of what was needed. Just a few things like sunscreen/sunblock SPF 50 + PA +++. And I also had a Neutrogena SPF 100 but it's not PA +++. And I do prefer Japanese sunscreens. But I did bring that extra one for our bodies in case we ran out. I had us all packed days before we left even. We were ready! And excited to go.

I had trimmed my nails and toenails very nicely and painted them with this color. I love it! And will use this color all summer this year. I colored my hair at home 3 days before the flight. We were ready. In other words. : )

Wednesday, June 19th in the morning we flew to Guam. The original plan was we'd fly to Hawaii the 20th. However after looking at the flight load list. We decided the 21st was a better day for that. So no worries. We had semi expected it and had a 1 day grace buffer. Because my mom wasn't arriving in Honolulu until the 21st either. : ) Anyway back to the 19th. We went to the mall first thing.... so I could get my eyebrow wax. It only takes 10 minutes at the most. And lately I've been getting them done about every month, just about, so they were super easy for her to do. They came out great. Then we walked around the mall and I was looking to find the Face Shop. It's listed online that it's there. But I'm telling ya, it's not. I asked one lady at the customer service/mall info lady. "I can't find the Face Shop listed on the shop directory map, can you tell me if it's here at this mall?" Nice older lady smiles warmly and says..."oh do you mean the Body Shop?" (Gah, so inside now I'm thinking holy moly) I smile and say..."yeah no, I didn't mean the Body Shop, I mean the Face Shop, it's a Korean skincare shop." She does look real good at the list but nope it's not listed and she's never heard of it. I thanked her though because she was a very nice lady. And that was that. Oh well no worries. Hawaii has it and it's available in Japan apparently. So again no worries. So, we went to dinner. Around 4pm-ish. We ordered sodas (free refills) and 2 large pan pizzas At Pizza Hut. Then we drove the hotel row. Saw a lot of tourists enjoying themselves in Guam. Very cool. And then we went home. The next day we chilled out basically.

If you check the opening date of Monsters University for America it says, for general audiences starts June 21st. Okay fair enough. However as we drove passed the GPO, there was a sign that said there would be an early showing of Monsters University June 20th evening at 8pm. And also World War Z also for June 20th. Wow what amazing luck! So in a way when life gives you lemons as they say, make lemonade....or in our case when the flight is full the 20th go and enjoy Monsters University instead! : ) Cool...it all works! So that's what we did. And for the record the flight the 21st was wide open so zero worries about the flight the next day. So we enjoyed the movie June 20th in Guam. We caught the first showing on island at 8pm for it. We got a large popcorn, large drinks. We got fantastic seats since we arrived early.

See, it says on the bottom line we bought the tickets June 20th at 4:33pm. For the 8pm showing the show time is under the words Monsters towards the top. And we just hung out and cruised the island. Noboru bought a pair of cute swim trunks at Ross. But really we just enjoyed our down/relax time there and visiting with my dad.

Movies are so affordable to see. And the movie was so cute!

Right before we left and headed to the airport Friday June 21st for Osaka, Japan. We had a nice and simple lunch at Taco Bell. We had a few free Mountain Dew refills. Branden had 4 taco surpremes. Noah had 3 regular tacos.

I had my usual 2 bean and cheese burritos.  My dad dropped us at the airport in Guam and waved us goodbye. And in Guam, we checked in all the way to Honolulu. KIX was just our connecting flight. So no luggage to get obviously or anything. Three hours later we had arrived in Osaka.

If you've ever flown into KIX (Kansai international airport), you'll immediately recognize the structure shape of the building and the colorful seats. : )

June 21st. Like the board says. Honolulu bound. True and true! I can tell you honestly people waiting for this flight, looked so happy! We were happy also. : )

The flight to Guam was wide open in first class, same with the flight to Osaka. And the flight to Honolulu was wide open also. Which is why we took the route we did. These are the pics after we entered the airplane from KIX to Honolulu. The seats and open space per each passenger is a huge area. That side table area for Noah.

The foot room is enough for an adult to stretch out flat comfortably.

Noboru and Branden, we all had a window seat. Because these take such a huge space. But Noboru was at the front seat and I was at the last seat, so we could keep an eye on our 2 little ducks in between meaning the boys. : ) The TV screen is huge.

Hi kiddo! : )

While the rest of the plane was being seated, she brought over 2 tropical drinks for the boys to enjoy while waiting. They loved them! : )

I had 4 windows and we just pushed back and were about to start going down the tarmac for take off when I snapped this pic real quick. The view was awesome.  Twinkling lights from below. And Hawaii here we come! So nice to be on our last leg of the trip.

Flipping through the movies selection. We have about gee 60 movies to choose from, if not 100 since there is also TV channels and cable channels too. They had the Breakfast Club and a few other brat pack faves of mine on the flight also. I didn't watch those though, since I have those movies at home.

Blurry pic of the Paranormal Activity movies they also had #4 on the next page.

Blurry Rise of the Guardians and blurry Rock of Ages.

Classics! These are awesome!

Blurry Wreck It Ralph. The kids had a huge amount of movies to choose from. Plus they had the Nick channel and a few other channels for kids too.

The first course. Mushroom soup, ranch salad. An egg roll type thing with dipping sauce. But the bread was fantastic. It was a pretzel type bread, so soft but delicious. I had 2 of those breads. The flight attendant kindly walked around with the bread basket a few times.

Chicken breast and the main meal.

My foot all stretched out in the blanket.

With dinner, I decided to watch Oz the Great and Powerful.

Oz and the China doll. And a bit of my meal in this pic.

My warmed nuts and drink and camera case to the right of me, on my side table area. The red thing is my menu. Because breakfast also came and it had the choices in there.

After our dinners were picked up, they rolled out the gorgeous dessert cart. Pictured here. You can have a chocolate mouse or cheesecake. Or a huge fruit and cheese platter or an ice cream sundae. To be honest I was pretty stuffed but no way was I going to say.... no thanks to a dessert cart. That's why I did all my treadmill all this time... so I could enjoy my vacation and so I did. : )

I had a strawberry sundae with whipped cream and nuts! It was so good!

Sundae and Oz the Great and Powerful. The boys were enjoying their desserts, I could see. And Noboru too. So we all just enjoyed ourselves. And relaxed.

After my ice cream, I went to the bathroom. And then I went to sleep for a few hours. I turned off my TV and laid my bed flat 100% and I slept. Noah was asleep after dessert too. Branden fell asleep also but not for a long while according to Noboru. He kept an eye on him. When I woke up hours later, it said 2 hours left prior to arrival to Honolulu. So, since most everyone was dead asleep in the business class. I grabbed my toothbrush and toothpaste and went to the bathroom again and brushed my teeth really well, went pee/to the bathroom. Washed my hands then went and woke up Noah and Branden. Told them to go and brush their teeth with the amenity kit provided by Delta. And so they each went to brush their teeth and went to the bathroom also. Noboru woke up about now. And he did the same. About 30 minutes after this they turned the lights on and woke the passengers up basically. And started to take orders for breakfast. I meanwhile watched the Guilt Trip pictured here.

Croissant, 1 apple danish. OJ, fresh fruit. My coffee, I think I put too much milk in my coffee. Granted I like cream, but I think I over did it a bit. Hahaha. And in the 2 squares are jam and butter for the croissant.

Coffee, and my movie. I ate breakfast and watched this. Before we knew it, we had landed in Honolulu, Hawaii. Because of the day ahead in Japan and Guam and crossing the international dateline stuff. It was Friday morning June 21st all over again! It was 10:30am Hawaii time, June 21st. My mom's flight was set to arrive at 12:30pm. So we had 2 hours to kill, which we spent getting our rental car and buying a prepaid cell phone at Target (just $15, well $14.99 to be specif that way we could contact my mom easier while in Hawaii together). : )

Aloha welcome to Hawaii! A bit blurry but you get the idea. : )  Anyway, this isn't the main part of my post. Just the journey getting us there. So because of that, I will close down the comments for this post. The actual Hawaii post is coming soon. : ) Sorry I am a bit delayed with it. : )

Our Osaka trip

March 20th, around 7 pm-ish at night. We landed at KIX, Kansai International airport from Honolulu, Hawaii. We quickly went through customs, immigration and whatnots, grabbed our luggage and headed to the Hilton Hotel, in Umeda. It was about a 1 hour drive by limousine bus to get to our stop. Here's a quick pic of Branden and Noah at KIX.
Near those cherry blossoms on the sign it says....Welcome to Kansai.
We really liked our room a lot. And will be staying here the next time we come to Osaka. It's as you can probably guess, it's the Delta crew hotel, our flight crew from Hawaii was with us at check in, lol. Seriously. And Noboru gets an insanely good cheap deal. So for us, yeah it works!
Noah sitting on the couch. Aha those 2 bags on the table sure came along ways, right. : ) The Abercrombie bag and Coach bag. And my actual Coach bag was in front of the Coach paper bag. In this pic.
Awesome TV, loved it. And we had Japanese cable/satellite. : )
The bathroom.
We were in our room for about 5-10 minutes tops. We dropped off our luggage. And everyone went to the bathroom and then we left. We went to Saizeriya. Quite possibly the most crowded Saizeriya we've ever been in. : ) And then after that we went to Krispy Kreme to get a donut. Here's a pic of the boys in front of the map area of Osaka Station.
Krispy Kreme. Noboru and I made sure to research what was near by our hotel weeks in advance. Within walking distance of our hotel, we had everything just a quick walk away. So it was extremely convenient for us.
We all only picked up 1 donut each. However the lady gave us 4 free coupons for donuts. So we used them the next day. But we picked up some drinks at a nearby conbini and these donuts Noboru also grabbed a pack of chips and we headed back to the Hilton Hotel in Umeda.
After the boys showered, Branden fell asleep immediately. Noah stood awake, a bit, he's usually first to fall asleep but I think the time change from Honolulu to Osaka messed with his timing a bit, he did fall asleep about 20 minutes though after this picture. I showered after. And munched my donut.
We had an amazing view, we were so high up. Also watching some interesting TV show.
A beautiful view. Wouldn't want this view all the time. Granted, but it was a nice view for a day or two.

The next morning, we never even had to leave the hotel. We took the elevator down to the lobby and then took the escalator to the basement where we could walk underground, a Mc D's was literally right down there, there was even huge M signs with arrows and then Hilton Hotel signs with arrows pointing us straight back to our hotel. They must do this for the American crew that stays here, we thought. : ) We all got breakfast and headed back to our room to eat.
Hanshin!
Love this pic of Noah! Right before we went to grandma's house.
We took the bus to see and visit my in-laws and my sister in law and my niece. It was a wonderful visit. My mil enjoyed seeing Branden and Noah. My sil, loved seeing the boys too. I enjoyed seeing my niece. My mil went and picked up some take out lunch for us all. She picked up, the Ohsho. So, we had heaping amounts of fried rice, karaage, sweet and sour pork, lo mein, all sorts of things she picked a great selection. And brought it back. We ate and enjoyed every one's company. My father in law, still isn't doing so good these days unfortunately. : ( I wish he was healthier. So does everyone. But everyone else was healthy and amazing. My fil, got to spend some time with the boys though and THAT"S what's important. He got to talk with Branden. And Noah, he just stared and stared at and then he said in English...."very handsome boy" and my heart just melted. He is a great guy my father in law. And I wish his health was better. It's his memory what's going bad. When my mother in law was gone getting lunch. My father in law would ask us every 2 minutes or so. "Where's mom?" Noboru would say gently back, "dad she's picking up lunch for us all" "oh yes that's right", he'd say. And then not more then 2 minutes later he'd say..."where's mom?" or he'd say...""is it almost lunch time" and Noboru would kindly say..."dad, mom went to go and get us lunch, remember" : ) I know it may sound comical but it's not. It's very sad and not very funny at all. My father in law knew about 30 English words and also phrases in his good/younger days. Before his health went down. I thought for surely he'd had forgotten those words and that's why when he said that phrase about Noah. It melted my heart,. Not because of the message but because he remembered those words and phrases still. Especially when a person has fading memories, the fact he still remembered those phrases was remarkable to me. And so it "got me". I have nothing but respect for my sister in law and my mother in law for taking care of him with love and understanding every single day. I know it's tough and hard on them. Believe me, I hear the stories, that I wouldn't ever share on here out of respect for my father in law and his privacy. But I'll just say, it's not all roses taking care of someone like that. And we know that. My father in law went to sleep in his room after he ate and so it was just us during lunch. Noboru loves his dad so much and it's really hard for him to see his dad like that. It's hard for someone who used to think their dad, growing up was like the smartest and best man in the entire universe and now this..... anyway, I understand. Anyway, a pic of Noah and grandma Mitsuko.
And a pic of Branden and grandma Mitsuko.
Three cousins! : ) All half Japanese and all half American. My niece is such a good jump roper, she's got skills!!! She's in the 3rd grade, but this April will be starting the 4th grade. She's 1 grade younger then Branden. And her big brother is 1 grade older then Branden, but he's living with his dad now in Las Vegas. : ) After we left my mil's house, she drove us to great grandma's house. And so we visited with great grandma. She's so cute! : ) Branden's now officially taller then great grandma! Branden likes great grandma a lot! Me too! : ) After our visit, my mil dropped us at the bus station. We waved my mil and my niece good bye. And because of the frequent buses, in less then 1 minute a bus appeared and took us straight to Umeda. Living in the countryside at the Chiba and Ibaraki border, like we do, we drive everywhere. So us taking the bus was like the funnest thing for the boys! @_@ Go figure. It cracked Noboru and I up. We made a pit stop at The Hilton and everyone took a bathroom break before heading out for the rest of the day. It was only about 2pm so we had a whole evening in Osaka to ourselves since we were staying in Osaka 2 nights.
We went and used those 4 free donut coupons and also bought a dozen on top of that.

The lady at Krispy Kreme gave the boys free hats. : )
Again our hotel was just so close to everything it was like a 5 minute walk undergound to our hotel from Krispy Kreme. So we dropped the donuts off and left again.
Still daylight. Hmm, not as pretty as it looks as night though.
Noboru looked out and said....."I could never live in a city like this again. Too many people, too many buildings." I just listened. : )
Noboru pointed the buildings out to me though, he said the round building in front of us, is well known.
He then pointed and said right here's the Hankyu.
Chanel is in the Hilton so we passed this while going to take the escalator to get to all the different areas underground.

Taking the escalator down.
Walking outside among a ton of people.
And to the Loft we went. haven't been in here forever!
Hi boys! Time to check out Loft.
And by the time we left Loft, it was pitch black outside. It was March 21st evening and because my birthday was the next day, the day we were to fly back home. We decided to have my quiet little birthday dinner in Osaka.
And a quick walk to the restaurant.

And to the Outback Steakhouse we went, it was about a 3-4 minute walk from the Hilton Hotel so again so convenient. This is probably one of our family's top 5 favorite American sit down restaurants for sure, we love this place! Our appetizer. Some fried mushrooms. So good!
Noboru had the ribs. Both the boys had a chicken strips meal and drink. And I had the Alice Springs chicken with baked potato. Yumm! It was an excellent way to end our last and final night in Osaka.
We went back to the room, everyone took showers and turns with that. I took a pic of the donuts we'd take back to Narita with us. The 4 free glaze on the left. Then we had, sprinkly ones, chocolate on top but filled with bavarian type cream inside, also lemon cheesecake filled ones, OMG! caramel with walnuts. Cinnamon sugar and then some donut called, Banana pure, this was fantastic too.
Our flight would leave at 8am. So we had to wake up at 4:30am! That was so early, too early. : ) Since we showered the night before, we quickly dressed, I put some Mac concealer on and some Mac studio fix (powder foundation) and that was about it, it was way too early for me that morning. Noboru in the way back checking out. And Branden sitting in the lobby with stuff.
The Hilton lobby. The folks who work here are so nice.
We could only bring the 2 empty luggage with us to Hawaii (one inside the other of course) because we knew we'd be flying domestic back to Narita. Krispy Kreme donuts on the right. And both Branden and Noah in the Hilton Hotel lobby Osaka.
Itami airport, the boys shared a 500ml apple juice bought at the airport. And, I had a caramel machiatto from Starbucks. And I opened the donuts and let the boys pick a donut. So we all had 1 donut each while waiting.
And then we went near the gate. We flew ANA, they give Delta 90% off all ANA flights. Delta we fly completely free. But when we can't fly our own airline, we can jump on most any carrier for super cheap anyway.
We brought back the grandma next door, the gift on the right. And the gift on the left was for Branden's class.