Throwback Thursday. Family Vacation Honolulu, Hawaii 2013...

Since it is June, I thought this weeks TBT could come from our family vacation we took also in June, just a few years ago. We usually take a family vacation every summer and it's usually to Hawaii. This was the year 2013 and our family once again hit the island of Oahu for some much needed rest and relaxation and some family fun. And this time was super nice, because my mom flew from California to spend the week with us in Honolulu. Back to the pic. Just about to head from Japan to Honolulu. The seats in first class to Honolulu are these really big slanted type seat configuration. The window seats... just have 1 huge seat and it is slanted. The seats fold all the way down to beds or comfy recliners. They're so comfy. And a huge screen for watching on demand movies and a nice side table with reading light and plugs to charge tablets and stuff. Of course we book ended the boys. Noboru was in the first seat, then B, then Noah and I was last. That way we always kept a watchful eye on the kids. : ) 

Enjoy your flight kids. And I will do the same. And I'll also be keeping my eyes on you guys. : ) 

Dessert cart. Yum! After a full course meal. They wheeled the dessert cart around. There are a few desserts to choose from and also a huge cheese and fruit platter.

I picked a strawberry sundae and watched Oz the Great and Powerful. And a whole bunch of other movies too. 

We spent many many days at the beach. Fave beach? Kailua! : ) Noah and also Bran boogie boarded. I did too. My mom enjoyed the beach a ton and so did Noboru. 

We always bring a lunch and plenty of drinks with us. And a whole lot of sunscreen.

What lucky kids! The luckiest! : )

My mom doted on both Bran and Noah most of the days and in between eating her salad, she also found time to sit and drink her Perrier and read her book of the month. That time it was Fifty Shades of  Freed. Those are her reading glasses. 

Summer vacations are for eating meals slowly. Creating lots of fun memories. Eating, talking and laughing! And enjoying some very fluffy blueberry pancakes, crunchy bacon, eggs and hashbrowns and sipping good ol' American coffee!

Going to touristy places...because you can! : ) And it's fun! : )

Because grandma gave each of you a disposable camera and told you 2 to takes lots of pictures from your vacation. And you both did. And there is Noah taking a picture of his lunch that he was just about to eat! I love this! : ) 

With hat...

Without hat and both wearing their new shark tooth necklaces...

Dole Whip pineapple deliciousness!

Anyway that's today's TBT from 2013! : )

Happy New Year 2016!!! The Year of the Monkey...

Happy New Years everyone! Good bye 2015 Year of the Sheep, hello there...Year of the Monkey!!! We sent out some very happy...very mellow in color... soft yellow ones this year! The pics obviously came from our summer vacation, this past July in Hawaii. Hopefully everyone can sorta get a general idea from the little picture collage we sent out.  I did white out our last name and address, just in case any of you are Terminators sent from Skynet, from either the past or present and are hunting for us. Okay...I'm kidding...I'm kidding. : ) 

Happy New Year's dear family, dear friends and dear and lovely readers. I hope all of you have the best most wonderful year, this year. I sincerely hope you all stay happy, healthy and wise.

PS, Happy New Year Andria, thank you for getting in touch with me! You made my day! Have an awesome year this year and right on about Korean beauty products! Yay. : )  

Our last full day spent in Hawaii, going to the movies to see Minions, heading to the North Shore for some shrimp, Dairy Queen, etc and our flight back to Japan, the next day...

Alrighty, you guys this is the official last Hawaii vacation 2015 post. It has *never* taken me this long to publish our summer vacation post... in the history of this blog...like ever, and you guys know that. It's just as soon as we got back from Hawaii, we had quite a few things going on. Fun things granted, but busy things too. Anyway, back to the post at hand. I shared this same pic, on the post where I talked about us going to see the movie, Inside Out, the same post I informed ya'll it was called Inside Head in Japan, when was that...2 weeks ago?  Anyways, if you look at the tickets on the right. You will see, that first thing Friday morning, July 24th our family caught the first showing of the day of the movie Minions. We saw it right near our condo, in Kapolei.  The movie started at 10:30am. However we woke up around 7:30am. And we all got dressed and ready for the day and had our morning breakfast yogurts. And we packed up our movie candy and chocolate bought from Target the night before, and we hit the movie. We bought our tickets, then bought a bucket of popcorn and a large soda and some nachos and went and grabbed some seats. What did we think of the movie Minions? It was hilarious! So funny. So many people were laughing in the movie theater and so were we. We definitely enjoyed Minions! So that was the 3rd and final movie we saw while in Hawaii. Terminator Genysis, Inside Out and Minions. We have seen 2 others while in Guam, this past week, Pixels and Vacation! Pixels was awesome, the music and 80's references were so funny. And Vacation...was so good, I have to get that on DVD, for sures! Literally people were laughing hysterically for the entire movie of Vacation. And usually remakes or...although this is NOT a remake. It was like the 2nd chapter, so to speak, this new Vacation movie. However this was equal to the original Vacation if not...dare I say... funnier. If you have seen Vacation and the sense of humor matched yours, you'll enjoy this one a lot. However, if you didn't dig the original Vacation at all...don't see this one, because it's funny and yes it has some crude jokes and whatnot in there, but we loved it! Absolutely loved it! : )

After the movie, we spent our final day enjoying the North Shore. We wanted to go and have some of our favorite spicy garlic shrimp. This is a random shrimp truck on the North Shore. There are food trucks all over the North Shore. And people from all over the world on vacation go and enjoy them!

Another random pic, I took of some families enjoying some shrimp truck... yum yum goodness.

And us pulling into the North Shore McD's. Noah does not like shrimp, as you know. Which is fine...because we're all different and like different things. Also important to note, he keeps trying each and every year. When we had our shrimp, a few days earlier at the mall before hitting Sephora, he ate one of Noboru's shrimps and while he did try it...he's not quite there yet. And you know what...that's okay. : ) At least he tries it. An A for effort, as they say. Hopefully the taste will be good to him someday and if not...hey no worries, kiddo, we have your back. And to McD's for infinity, I will take you, if need be. : ) Awww. 

All the infamous shave ice places at the North Shore! 

Aww, our favorite truck...you are there! We were like...oh yeah! We parked the car immediately and went right up and placed our order. : ) The trucks might look scary, but I assure you, they're truly ono (delicious) 

A garlic butter sauce over the rice. And the shrimp and the way the cabbage underneath the shrimp turns all spicy and garlic buttery. I ate every shrimp and every piece of cabbage off my plate. And every grain of the garlic rice. Gosh dang it...it is good. So good. 

We bought drinks at a grocery store along the way. 88 cents if you used your club card and so...I used the club card. : ) So we had our drinks cheaply. Branden was like...this is *so* freaking good. And Noboru chimed in and said...I think this shrimp is better then Andy's shrimp (the one we had a few days earlier). I had to say...I do agree. This shrimp is so good. Like...we could eat this every single day of our lives... type good. : ) But good thing.. it's just a once a year treat. : ) 

Noah meanwhile munched his cheeseburger, tiniest size of fries ever, even smaller than a size small in Japan. Hahaha. And Noah also received this bag of apples. And so he munched on some apple. And chatted with us.... shrimp eaters. Hahaha. : )  After that, we took a nice and slow drive and started to make that lap around the island and our next stop? Dairy Queen of course! : ) 

Both of the boys enjoying their DQ Blizzards. Noah's was a child's size and he had a Jurassic World cup. : ) Bran had a size small, which is the same size Noboru had...which was more than enough ice cream for them. We talked while eating our ice cream. Man...it was a nice day, that day! : ) 

I meanwhile had a Peanut Buster Parfait. Hot fudge, nuts layered with soft serve ice cream. Lordy lordy, this was *so* good. Some lady went to pick up a birthday cake from DQ, while we were eating our icecream...and the cake was not right. What was wrong with the cake? I don't know. But she picked up the cake...must have got as far... as her car, in the parking lot and came right back with cake in hand. The ladies working there, were looking at the cake. She was just out of ear shot. But we chatted among ourselves. (In a hushed voice we said) I bet somethings wrong with her cake. Wonder if the wording on her cake was wrong? Anyway we chatted about the birthday cake. And then we chatted about the shrimp. Pearl Harbor...the movies we saw. And basically, we chatted about how the very next day... we were to leave Hawaii. How did I feel? I was ready to go back home to Japan. We spent 5 *amazing* nights in Hawaii, 6 amazing days there. Plus 1 full day/night travelling to Hawaii and back if you combine the both flights together. So we were gone from home for around a week. And it was a nice vacation. Granted our vacation was 2 days shorter since we were trying to originally get to California. But honestly... a weeks vacation is a perfect amount of days. We felt superly well rested. Extremely happy. We saw so much...did so much. Had such a fantastic day at the beach in Kailua, with a picnic lunch and our beach chairs. We felt *really* happy with this years summer vacation. Truly satisfied. One day our boys will be grown adults and these vacations... will be just a thing of the past. Or a thing of my Throwback Thursdays, and I know that. And so while the kids are still kids...I want to enjoy *every* single summer we can! I know many of you definitely "get that" : )  Friday night...we went and enjoyed our last nights dinner. We decided to go to the Outback Steakhouse (but didn't turn out as planned). One of our favorite American restaurants, is the Outback Steakhouse. However the line in Kapolei was like hours long. And I turned to Noboru and said..."you know what honey... let's forget it...let's not waste a minute of our last night, waiting in line." Let's just get something we all want. Noboru was like...I feel the exact same way.  And so we asked the kids and ourselves. Noboru said...he'd like to enjoy some Wendy's and that he loves their chili and their Cesar salads and burgers. And Branden chimed in and said...I'd like to eat Wendy's too. Noah was on board with the Wendy's plan and so I said..." cool, let's do this!" And we left the Outback parking lot and headed to the simplest of dinners for our very last night in Hawaii. We went into Wendy's and a very lovely kiddo about the age of 17, named Brandon. : ) Waited on us. He was just the best...you could tell... this is just his after school job. We placed our order and then we sat down. I had the Monterrey chicken sandwich with a cheese and butter potato on the side, with a blueberry lemonade. Noah had a chicken sandwich and a small chili. Noboru true to what he said, had 1 Cesar salad, 1 cheeseburger and 1 medium chili. Bran had a cheeseburger combo with fries and a drink. We ate...it was a simple...totally not fancy meal.. in the least...but considering how we are (we definitely don't put on airs in our family)...our last meal... fit us to a T. We went back to our condo. We packed up all our suitcases. Placed every one's clothes for the next days flight out, on the kitchen chairs. And we all took showers and went to sleep. Our flight the next day was at 1pm Hawaii time. Saturday.July 25th. We would be landing back in Japan, Sunday July 26th, 

We left the condo, Saturday morning. Went to Mc D's for breakfast, considering we ate yogurts for breakfast the whole week, McD's was a nice breakfast the morning we left. Gosh we loved that condo. We took the rental car back. And we took the shuttle back to the airport. We were at the airport by 10:30am. We checked in, checked in our bags. and the line through the TSA, was super long. But we got through it and we just sat near the gate. We boarded the airplane. And this pic was taken from my big diagonal pod seat... which is why my seat is facing the window. : ) We were just lifting off the ground and you can still see a bit of ground but can tell..we are definitely, in lift off mode, during this pic. 

Bye stunning and gorgeous Oahu. Bye Hawaii. We love you and will miss you! We had a magnificent time. I looked out that window until...we climbed so high, we were above the clouds and I could no longer see the land below. *happy sigh* What a wonderful summer vacation. And so, I closed my window shade. And started to search for the movie on demand, that I was about to watch and enjoy. : ) 

Marinated grilled chicken breast with cheese, rice and veggies. a dinner roll with a special Hawaiian butter. Some shrimp plate and salad combo. And that lovely green salad. 

Toasted pecans with a sweet crunch around them. Sour cranberries. a nice delicious feta cheese. And some cooked sweet apple with some very sour vinaigrette on top. I enjoyed my feta cheese, cranberry and pecan lettuce salad, tremendously. : ) We landed in Narita, it was now Sunday, July 26th and good thing we live so close. We arrived home within 20 minutes. Dropped our luggage off and everyone went to the restroom and we then left the house and headed out for supper.  

We went to have curry at Coco Ichiban Curry. I had the pork curry with veggies, the kids had a chicken cutlet curry each and Noboru had the tonkatsu curry, we also shared 2 small fries, the four of us. We ate and then we went back home. We all took turns showering. and we went immediately to sleep. Anyway, that's our family's Hawaiian vacation 2015. : )

Visiting the Pearl Harbor Memorial and Historical Site and the USS Arizona...

Alrighty, you guys! I'm back from Guam! Bran, Noah and myself got back to Japan yesterday afternoon, August 11th. We had such a fantastic time in Guam, we spent 3 amazing nights, 4 fabulous days at my dad's condo. We saw 2 extra movies while there. So that means 5 movies so far this summer! The boys swam at my dad's condo, we ate so many delicious things while there, and best of all, got to spend time with my dad. He's just the greatest! So anyway...I know I am so outrageously behind with the Hawaii posts. I am so very sorry. I have this post and the last 2 days will be lumped together. So, it shouldn't take too much longer and I already even picked out the pics for the final 2 days post... already and that post will be super small, post size wise. : ) Anyway without further ado. Here is the Pearl Harbor, USS Arizona Memorial post, everything on this post happened, Thursday, July 23rd. Bran has been dying to go there. In Japan, they studied World War 2, in the 6th grade pretty in depth and they even went further into the subject.... in middle school here in Japan, Bran has studied it all in the 7th grade (last year) and even now, that B is in the 8th grade, they still study more about it. Plus you know...both the boys have seen the Ben Affleck Pearl Harbor movie and they love it! And while we seem to go to Oahu every year, we haven't been to the Pearl Harbor historic site... since Branden was 3 months old. @_@ Wow, is that a long time ago, or what! Hahaha. So they've been asking to go and heck...we were there in Hawaii, so...why not! : ) Here's what it looks like, the outside before going in. 

And here is some additional very helpful information for you guys to have. For starters, look at the sign. No bags of *any* kind are allowed inside. No backpacks, no purses, no fanny packs. No camera bags. No luggage (who'd bring a suitcase to Pearl Harbor though anyways really, lol, perhaps 1 strange-a- low, so perhaps it's necessary to say, who knows) No diaper bags (holy mother of Batman, hope you don't need a diaper changed, although am pretty sure...duh... you could just take 1 or 2 new diapers and a travel pack of wipes and carry them, sans bag? And no shopping bags. They do have a bag storage if you need one, but, I just put my purse in our rental cars trunk. And I carried my camera without it's case (case was also in the trunk). Yeah...that wasn't weird at all. : ) I'm kidding, I'm kidding. : ) But again...you might want to know this information. It could help. Also, how much does it cost to go in? It's absolutely free! However...and maybe I should Astrix this specific part. *however*... if you want to ride the free boat to the actual site of the sunken ship, you need to get a ticket. You need to go in person in the morning to get the free boat tickets. Oh and there is a policy in affect...1 in your party for example... can not, just go there and say grab 10 of the free tickets. Apparently that was something that got abused. So, they took that option out. You may get a ticket for 4 people *if* all 4 of you are there. You can't get spare/extra tickets and say...well my other people in my party and still in bed. Nope, not happening. They will only give tickets... to the people standing there in front of them. Also most important #1 fact, the tickets go fast! By morning... they're gone for the entire day! Yep, true and true! We got up super early and were physically there and waiting to get 4 free boat tickets. The man told us, you are the last 4, to get the 2:15pm boat ticket for today! And the last ride out is at 2:30pm and that's the last boat ride of the day. And we were at the Pearl Harbor site at 8:30am-8:45am at the latest. So yes...they tickets are gone faster than hotcakes. Many folks won't know these... little rules. But now you all do! : ) So anyways, it was morning, we had boat tickets, at 2;15pm. What should we do? We made use of our time... and walked around the place because there is information, signs...and whatnot everywhere and even a free museum to walk around. It's very cool. 

Honoring the Arizona. You can see the ship actually under the water, the whole ship, in this picture. There were places like this, for the kids to read and learn, little informative facts and tidbits from. 

The USS Arizona Memorial in the background of Branden, in this pic. 

It is something... really quite amazing...and sad...but very educational to see it up close, at least once in your lifetime. 

Many quotes, many things all over as you walk around. To read...to think. It's a quiet place being here. 

Blinded by the sun.

Branden and Noah walked from place to place, to read what each sign of information said and to look at the pictures, we did the same, Noboru and I. 

A deep discussion about the attack on Pearl Harbor. I don't know about how other schools in Japan do it. But at our school, in our town in Japan. I was wincing and/or dreading the day my son started to study World War 2. Would it be a very pro Japan...and all other countries are bad...type lesson. I wondered. But, I am happy to say, that at our school, in our town, the teachers are very honest. They teach how the Japanese did a "sneak"attack on Pearl Harbor and how wrong they were. Branden's history teacher is a very genki (healthy & peppy) super old lady. She's been to over 20 different countries, she's been all over from Europe, to different parts of the USA, Canada, Brazil, all over South America,  and specifically to Hawaii, she's been to this Pearl Harbor site. She's been all over. She was even arrested in Japan once for touching a beloved artifact in Japan and she's Japanese, naughty naughty! : ) But she's very very genki. A real spitfire, wonderful lady. : ) She is a sharp shooter, straight forward type a lady. And she creates an environment that makes kids want to learn and travel...and take part in discussions and even heated discussions. She likes to think outside the box. Meanwhile for our thoughts on Pearl Harbor and WW2...Noboru and I both were clearly not alive during WW2. But, we both agree both our countries did some pretty bad things. And we try to keep it like that. I personally am not too fond of war...of any kind. So...for us...it was an interesting day. But a good day. Learning some interesting stuff and hanging out together as a family.

Both Bran and Noah can ask their dad anything and he'll do his best to answer. And as honestly as he can. I'm the same way. Ask me..and if I don't know..let's go together and find someone who does know! : ) 

Before the bombing.

Japanese fleet.

A trophy, a piece of a Japanese plane. I'm sure both sides kept their trophies.

That famous sentence..."A Day Which Will Live In Infamy."

Hearing the president say it in the Pearl Harbor movie sure...but actually the boys getting to see the documents. The actual speech!

The actual real corrections made. Branden just loved looking at this. The kids were like...wow! While books are wonderful...sometimes you just... need to see for yourself. To really "get it" To see a part and a piece of history.

This part of the museum was very interesting for me. See the title..."Looking like the enemy" The backlash and mistreatment Japanese Americans felt. This is absolutely horrible. 

Please read this picture. Hawaii at war. The war years were frightening times. People of Oahu were scared. 

This is a bit blurry, but it struck me...From paradise to paranoia. Civilians had to carry ID cards. This definitely goes beyond the 2 hour Ben Affleck movie here. Do, you know what, I mean. I hope so, and that was a good movie, I really liked that movie (am still a bit upset about the whole Ben Affleck nanny-gate thing right now... but still a good movie)... by the way...but wow.... learning the real day to day struggles, of the folks in Hawaii. They were real people. Real families there. 

Little kids in Pearl City with gas masks. Can you imagine having to play outside with a gas mask. Everyone on that island had their life turned upside down. 

Dorinda Nicholson and her brother Ishmael with gas masks on. We walked around a nice long time and really took our time enjoying every thing there was to see and read. And we left around 11am. We stood there for about 2 long hours enjoying walking around and the museum and signs throughout. We then left to have lunch before heading back to the museum for the boat ride at 2:15pm. 

We went to Panda Express for lunch. I had the sweet and spicy chicken breast and noodles, the boys had the same thing, as me. 

Noah had the kid sized one though and Bran had the same one, as me exactly. Noboru picked beef and broccoli and some other yummy things. We knew we had time to kill, so we ate slowly and talked about the museum and stuff. 

We arrived around, 1:40pm back at the Pearl Harbor Memorial. Many folks were there trying to score tickets for that day and were stunned to hear you have to go in the morning and the tickets go quick. Many were disappointed. : ( Which is why I mention it here..I don't want that to happen to any of you. : ) Anyway we had about 20 minutes to kill. So we bought Branden a model airplane. And we walked the museum a bit again. This sign made me so sad. How unbelievably sad! This just makes me feel so sorry! Granted, I wasn't even alive. But still....I feel so sorry. 

Finally it was time. It started with a movie, a short 10 minute movie. It was very informative. And then we boarded the boat. Also, there were no Japanese tourists the day we went, to Pearl Harbor. Just something we noticed, actually it was Noboru who noticed. Most Japanese people...tourists...were not even alive during that time either...so they had nothing to do with this bombing either. So...they should come and see it. They would be most welcome. : )

There were something like 5 or so ships that sunk. However 2, they pulled up. But 3 sunk and are still under water, to this day. One being the USS Nevada. 

After you see the 10 minute movie. It's hard not to feel emotional. And right away... you are whisked onto the boat. And then seeing it in real life. It's like a very emotional feeling. Most people were very quiet on the boat ride over.

In America, when a flag is half mast, it's usually when we are mourning the loss of a president or mourning the loss of something, as a country...as a whole. And I think it is fitting, for this place to always and forever... be at half mast. 

The marker for the USS Arizona.

I love this picture! : (

The first thing you think is...wow, it's right here..I'm looking right at it. And then you think of all those bodies locked into the ship, and couldn't get out! No escape!

The boys just taking it all in. It's a powerful thing, seeing it with your own eyes. 

It wasn't just a movie and.... it's not just a prop in a movie. It's a real ship... with a real crew trapped forever and ever inside. 

I let the boys have a few moments by themselves and to talk among themselves. 

That's part of the ship, in this pic too. 

You see a short informative movie beforehand and hear how they..... the trapped in the ship clanked on the ship, S.O.S. And clanked for days all the while.... people tried to get them out...until the clanking just stopped. And you knew...that they all died in there. So you just see that...and then you go and see it, in the flesh so to speak. Again...all I can think of is..."those poor people"...and "I am so sorry!" "I am so truly truly sorry! It's a very quiet boat tour. I think every one's pretty much feeling the same exact way. Very sorry, very emotional. But again...to see it and learn from it. Perhaps Branden will have something to add, the next time, he is in class ...and they want to talk about Pearl Harbor or WW2. Nothing quite beats seeing it, first hand. 

Again, they wanted to go and talk with their dad and he was feeling the same as the kids... being there too. We all were. 

The wall of names. The names of all who died on this ship that day. The first thing that comes to mind is...what a massive wall...what an even more massive amount of names then you even realize or contemplate. The sheer amount of who died there...the numbers are huge! Astronomical. The room was dead silent. I think everyone was in, deep reflection mode. Or in the emotional zone and the room of names...just left everyone frankly speechless. But, yes, people would go and take 1 or 2 pics quickly and politely and leave. Or stand at the back and be wow-ed at the sheer number of names. Random 2 ladies also taking a quick pic or 2, in this pic. 

The wall of names. 

Someone left them a lei of flowers. : ( That was very nice.

And this smaller area of names is the names of survivors of the USS Arizona, but who wanted to be laid to rest here, upon their death. And so their names are listed here too. And the latest people added was from the year 2012. 

A very quick pic of the boys, before exiting the room and wall of names.  No smiles, they just felt the seriousness of the wall of names and the whole place. : (  Important to note...there is also a wall of names near the museum...on the grounds of this Pearl Harbor Historic site, but..that wall of names lists the civilians in Honolulu, who were killed by the Japanese, during the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The list also had their ages at time of death from the bombing.... kids as little and young as age 2 and kids 12 years old and 14 years old. Kids age 8. Mother's, fathers and little innocent kids. Again...it's just a very educational place. And I am sure there is something like this in Japan near where the bombs fell too. War is never good .: (  Anyway, it was a very interesting way to spend a day, while on Oahu. 

They had a gift shop and the prices were not too overly inflated at all. The prices were actually pretty reasonable. The necklaces were under $4. $3.95 or so. Both the boys picked out the necklace and it has the USS Arizona ship, dog tags on it. And Noah wanted the USS Arizona Memorial key chain. And they saved the boat tickets as keep sakes, also. : )  Plus, Bran received the model airplane. 

After leaving the Pearl Harbor Historical site. We needed to smile again. And be on vacation mode again. Lighten things up! So we decided it was still early and so we took a nice scenic drive for an hour and a half. And then we started heading towards the way of our condo. However we stopped off and had dinner first. 

Popeye's chicken and biscuits!The kids and I, each had a 3 piece chicken strips, mashed potato and biscuit and the combos, came with a drink. Noboru had a 2 piece dark. With mashed potatoes and biscuit and a soda.

It was dusk outside. About to turn dark, but no longer day time for sures... but more evening...type a look to the sky. By the time we ate and hopped in the car, it was totally night time. : ) 

This is so true, they do make the best biscuits. So buttery and rich and light & flakey. We arrived at home, we all took turns showering. We all had some peanut butter ice cream and sat and watched TV. And then we went to sleep. Anyway, that was how we spent our Thursday, July 23rd. : )