Throwback Thursday...

Today's TBT, takes us back to September 2009! Noah's yochien grape picking/cutting and sweet potato dig with his school and us parents! It was a weekend field trip/meet up and all us parents and siblings were also invited! Each child came with his or her own family. There wasn't like a school bus that took us or anything. We all met there. Noah got to pick his own pack of grapes and cut them down. And we let Branden cut down his own bag too. Each family pays for whatever they cut down. The sweet potato dig was free though and of course we could bring the sweet potatoes home with us. : )

Noboru helping Noah cut the grapes down that Noah picked out. He did a very good job at cutting his bunch of grapes. And you can see a pair of pruning sheers in Bran's hand and he was about to cut a bunch of grapes too! The kids both loved spending the day here. Branden did this too, when he was in yochien and Noah did this too when he was in yochien too. : ) 

Each child got to have whatever potatoes were between the 2 white chalk lines. Branden helped dig with Noah! That way they both could join in the fun!

They both dug and dug and harvested so many sweet potatoes! We made so many steamed sweet potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes. And also yummy daigaku-imo  (like a deep fried sweet potato with a sweet sauce.) We had sweet potatoes every way you can have them! : ) We clearly love sweet potatoes around here. : )

After everyone was finished cutting their grapes and digging their sweet potatoes, we all went and enjoyed some fresh steamed sweet potatoes and a cup of super sweet grapes. They kept bringing out more cups of grapes for everyone to enjoy and kept bringing out more and more sweet potatoes too.

Every September after the kids started back to school after the summer break...when the kids were in yochien...we always went here for our weekend afternoon grape and sweet potato harvest. These are definitely fond fun memories for us all! : )

Random pics from this week...

Hi, just wanted to do a super quick post of stuff we've been doing this week. : ) First pic, is one Noboru took this Monday, when he and the rest of the Father's Club dad's went and decorated the area near the local train station. It's not going to be lit up at night/plugged in, until mid November but all the lights and decorations are all set, just waiting for the set date. I think they did a wonderful job! Good job dad's! : )

Meanwhile, I drove on Tuesday (Nov 4th) to Chiba New Town. I needed to go there for 3 reasons. Reason #1, Branden needed a little bolt or some sort of extra part for his radio control car, and they have an RC shop at the Big Hop (outlet in Inzai) Reason #2 was to pick up new undies for Bran and reason #3 was because I saw some pots and pans at Costco last week and I wanted to think about purchasing them and decided to purchase them this week... versus impulse buy, you know what I mean. : ) So I delayed a week and after deciding that...yes, my pans are terrible we all know they need replacing so I should go and get them. So since I had a few reasons to go there...I went first thing in the morning. This is a pic at the Big Hop (outlet)

RC shop upstairs, took the broken 150 yen piece inside that Bran needed replaced and found a replacement part. Even double checked with the man working there and he was kind enough to double check online and sure enough it was the right part. Paid and went downstairs for B's undies. Yay me, for finding the right part for Branden's RC car. : )

Paseos! I usually get all the kids socks and whatnots from this chain store. The prices are just really fair. Picked up 2 packs of undies and left...on my way to Costco. Always at the back of my mind...Tuesdays equals Noah gets out at 3:45pm, allow an hours drive back to my town so....I do shop.... but with keeping one eye on the clock. Hahaha. : ) You know what I mean. : ) 

All my pots and pans are worn out at the house. Like I said before, about 8-9 years ago, we bought a a really nice set from Costco. For about 16,000 yen and the pieces we got, stock pot, many frying/saute pans with lids it was a great price and the quality was fantastic and it was well worth it. Anyway...I haven't seen any I liked all this past year until last week (and I check every time I'm there). They had this pan I loved, but they also had a 8 or 9 piece set and I didn't want to buy last week...I wanted to think about it for a bit first. After talking it over with Noboru, he also said I should totally go back and buy both sets of the pans, since we need them. However the 8-9 piece set was SOLD OUT...totally gone. It was just there last week...and they had a ton! OMG! : (  All I can tell you is I was extremely upset....like really upset. Granted I am glad I didn't just buy the first thing I saw and I am glad I just didn't impulse buy something. But I was also upset that maybe I should have bought them last week? You know....like they say though...hindsight's 20/20. Anybody can say after the fact...shoulda coulda woulda. *sigh* Oh well. It was a huge bummer. I will keep checking Costco Chiba New Town weekly and who knows...they might come back. Also..the boys have a dentist appointment next week and I'll be near another Costco for that and so I will make a point of going in there to check for the 8-9 pot and pan set. Doesn't hurt to look right? : ) The bright side is this...they did however have this deep dish frying/saute pan. I had one similar and I loved it and so I wanted this! And given the other set was gone...I wasn't gonna let this one get away from me! There were only 4 of these particular pans left from the entire Chiba New Town Costco store. And the price was perfect.

I wanted the dark gray or black color not the red color. I went to Costco for 2 pan sets...this deep dish set and the 8-9 piece...however I am happy at least I got 1 of the 2. So that's the silver lining. And the other silver lining is Costco Chiba New Town finally restocked the big ol' jug of popcorn kernels. 

Two items, 1 pan (3 piece set, splatter screen, lid and pan) and the popcorn kernels. Popcorn for the Fall and Winter is set now for sures. : )

Undies for B.

Three JHS dress shirts bought from Cecile. They have the best prices, quality is fantastic. And a name tag holder on the shirts, which I love. It's better than getting tons of holes in his dress shirt and it end up looking like swiss cheese with all the holes, I really like the name holder on these shirts a lot. 

And sure enough, the slip-on sneakers I ordered came in size 24.5. And yep, absurdly too big on my feet. I went and exchanged for a 24cm online yesterday. And the mailman came and picked up the size 24.5cm shoes this morning and the 24cm shoes should be getting here any day. I honestly have no explanation what's happening with my feet ya'll. Maybe just after 13 years they are going back to their original size. If it weren't happening to my own feet...I would almost not be believing this. Feet shrinking thing. I have not gained or lost any weight this past month, also my height is the exact same. My feet did expand during pregnancy like I said (length wise) and not just with water retention either, they literally expanded length wise. They just never went back to the smaller size. My only wonder is why now and why all of a sudden? But you know what...for whatever reason it is...I don't care even anymore. It just is... what it is. I'm a little worried though that if I were to try on all my shoes in my shoe closet because umm, what if they are all suddenly way too big. I guess I'd just have to find someone to give all my 25cm to, but of course I will wait a few months to decide if my feet really and sincerely did switch size...I'm not just about to jump the gun either though, ykwim? Also would that mean I need all new shoes now...like from scratch? @-@ Good grief! Keep in mind for the last 13 years I have been buying size 9's/25cm. Anyway, I really don't know. Isn't this so bizarre though really?@-@ Also and this is the last thing I will say about this subject for the day. If you look at my feet....like if Noboru or I look at my feet...my feet seriously not kidding...they look tinier/smaller now. Weird, right! @_@

Cute shoes, just way too big. Noboru suggested I exchange the 24.5 with 23.5. I said let's just take this slow and start with the next size smaller..we don't wanna start getting too ahead of ourselves here. : )  Anyway...waiting on the 24cm ones now, hopefully they'll be at my house by this coming Saturday. 

Branden and his fellow 7th graders during school with their teachers went and picked/dug sweet potatoes from the JHS's field (they have quite a few fields), they each brought a huge amount of sweet potatoes home. Yumm. : )

If you're in Japan, have you tried this yet? Oh holy goodness, this is so good, if you are in Japan you may wanna try this one. It's so yummy! The coating is delicious and the blueberry cheesecake ice cream is perfect and the flavor is spot on! I hope these stick around for the whole Fall and Winter..hope these aren't limited time only types. Dad, when you're here for Thanksgiving be sure to try one! They're worth trying, for sure!

Anything else to add? Noah has a class field trip tomorrow/Friday, and he'll need a packed lunch/obento. So the 3rd grade class will be gone from school the entire day tomorrow, they'll meet at school then hop on a big bus! Noah's really looking forward to tomorrow. : ) I meanwhile have all the obento things prepped, chicken cut and marinating in the karaage liquid. I'm all set. I even baked a yellow cake and frosted it with chocolate frosting today, so he could take a slice for his dessert along with some diced apple for dessert as well. : )

The boys are at swim school right now. Tonight one of my fave shows comes on, American Horror Story Freak Show. This weekends plan? Just stay home, stay toasty warm, watch good shows on cable and I'll probably watch the DVD, "Mom's Night Out" and that's about it really. Our weekend plan? Rest and relax and recharge our batteries so to speak! : )

Meals for this weekend...I have all the fixins' for 2 different meals left, since I buy the bulk of my shopping in 1 weekly shop. And what's left is...buffalo wings baked in the oven (with that buffalo wing powder bought in Guam). We have ranch dressing and sides to go with that (either baked potato skins or twice baked potatoes) and we also have stuff/ingredients for pork green chili and a pot of pinto beans and I have a ton of tortillas from Costco and a big hunk of colby cheese. So either tomorrow we'll have chili and beans and tortillas toasted on a griddle all nice and warm....perfect for the cooler evenings... a nice pot of that sounds yumm! Or maybe buffalo wings. Hmmm. Whatever we don't have tomorrow we'll have the following day or Sunday depending if we have leftovers or not. So either way is good. Right now, I'm sorta leaning towards wanting to make a big pot of pork green chili and beans tomorrow, since it's Friday and we'll have leftover cake and stuff too. Sunday I'm baking either chocolate chip banana bread or chocolate chip pecan cookies. : ) Anyway if I blog over the weekend fantastic...but if I don't because I'm enjoying the family time and that is super important too though : )..then I'll just talk to you guys on Monday. Either way...have a great weekend. : )

Noah's last sweet potato dig and grape picking with the yochien

Last Saturday, the day the typhoon was supposed to hit us here in Kanto. And also the same day was the "last" : ( sweet potato dig and grape picking for Noah and his fellow blue badges, at the yochien. And as you can tell by the pictures. The day was absolutely beautiful! Seriously not quite sure how we managed to luck out so much. But I won't question it. : )
Big clusters and bunches of grapes. ;P These hang nicely overhead, when we sit at the tables and chairs and munch grapes or sweet potatoes.. : )
It was quite sunny and it did rain twice for about 1 minute the first time and about 5 minutes the last time, but we were luckily not outside when it happened either time. Right before we started to go and start with the morning warm up and prayer and the speech/talk the principal/enchosensei gives and the owner of the farm gives. Just as we were to leave the safety of our seats and clear plexi glass roof and grape overhang. It started raining. It lasted only a minute or two tops. And then poof, it just stopped. The sun started shining it was the weirdest thing.
So we went out, the encho sensei here in the blue shirt giving her speech and starting the prayer. You can see the ground is still wet. Then the man came out and he said, because of the unusual Summer we've had (cooler then usual). The sweet potatoes are smaller this year but sweeter! He then told us which grapes were seedless and which ones were not. Then the principal/encho sensei came back out and said, the oldest class first, as usual. But hmm, first time (for Noah) it's us! Cool!
Kids listening to either the encho sensei or the older owner gentleman giving his talk to the kids. He's a very nice man.
Blue badges up first. Class photo. Some kids looking at their mom's and not at the other sensei holding the school camera for the class portrait. Some scrunching up their faces and some kids in lalaland. It really is hard to get a bunch of kids all looking the same direction and all smiling. I think the sensei's did their best.
A few kids forgot their hats. Noah was one of them. A fact I didn't learn about until Saturday morning at the grape orchid (had a spare at home btw). I had gone through his stuff on Friday at home. Where is your hat I asked. The sensei has it. I chalked it up to....well they must be handing them out to everyone tomorrow during the dig then (they do that at undokai so not unusual). Okay I said. Saturday morning every kid shows up wearing a hat! OMG! Inside feeling mild panic. Trying best to be calm, so I walk over to the Yayoi sensei, "hi ummm are you passing out hats or were the kids supposed to take them home yesterday?" She, being just as equally nice said, I'm so sorry I should have checked to see if Noah brought his home yesterday. But not to worry she said, he's not the only one. I said, nothing to be sorry about.*I'm sorry*, I should have asked Noah a bit more about it yesterday. So while we're both sorry-ing each other to death. : ) I go and sit down. Things happen, I thought to myself, nobodies perfect. And I sort of chuckled at myself, because.... a fitting way to end the sweet potato dig and grape picking years. So fitting. : ) See the little girl in the front row with denim floppy hat? Yep, her too, and a few others. I think with school starting back on a Friday....and us sending our kids back with everything. No wonder there was confusion. : ) Oh well. And yep, I have 1 spare hat at home...their older faded ones for emergencies like this! But again, I had no idea. : (
Can't believe these kids will be ichinenseis next April. And I know it sounds corny, but seriously time just went by so quickly...too quickly.
Noah picked 2 packs of grapes. Since this was afterall, his field trip.

Noboru lending a very helpful hand. : )
Branden scoping out a big bag in the background... to cut next! : )
Using a crate just like the other yochien kids because they're too little to reach without it. : )
Branden, getting his turn and cutting his pack of grapes and not using a crate because he's grown so much! But he used to use a crate when he was in yochien. : )
Still sunny. Nice weather again and us blue badges went first. The blue badge white hats went to cut grapes first (which is us... errr minus the hat). The blue badge red hats went to dig for potatoes first. And then we switched. Meanwhile the younger classes were waiting, standing by and also taking class photos. This is why they ended up getting soaked and we didn't.
Branden digging. Each student and their family are given 5 plants to dig and keep the potatoes.
Dig Noah dig! : )
And so now we were done and walking back to our seats/tables and then it started to pour rain. Like buckets of rain. Raining cats and dogs type rain... but only for about 5 minutes. The blue badges sat nicely and dry inside. Meanwhile the younger classes got soaking wet. The mothers came in, with hair so soaked it looked like they just came out of the shower. Like slicked back type soaking wet hair. @_@ Good thing it stopped raining and they started to dry off some. Branden eating a free steamed sweet potato.
Noah also enjoying a steamed sweet potato. They keep bringing by huge trays of potatoes for us to eat.
And cups of grapes. Noah 's Pokemon thermos right there.
My Starbucks mug with iced straight tea with lots of ice in it. And Branden's Mario thermos. The camcorder we had in the plastic bag on the table, which is on my right of the pic. I also video taped this too. So Noah can come back and see his videos when he's older.
Then it was sunny again and it stayed sunny the rest of the day. Go figure.
See the mother in the back of this photo on the far left running her fingers through her hair? She was one caught in the rain. : ( So many were, that was unfortunate.


And the final prayer before saying good bye at the sweet potato dig and grape picking 2011.
It ended at 11:30am and by the time we started getting closer to home. We were hungry and ready for lunch. So we stopped in the small city Noah goes to school in and went to Cocoichi curry for some lunch.
The chicken tenderloin cutlet was advertised, so Branden and I also had that, he had a half size and I had the normal/standard size one. Noboru picked tonkatsu curry or something, I forget and Noah had a kids curry lunch. The boys shared a naan and Noboru and I shared a naan also.
From September to Novemer they will sell the chicken tenderloin cutlet curry, this is so freakin' good! So, good in fact Noboru and I went there on a date this week during the afternoon while the boys were at school. : )
A very nice lunch we all enjoyed after the sweet potato dig. As you can tell by the pic outside of the restaurant again...no rain in our area. However we did hear on the news that other parts of Japan got it pretty bad. : ( Hope everyone reading is okay.
We took the big pile of sweet potaoes and rinsed them outside first. And then brought them inside and gave them another rinsing. And let them dry. A very good sweet potato haul.
And 3 packs of grapes.
Yumm.
We rinsed them, soaked them and kept them in the fridge until dessert/after dinner. All four of us ate these grapes the first night. The grapes were so sweet and no seeds. : ) Noah's last sweet potato dig and grape picking with the yochien. I think though that we'll have to look into going on sweet potato digs and grape picking on our own from now on as a family, since we enjoy these so much, hmm we will have to research that a bit for next year. : )