Branden and Noah’s every 6 month dental check up and teeth cleaning. My 3 last Costco visits...

July 11th (Monday), Noboru and I took the boys out of school at 12 noon that day because we had a dental visit for the both boys and our dentist is in Tsukuba, Japan. He's the best dentist we've ever had in Japan. The kids have been going to him for at least 5 years... could be more. The dentist we used to go to was in Narita. She was very popular in our part of Japan, an older lady that dentist. However she had a whole lot of ego. She acted like she was the queen, you could never ask questions. She had lots of rules that MUST be followed or she'd get ANGRY with you the customer. One of her rules was you must always bring a handkerchief for each of your kids. You must. We would hear her a few times telling off other patients about..how come you forgot your handkerchief. Again she was not a horrible dentist. But likewise she wasn't the best of the best and with her ego you'd think she'd be practically god like. Her attitude was the main factor for our unhappiness. After every cleaning... we always felt like we should be bowing on our hands and knees and grateful she saw us. And that's not exactly a type of relationship you want from a dentist. Coming from America, I expect better treatment, more like there is a mutual respect back and forth between patient and dentist, we never felt that way with her. She was so very popular that it was hard to book a cleaning or check up. The waiting room was so tiny and the patients were so many that we were stuffed like sardines in that wait room. So long story short. About 5-7 years ago we found ourselves a way better dentist. We were looking for an American dentist. And somehow on our search we found this guy. Because he has a philosophy about teeth that they should be beautiful and white. And he really follows American dental methods and that's why his name popped up when we were searching. He is Japanese but he's very modern and very good. He's like 35 if I were to take a guess. Slightly nerdy. He's not a cool guy, if you know what I mean. And that is actually what we want in a dentist. No ego. Just a very good... very kind dentist. When we first started seeing him. He had like 3 patients, he was a newish dentist and just started his own practice. He knows we were one of his first 5 patients. From our house our nearest big city is actually Tsukuba City. As you know our home is literally bordering, Chiba and Ibaraki. It is a 30 minute drive one way, but it is well worth it. He always welcomes questions. He's always smiling and kind. My kids have never gotten fillings before...no cavities knock on wood... but he believes in giving white tooth colored filling versus the tin or metal old style ones. He's a good dentist. Best dentist around our area so for us... it's worth the drive. And besides the Narita dentist was a drive for us too. So since Branden's last test was already taken and school at that time was about to go on break. We thought why not just book our dental exam at 3pm. And we can hit Costco in Tsukuba afterwards. We also had lunch along the way too. So we made a fun half day, visiting the dentist. Look how nice and wide the streets are in Tsukuba City!

Mt Tsukuba. Yep, we certainly are in Tsukuba.

One funny thing is Tsukuba has the most Nissan Leaf (100%) electric cars ever! They are everywhere in Tsukuba. Tsukuba is a very green city. There is one in this picture even. A maroon Leaf in the background of this pic. As you know my car is also a Nissan leaf 100% electric car. And so when we see fellow Leaf cars we call them our car's sisters or brothers. We say "hey Olive...there is your sister", lol. "Or your brother", lol. Anyway their dental exams were fine. Absolutely no cavities. Teeth are all coming in perfectly fine for Noah. Straight teeth no funky gaps or overcrowded shark teeth. All is fine since this dentist is our dentist. And he is on the case and on the ball. We thanked him and left. He gave both boys dental exams and teeth cleanings. 

After the dentist. We hit Costco right away. The boys can't eat anything for 30 minutes after their cleaning which is fine so we walked around Costco for a good 30 minutes. Until we were in the safety zone. We bought just this. Sorry about the foggy picture it was just so humid that day. Just a case of Dr. Pepper. A rotisserie chicken and mozzarella cheese for family pizza night. 

These fans were on sale and so cheap. $2000 yen about $20 US. With a remote and big. When we see these at regular Japanese electronic shops they are in the 4000yen/Us$40 price range so this was super cheap and we jumped on that deal. Between this fan and the ceilings fans and the 24 AC, we are enjoying a nice cool summer in our house. We're melting when we leave the house though. But only the walk to my car. Good thing my car is nice and cool too. Temp wise. I can only imagine how horrible it would be having to get around on foot like Fred Flintstone around Japan, in this sauna like Japanese summer. Thank gawd, I drive here!

Another Costco trip, this time I was at my usual regular Costco location in Chiba New Town. This day it was just these few 3 things. Homemade pasta, this spaghetti is so bomb! Chicken breasts I am now buying at Costco now. And tortillas. Chicken parmesan was happening. And the tortillas were for pork green chili and beans. 

This was our most recent trip to Costco. Pasta sauce at the way back and super lean 100% ground beef because Noah requested spaghetti and meatballs and so I am actually making that tonight. Also the rotisserie chicken was for sandwiches at the beach as was the sliced 4 types of cheese between the chicken and the cardboard box. See it's in blue wrapping. And beneath the ground beef is 1 pack of chicken breasts. And you see the homemade pasta between the cardboard and the dinner rolls. So spaghetti and meatballs definitely happening. And the dinner rolls for the sandwiches. 

Also chips for the beach picnic lunch and you see a case of mugicha down below. 

In Japan if you dislike going to the grocery store or if you are a full time working mom you can order your groceries to be delivered to your house. There are a few companies that do that. The Boy Next Door's mom works and so she orders her groceries once a week from the Co-op delivery. And my other neighbor, she also works and she orders from PAL. However, I just asked Noboru and he says they are the same company as Co-op? @_@ Umm okay. But they do have 2 separate trucks. I know because I see The Boy Next Door's truck that drops food off it plainly says Co-op on the truck in big letters. And the other family that orders... their truck says something totally different. But okay. I guess they're the same company? @_@ Anyways. I however would never order from a delivery system. Why? Because #1, I'm picky. I don't want a company to pick my bananas. I want to pick my own dang bananas thank you very much. Also I don't like old or giraffe bananas. You know with black or brown polka dots on them. I want to pick my own stuff. I also want to grab my own milk and pick the milk from the back of the shelf with the best date on it. I want to pick my own steak with no veins or white fatty bits in it. I want to make sure the pork I choose looks bright and pink and not gray and dull and old. And no, I'm not saying their stuff is bad. It's just I very much want to tap my own melons so to speak and gently squeeze my own avocado and see if it's ready to make fresh guacamole... and not over ripe and black inside or too hard. I want to touch and see and pick my own stuff. Also, important to note. When I lived in Denver, I just shopped at 1 store. I shopped at Safeway 99% of the time for EVERYTHING. Sure I'd check weekly sales on Sundays. And if something was super cheap, I'd make a trip to another store. But for the most part I could get all my shopping done in 1 fell swoop. In Japan however, it's totally different. At Japanese stores. I find what 1 store sells and offers... another store nearby won't sell that. Each store sells different things here. Some stores have super cheap fresh veggies. Some stores specialize in meat. Then you have import stores like Kaldi. Then you may need American stuff so will have to hit Costco. If you only knew how many different stores are on my weekly route. If I lived in the US, I could get my shopping done in 1 fell swoop, I just said that. But in Japan, I break my weekly shopping in 2 days a week and only half days so they don't like take over... my whole day or anything. For example once a week I will drive to Inzai/Chiba New Town. I hit 3-5 stores there. Depending on what I need. There is a Trial grocery discount store. I prefer the other location over this location, so I only go here once in a great while. There is a Cainz/Besia and again I prefer the other location for that too, but I will go to this one about once a month. And I also go to Joyful Honda in Inzai every week, because they have the best cuts of lean beef for pot roast or beef stew. They are basically a butcher...they specialize in meat. Hence the name on the building... Japan Meat/Joyful Honda name. They sell so much meat...and it's cut fresh daily and so I hit Joyful Honda once a week. I also like their prices on Kraft cheese slices, but their other prices such as veggies I find sort of pricey. So when I go there I just buy meat and cheese and sour cream. But their meat quality is reason why I go there. I also hit Costco because I love that place. And I also hit this store in this picture. Gyomu Supermarket. I didn't white out the name location on this sign because I don't live in Chiba New Town or Inzai obviously and I mention all the time I go to Chiba New Town. So yep, the sign says Gyomu Supermakert Chiba New Town location and yep it sure is. This store is a chain and all over Japan. I'm sure everyone and their mama... shops here already and I do too and have for years. They have a lot of foreign food. Cookies from Vietnam. Bulgaria. All over the world. The fresh veggies at Gyomu Super, I find good/fair priced and I prefer buy my frozen veggies at Cainz because I prefer the flavor of their frozen veggies over the ones at Gyomu Super. And I hate the frozen veggies at Joyful Honda. The flavor is weird on their frozen veggies. See, this is clearly why this girl needs to do her own darn shopping. LOL. The fresh veggies at Gyomu Super....are not the cheapest I've ever seen but not expensive either. When I was there they had 2 fresh heads of lettuce for 98 yen in a pack. Perfect if you're making tons of salads this summer. What do I like from this store? I like the frozen chicken. And the canned beans best. 

If you are making nachos and you need some cheap spicy beans. You can get them from Joyful Honda for 450 yen a can @_@ Or you can go across the street to this store and buy 1 can for 125 yen. Way cheaper. And if you don't feel like buying a jug of popcorn at Costco and sometimes I do and sometimes I don't, you can always buy a pack for 98 yen at Gyomu Supermakret. So there are useful things to be had at this store. And reason why I go to various different stores is because like I said different stores sell different things here. I do REALLY know my area of Chiba/Ibaraki pretty well. And know which stores have the cheapest this or that. And that's why once a week I'll head to Chiba New Town for 2 hours and then head back to my little rural town. 

These though...total thumbs down. Avoid these. They were 65 yen a box. From Vietnam at Gyomu Super. We were heading to the beach the next day and I thought, we should try these. They were horrible. Dry and crumbly in texture and the taste was like plastic-y chemicals or something very weird. The kids devoured them because well... they're kids. And they're not snobs with food. But for me, I had 1 and didn't have another. Horrible. Don't buy these. Avoid these. In fact...if you see these...run away! Dry and crumbly. Driest cupcake ever. And weirdest after taste. 

Packs of breaded frozen chicken can be found all over Japan. So nothing new there. However, 98% of the time the chicken is dark thigh meat with tons of fat on it. My particular Gyomu Supermarket however sells 5-6 different types of breaded chicken but chicken breast! So grateful! We have only ever bought the ones on the right in the pink bag. It's called crispy chicken. And this bag on the right is honestly so good. I'm really picky and I can say this chicken is not processed. And it's not mystery chicken in a blender. This is real chicken on the right. It also reminds me of Italian type chicken. The spices are very good on this chicken in the pink bag. Not Japanese in flavor at all. It's nice to buy a bag of the pink bagged chicken once a month. You can always make a quick lunch on a weekend with this and the price? OMG, so cheap. 358yen for 1 KG. That's cheaper than going to McD's. We have never bought any of the other flavors. Isn't that weird? However we bought the one on the left to try. Only because I saw 2 different people buying the one in the yellow bag. So, my curiosity finally got me last week. And considering I have been a die hard pink bag chicken buyer. I bought the other to try. And we didn't like the one in the yellow bag at all. It says chicken breast but it is really weird and the flavor is totally off. The quality of chicken is better in the pink bag. Even Noboru tried the chicken cutlets in the yellow bag and didn't like it and he eats anything. He's not picky at all...so for him to dislike it, says a lot. They also have chicken tatsuta (sweet flavored) and others. They have karaage and I am not interested in their karaage at all... because I like my own ginger karaage I make at home. And I apparently prefer my own chicken cutlet at home too. Hahaha. But the one in the pink bag is so good and perfect for a weekend afternoon lunch at home. I am thinking about maybe trying another variety just to see. Who knows. So in a nutshell they have great bags of breaded chicken worth taking a look at. Try them all and decide for yourself which kind you like. Our family favorite is the one in the pink bag on the right. And 2 thumbs way down on the cutlets in the yellow bag. : )

My beach post is coming up next. But what have we been up to? Our housing community had it's "Summer Festival" yesterday. It was awesome! Also we found this new site that shows new movies online. It's free. The quality is crystal clear. I don't have to be a member or download anything. Just stream full movies you can watch via your computer unless you have a Chromecast then you can watch on your TV. We have a Chromecast at home. So we have seen on our TV at home. The Secret Life of Pets (such a fantastic movie), the new Ghostbusters we saw yesterday before the summer festival started, this was hilarious. And last night we saw the Angry Birds movie and I was expecting Angry Birds, to suck big time, but it was actually really cute. They have Tarzan on there the new one, not interested in that really. Finding Dory. And they have the new Purge too. A whole bunch of new ones. So we're loving this site a whole lot lately. And we've just been seeing a ton of these new movies. Anyway that's enough for now. My meatballs are seasoned and in the fridge. I will be starting supper at 3pm and it's only 2pm now, so I will relax now for an hour before I get started on supper. Tonight's dinner, spaghetti and meatballs (that yummy homemade pasta they sell at Costco), garlic bread and salads. We may just watch another brand new movie tonight too. Via that website and on our TV. Talk with you all later. : )

Finally, we get a store near us...Old Navy in Tsukuba, Ibaraki and a fun dinner afterwards at the “fry your own” skewer buffet restaurant, Kushiya Monogatari

Old Navy is an American clothing company, I love Old Navy! They are the same company as Gap and Banana Republic, as I am sure all of you know. I love Old Navy because, you can buy quality clothes at affordable prices and with having 2 kids, it is really nice saving money, yet still be stylish, plus the clothes are really well made clothes. I would always stock up on trips back to America for the boys and myself, or order stuff to be shipped to Guam and my dad would mail them to me in Japan, or I'd go to Guam and pick up the packages. Then a few years ago, 1 Old Navy opened in Japan. It was  pretty far away, bordering Chiba and Tokyo (though I think Tokyo since the mall has the word Tokyo in it). Then a few other scatterings of stores opened up across Japan. So, I knew they were in Japan, but since my nearest Old Navy at the time was not very near us at all...and a 3 hour round trip drive, plus toll fees didn't sound all too fantastic, we just never went and if we weren't to take toll roads it would be 5 hours according to Navitime (like mapquest for Japan) and considering a 5 hour drive, forget it! : ( Hahaha. : ) Until now, an Old Navy finally opened in Ibaraki. So, needless to say, I am pretty happy. Here is a very rough drawing of where we live versus where the main or central parts of Chiba are versus the main or central parts of Ibaraki are.... to give you an idea of what I am talking about. : ) Oh and yes to be fair clearly... Chiba is in the shape of Chiba-kun (a dog mascot) but again this just gives you an idea, I'm not a professional artist here hahaha. See where it says main city part of Chiba City, or Makuhari. Funabashi, those types of areas. The main parts of Chiba where most of the stores are, shops are, people are, hahaha. That's way on the opposite end of Chiba from us, where we live. Now you see that astrix or sun and it says "us...our fam" That's where we live, literally teeter tottering between Chiba and Ibaraki. We live literally and I do mean literally at like the edge of Chiba.... the opposite direction of main parts of Chiba. When I drive during the day, I constantly see the sign, "welcome to Chiba" and "welcome to Ibaraki" depending if we are going to Saizeriya "Ibaraki for us", the movies, again Ibaraki for us. I can get in my car right this second and drive to the right and in 5 minutes I will hit Ibaraki, no exaggeration! So yeah for us, getting to the Old Navy in the main city part of Chiba... was just never gonna happen, because of where our house is located in Chiba. And given the traffic in Chiba that goes at a snails pace, it was just really again, never gonna happen. Okay and now see one of the main city parts of Ibaraki in my bad drawing pic that says main city Ibaraki, which is Tsukuba,...Tsukuba has everything Makuhari and Funbabashi does, but it's way way way closer for us.  The capitol of Ibaraki is Mito but Tsukuba is a bustling big modern city and easiest for us to access to from where we live. And the traffic does not go at a snails pace between our house and Tsukuba so we can literally zip to Tsukuba and zip back in no time flat. There are many small city's near to us, like the small city Noah and Branden went to yochien in...and also Narita city, is a small city. But the closest big city to us, is Tsukuba in Ibaraki. I can hang laundry outside on the pole for example when heading to Tsukuba and know I will be home, in time to bring the laundry in before it gets dark. If we were to drive to Diver City Tokyo Plaza for example where Old Navy is in Chiba/Tokyo, it wouldn't be a laundry hanging outside type day because depending on traffic the laundry would be out there way past it's time. So when we heard Ibaraki finally got an Old Navy, we were like holy goodness, we have to go!!!! So we did, we went to Old Navy, this post happened April 13th! : ) 

Our closest Burger King, is in Ibaraki, I blogged one time when our family went in there to eat one time. : ) Branden and Noah's dentist, is also in Ibaraki too. : )  Now you know why, when we go to Tokyo Disneyland or Disney Sea it is sometimes better for us to stay at a hotel because though technically we do live in Chiba, we really barely barely do. : ) 

We made it to the Aeon mall in Tsukuba, no toll roads and no traffic problems between where our house is located and to get here!

I see an Old Navy sign! Right on!

Parking our car before we start shopping!

2 hours to charge. We did go back out at 2 hours to see if anyone wanted to use it, but nobody was there or waiting, but we did switch spots to a regular spot afterwards. Like my husband says, it's like going to a shopping mall and someone saying if you shop here... we'll give you a free tank of gas, so to speak. It's free, and our car gets charged. So, heck yeah we'll charge! : ) 

Protected from the sun and rain, this mall has a nice charging station. 

Her seat covers and not sure if you can see the 3 lights near the dash, it blinks blue when she's charging. 

Hi kiddo!

It's a newer mall, just opened last year in March and really nice. 

I saw it....smiled and walked a little bit faster!

Thank you Old Navy for coming to Ibaraki! You have no idea how much we appreciate this! The store had a lot of customers, so I don't see this store closing down anytime soon! : )

I was worried if they'd double the prices in Japan. But I was wrong! They are just as cheap and affordable as back home! 

900 yen for these character T shirts. Noah got that heather orange Tom and Jerry one! Also, the sizes are American sizes, meaning Small is a 6-7, Medium is a size 8. I remember when Gap used to be American sizing and then they switched it so centimeters in the kids department. I hope they keep it American sizing! We did our shopping and went back and switched to a different parking space real quick and then had dinner at the same mall, they had so many good looking restaurants in there. 

You could bread and fry your own stuff at your own table. Sounded fun, so we wanted to try!

Plus a chocolate fondue fountain, heaven! : ) 

It's a buffet and you had 70 minutes to eat whatever you'd like. On your mark, get set, go! : ) I'm kidding, I'm kidding. : )

I love how it's explained in English, deep fried skewers buffet, yeah I think they nailed it! : )

As pictured, they also had fresh fruit, salad, macaroni salad, potato salad, pasta salad, all kinds of stuff. 

Pasta as pictured, curry, ice cream. What they offered was a lot! We were ready!

Pretty restaurant!

They had the batter, and panko (bread crumbs), you could pick from a huge assortment of things to try. I picked white meat chicken with no skin or fat and potato wedges and battered those. 

Oil in the center of the table and our sauces.

We had batter and panko on both sides of our table. The kids had a blast battering/breading and cooking what they liked!

Branden picked some beef with no fat and breaded that. 

My dessert platter, fresh pineapple, soft serve ice cream, and chocolate dipped cream puffs. 

Branden enjoying some dessert he picked too. 

I did have some salad with goma/sesame dressing and pasta salad as well. 

Noah, made some chicken tenderloin cutlets and had chicken cutlet curry, he loved that! Branden said great idea and so he made some too.

Branden enjoying his cutlet curry too and Noboru's elbow hahaha, he was enjoying many many things. : ) We stayed the full 70 minutes, boy were we stuffed, we also left with a very heavy Old Navy bag of clothes for the kids, however it was only 7,000 yen. $70 US, so really fair for the amount of clothes the kids got. 

We will be back to this mall, for sure! : )

Good only at the Tsukuba Aeon. We are getting a good amount of these quick charge cards to the places near us that we frequent. 

A good amount of clothes for Branden and Noah.

Old Navy, San Francisco, California. 

300 yen! Yep, love the prices. 

This shirt is ginormous on Noah, but it's a T for Christmas time, so Noah can wear it in November, December this coming year. 

This shirt is hilarious..."wanna talk about it?" "It's not your business" "Wanna Taco 'bout it" lol!

Noah is really super skinny. So the small fits him now and we also got the size medium and at 700 yen each, we were happy. 

Says 1290 yen, but you saw the pic up above they were indeed on sale for 900 yen each. 

These were what Noah ended up with.

Branden got this one too.

But he's also a size small men's now. So the rest of the shirts were from the men's section.

Branden's T's, love that magically delicious Lucky Charms one! Hahaha. 

Branden also got a pair of olive green shorts in the men's department too. 

Love this bag marked...STUFF. : ) 

Toiletry case.

Again loved that the prices were just as fair as in the US, 600 yen. 

They had a bunch of great wallets for 1200 yen. 

Noboru got me this one. Very preppy. 

I like wallets that zip around so I don't have to worry if a card accidentally falls out or anything. 

Also, I received a package from my dad from Old Navy and Gap. 

These are Noah's. Two shirts that say Awesome and 1 Adventure Time, T- shirt.

These are Branden's.

These are mine.

This blouse I thought was so pretty and it sold out super fast online. I'm glad I have mine. 

Also received my black tankini top so it can be worn under my rash guard and swim mini skirt from Lands' End.

Washed everything up and put them nicely in each of the boy's bedroom closets, so when the weather does get nice/warmer, they can wear them. Getting ready for the warmer weather... clothes-wise for Branden and Noah, little by little since the beginning of March.