Homecoming and school update...

Homecoming in the U.S. is always in the Fall. Homecoming is open for all grades in high school to attend, if you buy the tickets to attend. Where as prom is in the Spring and just for juniors and seniors. Unless you are asked by a junior or senior then you can be a freshman or any grade in high school. Anyways, Homecoming for B was in October. In my day, you either went with a group of friends and went that way. Or you were asked and went as a couple. Apparently now days, it's a great big thing here and you now need to make a sign/poster if you are a boy. And publicly ask her out. This is the sign that B had made. I thought, he did a fantastic job with his sign. She absolutely loved her poster. And apparently her dad even has a picture of this sign on his cell phone. Awww. How cute. What a proud dad. And I was pretty proud of this poster too. So, I totally can relate and I am keeping this pic of the sign too. 

Remember the ribbon I bought this summer to put on our suitcases? I had a bunch left and I tied up B's poster with it. He was happy, because he was hoping to find a ribbon and when I offered him this, he was happy, that I had some on hand. : )

His girlfriend happens to look *exactly* like Cameron Diaz. She's such an absolutely stunning girl. She's on the right if you're looking directly at this. Yes, I have permission to share this.

Yeah, she looked like Cameron Diaz's twin, when she was a little girl, for sure. 

He asked her, she said yes!

I made sure to take B, to order a corsage and boutonniere from our nearest flower shop, a week beforehand. And I showed this pic to Noboru. And Noboru said, "good thing Bran has an American mother, because this is stuff... you instinctually know. He's lucky." I laughed. But, yep, being here. Things like this...I do naturally know. The morning of Homecoming, we picked it up and placed it in the fridge until homecoming evening. 

What a gorgeous and happy couple. They danced all night long. Bran took a few videos and shared with our family Line group. They played new music like Bazzi, Arianna Grande. They also played oldies like Salt and Peppa. And the YMCA. The dance was from 8pm-11pm. After Homecoming they went to Dairy Queen, had some blizzards and then home. She drives and has a car. She knows B was in driving school, at the time. And she dropped him off. 

Update on Noah and middle school.  Noah on the other hand. Had a presentation in the gymnasium. This was for all 7th graders. You must interview 1 person. 99% of all the kids interviewed their mom or dad. Very few interviewed their grandparent. To be interviewed you had to have been born before the year 2000. Since B was born in 2001. He could not be interviewed. One evening from 5-6:30pm. All 7th graders and the 3 English teachers showed up and all the kids and parents of 7th graders and extended family's showed up. Many older siblings and younger siblings. Attended. This was Noah's poster. The teacher made name cards for each student. We all had to walk around and read other posters. Branden of course showed up to support his brother and so did I. We will absolutely *always* show up and support our family members. No doubt! Noah received an A for his poster. 

I snapped this pic of what some of the work, Noah has been doing in American science class. Symbiosis within communities. Cell theory. One day it was diffusion osmosis. Another day they went into the lab and had an osmosis lab. Another day... you can see, they went back in the lab and looked at microslides of a cells structure. He has an A in this class. And it's entirely in English obviously. Obvs. He loves his science class. Noah's learning so much. 

This is what a bit of what Noah's been doing in English class. Sorry..LA 7. Language arts for the 7th grade. CL means classwork. HW means homework. PROJ obviously means a project. Required. Etc. October 25th, Was a quick...write someone who influenced...you? This is great training for training young Americans to be able to spontaneously write. A page, right off the bat. Right off the cuff like that. November 21st, write a non-fiction narrative essay. Noah can go into class. Find out... what's today's task. And go for it. And nope not in an ESL class. In a class for natives who were born and raised here... their whole entire lives. And he's crushing it. I also notice that this teacher gives word searches weekly for her class to do. Because she wants to train her students to look for English words *everywhere*. I personally love word searches. I do them for fun. I have books of these in Japan. I always had my 2 kids do these. And I see how fast Noah is... at finding the words... that he's looking for. At first. I feel he was a tad slower. Still good mind you. But he is getting insanely fast with his word searches. They had a test on adjectives last week. She still has her class read quietly twice a week. She upped it from once a week. She wants to foster a love for reading. And I see both my kids reading a lot more now at home. Granted they have always read books. But now it seems... way more.

American jokes....American sense of humor. If you've ever watched Japanese TV. You will know what one country finds funny...another might not... think is funny at all. Noah brought home this paper airplane. It's close to Christmas break now and classes are starting to wind down some. About 8 boys in this one class made paper airplanes at the end of class with 10 minutes to spare before the bell rang. Their first plane was named Tabitha. And this is their second plane Jerome. Where do these kids come up with such names? @_@ You got me. In loving memory of their last airplane. LOL. 

Okay and so...in case you find this airplane...this belongs to Noah and Hadley. LOL. 

Every Sunday, I pack little snack bags for Noah to take to school. Snacks are allowed in 2 of his classes. Branden is always offered snacks too, but he rarely takes snacks. They both always take a bottle of tea though. Daily. 

Bran's girlfriend..a recent pic... taken from this past weekend.

Good friends hanging out at the yogurt shop last weekend. Branden can go out every weekend. As long as his classwork (homework and classwork) is an A...B...or C. And his overall class grade too. Since he's straight A's. He basically goes out every single weekend. But he only goes out once a week (his choice, because he's in sports and also has homework and he gets tired too). Last Friday, Bran and his girlfriend and 2 other couples met up at the local yogurt place. This pic was from the yogurt place. They went to Target after that... because apparently it's "cool" to walk through Target in the evening? @_@ After that... they went to this guys (male classmates and his gf is to his right) house and watched TV. The 6 of them watched a movie on Netflix. Yes, they Netflixed and chilled, lol. These are all honor roll kids and all super good kids. And his parents were there. And Bran was home at 10pm.

How is Branden doing? He's doing fantastic. He's straight A's. He has a girlfriend. A gorgeous and kind girlfriend. Kind is most important to me personally. What else. He went to homecoming. Winter Sports just started at the start of November. So, he's a little busy with his swimming season underway. But by no way... is it on the 24/7 365 days.... it is like... in a Japanese junior high school bukatsu. This is the sports light version....compared to that. Driving school ended. And Branden tested. He got a 100% on his written test and he scored a 98% on his driving portion of the test. The state we live in though... states you MUST keep a drivers permit for 6 months regardless. So...Branden has a state permit. Looks like a license. And he passed the official drivers license test written and driving. However...he can't get his official drivers license until April. So he does have a plastic state permit. He can drive with me. But driving alone and stuff can't happen until April. In April, all he has to do... is take his paperwork that he completed driving school, take his pass paper. And the school mailed it to the state drivers license people anyways. So in April, all B has to do is go down and take a picture for his new real license. And that will be it. We will be buying Branden a car of his own...sometime this coming summer 2019. And as soon... as he turns 18, he can apply for a international drivers permit and then from next October he can drive in Japan. And since he can prove he has spent over the set days outside of Japan. He can actually even go and take his drivers license in Japan if he wanted to. Meaning take the shorter driving test for foreigners, like I did. I took my drivers test in Japan as a foreigner who had spent over 150-200 or so days in America (they checked my passport and actually counted the days) and could by-pass the 100-200 or so test questions like many other gaijins do. And just take the 10 or 15 questions test in English instead...the shortened test, since I could prove I was living abroad so recently when I took my test.  But...that is only if he lives there...otherwise an IDP is easier for him... to use on the summers in Japan. So as for Branden, school is great. Girlfriend. Swim team. Passed his drivers license. In his free time he goes out every weekend. He has  a good set of amazing friends. I feel like I'm repeating myself here, but honestly everything's good and the same. Which is a blessing.

As for Noah, he's learning so much in an American middle school. He has such good friends. Also, last Friday, Noah attended his VERY first ever... school dance. It was $3 dollars to enter the gymnasium. You were given a wrist band. Inside they had tons of Papa Johns pizza. Cheese or Pepperoni. And you could buy a slice. Noah said he bought a slice of pepperoni. He said, that he danced to Drake. And all sorts of songs. I was in the parking lot to pick up Noah. And I see his friends waving him good bye and I hear lots of..."bye Noah!!!!" and kids waving! So, I know...he's having a blast at school here. It's just middle school, so the dance was from 1:30pm, to 2:30pm. He messaged me and said it ran a little over. He danced until 2:45pm, I was already in the parking lot, so just read a magazine and chilled. Last Friday. Awww. I was so happy for my Noah getting these school experiences. I told Noah as he got into my car. "When I was in middle school. My middle school was only for the 7th and 8th grade. But, I said...I went to my 7th grade dance and my 8th grade dance. I told Noah, I danced my brains out. I did the Smurf...The Cabbage Patch. The RoboCop. I told him...those were all dances back in the day. We were laughing. I told Noah....I am *so* happy that you are getting the same school experiences that I did growing up. And yes now I do the Floss, because my kids taught me this past summer, lol.

Update. This Friday at 1:25pm both Bran and Noah go on Christmas break. They won't return back to school until like January 5th or somewhere around then. Of course there is no such thing as Winter homework in the USA. So winter break truly means a break. Noah and his school has a winter assembly Friday from 12 noon until they get out of school. American assemblies are not like official closing ceremonies in Japan schools. Here, they just pump the kids up! Everybody ready for Christmas break? I imagine all kids will be cheering. Music will be playing. No performances or anything. This is just for the kids to enjoy. 

Winter time treats. Since Thanksgiving. Twice a week in Noah's LA 7 class, his teacher hands out popped microwaved popcorn. She hands it out in coffee filters to her kids. It's more economical for the teacher that way. So, Noah has been enjoying freshly popped popcorn daily in his LA class, since Thanksgiving. Plus he has 2 classes that always allow the kids to bring their own snacks to munch on while studying (his science class and history class allow snacks). And Noah brings like...Cheeze Its or Flaming Hot Cheetos. Flaming Hot Cheetos and Jalapeno Cheetos are *hugely* popular in American middle schools and high schools. Branden on the other hand... has been getting free hot chocolate to drink during class, every single day in his LA class in his high school. His teacher set up a hot cocoa station in the corner of her class. With mini marshmallows and chocolate sprinkles. She bought a couple cases of Swiss Miss from Costco. And she had disposable cups, but when she ran out. She asked the kids to bring mugs from home. Branden has a nice hot cocoa mug we bought at Target that he picked out. And he's been enjoying this chill atmosphere in American schools. However they do learn a lot. And they do get a lot of homework. But the atmosphere in school... is just more chill and relaxed here. The kids really seem to enjoy it.  

I do know.. that I haven't posted in 2 weeks. And I'm sorry. But please understand that I haven't spent the winter holidays in America in forever. I will try to post more often. Even tiny short posts, will do. I'll try. 

Oh...Noah brought home an award 2 weeks ago or so. He made the honor roll. Awww. What a good kid. He's all A's except 1 B+ that he's trying hard to get turned into an A.

I'll blog more. And update more, I promise. Hope everyone reading is doing well. : ) 

I got my Japanese drivers license today!!! : )

The website I blogged about on May 22, 2008, and I remember cutting and pasting what that fellow American wrote and when I linked his website he said this....

"About 9 out of 10 people fail the driving test on their first try. On my first day, only one person finished the course, and she passed. The rest of us all had to try again. Some of the people had no idea about the little rules and details the tester was looking for, so they were completely stunned when they suddenly failed."

So, it is no big surprise, I felt nervous about taking my drivers test here in Japan! I knew with odds like that, 9 out of 10 failing their first try. I knew my odds were stacked against me and I might totally be retaking it again. I think I had that in the back of my mind. But, it sorta encouraged me to try harder and study my ass off. I studied all week and weekend you guys. And sure, I have been driving in the US, since I was 15 (with a drivers permit) and had been a licensed drivers since age 16, never got a traffic ticket or had ever been in an accident while I was driving. However, this test in Japan was all totally different and I knew that. So, I studied, and studied some more! My husband told me last week, as soon as I passed my written. Don't drive like you usually do. Drive and do things in the way that "the examiners are looking for", and I agreed. My husband found me a website online that told you all the secrets of what the examiners are *really* looking for. I trained myself this whole past week. I memorized the course where I could actually "see it" and visualize it in my head! Monday morning came and I was so nervous! But I knew, it was going to happen to today no matter what, pass or fail, I was going to do it today! We decided on Saturday that we wanted to take Branden with us, so again, since my drivers test was set at 1:30 pm. We pulled B out of school at 11am. And we immediately hit the highway and got ourselves to Makuhari. I arrived about a good hour before my test. And I walked the course with Noboru and the boys. I verbally told Noboru everything I was doing. It was all pretend. I said, okay now I am in the car. Adjust the seat #1!!! seat belt on. Adjust the review mirror with *2* hands!!! Check! yes I felt like a big nerd but it was what I had to do! So, I didn't care! Check mirrors, 1,2,3, blind spot? check! Turn signal on and drive! And we walked the whole thing while pretending I was driving. Other people were walking the course, meanwhile I had a pretend/imaginary steering wheel I was holding. Was I embarrassed? Nope! I'd never see these people again, so I didn't care! I was there to do my best! In the 40KM part, the website said to make sure I check in the review mirrors twice during that stretch of the course, so I said, check 1, and as I pretended driving, I said, check 2! And we walked the whole course. Meanwhile, I saw a drivers examiner actually watching me, pretend drive through the course. Again, I didn't care, I wanted to last minute practice! Now it was 1:00pm. The test started at 1:30. I went into the building and we gave them my paper work. I went to the bathroom (horrible stinky bathroom by the way) and when I came out, they told us all to go and head down to the drivers testing area. Noboru and the boys were off watching to the side, they had the best spot to watch. I went in there. And there were about 10 people exchanging their foreign license with me. Only 3 of us were ladies. And again, no other American or westerner. Again just giving you the visual. Meanwhile there were about 45 Japanese in the same room going for their Japanese license at the same time. or perhaps trying to get their license reinstated or what, but they were there too. Finally, our examiner guy came in. He said, out of you all, 2 of you will be taking this test for the first time today. It was some older Chinese lady about 45 years old, I'd say. She was a newbie like me and she was elected to go first! And then the examiner said, Gina blah blah san is also a first timer, and she will go second! Everyone else, I gather had failed this before. I was glad I wasn't going to have to go first. I spoke with a Latin guy,he was so cool and nice! He spoke a pinch of English and he said, "this is your first time?", I said yes. "He said, this is my 4th time, to take it. And he said, "do you know there are secret stops you have to make on this course?" I said, "yes" How cute, you guys he was trying to help me. I thought he was so fantastic for trying to help me or give me pointers. Very nice!!! : ) He was #3, so I knew he would be the guy to be sitting in the backseat when I took my test! And a Filipino gal behind the Latin guy. And then many many unknown guys behind her. So we were the only 3 ladies taking the test. The Filipino gal was nice too, she said she had taken this test twice before. Anyway, they were all talking and nervous and I was oddly quiet and sat alone. I was deep in thought. What was I thinking about? I was just thinking. "don't get nervous" The examiners went and got the cars. For the Japanese with the Japanese regular testing, there were about 5 of their cars driving around the course during our testing. And there were also Japanese going there and testing with big mack truck type trucks. So, many people were on the course. And finally our examiner brought the "foreigner license transferring vehicle" a Mitsubishi diamante by the way. LOL. And it had a big name on the side, "foreigner drivers transfer or whatever" But our car was different. #1 and #2, please come out and get in the vehicle. I got in the back seat since I was #2. And all the looky loos, all watched and looked on! I sat in the back seat. The first lady, the older lady from China. OMG. She didn't walk around the car at first like you are supposed to. So she made no visual check. She got in the car, didn't adjust her seat like you are supposed to do. And he already started marking her off on the paper. I saw from the backseat. She got in the car, didn't signal and took off. She didn't make any real stop. Only California type stops, like sliding through the stop. On the 40KM area. They want you to go actually 40km, maintain 40. Do not go 30. What did she do? She coasted at a snails pace of 30. He marked her off on that too. And believe me, I hate telling you what went so terribly wrong for her. But if I am going to tell this tale, I gotta do it in it's entirety. She did everything wrong. It was a disaster. When she drove around the cones, and again he/examiner guy wanted to see if you knew the proper procedure, of 1,2, 3 check! Meanwhile she just veered around the obstacle and didn't even check her blind spot or behind her or anything. She never made it to the crank. She never made it to the "S" curve. The drivers examiner never yelled or was mean at all. He just quietly marked you off. And the horrible part, the lady thought she was doing wonderful. She didn't know what they were looking for. And I sorta felt bad sitting in the back seat. What finally did her in, was she didn't stop at the main stop, she was again doing a quick California stop. And the examiner finally shouted.."Owari" meaning "it's over" you're done! You failed basically!!! She was just stunned and for the first time during her entire test, she actually really stopped. I sat in the backseat and I felt really uncomfortable. Perhaps that was a private conversation? Yet I was stuck in the back. I looked at my feet and pretended I didn't just hear him shout, "owari!" Okay, now she had to stop the test before she ever got midway. And now it was my turn???? And I hate saying this, but I am not going to be bullshit about it. I think because she did so badly, it sorta calmed my own nerves. Does that make sense? And no, I am not in any means making fun of her. She rocked! She was so nice you guys! : ( I wanted her to pass! Okay, so she drove us back and he told the older Chinese woman, "are you sure you passed your written?" (god that was a horribly mean thing to say to her) Boy did I feel uncomfortable hearing that! All the others were all standing out, apparently they all saw the same thing from their own birds eye view. The latin guy came down and he got into the back seat to ride along with me. And I stood outside, I glanced at Noboru and my boys! I took 2 deep breaths, I remember that! And I sorta said to myself, "now or never Gina", and I began walking the outside of the car, I spoke loudly, and I went to the front of the car, bent down and said, "okay check!", went to the side and bent down and looked for any imaginary child hiding under my car and I saw all was clear and I said very loudly, "okay check", they all meanwhile all stood outside and watched. The Filipino gal gave me the thumbs up sign!!! : ) And I walked to the back of the vehicle and I bent down and I shouted, "okay check!!! And I got into the car. I adjusted the seat, and I verbalized everything. Seat adjust check! "Seat belt, okay" Mirror check, 2 hand check! And I made sure he saw it all. I felt like I was in the freaking military saying...yes drill sergeant, no drill sergeant!!! Ha ha ha! But hell, I didn't care if I looked like a huge dork! I didn't wanna fail! I approached the merge, and I pivoted my head, like a wobble head doll. #1, means the rear view mirror, #2, means the side mirror,and #3, means blind spot/turn head to back, and then #4 means turn signal. I did it all smoothly and I spoke and said, 1, 2, 3, signal, and I again check, ed check 1,check 2,check 3, and turned. I drove and went around the bend. And then he said now you must drive 40km. I swear to god, I maintained, a constant 40. I knew if you go 41 or over you will get like 10 points ,marked off or whatever. So, I was a perfect 40. And remember the 2 checks, I checked my mirror and I said, "mirror check ichiban. And and as I drove some more, I said, "mirror check niban." And now I was getting near the cones blocking the lanes. I went and I started my 1, 2, 3, check. and signal. And I checked again like the website said to do. And I did good. Now, I was where the lady didn't stop and the man yelled the owari! I made a complete stop. And I even said, stop check! And don't laugh but I said...peds peds? No peds! I like spoke to myself. I was in the crank and I aced the crank! Like my husband said, don't use the gas peddle at all, just coast through and I did. And no matter how close those damn bars looked, I kept telling myself, they are there to psyche me out. Don't get psyched and I oddly wasn't psyched at all! I went through the whole course, "S" curve and all. I verbalized everything and the website said, it is indeed a good idea to verbalize it. And I passed! I was the first one of the day to pass! The lovely latin guy behind me, failed and my Filipino gal pal failed too. Boy did I want those 2 to pass because they were my pals that day, so I was totally crushed. Oh yeah so, anyway, I got back to the end and he told me, where to park the car. And he said, "Mrs. Blah blah, you passed, you did very well. Did you go to driving school? I said, "no sir, I did not. I just studied a lot." And he said, please stay until everyone else finishes their test to be able to get the paperwork because you *passed*. So, I had to stay and watch everyone else test. I got out of the car and the Latin guy, my friend, he gave me a high five right away. And I got out of the car and I yelled, "yay" and I smiled and that's when ehe gave me the high five! I ran to my husband and the boys. Noboru was so freaking proud, he was all proud of his wifey! Ha ha ha. And then we stood and waited a whole other hour to wait until everyone took their test. Out of 10 of us. 4 people passed. I was the only female. It was me and 1 man from Iran, and 2 guys from China. Everyone else sadly failed. : ( I wanted to give the Latin guy the name of the website, so he could learn the tricks, but he was so upset he failed, he just walked out of there, so I never saw him again! : ( Man he was awesome! You don't have to be a perfect driver, you just gotta know what they are looking for. Once you know that, you'll get it! In all honestly it wasn't so hard at all! By now the Japanese who took the different drivers test were all starting to be finished and the ones who passed got to stay and wait where we were. The four of us foreigners, the 1 guy from China said, where is everyone from? And the guy said, Iran desu, and I said, America desu. and they both said they were from China and are working at a host club, these 2 guys from China were so hilarious and funny! One said, he took this test 5 times. And the other one (they were friends) said, I failed this test 9 times! And today was my last day that my written test would be valid! LOL! According to the guy from China he said it is only valid for 6 month's, lol. So he took a half year to get his license. Man they were so happy and jumping! The guy from Iran said, this was his 4th try. And he was very polite, a little quiet but very nice! Then they said, how many times, did you take it? I said, this was my first try! They joked with me and said, whatttt???? One of the Chinese guys said, " you are lucky" and the guy from Iran, said "no it wasn't luck, she just drove well." And then we all laughed. But honestly and I mean this from the heart, I don't think it matters a hill of beans if you got it the first time or the 10th time. What mattered is we all passed. : ) I just happened to be one of those freaks who got it the first time, lol! : ) The length of time to get your license after you passed? It takes forever, because of all the waiting. By the time everyone finished their test. And by the time, they called us mere 4 who passed. And they did the paper work, Then we had to go and pay for the license and then go to another window and another. And then finally we went and took the picture. My picture,on my drivers license? I am all smiles! Ha ha ha! How funny! : ) Anyway, that is now the end of my drivers license tale and adventure! : ) So glad to have gotten it out of the way, glad it's over and done with and now I don't have to worry about that at all anymore! I think in 3 years, I have to go and just retake the pic, providing I don't get any tickets or whatever. Anyway that's over! Thanks for all of you for supporting me and going through this with me! : )

Sorry the front of my license has too many private details like last name and my home address and stuff. : ) But this is the back of my license and it says, something like transferred from a foreign license! : ) Yay, I did it you guys and on the first try nonetheless! Ha ha ha! : ) And in closing about the license stuff, I think all the drivers were actually good drivers, I just think they didn't know what the examiners were specifically looking for. What they were sticklers about and what they would grade off, if they didn't do it. As long as you know the tricks and what they want you will pass. And for many today who took the test they didn't know what the examiners were specifically looking for! Anyways... that's enough about that! : )

When we got out of the drivers testing place it was about 5pm!!! Yes, told ya, it took forever! We went directly to Costco, and got our few tidbits from there and quickly left. I also had to pick up something for my neighbor Rumi-san, she wanted muffins and dinner rolls. Sadly they didn't have any muffins for her, I think they sold out before I got there! : ( After that, Noboru took us to the Outback Steakhouse to celebrate me getting my Japanese drivers license! : )

Branden colored and enjoyed himself while he waited for his meal to arrive. Pink lemonade was in his cup! : )

Noah colored too and pink lemonade was also in his cup as well! : )

Noboru buttered our breads. And pink lemonade was in my glass too and free refills on the drinks! : ) Noboru had a coke! : )

As always if you show your Costco card you get a free appetizer!!!! So, we flashed our card and we chose the nachos! Yumm and for free, yahoo! : )

Branden eating his chicken fingers meal! : )

Noah, saying, "please mommy chop up my chicken" And yes, I put the camera away and chopped his chicken! Good little guy cleared his plate, so did B! : )

My Alice Springs chicken dinner! : ) We had a nice relaxing dinner, we chit chatted for a good 45 minutes to an hour during dinner. We talked and recapped the whole drivers license experience. And he told me what he thought. And he said he shoulda video taped me! I said, "no thanks" Ha ha ha! And we were cracking up at dinner time! We left and headed to our car and we didn't take the highway home because again it's a toll and we didn't wanna pay. So we took a leasurely drive home. We got home about 9:10 pm last night! So glad we didn't leave B at Genki's, gosh he woulda been freaked and been there forever! Glad we took him with us, that was the right decison, plus he got to go to Costco and enjoy a nice dinner with us.

Just bought a few healthy snack things for the boys! A monster size bag of pretzels. Granola bars, these are mostly for me, but the boys can certainly share, ha ha ha! : ) And organic animal crackers!

Is this not the biggest bag of pretzels or what? 6 pounds of them! LOL. Ah well, this will be our last trip to Costco in person for a mighty long while. perhaps in September we will go again! Otherwise it's just too darn far for us most of the time. And heck, only reason we went today was because we were right near it.

1 package of dinner rolls for me, and we just bought 2 bags of these last week, but a whole bag is gone already. So, they will be nice in the freezer. And I split them up in the freezer bags already. And the other bag is for, Rumi-san! : )

Tilex for my bathroom. It always keeps my bathroom clean. : )

And ground beef and some Johnsonville beddar cheddars! Noboru had to grab the beddar cheddars, lol! Not much stuff from Costco, I know, and that's okay, for most my main groceries I buy from Japanese stores and I am used to it. It's just those little extra comforts here and there that are nice once in a while. Oh yeah and I also grabbed a People Magazine! ha ha ha! : ) But yup that was our Monday spent in Makuhari and all the adventures we had that day! : )

*Update* Here is the information and links that helped me get my license, or helped me to study to get my license rather! : ) I hope this can be helpful to someone, anyone! I will leave thisinnformation up here and it will remain here, forever, just in case someday, someone needs help with their own driving test and does a search. Hopefully they will come across my blog and this page and hopefully it will prove useful! Anyways, hope this helps! : )

English website that helped me for the written part of the test

Japanese website that helped me with a ton of tips for the driving part of the test!

Bits from our week!!! : )

Tuesday morning, Branden was asked to bring a mayo bottle or a ketchup bottle. The entire class was sent with a note, apparently they will use it for some art and water project. They will make a make shift squirt bottle from this. I prefer Miracle whip, which is what I grew up with and so I use that. But the hubs prefers what he grew up with, which is fine for both of us, ha ha ha, so he uses Japanese mayo.: ) I squirted it all out and put it into a tiny container. And cleaned this bottle out by hand and also let it wash in the dishwasher the night before. This morning, I dried it off, put a self adhesive water resistant name tag on it. And also hand wrote his first name on the cap, just in case.: ) As always, there are always small tiny weekly type things to do like this, which is fine.: ) Like, kids please bring this to class or mom please run and go buy that, ykwim. : ) Like I said, it's always something and that's okay, ha ha ha. I definitely am not complaining, but yeah there is a lot more to do, once your kid starts elementary school. : )

Name went on every single part of the bottle, ha ha ha. It was supposed to be named though, the letter stated so. : )

Tuesday night's dinner was easy, thanks to the Carrefour rotisserie chicken. I also roasted some potatoes, man were they good! Browned and crunchy on the outside. Made some broccoli.

Tuesday nights dinner, what my plate looked like. Chicken, rice, roasted yummy potatoes, and broccoli with butter, salt and pepper. All four of us had the same.

Wednesday morning, after I had sent B to school. It was straight to the instructions that the school kindly sent to everyone. And I got out my sewing machine and got crackin' on making the name tags per their request! : ) See, this picture, isn't that name tag supposed to be huge for the boys swim trunks and the girls swim suit also has a huge name tag smack dab right in the center of the swim suit. That is like overly big! Ha ha ha! But, oh well, that's how they want it, I guess, so I will do exactly as they said. : )

Again, I make our cloth name labels from my computer and print them out. That way the writing is perfect and all the letter sizing is uniform and straight. : )

Name tag on the towels as well. I didn't buy him a new swim towel, he can use what he uses at swim club. Okie dokie, looks like we are indeed ready for Branden to start swimming at the elementary school. : ) I will be sending Branden with his swim bag on Thursday! : )

Wednesday nights dinner! Ginger pork, rice and green beans. A simple dinner, but yummy nonetheless! : ) Hey, I am by no means a fancy shmancy cook, ha ha ha. Just simple basic, no frills type meals are our thing! : )

Thursday nights dinner, I had a nice block of beef, and I diced it up and I fried it up for beef curry for Noboru, Branden and I. And I made beef stew for Noah. Just split the pot into 2 different pots, before I added each box of roux.

After I fried up my cubed up beef, I boiled it for an hour and checked, wasn't tender enough, boiled another hour and checked and nope not tender enough, boiled another hour and it was falling apart type tender! Yumm! Added my veggies and in 20 minutes, turned off the stove, split the mix into 2 pots and then I added the cubed sauce roux to each and yumm! A nice smaller pot of beef stew for Noah. And a nice pot of curry for the 3 of us. Curry was gone completely. I had 1 serving, Noboru had 2 servings and Branden ahd 2 servings too. A nice Thursday night.

This was my hearty serving of beef curry on Thursday night! : )

This is the map course of the roads the foreign license test is given on for those of us taking it at the Chiba testing center. Yes, the Japanese, take their test on an actually different and harder course, I think. I have been studying this route/course of this about 30 minutes each day, since I was given this on Monday. I also highlighted the places I need to make stops at, with a blue highlighter. So yeah, I have been busy this week studying my ass off, trying to memorize this blasted driving course! Ha ha ha! Wink, wink!!! : ) Well, whatever the outcome, I'll be sure to let you all know what happens next week! Gulp, he he he! : )

Other things keeping me busy these days, The community undokai for our area is on June 21st. Branden has been off practicing for fun in the backyard, and I have been watching and cheering him on. Also, our undokai will be indoors, yay! Umm, what else?

* Well, my upcoming drivers test next week. And my daily studying of the course map! : )

*Also still have that lunch at Branden's school, I will attend. Hmm, better track down that paper and get the actual date.

* Oh yeah and on June 20th the day before undokai, I have a parent teacher conference with the Kumon teacher. It's at 10am, and Noah and I will be heading there to see her. Branden does fantastic, with Kumon, no worries at all, it's just it's a yearly or so thing everyone has to do at Kumon right now. So, I got that also marked on the calender on the fridge.

* Plus the swim school/club, the Kumon and other activities I am always running to, lol. Which we love, so no complaints just busy though. : ) Plus housework, and cooking dinners and whatever else. : )

* Branden has been having a bit more homework lately. Just a lot of reading. And we, sign it when he reads it and write how many times he has read it. Some kids in his class read things 5 times, one 10. So, Branden wants to read, this particular reading say 6 times and the next one 4 times. And there goes an hour of my night, helping my wonderful son with his homework. Again, Noboru and I love helping B with his homework, it's our pleasure. But just teeny tiny things like this do consume time. Yochien was a total cake walk compared to this! Again not complaining but yeah, we are a lot busier around here then before. Also, interesting tid bit, Branden seems to be a whiz at math. How interesting, because I am horrible at math, ha ha ha.: ) But Noboru is great at it.

** Also our vacation plans, looks like we will be leaving to America, a week earlier then expected. So, yeah around July 12th, or 13th, maybe 14th the latest, but yes we will be leaving about a good 6 days earlier then we thought. And then be gone for about 9 days. Why? Well, because flights are more open those days and less coworkers are requesting that week off versus the other week. So a higher chance of things working out.

**The day, I am taking my driving test, Branden will go home that day with Genki after school. His mom offered to watch Branden on that day. She knows I am going for my drivers test. And she offered to keep Branden for as long as we need her to. Probably just 2 hours at the most for after school. This way he doesn't have to miss school. And I trust Genki's mom completely. And that's saying a lot because I don't trust my kids with anyone. Ha ha ha. So, yeah I am sure he will be fine. At least this way, they can play for 2 hours. : ) Or do homework together for 2 hours. or a little of both maybe! : )

**TV talk, Still watching and loving Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives! The Dexter second season ended here, so not watching that lately. Cold Case is back on and have been watching that. Love the music from Cold Case, there is actually a website online that lists the music from each episode. Great for me, since I really enjoy the music. Movies on Sky Perfect, I've caught lately, Cold Mountain with Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger and Jude law! Awesome movie! I also caught..."the Other Sister" with Juliette Lewis, such a fantastic movie, saw this before but *love* it!!!! Child's Play, that creepy movie with that weirdo Chucky doll! Ha ha ha. I caught that after the kids were in bed. Good thing the kids didn't see that! It creeps me out! And also saw the Amityville Horror, the newer version on Sky Perfect lately too. Now the Amityville movies *really* freak me out! Telling the priest, to "get out!!!" Yikes, I woulda high tailed it out of there too!!!" Ha ha ha!

**Anyway and now it's Friday! I must tell you, quite frankly, I am so glad it's Friday! Yay! TGIF! I love the weekends, I need the weekends. A few days to recover before the week hits me all over again! Ha ha ha! : ) I feel as if, I am running on fumes here, lol! So, just really happy it's Friday! Gonna shut the computer down early this evening. And gonna enjoy my evening with my kids! The hubster is working until 8:30 pm tonight, which is fine. : ) Relaxing and quality time is definitely in order! At 2:50 pm B gets out of school. But I'll be there by 2:35 as usual and just read a magazine, because I am always a bit early. : ) Have a lovely weekend all of you! : )

Our Monday spent in Makuhari! : )

So, on Monday, we had planned to go to the Chiba drivers license place. I had actually planned to go the Tuesday before, however as luck would have it, there was an actual Typhoon that day. Horrible weather that day, so we postponed it for Monday. Monday morning came, and it was once again raining! We decided rain or shine, today would be the day no matter what. We sent Branden to school, and at 11am, we went and picked him up and took him with us. My written was to start at 1:30 pm, and we most likely would not be here in enough time to pick B up from school, so we took him with us. Also, for his records at school, we didn't want him to have a day marked as absent, that's why we sent him and then pulled him out at 11am. We arrived and actually got there around 1pm.

My family as they walked towards the building.

We had about a few minutes to walk the driving course, before they started in on the drivers tests. Quite a few people were also walking it. This #1 and stuff, is where the cars will be, when I do take my driver's test.

Also under those bigger numbers are these individual numbers. Looks all a bit complicated and like number overload, lol. But I'm glad I got a good visual and now know what I will be facing.

The dreaded "S" curve.

The zigzag road. Or as my husband calls it, the "crank". Btw, I saw a few people take their tests and one lady got stuck on the crank. She had to back up a few times, and she failed. I felt really bad for her and it also really freaked me out! : (

The road is sorta 2 tone. Looks like a curb, but it's all the same height, I actually walked over it and looked at it. It's an optical illusion, Noboru says. And see the bars to the right? Again, Noboru says they put those bars there to psyche people out and to make them feel like they might hit them. I am really dreading this crank part of the test! Ha ha ha! : ) And yes there is an actual curb but ykwim, about the 2 tone road, I think.

See the bars now? Yup, talk about intimidating, ha ha ha! : )

The course stop light, intersection and stuff. Alright, so let me give you the skinny on what happened regarding my written! I had been studying on this one website. It's a site in English and they have practice test questions. I had been taking that test, they actually have 3 tests with 10 questions each. I had taken it for the past nearly 2 and a half weeks by now. And so I have actually memorized all the questions, knew the correct answers. I hoped my actual real test would, at least look somewhat similar. My husband had said the written was easy. So, anyway, I turned in my paperwork. It was really crowded. There were about 40 people in the switching the foreign license area (about half were waiting to take their written, the other half (about 20) waiting to take their driving test). Many people didn't have the proper paperwork or whatever and in the end 4 people total were actually allowed to take the afternoon written test. I recall, an Indian gentleman with his Japanese wife, he was actually in line in front of me, they wouldn't let him take it for whatever reasons.

: ( Maybe not enough paperwork or whatever. Another lady from Vietnam, had a "new" Vietnamese license, and the lady at the counter said, they had the format for the "old" one, but since the Japanese license center, didn't have the format to the newer version, she was out of luck. Which was horrible huh? Poor lady! So many people were frustrated, and rightfully so. I was the only American there taking my test that day. Actually no other westerners, in there at all (doesn't matter a bit obviously, just trying to give you a visual here). All were nice though. : ) Finally after an hour of waiting, they called 4 names. One Japanese guy, one Filipino lady, and me and 1 woman from China (I thought the lady from China was at first a Chinese American, but nope, bummer because I was hoping for some chit chat, he he he) but she was very awesome that lady was : ). The woman from China, was alone, she seemed a bit nervous. She was studying her butt off, big time though, with a drivers booklet. : ) So anyway, they called our 4 names and we left. Noboru looked at me and said, "good luck" , I went into the room. The room was so small. Good thing none of us had claustrophobia. It was like 3 or 4 tatami sized. Could have been 3. We each sat at individual tiny tables. And she passed out this test. It looked like a child's book sorta. Because it had a big metal ring, hoop that connected all the pages together. And only 1 question per page. And a big picture of explanation. The test was in English and Japanese, under the big picture. She gave each of us a pencil sharpened on both ends. And she said, in Japanese, that you got 10 minutes, a circle is for true and an x, means false. And then she said start!!!! I immediately looked at question 1, and it became funny to me, because I thought to myself, "hey this is the *same* exact question I had on my practice test! Okay, so I went to question 2 and funny again, I again thought to myself, "hey this is the same exact question from my practice test!!! (noticing a pattern here?) and then it happened again and yet again. So, now I am on my 7th question and I again, said to myself, "my god every question, I am having today, is word for freaking word, from my practice test", the gods must be smiling on me today! Ha ha ha! I got all the way to question 10 and sure enough, everything was from my practice test! Word for word, same exact picture, it was the oddest thing ever! The lady from China and I got up, about 5 minutes into the test and we handed our tests to the testing woman and we both left. The guy from Japan and the other lady were still in there. Btw, the other lady had her hands in her hair, and she was totally stressed out. Man, I felt badly, but I had to leave. I walked out and walked to Noboru, I had this enormous smile on my face, I tried not to make it obvious, but the smile over ruled my face. He said, how was it? I said, every question was from that website I studied from, word for word! So, anyway, we waited the 5 minutes for the other two to finish up. And then the lady went in the back and graded them. She called the lady from the Philippines up to the counter and she failed the written. : ( She was devastated, I can't say I blame her! I tried not to look. She felt badly enough then to have us all stare. Meanwhile she called the 3 of us up and told us we passed. The other lady was still standing there. Crushing! : ( Then she took us for our eye exam, I passed. We 3 all passed actually! The lady from China and I chit chatted in Japanese while waiting for our eye exams, he he. She was so nice! : ) And then we went and made appointments for our driving test. Mine is for next week. After that, we went and saw people taking their drivers test. I saw 3 foreigners take their test. All 3 failed by the way! Honestly, it freaked me out big time! A man went first and he failed sorta quickly. : ( Also, in the front seat, it's the person taking the test, and the drivers test guy/examiner. And in the backseat is another foreigner who will be testing after the current driver. Yup, as if testing isn't hard enough, you gotta do it in front of an absolute stranger to boot! Next was the lady from Thailand, I had actually saw her walking the road when we walked it, before I took my written. I gotta tell you, you guys! This lady kicked ass! She did so amazing! She drove slowly and safely, I saw her put her blinker on, stop at the stop signs, she totally aced that crank/zigzag area! She was flawlessly dead on! I knew she was going to pass. I said, she will pass. Heck, if I were the instructor, I'd pass her. However, she failed! She went to a part of the course where I could not see, and next thing you know...she was driving back to the finish area. She never even made it to the "S" curve. I was confused. She shoulda passed! I saw her, she was perfect! How come, how come, I thought!!! I was pissed off she didn't make it! Also, I was going to say, there is this feeling, of camaraderie at the driving center! At least, for me I feel it! : ) In my mind, it's no difference/doesn't matter where you come from, we are all trying to get our drivers test, we are all in the same boat here. So, let's cheer each other on and root for one another! So, yeah, I guess that's why I was upset that other lady failed her written. : ( Anyway back to the drivers test. Then the last one, I saw was a lady from Brazil and her Brazilian hubby. She had her husband with her. She was in the back seat when the lady from Thailand failed and she had to go next. I could see the fear on her face. I think I had fear on my face too! She actually glanced at me before she started checking the car over and I smiled! I swear to god, I almost wanted to shout...gambatte!!! At the top of my lungs to this fellow foreigner, but I didn't. I just watched. And silently/quietly cheered her on! She was doing really good, though she did look visually shaken. She got in the car, turned her turn signal on, like we are supposed to and drove off. I watched. Actually, all 4 of our family of 4 did. Plus about 20 other fellow foreigners testing also looked on too. She did really good. One part of the course you gotta drive at 40km, and then go back to normal speed. and she did really awesome there too! And then she got to the crank. It must have been those damn, visually deceiving white bars or the illusion that the road is narrower then it really is, with that blasted 2 tone road. I don't know what happened. : ( I only know she got stuck on the crank. Her car stopped for a minute or two, she actually backed up and retried it sorta to get herself out of that darn crank turn. She was still driving, and again she went into that part that is visually covered by bushes where we as observers can't see, but she failed in the same damn spot the lady before her failed! Seriously what the hell is back there, behind those tall bushes? Ha ha ha! I better go back there and walk that part, because something is making them fail around there. Anyway, again the drivers test guy, made her stop and go back" in front of all the rest of the people, having to just stop your drivers test mid way, must be horribly humiliating and I will no doubt be going through that on my test day! : ( : ( Her husband was so nervous, and when she got stuck in the crank, he paced back and forth and when she was told to drive back and not to complete the course, her husband just looked down. When she got out of the car, she had a 100 eyeballs on her. The devastation on her face, the stress. "Why does the test have to be so damn hard?" I asked Noboru. Now Noboru could see the stress on my face! I wanted to see at least 1 person pass, so I'd have some tiny glimmer or shred of hope! I didn't get that. I felt happy in one hand, that I passed my written. But on the other hand, I left with the feeling, that I will be taking an impossible drivers test, come next week. Sigh. Deep breaths. I will try my best and hopefully on my 2nd or 3rd try, I will get a license. I doubt, I will walk away with a license next week. And no I am not saying that for sympathy, I am saying that because it's more then likely gonna happen and I know that. By the way, as we were walking to our car, we saw the lady from Thailand (oh and btw, earlier in that day, as we all waited in the area, us waiting for our written and them about to drive, all of us had our passports out and everyone sorta saw everyone else's, that's how I know where these few people came from.) I asked Noboru to ask her, why she failed. Since we were all in the parking lot, he said, sumimasen!! (sp?) and we went to where she was and talked to her for about 2 minutes. #1, she had the wateriest eyes, you guys she was honestly on the verge of tears. And again, can't say I blame her! It's a freaking hard test! Noboru asked her...'why did the examiner say you failed?" She said, "because he said, that I stopped at the places where the stop signs are, but there are other places where I am supposed to stop that weren't marked but I didn't stop" And she also said, he told her, she wasn't looking enough. And she told us, she told him/examiner guy..."I was looking *everywhere*" She was very upset and I don't blame her! I told her...I saw you take your test, you did perfect, I was shocked you didn't make it" She was a very awesome nice lady! She got in her car, and drove off. She also told me, "good luck" for next week.

Anyway enough about the drivers test thing! We went to Costco afterwards. Probably the only plus side about taking my drivers test, well besides getting the license. Is the fact it's near Costco Makuhari, right near actually.

Hi Branden! : )

We ordered a pepperoni pizza to take home! We were all tired, hungry at this point. And the distance to get home? Yikes! Ha ha ha! : )

Nice to be here on a weekday, as you can see from this picture, not crowded in the least! I think next week, when I go back for my drivers test, we will stop at Costco, as well. Wow, 2 weeks in a row? Unbelievable for me, and you guys know that! Ha ha ha. : )

The boys, as we were leaving Costco, Monday around 4pm.

We went into Carrefour for a quick minute or two, just to get some whole roasted chickens. The flavor of these chickens is so flavorful. We had to get some.

They have so many different flavors of chicken. Although, I prefer the regular one. They really do make the best tasting chicken. : )

Bread stuff/bakery stuff. bagels, both plain bagels this time. And 2 big bags of the yeasty plain dinner rolls. I've got those rolls in the freezer and some in the fridge.

Tortillas, , colby cheese, and ravioli.

Cascade for the dishwasher, and the handy antibacterial cleaning wipes.

Vitamins for the boys. These are from Okinawa, they are yogurt flavor, and also made with green tea from Okinawa too. Both my boys love the flavor and although the boys eat healthy and eat veggies and whatnot anyway, I like giving them a vitamin or two a day. Noah gets 1 a day and B gets 2. The directions say to give 2 a day. Anyways this is what we use for the kids in our family. : )

Celery, for peanut butter celery sticks.

The pizza was cold by the time we got home. We knew it would be cold with the distance we live. All was okay, because we just threw it into the oven to get hot, and it turned yumm, all over again! : ) Oh and the missing pieces? We gave each of the boys a slice of pizza when it was still piping hot in the car, and they ate it. That way they weren't hungry or anything. And Noboru and I split a slice as we went home too. : )

We threw one of the chickens in the oven and the pizza in the oven at the same time. Meanwhile we all took quick 5 minutes showers, to wash off the day! : ) The other chicken is for dinner tomorrow.

After my shower, I came downstairs and had a beer! Well, a root beer. You guys know I don't drink! Ha ha ha. So after sucking back a nice cold frosty one! We got to relax and have dinner.

Thank god my pizza pan is the same size as the Costco pizzas, ha ha ha. It was hot, melty and gooey! We also had some chicken. And it was pretty awesome, to relax in front of the TV with the family and eat and unwind. After dinner,the kids went up and brushed their teeth, I tucked them in bed, read them 2 stories and they fell asleep. I meanwhile shut the computer down, didn't have time for things inside my computer that day. Just regular life is so crazy busy these days. Good busy though, nice busy, but still busy nonetheless : ) I've got a 101 things keeping me occupied these days. Ha ha ha. : )