Throwback Thursday! Setsubun...

Yesterday was Setsubun for us in Japan! So a perfect subject for today's TBT! Here are a few pics for this weeks blast from the past! This pic was from February 2008! Our yochien would have the kids all decorate a mask every year. And all of the kids would cast out the oni at school every year too! Here is Branden and the mask he decorated that year! And by the way, I loved that long sleeved shirt that was half green and half gray. Such a neat shirt and BrannyB loved that shirt that year *so* much! That was hands down his favorite shirt from that year. What a great oni mask you made that year Bran! : ) 

Aww and look who we have here! Noah and the oni mask he decorated and colored. And goodness were those colors, all over the place or what?! But that is absolutely fine, totally age appropriate coloring there. He was just a little fella. Hahaha. : ) This pic is from Setsubun, February 2009!

You did such a fantastic job coloring your mask Noah! Love you both to the moon and back! : )

Going to the movies, to see The Intern and lunch afterwards with good friends...

The very next day, after we got back from our overnight stay! October 14th. I had a movie and lunch date set with my very very good friends, I have been friends with forever! Since our kids were in yochien. The movie was to start at 9am. Goodness that's an early morning show! And my 2 girl friends and I, were set to meet at the movies at 8:30am. You know, enough time to meet up and buy our tickets together, because you actually select a seat here, when you buy your tickets. The original name of this movie, or perhaps I should say, the name of this movie in America is called, The Intern, however in Japan, as you can see in this picture is called, My Intern. I had been seeing the previews to this, for a long time and I wanted to see this, big time! And my friends did too. Not sure if you can see by the poster towards the bottom, but it says 10/10. It just came out for us in Japan, October 10th. And so it just opened 4 days earlier for us in Japan. We also went on Ladies Day, because it's just cheaper for us, if we go that day. How was the movie? It was SUCH a great movie. I thought it was going to be a good movie anyway. But it was even way better, then I thought it would be! Loved this movie! We 3 really enjoyed the movie.

After the movie let out, we went out to lunch. We picked Saizeriya. Our favorite spot to lunch. Because it's cheap and delicious and they have a drink bar. And when we meet up and get together we usually stay there for hours. We all had the potato gratin and petite foccacia (bread) set for lunch and the drink bar. Lunching with these 2, is always a blast! They are so very smart, so witty and wise. They do have 2 daughters each..each of their oldest daughter, is a 9th grader. And their younger daughters, one has a 6th grader this year and the other ones daughter is Noah's age, because they were classmates. So, they are, like I have mentioned on here before...they are my senpai's because they #1 have been through Japanese school themselves and also their daughters are 1 grade ahead of Bran and so they know *so much* and I learn a lot. They offer me words of wisdom. Advise. I know and learned that the 9th graders... will be taking the entrance exams in Jan/Feb 2016, to see if they get into high school. So now...I know a round about idea when Bran will take his next year. Also I learned...a lot but, not all Japanese mothers take their children on a graduation trip at the end of 9th grade. One of my girlfriends is taking her family to Kyoto and also Universal Studios Japan (fun!!!) and the other is still deciding. But again. It gives me an idea. A heads up. And hearing this with a 1 year head start... helps me tons....because I have never been to Japanese school. I was born and raised in the USA. So again it helps. I'm lucky to be able to call these 2, my very good friends. We didn't just talk about JHS. But we talked about, what we have been up to. I told them that I was changing hair salons. And going back to the salon 95% of my yochien mama friends go to and that they go to too. I had been going to a different salon for the past 3 years. But, the lady who cuts my hair. Sometimes she cuts my  hair awesome and sometimes it's not 100% like, I see a piece here or there that's not cut straight. And hair salons are pricey anyways and frankly if it's not 100% right and I am paying 100%, then I must switch. And so we talked about that. And they were like. "If your hair is off... in anyway and you're paying...you need to change the salon" And I was like...I know right? So again just confirmation of what I had already thought too. So we talked girl stuff. You know what I mean, I hope. We also talk about TV and movies, beauty or hair stuff, mom stuff too... like school or tests and stuff. It was just super nice to reconnect with 2 super good friends. I love when we meet up, we should do it more often! : ) Anyway, so that's what's up over here. I went to the movies and lunch, October 14th with 2 of my really good girl friends.

Anything else to add? I have Bran's observation day this Wednesday. I have a massive hair salon appointment this Thursday at 9:30am. @_@ That's early! I have a hair straightening (Japanese thermal hair straightening) a hair cut (a fresh bob, all one length hair cut for me) and a hair color. I imagine I will have a butt, as flat as a pancake, after sitting at the salon all day long this Thursday. But the bright side and positive is, I will have the most rockin' slammin hair ever! Why did I switch salons in the first place? I switched because the other place was tons cheaper. However the quality of the cut was so bad in July, right before Hawaii. It could no longer be ignored. My hair was 2 cm longer in parts on one side of my head. Looked like Edward Scissorhands cut my hair and not in a good way! I went back to the cheaper salon, hoping to get it fixed... I had been going to the past 3 or so years, to ask if she could fix.. my uneven hair... and they said... she was off work for the next 2 days, I asked if someone else... could cut my hair, they were hesitant because they said...the woman who cuts it, should fix it, plus they were booked solid that day, according to them, hmm. @_@ I said, I understand, but I can't walk around like THIS for 2 days either though. I just said, never mind I'll come back when my schedule fits it. And I went to a different place immediately afterwards and had them fix my hair, a place in my town and to fix the cut cost me just 500 yen, but still though (their cuts usually cost 4500 yen but considering it just needed to be fixed in spots plus I am from that town and they know me, they only charged me 500 yen, which was super kind.) Yes I had to pay for a hair cut twice that month. Which is absurd and why it made me not want to go back to the cheaper place anymore. Why? Because we were flying out to Hawaii that same week and time just didn't allow me to go and have her refix my hair, since she is the one who jacked it up... in the first darned place. And frankly I have not been back there since. I have been floating at other salons since the July right before Hawaii... nightmare cut from heck. And so Noboru said..."you know, your original place you loved...just please go back there." But I said, the price though. And he said forget about it. No worries.. And so, my husband suggested...just go back to the pricier place. Since he pays for my hair appointments anyways. So, I called yesterday and set up my appointment for this Thursday morning. For reference. The cheaper place was like 12,000 yen for a cut and hair straightening. However her prices were shady at times, because I had hair color coupons but at times, when I used a free coupon and had a hair cut, I was charged more then I should have been, One time for a hair cut, straightening and color it came to 15,000 yen. I remarked to Noboru this place is starting to be as pricey as the expensive place. The expensive place was hair straightening and cut for 18,000 yen. However to be fair...my hair at the time was hella long and you pay depending on length of hair and my hair is medium/short now, so should be cheaper. So in short, the price gap, seemed to shrink between the places. But the frustration of iffy cuts, just got too much. Also, sorry want to add, one more thing. At the cheaper place, they would book 2 clients at the same time, per stylist. I often felt, she was not fully concentrating on me fully 100%, her client. She left me once went and put a lady's hair up in summer to wear for her yukata. That was the July nightmare cut time. After my hair straightening... her face seemed, she wasn't in the mood to cut my hair, could the updo she gave the other lady... tired her out, or I don't know.... I could feel the vibes, you know what I mean. She said..."you don't need a cut right?" Duh! Granted my appointment said cut and straightening, She just snipped 3 times and it didn't even look any different. I asked her politely, could you please cut it shorter. And again she seemed...totally not into it. And again, I am paying money...I am a client, we're not friends and this wasn't a freebie. And that's when I left, and then when I washed it afterwards the next day... I realized, she totally jacked it up (she curled it under, so that's why, I could not see it the day of the cut). Dude, if cutting peoples hair, bores you...you're not the stylist for me. I'm not paying you 15,000 yen to feel doki doki (a nervous wreck) and like I am bothering YOU. The pricier place, they only book 1 customer at a time. So she's only concentrating on one at a time. Honestly...I think that's just better. And for the 30 extra bucks. Maybe it's worth it. So sorry... such a long blab about hair salon stuff. But there ya go! Sometimes you have really good hair experiences and sometimes you have crap hair experiences...but all learning experiences nonetheless.

Oh and this Thursday evening? Bran and Noah have a dental exam, dental cleaning and check up. Their every 6 month check. I will be a mama on the go, all Thursday. This Thursday. : )  PS, tomorrow is BrannyB's 14th birthday!

Honolulu, Hawaii here we come...

Yep, it has been decided and yes the odds were not in our favor for California. We watched all Friday... our flight online. Stand by list and such. Saturday was our day of hope. The flight was for evening. And by 9am yesterday breakfast time, we could see, we didn't have a chance in heck to catch last evenings flight. We decided it would be best, not to even "try" to get to Haneda airport yesterday, because why? Because it costs us 5,000 yen to get there on the highway and also include parking. And if we couldn't catch the flight, it would be a wasted $50 US basically. And I do mean we checked hourly, the status. We could get on, but just 3 of our family of 4. Which is nuts. Leaving one of us behind, clearly we'd not leave a child but it means either Noboru or I would go with the kids and the other adult, would have to fight to get on another flight someplace somewhere. It was yesterday that we booked a place in Hawaii after debating over the pros and cons of California or Hawaii. We debated it all day yesterday. Our last chance to get to California was for Sunday/today...the evening flight. It looked great all this week. But by yesterday, Sundays flight to California looked iffy. As in..cutting it close. As in, if 1 or 2 other non revs with a higher priority came to our  LAX flight with a higher seniority we'd be wiped out. The other thing...Hawaii, is a sure thing... this Honolulu flight. Totally open and available sort of calling for us. Come here...come back to Oahu. So we were left anxious yesterday...do we pick the iffy California flight. Do you go with an unsure thing or a sure thing. Granted, California, is where we REALLY want to go. Or do we say to heck with it...and take a sure thing. Therefore no more stress. No more...what ifs. Again time not being on our side either. As in, you have 24 hours... before check in, to cancel the California hotel or you'll be charged. Yes charged. And you need 24 hours advance notice to book a place in Hawaii. So...again time not really being on our side. We needed to decide and we needed to decide yes or no, by Saturday. Gosh were Noboru and I stressed to the max yesterday. We finally thought about it logically. If we put all our eggs in the California basket. We might not end up taking a vacation at all. And that would totally and completely suck. So...yeah...not a gamble we really wanted to take. Granted would it have been lovely if the flight was wide open to California, yes, you betcha. But it just wasn't. However there is a bright side. The bright side is. We now sorta realize... us trying to get to the mainland US from Japan, in summer time as a non rev... just is NEVER gonna happen and we need to understand that and accept that. Phew. Very freeing understanding that. So, if we do want to go to the US mainland from Japan and fly non rev. It best we fly in Fall, or Winter or Spring. We can get there then...and for free. But just not a chance in heck, for us in summer. Lesson learned. And thankfully we didn't have to learn it the *hard way* meaning at the expense of us not getting to go anywhere this year, because we wanted California or nothing. Another bright side is...we admit defeat and we know when we're facing a losing battle here and we move on to plan B quickly, meaning no time to dwell. We were smart to say...you know in all probability California's just not gonna pan out. Let's go for plan B. So, in that respect, we did everything humanly possible... and we did it the right way. Anyway, so we rented ourselves a privately owned condo this time around on Oahu, this time. We're frankly tired of paying the $25 resort fees for staying at a hotel in Waikiki (yes all hotels in Waikiki charge you that for staying there) and paying $25- $35 US for parking per each day (last time one of our hotels charged $25 and the other hotel charged us $35 per day to park at their hotel). Add that on top of your hotel rate and it gets pretty expensive. So...we're staying in a nice little suburb. We have a rental car. And so we're pretty excited. No more stress of...will we get on the flight or won't we. It's done. The good thing is, we're packed and ready. We just have to throw the boogie boards in the 2 big empty suitcases and grab some extra sunscreen and we're all set. Will we like this whole renting a private condo thing? We may, we may not. I'll let ya'll know when we get back. But the place we picked looks gorgeous though! There's a beach 3 minutes from our condo. Plus we'll be hitting lots of different beaches. And shopping, Sephora, Target, Walmart, Nature Republic, Ala Moana Shopping center, here we come. And plus we also just want to relax and bring a packed lunch to the beach and do nothing all day...many of our days... we will spend them like that. Also movies, we have a ton of movies we want to see too. Terminator, Inside Out, Pixels, etc.

Not the vacation we had originally wanted. But, it's the vacation we're fortunate enough... to be able to take.  And we know that.. so for that we have huge appreciation. So we're happy. Happy we are going somewhere for summer break. Plus you all know we're beach people anyway. : ) 

Branden is looking forward to the shrimp.

June's Dairy Queen Blizzard flavor... was the Jurassic World blizzard (2 types of cookie dough)...and the commercials we've been seeing all July, on our cable say...July is brownie batter blizzard flavor. So, wonder if anyone of us will try the July flavor. I know for me, I would like a Peanut Buster parfait. This thing pictured here. Yumm. Anyway, catch up with you all, when we get back. : )

Happy Halloween!!! Jack-o' lantern carving and freshly roasted pumpkin seeds! Trick or treating fun! Pumpkin muffins and homemade pizza from scratch and a fun family movie night! Our Halloween 2014!

Our Jack-o' lantern this year and freshly roasted pumpkin seeds!: )

Wednesday, October 29th, our family carved our Halloween pumpkin! As you know, we look forward to carving one every single year and have since the kids were babies. This year, the fam decided to make a Jack Skellington one from the Nightmare Before Christmas! : )

Everyone as usual chips in to help!Noah nicely took out all the pumpkin "guts" and seeds and whatnots! And I in turn cleaned all the seeds, preheat the oven and lightly salted the seeds and baked the pumpkin seeds. : )

Noboru did the mouth of "Jack the Pumpkin King" and Branden did the eyes and nose!

I think it came out really cool this year! And we all did our part and we all enjoyed it! : )

It was super chilly outside (actually downright cold!) so we just ran outside real quick snapped about 3 pics and went right back inside the comfort of a warm toasty house. : )  A lot of our neighbors enjoy our yearly carved Jack-o' lantern that sits nicely lit for a few days on the front porch before Halloween. : ) 

We had a really stuffed Jack-o'lantern bucket with delicious American Halloween treats inside!

And even extra...

Friday, October 31st! Halloween day, I baked these lovely but simple pumpkin spice muffins, in festive Spider/Halloween cupcakes liners. So the pumpkin muffins were ready and rarin' to go for the boys to get home from school, Friday afternoon! I also meanwhile made the pizza dough Friday around 11am-ish too. So again, I had everything  ready, bell peppers sliced. I was ready and eager for school to finish Friday! The plan was just a simple quiet dinner for Branden and Noah and myself, since Noboru was at work. However when I picked up Noah, Branden actually got out earlier and so he hopped in my car at the plaza. Then Noah came in my car about 5 mins later and Noah surprised me because he said...."mommy, K and I are going "trick or treating" this evening." I was like. @_@ Say whatttt? @_@  I was feeling pretty iffy about it all. But, I went and pulled out Noah's costume he wore when he went trick or treating in Guam 2 years back. And had Noah put it on "just in case" And as we were finishing up...the doorbell rang. I had 2 trick or treaters at *my* front door! What in the heck....was there a new world order in effect that...I was clearly not aware of? What's happening? Seriously I'm a VP of the kids club for our area so ummm if anything is happening I would be the one to know and I didn't. Apparently...just a small handful of kids wanted to trick or treat. And so that's what they did. I did not initiate this...instigate this in any way, shape or form. Again you all reading know the plan...it was pizza and muffins and a quiet night at home. I had zero makeup on and my hair was in a sloppy pony tail. To be blunt, I looked like crapola! Clearly I was JUST as surprised as anyone. So where was I...oh yes 2 trick or treaters at my door. The kids told me..."trick or treat!" So, I said in English.."oh what great costumes kids...here's one for you and one for you." While putting a treat in each of their bags. And as they left they turned and said "Happy Halloween." I said..."And a Happy Halloween to you too" Seriously ya'll where did this idea come from? So, Noah is now putting his shoes on and Branden is standing on the porch with me just as shocked as I...as I just passed out treats to 2 trick or treaters, my first in a couple years. @.@ By now Noah's 2 pals come by on their bikes. And in costume and they said is Noah ready? Noah came and I told Branden we have to walk with them. Because #1, I was really unsure about this all...this is Japan, this isn't America...is it really okay? I was worried. So Branden and I followed/shadowed 3 third graders around our housing community. I also did worry...I *really* hope nobody thinks *I* put the kids up to this! I am an American true and obviously... but please don't blame this all on me for Pete's sake! We did not come up with this plan!

Noah and the 2 K's went and rang all their fellow 3rd grade friends houses in our housing community. First starting with the boy and girl twins house. This was on zoom, Branden and I stood way way back. 

Noah and K, 2 super sweet kids. These 2 are such good friends (he's the kiddo with a 7th grade brother too)! It turned out that a lot of their friends were waiting with treats at the houses they knocked! Again though, what in the heck? : ) This whole thing just really caught me by surprise, is all.  K's mom had her camera out and snapped pics of K and Noah. 2 grandma's from two totally different houses came out of their homes to say how cute Noah was. A gaggle of JHS girls stopped Noah and said...Noah-chan kawaii, they swarmed him even. : ) And as if this wasn't weird enough already...there was another cluster of kids also dressed up, but they were all 2nd graders, about 5 boys all dressed up as Dracula. No I am not kidding these 5 kids all had the same exact costume (not that it matters but it was just noticable to see 5 draculas all together if that makes sense. Hahaha. In closing...it made me realize that while I do know that they trick or treat in certain housing communities in Inzai, I know because I have a couple friends who live there. I realized that there is REAL want or wish to start something up in my actual housing community. And I realize that perhaps I should maybe do something next year. I just never really bothered to create anything or host anything because I thought nobody would be interested, but now I realize that yes the kids are interested...then perhaps next year I can kick start something! : )  

And home! Noah managed to collect a small amount of Japanese treats. He was happy! Plus we had a huge bucket filled with American Halloween treats anyways, so we were already set! : ) 

Koala cookies, Pumpkin flavored Pocky and a bag of treats from the lovely K's mom. 

I sent Noah upstairs to shower, while I turned on the oven and rolled out the dough and started baking the pizza. We usually eat dinner at the dinner table 98% of the time, but the kids and I were just having pizza, so we went and ate in the living room and we watched the movie Bicentennial Man with Robin Williams. The kids loved it, they had never seen it before. Not the most Halloweeny type a movie granted, but we had already watched tons of Halloween movies all October on the slingbox, We watched It's the Great pumpkin Charlie Brown (though we own this on DVD), we watched ParaNorman (own this on DVD too), Beetlejuice, Hocus Pocus (my fave for Halloween) so we were sorta just Halloween movied out...so the DVD Bicentennial Man was perfect!  Anyway it was a lovely Halloween week and Halloween evening. I was not expecting the trick or treating part at all, as you know lol. But ehhh, I rolled with it! Hahaha. ; ) Hope you all had, a very lovely and safe Halloween as well. : ) 

Lunch date with my husband

April 15th, Noboru and I went out for a lunch date. We went to the Shisui Premium Outlets. Not to shop! : ) We went because it's a fairly new outlet mall near Narita, they have Cold Stone, California Pizza Kitchen and some popular caramel popcorn type shop called, Garrett. So with the boys at school, we went for our date. 

They have 2 regular EV chargers and 1 quick charger! We used the quick charger that morning. 

Yep, you've seen that card before, we have that card and I posted a pic a few weeks back.

She has 2 chargers, the one on the left is for a quick charge and the one on the right is for a regular/normal charge.

So we plugged her up and she was ready to have herself a free lunch... while we went to check out the food court! : )

California Pizza Kitchen, glad we have one near us now, but the prices were a bit high. 1200-1500 yen for a personal sized pizza and the drinks were almost 400 yen, 380 yen or something like that. $30 bucks (US) for the both of us, for lunch is a bit high in my opinion, for dinner $30 would be fine once in a while, but for lunch? So we ended up not having lunch at the mall at all. Hahaha. But the bright side is...we at least got to look around. 

The Cold Stone lacked a lot of the signature combinations like the one in America has...no "That's How We Roll" (the cinnamon roll one which is my fave...no Birthday Cake either. Pretty disappointed with the options Cold Stone in Japan has.

The bright side is, we did get to walk around, so we got some good exercise that morning and the car got to charge for free. So not a total waste. 

Inside the food court, it is pretty though.

Yep, Narita! : )

Cold Stone.

Such a small menu, versus the one we're used to seeing in Guam.

A lady checking out the prices at California Pizza Kitchen, we did the same thing too.

Look at this line and it's barely 10:30am-ish, hahaha. According to Noboru there are only 3 Garrett Popcorn shops in all of Japan. We are lucky that 1 is near us. However, I must say the prices are absurd so I am glad, we tried it once at least, however we probably would never buy it again, because the small amount you get for the price is just not such a great deal. Just too expensive for the little amount you get.

We ended up going to the Ohsho for lunch and we had very nice affordable lunch sets. I picked this. Fried rice, karaage (Japanese style chicken nuggets), egg drop soup and salad for 679 yen ( about $6.79 US).

The chicken is all white meat and so good. : ) All in all, a nice day, a very nice walk around an outlet shopping mall. We did buy 1 medium bag of popcorn, plus we had lunch at the Ohsho and had a nice time with one another all morning and afternoon. : )

Look how small this bag of popcorn is you guys and would you believe this is a size medium!!! @.@ This was close to 1000 yen ($10 US) Never ever ever again. Don't get me wrong, it was delicious... but not $10 delicious, let's put it that way! Hahaha. : )

Noboru told me...the popcorn at Tokyo Disneyland's actually cheaper, and we both laughed! And it is...especially if you have a refill bucket like we do! lol. Oh well, bright side is, we had ourselves a lovely date. : )