Gari Gari Kun strikes again, Ice Coffee, Sour Peach and Green Apple Yogurt!!! My lunch with friends and another potato update...

Gari Gari Kun popsicles are one of the cool things about living in Japan! They're so good. While Noah and I were at the Besia/Cainz grocery store stocking up on cheap jasmine teas and cheap store brand ziplock type freezer gallon bags, we picked up some ice cream and popsicles to take home, this was when his class was closed for that week, the date on this was May 23rd. Spotted some new flavors. Ice coffee looks nice, I bet, Noboru will try this one at least once!

You know, I was sorta thinking this one was also out last year too. Either way, it says sour and I bet in the hotter weather this will be so good!

Green apple yogurt flavor and inside there is yogurt flavor and ramune type round things inside. I didn't buy any of these 3 Gari Gari flavors up above, but I'm thinking about it. I usually pick up ice cream/popsicles  once a week at Besia/Cainz (in summer) and that's only because of the price. Price of most ice creams at Besia, single serving size are about 36-38 yen each. Where as say 7-11 they're about 120-130 yen a piece! Huge price difference, which is why I prefer buy them at Besia. : ) I can get more for my money...when buying ice cream and popsicles at Besia.

These are what I picked up that week. The choco banana ice cream ones are *so* good! The kids and I love those and they are 36-38 yen a piece! And I already know Noboru prefers 1 simple vanilla..pictured top upper left and the one next to it, the Shirokuma one is his other fave. : ) And Calpis jelly's get tossed in the freezer and any other good tasting jelly's too, because perfect size when either Branden or Noah come home from school melting hot and need just an instant cool down, and the size they can just pop it in their mouth. Same for weekends, when they come inside melting hot needing a refill on their thermos, these frozen jelly's are a nice thing in the warmer weather and they can bring one out to their friend too/share one. : ) 

Monday, I went out to lunch with 2 of my really good girlfriends. We went to Coco's for lunch. Coco's is currently having some limited time only specials. Mexico, Peru and Brazil. Mexico was a taco salad, one of my friends had that, it looked really good! : ) I meanwhile debated getting my regular thing I usually order at Coco's, or the half chicken from Peru. It was a bit pricier than my regular lunch pick here, but I did order the chicken. #1, I love roasted chicken, #2, it's limited time, so why not. I am so glad I tried it because it was delicious!

You get the whole chicken leg quarter (drum and thigh) and huge chicken breast and wing. It was cooked 100% and crispy skin and the seasoning on this was delicous! The chicken was also so juicy, it was cooked perfectly! It came with a teeny tiny amount of fries/potato wedges, wish the amount on the fries was bigger then what it was, considering it was 1200 or 1400 yen! The amount of chicken was plenty! But yeah they shouldn't have scrimped so much on the potato wedges. 

The sauces for dipping, 1 was olive oil or oil, wasn't sure if it was infused with flavors or not, but I skipped the oil. I did however enjoy the flavored salt and the chili on the bottom was *amazing*...it was pure fire and had such a kick, but it was so flavorful and good! My girlfriends kept laughing because they kept saying it looked like miso paste. lol! It wasn't though at all....and it was an amazing delicious chili. I would like to go back here before it is taken off the menu. It was THAT good! : ) 

Look how big the potatoes have gotten! They have grown by leaps and bounds since the last picture! 8 plants have survived total. The only thing is, some plants are big and normal size, but some look like teeny tiny in size. Hmmm. 

See, 1 big plant in the center and 1 shrunken mini one on the left and one small one in front of the big one. I am not sure if these potatoes will catch up to each other in size or if it will affect the potatoes underneath at all. Who knows...we will find out when it comes time to harvest them. : ) Alrighty, that's it for me for today. 

Gari Gari-kun spaghetti flavored popsicle and cream stew flavored popsicle

Gari-Gari-kun is the name of a brand of popsicle sold here in Japan. You will usually see this guys face on the popsicle wrapper. The brand is pretty popular here. Our family loves Gari-Gari-kun popsicles.  For one, depending on where you buy them, they can run  40 yen each (usually at Besia/Cainz), to 60 yen each, around there. Just depends where you buy them. They usually have chunky chopped ice inside and smooth on the outside. The usual one is blue (soda), and they make them in all sorts of yummy flavors, like, pear (nashi), cola, chocolate, white peach, kiwi fruit (this one was so good), lemon, just many many flavors. And for kids. they sell school supplies, like pencils with the Gari Gari-kun logo, Noah's pencil a few posts below he had a few Gari-Gari-kun popsicle pencils. They sell a Gari Gari eraser (that my 2 kiddos have owned before), glue, tissues. And lately...they have been selling "interesting" flavors. The first, we personally saw, was the Corn Potage one, think along the lines of corn chowder or corn soup, Noboru tried it and didn't care for it. : ) And then, about 3 weeks ago, I saw these being sold at my regular grocery store and have since seen them all over the place too. :  ) This one says, Gari Gari-kun Rich Neapolitan flavor. Spaghetti flavor basically and with tomato jelly inside.  I did not buy it.: )

This one is, Rich Cream Stew, with potatoes inside. I think I'll, just stick with the fruit flavors, chocolate or soda flavors. : ) But interesting though, right. : ) 

New bike

Branden has outgrown his bike. He hasn't received a new bike since the first grade! @_@ All his friends bikes have been replaced and they've been riding bigger ones. And finally I said to Noboru, you know we should replace it. When I mentioned it, then Noboru started taking notice of all Branden's friends bikes. He was surprised. He said, you're right, Branden's bike is the smallest. We must do something about it. So, for the past 2 weeks we've been looking for a new bike for Branden. We did drive to Toys R us. Unfortunately bikes in the size we needed, 26, we're slim pickings. So we headed to Aeon, again in that particular size maybe 2 choices were there. So we searched online. All of his friends think mountain bikes are cool. Branden thinks so also. So, we found Branden this mountain bike.

In a bright orange-y yellowish color. It has 18 gears and for boys they want lots of gears. All his friends have 7 or 8 gears so Branden was thrilled we found him one with 18 gears.

Noboru was happy he found Branden a bike with Shimano transmission.

Front and rear suspension. Branden's last bike didn't have this.

Branden's over the moon. And he's been using it since last week when he goes and plays with his friends. I did tell Branden, be conservative, don't go telling everyone about it or anything. And he is very conservative. A few of his friends from the neighborhood know because they saw him ride it and then they asked and Branden just said yes. And they're all really happy for Branden because they know he's been waiting for a long time for it. : ) And the price of the bike. It wasn't too expensive. They have this at Amazon.jp for 16,000 yen or something like that with free shipping, but Noboru actually found it cheaper and I think he got it for 14,000 yen from some other place online and with free shipping also. And Noah.....he still has his yellow bike he got from Santa (ahem)  and he also inherited Branden's old bike...and so he thinks he's Mr. Cool now because he says..."I have 2 bikes" Bless his heart. He doesn't mind used at all. : ) He's a good kiddo too. So he always keeps it positive.

And what are Branden and Noah doing this fine Saturday? Well, we did have our family breakfast today as usual. But also, Yuki called our house first thing this morning, he had his mom drop him off. And Branden, Noah and Yuki are now off down the rice field catching zarigani as I type. And after that they're going to be riding bikes.

Pizza Hut just opened in Narita about 2 weeks ago. Which that's pretty big news for us way here in the inaka. It's still too far for delivery because we don't live *that* close to Narita, to be included in the delivery area, lol. But we'll go and pick it up. Anyway, that's tonight's dinner plan... we will go and get some pizza from Pizza Hut and bring it home and have family movie night.

Ahh, the kids (Branden, Noah and Yuki) just came in the house for a pineapple popsicle, so I better go. ; )

These are so freaking good btw! : )