Fall and Winter clothes shopping for the boys. Their Fall Haul...

October 15th, the fam-bam and I went to spend our afternoon getting a bigger jump start on some Fall and Winter clothes for Branden and Noah. Our first stop was Old Navy. Now, I have said it before but I better say it again, just in case any of you have missed it. Old Navy is leaving Japan forever this December. Old Navy decided to pull out of Japan completely. Sad for us here in Japan. However if you want to do any winter clothes shopping for your kids or for yourself before they leave. Go before they leave. You have about a solid month. From what I read...and some locations are closing up already. So, seriously if you need anything from there... before they leave, now is the chance. And of course, I don't think this needs saying but...clearly I have no connection to Old Navy or Gap other than....I shop there. I'm a consumer. I get no kick backs for mentioning it. It's just...if I can help someone by giving any of you a heads up. Then it was worth it for me to waste 2-3 sentences to let ya'll know. : ) Just... if I can help other foreigners with info...by all means. I will try my best! : ) Anyways...back to our day. October 15th, we drove to Old Navy in Tsukuba. I have 2 Old Navy's near-ish to me. One in Inzai/Chiba New Town however I find it smaller and the clothes and store itself..are hard to shop there. Everything seems so compressed and the lay out of their racks etc just drives me nuts! And I worked retail at a clothing store all through high school! I do however...prefer the lay out of the Tsukuba store better and it is exactly like an Old Navy you'd see in the US. Pictured up above is the Old Navy in Tsukuba. After shopping there we went to H&M which is right next door to Old Navy. That advertisement in this picture to the right with a mom and her daughter is..H&M. After H&M, we picked up some Mc D's and headed to another mall in Tsukuba because this mall where Old Navy is...has no Uniqlo. Weird this mall has zero Uniqlo. However no worries we went to Uniqlo and then to a 3rd location...the Gap outlet. Then we called it a day shopping wise and headed to eat some ramen at our favorite shop. I had the spicy ramen, tantanmen. Everybody else picked shoyu.

At Old Navy they had a sale. Not sure if it's because they're going out of business or what but..if you buy 2 things you get the 2nd one...or cheaper of the two, half off. And us being smart figured. If we buy say for example...8 items...why should we just get 1 item 50% off. Why not try and make it as cheap as possible. So that's what we did. You see how we have many small bags from Old Navy? We gave Noah some cash. And he went and bought 2 things/items. Got the 2nd one 50% off. Then we gave Bran cash too, he was in line behind Noah...we actually were all in line... behind one another. And so it was actually smarter to get 4 things 50% off this way... versus just getting 1. 

Men's sweatpants for Bran. For American size wise he's a men's large and it is plenty big. Slightly baggy and comfy for him to wear around the house. These were near $30 however this was cheaper than Branden's jacket. So they only give you the cheaper item 50% off, so Branden actually got these sweatpants for like 1500 yen so like US $15! And yes, if we can get 50% off, as many items as we can, why the hell not!

Branden fell in love with this jacket. He got this in a large too. And this was full price, he bought the jacket and sweatpants together, so got the sweats 50% off, which was still quite a fantastic deal. And these 2 long sleeve tops to the left in a men's size large, one was 50% off. And I went and checked out for those 2 shirts.

From Uniqlo, Bran picked 2 new pair of undies. We wanted another print too but they didn't have his size. Japanese size wise he's an XL and American size wise he's a L.

Noah was lucky to get these 50% off, these are sweatpants. 

On Old Navy online on the US website, some mom said these were perfect for her skinny son. And I also have a hard time finding clothes for my skinny minnie too... having such a skinny son is hard to find clothes for...I know. Noah has always had to cinch his waste band to the smallest...on those waste cincher things inside kids shorts or pants. Or buy a slim fit. So when she mentioned these being better for slim boys. I appreciated that. So, I made sure to look for these for Noah, so he got a pair of these too. I love the bright red wording and these almost look like denim colored sweats. Such cute sweatpants.

Again Old Navy is leaving Japan so we picked these orange shorts for Noah in the size he'll be next year.

A beautiful aquamarine colored top. 

Size Large 10-12 for Old Navy is a size large. And fits my 11 year old perfectly.

However at Gap a large is only a size 10 and too small for Noah, so he has to wear an XL at Gap, since he needs the size 12, since he's 11. Just something...I always have to make sure and double check. This came from Gap.

A very cute Gap USA long sleeve. With a dancing hamburger and a dancing hot dog on the shirt.

And Gap New York.

So 3 long sleeve tops to add to Noah's closet. It's long sleeve shirt weather already.

I really love the pajamas available at Uniqlo. Why? Because their prices are super fair..at only 1990 yen for both a top and bottom set. So the price is affordable. Also, they have all different weights of material for their PJ's. They have thin material PJ's. All the way to the thickest heaviest fleece PJ's. So if your house or apartment in Japan has no central heating. No worries at all. Your child can be warm and toasty with a pair of super thick super soft... super warm cute PJs. Uniqlo is available all over Japan and for a set for only 1990 you really can't beat that price. They call these,,,,"room wear"...see this one says...a room set. My 11 year old wears the XL size. And we prefer the lighter material pair of PJ's and that's only because we have floor heating and central heating at our house and our kids would melt to death...flat out bake... if they wore fleece PJs. So this matches our living conditions best in our home. But...they have all sorts of different thickness in PJs. And the prices are super duper! I picked Noah the gray and red striped pair. Pure gray bottoms and a stripey preppy top. He has been wearing these to night night...or to sleep every single night. : ) Probably next month I'll pick him up a 2nd pair. 

They have sizes from little 2 year olds all the way to adults. : ) 

So this is Noah's pajama set. 

Noah's classmates all wear neck warmers. This one came from Uniqlo it's that special Heattech material. The kids run in the mornings to practice for the "marathon" and all the kids use these. Noah had one last year from a different store, but we saw this one and he asked for it. So he has been using this one. They are useful for him, since he runs in the mornings at school with his classmates. : ) 

Jeans at Uniqlo for 1500 yen. So super cheap prices. Fair prices. Quality is like Gap for sures. 

We picked Noah twin jeans. Hahaha. : ) Uniqlo jeans. 

I had to check H&M. It's because I really like that store. And I found a really great pair of boots for myself. So Noboru bought them for me.

My foot is a size 9. But I bought these in a size 9.5 because winter means thicker socks. Seriously..if you have size 8 1/2 feet or 9 feet...and you live in Japan and have a hard time finding shoes. Since in Japan women have like size 6 teeny tiny feet. Fwiw, my mom has a size 6 foot, lol. And fwiw, my feet were a size 8 until I had kids. And considering I only gained like 20 pounds each pregnancy and lost it almost immediately. It's just the feet. My feet went bazonkers. LOL. 

I have been wanting a pair of flat or no heel type of suede boots for ages. I looked all over last year. I even ordered a pair from a Japanese shop online last year... but when they got to my house, I hated them in person...they were really cheap looking and not cute. So, I sent them back. So, when I walked in to H&M, I saw these and was like..awww. Like a squeal. And I know they have lots of sizes at H&M. And sure enough they had a size that I even have room for a thick pair of socks inside. : ) With a pair of black leggings or skinny jeans. These will be really cute.

And the price is what...4999 yen. Like US $48! Or $49! That's not a bad price for such cute shoes. 

They also have the cheapest hair clips in town. 50 cents each clip, 100 yen for 2. I always pin my hair in 1 clip while I cook dinner. Since my hair is a LOB (long bob)...anyways...did we finish our Fall and winter clothes shopping? Nope. But we're getting there. The first start was in Denver. Bran's  2 pair of Levi's from the outlets and 2 Gap sweatshirts for Bran and a few things for Noah too in Denver too. So...this is our 2nd jump towards Fall and winter clothes shopping. Not 100% done but again...we're getting there. : )

I'm making taquitos tonight. Refried beans, Spanish rice. Everything from scratch. Dinner tonight will be bomb dot com! What else is there to say? Noah and the 5th grade kids in our housing community did trick or treating today at 10am, was when it started. Noah was in his costume so were his classmates. And he brought home a really good sized haul of stuff. I had about 15 kids ring my bell. And I did pass out treats. What else...tonight we're going to a Halloween party/ meet up at 4pm. It's in our town. And then after that we'll come home and have supper. I will be prepping everything dinner wise in the day time. So when we get home... dinner will be pretty much 98% done. Have a fantastic Halloween weekend everyone. We will be watching scary movies all this weekend on cable. And have some popcorn and treats. : ) 

Getting the boys Fall and winter ready clothes-wise and the Simpsons/Family Guy crossover episode...

Like I had said, a few posts down, we have been busy getting both Branden and Noah, Fall and winter ready clothes-wise too. On September 21st (Sunday) the 4 of us went to our nearest Old Navy in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, it's very convenient for our family to get there, in fact we don't even need a highway to get here. : ) So our closest/nearest Old Navy is in Ibaraki prefecture. Like I said before is... we really quite literally live teeter tottering Chiba and the Ibaraki border, which is a very country/inaka part of Chiba, versus the busy bustling Chiba city. But our nearest bustling city would either be Narita (which is small) or Inzai (Chiba New Town area where Costco is) or Tsukuba Ibaraki. : )

I see you Old Navy! : )

So Sunday September 21st, we went to 1 mall which was just pictured above and shopped at Old Navy. Would you believe there is no Uniqlo in that mall?!!! @.@ So we hit another Aeon also in Tsukuba and went shopping in Uniqlo (Noah got a pair of tan cords from Uniqlo and some cute pjs, Branden got a pair of sweatpants for being comfy at home) after we finished with Uniqlo, we ate dinner in the food court. The kids had a rare treat....Mickey D's. : ) And I had a foot long veggie and cheese sub, that was it for me, no fries or anything. The kids were stuffed. I was stuffed, Noboru was off getting a beef bowl while I took this pic. : ) It was a long day, but we were happy we were getting prepared for the colder weather for the boys...so that was a relief. : )

I don't want to say every weekend, but usually on the weekends most of the time or..often I'll just say often...there is a sale to be had on Gap Japan online. Gap was having a 40% off sale that weekend while we were in the market for some new Fall clothes. However...many things were selling out like hot cakes and I just felt better seeing in person at the actual shops for the kids. 

Three Old Navy bags, 1 Uniqlo bag and a Cecile bag (online shop in Japan) which sells great pants for Noah's size, great quality, always cute and price super fair. 

First time for Bran to buy adult men's jeans. Though he did get men's shorts this summer. The ones which looked the best on Branden were the premium ones, so we bought him 2 pair of those. Noboru and I told Branden all important things about finding good men's jeans. Make sure your butt looks nice in the pair...very important fact. Some jeans have too big pockets and you end up with temporary pumpkin butt syndrome. Some jeans have too small a pockets and it makes your butt look super weird. You need to try them on in the mirror in the changing room and turn around in the mirror and check out your butt Branden...very important!!!! Noboru chimed in...yes your mom is right! Branden tried on every style that day...some gave him pumpkin butt. All the things we warned about. These premium ones right here....fit him perfectly! His dad agreed, I agreed. Believe me, I worked in retail all through my university/college years, I know this stuff! ; )

Two long sleeve men's tops in size small from Old Navy for Branden. 

They also had some on sale long sleeve tops for 300 yen, around $3 US.

From Old Navy California to Tokyo...clearly a shirt for us in Japan. : ) And an Old Navy rocks tee with a cassette tape graphic. These will be Branden's house shirts this Fall and winter. Loved the price on these. 

Love this Mac & Cheese tee so much, couldn't possibly be any more American than this. : ) I wanted this shirt for Branden and was going to order it from the US website this summer, but it sold out too fast. We picked up the men's small and medium for Branden.

Nothing is better and more useful than a plain white long sleeve shirt because they can wear all their short sleeves with this underneath. This single handily extends the life of all their short sleeve tops. This was on sale for 780 yen or so by the way.

Like this...see mac and cheese tee on top of a long sleeve white shirt. 

Regular clothes on top and comfy house tees on the bottom.

Plus 2 Old Navy sweatshirts. Small fit okay... but because you layer this on top of a long sleeve...I always pick a slightly bigger sweatshirt. So picked Branden a medium, plus we use our dryer at home in Fall and winter almost 100% of the time, so if it does shrink a pinch, we won't mind. 

Sweatpants for Branden from Uniqlo size medium...again the smalls fit granted... but we will most definitely be using our dryer once it gets too cold to hang clothes outside. 

Regular clothes on top, house or comfy clothes on bottom.

I liked the marled gray sweatpants Bran got from Uniqlo. I have noticed quite a few marled things this season from either Gap/Old Navy and now Uniqlo too. : )

Noboru picked up 2 house/comfy tees from Old Navy for 300 yen too. Both were, you can tell for the Japan market. From California to Tokyo. And the other one has an interesting letter O...that made Noboru smile. : )

Noah picked up this 1 long sleeve top from Old Navy. 

A pair of corduroy and a pair of jammies for Noah from Uniqlo.

A perfect color and pair of cords for Noah. Cords are so nice for kids in Fall and winter. Looks so warm. : ) And a nice pair of jammies. I like that the stripes on the arms are different than the main part of the shirt/top. They did have fleece or super warm jammies, but honestly with the floor heating we use in winter and the central heating our house is like an oven...a nice comfortable oven, mind you but oven nonetheless. So fleece jammies would be overkill for our home, so these are perfect material jammies for our home. Not too thick, not too thin. : )

From Cecile, Noah received 3 pair of pants (2 pair of jeans and 1 pair of cargo pants) 1 pair of jeans with cargo pant pockets, love these! 1 pair of regular jeans without/sans cargo pockets. And 1 pair of olive green cargo pants...really cute and preppy plus the cords from Uniqlo. So again...4 new pair of pants..not a bad start for the Fall and winter season. 

Two pair of Noah's pants from last year were too short this year. So he no longer has those (not pictured). Meanwhile these 3 fit Noah still...albeit a bit worse for wear...so we are keeping these and these are now for him to use as play clothes...pants he can wear to ripstik in, play soccer in...nice to know he has 3 pair of play pants now. Plus the nice new 4 pair for school up above.

Uniqlo order that Noboru bought me. 

One winter vest and 1 winter coat. The Ultra light down jackets at Uniqlo are super popular. Branden and Noah got some last year that still fit, with room to spare, plus Noah has a fantastic Gap bright yellow winter coat that has room to spare still too. Meanwhile back to these 2 in this picture...see how the one on the left has like a diamond quilting type pattern.  

They had a regular vest last year, but this diamond quilted one is new this season and I love it. With a long sleeve black tee or turtle neck and jeans. Can't wait. And it's super thin so no added bulk, but it's hella warm! Super warm!

The women's ultra light down jacket in basic black. And on the website it said for the women's they made the sewing part in the front, the rectangular squares semi curved to give it a more feminine look, I really liked this a lot. : )  Anyway, I'm really happy with my Uniqlo winter vest and winter coat. And again they are super thin, but super warm, just without all the extra bulk (don't really want to look like the bulky Michelin man at all, you know how coats seem to do that to people, luckily these won't do that, hahaha).

Tuesday September 23rd was a holiday here in Japan, so the boys had a day off school. It was the "first day of Fall" we thought what a fitting way to spend the first day of Fall... by our family going Fall and winter clothes shopping. : ) We have 2 near-by outlets, this one pictured here and another one. 

From the outlet you can see a nice big buddha statue. : )

This day we hit the Gap outlet and then the regular Gap store..both stores are in Ibaraki prefecture of course. : )

Our nearest Auntie Anne's handmade pretzel shop. 

The 4 of us had our own pretzel before leaving the outlet mall and headed to yet another mall where the Gap store is/was.

Gap outlet and Gap regular store. 

Branden got 2 nice Gap long sleeve tops in size small in the men's section from the outlet. They were like 1200 yen each, so a pretty good price and both really good lookin' tops. And now, Branden has 2 long sleeves from Old Navy and these 2 from Gap, so 4 long sleeve tops total, not counting his white long sleeve tee that can be combined with any of his short sleeve tops. Plus the 2 new pair of jeans. No jeans from last year fit Branden today...length wise or anywhere. I think next month we will get Branden a pair of olive green cargo pants or another pair of pants. But he's nearly done. Especially considering he wears uniform to school Monday through Friday.

Noah meanwhile wears regular clothes to school, meaning he doesn't wear a uniform so he needs at least 5 days worth of clothes. A school weeks worth, so to speak. From the outlet, we picked Noah these, in size L/140cm. We did have him try on the 130cm/medium and it fit perfectly right now...however if it would shrink a pinch in the dryer might not fit afterwards...if he should grow an inch again maybe not. So, we picked the size 140cm. Noah may fold the sleeve cuff over once but again it's gonna be layered with something underneath, so a bit baggy or comfy as his sweatshirt is fine. They were 1900 yen each so a pretty good price plus Noboru used a Gap outlet coupon for 20% off on everything we bought that day. Or was it 15%...I forget now, but it was a good savings for these things and Branden's 2 Gap long sleeve tops.  Anyway...we bought 4 things at the Gap outlet these 2 sweatshirts and Bran's 2 Gap long sleeve tops and left and headed to the Gap.

Outside of the Gap but inside the mall...a Gap employee held a box and asked you to put your hand inside to pull out a coupon for 20%-50% off. What luck...Noboru put his hand in there and pulled out a 50% off coupon! Right on! We were buying anyways...and 50% off is so very cool! Just imagine everything we got half off basically. We picked up this top from the regular Gap store for 50% off, size 140cm. 

This very sweatshirt I wanted for Noah... superly bad! Love this sweatshirt! I love the blue marled coloring on this sweatshirt...I love the old school stitching that says Gap NY. This sweatshirt just looks like something very different and believe me...we shop at Gap all the time! This sweatshirt rocks. And again 50% off coupon, yes please....and thank you! I saw this sweatshirt at Gap online in the US. I debated ordering it and that's only because sometimes the Gap in the US the clothes are cut a tad too big...especially for skinny kids like Noah. While Gap Japan has slimmer fit sizes...it's true. And Noah being a skinny Minnie...could use the Japan slimmer sizing from Gap Japan. Then as luck would have it...we saw this online but waffled on the size...they were selling like hotcakes to the point this sold out. So yeah when I saw this in person and we already had the 50% off coupon...yep snatched this baby up right quick! : ) This paired with those tan Uniqlo cords...adorable! : )

Also picked this gray Gap sweatshirt for Noah too, again 50% off. How wicked is that. So add these 2 Gap sweatshirts, plus the 2 Noah also got from the Gap outlet...so far Noah has 4 sweatshirts...and 4 new pair of pants (cords, jeans or cargo pants) He still needs long sleeves but...hey...we are getting there. : ) 

We also got some coupons for this month to use. 

Everything I buy, I wash on the quick wash cycle before it hangs in my child's closet, but ya'll already know that. : ) Also, see the Gap yellow sweatshirt...do you think the outlet size 140cm is slightly bigger than the Gap regular stores size 140cm. Again...no big deal...they both fit, but just something I did notice and why I am glad we bought our stuff in person. Anyway...Noah has 4 new pants, 4 new sweatshirts and quite a few long sleeves in his closet already. Plus 2 winter coats with room to spare. I'd say Noah is 95% ready for Fall and winter clothes-wise. Branden meanwhile no longer wears regular clothes during the day Monday-Friday since he wears a uniform now, but he has 4 new long sleeve tops, 2 new jeans and 2 new sweatshirts and a Uniqlo ultra down with room to spare for a coat. I'd say he's 90% done...plus he has house/comfy clothes with 3 pair of sweatpants (2  (like new) Gap pair that have plenty of room to grow/spare from last year) plus his Uniqlo pair. So again not 100% done, but definitely a step in the right direction. : )

Loved the Simpsons/Family Guy crossover episode so much! I love both shows. Family Guy and the Simpsons has always matched my sense of humor completely. 

Brian and Santa's Little Helper, lol.

"What the deuce vs Eat my shorts" lol...Liked how Stewie looked up to Bart. How Bart said "What the Deuce" (Stewie's famous saying towards the end.) How Stewie dressed like Bart and said Eat my shorts (Bart's saying during the show too). Plus Homer and Peter were such good friends. Brian didn't quite understand or "get" Santa's Little Helper in the least and that cracked me up too. Such a great episode!