Tickets for Aquaman already purchased and we'll be watching it tomorrow on opening day...

Tomorrow, December 21st. Besides being the kids last day of school and the start of the winter holidays in America. Tomorrow is also opening day for those of us in the USA. For the movie Aquaman! The kids and I have been eagerly waiting to see this since this summer. Seriously, we can barely wait. As, mentioned our nearest movie theater, you reserve seats too, same as Japan. I told the kids, as soon as the seats go on sale, I will go and buy them. Especially since we knew that opening day was also their last day of school too. Double celebration. I checked the website every morning and every night. Not sure if you can see this but, on the bottom it says when I bought the tickets. It says December 15th. I went to bed December 14th and checked and nope...Aquaman tickets were not for sale. I checked Saturday December 15th and yep! I already washed my face and had moisturizer on my face. I put on some foundation, a little concealer and powder. Anastasia brow wiz in medium (ash brown) and some Dr. Pepper Lipsmacker and in about 7 minutes, I left, went to get the tickets. And was on my way home. Tickets bought. Phew...relief. Seats saved. No worries. And yep. Cool! Everyone I know...is eagerly waiting for this movie to come out too. My friends, who are..the parents of my kids friends. I usually chit chat daily with a group when I pick up Noah in the afternoons. LOL. : ) 

Gray means the ticket was purchased. When I got to the movie theater. 4 tickets were bought by the time I got there. And this is the pic, I snapped as of this Monday. And, I just checked right now and even more tickets and seats are turned gray...meaning someone bought the ticket. We're sitting, last farthest row, far left. Those are our 3 seats, I picked. We love those seats...those are the seats that are our favorites. Bran is lucky in that nobody is sitting directly right next to him. There's that heavenly buffer seat. It's going to be in their premium theater which is like surround sound and the seats vibrate and stuff during action scenes. It's how those movie theaters are called here in the U.S. Which is why the tickets say PLF, short for premium large format. Technology is amazing is this type of movie theater....really enjoyable to see a movie like this.

I made a pot of beans this morning. They're done. I am making pork green chili tonight. It's 89% done right now and it's barely 2:53pm. And why am I mentioning this now? Because I made enough for 2 dinners. Smartly, I know that after school tomorrow. Kids will be excited and so will I. And so...dinner for tomorrow night is in the bag. Dinners done for tomorrow too. We'll have big warm bowls of homemade beans and green chili. Be super filled up, before heading to the movies. I also bought movie snacks at Target on Monday. Bran asked for Swedish Fish, Noah asked for Skittles and I picked a box of Raisinets for me. All were 90 cents a box. Which the price is appreciated. : ) I will be buying a large freshly popped popcorn tomorrow at the movie theater and 2 large sodas, which are free refills. And we'll be enjoying Aquaman as a family. And just happy that the winter holidays have started.

Noboru will be here next Month. Super soon actually. He arrives towards near the first week of January and will be here until the end of the month. So for about 3 full weeks. We're all super happy about that.  Happy holidays everyone.

Bits and Pieces...

How has everyone been doing? Things have been excellent over here. Both Branden and Noah returned to school today from Winter break. Yesterday was a holiday for us in Japan. Coming of Age Day. I decided to not blog for the past week and just enjoy my time with my family. What is this picture of? Otoshidama. New Year's money given to kids from family members. Branden and Noah each received 15,000 yen each. Considering we didn't go all the way to Osaka to visit Noboru's family, it wasn't so bad of an amount. Lucky boys. : ) 

Branden and his best friend since yochien wanted to meet up at Narita shopping mall. Since G moved away from our town. They picked a spot to meet up between where he lives and where we live. So January 4th, is when Branden met up him G at the Narita train station around 9:30am or so. They bummed around all day. They went to lunch. A hamburg restaurant. They had Baskin and Robbins. And even each had a small serving of udon some place too? @_@ Teenage boys! Ha! : ) Noah and I meanwhile made pizza dough in the morning, after I dropped off Bran at the train station and we had breakfast. And we hung out here, but we decided to go to Narita mall too and also to Don Quijote. I did LINE message Bran and said...Noah and I happen to be in Narita too. Noah went with me to look at some skincare and cosmetics. I didn't buy anything... but I did want to have a good look. And so for being such an amazing 12 year old and helping me and looking around with me and keeping me company, I treated Noah to some icecream at Baskin Robbins after I grabbed myself a caramel machiaato first at Starbucks downstairs. Before taking the escalator upstairs to get Noah some ice cream. So I did message Bran and told him like I said..."we happen to be in Narita too. And if you would like a ride home, totally fine. I'm here, we're leaving the mall at 3:30pm and going back to our town. If you would like a ride cool...but also I do respect you're a teen so....so if not, you can take the train back home too." It was getting bitter cold. Bran replied and said he would take the ride. I did offer to give G a ride to the train station.. but he said, it was okay...he would hop on the free shuttle directly to the train station. So I waved G good bye. And Bran walked to my car with Noah and I. 

By now Noboru was home. And I rolled out 3 pizzas. 1 extremely large pepperoni pizza for the kids. And a smaller hand-tossed each for Noboru and I. 

We each had a pepperoni, mushroom and diced up jalapeno pizza each, we each only ate half and the rest we had for lunch the next day. Such crispy crust. 

I have somehow managed to acquire 12 foundations. And if they all worked for me 100% perfectly then that would be fantastic. But, they don't... so I decided to cut that number in half. So I went through them and the top row don't work for me at all and were tossed. 

These were all tossed. 4 drugstore foundations. And 2 high end foundations had to get the boot. The Revlon color is just too pink. The Loreal True Match is in the yellow range *but* I find the regular True Match super pink too. And the Lumi is super duper pink and unnatural. The makeup For Ever face and Body that was discontinued. I bought it because Youtuber KathleeenLights said it was her holy grail. And I hate it. It smells like paint thinner or paint or something super strong. And the color on this Ultra HD was too dark and wrong. None of these worked. And yeah I did spend money to buy them... but there's no use of wasting up space in my house if they either break me out or are overly pink tinted. Then they gotta go. I wish American drugstores had testers like we have in Japan. 

These are the ones I am keeping. And I am seriously thinking about getting rid of the It Cosmetics CC+ and the Urban Decay Naked Skin. Why? The CC+ smells like lemon scented toilet deodorizer that hangs in American toilets. I'm sorry but the It Cosmetics smell.... revolts the crap out of me so bad. It dies down after it's applied. Granted. It does give a nice finish on your face, but the smell. So, I am on the fence about that. And the Urban Decay one is pink tinted or something is off on the color for me. Pink or orange cast. It does not blend seamlessly in my neck or on my face. And it cakes up on me too. What is staying? What am I keeping? I love the Koh Gen Do aqua foundation. This is an exact match for my skin it is a fair olive color. Nars Fiji is an okay color match. It is yellow enough. Absolutely no pink tint to it at all. But it isn't an 100% dead ringer like the Koh Gen Do is. I also like the Make Up Forever Ultra HD in this bottom shade. It looks really nice on. I also really like the way the Neutrogena looks on me. Drugstore. It has no scent it has never made me break out and it is not pink. It isn't an 100% color match. But every time I wear The Neutrogena Healthy Skin...I look in the mirror during the day and think...this is such a nice shade.And nice formula. I do not think I want to own more than 5 foundations this year. So 6 are remaining and I may end up tossing the It Cosmetics one and the Urban Decay one too. Because if it doesn't work...it won't work no matter how long you hold onto it. All you can do when you buy the wrong one is you learn from it...and move on. And I do not want to be a hoarder. 

Yep that Urban Decay 3.0 is supposed to be yellow because the point 0's are yellow and the point 5's/ .5's are the pink ones. But I find this does oxidize on me and does turn pinky orange after about an hour. Meaning 2.0...3.0 etc is yellow. But 2.5 and 3.5 is the pink tinted ones. The ones that end in .5 are pink and the ones that end in 0 are yellow. But it still didn't work.

On Monday, yesterday, Coming of Age Day I took the boys to McDonald's. We also bought a few groceries. And stopped by the drugstore in the little city nearest us. 

I think recently I mentioned I am currently on a makeup remover kick lately. I purchased 2 yesterday. I have been looking high and low for this cleansing oil by Pharmaact. I read online that this drugstore cleansing oil doesn't advertise or market their product. But it's just as thick as the DHC one and the Shu Uemura one. And it smells like green apples. I checked at the Narita Aeon mall and couldn't find it. I searched the super mega Don Quijote in Narita and could not find it either. I emailed their headquarters. And they replied. Hahaha. They said, they used to be carried at Yacs drugstores all over Chiba. And so...while in the small city nearest our tiny town. I popped in there and sure enough. It was there. And it is as thick as the Shu Uemura cleansing oil because I have the purple one and compared. And this Phamaact oil does smell like green apple too. It smells amazing. I also heard fantastic things about Biore Cleansing oil. And I too... read on Amazon.com from a Japanese woman who now lives in the US and has used this for like decades. She said this smells like green apples and I read it on a blog by a lady in NY and she too said it smells of green apples. Oddly enough...both my cleansing oils smell like green apples. Totally unintentional.

I love how Japanese skincare with pumps always have stoppers to stop it from pumping out. Typical collar on the left but so useful and the Biore stopper on the right. Both work beautifully. 

Also purchased a lip balm. A YLBB tinted lip balm and a chocolate chip cookie lip balm. In the scent of the regular/original Country Ma'am Cookie. 

New Year's Oosoji (getting ready for the new year massive clean-up) Family time at home. Movie night. Tons of good eats and more...

This is basically going to be a bits and pieces post. What we have been doing since Branden and Noah went on Winter break. If you have been reading this blog for a long time, then you will know I usually try to avoid going to Costco during the holidays, if at all possible I try my best and avoid it. Such as avoiding Costco Japan during Spring break. And over Golden Week. And during Winter break. Granted...can't avoid it during summer break. Obviously...but other shorter breaks...I usually try to buy enough a day or two before the break starts. Case in point... to these 2 next pics. I think I went the Thursday... before the kids went on Christmas break. I figured. Since it was 1 day before Winter break, I would be smart to get it done then. Wrong! : ) Hahaha. I was there at 10am. And there were like a bazillion people already there. Yochien age kids must have been on Winter holidays beforehand??? @_@ OMG it was such a packed Costco. Noboru was with me that day. And I just asked him to stay with the cart and I'd do all the running around the store and he could just chill. It was like a sea of carts...like sardines. And to top it off. I was so discombobulated because I had not expected it to be *that* busy that day. I didn't even take a cart pic. We were out of the store in like 25 minutes. I bought pasta sauce. My usual was not there. @_@ So I picked up Classico. I picked up cheese and these danish for the kids and husband for Friday's breakfast, last day of school breakfast. And a pack of Dr. Peppers. So cheese, maple pecan danish and a case of Dr. Pep's.  

30 cans of Dr. Pepper.

For what it's worth...I also did my weekly shopping *this* week too (December 29th). With both my kids. I was in Inzai (where Costco is) and I avoided Costco this week like the plague. Love Costco but not on holidays or breaks. I'll visit Costco after January 8th... after all of Japan's husbands are at work and all of Japan's kids are all at school. 

All December I worked on my deep cleaning. As you know, Japan likes to start the new year with a clean house. Clean slate. So, all houses in my neighborhood work on their house all December. And really give it the hardest cleaning the final week of December. I was done with my deep house cleaning Thursday December 28th. Friday my family of 4 and I went and did the final last bit of food shopping before the new year. We bought 7 days worth on Friday December 29th. Anyway, the first week of December, I went through my food pantry. Checked dates on stuff and rearranged it all. Yet again. 

Baking stuff on one shelf. Grains (rice and beans) on another shelf along with spices.

Side dish shelf. Stove top. Noodles and rice dishes. Croutons and chili oil for Italian. And pot roast seasoning too.

Morning drink shelf along with hot cereals, peanut butter and syrups. Breakfast things basically. 

Scrubbed down my microwave slash convection oven. I never use the oven feature since, I have a regular normal American oven. But the microwave we use all the time. It got a total scrub down.This was week 2. During December. I also scrubbed down the fridge shelves. And mopped the kitchen floor that week too.

Scrubbed the little unit my microwave sits on. This shelf area got deeply cleaned.

Hand dried it but also let it sit in the sun. While inside the house.

Everything squeaky clean. Peanut butter cereal and pancake mix. Also each week in December. I did Noah's room another day and Branden's room another day. Our room another day. The living room the kids helped me with. The year end cleaning for our house... is a group family effort. 

Branden has baked 2 batches of brownies so far. This one without nuts. 

Noah baked a yellow cake and frosted it. 

This Friday after doing the weekly grocery shopping. Noboru took all of us out to lunch at the Ohsho. Our favorite Chinese restaurant. And then for supper, I asked for any requests, while at the grocery store while in Inzai still. And Noboru said he'd love a pepperoni sandwich. So, I made everyone pepperoni sandwiches, Friday night. The baguettes come from a bakery. I made a batch of fries. It was a simple but delicious dinner this Friday December 29th.

Still December 29th. After we ate our pepperoni sandwiches and fries. And after showers. We all watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. We went to the TV guide channel and everyone picked a movie and everyone agreed on this. Yes, we've all seen this a million times, but it's so good and perfect. The 4 of us loved this, this past Friday.

Augustus Gloop just fell in the chocolate river and went up the pipe. And so the Oompa Loompas were about to sing their song! Their songs are so catchy!!! Seriously, they are.

With our New Years cards sent out before Christmas. And our New Years cleaning done. all that's left is...our chill time. Our family time. Relax time. Movie watching time. 

I ran out of my Biore face foam and went and bought another one, so this is a repurchase. I have been using Biore for normal skin since August. So for about 4 month's now. I love this face wash. I love the way this smells #1. I love that the foam is so thick and intense, even if you use a little amount. While they do sell Biore in America, it's seems in the US Biore is primarily targeted for pimply faced teenagers. But as you can see by the pic of the woman on this package. She's what, late 30's early 40's? Biore is marketed for women of all ages, here in Japan the land of where Biore comes from in the first place. Thanks to Kao. They do sell a Biore for acne, but they also sell one for people with dry skin and many different types of skin in between. And this regular one is for adults if you can see the woman on the package. It cleans without over stripping my face and like I said... I *love* the way this smells. And it costs only about 300-350 yen. That's just $3 bucks for us Americans. And considering most face washes in the US are what, $5-8 bucks a tube or bottle. The prices in Japan for good face washes are just way better priced. Depending on where you pick up your tube. I also have been using Biore body wash for about 12 years straight, while living in Japan. As for face washes. I have bought Korean wash washes before many times and I do like them a lot... but they're hard to get in Japan. And the one I was using started to give me a slight greasy residue after a while... so I stopped using that. I also have loved Basis Face wash and have used that since high school? The smell is so good for me. And I prefer tubes and that comes in a tube. The only thing I dislike is it is hard to find in Japan and in the US. Also, it doesn't foam up too much. Very little foam. So I still like Basis. But in August I started looking for a product in Japan. Easier for me to find locally. And I tried a few different brands of face wash. And out of them all, this smells the best to me. This Biore one smells tons better then all the ones I tried and makes such a huge amount of whipped foam, I love how much this foams up. And it doesn't strip my skin.  

Yep Biore is made by Kao.

I am currently on a makeup remover kick. You know how in Japan, we double cleanse. I love to double cleanse too. This is a cleansing balm, but in tube form. It's fairly new and see how it says HOT? It warms up slightly... when you massage your makeup off. It says it is unscented. But it has a slight scent of oranges because of an ingredient. It is a balm type texture. Think along the lines of Banila Co's, Clean It Zero (this is very good but it smells like freakin' Hawaiian Punch and is very over powering scent-wise for me)... Clinique Take the Day off, it's okay, the price is outrageous though and considering so many other brands make the same thing now days. This one by Bifesta is like those other 2... I just mentioned except it's in a tube form....it's like a Vaseline type texture but this rinses clean without any greasy residue at all. It does not foam. It just takes your makeup off. I like this. I have used it twice so far. Do I think this is a holy grail for me? No. Would I repurchase it again? Yes. But I would also try another brand too? I do love that this is drugstore and you can buy this for around 700 yen. However Japan has so many makeup removers at the drugstore. Cleansing oils, balms and gels. I will try a few more out... before I decide. Biore face wash in the "moisture" formula which is the one for normal skin... is a definite holy grail. But as far as a makeup remover...I still haven't fallen for one yet. 

This is super nice though. And again...I have just tried it twice....I will finish my tube. And my opinion may change. I'll let you know. But it does take off every dot of my makeup. And it does smell nice. The price point is super good too. One thing I semi dislike is... it is a little hard to squeeze the balm out of the tube. Perhaps because it is so thick. Again I could be just nitpicky. It is good though, it warms up. It removes makeup. It leaves zero greasy residue. And the price is hella on point. : ) 

Exfoliants. In America we have manual exfoliators like Apricot Scrubs. In Japan we use chemical exfoliators. There are so many. Some are scented, some are unscented. This one is super cheap and was #1 in Japan in 2015. This company has been around for ages. 

My thoughts? I like it. I also like the scent. And I'm pretty picky about scents. Granted it's not amazing and lovely like my Biore face wash. But the scent isn't bad at all. If I am not being lazy I will use an exfoliant. But honestly a lot of times, I am lazy and I won't. I wash my face every morning with my Biore face foam/wash and every night, I double cleanse if I wear makeup that day (with either a makeup wipe, miccellar water, cleansing oil or balm and finish up with my Biore face wash/foam.) If I don't wear makeup, I'll just use my Biore face wash at night without double cleaning obviously. : ) And I use face lotion daily. And sunscreen on my face, when I go out. But usually that's it. I have had so many exfoliators in the past half used...and not because they were no good...but because I simply didn't use them regularly enough. I hope I can use this one up. The price on this was about 400 yen. 

Japan is starting to get extremely cold now, weather-wise. And I picked up a new lip balm. This is supposed to be very moisturizing. And it is. Same type of lip balm texture as the Nivea ones, except it smells of delicious yuzu.

The scent is yuzu. I love yuzu. I like to drink yuzu in drinks and eat yuzu in dried snack form. 

My hands are getting super dry now that the weather has gotten so cold. This is a repurchase. I fell in love with this scent last year. Smells like shampoo. Be careful if you buy this... and you don't read Japanese...because there are 3 different varieties. The one in the pink polka dot tube smells like baby powder. I have no desire to smell like baby butt. So don't buy the one in the pink polka dot tube. And the blue one smells like soap bubbles. I have not smelled that yet... but I'm sorta meh on the thought. This one in the pink tube with lace printed on the tube... smells like shampoo and this one smells so freaking fantastically great. Best scent ever for a hand cream. And it's only 500 yen a tube. 

So in a nut shell...I basically have been enjoying my Japanese local drug store lately. : )

Almost forget...one night during Winter break. The kids and I... we all made a dish. Noah made the side dish. Buttered noodles. 

Branden baked brownies with nuts this time. And useful tip. For years. I used a metal knife to cut up my brownies. And they always cut horribly bad. Like chunked up. I let them sit. I checked online and the tip from some cooking site. The Cooking channel. Martha Stewart. I don't remember. Was it the Pioneer Woman? Anyway...wherever I read it. They suggested use a plastic knife and never to use a metal knife. Let the brownies cool though all the way first. I half believed it. But I tried it and OMG it works like a charm every time. Why plastic over metal knife? I don't know. I'm no scientist. But it works. I have since mentioned this tidbit on my blog twice so far. And wanted to mention it again. I made pork chops. We had a store bought mixed salad. To even out our dinner. I love that the kids are on Winter break. We have been baking. Cooking together. Watching movies together at home. I read today that it snowed a bit in Tokyo? Just a dusting for a short amount of time. Hasn't snowed in my town. But, as far as the news about Tokyo for about 20 minutes today...I do believe it though. Because honestly it's been so cold. Anyway...have a lovely New Year all of you. I have been boiling a big pot of beans on the stove all day. I have a big pork loin in the fridge. I will fry it and bake it and dice it later, as soon as I post this. We will have a big pot of pork green chili. A big pot of beans and we have 3 packs of tortillas. And a huge hunk of Longhorn/Colby cheese. So dinner for New Year's is set. And Noah will be baking us a red velvet cake today with cream cheese frosting and we will have vanilla ice cream to go with it. Happy New Year to you all!!!

The rest of our Hakone trip. Black eggs and egg custard ice cream and a visit to the museum in Owakudani. A drive near Mt. Fuji to see the Lava and Ice Cave! And a walk through Suicide Forest in Aokigahara...

Okay, so where was I? Regarding our Hakone trip. It was still winter break. And we had just finished our breakfast at the hotel and checked out. And we went up the mountain and went to the "Famous Black Egg Place." We have not been there in....1 year? Two years at the most. However when we went there, it had changed a lot! Totally tons of new changes. All positive and all very nice. There are 2 black egg statues that many folks were standing near and taking pictures with. We did the same. Here's this view with the mountains behind the kids. I like this view a lot. 

Same statue exactly... it is just of the other side of the statue... but says the same exact thing but...it's just a different background view. And there was another black egg statue on the other side of the building too... but folks were standing in line for about 5 minutes to take a pic with that statue. When this statue was the exact same. : )

There is a really nice museum here now. We visited the museum. And it was free for kids this day and like 100 yen for us adults on the day we went... so it was super cheap and all the museum things to look at...where in both Japanese and in English. So super nice! : )

Cool hair boys! And nice steamy hot mountain for sure. 

So cool to see this!

Black egg seats! These are new too! And super cute! :) The remodeling and updates of this place are so nice. 

People used to walk all the way up high and buy the famous black eggs that were cooked in the earth and hot spring water. However because of the fear a few years back... if the volcano would erupt or not. You can no longer walk up to the top of the mountain where people used to go and buy the eggs. They now have a place to buy the eggs in this area. And that's actually pretty nice. I actually like the ease of buying our eggs here, versus hiking up the mountain like before. : )

This is the best soft serve ice cream!!! Tastes like an egg custard. If you have ever eaten a taiyaki (fishy shaped custard) it tastes *exactly* like that rich heavenly custard.

Branden and Noah and why helloooo there Mt Fuji!!!

Hello Kitty in a black egg outfit! LOL! Behind Hello Kitty is the place to buy the eggs. Very convenient.

We bought a pack. The pack has 5 eggs, we gave 2 to Bran. And it comes with 1 pack of salt. So conserve that salt or bring your own. : ) It's like one small pack of McD's salt or Wendy's salt. Just 1 for the 5 eggs. So just a helpful FYI. : )

Yumm! And what do they taste like? Honestly... they taste just like... regular hard boiled eggs. They have zero weird or unusual flavor. 

Noah sitting on a black egg seat! Hahaha. : )

The famous black egg place is called Owakudani. And again...the name of this egg ice-cream could put off tourists. But it does not taste like eggs or like scrambled eggs or egg yolk. It taste like a rich decadent egg custard but in ice cream form. You will not be disappointed if you try this. We love it! : )

We 4 all enjoyed a rich decadent egg custard flavored ice cream. And we people watched and talked while eating our ice cream.

I snapped this pic while inside the museum. This photo says 1962! Seeing the tour buses and folks sight seeing from way back then. It has changed quite a bit since back then. 

We left the black egg place. And we usually head home! However...back in the end of December Noboru suggested and mentioned...he would really like to go and visit a place that he called the "ice cave." He said...I hope we can take the next day and go and drive up to the ice caves and he said he has always wanted to go and see one of them. There are a couple there. And I said...okay! Because you know...I'm agreeable like that! : ) So that's what we did. Heading directly toward Mt Fuji. Mt. Fuji you are gorgeous!

When we finally got to the city at the base of Mt. Fuji. Considering an hour had elapsed since we left the black egg place and about 3 hours since breakfast... we smartly decided to have lunch. I didn't feel like a burger or a sandwich and I can't eat a large fry. So, I picked an apple pie and a medium fry. I had no drink. I had brought my jasmine tea from the car inside McD's for me. : ) Everyone else got a combo with soda. 

Branden had a Big Mac combo and so did Noboru. As you can tell by this Mario happy meal....Noah had a chicken nuggets happy meal. Everyone was full. It was around noon. And perfect time for lunch. We left MickeyD's around 12;30pm.

Definitely in the city nearest Mt. Fuji. This is right at the base. This city. Where we had lunch.

This bus reads...."Preserve the Nature of Mt. Fuji." I agree, we should! : )

We had arrived at the Fugaku Lava Cave. The caves are all bumpy and textured because of the lava indeed. But Noboru is right calling them...ice caves. Because... there is ice in them. So they say lava cave. Noboru says ice cave. Ehhh....either way is right. : ) There were 2 ice/lava caves. But we went to this one.

Everyone must wear a safety helmet. Yes, Noboru and I did too. : ) 

Going down and it's super cold down there. 

Yes, they're not kidding....please watch your head!

Everything ice! Ahhh how gorgeous! And yes...now you can understand why Noboru in December kept saying..."let's visit the ice caves" : )  He definitely wasn't wrong! : )

Natural Refrigerator. No kidding! Bring a coat and some gloves. : ) What was stored down here? Silk worm eggs and tree seeds.

Hi BrannyMcB! and hi Noah! What a fun, 24 hours it has been! Long scenic drive. Hotel. Onsen soaking. A fabulous dinner and breakfast. Black eggs. A delicious egg-custard ice-cream. And now an ice cave! 

You can see the walls and ceiling created from the lava and all the ice. I'm glad Noboru suggested us visiting there... because it was educational. It was fun and interesting.

Coincidentally. Noboru's "ice cave" that he wanted us to visit. Just happened to be located in Aokigahara also known as the "Suicide Forest" @_@  See this super "mini" white van? Well you could tell that it has been parked here for a long while. And after we got back to our town...Noboru checked online and according to online this van has been left here and has been sitting here... for at LEAST the past year. @_@ And so it's obvious whoever left the car here... went into suicide forest to commit suicide. Super sad. : (  Also the license plate says...OSAKA. : (  Very sad. Truly.

Poor van that will most likely sit here for eternity now. : ( And poor person who owned this van.  Noboru asked me...if we'd like to walk through Suicide Forest. Why? Because well it's pretty well known. In America there was even a movie about this Suicide Forest last year. So a lot of westerners worldwide and Japanese do come to the suicide forest to be "looky lous"...to be nosy and look around. And yes...on the day we went.... there were quite a bunch of folks walking down the trails of the Suicide Forest. I was hesitant because of the kids. But the kids...being boys were eager to have a look. And Noboru was too. So, I said...okay we can go and have a look. But let's stay together and stay on the trail. 

This is such a sad sign! It says. And remember I am not a professional translator but it says basically this. "Your life is given from your parents. Think about your parents, siblings and children. Consult someone/talk with someone. Don't think about this by yourself." This is basically here for the people about to commit suicide. : ( Truly heartbreaking.

We found these pills on the ground of suicide forest and Noboru using his cell... prescription checked/med checked what these were... and turns out... these particular pills are given to people with psychological problems. @_@ Again wow very sad...to see these pills here. 

Walking with the fam-bam. 

You can see other folks in here. This was a man, wife and 2 kids in front of us and the dad had a conbini bag of drinks for his family to drink while they took an exciting walk. We could hear that family in front of us. They were asking the kids..."do you see anything" The kids were excited and saying ..."not yet" ...Granted I don't think they truly *wanted* to see something gruesome... just a fun day for that family. And honestly most normal folks who were obviously... not suicidal like that family and our family...were just having a walk around. And there were other folks in here too. 3 uni aged nerdy guys. One older lady and her husband and she had a cat on a leash and the cat was laying over her shoulders...again I am kidding you not. There were a whole bunch of nosy folks. Just looking around sight seeing. I think it's the same as in America when youth go to the cemetery at night...for the excitement and thrill. But again hoping not to run into any ghosts. Does that make sense? Also...side note. Folks say in here...your cell will not work and your compass won't work in here. I'm here to tell you... that's complete crap! And completely not true. Our cell phones worked just fine in here. And Noboru even checked after wards online...that a man who goes here all the time said... as long as you hold your compass above your waist it will 100% work. So...yes those things will work. 

See the lava trail. You do have to watch where you walk. Definitely watch your step. You can easily trip since it is not even ground. 

Yes there were bunches of people. And it was a Saturday. Less scary on a weekend, which was nice. 

Snake shaped tree roots.

Noboru found a spade.

And a cooking pot. Off the trail. 

He pointed at the pot with his foot. I was like...ahhhh don't touch anything...it could have some bad mojo on it or something! Hahaha. But seriously...better to be safe than sorry. : )

It is extremely dense. But honestly I saw the family in front of us go off trail for about 10 minutes and they came back to the trail just fine. And Noboru and the kids went off trail about 500 feet away and they came back just fine too. I'm a chicken and I stayed on the trail the entire time. : )

There are many caves. Many cracks and crevices for people to go and die in. If they wanted to. But please don't! 

I really debated sharing this particular picture with you. And there is one below that I am sharing too. That again...I wondered...should I share it with you guys or not. I have decided to share it. And please do me a favor. Look at the picture...enjoy the picture... but please don't steal my picture. Because it's mine. And it's my story to share. Not anyone else's. The entire time we were in Suicide Forest. We didn't feel anything weird. Not anything scary. We didn't feel anything heavy or evil or anything. We were just a happy family there... spending a nosy hour there. And then back in the car. When I got home and checked thoroughly of all the pics the next day. I honestly swear to G*d...you guys I was shocked... by how many spirits or beings....orbs.. were captured in my pictures and photographs in Suicide Forest. See here. That brilliant blue on the left of Noah. It looks like a little bright glowing blue Tinkerbell orb. At the time I snapped this picture there was nothing we could see with our naked eyes. But on about 15 of my photos. And I snapped about 120 at Suicide Forest but about 15 of those had these brilliant glowing bright blue...beings...spirits...Tinkerbell flying things. And they were actually caught zipping around my family... in particular they were flying around my kids. Granted our family is very happy...we talk and laugh a lot. We were probably the chattiest family in the entire place. I think these spirits were definitely attracted to us...our family. This pic of Noah you see here. I took consecutive shots of Noah here and I think I snapped about 6 shots of him and I can see this brilliant glowing blue fairy (they have wings or something) glowing orbs zipping around Noah. On the left of him..on the right of him. One even got very close to Noah's face...trying to check Noah out...this orb... granted we could not see it when we were there... it was only noticeable after we got home and I checked the pictures. And I have another set of pics that another brilliant glowing blue orb or spirit was bouncing around Branden and Noah. So yes these glowing bright brilliant blue orbs were seen zipping around my kids and our family.  Was it...1 spirit in particular that attached to us that hour we were there? Or were there a few different ones attracted to our family? I am not sure. I have no answers. But...I did blow this picture up on my computer. And Noboru has looked at it. And Noboru says...whatever it is...is NOT evil. He said...it looked nice. And he did say flat out..."that's a spirit alright." A bright blue orb caught zipping around our family. This picture is actually amazing and so clear. 

See here it was zipping around still. The next shot is of it zipping near the top of Noah's head. 

The man off the trail with his bag of drinks for his family.

Bran going a little off trail looking inside a cave. Burning lava created all these caves. Same for the ice lava cave we went into earlier.

Curious Bran!

Noboru just getting back from his exploring! My 3 guys were having a blast in here. Me...I kept saying..."please be careful" and "don't get lost." : )

Curious kids!

Noboru checking his cell phone reception and compass/GPS on his phone. He said...whoever said we don't get reception in here is full of crap! @_@ Hahaha. I did not check. But...Noboru tested it and they both worked just fine. It has been Noboru verified. LOL. : )

What was in here nailed to a tree stump? We didn't check!

When I blew this picture up to full size there is a blue see through-ish yet glowing...orb...thing, this one was bigger in size then the one near Noah earlier... but it's there towards the bottom of this pic but you can't see it at this size. Again something was just crazy attracted to our family in there. And no..we didn't bring anything home with us. Haha. : )

We were starting to head back... out of suicide forest by now. 

I snapped a few pics on the way out just showing...how thick and dense the place looked. However...when I went home to look at my final pic...I saw a bright blue orb again in my final pic from suicide forest. I would like to think the spirit walked us out. See in the pic? I would like to think the orb/spirit walked us out and said..."Good luck and good-bye...nice family!" But yeah...I had zero idea the entire time we were there... that there was any bright blue *anything* following us the entire time. Not until we were home. And after the fact. Anyways.....

We got back to our town around 11:30pm! We left Suicide Forest around 4pm. And we started driving. Around 6pm. We stopped for dinner. At what else...Italian obviously. : ) We went to Jolly Pasta in Sagamihara. Their jalapeno pizza is divine. It's so flavorful and good. They have a drink bar... so endless drinks if you'd like. Coffee, teas sodas. Juices. Nice drink bar. Nice restaurant.

Their pasta here is so divine. The spicy garlic cheese pasta. Major yum! We all went to the restroom at Jolly Pasta and then we drove for hours and then we stopped at 7-11 I picked a hot coffee. The kids each picked a mugicha and a snack for the very long car ride we had still. And like I said, we arrived at home around 11:30pm. The kids usually will shower. But they were so dog tired that they brushed their teeth and went straight to sleep. I put my hair into a messy top knot. Jumped in the shower, washed my face (makeup off) and washed and soaped and scrubbed my body. I dried off. Put my sleep shirt on and went to sleep. Noboru jumped in the shower but I must have zonked because... I don't even remember hearing him get out of the shower. We were all just *that* tired. It was a fun 32 hours. A full 31-32 hours. Longer than 24 hours actually...closer to 32 hours but ykwim. : ) I am so glad we kicked off a whole near year.....with a fun family get away. We kicked off 2017 with a happy family trip. Some much needed rest and relaxation. And we were glad to be back home. : ) So anyway...that was our Hakone trip. The long and short of it. : )