Grape picking and a sweet potato dig, our yearly school field trip at the farm! : )

If you've been reading this blog for at least the past year, you will remember the sweet potato dig and grape picking we did last year. Most schools in Japan seem to dig something out or pull something from mother nature. Whether they be, onions, potatoes, grapes or what have you. I really like that the schools in Japan have activities like this a lot. So kids can see where food comes from (and I'm not talking from the store, lol). How they grow. How it comes from nature, so to speak. I guess that sorta thing really appeals to be a lot. Because for myself, I grew up in a house with an enormous front yard and extensive backyard. We had a huge vegetable garden, that my dad tended to daily after his regular job, coming from the office. It was his hobby. And I would help with the garden even when I was near Branden's age, I recall being in that garden, pulling weeds. Transplanting plants with my dad. Watering in the evenings when the sun goes down a bit. Just all that stuff, I remember from my childhood. And getting to eat those fresh veggies all summer long. Stuff we grew? Absolutely amazing. Best tasting stuff on earth. No wonder, I enjoy living in the country side of Japan so much. It would most likely not suit everyone, poor Paris Hilton, would be bored to tears, I imagine, lol, but it suits me really well. Anyway, it's no wonder I have been looking forward to this sweet potato dig for weeks. Even though I had my sore throat, I totally went anyway. So here's the pics, and since this is a private Roman Catholic yochien. It's why, we started the day off with a prayer. As you can see the teacher had her hands in prayer formation there. All kids were praying, well except my son. He was adjusting his Spongebob bottle holder. But he got right back into prayer after that, ha ha ha. : )

We go to this same sweet potato place/grape orchard every year. I imagine Noah will be going here for his field trips, once he is old enough to start school, as well.

A very nice group shot of Branden with his class. And that is his very nice teacher there as well.

A very happy close-up of B there! : )

Okay here's the rules we were given. See the white line, and then the next white line? Well, each student of the school and his or her family, could have whatever was between the 2 white lines. And this was free. And it yields each family a lot of potatoes.

Sweet potatoes grow in root type clusters, so there's always more then a couple in each bundle.

See how Noah was digging those and yet there were even more sweet potatoes visible to the naked eye in the dirt still. Man there were so many sweet potatoes. I liked that Noah got to get in on the action, this year.

Digging some more! : )

Branden dug these guys out and then he pulled *really* hard! : )

The kids were so happy. They really felt they did a good job with the sweet potatoes! I tend to agree, he he. : )

Here's a tiny part of the sprawling potato fields that they let us dig from. It really was beautiful to be there. However, since this was a day after a typhoon, you can imagine, it was freakishly hot, especially for us, in our neck of the woods.

Next stop...grapes! Grapes as far as the eye could literally see. Also, the height of this grape vineyard was really oddly low. I swear anyone over the height of 5 feet tall, would have to bend over and crouch their way in, here. It was almost as if, magical elves, or oompa loompas or munchkins from Oz built this vineyard. Because it was the shortest vineyard, I had ever been in.

Branden's Spongebob bottle holder got a bit dirty from the potato dig early. But that was okay, it was to be expected, no worries though. We went into the super short vineyard and Noboru and I walked in there, like a couple of hunch backs. Meanwhile the man who owns this vineyard said. That they marked the darkest and sweetest grapes with circles. Easier for the yochien kids to find. Noboru and I first thought maybe they could be lying, so we checked the ones with no circles to see for ourselves, lol. And sure enough, he was right. The bags with circles were darker and richer in color. And had more grapes to them. Hmm, okay. Serves us right for not taking him at his word at first. ha ha ha. So, we ended up looking for bags with circles. And then we would look through the clear window of the bag of grapes. And when we found a bag of grapes we all liked. Branden got onto the crate and he cut at the vine and got the grapes.

What a face of determination there. Ha ha ha!

When he made the final cut. Turns out the grapes are really heavy and luckily Noboru made sure that B did not drop the grapes. Phew! : )

Making the pass to dad there! And a smile from dad there, as well.

And about to pick his second bunch. The grapes by the way, every parent had to pay for the grapes. Granted we didn't have to buy the grapes either, it was up to us. But, we figured it's a once a year thing, why the heck not. Oh and the guy gave everyone a rough estimate, he said that typically, if you get 3 bags or bundles of grapes that is about 1000 yen/US 10.00. It's good to have a round about idea of the cost at least. That way we knew we would get 3 bags and no more. Besides we can't eat that many grapes, anyway. Three bags was more then plenty.

So Branden cut his second bag of grapes. This time, Noboru held the bottom. Not that B dropped the first bag, but it was a close call though. So this time we were ready. : )

The third and final bag cutting got to go to Noah. He really wanted to give it a try. And if you are a parent of more then one child. You will no doubt be shaking your head. Because you know how you always have to be fair, to each kid. However it was Branden's field trip, so he got to cut more. He got to cut 2. But since Noah was there and it seemed unfair to not give him a chance, we let him cut one. Oh was he excited to get to cut these grapes! We showed him the part of the vine we wanted him to cut. Noboru had to help him with the big adult sized metal garden scissors.

When he made the final cut and they came down, he was totally amazed. Look at this pic. He just stared at the grapes. He felt almost like a big kid. Ha ha ha!

Noboru was putting the grapes Noah had just cut into the basket with the ones Branden had cut already. Meanwhile Noah continued to marvel at the grapes above his head. : )

Look of accomplishment from Noah! : )

Then we all "hunch backed" it right outta there! Ha ha ha! : )

There's an outdoor patio area, where people can munch grapes and sweet potatoes, for free after we were all finished. The cool thing is that it's covered with vines and green grapes over our heads. Really nice.

Noboru and Branden munching some grapes! : )

A very melting Noah, just finished munching a sweet potato. His hair had gotten a bit wet with sweat, so I brushed it outta his face some. Meanwhile, he watched the huge green grape clusters that dangled above our heads.

Clearly not trusting that largest cluster of grapes above. Was it going to fall down and perhaps konk someone on the head? Hmm, whatever the case, Noah didn't let that bunch of grapes out of his site for a second! : )

It was so hot the day after the typhoon. I bet Noah was thinking at this point. "I give up, I am melting, here" A few minutes after this pic, we were on our way home. Turned the A/C on high in the car on the way home. We all needed a bit of cooling off after all that! But it was totally fun, though! We all went to Mc Donald's after we left the grape and sweet potato farm. Had a nice lunch and went home. : )

Grapes and sweet potatoes. Some sweet potatoes were so big that they actually poked a hole in our plastic bag.

Ahh, the grapes with the circles written on the bags.

They were huge and very dark. And so so sweet! : )

22 sweet potatoes in all. Wow, that is a lot of sweet potatoes! I rinsed them all really well. Baked half of them and the rest are in the fridge. By the way, has anyone else noticed that our sweet potatoes in Japan are darker and an almost purplish color. But the sweet potatoes in the US are a tannish to slight orange color. Almost a fawn type color. Anyone notice the sweet potato color differences? Anyway, not really important really. But I do always notice the color difference. I prefer the Japanese sweet potatoes actually, they are sweeter, in my opinion. Anyway, this is how our family spent Saturday! : )

Phew, what a week! : )

Funny, when school went on Summer break at the start of July, I immediately washed everything of Branden's. So that in case of emergency or I forgot, they would be clean for when school began again. However,the day before school started, on Sunday, I decided I better wash everything again, just in case. Get everything extra washed and fresh, one last time for the first day of school. LOL, bonks self just saying that. I also,then had to go and get out everything that he brought home from school, that he needed to bring back. Clay mat. Clay molds. His scissors, etc. Folded his gym outfit after it came outta the dryer and put it into his homemade gym bag. Put the shoes in the homemade shoe bag. And then put everything into the homemade yochien bag. I left it on the kitchen table before bed, just in case we could be running late the first day, who knows. Even as I lay in bed Sunday night, I was making mental notes in my head, checking things off. I thought, "did I pack his smock?", yochien hat? Of course,, I did. Just typical mommy type worry. I woke up Monday morning, feeling tired, because I wasn't used to getting up *that* early. I clearly was not used to waking up at that ungodly hour. As, usual, I will give myself that ol' one week grace period, that I have talked about here before, to find my groove. It just gives me some slack to get used to getting things into smooth order.Sigh, first week is always the worst for us here at our house, because we are all so out of practice, we were so used to being just so relaxed with no real schedule and now we all have this "set" time to wake up, "set" time to get B off to school. Everything is changed now that school is back, open and running again. Yup, I really need that week grace period about now, ha ha ha.

One thing that I really like about Japan is the marinated meats, I find at the grocery stores here. Some are so so. But some are downright delicious. This one caught my eye, I saw big crushed pieces of black pepper. Big slices of garlic. This looked so great. I bought 2 for our dinner one of the nights during this week. I could not wait to try this pork. I just fried it in a skillet/pan.

The marinated pork in the pic up above, ended up being this. I will be buying this marinated pork again. Everyone really liked this. I worried it would be a bit too spicy for Noah, but he liked it. Branden and Noboru loved it, as did I . So dinner was just, garlic pepper pork, sorry I don't have the proper name for this. Steamed, butter broccoli with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Kimchee as a side, and it really went well with this pork. And I was going to make salad. But then I wondered if we should wrap our pork in the lettuce leaves. So I was sorta on the fence about it, thinking...use the lettuce for wrapping the pork with? or for a simple salad? I decided, to just leave the pieces of lettuce really big this time. Add just one tomato and that way, they could decide for themselves if they wanted to wrap their pork or have a goma salad. Turns out, Branden wrapped his pork with the lettuce, so he liked it that way. Noboru had the simple goma salad. And I had wrapped my pork with half my lettuce and ate the rest of lettuce and tomato with goma. Dinner, was not all fancy. Ha!, Do I ever cook fancy? Nope, not really. Ha ha ha. It was simple, and fast. Fast because I got kids, I'm busy and it was one heck of a long day. Calgon, take me away! : )

Another night this week,I made buta kimchee for dinner. Buta kimchee, with pork, for Noboru (real buta kimchee, lol). And I made buta kimchee, without the pork for B and I. Hmm, then should I call it, tori, kimchee, then? Well, in any case, I made buta kimchee for the hubby and chicken and kimchee for Branden and I. It was delicious, if I don't say so myself. Branden loved it. Noah, had miso soup and rice instead. This meal was too hot for Noah. By the way,all week, I found myself staying awake later then I really should have, since school is in session now and I have to wake up so early. My inner clock must be off. I think my inner clock is set to, summer vacation timing still. Sigh!

Another night, I made stir fry, beef and bell pepper. This meat was so lean, not a dot of fat. However, I must say, out of all the Cook Do's, this is my least favorite one, hmm.

And and get this. You will not believe this. You know how I rarely ever get sick? Well, figures my busiest week. The first week school is back. The time, where we are adjusting to our schedules and everything gets really super busy this week. Yeah well, figures that Monday morning, I wake up with a killer sore throat. Sounds like I am coughing a lung out. Obviously I am a non smoker, but gosh the horrible cough sounds, I made this week, sheesh. Cough, cough hack, hack! All week. And not that I am a saint, or that I am some mom extraordinaire or anything. But I really can't afford to be sick this week. Ugh. It's times like these that I wish there were 2 of me. Unfortunately I gotta suck it up. Gambatte myself. And ignore it. Yes I wanna crawl in bed and cover my face with the covers and come out....well, whenever my cold gets over with. But no such luck. Grrr, sigh! So as most of us moms do, I get over it, even if I haven't gotten over the cold. So after making breakfast this morning, packing obento, coughing up a few lungs here and there. Making sure B, gets sent off to school daily. Cleaned the house and picked up B. By Wednesday, my cough was growing worse. Noboru had off Wednesday. Branden had swimming Wednesday as well. Options for Wednedsay. All four of us, could go to swimming class, didn't make much sense since this week, since I am sick. So, option 2, was I take B to swim school and Noboru stay home, however if that happens nothing gets done at the house, plus again with me being sick, this made the least sense. Or option 3, Noboru takes Branden to swim school and meanwhile, I will get some sewing done. And I can watch Noah at home. And I also can prepare dinner and have it ready by the time they walk into the front door. Plus, I can cough out some lungs in private and forgo the whole hacking it all up at the swim school. Hmm, so for us, this week regarding swim school, it seemed more time efficient for me to stay home and do all those things needing to get done, meanwhile Noboru would just sit, look through the window and have himself an iced coffee while he watches his son swim his little heart out.

One bad thing about buying all those new towels and such at USJ and such in Osaka, was that now they all have to have little name tags sewed on. I felt so yucky Wednesday. Probably the worst day outta the other days this week. Oh well. I got out all my white iron on labels, cut them the size, I wanted them. ironed them on. Then I sewed around each one. This one in this pic, is the Sesame street towel. I thought this one came out pretty good. Well, pretty good for a newbie, like me, that is. : )

The spongebob towel rectangular name tag came out pretty good as well. And then after, I used a yochien/school marker (won't come off with washing) wrote their names on it and it was done.

The Spiderman obento wrap, for wrapping B's obento box needed a name tag ironed and sewed on too. This one, I thought I did, a so so job on. I gave this one a B. Definitely not an A, but again, I am just a newbie at sewing.

I am really mad at myself over the label, I sewed on the Ultraman bag, we bought in Senbayashi, remember? I screwed up that left upper corner I went over that one part, like twice and made that line thicker then the rest. How did I do that? I don't know. I swear, I must have been having a brain fart or something, I dunno! Pisses me off, because I know how much Branden likes this bag, I wanted this one to be perfect looking. Instead, I mucked it all up with the line. Sigh. Oh well, maybe no one will notice? Hey, I am not perfect. And I tried my very best. Double sigh. What a week, sick with a horrible sore throat, a cough like, I don't know what. My timing is off with regards to my sleep and wake up schedule. And now I mucked up the one thing, I least wanted to muck up? Grrr! Oh yes, and let's not forget being hit by a big typhoon! Oh my gosh! What a first week of being back in school.

On a brighter note, I thought the Shrek, mini towel came out fab! : )

Here's what the Sesame Street towel looked like. And you can see the little label on the lower right hand corner that I sewed. Phew. Glad all that sewing is done. Oh and for those of you not in Japan. Yup, when your child starts yochien/kingergarten. You will have to iron and sew labels like this on everything. Because if by some coincidence another child has the same thing, they have to distinguish it. So, everything has to be labelled or at least have your child's name on there some how. Yup even homemade bags and the likes. Everything. And who gets the painstaking task of this? Mom of course! Ha ha ha! : ) On the bright side, by the time Noah starts yochien, I will be a pro by then, ha ha ha. Just kidding, I doubt I will ever be that good. But at least I won't be caught off guard as much as I was with B, when he started at age 3. : )

In other news, the tiniest shreds of fall are starting to show here in my neck of the woods, way over here, in my part of Chiba, at least. You can see in this pic that the machines are out cutting the rice fields behind my house. Yup the rice crops are ready for harvest.

Also, if you can believe this, leaves are starting to actually turn yellow and gold and fall to the ground already. I noticed it on Monday when I dropped B off at Kumon. And Branden actually noticed them himself, when he was on his way coming out of Kumon and get inside the car and go home. See him picking up leaves in this pic?

Here's Branden, on Thursday, as I dropped him off at Kumon. This is our first week with trying to juggle Kumon and yochien at the same time. It's working out good for our family. With ample time to go home, switch clothes from yochien to regular, bathroom break, glass of milk and a snack and get to Kumon for 30-40 minutes and then go home for the rest of the evening and relax.

I also had some bananas that went uneaten. They had that typical giraffe look to them. You know, spots and all. So I made banana nut muffins out of them.

You know, I think this bag of baking soda is just so ridiculously big. Most recipes, you only need 1 teaspoon. Judging by the size of this bag and considering I will only need 1 tsp. at a time. I imagine I will finish this bag in about what? Say 10 years or so? LOL, OMG! Fwiw, I needed baking soda for the banana nut bread I made last year, remember? I didn't use baking soda and it turned out like crapola. I woulda got the tiny box if they had been available. And since this is something not widely available in Japan. I had to get the giganto monster size from Costco. Ugh, sometimes this happens to us ladies in Japan, doesn't it? Size may be a little too large but it's the only one readily available. Ahhhh, how funny! : )

They say the riper your banana, the sweeter the banana nut bread/muffins will be. With all these spots, no wonder these muffins came out so good.

Ha ha ha. : )

Done and ready to eat. Yumm, were they good. Noboru had about half of these all by himself. So, anyway these are tiny glimpses of all the things that went on this week at our house. Oh yeah and don't forget the typhoon either. That was a biggie. I hope our second week has less bumps and ripples then our first week did. One things for sure, there's always something happening here at our house. Ha ha ha. : )

Typhoon is coming, it's going to be a direct hit for us here, where we live! (updated) : )

The typhoon is coming and the part of Chiba that we live in.....the typhoon is going to hit us straight on! It's so bad, that when we picked up Branden today from the bus stop. The note he brought home said that for the people who get "school lunch" that they won't be getting lunch tomorrow due to the approaching typhoon, so for them to bring onigiri. This didn't affect us, so much, only because I make obento from home everyday. But it worried me that....if the meals for the school won't be coming tomorrow, for the other kids, perhaps it is getting really serious.

Now as of right now. It's gotten even worse. We went and picked up Branden from Kumon, just now. When we all got home, there was a message on my answering machine from B's Catholic school, saying that yochien/kindergarten for tomorrow is now being officially called off/cancelled tomorrow. And do not send B to school tomorrow. Branden was quite happy about that part,lol, typical kid. But, sheesh, seems this typhoon that is going to hit us tonight and tomorrow is going to be a big one!

I have about 5 days and nights worth of food in the house, so I don't worry about running out of anything. Big bag of rice. Many fresh veggies and fruits. Lot's of meat in the freezer. Plenty of drinks. Phew, sigh of relief about that.: ) I picked up an extra loaf of bread on the way home from Kumon, just in case. Worry women, that I am. Ha ha ha! : )

And I even ran to Tsutaya to rent a DVD, for tonight. Figure the satellite might be out tonight. Who, knows. But just in case, anyway. : )

Anyhoo, Noboru has the day/night off tonight. So he gets to be home with us during this bad one. Kids are home. Not sure if we will lose power or not. But I do have about 3 candles here at the house and 2 normal flashlights and the kids have those animal shaped Fisher Price flash lights from Costco, lol. I hope it doesn't get that bad though. But anyway, just wanted to let you all know, we are all okay and fine. : )

Update: Well the typhoon has finally passed us where we live. It was a bad one, alright! We had power outages about 3 to 4 times late last night. I was already in bed, but whenever I would glance at the clock in my room, it was blinking and had been reset again starting at 12:00, that happened a few times last night. The sound was really loud. The kids could sleep no problem (typical kids). And I could sleep fine, although yes the sound was loud, I for the most part ignored it and slept. Although like I said, I did glance at the clock a few times. However, Noboru could not get a single wink of sleep. He kept going downstairs, turning on the news. He said the typhoon was too loud. This morning we all walked outside to see if there was any damage. The house itself is fine. One heck of a solid built house, that's for sure. The boys big play gym is absolutely, fine as well too. However the smaller plastic slide that Noah usually slides down was knocked on it's side. It's plastic, and wasn't damaged at all, just got knocked down, is all. And 1 piece of wood from our white picket fence was knocked loose. Which Noboru will nail back in tomorrow. But we are all fine. House is fine. Nothing damaged. One loosened board on our fence, but again it's not broken, so we feel really happy, we survived the typhoon, lol. Meanwhile on the TV, we have seen where people throughout Chiba and other parts of Japan, have had some water damage, flooding. Etc. This was a biggie, hopefully everybody else is okay and nobody else got hit as hard as we did, way over here. Hopefully we don't get any other typhoons like this, for this year. Crosses fingers about that! Ha ha ha! : )

Our first 2 days spent in Osaka! : )

Our drive from Chiba to Osaka went smoothly. We stopped along the way twice, to take bathroom breaks. And once to eat the meals, I prepared for us. I had asked Noboru to take an hour or so nap. He said, no way! He must have been running on nothing but adrenalin. He didn't sleep until, way after we got there and had seen everyone first. This was the first view from Osaka. A very bustling city down below. Noboru, joked and said, "ahh, all that smog, I'm home." First stop was to the graveyard where Noboru's grandma (his father's mother) was buried. He's very traditional minded that way. The second we got into town, he wanted to pay respects to where she wad laid to rest. Brought her some sake, and flowers. I like that family is important to him, like that. She was a very lovely woman when she was alive, I knew her for many years before she passed away. So it was nice that we all got to pay our respects to her as well. We left the cemetery before 9:00 am. And from there, we were on our way into Osaka, to see his mom, and his other grandma (Mitsuko's mom). At the other grandmother's house, Noboru lit the incense and paid his respects to that side of family. Our first day back, so there sure were a lot of prayer and paying of respects to be done. Ha ha ha. It was really nice actually. After we left his grandmothers house. We then went to Mitsuko's house. Went into the spare room. They laid out the futon for us. Sleeping on the floor. Oh the joys!!! Ha ha ha! Insert smirky grin here. I really dislike sleeping on the floor, which is why we have always had a bed at our house. Ha ha ha. She visited with us and the kids for an hour or so and then she had to get back to running her restaurants. Meanwhile the sleep deprivation must have kicked in, because we were both dying to get some sleep. All four of us, Noah, Branden, Noboru and I all went downstairs around 1:00 pm. My mil said Kaori and kids would get back around 4:00 pm. However, none of us heard them come in at all. We must have been *that* tired. We all woke up about 6:30 pm. Went upstairs to the seond floor ( Noboru's parents house is 3 levels), chatted with my sil and the kids. She suggested we all order some pizza. Ahh, what a great idea! So, we ordered a large peperoni and mushroom Dominoes pizza and she left to go pick it up. She came back, we all ate. The boys and I showered, so did Noboru. We got our jammies on. Sat in the living room chit chatting and meanwhile the kids all played together. My mil would be home around 11:30 pm. She called and asked if we could stay awake, Noboru told her, sadly, no we couldn't. I said, I wouldn't mind staying awake. But Noboru said, sorry but told her, we were all just dead tired and, we all need our sleep. I think it was his exhaustion talking.Everyone understood. So around 9:45 pm, we all walked down the stairs, said good night to my sil and her kids and hit the sack. Again, we must have drifted off to lala land quite deeply because we never heard Mitsuko come in.

My sil, happens to be an English teacher here in Japan. She turned the spare bedroom on the first floor into her teaching room. So, this is kinda funny but, this is the room where we always sleep in, when we go there. But now, with all the signs and such. It was a bit of an odd thing to see every morning or right before bed. Especially, since, my husbands first language is Japanese. I live in Japan. I like Japanese people, I'm married to one, for crying out loud, ha ha ha. Yet, every night right before bed, last thing I would see, was the phrase. NO JAPANESE. I would think to myself, yes, right-o, no Japanese. Don't speak Japanese. Ha ha ha. Oh my! I didn't mind the phonics song on the wall, I found it interesting. But that big ol' NO JAPANESE always gave me the biggest chuckle. And made me take pause every morning. And think...oh yes that's right, sil is now an English teacher. Ha ha ha. Her purpose of the sign, is obviously for her students to use English only, during the lesson. But yes the sign always caught me a pinch off guard a bit each day, especially if I was half asleep and glanced at it. : )

The boys after pizza and their shower. Ready for some sleep. And Noboru was already in a deep snooze, ha ha ha.

The alphabet and the suggested, expressions. I found myself reading those "suggested expressions" everyday, while I was there, what a dork I am, ha ha ha. : )

The second day we were there. But our first day, we really had to enjoy it. Noboru went and did a Mc D's run and all 4 kids munched breakfast. After that. Noboru and the boys and I headed to Noboru's grandma's house. We invited my sil and her 2 kids to join us. This pic is of, Branden, Noah and the little half American girl next to Branden, is my niece and the little boy sitting behind Noah is of course my nephew. Those 2 are my sister in law Kaori's kids. The larger/older girl, was no relation to any of us, at all, she happens to be the neighbor girl down the street of the great grandma. She was actually up visiting her grandparents and she came over to play with our kids. She is a very sweet girl. Extremely polite and well mannered. So all the kids had a good one hour play at great grandma's house.

Two cousins! Ha ha ha. Here is Noah and Kobby. Noah is 2 years old. And Kobby is 6 years old and will be 7 shortly. He is in the first grade this year.

Great grandma's house. It seems like about a billion years old. Okay maybe not that old. : )But very easily an 80 year old house, no doubt. The entrance is very small and narrow. All the downstairs rooms are freakishly narrow. Very low ceilings. But lot's of fun has been had and many parties have taken place in that house. This is their alter of prayer (is that the right word here?) at the great grandmas house. We said our good byes to the great grandma and then we all decided to hit the new Aeon mall that just opened up a while ago. Somewhere near where Noboru's family lives.

Diamond City shopping mall.

Diamond City shopping mall that is also an Aeon, ha ha ha. We were thinking lunch, first thing. But first, we went to Gap to have a look around. What did I buy? Absolutely nothing. I didn't see anything I needed at all. My sil got a shirt or something for herself though.

Here is my sil (sister inlaw) Kaori, waiting in line at the KFC, with Noah.

Kobby and Branden had lot's to talk about. Especially since they both recently lost a tooth. Did, I tell you, I ruined losing teeth at their house. Whoops! It was on accident, though. I saw my nephew lost his tooth, I said. "did the tooth fairy come and bring you some money?" He said, money? I didn't get any money! Should I have gotten money? I paused, not wanting to put my foot in my mouth any further. I asked my sil, are you doing the tooth fairy thing or the Japanese way? She said, for the teeth, we did it the Japanese way. For bottom teeth we throw the teeth up and for the top teeth we throw them down. Scattered to the winds, most likely. Then she asked what we did for B. I told her. How the tooth fairy, came and took the tooth and "in trade" took the tooth for money" Kobby heard and now he wants money from the tooth fairy too. He was robbed he says! Ha ha ha. We all got a good laugh about it. Glad no real harm done. Ha ha ha : )

Ju-chan and Branden. Ju-chan is 4 years old. All of us had KFC. Well, except Noboru, he had something else.

Next Kaori and I decided to hit the Body Shop after lunch. However, auntie Gina, thought of some new fun rules for the kids. Just for play of course. Okay, I said. New rule is, all kids have to only step in the blue squares. I tell you, the funny nerdy games I come up with for the kids. So, all 4 kids hopped along into each blue square.

Aha, they are still hopping from blue square to blue square, I see. Even Kobby and Branden were sharing that blue square. My niece and nephew, absolutely love me. And I shouldn't say this but, I know I am their most favorite aunt. They probably like me even better then uncle Noboru. They follow me everywhere. Even at the mil's house. For example, I go and lay down on the futon to take a nap, they follow me and both sit and stare at me or talk with me until I get up. They never left my site the entire time.

Ju-chan and Branden got kicked out of the game because they stepped on something not blue, ha ha ha. But Kobby remained in the blue. I swear, I had those kids hopping all over Diamond City mall. Ha ha ha! Kaori and I shopped in a few shops together, meanwhile Noboru watched all 4 kids outside. He's a good uncle too. : )

And then right before, we left, I suggested Baskin Robbins ice-cream. Hey, that's what aunties are for, right? : ) So, the kids had a single kids scoop in a cup, and us adults had single scoop cones. And then we all left Diamond City mall. However, true to form. I came up with the blue square jumping game again. And so I got to watch the kids hop right out of the mall, ha ha ha! : )

Very nice mall, by the way. : )

One bad part about Osaka (and I do love Osaka very much btw), but there's never much parking. We wanted to go and see, Noboru's dad at the hospital. So, we dropped Kaori and the kids off at the house. However we knew there would be no place to park near the hospital. So, we just parked the car at the house. And we walked all the way to the hospital, if you can imagine that. But we didn't mind, because we really needed to go and visit, Kenji, Noboru's dad. The walk wasn't too far anyway. But the heat in Osaka? Ha! Let me just say, it's *so* much hotter in Osaka then the part of Chiba we live. The part of Chiba where I live, the summers are hot yeah sure, but not like that!!!! Ha ha ha. Way cooler then Osaka that is for sure, our area in Chiba that we live, gets lot's of wind. Cool breezes. Cools off every night. Many, many days throughout our summer were no higher then 87 degrees. And I think only twice, where I live, did it ever get hotter then 99 degrees. I think it hit 100 degrees only twice all summer where I live, but again, with mountains, greenery and winds, it's not so harsh or extreme. But in Osaka, ha! I swear it felt like 105 degrees every single day, we were there. No cool breezes at all. Only hot breezes, if we ever got any breeze at all. Even the nights were boiling hot. It was so humid, it was like walking in a sauna! Ladies in Osaka, I take my hat off to you. I don't know how you do it! Our walk to and from the hospital, the weather was so hot, I got an actual "heat headache'. I went back to my mil's house and took an Advil. The heat is really shocking! Seriously, unbelievably hot!

Grandpa Kenji. He's a wonderful man. I think the world of him, we all do. He's always been so sweet, so fair and so kind. He is the same exact age, as my dad. Which is a bit of a shock, knowing how genki my dad is. When Branden was about 1 year old. Noboru's dad started to get sick. One time we were visiting in Osaka. At a public bath. Mitsuko and I and a then 1 year old Branden on the ladies side. And Noboru and his father on the guys side. When we came out, Noboru was a wreck waiting in the waiting area. Said his dad, fainted, fell to the floor. The ambulance came. He refused treatment. We assumed it was the heat. But a few month's later, Mitsuko came back from the restaurant and found him laying unconscious at home, she called the ambulance. Also, his memory is failing him. I am not sure what is specifically wrong with him in English. But with his memory, the way it is, I would guess, some form of Alzheimer's for sure. Which sucks, because he is such a lovely man! When we got into the room, he asked us, if we had came to visit him from Denver. Noboru gently reminded him, "no we live in Chiba dad", then he asked if Noboru graduated university yet? Noboru again, gently reminded him that he graduated uni, about 10 years or so ago. He then asked, who the kids were that we brought with us. Noboru said, "these are my sons dad", "this is Branden, he is 5 years old and this is Noah, he is 2 years old". After some deep thought, he recalled Branden, but didn't recall Noah although he saw him once before. He felt bad, got quiet. So, I jumped in and said "that is more then okay, otosan", I told him. "You will remember him now, that's all what matters." He smiled at me and I touched/rubbed his hand. My eyes were really watery. But I didn't wanna cry in front of the kids. I think, Noboru wanted to cry, as well, but he didn't. Instead he caught up with his dad. Told him all the stories, that he felt funny or that his dad would like to know. They had a year to catch up on. I sat in the chair with both the kids and I stayed quiet. Let him have his moment with his dad. So I became that fly on the wall, so to speak. But yes Noboru wanted us there, to be polite and to say hello. Otherwise I would have him visit in private, but he wanted us there. So, I stayed quiet. Noboru adores his dad. About as much as Branden and Noah adore, Noboru. He told, his dad, the story how we went to the beach and looked for clams and how we didn't find any. Such a smile on Noboru's face, telling his dad that story. His father laughed and shuck his head. He rattled another story off. We all listened. He told them, how he and the boys caught some fish out of that big plastic bottle a few month's back. His father perked up for every story. The nurse came in twice. The second time she came in, we could tell, she was wanting us to leave. Sigh. We don't live so close. We can't come back so easily. We had stayed an hour. It was so hard for us to leave. All the times we have been to Osaka and have visited grandpa Kenji. I haven't taken pictures of their time together. I know he won't live forever, so I thought I better take pictures of them now. So, I whipped out my camera and started taking pic after pic. I like this picture above very much. It shows the look of endearment from grandpa to Noah. They both looked at each other. Both in awe of each other.

I wish I coulda got a shot of the four of them with Noah looking at the camera, but oh well. You know how small kids are sometimes, not so cooperative. Ha ha ha. Branden will like this picture when he grows up, I am sure or Noboru will enjoy this for sure too. I am glad I got this pic.

The only pic, I have of both Noah and grandpa Kenji looking at the camera at the same time. Noah will appreciate having a picure with his lovely grandpa, I am so sure. We left after about an hour of being there, like I said. Just for this reason alone of visiting with his dad, I am so glad we went to Osaka. Very happy we could visit with Noboru's dad.

We walked home. And, took an hour or so nap. My mil came back early, to spend the evening with us. We all went to the public bath. The sign says "Naniwa no yu", this is a super sized sento. I love going to the public bath, my mil loves public bath as well. One good thing/hobby we have in common. Noboru took Branden and Kobby on the guys side. And my mil and I took Ju-chan and Noah. My sil could not go, because she has a tattoo and at the sento that's a big ol' no, no. So she stayed home. : ( It was such a nice bath. I have no shyness or nervousness about being in the buff at all, at the public bath. They are very relaxing. And I just love them. I washed myself and Noah quickly and right away, we jumped into one of the many outdoor baths/rotenburo. One looked like 3 giant white flower pots, they seriously did. I sat in one, with Noah and Ju-chan and mil sat in the one next to us. Ahh, nothing like sitting in an enormous looking flower pot with hot water. And since this is the city, planes flew over our heads the entire time. Ha ha ha. We then tried every single outdoor bath. Then we went inside and there was the aroma bath and today it was "wine" smelled like wine too. I soaked in with my mil and the kids. Went into the dry sauna and rubbed myself with salt. My legs got a great scrubbing with all the salt. We all soaked a few more times. Showered off and then we all got dressed. Went home, and my mil made us all yakitori. Kaori made a salad, while we were away at the sento. Also she got some takoyaki for Noboru as well. He must have had takoyaki and okonomiyaki about 3 times each, while he was in Osaka. A very nice dinner of salad, rice and grilled yakitori. All four kids played for a few hours. And then, we went to sleep.So that was our second day in a nut shell.

Some shots about town. Much different view then my small country town. I think what I like about Osaka is. #1, the convenience. Everything is at your finger tips or within reach in Osaka. For example, when we ordered pizza the first night we were there. Our choices of ordering pizza were limitless. We could get, Pizza Hut, Dominoes, Pizza-La. Something called, Farmers Pizza? And so on and so on. Where, I live, there is no choice like that! So, there are conveniences that we really enjoyed. Also, the "Osaka No Obachan", I love them! They say whatever comes to their mind and I love that! When I was sitting in the public bath for example, so many older Osaka Japanese ladies would not be shy around me at all. They came, sat right next to me, plop right down and started talking straight away. I loved it! People are much more, hmm what's the word. People seem shyer where we live in Chiba. Or not as outgoing or talkative as they are in Osaka. No wonder, I married an Osaka-jin. Ha ha ha. : )

Anybody catch the tip of the Hep red ferris wheel poking out on this picture? Sorta a landmark in Umeda, right? I used to hang out in Umeda all the time, when we stayed there in the summers. Three month's here, 4 month's there. Ahh good times spent in Osaka in my uni days, me on my bike or riding the bus, ha ha ha! Memories! : )

Ahh, the Hep Navio. I can almost smell that Starbucks coffee on the second floor there! Ha ha ha : )

Nanba eh? My other favorite sento place is in Nanba. It's huge, enormous is more like it. Noboru said that Kyoto is actually hotter then Osaka? He says, because it's surrounded by the mountains, and is located basically like in a bottom of a soup bowl, for his lack of better word. And all the hot air gets trapped there. So, whenever we were melting in Osaka, he would say, well on the bright side it's cooler then Kyoto. Ha! : )

The people of Osaka, I absolutely dig them! I love them! They are so awesome and funny! The convenience, like I said, I love. But, honestly I really missed the country side of where we live in Chiba. After a day or two, I was ready to forgo the conveniences and go home. Everyday we were in Osaka, I worried the kids were going to get run over by a car, smashed like a pancake. Or be run down by a bicycle, they're everywhere in Osaka. Of course B knows how to cross the street, but the cars and heavy traffic always caused me to worry some. My mil, asked Noboru to run to a local conbini on the way from the sento, of course where we live out in Chiba, way out in inaka, there is always plenty of parking lots and places to park. Parking is plentiful, ha ha ha. But in Osaka, when he stopped at the conbini, he stopped on a busy street, had to park there, only place to park. We worried the car would be rear ended, smashed to smithereens. Traffic was nuts!

Osaka station. Osaka, we really did like our visit, you are a really wonderful city! : )