Sorry again about having to make it in 2 parts. But that post that was acting crazy and is still acting that way. So, I just redid the whole entire post! @_@ Talk about tired fingers. ; ) And now I am getting that message on here. So not sure why this particular post is like that. Hopefully I can publish this. My sister in law, Noboru and Branden, Noah and my niece J went to a local small park. My Father in law had woken up, and we chatted with him. He's still not in the best of health at all. : ( Anyway while he was having his lunch, we went to the park since we already had lunch.
Kids seem to grow so fast. That I really enjoy when kids act like kids, you know what I mean? : ) Whether that be, digging in the sand or dirt, swinging on swings or sliding down slides. My niece and her two cousins, meaning our two boys had a blast together. Here she is sliding on her tummy. : )
Branden sliding down and Noah waiting his turn.
Hey sweetie pie!!! ; ) Hi Noah!
Hi cutie pie!
These 3 really get along well! They always have fun playing together!
My lovely sister in law. And her brother/my husband talking, chatting and catching up. While the kids played. After I took some pics, I went over and chatted too. ; )
3 cousins playing at the park....
Two brothers.
My niece going for a backwards slide! They hadn't seen each other since last year during Golden Week. That's too long to not see each other. : (
On our way to the yakiniku restaurant.
So many platters of beef, so many platters of chicken.
See all that white meat chicken, no fat? My mother in law ordered last week, 1 kg of white meat chicken breast for us before we got there. That way they'd have enough,not even counting all the beef. We were all so full after that. ; )
After dinner and saying our goodbyes. It was sad to say good bye...honestly really sad. Our one day of visiting went by like THAT! Before we knew it...it was over. We were now in the car. And Noboru said...isn't the royal wedding about to start? I'm still sniffling in the car from the sad goodbye and I said...yeah...yeah you're right. So we turned the TV on. Got a Mc D's 100 yen shake for the drive back to the hotel in Kyoto and watched the royal wedding in the car on the way to the hotel.
This was the hotel we stayed at. There were also a few foreign tourists also staying there. 3 American women traveling together, it was a 3rd generation family trip, looked like a 20 something daughter, her mother and her grandmother. They and I spoke while at the buffet the day before.
Branden pulling the luggage. Good kid. : ) Very helpful.
Walking to our MPV, which was parked across the street at the Nijo Castle.
We did not have a buffet coupon for this last day, so we went to Mc D's for breakfast.
Our plan was to go to Kinkakuji. But while eating Noboru was concerned about the traffic for Golden Week. Which route should we take? Which was the most congested? Seemed the main 2 routes to get us back to Chiba were full. Traffic backed up. So we sort of thought of an alternate way to get ourselves there. A longer way but with no traffic, so an actual faster way in the long run.
Ready for some touristy stuff!
Noboru, Branden and Noah in front of the Golden Pavilion
My family. ; )
You could buy a fortune. In 3 different languages.
Like it says if you get a good fortune, keep it. If you get a bad one, tie it in the designated spot here.
Noah getting his fortune.
We all lucked out and got positive ones. Both Branden and Noah got excellent ones. Mine said, good. So mine wasn't too terribly bad. ; )
The first Ohsho?
Hmm, it would be cool if the sign is indeed right. We love the Kyoto Ohsho. We're lucky that there is 1 in Narita and 1 in Tomisato. They were everywhere in Kyoto and in Osaka. They're so lucky! : )
After our site seeing we decided to have lunch at the Ohsho.
Noboru's ramen.
We all stuffed ourselves. Then got some sandwiches at 7-11 for the long drive and some Knoor pasta soups. And snacks and drinks at a drugstore. And onto the highway we went.
This was before we recalcualated the new route. And with the new route it was 700km!!!! At that point....I just took off my shoes, figured...we weren't going anyplace anytime soon. So might as well get comfy. The boys were comfy and strapped in and watching a movie and snacking off and on in the backseat.
We finally stopped for a restroom break and there you go, what do we see again? Another Starbucks. The boys got icecream...but we got Starbucks.
Iced and hot caramel macchiato for us.
Do you ever *think* you see something and then think, nah it couldn't be!!! So, Noboru and I were driving down the highway. And way up ahead, I see what looks like a UHAUL! A UHAUL is a moving van you rent cheaply in America. Americans you already know that. : ) So anyway, I say to Noboru..."funny that *almost* looks exactly like a UHAUL up ahead" He glances and chuckles and says yeah it does. As we get closer and still staring... we both go...."wait a minute that IS a UHAUL"!!!! Noboru says...nobody will ever believe this! Take a picture! So, there I am quickly pulling my camera out. At this point, it's fair to say we were both laughing so hard! It is such a rare thing to actually see in Japan!!! The guy who bought this and brought it to Japan must have the best sense of humor, I tell ya! ; )
Only $19.95!!! And on the right side it says...Oregon! Ha ha ha. Anyway I had to share this. : )
Noboru uses the Japanese navigation in the actual MPV. And I use this one when I'm driving in my tiny red car, so I can see where I'm going in English. : ) I usually keep this in my red car but Noboru wanted to bring it for the trip, so I could follow along during our trip. @_@ ; )
See those snow capped mountains, with GW traffic being what it was, we decided not to go through Shizuoka or the main way through Tokyo either. We decided to go the north route which would take us right through Matsumoto and eventually passed Gunma. This turned out to be the best decision because traffic was nonexistant this way. And every stop we made, we heard how the traffic was at a standstill the other two routes we did not take.
Those beautiful Nagano mountains.
Nope not the Tokyo way for us this time. With the traffic jam, we went right through Matsumoto.
It was chilly, I rolled down my window to feel the air. It was a nice cooler Spring day.
Noboru asked me, don't you have a friend that lives around here? I said, while yes...I think I do! : )He said, we should go visit! An unexpected visit?@_@ Ummm... that's not very polite honey. I said. But I really really wanted to though. She's just so down to earth, so funny as all heck. To meet her and her family would have been awesome and hopefully one of these days we'll make a plan and visit Heather and her lovely family. : )
We finally made it home last Saturday at 10:30pm. We were so exhausted. I took a shower and went straight to bed. The kids went directly to bed minus the shower (they had fallen asleep somewhere around Gunma) so we just carried them to bed. The next morning, around 9:30am the doorbell rings. It's the grandma next door. She came with omiyage... these cookies. Raisin and cream.... softy chewy cookies. She and her husband and the boy next door, his brother and his mom all took a tour bus to Gunma and got back late Saturday night too! Which we then told her...we just drove through Gunma last night too. She said what time? And apparently we were both along the highway at the same time all trying to get home...didn't see each other of course. But yeah how odd the way that was, can you imagine if we would have run into our neighbors at a rest stop many hours away from home. We all would have been shocked! Definitely would have been funny! : ) We all got a chuckle out of that one. We also brought her omiyage from the Kyoto Golden Pavillion (in the pic it's on the right). She said...you guys drove all the way to Kyoto? @_@ We said, yep! And he told her, we went to see his family and stuff and she said...oh that's really nice. Anyway that was our trip in a nutshell. : ) 
We drove for quite a few hours before deciding it would be a good time to stop and eat at a service area. The boys ate rice balls and we all munched the chicken we prepared. We all drank the drinks we brought. The cost to eat along the highway is sort of expensive. 700-1000 yen per person depending what meal you'd like (the curry meal perhaps etc). I was happy to have bought the chicken cheaply, and made it at home myself and our meal for all 4 of us was about 700 for all of us not per person. ; ) Meaning drinks, rice for onigiri, sauce for karaage, flour, and 2 packs of chicken. About there give or take.
See that view of Mt. Fuji! What a view! The weather around here was sunny but chilly. You could definitely feel a chill in the air still. We were full from eating our road trip meal. We had all went to the restroom when we first arrived at the rest stop and a restroom run one last time before we got our ice creams and left.
The view was right there but perhaps a cloud was blowing by when I clicked because you can't see Mt. Fuji in the picture at all. : ( But it is there. Good thing I took that pic beforehand. ; ) We got 3 ice creams. Noboru and I shared. And Noah and Branden each had one. But, midway half through Noah said..I'm done, I don't want anymore. So, Noboru got his. And I ended up eating ours and he ate Noah's. Chalk that up to having a tiny tummy. : )
Still driving on the road and we made about 5 stops along the way for the kids to stretch their legs, go to the restroom. And along the way was a Starbucks. You know, funny thing is, when we last drove to Osaka many years ago..there was only 1 Starbucks along the way I remembered. But now there was many of them. Which made us happy. : ) By the way with Thursday being the last day of school and the following day starting off the Golden Week holiday. Noah got off school early and Branden also got off early because many of the kids in his class were ill. Just the 4th grade class. So, we left our house last Thursday around 1pm or 1:30pm. And we did not arrive until 10:30pm-11pm. It was a very long drive. No real bad traffic or anything. But a very long drive. So yeah since the kids were taking a restroom break with Noboru and I took my own bathroom break as well. We went into Starbucks after. It was jet black outside, meaning pure night time. Not a hint of day time sky in the air at all. And the weather was down right chilly at this point. The boys put on fleece tops over their long sleeve tees. And into Starbucks we went.
Noah waiting for mommy's caramel macchiato to be done, so we could take it to go.
I do not know why, but the next morning. The boys and I woke up at 6:30am. I had both of them brush their teeth and handed them their clothes and into the shower I went to wash my hair. When I came out, they were dressed and watching TV. I blow dried my hair. Put my makeup on and got dressed. when the wake up call rang at 7am, we were already ready. Noboru got dressed and to the breakfast buffet downstairs we went.
Noah walking to the buffet area.
Noboru's grandma. Mitsuko''s mom. : ) And Toshiyuki. Branden being the oldest, always has to look out for his little brother. Always be careful. Watch out for Noah and any other little kiddos in the housing community and he does so wonderfully. He's very good with little kids. He really is. But being around Toshiyuki was awesome because in this situation, Branden finally got to be the younger one! Which is very rare for him! ; ) He kept grabbing Branden....come here! Get over here!!!! You could tell by Branden's face he loved all the attention. Threw Branden on his bigger lap. Tickled Branden. He told Branden, you are going to be very tall when you are older and very muscular! Great grandma, looked at Branden's head and hair. And said...your hair in the back tells me that you are also very stubborn!!! Toshiyuki tickled Branden and asked..... So are you stubborn? Huh huh? You know....in Japan. Most grandparents live near their grandchildren and even great grandchildren. Which mean the kids get to see their extended family. They get the luxury of being doted on by grandma and grandpa. Like the grandma next door. She lives right across the street from her 2 grandchildren. Cheers them on at undokai which si great. While when Branden is at his, he has only us to cheer him on, so we have to make sure to cheer extra loud to make up for the loss of extended family not being able to be there, do you know what I mean. : ( So for the most part, our boys have no extended family living near us to dote on them at all. Which is fine they're used to it. But with them being in Osaka, they finally got that. And the kids really enjoyed it. It's rare they get to see them and get all the extra attention, so it was a rare treat for them. : ) Toshiyuki, even arm wrestled Branden. When Branden lost, he said....okay how about with only 3 fingers then! Again obviously Branden would lose. He's 10 years younger obviously. But he said...you lost by only 3 fingers and we all laughed. He joked with Branden so much. Talk about feeling the love. And not to leave Noah out either. He got the same treatment. When we entered the house and as soon as Noah sat down. Great grandma said...wow your face...you look like you should be on TV! She couldn't get over Noah at all. She beamed. And beamed. And again...they rarely get to see them so it just felt really good for Noah to get some extra loving from great grandma like that. Noboru and I were just sitting on the tatami floor, while they beamed from ear to ear at the boys. And played with them. Yui (Toshiyuki's sister was also there) and she's so cute too, she's in the 6th grade.
She said Noah, let me draw your face. Noah feeling quite thrilled because nobody's ever done that before...so he stood perfectly still, like a statue, I had to laugh. And she made this. Noah's face courtesy of Yui-chan! I had told Yui how absolutely pretty she's gotten (honestly she's so pretty). And Noboru meanwhile noticed Yui had polished toe nails. So figures uncle Noboru asks if he could chip off her polish!!! @_@ Umm, I guess you can if you want to she replied. ; ) He settled for just pulling at her toes instead. When it's time to leave some one's house it's easy to get the kids ready to leave. It's time to go and they go to the genkan. However, they did not want to leave great grandma's house and the cousins (technically Noboru's cousins) They left but had to hug everyone and waved a bunch before leaving. We knew we would not see them later that night or the next day. This was it. It was sad. : ( They are very loving and very kind people. From there we went back to grandma's house. And left for lunch. Seven of us ate at Saizeriya. It was around 12;30pm. We had a dinner reservation at 5pm. We enjoyed our lunch. And then we dropped them home and went to the shopping arcade. We had time to kill. I spent a Summer in Osaka and used to ride my bike in Senbayashi all the time. Would go to my favorite sento in there too. Every night after my bath I'd be eating a hard boiled egg, a lemon squash (sp?), and in my houseshorts and comfy tee, wet hair I'd hop back onto my bike, with my sento basket in the bike basket, with shampoo, conditoner, and body wash and nylon cloth and towel. And ride back to his parents house. This was before we had kids. But newlyweds.
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