My dad's visit to Japan...

My dad arrived to Japan, Wednesday, September 24th. He arrived around 6:30pm-ish. Noboru was waiting at the airport for my dad and the 2 of them came straight to the house here. The kids were home finishing homework, eating their supper and showering all before grandpa arrived. Noah was so excited he told his entire class and his teacher that his grandpa was coming to Japan for his undokai/sport's day/field day. : ) Branden told all his friends too. : )  Anyway, my dad brought his clothes for the week, his toiletry kit (deo, toothbrush and whatnot) but he also brought some goodies from "home" for us. Twelve frozen mac and cheese, my dad has seen how I pack mine and so he did it the same way and they were still froze when he got here.

Pop Tarts for easy school mornings. Yumm. 

Sour gummy bears and worms, because well my dad just knows his grand kids so well. : )

Two bags of Halloween candy for the boys on the left. And well...my dad knows his daughter very well too (me) because he brought me 4 of my favorite chocolate bars on the right. : )

Whole wheat wraps on the left and some canned jalapenos on the right.

Some instant hot cereal/oatmeal on the left and pistachios on the right.

My dad's memory is super sharp, because when we were last in Guam, we brought back a bag of these and I mentioned in passing 2 months ago or so, how good they were. Clearly my dad remembered and he brought 3 of them for us. : )

Remember Noah's pjs on sale from Gap, my dad brought them, yay! And also 2 plain white tee shirts for Noah, so he can wear under a short sleeve tee. 

The spare pair of amazing jeans and the ooh lala sweater that I used those Old Navy super cash for, so the sweater was like $5, anyway was just glad they got here and love these, thank you for bringing them dad. And the fleece too. We were very thankful my dad could bring the things he brought with him. Thank you dad! : ) Moving along...so that was Wednesday.

The next day was Thursday, after we made sure both Branden and Noah got to school and everything. My dad and I went to Costco Chiba New Town. We did a little shopping and had some lunch. 

A pic of my dad ordering.

We came back home and unloaded the car and went for an afternoon walk before picking up the boys (swim night, so both need rides from school to home before they catch the swim bus). See how some trees are starting to turn color. The tree on the left in this picture. This is the center park in our housing community. The weather is warm in the days, but cooling down now at night. Day time highs of about 68 degrees now.

Tennis courts back there... for our housing community, both boys like to play tennis and have rackets. : ) My dad enjoyed the cool Fall weather a lot, especially since he grew up in Denver, so he really likes Fall a lot. : )

Some leaves are beginning to fall.  

And our walk was by now 90% done. My dad and I walked nearly everyday he was here, we'd shoot the breeze during our walks and talk and talk and talk. We had 2 rotisserie chickens (from Costco) and I made some delicious sides that went with the 2 roasted chickens, for Thursday nights supper, plus the boys went to swim school Thursday night too.  

Friday in the daytime, my dad and I went and bought last minute stuff for undokai, I prepped the chicken for karaage (cut and had it marinating already) we made potato salad and we also baked oatmeal cookies from scratch. My dad, Noboru and I went with Noah to his school to save a spot on Friday after school let out. Branden also got instructions that as soon as JHS finished to go straight to the elementary school field and meet us there, which he did. We got this spot, we got a very nice spot. Here is a sweetheart Noah doing a crab walk on our leisure sheet. : ) He was so happy to have mom and dad (us) there, grandpa there and Branden there. We set up our tent. And left. Oh, I did a good thing...all front spots were taken and I did turn around and I saw our friend from yochien (Sera's mom) walking briskly but not quite quick enough, we already had our spot saved. But the spot to 1 side of us was vacant the other side was not. I pointed to it and she was quite far away from it...but I motioned..."do you want this spot?" She shook her head yes and I had some from our family to stand there until she could get there. She got there in a minute but she was so thankful. She was just so happy. It sounds corny but it's true....always important to help others...might be you next time, right? : ) So I was glad I was there to help, because if I didn't save that... it would have been a goner spot. : )  We went home and had supper and went to bed early Friday, because field day was the next day and here in Japan...it's an all day event. : ) I won't share any undokai pics yet, because those will be posted when I get the Noah's undokai post up. Anyway so Noah's 3rd grade sports day was awesome! Noah had fun, he had a blast. Branden had a ton of fun and I enjoyed the day taking pics and chatting with my dad and Noboru and Branden. After undokai, we got kakigori/shave ice. Went home, unpacked and went out for a yakiniku celebration dinner! : )

We had a private room, we ate so much food, we were stuffed silly! We went home all of us, we all took turns showering and got our jammies or comfy clothes on and we all watched TV and enjoyed the evening. Sunday/the next day, we rested. Monday, Noah didn't have school, while Branden did. So Monday, my dad and Noah and I went to the mall, we went and had some lunch, and bought a few things. 

My dad bought Noah 2 handkerchiefs (they need them at school) Toy Story and Yokai Watch and a file folder in Yokai Watch and an eraser also in Yokai Watch and 2 chopsticks. 

Chocolate bar chopsticks and Yokai Watch chopsticks. 

Branden was at school, but my dad would never leave out either child, so he asked Noah what his brother might like : )....Noah knew exactly, he said  Branden had been wanting this particular stapler brand and so grandpa bought it for Branden. Branden was over the moon for this! So happy. : ) 

Branden also got 2 pair of cool chopsticks too. Noah picked him a chocolate bar pair and a biscuit pair too, along the line of those Marie cookies they sell here in Japan. Branden really liked both pairs. Also to be fair... while Noah did get a couple more things than Branden, consider Noah's Yokai Watch file folder and eraser were like 89 yen each and his handkerchiefs were a couple hundred yen each, while Branden's stapler was near 780-800 yen, so it did work out to nearly the same cost and you know, I'm a real stickler when it comes to being fair and even stevens about stuff when it comes to both Branden and Noah. : ) Anyway, so Monday night the boys swam and when they came home, all 5 of us watched the Simpsons/Family guy crossover episode and we all loved that! Tuesday, the boys went to school and my dad's flight was at 10am, so Noboru and I drove my dad to Narita airport immediately after dropping the kids at school. It was a wonderful time with my dad being here. Loved going for our walks, watching TV together, the kids loved talking grandpas ears right off! Noah loved showing grandpa his magic card tricks. Awww. : ) He's just such an important member of our family and we love it when he's here in Japan with us. : )

Update stuff: Okay, I realize I am blogging at snail like speed lately hahaha, I apologize. It's just, it's Fall, the weather has been so beautiful. I have been enjoying every second I can.... spending it with my family. Branden's birthday is coming up and we got the cake ordered and his present from us has arrived.

Town undokai, we had that yesterday, October 12th. Today is a holiday here in Japan and Tuesday the kids have a day off school, because they attended town undokai over the weekend.

Typhoon #19 aka, Typhoon Vongfong hit Okinawa already and should be hitting mainland Japan tonight or tomorrow. Last week it was said this upcoming typhoon was to be a super typhoon but it's since been downgraded. How bad will it be? I'll let you know. : ) The last typhoon wasn't so bad, rained pretty heavy and gusts of wind off and on, but nothing too terrible.

I have yet to go through Noah's undokai pics. So I'll get to that, probably after we get back from Disney though, more than likely. Anyway just wanted to update real quick and not just leave anybody hanging. I'll try and catch up again in a couple days. : ) 

Typhoon Phanfone a.k.a. Typhoon #18 hitting Japan today...

Most of us in Japan have been expecting this particular typhoon. I received an “be on alert” email from the US Embassy (I love the US Embassy so much, they so rock!) Telling us to be prepared for this specific one, that it was going to be a big one! On Friday, Noah came home from school with a note saying...the typhoon was huge blah blah blah and the school board was expecting it to hit our specific town Monday morning and they were pretty much expecting school to be canceled Monday, but to wait for the school email. Branden’s JHS made no note about the typhoon...perhaps because they’re older? @.@ Or I don’t know. However yesterday/Sunday around 1pm we got an email from Noah’s school saying...basically the same stuff. The typhoon was indeed heading straight for our tiny town this time and should hit Monday morning and continue to hit all Monday so they decided school for the elementary was to be canceled. Noah did his happy wahoo dance. : ) And we waited for Branden’s email to come. Around 3pm yesterday/Sunday, the JHS emailed all of us parents and said the same thing...the local JHS was to be canceled Monday...however with the big test coming up October 8th make sure they use their day wisely...studying, lol. : ) Branden did a happy wahoo dance too. : ) So...long story short we all sort of knew school was to be canceled today since yesterday.

It lightly rained yesterday. Yesterday, I baked a couple dozen oatmeal raisin cookies (my 2nd batch of the season because I also baked some for Noah’s undokai) We have plenty of food, freezer full of meat, bin full of veggies, drinks and stuff in the house. A couple dozen oatmeal cookies. As of right now, Noah’s just sorta kicking back. Branden’s going to study for 2 hours this morning, take a break enjoy his afternoon (poor kid studied all weekend) and probably study an extra 3 hours this evening. Noboru’s home and he said the typhoon should be hovering over our town and sorta slam our town all day basically pretty much. : ) We’re not leaving the house...we have the blinds open wide at the two big patio windows into the backyard and we can watch the rain. It sounds crazy town outside. You can hear the winds outside...extremely high winds. I’m glad our home is not as low as river level or right next to a river that would freak me out worrying about possible flooding...I’m also glad our house isn’t built in a place we’d worry about landslides either, days like this we are glad we built our house exactly where we built it. Anyway if you’re in Japan, please stay safe and stay home if you can. : )

I’ve got a load in the dryer. I’ve got not a dot of makeup on and don’t need any today. My comfy clothes are on. I’m gonna swoosh both toilets and vacuum the downstairs but I’m just gonna take the day off cleaning today and enjoy today with everyone being home. I’m gonna go get my 2nd and last cup of coffee and an oatmeal cookie as soon as I publish this little diddy and then I’m going to play a round or two of Uno with Noah and if anyone else wants to join in....they can here at the house. : )  Take care everyone. : )

Ohhh. I almost forgot received the Fault in Our Stars on DVD this weekend,  loved this movie so much, such an excellent movie, omg! Oh what else, we are going to Disney (as you know, I already told you about it, I forget when specifically but I remember mentioning it) anyway somewhere between now and October 20th, so somewhere between there... we will go and we are getting so excited. We have had our hotel reservation for ages, we have the specific date on the calendar marked already. Just sorta keeping it on the down low, but yep we’re pretty stoked for it!!! : ) Holy crap...I got on here to talk about the typhoon that’s it and now I’m starting to blabber about other stuff, so before this sucker gets extremely over long, I must end this here. Take care everyone, yep I must have surely said that like 5 times already by now, but I mean it, please take care. : )

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

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

I see you Old Navy! : )

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Uniqlo order that Noboru bought me. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our nearest Auntie Anne's handmade pretzel shop. 

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

Gap outlet and Gap regular store. 

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

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

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

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

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

We also got some coupons for this month to use. 

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

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

Brian and Santa's Little Helper, lol.

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