Noah's 5th grade Sports Day...

Sunday, September 25th was Noah's 5th grade undokai (sports day) at his local elementary school. This picture is of all 6 grades, every kid our school has. 249 kids for the entire school population. Our other town elementary school has like...and I'm being serious...no joke..only like 38 kids all 6 grades. @_@ Hahaha. So yes, a super tiny town (a town with no yochien and only 1 hoikuen, 2 elementary schools and 1 JHS and no high school). I know I am a bit late posting this, but I'm a firm believer in...better late than never! : ) 

I see you Noah!!! : )

The whole school makes 1 lap so all of us parents can take pics. The running 1 lap is always a bit tricky because I know they go from the oldest to youngest. Clearly I know Noah's a 5th grader. But it's just they run by so fast, that it's like a blur. And so you don't want to snap your picture TOO early and yet...you don't want to snap it so late...that you catch your child's back of head! Versus their face. So...this is always the moment I am like...holy goodness! I hope I snap a picture of my child! And not the back of their head instead! : ) So, what I do is snap a "continuous shot" on my sports setting and it goes like clickclickclick. Again...it could still clickclickclick some other kid! And not my kid. But...all you can do is click and hope for the best afterwards! This was the best shot I took and it's a fairly good picture! Noah's looking right at my camera...I captured his face. I did check back after they ran past us...and I was happy to see Noah's smiling face in that shot! I was like...phew...relief! : ) I did it! : ) 

 5th grade countryside boys enjoying their sports day...

The nice thing about Noah being such an extremely western looking hafu is that he is *so* easy to find on the field. We can find him immediately! In a sea of gorgeous little Japanese faces (I married a Japanese man so of course, I find their faces gorgeous). You see this one very western looking little boy and we instantly know...oh there's Noah! LOL. Easiest time *ever* finding our son on the field! : )

This was a fun one to watch! Go Noah!

Noah running. Officials smiling.

About to run in another race. Noah is really super fast. And he used to win races all the time. But I don't know what it is. When he was in the 3rd grade...Noah told me. "Mama, I'm not into running anymore"...And he's never really liked it ever since. Why? How come? I don't know. But...he's not into running anymore. Go figure. And that's okay. : )

On your mark...get set...

Serious intense running face right there! LOL. : )

Run kids run!

The big pants relay! Noah's running partner. She was cheering. She had a lot to say too.

Then Noah.. too had a lot to say. And they chit chatted. 

Then he realized... I had my camera on him and he smiled for me. And she was looking around and around then got to chit chatting with Noah again.

Okay there's Noah's serious...on your mark.. get set... go... face again! : )

Run Noah-chan! And awww, there's cutie pie Lily-chan back there smiling away and cheering for Noah! Because they're on the same team and also because they're superly good buddies. They are real good friends, Noah and her. She is so cute you guys! Like she's seriously *so* cute! : )

Good luck Noah and his running partner!

Fast as grease lightning in some gigantic yellow shorts! The bright side is...that's Noah's favorite color! Go figure. Hahaha. : ) 

Who is Noah giving the best... most smiley smile to?  While his brother of course! Branden adores Noah! And vice versa. They're both so super close! And he took so many pics of Noah and so many videos of Noah running the races during his undokai. 

Noah being a 5th grader this year means he helped out the younger grades on certain events. This was a race for future 1st graders. And they each got a notebook and a pencil. And Noah and his classmates each had a set number to give out to the newcomers that will attend here... this coming April. : )  Proud of you Noah! You are such a kind helpful senpai! Just like Branden is! : )

And again...who is Noah giving great big smiles to? Branden! Noah is so lucky to have such a fantastic big brother like Branden! It's such a peace of mind... knowing how close they are and how well they get along. 

Lunch time! We made it! Let's eat! : ) And right on for our Star Wars Force Awakens plates!: ) We had the usual picnic stuff. Karaage (Japanese style fried chicken) rice balls, salad, super sweet seedless American grapes. Potato salad and macaroni salad. Some tamagoyaki and meatballs for Noboru. We also had lemonade. Frozen pouch drinks for the kids. Cake. To me...lunch time means...half way done. We have now completed undokai half way. We're half done. And now it's going to go quickly and before you know it...it'll be over. And we will have wrapped up one more of these! So definitely lunch time for me...is sort of like half time for me. : ) 

Our family was eating. Enjoying our meal. 

Sorry Noah...I didn't mean to catch you mid chew. Beautiful big eyes though! : ) 

After lunch, Mr. Gorgeous rested on the leisure sheet. And drank his slushy/ half frozen Qoo. 

Marching band time! It always amazes me, how all kids in Japan learn to play instruments from the 1st grade. Noah can play the pianica and recorder very well! And so can the rest of the school! They can also... all read sheet music! I love Japanese elementary school. : ) They learn so many things.

Go you, cool and groovy kids! You are all awesome!

Hi Noah! And hi little sweetheart on the left! Aww. : )

They played like 4-5 different songs. The Totoro theme song. The Mickey Mouse Club song. All sorts of songs. These kids all truly dazzled!

A first for Noah. The 5th graders had to go and run and pull this log from the opposing team. Am I the only mom worried about splinters? Hahaha! Sorry...not sure if this is...American momma/mama type worry I have. Or what! But seriously...I would hate for my kid to get a 2 inch splinter in his hand! Hahaha. Fwiw...to my knowledge nobody at our school... all Branden's years or Noah's years..nobody has ever got one...but it's still something that instantly goes into my mind on this event! : )

And 2 teams running for the same exact log! Very exciting to watch!

We went out to yakiniku to celebrate after Noah's Sports Day! : )

Throwback Thursday. Jack O' Lantern and a Halloween pic from 2008...

My family from Halloween 2008!!! I love this picture so much! We already had a very good supper. The pumpkin seeds were roasting in the oven, as I snapped this picture. We had a plastic Halloween jack o' lantern bucket full of a variety of delicious American Halloween candy in the house and we were about to watch "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" on DVD. : ) Have a spooktacular Thursday everyone! : )

My 2 most recent trips to Costco...

This is what I brought back from Costco, October 1st. That busy day. The day we went and saw the Cultural Day in the morning and went to that Italian buffet in the evening...though not really a buffet...really more so an "All you can eat" type of place. And fwiw, I always have a cooler in my trunk. Because I can run to Costco at a moments notice or a regular store too and if I need to throw some beef or cheese or sour cream or anything in my cooler, so be it. But I'm always ready! : ) What's in my cart this day? Tortilla chips. shredded cheese. Tortillas. And a pack of chicken breast which has 8 breast in there. All separated in groups of 2. Which is nice. And a bunch of super lean ground beef. There's beef... even under those beef patties too. I split the beef in 3 ziplocks at home later in the evening. I got cheeseburgers, tacos and meatballs for the spaghetti and meatball night that we had. So for me...getting 3 meals worth from 1 pack of lean ground beef. Totally worth it. : )  

This was taken on a morning, my Costco just opened it was like 10am. It was pretty dead in Costco only a small handful of people. Which is nice. I love shopping on weekdays when stores are less crowded. On this particular day Noboru wanted to come with me, he's been looking and pricing their "drive recorders" for his car. We also wanted to have lunch there too. This was October 12th.

Christmas stuff is all out now. And Halloween stuff is out too. Our turkeys are not out yet at Costco Chiba New Town. It's a bit early to buy one yet...since we still have over a month before Thanksgiving. But...I have been checking for the American turkeys to arrive at my store. : ) 

After I paid and sat down for lunch it was about 10:25am. I have my list and I pretty much stick to it. Unless it's something on sale like an Osh Kosh shirt or anything. : ) Look nobody in line barely any registers open. Again it was barely opened. 2 lanes were open though and when I went to the cash register...there was no wait in line. : )

Tortilla chips yet again. Noboru and Noah have been chips and salsa maniacs all October and...so I had to retock their supply! Hahaha. : ) Chicken breast. Costco amount of eggs. Hamburger buns for cheeseburger night. Dinner rolls for pot roast night. Toilet tabs. And the toilet antibacterial wipes that used to be in a canister are now in a package. I actually prefer the wipes this way! So, 2 thumbs way up... for me on the repackaging of the house cleaning wet wipes!!! : )

Noboru and I had lunch together. I had a slice of cheese pizza. He had 1 hot dog. And we usually will share a vanilla ice cream cup. Soft serve. However for a limited time...they are selling fro-yo instead! We tried it. And neither of us liked it. It's sour and a flavor that neither of us really liked, at all. And fwiw (for what it's worth) we eat fro-yo at Yogurtland in Guam all the time. So...we do love fro-yo. Just not this one. Bring back the regular vanilla soft cream Costco Japan!!! We are very glad the fro-yo is just temporary/for a limited time! Phew : ) 

If you live in Japan, have you tried this restaurant yet? It's an Italian "All you can eat" place called Buono Italia...

There is a restaurant in Inzai that we see every week on our way to Costco. It's only been there for a year. Before that... it was another restaurant. However, every time we pass this restaurant, it always catches my attention because it's an "all you can eat Italian restaurant" I often wondered...."if this place is a good place to eat?" "Do they serve good food?"...Have always wondered... but have never actually stopped. So anyways, October 1st, we had a busy day that day. We had...to visit a potential high school for their Cultural Day (Bunkasai) it started at 10am and we left around 12:30pm so we then went to get the Halloween pumpkin in Inzai. And then to Costco. We had errands...that's put it that way. : ) Anyways...by the time dinner rolled around, we were still in Inzai and "starving!!!" We had breakfast and only a few nibbles at Cultural Day. I think I had a half of muffin. The kids had a bag of homemade cookies and a drink each bought at Cultural Day. Anyways...so we were now in Inzai for the past few hours. And ready for dinner. We're in the car...deciding what should we eat? Coco Ichi curry? A few said "eh sure" and 1 said nah! : ) And so we voted again. How about The Ohsho (our fave Chinese restaurant) The kids were not feeling it. LOL. Okay...we're all getting tired...cranky/crabby. It's time to eat. I then suggested...why not the "All you can eat Italian place" Everyone was like...ahhhh. Not entirely sure. Again they didn't know...would it suck? Would it be fantastic? Truth is...we had no idea. I said...let's give it a shot. And so we did! It's not a buffet in the terms....that there is pizza and pasta on a buffet table already made and ready to place on your plate. Though they do have a buffet table with fries, bread, soups...the stuff they hope you get filled up on, ie, the cheap stuff before ordering their pasta dishes and pizzas...there was also hot chili oil...red pepper flakes, parmesan...seasonings basically...and a huge salad. But the pasta dishes and pizza and gratin and dorias you order freshly made and you can order as many as you like. So they come fresh to you. Also...there is no time limit at this place. If you want to stay the whole amount of time for lunch, that's fine. If you want to stay the whole dinner time, that's fine too. You just can't stay from lunch *and* stay for dinner. They also have a drink bar...it's extra...but you can include that too and an all you eat eat desserts with all you can eat Hagaan Daz icecream too, the drinks and desserts are optional. We added the drinks and ice cream. 

They have a mozzarella basil pasta that is actually very high quality. Definitely not a cheapo Saizeriya type of pasta. Sorry Saizeriya we do like you for a cheap lunch or cheap dinner. But this was more along the lines of...Jolly Pasta or Capricciosa. And they have wood fired pizzas... again all you can eat! Very good quality. The servings are small, but you can get as many as you want. And when we left... the waitress told Noboru we could order larger sizes if we want. That was good to know, granted something she could have maybe mentioned when we first got there and not as we were paying and about to leave. @_@ LOL. So again...all you can eat. Made to order. And the quality is really good. 

I had 3 small servings of the mozzarella basil pasta and 1 wood fired pizza margerita. Noah had 2 servings of the same pasta I did and 1 pizza and then Noah just had desserts and drink bar. Branden had 7 small pasta servings of the same pasta I had and 2 pizzas and ice-cream and drink bar. Again the pasta size/amount was small. Noboru meanwhile...had 8 pasta dishes and 2 pizzas and he had himself a blast! He had crab pasta, lobster pasta, black squid ink pasta. He said he wanted to try every pasta they had. I think he got too full... but he did try 8 different pastas and 2 different pizzas. The kids kept saying..."I love this place!" Noboru said..."we *have* to come back here" Again...did I know it was going to be good? No, I didn't. We just took a chance and lucked out. But it's actually really good. I had chocolate ice cream, a cappuccino one and one that tasted like cinnamon rolls. The kids are who told me..."mom this ice cream tastes like cinnamon rolls" and it did! It was delicious. : ) 

Each table has their own tablet where you order your pasta dishes and they bring them out as soon as they make them.

My 2nd and final ice cream serving...just the cinnamon roll ice cream. Not sure of the exact name of this ice cream. But wow..it's good. : ) Anyway...just thought I'd give a head up... for any of you living in Japan. This is a chain restaurant. So...if you see it and are on the fence, like we were. Maybe you can give this place a shot. : ) And of course...obviously I have no affiliation with this restaurant or anything. I'm just a mom with a family who tried it and liked it. And so...just trying to help my fellow person...living in Japan. : ) 

Recent good eats! Pot roast, mashed potatoes and gravy. Homemade cheeseburger night. Fried shrimp/ebi fry and our family taco party...

What have you been cooking and eating for supper lately? As for us...here are a few miscellaneous pics. And as you know...sometimes I make Japanese. And we have nabe, curry, yakisoba, yakitori or niku jaga etc... at home. Sometimes we have Italian. Sometimes we have Mexican food or American. I don't really want to make just 1 type of food. So, I try to make a variety. This night, I made a pot roast, I started this in the day time while the kids were at school and the hubby was at work. This was a very tender pot roast. We had homemade mashed potatoes and brown gravy. And green beans. We also had dinner rolls with this. There was enough to make the kids pot roast sandwiches the next day for their school lunch that I packed. : ) 

Again if you have no Mc Donald's or Burger King in your close proximity. We'd have to drive to our nearest city. I make ours at home! : ) And that's okay... burgers from home always taste much better anyways. : ) I lightly butter our hamburger buns and then fry them on a hot skillet to toast them.

This makes the buns have the best flavor!  I had all the toppings out and ready to go! Salt and peppered tomato slices, crispy washed lettuce, sliced onion and pickles. 

"Where's Waldo" ketchup is everywhere in Japan these days! We do get the cutest packaging in Japan, don't we? : ) 

I had bought the very lean 100% ground beef from Costco. Seasoned it super well. And fried them up in a skillet. I made Bran 2 of these and he was stuffed full! : ) Noboru had 2 too! : ) Noah and I only had 1 each. And we had potato wedge fries. 

Not to toot my own horn... but honestly dinner was *so* good this night!

Movie day and flu shot and barber for the kids evening. This was taken last Friday. I bought some huge ebi/shrimp and this was so delicious! We had it with rice, everyone also got 2 wedge fries each and Noah dislikes shrimp, no worries... so I made him a chicken cutlet instead. We also had broccoli with our meals. I quickly threw everything into the dishwasher and we were on our way for our flu shots. However the bright side is...we were all super stuffed! : ) 

Sunday night taco party at our house! I made a huge amount of taco beef (from that lean Costco beef). I also made taco chicken from 2 skinless chicken breasts. We had sour cream, lettuce, salsa cheese. We had Cokes/sodas with ice. We were ready! It was so good! This is what we had for supper this past Sunday : ) 

Tonight we're having a great big ol' pot of Texas style chili beans. You know...that Wendy's type of chili beans. But homemade of course. It's 100% done already. And I have a bowl of shredded cheese covered in plastic wrap already to go...in the fridge. And chopped/diced up onion in the fridge too. And a container of sour cream. You know...just toppings for the chili beans. : ) We'll eat as soon as the kids get home from school. I just turned the stove/chili off now. I am pretty sure this is what I'll be eating for my lunch tomorrow afternoon too, since I made a fairly big batch. : )