Each boy got a very cute light aqua colored polo type shirt. And Branden got a khaki pair of overalls. Noah didn't get a pair because they didn't have his size. Noah got a gray pair of cotton shorts that I always call "house shorts" , I call them this because they are cheap in price and "okay" looking but not gorgeous. Just simple cotton shorts for my boys to play in the house or play in the yard and they can get dirty in and I won't care. I stocked up for Branden last year and he has 2 brand new pair in the bigger size that I will have him wear. I also will buy Branden maybe one more pair of house shorts when I get to Denver and Noah needs some more house shorts too.

Basically, I still have a bunch more stuff to buy, for the boys for spring and summer. But this is just a start. Like I said, I just got the basics to start with, in a nutshell they each got, a pair of shorts and shortalls and a pair of jeans. Noah got the house shorts and Branden got the Khaki overalls.

I also got each of the boys another t shirt. Same color as the polo, but it's just a t shirt. Also picked up Branden a pair of sandals as well. Oh well, like I said it's just a start and it certainly was nice to receive this package the day that I did. : )

PS, forgot to add that my dad also managed to stuff Branden's, Herbie car game into the Old Navy box. The game was on back order forever it seems. Ha ha ha, but we finally got it. We got the other game a couple weeks ago, so I will share pics of both the games we got. Also pictured will be Branden's sandals that I ordered for him.

I'm back and all about the trip to Osaka (part 1)

I'm back from Osaka. Osaka itself. Wonderful, lively and busy, congested, crowded. People hustling and bustling everywhere! Which is nice once in a while but I'm glad we live, where we live, that would drive me totally nuts after awhile!

Noboru's extended family is wonderful. They rock! They are nice, very very warm and welcoming! They are genuinely nice people. So Noboru's grandma and aunt and her three kids (their father died a few years ago) the three kids are wonderful! Well behaved. Branden loves playing with all of them! I like playing with them. The food was great. He has a much bigger family, huge actually, but since we came on the weekday and most of them live farther away no one else could make it. But they are all wonderful though!

Oh yeah they also said, Yui-chan told her sensei today was her happiest day, because she could see her cousin Branden and he speaks English!!!

We then dropped off my mil at the house. And Noboru and me and the kids went to Umeda. We went to a Mexican restaurant (we used to go here, when we lived in Osaka), we figured it was Valentine's day so we wanted to do something semi romantic and as a family still. We had a real nice lunch and then we went to the Hankyu and I hit the MAC makeup counter. I bought another studio fix powder foundation and a brand new lipstick. I prefer the Chanel lipgloss, I usually use, but this color was new and a perfect color (a shade of red of course). I was surprised that the foundation costs 4,000 yen in Japan as opposed to the usual $17 or $18 dollar price I buy it in the US. But oh well, it was fine and it was Valentine's day, so Noboru bought them for me after he took us to lunch! He didn't complain at all, he also bought me some chocolates afterwards as well.Good guy good guy!

We ended up all going to the public bath, all of us, our family, my sil and her kids and my mil.

Leaving to Osaka now! Ittekimasu!!! : )

My hair straightening and haircut and massage were amazing. I like the salon and will go back to them in the future. I got a slightly different hair cut this time. I got side ways bangs. Not real bangs like raggedy Ann has. But a cooler side bangs that is just swept on one side of your face. And I got long choppy layers. I brought pictures of what I wanted and got exactly that! I'm loving my hair and hair style a lot right now! I'm glad I went for something a little different this time (meaning the cut).

This morning we are leaving to Osaka. We will drive to Narita. Take the limosouine bus to Haneda and then fly from Haneda to Itami (Osaka's local airport not to be confused with KIX). We could take the train to Haneda but it takes 2 full hours by train, where it only takes 70 minutes by limousine bus. And all kids under age 6 are free so it would still be cheap, because Noboru and I would just be paying our adult fairs and the boys would ride free either way.

Today when we get to Osaka, I am planning to go off to Umeda to the Hankyu because I wannna hit the Mac makeup counter for some new stuff, I saw in a magazine for Spring. After that Noboru and me and the kids might have lunch there. Otherwise we can eat at one of his parents restaurants.

We will get back to Chiba on Wednesday and we will fly directly into Narita coming back. Yup, which means we will now be staying two nights in Osaka versus just the one night. I actually managed to get us all packed already, and I got Branden's Buzz lightyear carry-on suitcase all packed with his portable DVD player and plenty of movies and snacks and even threw in a couple jars of Noah's snacks and jars of fruit). Seems we are all set and raring to go!

I hope, we all have fun and everything goes smoothly. We shall see. : )

Choosing a new school.

Branden's out of school until April. School's start in April here in Japan, so he's basically on vacation until then. Thing is, we're trying to decide which school to send him to.

In Yachiyo there were about 5 or 6 different yochien's and we went to all of them and then decided the best, where we felt most comfortable sending our son to. So for us, it wasn't so hard finding which school we liked.

But here where we live now, it's proving a little more difficult. In the town we live in there is only 1 school. Yes, you've heard that correctly, only one! Isn't that strange? And it's not a yochien, it's a hoikuen.

Since I'm American, and therefore have no experience going to school here myself, I can safely say I am not really anti- hoikuen. And I have no prejudices either way. I really don't see the difference. I mean they are both for little kids. And they both teach kids stuff and they both participate in school activities like undokai (sports day) and Christmas recital's etc. So as far as me caring which way or the other? I don't mind either way at all.

Here's the problem. It seems that many Japanese have a strong and I mean a *strong* preference to yochien.

We had company the other night. A friend of Noboru's who works at NWA and his wife and their two kids age 5 and 7. The seven year old is in first grade now but the younger one goes to yochien. Also, they live in the same exact community we live in.

I asked the mother (she speaks English btw, she was an exchange student in Florida and went to University in California) so, I asked her if her daughter goes to the hoikuen right down the street, like only 3 minutes away from our houses. She said, "oh no, no, no way!!!! I drive the 8 km every day to Sawara, to take my daughter to yochien" I didn't say anything because she seemed to be so utterly and completely anti- hoikuen and went on about how horrible sending your kid to hoikuen is and how yochien is the way to go, blah blah blah! Between you and me, I think driving freaking 16 flipping km every single day, rain or shine is absolutely more nuts then sending your kid to hoikuen! But then again that's just me and my opinion though.

Geeze, what could be said after that? I said, well, Branden was going to yochien, so I do know yochien is pretty good. But I am wondering about the hoikuen. She then switched to Japanese language and drove her point to Noboru. Telling my husband something about how utterly horrible hoikuen is. Gasp!

To add to this, Noboru and Mitsuko (my mother in law) seemed to have had belief's like this beforehand anyway. So this just further added fuel to the flame. Every time she would go to Branden's school she would tell Noboru, how Branden was getting such a top notch education and blah blah and how my sil was sending her two kids to hoikuen and they didn't learn anything at all! Now, I honestly don't believe this at all and think that's a big bunch of crapola! I think if my nephew and niece aren't learning things, it's because my sil hasn't taught them diddly squat! And I certainly wouldn't blame that on the hoikuen! Branden knows stuff because *I* teach him stuff and also the yochien. So, yeah Noboru and Mitsuko were pretty much slamming and making horrible comments about hoikuen for the past year. And this has drove me nuts this past year.

So anyway, we move here and we start thinking about which school to send Branden. Personally, I think we should just go with the hoikuen totally, because it is only 2 to 3 minutes drive away at the most! It's so close. We have a perfectly good school right near our house so why ship him off to another one that makes life even harder, this just doesn't make sense to me at all! The parking of the hoikuen is nice and big and yes it is important because the school Branden went to last year, the parking for me was hell. They never had adequate parking! So, to me, I think we should send him to hoikuen. Noboru was even sorta agreeing with me!

However our company a few days ago totally changed things and stopped that idea right quick!!! After that lady was bashing away at the hoikuen. Now Noboru doesn't even want to think about sending Branden to hoikuen! He won't even consider it because of what that lady said! Sigh! Who has to suffer for this? I do! Ha ha ha, because I'm the one who will be driving him 8 km back and forth, every freakin single day!

I don't know much about the difference between Hoikuen's and yochien's (I'm no expert) but for those of you in the US. Let me give a stab at the dark of explaining the difference. Yochien is for the most part, private school (for preschool and kindergarten). Yes, there are some public yochien's but most are private and I swear the sheer snob factor, plays a great deal into the fact why they are more popular! Also and this may be horrible to say, but it's what my husband says and what a lot of Japanese people say. They view hoikuen's as being for *poor people* plain and simple. People down on their luck, type people! People who have hit rough times! Again, this is probably just a stereo type (I'm sure it is). But, after speaking to a hell of a lot of Japanese about this, such as the other moms at Branden's old school, I realize yes, they really do feel this way about "hoikuen people". Come on, is this not just absolutely nuts! What's the big deal?

Hoikuen is for working parents or people who have family illness and can't care for their kids. So yes, even though we shouldn't say so, there is a stigma attached to sending your kid to hoikuen. And yes a ton of Japanese people feel this way (now, whether they are willing to admit it and own that they feel this way is an entirely different thing). I know because I have quite a number of Japanese friends and have all discussed this with them.

What do I think about this? Again, I'm not tainted either way! I really don't mind sending Branden to either one. But now this lady from the other night, got Noboru all riled up against how horrible hoikuen is and now he is not even considering it!

Anyway, we still got some time to think but, Noboru wants to send Branden to the same yochien Mrs. anti- hoikuen sends her daughter! Ha ha ha! Errr! I rather not! Because I figure if Mrs. anti-hoikuen is wound *this* tightly about yochien vs. hoikuen, then what else could she have her panties in a bunch about ykwim? I seriously don't see the big freaking deal with hoikuen in the first place! So, I don't think we really see eye to eye on this at all. So, no I rather not run into Mrs. anti- Hoikuen every single day for the rest of my life, if we both send our kids to the same yochien ykwim?

So, Noboru has checked online at all the schools in our area and he found a very nice private Roman Catholic yochien. I think he likes it for the sheer fact it's yochien and it's not only private, it's even one step better, because it's a private *catholic* school none the less! He sorta has me here, because me being Roman Catholic myself and going to Catholic school for my entire education, I have a soft spot for Catholic school. And I admit I would love for Branden and in the future for Noah to be attending private Catholic school.

I mean, both the boys are baptized Roman Catholics anyways as you all know already. And are being brought up and raised as Catholics by me anyway. So the boys going to private Catholic school, couldn't hurt right? In fact this could end up being the best idea, I mean I'd be sending them to Catholic school anyway, if we lived in the US, right? So might as well do the same here in Japan, if I have the chance. In fact they might end up really loving it!

We discussed this yochien vs. hoikuen talk at breakfast this morning. Noboru stated his opinion and he said "I'd rather the kids go to yochien and *not* go to hoikuen" and then I said, "I don't see the big deal #1 with hoikuen!!!" "and if we do end up sending him to yochien, then Branden, certainly isn't going to the yochien where that lady sends her daughter!" "If and I mean *if* we send Branden to yochien, I will only agree, if we send him to private Catholic yochien" he said, he agreed about that!

So anyway nothing has been set in stone as of yet. But that's what we are currently discussing at our house.

I'm sure all of you in the US are strongly rooting we send the boys to the private Catholic school huh? Ha ha ha.

My stance is simple. The school closet to us, is hoikuen and we should send him to hoikuen. It couldn't be that bad, right? Should be the same, I imagine. However ever since Mrs. anti-hoikuen poisoned Noboru's mind about it the other night, he won't even consider this. And I'm also aware Noboru is trying to sway me, with the whole Catholic factor of the yochien, ha ha ha. I'm smart enough to figure that out! He wants Branden to go to yochien, bottom line. Anyway that's where we're at right now.

My hair appointment's all set! : )

I made my hair appointment for this Sunday. After looking at the phone book and since I'm new to this area, I had nothing else to go by other then their advertisement and picture ha ha ha. I know that doesn't leave much to go by huh? A few had websites and out of those I checked out the price list and the picture of what the salon looked like. I found one that looked pretty modern and trendy looking. This morning my appointment was made. My appointment is at 9:00 am on Sunday and they said I will get a full course, which entails a massage as well as a total hair styling besides hair cut after they do my straight perm.! Hmmm, I'm not sure if I care if they blow it out and style it or not, because they might style is weird, but the massage is what I could really go for! Ha ha ha.

I'm still totally thinking about my hair cut. Should I keep it long and all one length and super straight? Or should I keep it super straight and get choppy layers? Ugh! I'm not sure, I better start flipping through some magazines today and decide one way or the other. I've only got today and tomorrow to decide.

Also the 9:00 am thing sorta irks me because we all know, I am *not* a morning person at all. And if I got to be in their salon at 9:00 am, then what time do I gotta wake up then? Ugh. Also the sitting in the salon for 3 hours long is gonna bite and I am sure my butt will be dead tired from being stuck in that darned chair for that long but oh well, I know I will be thrilled when it's finished I'm sure! : )

We're going to Osaka next week

We are going to Osaka on February 13th or 14th. We are only staying one night. We are going there for two reasons. First reason is that we have never introduced Noah to his entire family yet. So while my mother in law and sil and bil have all seen Noah the rest of the family has yet to meet him. Also, my bil Jun is getting married April 6th or 7th (pretty soon) and I have to get fitted for some wedding stuff. According to my mil she wants her and Kaori and me and also Jun's new wife to all be wearing new hand made kimono's. So I have to go to Osaka and pick out the material and colors I want and it takes a while to get made, so that's the other reason we have to go to Osaka. It's my mother in laws treat for us 4 ladies. And Kaori already picked hers and got it made. Mitsuko got hers made too. And Jun's wife went to Osaka and got hers made already as well. I'm the only one who has put it off to the last minute! Ha ha ha. So that's the second and final reason we are going to Osaka.

Other then that. We've had *a lot* of company and visitors to our house lately.

Also, I'm going to be getting my hair done in a couple days. I'm hoping to get it done before we leave to Osaka. More then likely, I'll get it done this Sunday. I'm getting just the usual, Japanese ionic straight perm. I've been getting this done for about geeze, way before Branden was even born. Hmm, maybe about the last 6 or 7 years? Anyway I've been getting it done for ages. It makes your hair smooth and sleek and straight as a pin and so silky. I haven't got it done since August and I need it done before the wedding in April, but I also know I'm going to Denver and will be super busy, so it's best to get it done now that I have the time and chance to do it!

As for my hair length, hmmm. I'm mulling it over at the moment. Sometimes I think I want to just keep it all one length and straight and simple the way I have it now, but once in a while I get a wild hair up my booty and I think maybe I should just chop it off to shoulder length and start fresh (still keep it super straight of course though)? Or get a bunch of choppy layers. Then I do it and I regret it! Doh! So, right now I'm flip flopping with the ideas. I still have a day or two to decide. And for the record, I just have mildly wavy hair to begin with, but being western or of European descent, my hair is not made for the humidity of Japan and my hair turns to total frizz and this is the only thing that makes it easy and manageable for me living in Japan.

Nothing else going on. We're just settling into our new life here at the new house. Noboru was in the dog house, briefly for not helping me as much as he should with both the boys. But he is being helpful again.

I'm making cream stew for dinner tonight.

I miss all of you and hopefully I'll be seeing you all real soon in a couple weeks : )

Shinchiku-iwai

This word means, basically something to the effect of congratulating you on your new house! This is pretty typical in Japan and I thought for those of you in the US, you all might not know about this and might find this bit of info on this custom interesting.

You know how in America we have something like a house warming party and we have food and people bring small gifts such as a coffee pot or something small like that? Well, it's sorta like that but they are a little more serious about this! Especially people from very traditional Japanese families like my husband's. They are quite big on the heavy tradition type stuff.

Anyway, since we moved here last week. My bil Jun and his fiance have been wanting to come see the house, walk through the entire thing which is pretty common. We chit chat about the house, walk through it together. They compliment each room and go on about how sugoi it all is. Then we head to the kitchen where I prepared some small snacks and drinks. We all gathered around the table, chewing the fat for about an hour.

Then right before they left and yup it's always given right before they leave. They pulled out the envelop and gave it to us. We then turn to them and thanked them about a couple hundred times and bowed our heads. Then they left. We all walked them out the door, and watch them get into his car, he has a little BMW sports car two seater car that James Bond drove in the last 007 movie (yes that is the same car my bil drives, lol) and then we waved until we couldn't even see the car anymore!

As soon as they left, we came into the house and checked the envelop (I'll admit it and I know other people check this right away too, hey at least I'm honest about it lol). And sure enough they left the equivalent of $1,000 US or 100,000 yen, which is juman yen. Not bad for us being polite for an hour and giving a tour of our house huh? And for what it's worth, about 6 or 7 of Noboru's coworkers wanna come see the house and bring gift money to us for shinchiku-iwai as well. Not to mention we will probably get some shinchiku-iwai when we go to Osaka as well.

Okay, I'll admit it, there are some things about Japan that are really fantastic!

This central heating stuff is wonderful!

Branden and I had leftovers for lunch. Which means we had yummy tacos for lunch! Noah had some mashed up banana and a baby senbai (rice cracker for those of you in the US, sorry). Meanwhile it started snowing this afternoon during lunch time. It started out with a light sprinkle, but it has grown into quite some snow! Nothing as far as snow on the ground as of yet. But it is really starting to come down, even as I type this! Our house is wonderfully warm with us having central heating! Each and every room of the house is piping hot and cozy warm! The house is always at a constant 70 degrees to 75 degrees. We could make it warmer, if we up the degrees but this is what we like and what's comfortable to us. I actually could wear shorts in the house it's so warm, but I'm not, I'm wearing fleece black yoga pants and a long sleeve t shirt (one of my usual house outfits ha ha ha). It's so nice to finally have a house like what I was used to growing up in America. No more freezing cold rooms and one warm room with the air con heater on type stuff! Which was what our old house was like and how most of Japan deals with things. Also, our floor heating is amazingly warm, my feet are actually warm touching the floor, as I type this. And because the house is so air tight we hardly use too much energy keeping the place warm anyways. What a blessing.

I'm enclosing pics of Branden this afternoon while we were eating our lunch. And also the weather thing that Noboru bought and loves! You can read how it's 32 degrees outside, which we all know is freezing! And the humidity outside is a whopping 86%. Besides being snow which is frozen water in the first place, it's hellishly humid outside. Which makes it feel even colder then 32 degrees outside. It's *very* cold outside, no kidding! But if you look at the temp inside our house, you'll see it's actually a nice toasty warm 71.6 degrees (it now says it's 72 degrees as I'm typing this) and it's so dry in the house. It reads it's only 20% humidity in the house. Which that's actually drier then Denver's dry air. Noboru told me, at this rate, we will probablyNEVER grow mold in this house! It'll be pretty hard to do with it *this* super dry air! And no, it's not so dry that we will suffer dryness or anything. It's a very nice comfortable dryness, that I really love.

I'm not sure what I'm going to make for dinner tonight. I got plenty of everything in the freezer, and fridge and cupboards. I'm thinking chicken teriyaki but I'm not sure yet. I just got done watching Cruel Intentions on my satellite tv. And I got my final load of laundry drying in the laundry room upstairs. Since we are new customers to satellite, we get two full weeks of every channel available for us to decide. We pretty much know the package we will get already, since I read about it at one of my online groups and plus Noboru heard the same thing at his work. But until then, we are totally enjoying all these channels! I especially love the Horror channel! Ha ha ha. We usually watch scary movies together, just Noboru and I, after both the boys go to sleep after bath time is done! Ha ha ha.

Noboru is off work today and tomorrow. But since he worked the night shift, he is upstairs sleeping under the blankies dead asleep! Ha ha ha.

Life is good. We are all so super really happy. Happy living here and the pace of life is nice and no more horrible traffic. The air is so unbelievably clean and fresh! No more seeing drunken Japanese business men urinating down along the sidewalks, like how it was in the busier city, where we lived before this. The big back yard is good for the kids. Every day since we moved here, first thing Branden does is gets his coat on and his shoes on and mittens and he runs out to his own backyard and plays to his hearts content! He's all fenced in, so I feel comfortable about that. And it's really a hell of a lot safer raising our kids here, then in a bigger city. He rides his own bike and slides down his own slide. He runs and runs and rides around. We all know, kids need lot's of room to run and be free and play and be silly, they need big open spaces to grow and learn and scream and shout and sing and dance. He gets to do all that now and in our own back yard none the less! There's nothing behind our house but grass and farm fields and it's not zoned for anything else. It'll probably always be like this, which is why we wanted to live here. Life is just super! Noboru is so happy! And so are the kids especially, and so am I!

The quality of life is just something that can't be beat for living in Japan. Our house is 115 or 120 square meters, I think. I realized I was under sizing it by mistake last time and if you wanna get technical about it and total our front porch and back terrace, since yes, it's technically part of our house too, then it's 162.9 square meters total for just our house from front to back!!! (basically *163* square meters, come on, you all know that's huge, especially for us living in Japan!). And our total land size is 356 square meters total. So It's actually a wonderful quality of life we are having. With lot's of nature.

Anyway, I'm starting to blab away too much, so I'm ending this now and going to watch something on TV.

Love to you all,
Gina

Neighborhood greetings and gift giving! : )

We have just been really and truly busy here at the house! With trying to get everything unpacked and put in it's rightful place. You wouldn't believe how busy we have been! It's insane, ha ha ha!

On the bright side I managed to get the entire kitchen about 99% all sorted out and it is running pretty normal. I also bought a new plastic table cloth. I honestly wish to buy a new kitchen table, but until finances get back to normal it'll have to wait. Also, I've been looking and can't find a purely white table yet anyway. So until then, the new table cloth will have to be good enough.

The cement and drive-way is getting done right now. And the other day the driveway guy came that was hired from United Homes. We told him and showed him the design we wanted. And on one day they dug and got all the machines out to dig deep enough. Then they laid down the rocks and put some metal mesh down and then this morning is when they laid the cement. They are actually flattening it out right now. We can see the shape of it and it looks quite cool.

The fence is totally done and things are beginning to fall into place and take shape. Honestly I think it will probably be May or June until everything looks the way we want. Meaning the grass gets planted and the kitchen table get bought and etc etc. So, we are just trying to take things slowly and easily.

We bought twelve gifts for our neighbors. Noboru suggested we buy the neighbors some small towels or a box of Shiseido mild bar soaps. I vetoed that right quick. Only because I reminded him how our neighbor in Yachiyo gave us and the rest of our neighbors some generic box of soap bars as a gift for when she painted the house and we ended up just chucking them into the trash can, I'm sorry to say. And same with the other neighbor who gave us, 1 tiny cheapo hand towel! Again we threw that in the trash can, right quick too! I said to Noboru, "do you really wanna be *that* neighbor who gives the yucky gift that just gets thrown away? He said "oh yeah that's right, huh?"

We didn't spend gobs of money. We only spent 542 yen, for each gift, but it was a nice one and a cute one and one I'm sure won't certainly get thrown into the trash! We bought them little tins of a chocolate assortment! The chocolate assortment was good. And I liked that it came in a tin that they can keep or throw away, either way. And some Japanese like saving these type of tins to put extra unused tea bags in or sugar sticks in or whatever (I think I might do this with the extra tin of chocolate I bought for our family lol). So, the tin they could keep. And it also came in a tiny gift bag! All for only 542 yen was a super good deal, because we have spent so much trying to get ourselves set up. That we didn't have much extra cash for something frivelous, such as gifts for our neighbors, yet we knew we had to buy them something (you just gotta do this in Japan or else you become a social outcast okay maybe not to that extreme, lol but yes, Japanese will think you're rude or mannerless if you don't do it, and heck, good grief we wouldn't want them to think that! ha ha ha). So, anyway this is what we bought. A small chocolate assortment. Good gift, especially since mostly everyone unless you're diabetic loves chocolate, kwim? Definitely a good choice, I think! And certainly a hell of a lot better, then some stupid dumb hand towel, give me a break! LOL.

Nothing else going on, besides the fact we handed out the chocolate gift bags and rang all the doorbells of all our neighbors and greeted them today and now we're just hanging home and watching Skyperfect TV and I'm making tacos tonight (chicken and also ground beef ones too, yumm!)

BTW, the chocolate gift bags, were *very* well received by all the neighbors too! At first the neighbors were like "oh boy another gift towel," but then they looked more closely and could see by the bag, it was actually chocolate instead! Every single neighbor perked right up after that! In fact some neighbor even came by our house with his wife and chatted our ears off and told us how he just went to Houston Texas and also Canada and how now that they are retired they love to travel blah blah blah and they have also been to Europe many times etc etc. Ha ha ha. So, it's safe to say the chocolate was a big hit around our neighborhood! : )

Costco and Joyful Honda in Chiba new town!

So today was pretty great. Busy but really good, because we got so much accomplished and out of the way. First stop was at the Joyful Honda in Chiba New town. This place is like 4 stories high, so for a DIY/homecenter, this place is huge! They even have a grocery store here. So basically this place is like Walmart Superstore or Target superstore with a grocery store in the same place! We only live 15-20 minutes tops from here, so it's cool. And the fact there is zero traffic congestion, which makes it even more awesome! They also have a Dotour coffee and KFC and Yoshinoya and a whole bunch of other eating places in there too as well as Mc Donald's and Hobson's ice-cream. We bought only 1 thing from here. We bought a humongous garbage can for outside. This is a 220 liter one and so when the inside trash gets full and it's a holiday and the trash won't be collected which is pretty typical for Japan, we won't have grody trash stuck in the house, we'll just chuck it outside and put it in the big trash can.

The actual closest grocery store nearest my house is pretty typically priced for Japan which means expensive, so I won't be shopping there. But I was surprised that Joyful Honda grocery store is as cheap as my old favorite grocery store, the maruei! They also have a huge American section and had a very large selection of Tyson chicken, and Tyson buffalo wings and Tyson fajitas. Their cheese selection was great and we all know I love cheese. They had sliced cheddar, mozzarella etc. And they even had flour tortillas and a huge selection of naans. Also and this was interesting, they had a huge selection of meats that were considered safe to eat by hallil (sp?) standards. This was pretty interesting to me. Frozen turkey's safe for or by hallil and a whole section of stuff. Many of those had markings that read: this meat slaughtered by a very sharp knife as according to Islam, etc. As, I'm pretty interested in other religions anyways, I found that this store had such a very diverse selection of food absolutely fascinating! I really like this store and it's huge! And as I've said they have a huge assortment of foreign or imported foods. Enormous American food section. I was just stunned! And yup, I checked the price of the big pork chops and they were the same price for 10 big sized ones! Yahoo! We also bought a welcome mat here too, sorry I just remembered.

So after we checked Joyful Honda in Chiba new town and got the giganto trash can for outside, we drove to Yachiyo and went to the local DIY there. We picked up our drawers for our walk- in closet for the master bedroom. They have had these super nice ones, that I have been coveting for quite some time. And we also got a brand new laundry basket. And a trash can. The trash can was tricky, because we needed a trash can with 3 sections because we need one for aluminum cans, the other for regular trash and the other one for plastic bottles. So since we didn't like the colors for the inside trash cans at Joyful Honda, we liked the one here and bought it. Also bought a small broom and dust pan.

We then went to Costco in Makuhari, I got laundry detergent (I have a whole new one, but I got one more to stock up), dish washing detergent for the dishwasher (I got a brand new liquid one but I wanted a new powder to compare and stock up too), we got a computer chair, and a 15 piece Italian pots and pans set (this was sorta expensive being about 14,000 yen but we really needed a nice set)

We also got a big pack of lean ground beef. And 2 cases of Kirkland cokes, a nice pack of kitchen towels, taco seasonings and taco shells. And crushed red hot pepper for using on pizza. I'm sure I left stuff out but that's the jist of it.

We are just trying to get the basics for our house. And get ourselves all set up!

Pictures are of the new laundry basket, that we will use in the washroom. And the cool trash can we bought. It snaps together, so it becomes 1 piece but it can also break into 3 different cans too. And the coloring matches the kitchen perfectly!

Pictures are of the kitchen towels we bought at Costco, and some stuff we thought we might be needing. Nothing too interesting, lol. Just wanted to keep you all updated is all. : )

The moving company

Okay so we go to the old house yesterday to meet with the company we rented the place from. They needed to walk through the place and make sure everything was up to check and then we give them the key back and we sign the final papers etc and we'd be on our way right? By the way we were planning to head to Costco, and the grocery store and a DIY center too. We have a bunch of stuff to buy for this new place. However you will see everything went to hell in a hand basket and the plan was totally messed up. Why? You'll see.

So the rental company is at our old house walking through with Noboru. Meanwhile I am in the car with both the boys. Because the house is freezing cold, so we were staying in the car to keep the kids warm and also out of the way. However when they got to the second floor, they opened a closet and everything was still in there! What the heck? Noboru came to the car and told me about it! He was so shocked! I was shocked too! He said the entire closet is full of our stuff! Like 6 plastic boxes full of boys clothes. Such as one box of all clothes marked 2T or 12-18 month's etc, ykwim. Stuff we would certainly never leave on purpose! Also part of our futon! Just the entire flipping closet was never touched at all! I was mad at Noboru because the day before he was in charge of the walk through. Because as usual I got stuck with both kids watching and handling all of that. Meanwhile only thing Noboru had to do was watch the movers and walk through the house, right? Wrong apparently he didn't cut the mustard because the movers forgot the closet and Noboru forgot it too! Hmmm! How could both forget the closet? I'll never know! Figures to leave this important stuff to men and they muck it all up!

So, yesterday the rental people, they didn't want the stuff in the house anymore. Which was totally understandable! Because it's not our place anymore! So, all our plans were canceled yesterday! We spent the entire day loading all the closet full of stuff in *our* own minivan!

This was not thrilling because, we have no pots and pans in the new house. We have no trash can! We have nothing! Because all our old pots and pans were so old they actually came from Hawaii, and they were generic to begin with! Plus the one cheap pan I bought here in Japan and that was thrown away too. So basically we need to start fresh and we couldn't buy anything yesterday at all. Even now we have no milk, no juice, nothing! We just couldn't do anything or get anything done because of the entire closet being filled with stuff!

Noboru called Saikai and told them. And they said he should have walked through better! Which is true. Noboru said he admits he was partially at fault because he should have checked better but he also said, being that big of professional moving company they should have caught that mistake too though. So, they did offer to bring it today! But, we had no time for that! Which is why we lugged all the stuff ourselves.

Also wanted to point out the packing ladies that came in the morning, they also left an entire drawer of clothes upstairs completely full! Lucky for me, I caught that myself!

So, would I recommend Saikai? Honestly, I don't know. I would just say, be careful and make sure they got and packed everything! Don't make the mistake we made! But then do this with any moving company. They did move quite fast though. Sorta like watching a video and then pressing the fast forward button on it. But the whole leaving the entire closet full of stuff just got me though.

So today our satellite TV was coming to be installed. But we changed that for tomorrow instead. Why? Because right now, we have to head out and go to Costco and the DIY store and the Maruei grocery store. Sigh, moving is not easy! But then I am sure all of you reading this know that already!

Anyway, please enjoy the story. It's true. It's terrible but it's true! Sigh! I don't want my blog to be all peaches and roses 24/7. And I don't want it to always be bad either. I just want my blog to be honest and if something crazy like the moving company left all our stuff, I will honestly admit it and if something wonderful happens I will post that too. I just want my blog to be real. And be honest! You are all my family and friends reading this and I'd think you wouldn't expect anything less, right? Ha ha ha.

Anyway I better hurry and go throw on some clothes so we can get as much as we can get done today.

The fence is up!

The fence is completed for the side and back yard. A bit is still going to get finished tomorrow but 98% of it is done. Because we were worried the kids might get out of the yard or fall since our land it quite high up, on a ledge. We made sure that our fence had to be completed by the time we moved in. The fence guy, is the same guy who built our back wall (formerly known as "the wall guy" lol). His prices are just unbeatable and we like his personality and work. He's a very funny old guy and his wife helps him. So, they are both quite a couple of characters! And they work hard as hell, they put the entire back fence up in just one day! And they also gave us extra dirt for our back yard and they made the fence so precise and straight! They really are just excellent workers! We have a lot of respect for them and their work.

The fridge got there today as well, and it's gorgeous! Also the guy came to start the gas, so the stove is now working! And Noboru also got the floor heating filled up and the floors are now nice and warm.

Today we signed the last of the papers and the keys to the house were handed over to us today. So today is the day the house became officially ours! We are so excited beyond words!

These next two days, Sunday and Monday will be our most busiest days. Monday is the day we will be officially all moved in and we will be living there full time from Monday. But on Sunday, (tomorrow) all the way until Tuesday we will be running everywhere. Running to the Royal Homecenter in Yachiyodai to buy a few things. Running to Costco for some things. And running a few more places. So, if I can't blog properly for the next couple days, forgive me. I will blog as soon as I can. But we gotta set up our house first and get ourselves settled in.

I'll try to update as soon as possible, but bare with me, we will be super busy these next couple days.

Love to you all,
Gina

Saying good-bye, is one of the hardest things to do

Today was Branden last day of school. Sigh, what can I say about this? It's really hard for me to express my true feelings about this but let me try.

My son started school there last April. He didn't like it at first. For nine days straight, every time we took him to schoool he would cry. He hated it. But he adjusted to it and eventually he loved it. He was shy around the sensei's at first and then he grew to love them. He made many friends and even had a couple very best friends. Like Sho-chan and Tama-chan and Naru-chanor Take-chan.The school became such an important part of his life. Even on vacations he would drive me nuts because he wantd school to start again so he could see his favorite sensei's and best friends. They played in the splashing pool together at school in the summer time, they experienced their very first undokai together and made mochi at school together, just a bunch of stuff. They took their first field trip together. They shared a lot! For Branden, he was very sad leaving his school and saying good bye to his friends and sensei's.

For me, I also admit I didn't want to say good bye to my yochien friends either. I have tendancies where I can be a bit shy around people, I don't know too well. And I know that. But when Branden started school, I forced mnyself to pull all my effort out and say konichiwa or ohayo, to every single mom every morning and sayonara to all the mom's every afternoon when I picked up Branden every single day. I forced myself not to by shy around them. Sometimes I would feel absolutely stupid standing there, not knowing what they were chatting about, but I stood there anyway, smiling and giving my best and not giving up! Overtime, my determination got me many friends. I never really have had Japanese girlfriends before and yes they are quite different then my western friends. I actually prefer to have western friends, only because we have so much more in common but I also like having Japanese friends too. But I tried so hard at yochien, because I figured I wanted to make things easy for Branden. If his mommy got along and had friendships at his yochien, it would be easier for him and yes it certainly was true! So I am glad, I tried so hard. But after a while I really started to develop close friendships and made many true friends.

These women at yochien, we se eachother twice a day, 5 days a week! After all that time, we all knew eachother's outfit's and clothes like clock work. We became so used to seeing each other in the mornings, with no makeup on and also got used to seeing eachother at the Christmas recital's and undokai's all made up, ha ha ha! We all knew eachother quite well indeed!

I developed many friends but two * best* best friends. Their names were Miho and Aiko. Aiko and I, had two older 4 year old boys and two 6 month old boys. We both liked going to Starbucks and we both like many of the same things. She's actualy a Costco member too (maybe someday I will run into her there, who knows). Miho, she juist went to Malaysia this December and we chatted about her trip over coffee the other day and that's when I realized wow, they are such an important part of my life and I have become a part of their life as well.

How do I say good bye? Oh my god, I'm actually getting teary eyed typing this out right now. My friends and loved ones are the most important things to me. If you are my friend, you know that I'd do anything for you. But, I hate good byes, I have actually been dreading Friday all week long, I didn't know how to say good bye. I was afraid I would cry or get too sentimental. Friday morning, Aiko and Miho and Sho-chan's mom brought good bye gifts. I almost dreaded picking up Branden at 1:50 pm because I knew I'd have to say good bye for real. But, we did it. We gave out letter we made them, of thanks to our sensei's and to about 5 of our close friends at the school. We gave them our address and a map of our new house. We also bought 2 very generous "thank you" snack type gifts for the school.

So, we gave them out and then we waited to get Branden. All the mom's started saying good bye and I was okay and still said good bye and smiled. The two main sensei's were teary eyed and I started getting teary eyed too. I hugged them and I saw the younger sensei went into the room and started wiping her eyes. It was hard. Tama-chan said good bye to Branden and hugged him. Tama-chan's mom took a picture of them together. Saying good bye to most of them was okay, sad but still okay.

So, as we were walking towards the exit the #1 sensei who helped us the most. Came to say good bye. She was crying and I couldn't help it, I started crying too. She told me, "I last took English 30 years ago in high school, yet you always try hard to understand me, thank you" and I told her thank you and apoligized for my bad Japanese. We hugged and then she said "I will never forget Branden, or your family" Ahhhhh, it was really hard hearing that!

I was still sad, but a bit okay. I didn't see Miho or Aiko. In some small way, I was hoping I could leave without seeing them only because I knew saying good bye to them would be the hardest of all. So, we almost made it out the gate, had about 6 feet left, but Miho and Aiko caught up with us. They said, Ginachan, Ginachan. My eyes were pink already from talking to the sensei. But I noticed their eyes looked as sad as mine did. They both looked so crushed. Miho said, "I promise to learn to drive, so I can come see you often" I hugged her and she cried. And Aiko, she was speaking in Japanaese but started crying and I was crying too. My heart was just absolutely crushed. I hugged both of them *so* hard and I said, while still crying, "thank you very much for being my friend!" And I left! It was unbelievaly hard for me to leave. I cried in the car and put my head on Noboru's shoulder. I was really broken hearted.

I will truly miss my friends. : (

Our evening in Makuhari

We went furniture shopping today. I actually found a couch set that I'm totally in love with. I was originally looking for an L shaped couch, and in some ways still am, but this one is just absolutely gorgeous and it literally took me by surprise! I knew what I have been looking for and know what style and what type of coloring I want and what I don't. And this was exactly and I mean exactly what I've been looking for. The coloring will be absolutely gorgeous for my new house. I went and looked at it a couple times while I was still there looking at other furniture, just to make sure and each and every time I still loved it, just as much as the first time I saw it! The coloring, the fabric, the style of the couch. Just all of it. And a plus is that it's an American couch, so it's not a tiny little mini Japanese sized short couch which is pretty much the norm at most furniture shops here in Japan. This couch is an American couch, it's from America, so it's normal sized. This would fit my house style best. The couch is not fancy and pretentious, it's just a country floral type couch. Very simple but very wonderful indeed! The price wasn't bad, but then again we want quality furniture. A couch that will last a good 5 or 6 years. Good solid furniture. I never got to do that with the house, we are living at now because we couldn't afford it and also we knew we would just be living here temporarily, so we just bought cheap/inexpensive furniture. Just the basics of basics type stuff we have now.

So, anyway I think I will start saving for the couch set and hopefully by April or May I can buy it. Same with the kitchen table, maybe in March I can buy it. We aren't in a big hurry to buy furniture because as long as we are moved into our new house, we know we aren't going anywhere. We'll be living there forever. So, there's no rush and whenever we can afford nicer furniture then heck....we'll buy some. But at least now I found a great one I really love.

We also went to Starbucks right after our furniture shopping, I had to get myself a hot caramel machiatto. And then we went to The Outback Steak House for dinner. We have a fantastic dinner there. Noboru used his birthday coupon and got a free steak dinner out of it and a free hot fudge sundae. The three of us, shared the hot fudge sundae and it was delicious (Noah's not allowed sweets like that yet). I had the Alice Springs chicken dinner, my usual meal, lol. And we had fried mushrooms for our appetizer. Branden had the chicken fingers kids meal. And Noboru and I, each had ceasar salads as well. And Noah had some of my cheese and butter baked potato and buttered bread.

last night...

Since Chiba still seems to be in a deep freeze weather wise, last night after the whole car sliding into a mountain escapade. We decided to go home and get some Chinese take out, from our favorite restaurant and get two DVD's and go home and watch them. A nice way to unwind from the day. We rented Batman Begins and Team America.

Batman Begins, I've seen all the other Batman movies and they were all pretty okay. But this one sorta sucked. The movie lost me, when he went somewhere in Asia (they never mentioned where, but it wasn't Japan) after his parents died to become a thief and then became some sorta ninja type fighter trying to channel all his grief and guilt. All in all, I would not watch this again at all. I'm glad I saw it, for curiosities sake but yup, it was a dud!

Team America, to be fair, I should say I hated this movie last year before I even saw it. Just by the commercials I saw of it last year, this looked so stupid and dumb! Little marionette type dolls were the actors in this movie. Noboru has been wanting to see this *so* badly. So, to be fair, since I picked Batman, I watched this. I must say this was even stupider (is this even a word?) then I thought! This has truly won the award for being the worst movie on the face of the planet! And no I am *not* glad I saw this one for curiosities sake at all! I would like to be given back the two and a half hours of my life back that I *wasted* watching this movie! That's how truly horrible this movie was! Also, I am by no means a prude and I have heard foul language in my life obviously! But this movie curses every second or every other word was a curse word! The song during the movie was....America F**k yeah!!!! I swear these were the words and there was no mistake (and I do apologize for saying the word here, but I need to make my point by just how totally gross this movie was and what they said!) The constant inappropiate language was a total turn off from the entire movie!There was a horrible sex seen, that was quite vulgar. I had Branden cover his eyes. If I would have know this was what it was, I would have *never* agreed to watch it in the first place! Horrible movie for kids to watch and horrible movie for adults to watch too! Be warned.....do *not* rent Team America! Unless you like to watch marionettes get it on, and curse like the dickens! Worst movie ever! I actually fell asleep during the last 10 minutes and Noboru woke me up on the couch. Boring and horrible! And very foul language! Naughty little movie! Stay clear of this one! Trust me! : )

Okay so they slid into a mountain and....

So yesterday we had an appointment to meet the United Homes home building supervisor and also the United Homes supervisor (the one who helped us find the land and who helped us design our house) anyway we went to meet them to go around and look for flaws. They have seven days to fix it before it officially becomes ours. I've never heard of actually asking the customer to check it and look for flaws but they sure did! They wanted to make sure we will be 100% happy when we move in and satisfied. So, hey, they asked us to come and look, so we did what they asked, which was look for any flaws. Anyway the appointment was at 2:00 pm. By car there are two main ways to get to our new house. The fast way from the highway or the long and scenic route. We usually go the long and scenic route every week, but since we had that big snow storm that hit Chiba a few days before, we decided we better take the highway because the side roads could still be icy.

So as we were driving along the highway Noboru's cell phone rings. It's the United Homes people and they got into a bit of an accident. Yup, as you can probably guess, they took the scenic route and their car hit some black ice and they wiped out and hit a snow covered mountain! As amazing as it sounds, it's completely true! They called a tow truck but it could take forever. So, we decided to quickly go there and help them. We did get there. And Noboru being such a handy and useful type of guy, he helped them dig the car out and push the car back and they finally got the car out. Me and the kids stayed in the car and watched. It was really interesting.

Their car was not very damaged at all and still drivable, we asked them if they'd like to reschedule but they said no, they wanna keep the appointment. And so afterwards we all went to the house and looked for flaws.

Looking for flaws was hard because in a way I feel badly. I feel like some uber bitch that is looking for some tiny miniscule dot of paint that has chipped etc. It's hard because you don't wanna appear like that. And it's hard because I actually like both those guys, they are quite nice. But then some part of me knows, it's just business and we gotta do the inspection. So there we both were, I was on my hands and knees looking all over the kitchen walls, floors, cabinets. I had them adjust my cabinet doors for example. I saw some tiny scuff mark in the dining room and asked them to fix that. It was hard because I hate being mean! But, I did manage. Noboru on the otherhand did very well. He had no problem pointed at this or that. Good thing, Both the guys had note pads and took notes of every complaint we had. The building supervisor, may inform the builders that they did make scuff marks and whatnot, I'm not sure. I'm just glad Noboru's strengths are where my weaknesses are and vice versa, so we sorta overlap and compliment each other which is good for us as a couple.

Also they gave us a walk through of the house and told us how to use stuff. Like how to use the bath tub. This was very important because the bathtub we have now is old fashioned and it has a nozzle where water comes out and a faucet handle (besides the fact it's probably 1 billion years old, lol). But our new bath tub has no faucet handle and no nozzle, Noboru and I have been joking for month's now, where does the water come out of our bath and can we even get the darned thing to work? Ha ha ha, so them teaching us how to run the bath yesterday was really important. He also taught us how to clean the toilet jets once a month. All this stuff, I had no idea about! Because my toilet now is normal and basic and doesn't do anything except flush! LOL. So yesterday was a learning experience. : )

Got milk? : )

One good thing about Branden going to yochien is they measure how tall your kid is every month. And how much they weigh. Now with weight, Branden is certainly in no danger for being a fatty anytime soon. He's thin. But he's healthy. He eats all the time. And I make sure he eats properly, that is what I'm a stickler about!

But I think he is going through a growing spurt at the moment. From December to January, he grew 1 whole CM. Even the sensei's mentioned this to us. Usually they write the height in the booklet. And while they did write it down in the booklet, they actually mentioned it to us, when we picked him up. They said, "wow he grew so much since last month!"

They have also mentioned to us at the teacher/parents conference. That Branden loves milk! They said he always requests a second milk and they oblige him every day. But many times he requests a third milk and they said they won't give him a third milk because they are afraid he will throw up. Ha ha ha. I understand and wasn't upset at all. I'm glad they give him 2 milks every day at lunch. Granted I was a bit shocked, he actually wanted a third milk as well.

But he's growing by leaps and bounds! And this is the crazy part. Lately around 11:00 am or even midnight. He will wake up from his sleep and say he is hungry. Noboru dislikes late snacking and says we shouldn't feed him so late. But he will actually start crying and tell me how he is starving (yk how kids grossly exaggerate everything and anything, lol) he's certainly not starving by any means. Now, you all know me, and yes I certainly do feed my son a big dinner, so even I am amazed he can be hungry. I tried calming him down and urged him to sleep only because, I know he has school in the mornings and I don't want him awake all night long. But he won't give up. He keeps crying and says he is hungry. Now as a mommy, it hurts me and breaks my heart to hear my child crying because of hunger! And it still blows me away by how just a few hours before, he was stuffed to the gills (and said he couldn't eat another bite or else he'd throw up, lol). So I, being the softy or easy parent, I walk him downstairs and usually fix him a midnight snack.

I will fix him a bowel of cereal and he drinks all the milk up. And then I make him brush his teeth again of course, Or, I'll make him a quick sandwich or heat him up some leftovers from dinner. He is really good about eating. He eats it quickly and sits in the kitchen at the table and then he brushes his teeth and goes off to bed. And he does fall right to sleep after the midnight snack. I spoke to dad about it and he says it's gotta be a growth spurt and he needs the extra food to grow taller. And I agree, which is why I am allowing this midnight snacking for now.

Also, he has woken up many times this month telling me his legs are hurting him. I remember when I was a little kid and the part underneath my knee cap was hurting me and my mom and dad would massage it to make it feel better. It was because I was growing. I know Branden is just going through a growing spurt at the moment now too and so now the role has switched and I do the massaging of the legs. My first born, is growing up and going through one heck of a growth spurt at the moment. And wow, 1 CM in one month (just 30 days)! Wow!