Natsu matsuri! : )

Getting ready for the summer festival. Now, since I have a bunch of people reading from the states and I often get asked many questions regarding Japanese stuff. Let me just show a few pics and describe a bit about us getting ready before the actual festival. Now obviously this isn't necessary for any of you gals in Japan, so you all can just skip this first few paragraphs since it's probably stuff you, know already : ) For summer festivals in Japan, little girls wear yukatas. Best way I can describe a yukata, as easily as can be is, think kimono but without the heavy silk and such. Summer kimono. Think light thin, cotton or linen and beautiful and vibrant colors. And boys can wear yukata for summer festivals as well. But they can also wear jinbei's. Now jinbeis don't have to be worn just for summer festivals though. They can be worn anytime you want in the summer time in Japan. They are very light and very airy, so really comfy to wear. I searched high and low for Branden's "summer festival" jinbei this year I got it about a month ago and I was so totally happy to have scored such a cool one. I then took his jinbei with me in a bag, for a few weeks driving all over, looking for the perfect matching Japanese type flip flops, I really like the "setta" (sp?) ones.

This stitching for lack of a better word is on the sleeve area. Reason? Well, my hubby says it's for air flow. LOL. Japanese summers are well known to be steaming hot, so some fresh air is welcome. : )

I got his in a size, that he could wear this year, but he can also probably get away with wearing this one next year. I really hope so, because the quality of this one was just really exceptional. I pulled out all the stops on his summer festival outfit this year (and if he outgrows it next year, oh well, I'll replace it no big deal, but I hope he can wear this one next year though, because it's cool). Extremely high quality. And I am happy Noah will get to wear this in a few years time as well. : ) And what does my son think of his jinbei? He's a typical boy. He doesn't care in the least what sorta jinbei he has. Ha ha ha! : )

Here's the boys right before we left the house! Noah's jinbei was simple. He had the character from the NHK TV show here in Japan. Anybody know that dogs name? I forget. Wantan or Wanwan or something. Ha ha ha! And notice Noah is starting to do the peace sign in pics as well. Oh my gosh! Ha ha ha! Granted just a 1 fingered peace sign was all he could muster, but it's a start! : )

Aha, yes that is Noboru making hot dogs during the summer festival! What a wonderful husband and daddy, he is! He's awesome! : )

One of the games/crafts during the festival. Decorating a pom pom type thing.

The teachers put on a small skit for the kids. I wasn't really following the story of this skit at all. But I found it interesting to see them dancing around and stuff. Letting their hair down, so to speak. The kids loved it though! : )

All the teachers are all pretty nice. However my most, favorite teacher is the one far left. Wearing the green tee shirt and navy blue coolats (sp?), she is so awesome! She speaks to me all the time. In Japanese of course, but she is so friendly. She is always smiling. Never grumpy or anything!

All the kids watched the teachers give their skit.

Noboru's volunteer duties of "chief hot dog maker extraordinaire" was over, ha ha ha! And he was just holding Noah, chatting with a few dad's. And watching the kids dance! : )

You see that plastic white bag Noboru is holding? That is all the toys and water balloons and stuff both the kids won during all the games and crafts! Noah played 3 games and won a few toys and some candy.

Branden showing one of his buddies what he had just won!

Then he showed him, "you have to go like this", ha ha ha. How funny, huh? How these kids can get so enthusiastic over a 1 yen toy, they just won. Ha ha ha. Oh well, I smiled and let them enjoy the thrill of it all! Childhood is gone in a blink of an eye, so I let B "ohhh and awe" over his newest toy! That was forgotten about, by the next day, no doubt, ha ha ha! : )

Then the dancing started! The kids have been practicing all week long at school. : ) Notice the kid wearing Crocs? He was the second boy behind Branden (gosh I must know these shoes a bunch, since I even can tell he was wearing the color "celery" lol)! And I am kidding you not!!! About 10 kids wore Crocs during the festival! Seriously 10. Granted one kid was wearing fake Crocs, lol, doesn't matter in the least though really. But the rest were all wearing real Crocs. And many parents too! I know, Crocs are as American as Apple pie. In fact they come from Boulder Colorado. And I am *very* proud they come from Colorado, since I come from there (don't believe me, just flip a Croc and see the words, from, Boulder, Colorado stamped on them, ha ha ha)! Ha ha ha. But, seriously Crocs have hit Japan in a big way! They are so popular in Japan, just about everyone I know has a pair! They are probably as popular in Japan as they are in America! It's crazy! Ha ha ha! : ) And we all know, we are a Croc loving family ourselves as well. : )

More dancing! : )

And a clap! : )

Branden's so good at Japanese dancing! His hand movements and all! He really enjoys the summertime dances in Japan. And when he sees the teenage girls dancing at the big city festival. he always tells me "mommy don't you think they look so pretty and dance so nice" He really appreciates the artful dances in Japan! Whoever, he decides to marry in the future will have to learn these dances for sure! Ha ha ha. Wink, wink! : )

Boy, what a whole bunch of kids dancing!

And swing your hands this way, and swing your hands that way! Ha ha ha!

Many people really liked Branden's jinbei. I had about 5 different people at different points throughout the day, ask to take a picture of Branden, we said "sure, fine go ahead", we didn't really mind, I mean they were not like strangers or weird nutcases, they were people from the same yochien, so it was fine. Many people commented on it as well. They all really loved his aloha, hibiscus, jinbei, I guess, ha ha ha! : )

Branden and some of his buddies. They just love to all get together and play fight with each other. And do those "ultraman" fighting moves!

More dancing! Man, I'm going to have to go and make a few copies of all these "summer festival" pics, send a copy to grandma Mitsuko way over in Osaka, to uncle Jun, both my folks. Phew, that's a lot of copies I will be making this coming week! Ha ha ha : )

Last pic of the kids all dancing!

Branden flashing the "shaka sign", hey he was born in Hawaii. He's allowed! Ha ha ha and that's how most of our friends in Honolulu took pics when we lived there. Japan was the peace sign and in Hawaii, we did this! I got this off the net in case some of you don't know what that means. Although I am sure most of you know already! : )

The "shaka" sign is a common greeting gesture. It is often associated with Hawaii and boarding sports such as surfing, skateboarding and snowboarding. It consists of extending the thumb and pinky finger while keeping the three middle fingers curled, and raising the hand as in salutation. Sometimes the hand is rotated back and forth to emphasize the sign.
Hawaiian locals use the shaka for various meanings, like "all right", "cool", "smooth", etc. Residents of states other than Hawaii who use the shaka may describe it as meaning "hang loose". It is also used to convey what locals in Hawai'i call the "Aloha Spirit," a gesture of friendship and understanding between the various ethnic cultures that reside within Hawai'i. It can also be used to signal a "hello", "goodbye", " 'till next time", "take care", "Alright!."

Branden chatting up the ladies! Ha ha ha! Seriously 2 little girls like him. Have little puppy love type crushes on B. A few of the mom's told me at the school, "such and such likes your son", ha ha ha. I asked Branden about it and what he thought. First he's too young to like girls yet. But he said, one of the girls he likes because she's pretty and she's fun to play with and she likes playing with rolie polies/dango mushi, lol. But the other girl, he says, get this. She has too much hair on her arms???, so he isn't interested. Ha ha ha. OMG! What a silly/ridiculous reason! Boys, hmm! Ha ha ha : )

All his little yochien buddies, swim buddies and his pal he rides the school bus with as well!

A group shot of his class! : )

That's Genki-kun on the right of Branden right there! : )

If you see the banana box in the back. Well we had choco bananas. One of the fathers is a banana wholesaler. And so we got tons of free bananas donated to the school for the festival. Man were those choco bananas good! We had homemade cookies. Hot dogs, drinks and all sorts of stuff. But in this pic, here is Noah wearing his Anpanman mask. Anpanman is a Japanese cartoon hero, who is actually made from bread/pan stuffed with beans, I think. : )

Here's Noah-chan, wearing his Anpanman mask, enjoying the summer festival. And if you look closely you can see the little white dog with green ears on his jinbei, that's a character from a Japanese kids TV show here in Japan that Noah watches and likes! : )

Branden wore the Mickey mouse mask! The kids got the masks from the school today! : )

The festival ended around 5:30 pm. We came home since it was on the way. Everyone went to the bathroom. We checked the house, all looked fine and we were on our way for supper within 5 minutes of stopping by the house! We went to the Hard Rock cafe in Narita. It's fairly close to where we live, so no big long drive or anything which was nice.

We were seated right below "Ringo Starr's" shirt! Now, I know everyone knows who Ringo is. Beatles obviously! And I love the Beatles, so I loved sitting there! Ha ha ha! : )

Ringo's shirt. Something of Elton John's was on the booth next to us. I wanted to take a better peek, but I didn't want the nice Japanese family to think I was staring at them or anything. I wasn't. I just wanted to see what was on the wall. : )

I've been to a few Hard Rocks in Japan before (besides the ones in the mainland US, I've been to and Hawaii and Guam). The one in Ueno is very cramped that's the worst in my opinion. The seats are all like smashed together. We were like 1CM away from the next table. Too close for comfort. We've been to the one in Osaka that is gone now. And the newer one in Kobe, I think. And it was very nice. Not cramped like the one in Ueno is. But the one at Narita is very nice too. Not too cramped at all, not even a bit. Very open seating. Which is why I clicked this pic. No sardine feeling here at the Narita one! We will be going to this one again!

The boys eating their kids meals. : ) Chicken fingers for Noah and cheeseburger for Branden! : )

The waitress asked the kids, was it their summer festival today? Branden told her, yes it was. : )

Noah, eating his meal! : )

I had the sizzling chicken fajitas. And yes they were sizzling in that silver pan as they came out. Everyone heard them and turned around. My cheeks turned bright pink, because it was my noisy fajitas causing all the commotion. Ha ha ha! : )

Noboru had the special. It was a trio. A Japanese style chicken sandwich (not karaage or anything), a shrimp sandwich and a cheeseburger and fries. You know what? I watched both kids and held that bag of toys won, from the festival all day long, while Noboru was working the festival. Then we switched and I worked the other half of the festival and Noboru had to watch both the boys and lug that bag of toys around. The kids had an utter blast at the festival. And actually both Noboru and I both had a lot of fun during the festival as well, because it's nice to mingle and be social with other parents and friends of our kids. With everything being such a success with regards to the festival. Being at the restaurant was sorta our reward. Job well done for us today. Time for Noboru to tell me all the funny stories and stuff he encountered on his part of the festival and then I shared my funny silly stories about what I was doing at the same time. It was a nice summer festival and a wonderful dinner. : )

After our delicious dinner at the Hard Rock, we strolled through the mall a bit. Noboru bought me a new pair of Crocs! I have a black pair already, have had them for well over a year now. But I've been wanting a girlie girl pair. A pink pair. I knew I didn't want fushia, nor did I want the cotton candy (lightest pink color). I wanted the straight pink. Just pink. Plain pink, if you will. And now I have them! Yippy! Thanks honey! : )

Getting ready for our "Natsu Matsuri", a bit of fishing and swimming class, wow what a Friday! Ha ha ha! : )

All mom's and about 4 or so dad's who could come, all came to the school this morning at 9:00 am. We were setting up for tomorrows school summer festival/Natsu matsuri. I went to help, of course. Noboru had off today, he was going to stay home with the boys. However, he showed up with the boys at the school after I was already there for about an hour. Nice surprise! The red box with flowers is what I made this morning. I cut out the red construction paper, taped it up to the box. And taped flowers to it. Taped balloons to the box as well. I actually had a great time decorating that box. Ha ha ha. I also decorated quite a few other things as well. But everyone helped, everyone did their fair share of work. And it was all very fun, relaxed happy atmosphere, so I really enjoyed myself.

This was just a bare table with balloons taped on it and they asked me to finish it up with my good friend Rie-san. So, we both taped those red and pink plastic streamers to the table. And then a few other mom's joined us and we all arranged and taped the flowers on there as well.

That's obviously Noboru there, he joined us all and he made a few balloons. Which was great because I absolutely detest making balloon animals. Ha ha ha, sorry but I do! : )

All of the mom's at our kindergarten did so much work. The whole thing came out looking really super! I can't wait until tomorrow at 3:00 pm when it all starts! : )

Around noon we left the yochien. And we ran to the local shop to get some fishing things. No, not fishing with a pole, but rather fishing with a trap. Fishing with a bottle actually. Noboru had been really wanting to take the boys to go and catch some fish this way. And so today we did that. Boy was he happy about it! Ha ha ha! : ) Inside this bottle is fish food.

Wow, what a murky looking canal! Ha ha ha! : )

We threw the bottle/trap in the canal, tied the bottle with string to the bridge and we went home, had lunch, got Branden changed into his swimming stuff and we headed to the swim school. We were wondering...."did we catch anything" We were pretty excited!

Branden ready for Friday's swimming lesson!

Noah, ready to play with his buddies at the swim school!

We have this set of stroller hooks in the car to hang the boys headphones. Branden, playfully took one down, pretending to be a pirate. "Aye there matey!" Ha ha ha! Silly kids! Bless their little hearts! : )

Noah, zonked out. Can't really say I blame him. He had been on the go all day long. No time for even a nap. He slept at the swim school for about 30 minutes. He was really tired. But then he woke up and played with his friends. They were waiting! : )

Now the car was pure excitement. We were trying to guess what we actually caught! Did we catch shrimp? Crayfish? Regular fish or what! Non stop guessing, until we parked the car. We all hopped out and looked! Just fish! Ha ha ha, that's all we caught. But we caught a whole bunch!

These aren't fish to eat or anything like that and we knew that from the beginning. These were fish to catch for fun. We have boys and boys like doing these types of things! This week, we will catch frogs around the yard as well! We never keep them longer, then to spend one night at our house. They stay over night on our porch and the boys get to get a good look at them and see their gills open and close. Their tails swishing back and forth. It's really a nice thing for these 2 country boys to get to do. And we always bring the fish or frogs right back to where we caught them. We release them back.

This small country bridge and thin one lane road. Little canal and endless green rice fields. Talk about living way out in the middle of nowhere, ha ha ha! I actually really love it though! : )

A slightly blurry pic, I know, I'm sorry about that. But we were driving quickly down the road with a bucket of a few fish in the back of the car. These vibrant green fields, always put me in awe! I'm sorry if this sounds a bit corny, but so be it. However, I always think, how beautiful Japan really is when I see this view. This is the Japan that I love! : )

See this small green frog on my back terrace? Well, I see frogs everywhere where I live. I swear to you, that I secretly must live at the actual "headquarters for frogs" ha ha ha, seriously though! It's frog city around here! I saw about 5 this morning on the front lawn. Whenever I step on the grass, actual green things jump out as we walk. And yup, you've guessed it, they are frogs! I see them sleeping, like "dead asleep" on my front porch. I let them sleep and don't bother them but sheesh! They are everywhere! Ha ha ha. My friend has told me they could be poisonous. I'm not sure but just in case, I am not crazy about the boys touching them, but they love picking them up! Ha ha ha! One jumped on my back patio kitchen sliding door/window and it scared the living daylights out of me. He came out of nowhere and just hopped in front of me as I was looking out the window.

We only brought back 4 fish with us. We didn't want to be greedy. We released the others right back. We figure 4 is enough for the boys to get a good look at. After they looked at them, we put the fish on the front porch since it's cooler there. They will stay the night out there but we will send them back home to their little fishy families tomorrow morning ASAP. : )

Our country boys, thoroughly enjoying their life in the country side, ha ha ha! : )

Last picture has to go to the fish! But of course! Ha ha ha! Anyway, it was a long busy day. But a nice and happy one at that! Have a good night everyone! : )

Catching up a bit here! : )

Our quiet Saturday: So on Saturday the typhoon was indeed pushed back a day. And was now supposed to hit the Chiba area on Sunday instead. So, Saturday was a quiet day. A gray looking day, with rain showers off and on, where I live throughout the day. And by the evening the rain had stopped completely. In the afternoon, we hit the local small shopping mall and bought both of the boys their sandals to go with their jinbeis, that they will be wearing next Saturday for the yochien festival, that Branden's school is having. We got home and Noboru played with the boys in the living room while I prepared dinner. As usual, nothing fancy shmancy. Chicken karaage, rice, and I stir fried some spinach with a little margarine and salt and pepper, versus boiling it until it looks gray. I prefer the flavor of spinach this way and both the kids and hubs love it as well. Salad with the usual goma dressing. And some fresh fruit of course, and today it was watermelon. Quick, easy and pretty yummy, if I don't say so myself. Ha ha ha. : )

Good conversations throughout dinner. Plenty of laughs.

Noboru filled the dishwasher. Meanwhile I got the bath started and the boys cleaned up. Noboru jumped in the shower afterwards. And then we all found ourselves downstairs for the rest of the night watching TV. Some really good movies actually. Munching popcorn and Reece's Pieces and some sodas. Noah zonked out first as usual (predictable Noah ha ha ha) and it was just a pretty good night. No complaints. : )

Sunday morning. We all woke up around 9:00 am. I got the coffee going right away and preheated the oven. With the typhoon looming. I thought it would be a great day/morning to enjoy our cinnamon rolls.

There's something quite nice about a family of 4 all sitting in the living room, come Sunday morning. Boys were sitting with their cinnamon rolls and milk. Noboru and I sat sipping our coffees and eating our rolls. He tracked the weather online every once in a while. Didn't seem too bad here where we live. They must have totally downgraded the typhoon. It was just like your average typical rainy day around here. And I've seen some bad typhoons before, yet it didn't seem like that at all, come Sunday. We were relieved. Noboru left to work in the afternoon, unfortunately but we had a pretty nice day at home. I helped Branden with his writing in English for only about 20 minutes. And then after that Branden, Noah and I played 2 rounds of Candyland that was a blast. The rain still persisted but it wasn't too horrible. I made chili cheese dogs for lunch. And for dinner, we had so much karaage and stuff leftover in the fridge, that we basically had the same thing we had for dinner the night before (except I fried the chicken fresh tonight since it was still in the batter all night long). With the small change of, we had corn on the cob tonight versus spinach like we had the night before. But we also had watermelon and everything else. We all got washed up in the tub again. And then we just sorta lazed around enjoying our night of TV. No school tomorrow because it's a holiday here in Japan. Marine Day or something like that.

Monday, was quiet as usual. Noboru had to work. Although mostly everyone had off with it being a holiday here in Japan. But since he works for an American company, he has to work Japanese holidays (although he gets off most American holidays so I don't mind so much). I let the boys play outside all day long in the backyard. They came in for lunch. And then after that we all took a very nice afternoon snooze. When we woke up, I brought out the big box of crayons and put down the dinner mats and let them crayon some pictures and just be a bit creative, meanwhile I was busy cooking dinner.

Tuesday: Branden's last day of school and a half day at that! Meaning no obento to make. He took the school bus to school. But we picked him up at school and as a sorta reward for a "job well done" or "glad you are finished and let's bring on summer" so we took the boys to Mc Donald's. I had the grilled chicken sandwich and the salad with goma dressing. Large iced tea. The kids played with their Shrek toys from their happy meals. And then we went home. So no more obento making for a long while or waking up so early until September now. Yippy! Three cheers, Huray! : )

Wednesday. We all snoozed in and I didn't roll outta bed until 9:00 am. So nice not having to wake up at 7:00 am. Very nice feeling actually! I lazed around in my nightgown/night shirt and drank hot caramel machiatto and watched CNN on the couch. I felt really snoozy and lazy all morning. Nice to relax for a change, versus being on " super go, go, go mode since 7:00 am" like I usually have to. The kiddos had Lucky Charms cereal (well because their magically delicious, right?, lol!) and toast. I had another hot coffee. We then ran to the city of Narita and we went grocery shopping. I got about 6 or 7 nights worth of food again. Geeze we go through loads of food around here, oh well! He he! So many drinks, it was just nuts! And we loaded up the car and I ran back home. Unloaded the car with the boys. Put the groceries into the fridge and wherever else. Made everyone some sandwiches. And then we hit swimming class. With kids and a bagful of snacks in tow. We enjoyed our afternoon there. I have a very good friend, that I really like that goes on Wednesday's too. Her name is Kaya-san. Though I've probably misspelled it. She's Japanese, but she speaks English really really well. Her son Natsuki goes to the same yochien B, does. And the kids are friends and so are we. She is very funny and I always look forward to seeing her on Wednesdays. We were laughing about something today so hard! My face must have turned pink! But I do have a good time chatting with her on Wednesdays. It's a hoot! She really cracks me up. So, anyway after swimming class. And ice creams were bought. I got the boys loaded up in the minivan. And we drove home. Noboru works the 4:00 pm to midnight shift today. So, he missed swim school with us. And he missed supper with us as well. Poor guy : ( He's phoned and asked if there might be anything left for him when he gets home, and I told him "but of course!" ha ha ha. So anyway. I made dinner obviously. Loaded the dishwasher and now we are about to head upstairs and get showered, soaped and shampooed up a storm! And then just enjoy the rest of our night.

Good night everyone, sleep well! : )