Sunday! : )

This morning, was just beautiful. I was even telling my dad this evening when we spoke on the telephone, that today was the first day that it wasn't chilly and it actually felt like spring! So, with a day like today, it was too nice to stay indoors. So we hopped in the car and headed to the city of Tsukuba! Lot's of foreigners in this city (well a lot more then my shrimpy town, ha ha ha.), a huge mall, and a few smaller ones. So we wanted to hang out here! There's a big university there, so it sorta has a college town vibe! It's cool! : )

Here's Noah as we were waiting for daddy to get in the car and be on our way!

Branden plays his DS to keep him occupied. Or he plays with Noah, lol! At this point, he was into the game. Then after a few minutes he shut it off and played with Noah.

Another free standing Wendy's. You know, seriously you wouldn't believe how many free standing Wendy's I have seen out in the country side. I also saw 1 free standing Starbucks with an actual drive-thru, near Tsukuba as well last year. Anyone remember that? Interesting things I see in the country sides of Japan. So, we stopped off for lunch here. This restaurants was extremely smokey when we entered. Even the windows were open. I am guessing they had poor ventilation or what. It was pretty bad in there. But we ate in there anyway. The kids had kids meals. And I had a Monterrey ranch chicken sandwich and fries and a Pepsi. I was debating...CC lemon? or Pepsi. I flip flopped on it for a second and went with the Pepsi. The toys they had this time were horrible. Truly wasn't excited about the toys in the kids meals this time, lol. After we ate, we hopped back into the car. Hit the mall nearby. I browsed Gap, and Baby Gap. Browsed a few shops. A foreign grocery store that was not called Kaldi, hmmm I forgot the name though. Something I never heard of though. We finally hit Starbucks and got an iced banana/coconut coffee drink. Noboru and I each got one. The kids each had an apple juice and shared a donut. And we sat outside. Just sorta hanging out, people watching. Some little girl waved at Noah in Gap (which was right next door to Starbucks btw), he waved back at her. And fast forward about 10 minutes, here we were all sitting at our own umbrella shaded seats outside of Starbucks at their outside seating. They kept waving at each other, the 2 little kids. Yup, Noah and her were about the same age. It was funny! Her parents who only spoke Japanese were telling her to say..."hello", ha ha ha! How cute! : ) Nothing was really accomplished today. Unless you count one hell of a relaxing day! So after our drinks were finished we strolled back to the car. And we went home.

Giggle, giggle giggle, so happy to be home! : )

Ladies in Japan, "what 5 things do you *always* bring/buy from a trip back home???: )

1) I always bring back cold and fever meds for the kids

2) cold and fever meds for myself

3) clothes for the kids (cheaper in the US for me)

4) clothes and undies, shoes and such for myself (cheaper and sizes are super easily available for me, such as, my feet are size 9, which is nearly impossible to find in Japan, lol)

5) Miracle whip and Mrs. Butterworth's, lol. Seriously I always bring it back with me.

How about the rest of you? What do you all drag and lug back to Japan? : )

Ladies in Japan, anyone have any favorite TV commercials? : )

I have a few oldish ones. One is the Pizza-La commercial one. You know...."ebi mayo mayo, ebi mayo" clap clap! When we were on vacation last Christmas. Our family was swimming in Waikiki beach. Then there was a small/young cute little Japanese girl, wading in the "ebi' floatie. I could not control myself. Out of almost nowhere, I started singing to my family. "Ebi mayo mayo...ebi mayo" and I totally clapped! Noboru just said...."oh my lord" and he chuckled about it. I'm sorry I couldn't help it really. I see any sort of inflatable shrimp/ebi and I gotta start singing!

Also anyone remember the "neko genki" song? From that cat food commercial? Ha ha ha! I still haven't gotten that blasted song outta my head either! : )

The current commercial I like is. That Epson printer commercial. With the little cartoon super hero guy. The song is pretty catchy! LOL!

So how about the rest of you? Anyone have a deep liking or a deep disliking to any commercials here in Japan?: )

Some of the obentos I made this week! : )

Sunday night, I made some delicious homemade hamburg. I had a ton of leftover hamburg beef in the fridge, so when Monday morning rolled around. I fried up 4 of the cutest little homemade mini hamburgs and I even topped them with cheese, ha ha ha. Steamed and buttered, lightly salted and peppered brocoli, and white rice with some butter and shoyu mixed in for flavor. Fruit cup of the day is a very colorful, mix of fresh strawberries and fresh pineapples. I also added 2 jelly's as well. Entire lunch came back empty, empty. : )



Another night, I made some homemade, yakitori. Yes, I certainly did dice up the chicken breasts and shewer it on there myself, lol. It was easy anyways. LOL. I purposely left 5 shewers in the marinate all night long in the fridge. Next morning, I fried them up in a little bit of olive oil. They were even better marinated then the ones the night before. So what was in his lunch? On a bed of white rice, I laid down 3 all white meat, skinless and super marinated yakitori. I also sent him with a side of green beans. And for his fruit cup that day, I sent him with a colorful fruit cup of fresh kiwi, fresh pineapple,a nd 1 fresh strawberry. And yes I also added 2 jelly's as well. A very yummy and healthy obento! And it came back empty! : ) Noah, ate the 2 leftover yaitori for his lunch at home : )


On Thursday night, I made some tostadas. Oh man, were they good. I even had taco beef for some and chicken for other's, all had beans too. However, I knew sending a tostada would be outta the question. Why? The tostada shell won't fit in any of the obento boxes I have. So, I thought and thought some more. And finally came up with.....


Just sending him with a taco obento. His last 2 sensei's had seen B take a taco obento about a billion times before. However new school year, new sensei! Ha! So, today, which is Friday. This is what I sent Branden to school with. 2 ground beef tacos. 1 hash brown cooked in the toaster oven. 1 steamed broccoli for his veggie. And some fresh crisp grapes for his fruit cup. And sure as heck, I added the 2 jelly's as well. How come I haven't been taking pics of the jelly's? I must be partially asleep in the mornigns or what, I don't know, ha ha ha. So anyway those are some of the things I sent my kiddo to school with this week. : )

An update of sorts! : )

What I've been up to lately:

My dad's computer crashed last week. And without computer access, he couldn't buy a replacement for himself online. He checked around Guam, but the prices were a bit too high compared to computer prices on the mainland US. So, with a phone call to me. He asked me to research and find him a new one. Of course he gave me his credit info and stuff to buy it for him. I searched many American computer shops, like Best Buy, Comp USA, Circuit City, etc. I knew he liked the Sony Vaio a lot, in fact he liked one he saw in Guam, he was raving about, but the price was about $400.00 higher. I ended up finding my dad the best deal on a brand new model Sony Vaio from Circuit City and ordered it for him, of course I called him first to ask,if he wanted me to go ahead and purchase it and he said yes. The shipping was just $20.00. So he is expecting it now as we speak. So if I was a little quiet this past week. It's because the start of a new school year with Branden meant I was a bit busy anyways. But also the computer search I was on, sorta took a bit of my time.

Last weekend Noboru worked the entire weekend, which is why we got to head to Disneyland during the week. So with it just being the kids and I during the weekend. We stood home mostly and hung out in the back yard and played. I love to watch the kids play with their toy trucks, or Branden ride his bike and Noah scoot around in his little Anpanman scoot thingie. Swing on the swings or slide down the slides. I watched the farmers tend to the rice fields in the back yard. I also took the kids to Nishimatsuya on Sunday morning. I bought 8 t-shirts for the kids (play clothes). Gosh that place is so cheap! Cute shirts though! I also bought an extra swimming towel for Branden's swim class he takes. Then the boys and I went to Mc Donald's for lunch. And we went back home and enjoyed a quiet day.

My mom sent me a $200.00 electronic gift card for the boys a few weeks ago. I used it and she is sending the stuff on to me. Geeze, my mom in California and my dad over in Guam have been sending quite a few things to us lately. I think it's because I'm an only child. I was the only one, they could dote on, while I was growing up. And now that I am grown, and it's all about grandchildren. The only grandchildren they have or will ever have is Branden and Noah. So, a big reason for the extra spoiling by the grandparents, lol. What did I buy? (just imagine we are all just having coffee in my kitchen and you inquired of course I'd tell you in passing, no big deal really) stuff from Old Navy I ordered, gulp....9 pairs of flip flop/sandals for the kids. A few t shirts, cargo jean shorts for Branden and a few other things like hats. Nothing really too major really. And before anyone tries to give me the "fish eye" about the amount of sandals I bought them. Let me just start by saying, I'm a flip flop girl myself, I live in them, heck it's the one charm dangling from my keitei/cell phone and also I have a flip flop key chain dangling from my keys, so I do admit a tiny weakness to buying flip flops. #2, we seem to travel to only warm weather destinations, island type places, so we need them for vacations (yes even in cold December like for Christmas, in case we head to Hawaii again like last year). Plus Japan is going to be freakishly hot soon ad we will need our flip flops. Besides, in all actuality Branden only got 3 pairs. And Noah only got 3 pairs as well. And three pairs really isn't overkill really. The extra ones are a few of the same sandals but in bigger sizes for when Noah's feet grow bigger during the summer. Kids Noah's age, their feet grow faster then kids Branden's age. I seriously recall when B was Noah's age, his feet had a growth spurt at the end of July, I was in Denver spending my summer back home. And since it was so late in the season, I couldn't find any sandals at Old Navy, Gap, not anyplace. I ended up having to buy him a pair of sandals from Target, they were cute, so it was okay. But I know come mid July or August, Noah will need a bigger size, so I bought a few in a size bigger to hide in our shoe closet, for whenever that time comes.

I also have a Gap order coming to my dad's place. I bought a few things for the boys from there as well. Seriously again, nothing even a dot major here. Just 4 shirts for B and the same identical shirts for Noah. The same identical pair of sandals for each child, I had to get these though because they looked sorta like Birkenstocks, lol. So again, just trying to finish up the kids summer shopping in a few more bits and pieces. So in short, instead of blogging, I have been surfing websites like Gap, and Old Navy etc, and getting the kids ready little by little. Yet another reason I've been sorta quiet this past week. I've been surfing the net, if I had any free time after my kids slept and my TV shows were over, ha ha ha! : ) Or hanging out at TDL. Plus with my dad's computer shopping. And you get the idea. : )

I've also been getting myself slowly ready for Spring as well. I bought 1 new black cardigan. A new pair of ballet flats. a pair of denim shorts and a pair of denim gaucho capris. I want to buy myself a new spring bag, but I have yet to find one I like yet. I think next week, I am heading to either Tsukuba mall or Chiba New town mall, so we will see, hmmm.

I've also started working out again. And ummm how long will it last this time, before I finally give up again? Ha ha ha, I do not know!

Vacation plans. We are going to the US mainland probably sometime in June. We have to start with planning hotels and dates to go. Etc, etc. We also were thinking of heading to Seoul or Pusan for a little 2 night stay, but it's still in the very pre pre pre planning stages so far.

My MIL is in Guam vacationing her butt off right now. She left Osaka the 19th and will come back to Japan the 23rd, I think.

This morning, I cleaned my kitchen from top to bottom. Windows, windowsills, counters, table, floor mopping, stove deep cleaning. I've vacuumed the upstairs as well. I'm all pooped out right now. So I'm taking a break.

We are also planning to sod the back yard this coming summer, we didn't get to it last year after we moved in and also buy some new lawn furniture for the terrace/patio. So, we have been doing a lot of DIY window shopping in our free time.

What are our weekend plans this coming weekend? Well, Noboru is working. And meanwhile it will just be the boys and I at home. Chalk up yet, another quiet weekend at home for us again. Maybe I'll run to the video store and perhaps even order us a pizza as well! Just staying home basically and having some quality time with Branden and Noah. It really is nice to relax on the weekends isn't it? Please have a wonderful weekend everyone! : )

Our day at Tokyo Disneyland on Tuesday!!!

Well, we have been planning our trip to Disneyland for weeks now. We knew the day we were going to go and today was the day! We had planned to let Branden take the day off. However where we live was so windy that school was called off that morning anyway. So even better for us, Branden didn't have to miss a day of school either then, ha ha ha. We considered calling off our day the day before because some light rain was planned. But we decided no way! There was no guarantee it wouldn't be raining next week either. So might as well give it a go, today as planned! So glad we went, we had the best best best time ever really!!! Here's a pic of Noboru and Noah inside the Roger rabbit Taxi ride in Toon Town! The lines was non existent! I think the rain deterred people from going to Disneyland, which only meant no wait for us for any rides, yippy! We'd totally go on a rainy day again! : )

We rode every single ride in the park twice! And many rides we rode 4-5 times (100% seriously), only because there was no line at all! First Noboru rode with Branden! Oh they had fun! Meanwhile my little Noah rode with me! He's at an age, where he absolutely loves it, Noah was clapping and going, "ohhhh look mommy look" "one more", when he wanted to do the ride all over again! Ha ha ha!

There wasn't even a 5 minute wait! Just as soon as we got off the ride and got back into the line is as soon as we rode again. This time we switched and I rode with B and Noboru rode with Noah! I like riding with Branden, because we can really go around and around fast! Ha ha ha. I am a ton more gentle when I ride with Noah, we don't spin at all actually! Ha ha ha! : )

Fake rubber bars that all kids love to pretend they are really strong and bending them back with "all" their might!!!! Ha ha ha! As soon as the pic was taken, Goofy came out and took a pic with all of us. It's a cute family photo. I think Goofy hangs around here since it is the "dog pound" and all! Ha ha ha!

Lunch where most everything is in the shape of a Mickey mouse shape, ha ha ha! We ordered 3 chicken sandwiches, 1 pizza. 3 french fries and 3 drinks. All of us shared everything. Noah ate the pizza and since Branden dislikes onions (just like Noboru) he had the same kinda chicken sandwich, Noboru and I had. It was good to get a good quick lunch and then we were back to riding more rides.

Goofing around, my son the walrus! Ha ha ha! : )

After a full tummy and 2 or 3 rides, Noah fell asleep in the stroller safe and sound. I bundled him up in the blankie I packed from home. We bought this blanket from Disneyland last year by the way. Both kids wearing fleecey jeans and long sleeve shirts and sweatshirts. They were plenty warm. I also brought their down filled jackets in case of emergency and also brought their rain boots in the car for just in case. But we never needed them because it never rained that severe enough for us to need them.

I sat with a sleeping Noah, while Noboru and Branden rode the race cars. Branden drove! Ha ha ha! He had a fun time driving! Typical boys, they sure love cars don't they? : )

I love this picture because my son wasn't even aware that I took it, of him. Totally happy face, he just finished riding the cars he was *so* happy! I'm just glad I captured this picture. Noboru busted me, he saw me right away! Darn it! Ha! : )

There's a world of laughter, a world of cheer" blah blah blah blah! Sing it with me!!!! Okay, never mind! LOL! The "It's A Small World" after all, ride never gets boring! It's always just so cute and fun! And it's nice because all 4 of us can actually ride all together in 1 row! So that's nice too! : )

The Haunted Mansion ride!!! So much fun! It's Disneyland, so it's kid friendly of course! Both my kids love this ride neither of them have ever been afraid of this ride at all. It's so much fun actually! We rode this ride honestly 5 times. The ride was 5 minutes or less all times! I'm seriously not kidding about the wait time! Fwiw, in the summer time, when we go to Tokyo Disneyland. It gets so crowded that, we are lucky if we get to ride *5 rides total*, the entire day and night! That's because the usual wait time is 120 minutes per ride. Yes 2 hours! So for us, going on a rainy day, didn't bother us one single bit, we got to ride all the rides multiple times! Yeah sure we wore rain coats, so what! We live in Japan, we're used to it! He! : ) And mostly all the rides are indoors anyways, so we were never really in the rain at all, unless we were walking from ride to ride that is.

My little Noah watching the afternoon Disney parade! Each of us has our own popcorn holder with popcorn in it. Tokyo Disneyland has great popcorn, choices are many! They sell them in little carts all over the park, they have chocolate popcorn, caramel popcorn (my fav), coconut popcorn, curry popcorn, salt popcorn, and strawberry popcorn and honey flavored popcorn as well. Each of us picks our own flavor we want! Also, see the ground near Noah? It was dry dry dry! Honestly for about 70% of the day it didn't rain at all! Even the pic where Noboru and Branden were at the car races there was no rain either, remember? However with the rain in the morning, is why many people didn't show up. It did rain in bits and pieces though. Sprinkles is more like it though.

Father and son watching the Disney parade! Everyone munching their own popcorn bucket of course! Ha ha ha! : )

Mickey Mouse, he always kicks off all the parades! As he should! : )

Pinocchio!

Alice and Wonderland! And that mad mad mad hatter!!! LOL! : )

It started to sprinkle some during the end of the parade! But it didn't matter to a kid at all! I can see the magic in Branden's eye, as he looks up at those characters who he thinks the absolute world of!

Very few sprinkles, but I flipped the rain cover over Noah's stroller ASAP! He didn't mind in the least, because he was just enthralled in the parade!

Mary Poppins and Bert! Ha ha ha! : )

Put em' up partner! That's Woody the sheriff over there!

This is Buzz Lightyear from Star command, do you read me? LOL! : )

This very well coulda been everyone in the entire park, seriously. Just a very small crowd. Slim amounts of people and as night grew on, the people were less and less. By the time night rolled around, not many people at all.

Our day at Tokyo Disneyland on Tuesday!!! (part 2 ) : )

Splash Mountain, it was broad daylight. But again not many people showed up today. Lucky for us! This ride has the steepest drop outta the whole park! Branden's been tall enough to ride this since last spring/year and it's so much fun to ride this! It's like the log ride but better! Many many steep drops during, the one ride.The wait time if you see the picture was barely 5 minutes!

As Branden and I were walking into the ride. A few Japanese school girls walked ahead. And again, it wasn't even raining!

The view from one of the steep hills before we plummeted down the hill like a speeding bullet!

Branden and I rode a log with 5 Japanese school boys! They were good well behaved boys! Yup, the view? Looking at the flowers feeling completely serene, ha! It's a scam! They relax you, just to surprise you at the bend and suddenly drop you down the hill at top speeds! I knew what was coming! I was not fooled by the relaxing flowers this time! Ha ha ha, wink wink wink! : )

Again if you read this new sign for the other ride, again it says only a 5 minute wait! Gotta love those rainy Disney days! Ha ha ha! : ) Besides all the rides, we also caught all the shows too! : )

For dinner we went to the Buffet place. In this picture Noah was showing not only his fork skills, but his ohashi skills as well! Just kidding, ha ha ha! : )

Branden buttering his dinner roll! He really is the sweetest kid. He has wonderful table manners. He isn't bouncing all over the place. He sits quietly, he listens and he eats all of his food. He's a really and truly wonderful good kid! He's always been that way. Now my little Noah? ha ha ha, he's a sweetheart but he's like Tigger, he's always jumping and bouncing all over the place. He's always giggly and talks and waves to everybody! He's an extreme extrovert Noah is! Branden is not an introvert at all mind you. He has gobs of friends and all. he's just quieter and more reserved then Noah is. I love them both for all their differences! They are both so special, it's neat to see how different in personality they are though. But they are extremely close to one another though! That's what I am most happy about. : )

Noboru drinking his corn potage, which was perfect for a gray drizzly type day!

My first serving in the Mickey shaped plate. I had salad, a delicious yeasty type diner roll and curry, which I added some all white meat karaage on top. Oh man that was good! I also had spaghetti and pilaf, and Indian curry and naan and all sorts of stuff! We were all stuffed by the time we left!

My dessert! Chocolate nuts cake with a side of cool whip! Ha, I felt *so* "When Harry Met sally" for getting my cool whip on the side! LOL! Pineapple cheesecake, oh my god this was great! And the one with Stitch's face and Mickey's face was honey cake! I had this little dessert plate I made for myself along with a hot cup of coffee! We all had yummy desserts! : )

My poor son! He was getting so sleepy during our meal. And then I turned to him and he was sitting right there dead asleep! I felt badly for waking him up but we did! He woke up and we asked him if he wanted to sleep in the stroller and he said no. He rode more rides! Maybe he only needed a 5 minute nap? Power nap, maybe? : )

When we walked out of the restaurant after dinner. It was like the whole place got deserted almost. I mean there were small crowds to begin with this morning, but now sheesh, only half of the people from this morning were still there! Branden and I went to Splash Mountain again. Noboru hung out with a sleeping Noah, who was snoozing away in his stroller by now. The wait time? Ha! Didn't even say 5 minutes anymore. There was no wait! Zero! Who shared a log with B and I? No one! Absolutely no one! We rode all by ourselves! Again didn't bother us. Kids had their down jackets and rain coats over those. Noah was snuggled in a blanket. We were ready for it! After Branden and I rode. I sat with Noah while he slept and Noboru got to ride with Branden! So everyone got even more turns to ride everything again! Branden and I also rode the Haunted Mansion and the wait time was 0! Ha ha ha! Noboru rode Big Thunder Mountain with Branden as well.

The fireworks display that Disneyland has every single night, unless it's too windy. However it wasn't too windy at all. So the show went on as planned. The four of us all sat and the 3 of us looked at the sky and watched this gorgeous fireworks display! Noah missed it since he was snoozing! : )

Branden and I, even rode the teacups! We rode 2 times in a row!

And who rode with us? Check the pic, no one rode with us! Ha ha ha! It was just Branden and I spinning by ourselves and we still didn't care in the least! We were there to ride the rides and we totally did! : )

Park closes at 10:00 pm. But by 9:00 pm it was virtually a ghost town. Nobody was there practically. With an hour left, we asked Branden what ride he'd like to ride. He said the Taxi's in Toontown so we went there. This pic is sorta blurry, but absolutely nobody was there! One woman was driving the Toon trolley, yet no one was inside. We went in and Branden rode the Taxi's a few more times. We both took turns riding with Branden, while Noah slept.

And our final ride of the night. That's C3Po, right? Ha ha ha! We left at closing. And even though we were going to pay for the ridiculous toll ride home to use the highway, it still took us a while to get home. We got home at midnight! We were dead tired but so totally glad we went, so it was worth it! We went straight to bed! No showers, no baths. Sorry, we were just exhausted! : )

At Disneyland, the popcorn buckets change from season to season. They always change. Ha ha ha. This Spring season it's Stitch. We bought 2 stitch popcorn buckets, one for each of our sons. I liked them because they are colorful and the 3D face on the top is pretty cool! And the colors were perfect for boys, blue, green and yellow! Popcorn buckets are 1200 yen. But in all fairness, bringing them back to Disneyland saves money because refilling them is just 400 yen. So, since we go to Tokyo Disneyland and Sea about 4 times a year, we can save money on the popcorn, plus all the kids have them! I'd feel badly if my kids didn't. So, we don't mind buying them at all.

I bought some mini towels and handkerchiefs for Branden to use at yochien.

And Noah got this cute little Donald Duck hat! Growing up, I had a Mickey Mouse hat with ears and it was stitched with the words "Gina" on the back. Branden had one when he was littler too and it said "Branden" on it! Now it was Noah's turn! He didn't want the Mickey ears though. Hmmm! I guess he just beats to his own drum, I guess. Noah insisted on the Donald one. But then , he always claps for him when he sees him on TV, so go figure! So Donald, it is!

As of course they stitched the words "Noah" on it for us for free! The hat was only like 600 yen, the Mickey was only like 500 yen or something like that. Very affordable! And they will remember these memories when they are older and they see pictures of themselves with a Mickey hat like Branden has pics of himself and Noah will see pics of himself, with the Donald hat as well! So there you have it! Our family went to Tokyo Disneyland and we had a really really great time! We hope to go back real soon! : )