Japan Trip Winter 2012 Part 2

Nov. 26
We did Nabe (dump meat, vege in hot water and eat with soy sauce base soup) for dinner.  It's the best stuff during the winter!!

Nov. 27
We went to one of my favorite kids clothes store.
Ren had fun with his friends from school at a park.
and for dinner, we went to sushi restaurant, again,
and again Ren ate 7 plates of same item, lol

We went to English conversation at church,
and people there were surprised how much English he could speak.
Ummm.......He is native English speaker, you know......lol

Nov. 28
Lina had fever last night, so we took her to Dr in the morning.
and we shopped little bit, ate quick lunch, and got home.

Nov. 29
Ren's cough has been getting worse, I took him to Dr in the morning.
I didn't know if he got it from Lina or he was gonna give to everyone...
end up with giving to everyone, Lina started coughing, Aila started coughing,.....

I had chance to see 2 of my high school friends.



One is working in middle of Hiroshima, and the other one is living in Nagoya
where about 10 hrs drive away from here, but just happened to be at her home
this day because her husband was gone with business trip.

We had fun girls time for couple of hours, eating snacks at restaurant.
One is getting married in Spring, and the other one has a baby boy.
We talked about high school memories, and marriage life, motherhood, etc.

There will never be enough time to end girls talk.

I also shopped with my mom for kids`clothes.
I bought 37 items for $80 which is about 75% off price average.

It was steal deal for me !!!!!

Nov. 30
My sister decided to come home again, so we went to Hiroshima to pick them up.
We went to a restaurant for dinner.
We ordered a course dinner and they have all you can eat bread and desert.
Their bread was soooo good!!









This is my main dish, Chicken.




Ren ate so much pudding for desert, he actually threw up next day, lol.

Dec. 1
My grandma is in the hospital right now, so we went to visit her in the morning.
She cannot eat by herself anymore, so they did surgery; gastrosomy (?).
According to my mom, she was so skinny, but after the surgery she got alot better.
so when I went to see her, her skin looks very pink and she looked same as I remember,
but she couldn`t communicate well anymore like last time I saw her.
She seemed like she couldn`t remember me even when I told her my name,
but when I said that I came back from US, she made a surprised face
which kind of made me feel better.

When I touched her shoulder, I could only feel her bone, but supposedly she is still walking.
I hope I can have good conversation with her before I go back.

Then we went to Fukuyama where my mom is from to see my aunt, cousins.
We shopped at mall, as usual, lol.

this store had a play area for kids.


We ate dinner together, again per Ren`s request we ate sushi.
We went to bath house, and got home, straight to bed.....

Dec. 2
We went to church.
just chilled at home.

Dec. 3
I went to little shopping with my sister.
Before we took my sister and kids home, we went to dinner including my dad.
This restaurant has good breaded deep fried pork, and noodle.







I ate sooo much, again, even my dad was surprised, lol.

I hope you can't see too much that my face is getting extra cushion........

Dec. 4
I went to salon to do my hair.
I did straight perm twice, put little color, so it took almost 7 hrs......
I had fun talking to the stylist, so I had fun,
but felt bad for him that he could`t have any rest for LONG time.....

Dec. 5
We went to Indian restaurant for lunch.
Personally I think their nan is the best!!  Lina ate good, too!!




My aunts and uncles came to visit my grandma at hospital.
so we went to the hospital, too.
She had stomach check up today, so she was pretty tired and asleep whole time we were there.

Before we went to the hospital, we had little time, so we decided to walk by beach side.
Lina was sleeping in the car, but Aila had blast fun in cold beach.



Aila, playing by sea shore


The view from beach


Train track by it and old guy riding a bicycle, like normal Japanese view


Like you can imagine, she screamed crying saying that she wanted to play more, lol.



I found a pretty shell, just laying on the beach.



I decided to grab it.
I thought some sea weed was stuck in the shell, so I decided to pull it out.


and noticed that wasn`t a sea weed........yeah had actual crab in it.
I kept it in the water for awhile after we got home, but it hasn`t moved at all
so I guess he is dead.....Hummmmm.....should I pull thing out?  or not?

They came to house afterwards, so we had fun time talking.
We went dinner, again per Ren`s request, sushi restaurant.
Surprisingly, Ren ate 10 plates!!!
I seriously thought he was gonna throw up.

☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★

Here is bonus picture of the Japanese donuts.
Yummy!!

Japan trip winter 2012 part1

So, It has been over a year since my last post, which is my last trip to Japan.

Here I am again having fun in Japan with my family.

Jason is coming right before Christmas to spend time with us, yey!!

Last time when we were in Japan, I was working whole time, so I couldn`t do much,

but this time I quit my job a month ago, so I am having all free time !!

Here is brief summary and pictures of my trip so far.

Nov. 18th

9am we took off my house and drove to Phoenix airport with rental car.  The trip wasn`t so bad except that I didn`t sleep AT ALL the night before so I was Super Duper Crazy sleepy......

We took some rest on the way, but with that time loss and the accident on the road blocked our road took extra time, and the PHX airport people are not helpful AT ALL, we almost missed our flight.  

The only reason we made it is because the flight was 15 min. delayed.

We got to LA airport, and grabbed 7 out of 10 luggage (3 didn`t make it on the airplane, so they came 1 hour later), transfer the terminal WITH the luggage (again airport people are not helpful at all), waited for 1 hour for the check in counter to open, checked in, went back to terminal to grab last 3 boxes, went back to intl terminal, check in bags again, eat little bit, AND finally we are on the way to Japan.

6 hours of delay in LA wasn`t boring at all, lol

Here is a pic of our 7 luggage + carry on.  Yeah, used 3 carts......

Finally we are on at little after midnight.
Kids and I fell sleep right away for 5-6 hrs

 After dinner, Aila fell sleep again.  such a easy girl.

My mom took care of Lina, so I actually had time to watch 2 whole movies during the flight, probably first time in 4 years

Ren was playing DS, screen game, etc.

And of course goofing off, lol

I love ANA!! They are all so nice and always give kids some toys.
Lina got a rabbit puppet.

Finally after 12 hours of flight, we got to Tokyo (Haneda) 5am local time.
Here is little Edo (old japanese era) street in the airport in intl terminal.

They have big shrine gate. 

We got to Hiroshima 9 30am.  We came home and unpacked 10 boxes of stuff.  My cousin came to visit us.  Went shopping to get stuff for Ren to get ready for his school here.

for Dinner on 20th (Tue)  Kappa Sushi
This place has the train system to bring your order.
You order what you want to eat, and there is a little train rail and the bullet train will bring your order.

Ren ate 5.5 plates (means 11 pieces) of Hamachi (yellow tail)

I love Japanese 7-11.  They have everything.
Because girls were asleep during dinner, I bought some bread for them.
This is another favorite bread of mine, and especially Jason`s.

We finished the day with English conversation at church.

Nov. 21st
So girls fell sleep about 5pm, and woke up 3 30am next morning.
I took shower with them and pretty much stayed awake.

Here is our breakfast of rice with seaweed.

Lina was so baby and shy last time, she was crying whole first 1 week, but this time, she is having so much fun!!

Ren started school already.
Here is my handsome boy with Japanese elementary school back pack (They all wear this type of back pack).

I went to school with him this day to say Hi to all the teachers.  There are some of kids from kinder last year, so he was happy to see them, and they were happy to see him, too!

He came home, and told me [mama, I didn`t understand ANYTHING!!] .
I told him it`s OK, because nobody in his class will understand if they were in his school in TX.

He told me that they ran in PE and he was the fastest one, and he got a candy.  Good start, Ren !!

And yes, it`s cold !!!

One missionary had a transfer, so we went to station to say good bye.

Here is a pic of Ren with JR train (regular train)

By Ren`s request, we went upstairs to see some of bullet train
This will take about 4.5 hrs from El Paso to UT, costs about adult $200/ 1way

Nov. 22
I had one of my favorite that I could never get it in US
It`s raw cod egg in a sac.
Sounds gross, but it`s very good to me.

It`s not Jason`s favotite, though.

Girls are watching Japanese kids TV show (like kids discovery channel)
some times I don`t know what makes kids to pay so much attention, but this TV show seriously made girls STARE  at TV whole time.  I mean they are not moving even a inch, lol

Had desert of Japanese pudding with whip cream and sprinkles on it.
Yummmmm!!!

Here is my another favorite food of mine.
It`s made from sweet rice, mashed and rolled, boiled, grilled, and covered with sweet sauce.
SO high calories, lol

Again we went out for dinner at udon noodle restaurant.

Nov. 22

Still girls decided to wake up 5 am, so I chilled with them on the bed.....

We went to Hiroshima city to pick up my sister and her kids.

We had lunch at my sisnter`s work, ramen noodle restaurant.

It was GOOOOOOD.

I met my nephew first time.

He is 15 months now.  He is so chunky and so cute (*^^*)

Again we went to Kappa Sushi for dinner, but I was so stuffed from lunch and snack, and SOOO sleepy, I was sleeping in the car with girls.

According to my mom, Ren ate 7 plates of Hamachi today, lol.

Nov. 23

It was holiday in Japan, so we took kids to Zoo.  

Here is my lunch.

7-11 only sells this during winter. Egg and noodle.

Penguin

Looking at Zebra

 Mia-cat....and kids

First time to see real Capybara.
They had a baby, too 

The lion was very old guy and he was very skinny.
Still the King of beasts!!

Sure Lions are family of cats.

Little monkeys, lol

There is a park in front of the zoo, so kids had great time there, too!

Here is my sister having fun, too, lol

My sister and my nephew, Kou

Here is my mom

 Kou is wondering for some drink.

Lina, Kou, Rui

My niece, Yui

Aila.......`s legs are gonna be split !!

Kou is having fun, too!

Hang on Kou!!!

So is his mama, lol

Yui rock climbing

and We went to Chinese for dinner. (Chojo)
I haven`t been hungry for couple of days now, but still can fit some in my stomach, lol

We went to public bath/shower.  and headed home.
Of course kids were deep sleep when we got home.

Nov. 24
 Rui can never have enough time with her cousins, so she came to visit us again.

We just hang out at our house, and went out for dinner.

We wanted to go seafood, but it was full, so we decided to go different restaurant
but again it was full, so again we came for udon noodle place.

I did all girl`s hair.  Aila and Yui are the best buddy.

It`s not expensive restaurant, but it`s so much fun when we eat together!!

Ren ate most of this which is 2 people worth of noodle.

 Nov. 25
 We all went to church.  3 hours at small church with 5 kids was crazy......

Picture of Nonaka`s grandkids.
my sister says Yui is no good at smiling in a picture, but here she is smiling,
however, Sadly, Aila wasn`t to happy.......

Nov. 26
I went out for lunch with my mom and girls.
It was goooooood !!

We went to pet shop to look at dogs afterwards.
Went to kids clothing store.

There......Too many things happening everyday.......

I will try posting more stuff more often......probably not gonna happen...... but I will try, lol

Miss you and Love you, Jason