Kawaii Teddy Bear Bento

I love this bento box shaped like a teddy bear head.

I used the cutest little sandwich cutters that also have a piece you can press into the bread to make an animal face. Adorable! :)

Ramune aka Japanese Soda Drink with Marble in the Bottle

A description of the origin of ramune is here. But basically the one I got tastes like Sprite. It comes with a plastic plug looking piece that you press into the top of the bottle. This releases a hidden marble into the bottle. It also caused mine to fizz like a volcano all over my counter top. :)  It is difficult to drink at times because the marble blocks the flow of liquid.  But the kids loved playing with it.  It is a pretty cool novelty drink although it was way too sweet for my liking.  The marble, apparently, is extremely difficult to remove without breaking the bottle. I used pliers and couldn't budge the plastic top. But I'm pretty sure the movers packed my bottle for me! :) So atleast I got a cool souvenir!! :)

Bottle after removing the plastic wrap that covered the cap.

Bottle with plug sitting on top just after I popped it. If you look closely you can see the clear liquid puddled around the bottle.

See the marble covered in bubbles?

Tilted so you can see the marble.

Chug it Bella!!

Chug Chug Chug!

I love the tongue sticking out while looking at the marble!

Looking for the marble. :)

A Sad Day

Bella had her last day of preschool at Koza Seibo Yochien today.  The move is coming up soon and it was time to say goodbye.  Her class sang to her, then they each told her goodbye as they left for the day.  The class also made her a scrapbook to remember them by.  Each child drew her a picture or wrote something for her.  Her teacher told her Sayonara many times and kept coming back for just one more hug.  She was crying the whole time, which of course made me cry.  I have never been so sad to leave a school or a place before.  The love they have shown Bella is amazing and heartwarming. It is something we will never forget. And hopefully someday we can come back to visit Okinawa and her wonderful little school. :)

 Bella and her teacher Atsuko

A page from the scrapbook they made for her!

Kawaii Onigiri!!!!

I made this as a gift for my daughter's teacher.  I really like it! I think I'll have to make more! :)

Visiting a Japanese Elementary School

I got a chance to chaperone my son's field trip to Jogaku Elementary in Naha, Okinawa.  It was such a neat experience.  We started off walking in circles and when the music stopped we would introduce ourselves to the person in front of us.  We all tried to do it in Japanese, while they tried in English.

Then they taught us some Eisa dancing. I was NOT coordinated enough to do it correctly, but I tried! :)

Then we all had a lunch of curry, corn dogs and salad.  Once lunch was over we got a quick tour of the school before we had to hop back on the bus.  I had chance to chat with one of the Japanese moms and she told me that the kids all clean the school. They put them in groups and each group cleans a certain part or does a certain "duty" as she called it.  They even clean the bathrooms!  Out of respect I'm not posting any photos with the kids' faces in them. So there are only a few photos and I also only had my son's point & shoot, so the photo quality is pretty sub par, but atleast the compositions look good! ;)

Super Sexy Green Slippers

Cubbies full of slippers.

Drums they used to teach us Eisa dancing.

My partner's legs & drum.

Super tiny bathroom slippers. Look out! It's BIG FOOT!!!

A classroom.

My son thought it was really cool that at his school they have a Japanese classroom and at this school they have an English classroom! :)

And last but not least my son getting ready to Eisa dance! :)

Cute Bentos for the Kiddos

I decided to go super cute with the bentos today since B only has 4 more bentos until she is done with school.  The Hello Kitty egg was colored using food coloring and Q-tips.  It took a little more time than usual to make the bentos, but I think once we move I will have to better organize my bento making supplies.

Something Yummy, Something Hilarious & Something Iffy

The kids and I went out shopping this morning. We headed over to the Farmer’s Market, the 100 Yen Store and then to Max Value.  We scored some interesting stuff. First we found something yummy! My favorite rice at the Farmer’s Market!

Then at the 100 Yen store, the funniest thing! A set of appliqués (stickers) for the toilet that have faces on them and say “Mission Success!” and  “ Relax your head. Relax your face good…”  Yeah, when we move into our new house, these are SO going on my toilet!!

Next, at Max Value we found some almost tasteless gelatinous blobs that you roll in a powder that smells and tastes kind of peanutty.  I did NOT care for these, but my daughter who will eat any kind of Japanese food LOVED them.

1st Preschool Bento (or I made Octodogs!)

B has been begging for Octodogs! So for her 1st bento of the school year, octodogs it is! They were very easy to make and super cute!

My 100 Yen Store Treasure of the Day

Everytime I go into a 100 Yen store I come out with atleast 1 large bag full of goodies.  The 100 Yen store, for those who are unfamiliar, is equivalent to the American $1 Store. Well, equivalent may not be the word I am looking for.  Almost everything in the store is 100 Yen which, as the rate fluxuates can be a little more or a little less than 1 American dollar.  But the quality of the goods sold in the 100 Yen store far surpass that of the Dollar Store.  You can buy nice Japanese dishes, bento boxes, hello kitty trinkets, and the kitchen supplies...WOW!  We went to the Yen store to find a scrubber for Bella's school thermos and left with no yen and a bag full of goodies.

Yesterday I hit the kitchen supply section and hit it hard! We had recently broken our whisk, found one.  I also got a rice scoop/spatula for use with the rice cooker, it stands on it's flower shaped bottom for "sanitary purpose" , atleast that is what the label says.  I also found smaller rice spatulas for use in making onigiri and other shaped rice balls, which I will soon be doing for Bella's bento lunches. I also purchased a spatula holder that suctions to the side of the rice cooker, brushes to scrub clean Bella's school shoes, an extending scrubber for her thermos, and my treasure of the day.

The kids and I LOVE edamame beans. But they never taste as good as a restaurant, even when I follow  the directions on the package and boil them for 6 mins. They just aren't as tasty.  So I found a magic bowl yesterday, well, it's really not a magic bowl, but I definitely am amazed that I paid 100 Yen for this little container. 

You put in roughly 6 tsp of water, add the beans, put on the lid and toss it in the microwave for 2 mins.  The beans were super tasty and not overcooked! The kids and I ate an entire bag with dinner last night.  Seriously!  I was amazed and thrilled with my Yen Store purchases as usual! :)

*Also apparently when you eat the beans you need a giant foamy beer. Hey, I'm just sayin'...*

1st Day at Koza Seibo Yochien Preschool

more photos located here:

http://nikkipaigephotography.blogspot.com/2010/04/1st-day-of-preschool.html

Preschool Necessities

So I took B's list for preschool to the store and showed it to an employee. It was a drawing of an eye (sleep) mask with some kanji written by it.  He proceeded to direct me to the craft section and point to the elastic. Hmmm..... Just the elastic. So I gathered from the drawings and the fact that I was directed toward supplies that I was supposed MAKE her mask & the pouch to keep it in, plus the cup bag and the jump rope bag.  I took B to the San A and let her pick from the kawaii fabrics.  She chose cute little bunnies. So here is what she got. :)

Cup bag

Mask & Pouch

Mask in pouch

the pouch

Cutest Shoes Ever!!!

So, we had an "incident" the other day in which some two year old, who shall remain nameless, "soiled" her shoes and they had to be thrown away. So of course we had to go shoe shopping. Now normally back home in the US, we could go to Payless or somewhere with a decent selection of reasonably priced tennis shoes. Not so when you live on a military base in Okinawa. You have the BX/PX and that is it. And the selection of toddler girls shoes is just plain SAD! Not to mention pricey. So we went off base for the shoe shopping.

Usually I can find her a cute pair at the "bunny store" by Araha beach. This time however there were many boy styles and few girly ones in her size. Although I did score HUGE on clothes! They are clearing out all of their summer clothes, even though it is still steamy here, and I got 2 dresses, 5 shirts and 2 pants for about $30. Woohoo!!!

So off to the Birthday store. May I just say I LOVE the Birthday store. Not only did I find her 2 of the cutest embroidered pairs of jeans for 500 Yen a piece (roughly $5 each), but we found the SHOES!!!!

There is no way to express how much I love Japanese kids shoes. They are very nicely priced, in this case about $8.50, and they are adorable. These shoes that we purchased are not only adorable, but every time she takes a step they squeak! I know, you are thinking...ANNOYING!! But it really doesn't bother me, and she LOVES LOVES LOVES them. She purposely runs back and forth just to hear her shoes!! I will tell you that we did get some smiles and some strange looks when we ran errands today, most were smiles, but I could see some people cringe at the "squeak, squeak, squeak" as my little angel ran around happy as could be. Okay, here are the cutest shoes!