November 21, 2025

Friday - Rainy, cloudy and clear at times

I woke up for the first time around 5:30. F wasn’t in bed and I wasn’t sure if he was still in the house or not. I went downstairs and he was taking a shower. 

I went back upstairs to bed and a few minutes later, so did F. He got back into bed with me. I fell asleep and when I woke up later, he was already gone. He said later that he just hadn’t been able to sleep. 

I woke up a bit late and made a trip downstairs then went back to bed again and watched a few videos. I fell asleep and overslept. 

I got up later, dressed and went downstairs with my laundry and put it in the machine. I made my breakfast and then brought it upstairs to eat. I did a total of two loads of laundry which are now hung up in my room. 

I did work on my column and got quite a bit of it done. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to work on it this weekend, but there isn’t too much more to do on it.

I had lunch a few minutes early and didn’t see K at all this afternoon. I watched an episode of School Spirits while I ate. I enjoyed that. 

I watched the news at 4 pm and after 5:30 F gave me a call to say he had finished work. Eventually I went downstairs and started to get ready to make dinner. F came back just before I started to do the dishes. 

I got on with cooking. Tonight I did pasta as usual for Friday with a salad and mini-tomatoes for F and K. We also had some bacon which I sautéd and then the pasta sauce was carbonara. I used up a carbonara sauce packet that I had been keeping for a while and mixed that with another type that I bought earlier this week. The pasta was nice and sauce-y, just how I like it.

Dinner was a success and everything disappeared. I guess that’s a good thing, but I was hoping I’d have leftovers for lunch next week! Even K had seconds and she doesn’t usually.

I did the dishes while I listened to my podcasts. I was surprised to hear that there had been a grizzly bear attack in Canada. It was rather bad. We’ve been having a lot of bear attacks here in Japan. The Canadian bears (grizzlies) are much meaner than the Asiatic bears, but this year, the Japanese bears have killed 12 people and injured rather a lot more. 

When I finished I was really tired. I told F that I was going upstairs and that I’d take a shower later. He came upstairs around 10 pm and I went downstairs a few minutes later for my shower. When I came  upstairs again, I put on the next episode of Down Cemetary Road. It was good and the plot is thickening!

That’s about it. Since midnight I’ve been hanging out with YouTube and doing my internet stuff. Tomorrow K goes to her Day Service thing and F and I are on our own until the late afternoon. It’s also F’s birthday this weekend and I have no idea what to do for him. I haven’t been out to get him a present so I’m not sure about what I can give him!

Come back later if you like and hear all about my Saturday. Until tomorrow…. 

November 20, 2025

Thursday - Cool but clear

I woke up this morning around 7:30. I wasn’t sure if F was still in the house or not. I got up to go downstairs and I saw F’s wallet on the table. Oops.  I went downstairs and saw that F was still downstairs. Whew! He knew that he didn’t have his wallet so that was good. He went upstairs to get it and then left a few minutes later.

I went back upstairs and watched some videos before falling asleep again. I woke up later and dressed. I went downstairs to make my breakfast and then brought it upstairs to eat. 

I had a fairly quiet day. I did a bit of emailing and planning for a group activity. I even got stuck into my column and wrote quite a bit of it so yay for me. 

Today while I ate my lunch I watched last Saturday’s episode of Criminal Minds: Evolution. This show is just so dark! I think I want to keep watching, at least for now, but there isn’t much to keep the story lighter at all. 

F called me around 5:20 today to say that he was on his way back. I spent a few more minutes on my computer and then went downstairs. When F arrived he basically just waved hello to me and then went into the living room. I was busy, but had wanted to see him first. 

Tonight I did pre-made hamburgers from the store with some steamed mushrooms, fries, salad and macaroni salad. I also cut up some pickles so we had smaller pickles. Almost everything disappeared tonight. Dinner was good!  We finished quite early and then I did the dishes. It didn’t take too long tonight so I was able to go upstairs and change to go out. 

F and I went out to the Mina shopping centre. I went into the store and bought the groceries. We came back to the house and I put them away. 

I went upstairs and relaxed for a bit. I watched The Rookie at 11pm and it was quite a good one. The show has really improved in my opinion. It’s more of a drama now than a comedy. 

Since midnight I’ve been watching YouTube and working on my end of day things. 

Tomorrow, I hope to do laundry and then work on my column again. I’d really like to get it done early. 

Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

November 19, 2025

 Wednesday - Snowy in the AM, sunny later on

I woke up this morning around 7:30. F had already left for work. It was cold in the room and my bed was warm. I went downstairs and then got back into bed and watched a few videos before falling asleep. I woke up later with the last video repeating for the nth time…I don’t know how many! I got up and dressed. Then, I took the kerosene tank downstairs with me and filled it. I brought it back up to the room and then went downstairs again. 

I washed my hands and then I went and made my breakfast. I took it upstairs and ate.

Today I had a Zoom meeting at 1 pm, so I made my computer charge itself up, then I made a cup of tea for myself and joined the meeting. At first it was just me and another person, but over the next couple of hours a few more people either joined or popped in for a visit. It was nice and I enjoyed meeting a new person.

When I left the meeting I went downstairs and grabbed my lunch. K came out of her room and I asked her if she would like her lunch heated up. She said yes. I did it for her and then took it to the living room for her. F and I think she’s forgotten how to use the microwave. I wish she had said something earlier. I’m not going to chase her down to see if she wants her food hot, but if I see her out of bed I’ll ask. 

I came back upstairs with my lunch. I had planned to watch something but again this week I ran out of time. Oh dear. I watched the news and then some YouTube, but not too much!

F called me about 5:30 and said he was on his way. I went downstairs and was just going to start washing dishes when he arrived. We had a nice reunion and then he went into the living room. 

Tonight I made some chicken drumsticks in the air fryer, some okra with garlic and soy sauce, salad, and macaroni salad. When I asked F to put the rice out for us, he checked the cooker and it had hardened and he wouldn’t serve it out. We had some bachelor packs of precooked rice so I heated two up and we used that instead. F had one to himself, I split one with K. Dinner was good and everything got eaten. Luckily, I had put away K’s lunch for tomorrow first. 

I did the dishes after dinner and then I had to do up the burnable garbage too. I got that done, some of it with F’s help and put the bag in the genkan for him to take out later. I headed upstairs too.

I relaxed for an hour or so and then went downstairs again to take a shower. It was darn cold today too. Still, the water was warm and I didn’t get a cold shower like last time so that’s good!

I came back up to the room and watched Wild Cards again. It was a good one with another con artist/friend of Max’s. I did a few rounds of my knitting while I watched. I’m now on the double pointed needles so it takes a minute to get used to using them again. 

And that was my day. I didn’t get any of my column written but I have been thinking about it. Hopefully I’ll write a bit of it tomorrow. Not much time left!

Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

November 18, 2025

Tuesday - Rainy and gloomy all day

I woke up this morning before 7:30. F was still here, but he left soon after. I went downstairs and then came back to the room after he left. I sorted my laundry and then went back to bed for a while. I watched videos for a bit and then I fell asleep.

I woke up a bit later and went downstairs. I started the washing machine and then went and made my breakfast. I took it back upstairs to eat.

I only did one load of laundry today and when it finished I brought it upstairs and hung it up. Then, I went and spent a bit of time with YouTube. I actually fell asleep on it which surprised me a lot. 

I went downstairs around 3 pm and made my lunch. I noted that K still hadn’t eaten her lunch so I decided if I saw her up I would ask her if she wanted me to heat it up for her. She wasn’t up then. I took my lunch upstairs and ate. I watched an episode of Elspeth. It was rather cute, and was a Christmas episode.

I went downstairs just before 5 pm and K was sitting up in the living room. I asked her if she wanted me to heat up her lunch and she said yes. I microwaved a bowl of stew and took it out to her. Yay me. 

I watched the news and then turned off the TV later. I got a call from F around 5:30 and he said that he was already in Tsuruoka. Yikes. I waited a few minutes and then changed to go downstairs. 

I got started on the dishes and a few minutes later F came back. We had a nice reunion and then he went to the living room and I got busy again. Tonight I did toaster oven chicken plus potato salad, salad, broccoli and some radishes from the store. F had made rice so we had that with the chicken too. Dinner was good. We also finished up the kimchi tonight too.

I did the dishes, they didn’t take long tonight. When I was done, I checked if F wanted to change his clothes before we went out but he didn’t. I did. I went upstairs, put on some warmer clothes and then went back downstairs again.

We went over to the Mina Shopping area and I went in the grocery store. I bought food for the next couple of days. F had said not to get him anything for his breakfasts so I didn’t. I paid and then went out to the car.

We came back to the house and F and I went in the house. I put away the groceries again and then went upstairs. At 11pm I watched FBI: Most Wanted and then turned off the TV. I had done some knitting during the show and have taken the knitting off the circular needles and put it on double pointed needles. I got about 6 rounds done tonight, so it has decreased by quite a few stitches now. 

And that’s about it. F has to leave early for work tomorrow and has a long driving trip. I’m a tad worried as there is going to be snow on the road to where he is going. It’s the first snow of the season. 

Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

November 17, 2025

Monday - Rainy and Cold

I woke up this morning after F left and before my alarm went off. I made a trip downstairs and then headed back to bed. It was raining out and not very nice. I watched some videos and then did fall asleep again. I woke up much later than I expected to because it was really dark in our room. It was dark outside, there wasn’t any sun at all.

I dressed and went downstairs and got to work. I worked on dinner. I prepared my stew and got it going in the slow cooker. It took about two hours or so to peel, chop and sauté the ingredients. I set the slow cooker to high and then cleaned up. I washed my dishes and put them away, then I quickly made my very late breakfast!

I took my food upstairs and ate, then watched some YouTube and checked out some of my favourite websites.

Around 3 pm I went downstairs again and grabbed lunch. I made it a little smaller today as I ate breakfast so recently. Since it was late when I got back to the room I decided not to watch anything until the news was on. 

I watched the news and didn’t like it as usual. I turned off the TV and then a bit later F called me to say that he was on his way. I changed my clothes and then went downstairs to start on dinner.

The stew was smelling very nice. F had said that he’d like to have hash browns with dinner. I was surprised and thought that he’d want rice, but nope. Oh well. I prefer hash browns but I don’t think they really go well with stew. It’s fine though. 

We had stew, hash browns and salad for dinner and it was nice. Between seconds and K’s lunch for tomorrow, there wasn’t any stew leftover! I had hoped for some for my lunch tomorrow but…oh well.

I did the dishes afterwards and then told F that i was going upstairs. I relaxed and made myself a cup of decaf Royal Milk Tea. It was very nice. 

F came upstairs about the same time that I was getting ready to go downstairs. I took a shower and right before I finished the water got really cold for a couple of seconds. F had come downstairs and must have used the hot water. Yikes!

When I went back upstairs I decided to watch an episode of Gen V. It was good and the plot is getting more complicated. 

And that’s about it for my day. Tomorrow I have to do some laundry and work on my column. I’ve been thinking about it for a while, so I might be able to write some of it. Fingers crossed anyway!

Until tomorrow…. 

November 16, 2025

Sunday - Cloudy and cooler

I woke up around 10 am this morning. I had gone to bed late even for me last night. I had to send my sister a note as today is her birthday and she’s been having a rough time right now. 

I made a trip downstairs and then went back to bed. F got up and went downstairs to feed his mother. 

I dragged myself out of bed a bit later and then I got dressed. F and I talked about what to do for lunch and after a few minutes I suggested going to Naa. That is a farmer’s restaurant on the outskirts of the city. They have great veggie side dishes, but the main dishes are usually fish or pork. It is a nice place.

We were able to get a table right away and looked at the menu. We ordered and after a few minutes got our food. Now, unfortunately, F decided that it was a good idea for him to wear his earphones and listen to YouTube videos through the whole lunch. I was rather hurt as I had hoped we’d have a nice discussion. We did not.

After lunch, we ended up going over to Komeda for a drink and dessert. I had a decaf coffee and an apricot chocola cake, F had cafe au lait and a custard cake. We didn’t do much talking at the coffee shop either, but it didn’t upset me as much. I did get a lot of my book read, so that was good.

We went back to the house and I just came upstairs. I spent most of the rest of the afternoon on my computer. And why not?!

F got something for his mother and then he cooked  dinner for her. I was starting to wonder if we would ever do our shopping! F had asked if I’d like to go out with him to the shop, but I didn’t want to go yet.

He did suggest going out to dinner finally and we wanted ideas of where to go. I asked if it was okay to have Chinese food again and he said it was fine. We went to To-En again, the restaurant on the other side of the park. We were able to get in but they did say food would take a while to arrive as they were busy. 

We looked at the menu and ordered some food. F wanted fried rice, I wanted mapo-dofu and some kara-age. We decided to order all three and share. That’s what we did and it was good. We got some spare plates and shared our meals. My mapo-dofu came first and I gave F about half. His fried rice was next and he ladled out about half of that for me. We shared the kara-age. The food was good and we both enjoyed it.

Next up, I had wanted to go to a hundred yen shop to look for knitting needle caps. I’m going to be using DPN (double pointed needles) soon so I want to make sure the stitches won’t fall off the needles. I popped in to Daiso at PAL and got myself a couple of packets of them.

We drove out to Yunohama. F wanted to check somewhere that he will be driving tomorrow. I nearly fell asleep in the car, but it was okay. When F was satisfied that he knew where he was going, we came back to Tsuruoka. 

I asked that we go back to the PAL shopping area to do the grocery shopping. F took me there and gave me some money. I went into the store and did the shopping. I picked up food for the next couple of weeks. I was sad that they didn’t have the right kind of bread for me, I’ll have to get more later in the week. I got ingredients to make a stew and I’ll likely do that tomorrow. Yay for me. 

We came back to the house and for some reason F started putting all the groceries out on the kitchen table. I told him that I’d unpack the groceries. I’m going to use them so I’d like them to be where I need them! I went upstairs after I finished and changed into my PJ’s. I decided to watch something but couldn’t decide what. I started watching Monkey Man but I wasn’t watching it that much and the film was partially in Hindi so I couldn’t understand it. I stopped watching it and decided to watch another episode of Cardinal off the Fire Disk. It was good. The suspense is rising.

And that’s about it. Since I turned off the TV I’ve been watching YouTube and enjoying it. 

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. I’ll likely start making my stew around noon and then I can leave it for the rest of the day in my slow cooker. I might do some laundry if I’m so moved. 

Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow…. 

November 15, 2025

Saturday - Clear and sunny, cool

I woke up first around 7:30 but after a trip downstairs I went back to bed. I woke up a bit later when F came in the room and asked about going for lunch. Considering I was still in bed and in my pjs I wasn’t planning anything like that! We had a good discussion about where to go for lunch. F liked my idea, but when he called to make a reservation, they were too busy for us today. We went with F’s idea. He called and made a reservation. They often have pasta with tomato sauce, but I can’t have that. The chef has offered to make something else for me if he has notice.  

I got up, dressed and a few minutes later we headed out to the restaurant. We arrived and ordered. I made a mistake on the menu and ordered dessert and coffee with my meal. I thought I was just getting salad and soup, but I got it all. Oh well. The dessert was lovely so I didn’t mind! F was happy as he got to have ramen which he actually liked. Amazing!

F and I left when we were finished and drove back to Tsuruoka. We made a stop at Musashi, the hardware store. F wanted to buy shrimp for his fish tank (they clean it apparently) and I wanted to get masks. We both got what we wanted.

We went back to the house where F took care of the shrimp and then went outside to change the car tyres. It took him a while, but he managed. He also was downstairs to welcome his mother back to the house. 

He made her some dinner and then it was our turn. We decided to go out to China House and then go out to Mikawa to see a movie. At China House I had Yurinchi, which is a battered fried chicken with a sour sauce with a lot of green onions!  I like it a lot. F had pork on rice which he complained a bit about. 

We headed out to Mikawa and went into the mall. We went up to the cinema and bought the tickets and then popcorn and drinks. We went to see Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. I liked it and what surprised me was that F did too. He did ask me after the movie if it was a true story and if Springsteen was a real person. I just laughed at him. To be fair, F has always been more interested in Classical music and I’m not sure if Springsteen is that popular in Japan. 

We drove back to the house and I went upstairs and got on my computer. Same as usual then!

That’s about it for me for today. I’m not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. I will have to buy groceries as usual, but hopefully we can do something else as well. 

Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….