December 14, 2025

Sunday - Rainy but warmish

Well, sad to say, our heater has run out of kerosene up here in the room and since it is late at night I am not about to go downstairs and fill it up. So, you’ll get a very, very bare bones thing of my day!

This morning I got up and dressed. F had asked that we go to a Soba restaurant. I wasn’t too pleased, but since I drag him off to my places I have to go to his sometimes. We drove off into the wilderness outside Tsuruoka and arrived. We went in and both had tempura soba. It was much better than I expected. They also had a medley of locally made pickles that we could help ourselves to. They were interesting as well.

After lunch we came back to Tsuruoka and went to Gyomu Supa. I was looking for goodies for Christmas and a few things to suppliment our usual grocery store. I got some ginger cookies and some crackers. They are safely stored away from K!

After we got back to the house and put away our stuff, I went upstairs. I spent a couple of hours on my computer and then went to bed. F had spent most of the afternoon in bed so that was okay. I dozed for an hour or so. 

F made dinner for his mother and then we went for dinner. Since F had eaten a bit with his mother I suggested Gusto as I like it!  We went over there and had a good meal, except the robot bringing us food kept getting stuck! We had to go and rescue our food from another table at one point. I had the six mushroom pasta and a side salad, F had some kara-age and then a soft ice cream sundae. We both had drink bar which I enjoyed.

We went over to PAL after dinner and I bought the groceries for the next couple of days. We came in just over budget, by 40 yen or so! I’m going to make a stew tomorrow in my slow cooker. I just hope it isn’t too cold in the kitchen.

Back at the house I put away the dishes, F set up the rice cooker and we went upstairs. I ended up watching the last part of Down Cemetery Road which I really liked. Emma Thompson was great, Ruth Wilson was good and it was a good story. I hope there’ll be more in the future.

I watched some YouTube while I did my internet stuff and then a few minutes ago the heater ran out of fuel so I’m going to go to bed earlier than usual. Yay!

Come back later if you like and hear all about my stew-making and what I end up doing on Monday. Until tomorrow….

December 13, 2025

Saturday - Cloudy and cold, clearer later on…

I went to bed late last night so I slept in this morning. I did a wake up thing early on and went downstairs. I had hoped to go down after F and K left for the Day Service but they hadn’t left yet. Still, downstairs I went and then back to bed I did. 

F came in later and suggested going to Sakata for lunch. I was a tad surprised, but I didn’t mind. I got up and dressed, then we drove over there and went to Yamanakaya, a yakiniku restaurant. We had a nice meal and didn’t go overboard with side dishes today. 

We left after a long while and then made a quick stop at the new shopping plaza. I got my tea, some decaf coffee, and some snacks at Kaldi (but I was hoping for my Christmas Pudding and mincemeat tarts…denied again…sigh). We also hit up the Muji store to get some snacks and individual decaf coffee packs. 

After that, we had to drive back to Tsuruoka. We figured it would take about 30 minutes to drive back to Tsuruoka, but there had been an accident on the road so traffic was a bit backed up.  We got back to the house just before 4:30. F stayed in the living room to wait for his mother, I went upstairs.

I went back downstairs when the Day Service Manager was due to come. Of course, being Japanese she arrived almost 10 minutes early! There was a discussion of something and then we had to set the appointment for next month. I had earlier said to F that I didn’t care when it was, but I would not like it to be on a Sunday. We already “HAVE” to be back at the house on Saturday by 4:30 to welcome K back, I didn’t want to HAVE to be back on Sunday too. We managed to arrange for a Saturday afternoon, yay.

After the meeting, F cooked dinner for his mother and I went upstairs and relaxed. We talked about our dinner later and I gave F a list of options that worked for me. He picked the one that worked best for him and a few minutes later we left the house.

We had decided on China House. We got a table and looked at the menu. I had my favourite there, mapo-dofu with rice, soup, pickle and today there was kara-age. It was good. F had yakisoba and was pleased with his for the most part.

After dinner we went to the grocery store so F could buy some fish for his and K’s breakfast. He did offer to make some for me, but I didn’t want any. 

We came back to the house and upstairs. I decided to watch a couple of shows off Apple TV as I needed a laugh. Tonight I watched The Studio and then Shrinking. They were both good, funny, but with quite serious things happening there too. 

At 11 pm I watched Criminal Minds: Evolution which wasn’t as dark as usual. A lot of it was about the characters working on their own problems, and a couple used some naughty stuff to relax. I enjoyed it tonight.

After midnight F and I chatted about food for New Years. Our usual thing is to order sushi for lunch on New Year’s Day, but the problem for me is making F order it. We can order it from the grocery store but he has to get on it right away or we won’t be able to get it! F likes to put things off. It is just nice to have a couple of meals during New Years that we don’t have to think about. F likes his Japanese noodles and I really don’t, so I’ll need a break from it.

So, that’s about it for me. Tomorrow we have to do the shopping for food. I’m hoping to pick up a few things that we need for our Christmas dinner too as next weekend will be busy. 

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

December 12, 2025

Friday - Cold and snowy

I woke up to a world of cold this morning and I didn’t like it! I had set my alarm last night for earlier than my usual time. I wanted to be able to wake up this morning. I woke up, got up and went downstairs, then came back upstairs and got my clothes ready for going out. Then, I got back into bed and snoozed for a bit. I know, y’all probably think that I would have overslept, but I didn’t! 

I got up, dressed and then ate my breakfast sandwich. I went downstairs for a couple of minutes. I checked that K had enough kerosene in her heater (yes) and that I had marked her lunch for her (also yes). Then, I went back upstairs, grabbed my backpack and coat and then went on my merry way. 

I opened the front door, just as a lady came by delivering a local paper. We both jumped! I said good morning and for the rest of the block I followed her before going off on my way to the bus stop. The weather was horrible in the morning. It was dark and snowing and the wind was really strong. Of course, I got to the bus stop early and the bus was running late. Oh well. 

The bus was a bit busy and I got on when it arrived. I had a nice and quiet ride to Sanno machi. I tapped my card and got off. I walked back to the post office and mailed off my in Japan cards and also bought some nengajo. I’m going to try and make some again this year. 

I also deposited 50 yen into my post office account! I’m basically out of rolled coins now. It’s taken a while to get them done, but they aren’t causing me grief anymore.

Next up, I walked to Machi-kinema. I realized I was still hungry so I made a quick trip to the nearby drugstore to get a few snacks. I bought them and then fast-walked back to the cinema. I bought my ticket and then went in to see Black Bag. It was great by the way! It was lovely to see a challenging film with no easy answers at all.

After the film, I took a minute and ate an onigiri in the lobby of the cinema, then went over to the bus stop. I waited a while for my bus. I got on and then went to the mall on the bus. 

I got off the bus and decided to go to the hundred yen shop first. I toured around the shop and found the platters that I couldn’t find on the weekend! There were two packs, I bought one. I also got a few other things at the shop. I paid and then went downstairs in the mall. 

I had a nice lunch at Pizza Hut Express and then walked around the mall a bit. I finally decided that I’d catch a bus back to the house after 4 pm. I decided to have some Baskin-Robbins so I was eating that when I got a call from F. He was out and about at work today and offered me a ride back to the house. I didn’t do everything in the mall that I had wanted to do, but it was enough. 

I met F at the front of the mall and he drove me back to the house. He just dropped me off so I went into the house with my stuff. I came back out a couple of minutes later with my snow shovel and moved some snow. There wasn’t that much, just a couple of cm, but I moved it out of the way. 

I went in the house, turned on the heater in the kitchen and then went upstairs. I caught the last of the news and had a cup of cocoa and relaxed a bit.

F called around 5:30 and said he was on his way. I went downstairs and got a start on dinner. Tonight was my usual pasta night so we had spaghetti with pepperoncino sauce, salad and bacon. We also had the last of the potato salad. Dinner was good and there were no leftovers!

I went into the kitchen and did the dishes, then went upstairs to relax when I had finished. I chilled upstairs and then went down and took a shower around 10:30 pm. 

When I came back to the room, I decided to watch another episode of Down Cemetery Road. It was really good and it was hard to stop after one episode. Sigh. 

Since the episode finished I’ve been watching YouTube and working on my end of day things. I’m done so I’ll be heading to sleep soon. 

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

December 11, 2025

Thursday - Sunny in the am, rainy in the afternoon and evening.

I had a quiet morning again. I woke up just before my alarm and then I went downstairs. I came back upstairs to the room, and went back to bed. I completely overslept, but no matter!

I got up, went downstairs with a small load of laundry. I started the laundry and then went into the kitchen to make my breakfast. I brought it upstairs and ate. Later, I went downstairs and brought up my clean laundry and hung it in the room.

I wrote another couple of Christmas cards this afternoon and then I went downstairs to make my lunch. I was a little late today. Sigh. I brought it back to the room to eat. Today I watched an episode of One Mississippi. It was quite a good episode. I think I’ve finished the first season now. I like the show, if I loved it I’d watch it more often.

I watched the news and got ready to go downstairs. F called a bit after 5:15 and said he was on the way back. I went downstairs a bit late and F was already back! We had a good reunion and I told him that I thought his mother went out today with his sister. She hadn’t eaten her breakfast, didn’t touch her lunch, and I hadn’t seen or heard from her. She hadn’t. She’d just slept most of the day. Sigh. 

Tonight’s dinner was roasted carrots in the air fryer, coro-coro steak in the air fryer too, plus potato salad, and salad. The carrots were really good and so was the coro-coro steak. Almost everything disappeared at dinner. K was hungry as she hadn’t eaten today. 

After dinner, I did the dishes and then let F know that I was going to get ready to go out. I took a few minutes, but we went over to Mina and I went in. I took in the meat trays and cartons for recycling. I did a bit of shopping and got things for my breakfast tomorrow and our dinner tomorrow night. 

I came back to the car in the pouring rain and gave F his change. On the way back to the house, F remembered that he wanted some alcohol so we ended up going to another grocery store to pick it up. I wasn’t sure why really!

We came back to the house and I put away the groceries. I also noticed that K had eaten the breakfast sandwich on the table…the one I didn’t replace at the grocery store. Sigh. F gave her his breakfast sandwich for tomorrow. He’s nice!

We came upstairs and I wrote another Christmas card. Then, I put on an episode of Gen V, it was okay tonight. 

And that’s about it. I’ve been watching YouTube since midnight and working on my end of day things.

So, tomorrow the plan is to go out and see a movie if I can get up and out before 10:30. If I can’t, I may still go out as I have to mail my Christmas cards and would like to have lunch out tomorrow too!

I’m off to bed. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow…. 

December 10, 2025

Wednesday - Sunny but cold

I went to bed late again but for some reason woke up really early and had to go downstairs. It could be that I drank too much tea (all decaf) before bed. Sigh. I came back to bed and went back to sleep. I didn’t wake up again until my alarm went off. I had a hard time getting up if I’m honest. 

I dragged myself out of bed and went downstairs. When I came back to the room I gave myself a bit of a pedicure. My feet needed some TLC. I put my socks back on and went back to bed. I watched videos for a little and then went to sleep again.

I dragged myself out of bed later and dressed, then I went downstairs. I prepared my breakfast and also checked the mail. Christmas card number 2 arrived today! Yay.

I had a quiet afternoon. I decided that I’d write some of my “in Japan” Christmas cards today and I got two done. Later, I went downstairs and made my lunch. I brought it up to the room to eat. Today I watched an episode of The Great British Sewing Bee and enjoyed it. 

F called me after 5:20 or so. I reminded him that he needed to buy kerosene. A little later I went downstairs to get a start on dinner. 

F came back a bit late-the gas station was busy-and I cooked dinner. Tonight we had Chicken Drumsticks in the air fryer, steamed broccoli, babyleaf salad, potato salad and kimchi. F had made rice too. It was all good really. 

After dinner I did the dishes and then I did up the garbage from the kitchen. I asked F to help me do his mother’s garbage too. He did. I put the full bag in the genkan and told him I was going upstairs and then I did.

I did up my garbage bag in the room and then relaxed with some YouTube for a bit. Around 10:30 I went downstairs and took a shower. F was still watching TV downstairs.

After my shower I came upstairs and watched Wild Cards. I like the show but it isn’t the most cerebral of shows. Oh well. The guy is very good looking!

And that’s about it for the day. I might do some laundry tomorrow and hopefully I’ll write another couple of Christmas cards. I might even do another Postcrossing….

Come back a bit later and find out what I do. Until tomorrow….

December 9, 2025

Tuesday - Sunny in the am, rainy at night

After last night’s scary excitement I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep, but I did. I even had a good sleep! I woke up this morning and did my usual thing of going downstairs and then going back to bed. I watched a few videos and I may or may not have fallen asleep on one of them!

I got up later, dressed and went downstairs to get my breakfast. I had a quiet morning and early afternoon. I did get another postcard in the mail via Postcrossing from Lithuania. 

I went down a little early to get my lunch and when I came back to the room watched another episode of MobLand. It was good, Tom Hardy is amazing and Helen Mirren is excellent as a weird matriarch of the family. The cast of the show is pretty darn good too.

Around 5:30 F called to say he was on his way so I eventually went downstairs to get a start on dinner. Tonight I did the pork stir-fry with a mix of seaweed and cabbage, plus some chikuwa (fish paste in a tube form). Everyone here likes it a lot. We had that with salad and rice. I didn’t do a lot of side dishes today. Everything disappeared for a change!

I did the dishes and because we didn’t have a lot of extra dishes, I finished the dishes quickly. Yay for that! I let F know that I was done and we headed out to get groceries. 

I got to go in the store and do the shopping and it was nice to be able to get my stuff done without F getting in my way. I know he means well, but I prefer to do it by myself. I paid afterwards and went back to the car.

We came back to the house and I put the groceries away. I had asked F to make rice for tomorrow so he did. I went upstairs and checked our heater in the room. The tank was nearly empty. I brought it downstairs to fill it and started the pump into the tank and…the tank was empty. I checked the others and they were all freaking empty. I wasn’t too pleased. F had filled his mother’s kerosene tank earlier tonight so I knew she was okay. F was all for going out immediately to get more (which I would have appreciated), but I did find a small tank in the back of the cupboard with kerosene in it. I was able to fill up the tank for my heater. F swears he’ll get some tomorrow. I brought the heater’s tank up to the room and turned on the heater.

I had a quiet evening in. I watched some YouTube and then an episode of FBI: Most Wanted. Tonight was about a killer who used knitting needles to kill. I use wooden ones usually, I couldn’t do that!

And that’s about it. F bummed a cup of cocoa off me, and that was fine. He’s sleeping now and I’m going to try and get to bed soon for a change. 

We are lucky enough to not have felt any aftershocks, but a friend of mine wrote that she experienced a few last night. I think we’ll all be 

worried for a few days until things calm down. 

Anyway, I’m done. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow…

December 8, 2025

Monday - Rainy all day

Well, a little after 11:00pm tonight we had a pretty big earthquake. It was offshore in Aomori I believe. I was watching a drama from Canada and it was at a scary moment when all of a sudden my phone alarm started shrieking and the room started shaking. Yikes. I turned off the heater and unplugged my water pot and waited for the shaking to subside. 

It was quite strong here, but obviously not as strong as it was in Aomori. My fellow club members were saying that they felt it in Tokyo too. 

Anyway, we are fine and I’m hoping that everyone else is too. I haven’t heard of too much damage, but we might not know much until daytime.

I got up this morning when my alarm went off. I went downstairs, came back to the room, sorted my laundry and then went back to bed! I slept a bit longer than I meant to, but it was fine. I did have a call from F telling me that he was planning to take a day off later in the month. Okay then.

I got up, dressed and then took my laundry downstairs. I started a load and then made my breakfast which I took upstairs to eat. I had breakfast and then it was time to swap out some laundry. I did a couple of loads today so that was good. My basket is nearly empty now and that is a good thing!

I had a quiet afternoon, I went downstairs a little early to get my lunch then came back upstairs to eat. Today I watched another episode of Matlock. It was quite good. I’ve been trying to get back to the programmes during my lunch time. I need to use the streaming services more!

I watched the news at 4 pm and snorted through some of the most egregious interviews. The reporters were fine, it was the people being interviewed that were to blame. I also wrote up a card for Postcrossing. Yay me!

F called a little after 5 pm and said he was on his way back. After a cup of tea and some thought, I went downstairs and got started on dinner. F came back about the same time. We had a nice reunion. 

Tonight’s dinner was quite good. I did my favourite toaster oven chicken…tonight was garlic pepper flavour, we had a baby leaf salad, potato salad, cabbage in sesame oil and rice. It was very nice overall. A lot of the food disappeared so that was good.

I did the dishes and then headed upstairs to relax. I even wrote another postcard and then I scanned both of the ones I wrote tonight.  Around 10:30 I went downstairs and took a shower. F was still downstairs so I said hi and checked he was okay. He was, he was just watching TV. After my shower, I headed back upstairs and settled in with some crochet and put on Cardinal, my Canadian drama. Well, just as they were recapping last time’s episode, my phone’s alarm started wailing and the room started shaking. It was a long earthquake, probably lasted for a couple of minutes, if not longer.

F came upstairs a few minutes later and we chatted for a while. He kept telling me things about the earthquake that my apps had already told me! Poor dear!

I watched my show and I finished my dishcloth too, so that was good. The show was good, but a bit dark and sad as well. 

And that’s about it for my day. We’ll find out tomorrow about injuries, tsunamis and other problems from tonight’s shake up. I’m hoping it won’t be too bad. 

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