October 2, 2025

Thursday - Rainy, Sunny, Thunderstorms and back to rain.

I woke up early again this morning, got up and went downstairs. I came back to the room and then went back to bed for a little while. I got up when my alarm went off, dressed and then grabbed my breakfast. I ate it quickly and then set up my table so I could join the online meeting. I made myself some tea and of course I spilled it all over the table when I bumped it. Yikes. My computer was already there. I moved quickly to wipe up the liquid. 

After that, I was able to join the meeting. It was really nice. I “met” a couple of people that I hadn’t seen before and there was a new person in our group and a person who recently rejoined. It was nice! I didn’t talk a lot, but it was fun anyway.

When the meeting broke up, one of the other members texted me and asked if I’d like to have an online meetup with just her. I thought that might be very nice! It took a minute for me to get connected….I had to find a browser that would work first and then I finally was able to reach my friend. We had a good chat for a while and there might be a chance that we could meet up in Sendai next week. It’s not certain at all, but you never know.

I had a quiet afternoon after that. I watched too much YouTube and went down to get my lunch later. I made my lunch and brought it upstairs to eat. I ended up watching an episode of NCIS: LA. I think I saw it before, but no worries. I enjoyed it for the most part. I followed that with the news and then F called me. I was packing a few things into my suitcase when F called. 

I went downstairs and got ready to start dinner. Tonight I air-fried a pork roast, roasted some veggies and made an onion boil. I was busy. The meat took a bit longer than the recipe I was following said, but finally it got to a safe temperature. 

I set the table and we finally ate. It was a bit late, but everything was really good. There was a bit leftover, some of which I packed for my lunch tomorrow! I decided not to pack a lunch for K as she hasn’t eaten the last two I made for her and she can eat one of them!

After dinner, I did the dishes and listened to my movie podcast. Because I was late, I was able to listen to it early! I did the dishes. It went fairly well but I was quite tired after I finished. I came upstairs when I was done. I did try to tell F and K that I was going upstairs, but when I opened the door and spoke, nobody acknowledged me. 

I relaxed for a while and had a drink of cocoa with some decaf coffee in it. That was quite nice. I went downstairs to take my shower after 10:20 or so. It was a nice shower and then I came back upstairs afterwards.

I watched tonight’s episode of The Rookie. It was quite a good one. It finished up some of the earlier storylines in a generally good way. 

And that’s it for my day. It was a bit stressful with the cooking as I haven’t done that kind of roast before in my air fryer, but it did turn out well, it just took a little longer than I hoped. 

Tomorrow I’ll have to do some laundry and I’ll be cooking dinner again too. I will need to finish packing my suitcase as well, or at least get it nearly finished!

Well, that’s it for me for tonight. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

October 1, 2025

Wednesday - Rainy, cloudy, and cooler

I woke up early again this morning. I think it was while F was getting ready for work. After he left, I went downstairs and then came back upstairs to go back to watch videos and go to sleep again. I ended up waking up a lot earlier than I have been lately so I got up. Yay me. I got dressed and then went downstairs. 

I grabbed my breakfast and came upstairs to eat it. It was quite nice to be up and around earlier than usual. It still wasn’t early by most people’s standards, but it was by mine! If I do it again tomorrow I can attend an online meeting of my women’s group. I’d like to try anyway.

I had a quiet morning and afternoon. I did get out one of my suitcases for my trip this weekend. I needed to clean it off as it was a little dusty in places. It wasn’t too bad though.

Later on I went downstairs and made my lunch. I had my usual open sandwiches and then some leftovers from yesterday’s dinner. It was very nice. I watched an episode of School Spirits. It’s quite an interesting show and so far I like it.

F called around 5:30 and said he was on his way back. I went down a little later and started on dinner. Tonight I was making a quick stew with some ground pork. I used a sweet potato in it and so I had to cut it up and prepare it first as I needed to cook it a bit first. I started cooking before I did the dishes as it just made sense that way. 

Over my time in the kitchen I cut up some onions, some mushrooms and put a bunch of spices and some soup base in my stew. I let it all bubble away and by 7 pm I had a pretty decent stew there. I asked F to come down and help me by putting the rice in the bowls. He did, but it took a bit. We had the stew with rice and salad. We had potato salad too. It was good and I enjoyed dinner. There was even enough for K’s lunch and my lunch tomorrow. Yay!

I did the dishes which didn’t take too long as I’d done a bunch as I was working. I did the burnable garbage up tonight as well. I even got some of K’s garbage too. After I finished with the garbage, I went upstairs to change and get my room’s garbage ready too. 

F took out the garbage (yay him!) and then we went off to Mina. I did some shopping there. I bought groceries for dinner for the next couple of days. I found a pork roast for tomorrow night so I’m going to do that in my air fryer. I hope it’ll be good! It’s also Canadian pork, so that was a nice touch!

After I paid for the groceries, I went back to the car. F asked me if I’d like some ice cream and of course I said yes! We went to 7-11 and F went in and bought us some ice cream. We came back to the house and I put away the shopping. F went upstairs quite early and I followed after. I ate my ice cream, watched a little YouTube and then settled in at 11pm for Grey’s Anatomy. It was an okay show tonight, nothing too exciting happened. 

And that’s about it for me for today. It was a mostly quiet day, but decent. Tomorrow I hope to start packing my suitcase and getting ready for my trip. I might take part in the meeting tomorrow if I can rouse myself in time!

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

September 30, 2025

Tuesday - Warm and sunny

I woke up this morning around 7 am. F was lying in bed with his computer. I’d gone to bed earlier and he was lying in bed with his computer open in the bed between us. I wasn’t so happy about that!

I went downstairs and then went back to bed and sleep. I woke up later when my alarm went off. I made another trip downstairs but when I came back to the room I sorted out my laundry. After that, I gave myself a pedicure. It was sorely needed!

Then, I went back to bed! I slept for a while and then dragged myself out of bed. I dressed, went downstairs and set the first of three loads of clothes going in the washing machine. I hung up a lot of clothes in my room!

I relaxed a bit when I finished hanging up clothes, but it was soon time for lunch. I went downstairs and made my lunch. I brought it upstairs to eat and watched an episode of The Good Fight. It was so nice to see it again. I haven’t watched it for a while.

F called after 5 pm and I went downstairs a little before 6 to start dinner and do the day’s dishes. When F came back, we had a nice hug and then he went upstairs to relax. 

Tonight I did tandori-style chicken in the toaster oven, baby leaf salad, mini-tomatoes, and penne with mushrooms. I liked that a lot, but the others didn’t. Sigh. 

I did the dishes afterwards and listened to my podcasts. I didn’t finish the movie one yet. When I finished the dishes and cleaning the stove, I went upstairs and relaxed for a bit. I watched some YouTube and around 10pm F came up to the room. I had a chat with him about the new movie thats coming to the local cinema and hinted strongly that I’d like to go. I sort of want to say to him that if he doesn’t go with me, I’ll go and see it anyway when I’m in Yamagata!

At 11pm I watched FBI: Most Wanted. It was okay. I did a couple of rows of my knitting while I was watching my show. After it finished, I turned off the TV and since then I’ve been working on my end of day things. F has finally gone to bed and hopefully is sleeping. He’s not been sleeping too well lately. 

Anyway, that is about it for my day. It was pretty good overall. I have no idea what I’ll get up to tomorrow. I have to make some dinner and I hope that I manage to get everything done too. 

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

September 29, 2025

Monday - Cloudy with some light rain, warm.

Today was a different sort of day, but it was quite good really. That’s a good thing. I had a really lazy morning today. I could not get myself out of bed. I didn’t sleep that well last night and I woke up early so I was tired. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

I knew F wanted to be at his bank around noon, so we left a little late. Sorry. I got him to drop me off at the main post office. It took a while to get there as I think he kept forgetting how to get there. It’s a bit odd how he doesn’t know his hometown as well as I do at times! He dropped me off and I told him I’d keep in touch by text. 

At the Post Office I filled in my forms. I was depositing some 5 yen coins so did that. I also was paying my women’s group renewal fee. I filled in the form and did it at the ATM because it is cheaper! I also took out some money for my trip next weekend. 

Well, I was done at the post office and I didn’t know what F was up to. I texted him a message to let him know that I would walk up the road to the bank where he was. 

It was decent walking outside. It wasn’t hot and I was wearing my hat. The rain held off while I was outside so that was good too. I was walking next to the river for a lot of the walk, so it was nice to have views while I walked!

I made it to the bank and saw F’s car in the parking lot. I went inside and saw him sitting and waiting. I went and talked to him and then just had a seat while I waited for him. He didn’t take too long and soon we were off on our way. 

Lunch was up next and I had suggested his favourite eel restaurant. The master there does a very big lunch for a reasonable price. F was happy with that idea, so off we went. We went in and ordered the lunch. We each got a big cooked fish (cold), some sashimi, half a pork cutlet with salad, and a bowl of imoni, the local taro potato stew made this time of year. It was really good. It was huge, the same as ever. In fact, I wish the lunches were a little bit smaller for myself, but it was all good and I ate almost all of it. F had an iced coffee at the restaurant, but I turned it down. Iced coffee and I don’t always get on!

After our meal I was feeling quite thirsty so I suggested going for a drink. F suggested going to Komeda so that’s where we went. As often happens, F’s phone had died so I loaned him my battery and then he basically ignored me. Boo!

We discussed going to the aquarium and were going to go but then decided we were both too tired! I reminded F that I needed to do grocery shopping so we went over to Mina and I went in and did the shopping. I spent most of the money F gave me. I don’t think he was too pleased, but I didn’t buy any junk or extras at all. 

We came back to the house and I put the groceries away. I took the stuff for K and F upstairs and spent some time on my computer. F came up a bit later and spent time on our bed. He took a bit of a nap too. 

He went downstairs to give his mother her bento. He said she didn’t want it, but she was eating it when he left! We left for our meal a bit after 7:30. 

We did Gusto again, but the one over by MaxValu this time. We both had the 3 menu items for under 1000 yen, it comes with drink bar and the soup of the day so that was good.  Dinner was fine. It wasn’t anything to rave about though.

We came back to the house and upstairs. I took my shower right away which was nice because then I had time to watch some TV. Tonight I watched the last episode of The Power. It’s too bad it hasn’t been continued as I enjoyed it. 

That’s about it for the day. It was a bit good, but tiring too. F is back to work tomorrow and frankly, I’m glad. I have things to do that I can’t get done when he’s here!

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

September 28, 2025

Sunday - Warm and sunny

I got up fairly early today and then ended up going back to bed for a longer snooze. F was up making his mother’s breakfast. He’s nice to her! I slept on a bit, but did drag myself out of bed. I got dressed and checked my computer for a bit. F came upstairs and we talked about going for lunch. I suggested going to Arpeggio, but waiting a bit. I told F that the lunch rush would be over by 1:00 so if we showed up then we could get in.

We drove over to the restaurant and parked. We went in and were able to get a table right away. We ended up both having the same thing, the sasame fry…basically chicken fingers fry set meal. It was very nice. I’ve loved it ever since they introduced the dish.  

We stayed a bit of extra time in the restaurant, hopefully they didn’t mind too much. They weren’t busy and we were just chilling.

F had said that he wanted to go back to the house, but I suggested going for a drive since it was such a nice day. We ended up going for a drive up Mount Gassan! It’s a bit hair-raising at times as the road is narrow. Most of the time F was fine with the traffic coming the other way, but there was a big truck coming down and we met at a kind of narrow point. That was scary. I don’t think I breathed for a few minutes, but F did well.

We didn’t do much at the top of the mountain. We took a few pictures which were hard to see in our cameras because of the light. I suggested to F that we should maybe go down the mountain before all of the other people went down. He got quite upset once when there were drivers in front of him that weren’t going fast enough, or drivers behind him that were too close to him. He listened to me (for a change) and we went down the mountain.

Back in Tsuruoka, we decided to get something for K to eat for her dinner. F took us to Hotto Motto and he went and ordered her a meal. We made a brief stop at Mina for a washroom break and then went to the house and delivered the bento. 

We spent a bit of time in our bedroom upstairs and then decided to go out again and have our dinner. We ended up at an Udon chain restaurant that we like. I had a new dish, a cold udon with sliced chicken and lemon slices, plus some okra and other slimy stuff and a chopped onion topping. It doesn’t sound that great, but it was good. We both had some tempura which we enjoyed as well.

After our meal we went back to Mina supposedly to get something for K’s breakfast, but it ended up being some ice cream for us!

We came back to the house and relaxed for a while. I decided that I’d watch a movie and spent some time online looking for something to watch.  I ended up rewatching The King’s Man. I’d mentioned it during my last column, but I hadn’t watched it recently so I couldn’t talk about it in detail. The last couple of movies I’ve watched at the house have starred Ralph Fiennes, which is a bit odd! I like him as an actor so it is fine. 

And that’s about it. Since the movie ended, I’ve been working on my internet stuff. I’ll be going off to bed soon. F is off work tomorrow and has to do some banking. I’m hoping to catch a ride with him to the post office as I need to do a few things there too. 

Come back later if you like and find out how my Monday goes. Until tomorrow….

September 27, 2025

Saturday - Warm and sunny

I got up this morning around 9 am. F was just coming back from dropping off K at her Day Service place. I went back to bed for a while afterwards. I did drag myself out of bed a bit later and got dressed. I checked a few things on the computer later and then F came upstairs. 

We talked about lunch and F suggested going to a new place for us. I was okay with that. We ended up driving to Atsumi Onsen to their Michi-no-Eki or road service area. They’ve opened a restaurant there and F wanted to go. We were able to get a table and sat down. I had the yakiniku set meal and F had the sashimi set meal. It was okay. The yakiniku part was good, but there was a weird fish bone soup that I didn’t like. F wasn’t too impressed with the sashimi at all. I’m not sure why. 

We drove back to Tsuruoka and bought a few groceries at PAL. Then, we drove over to Musashi and got a few things there too. I did a little shopping and got some batteries, some garbage bags, and some masks. The hardware store is one of the only places that sells a type that we really like. It is supposed to be good for glasses wearers and it isn’t too bad at all. 

After all of this we came back to the house. I headed upstairs and basically did a strip of my outer clothes. The room was hot and I didn’t want to turn on the AC!

After a long while, F came upstairs and wanted to talk about dinner. I wasn’t too hungry yet and said so. He went downstairs and made his mother’s dinner and then came back upstairs. While he was downstairs, I had come up with a plan, which we followed!

We drove over to the MaxValu area and went to Yamaya first. I bought some tea and then we went in on a snack deal. We each picked two snacks so that was nice.

After that, we went across the road and went to Tsukiya, the gyudon shop. I had a cheese bulgogi set meal and F had a gyudon. My meal was okay, F seemed to like his. It was a cheap meal in the new restaurant. 

We came back to the house after our meal even though I suggested to F that we do something exciting or run off to the mountains. He wouldn’t. Sigh.

We came back to the house and after a little I decided to watch some TV. I watched an episode of Gen V and then one of The Studio. That was quite funny. 

At 11pm I watched FBI and enjoyed it. I guessed who was the uber baddie! Yay me. I turned off the TV when it was over.

So that’s about it for me. Oh, I finally got F to help me change the bed sheet. His side of the bed is right up against his stuff so it’s too hard for me to do. 

I have no idea what we’ll get up to tomorrow. Come back later if you like and find out! Until tomorrow….

September 26, 2025

Friday - Hot and sunny

I woke up a bit early today, somewhere around 6 am. I made a trip downstairs and then I went back to sleep. I woke up when my alarm went off, but ended up oversleeping a tad. I went downstairs after a while and then came back to the bedroom. 

Before I went back to bed I sorted out my laundry so that I could take it downstairs when I got up again. I watched some videos and fell asleep on one. It was still going when I woke up later…it just repeats. 

I got up and dressed, went downstairs with my laundry and started the first of two loads in the machine. I grabbed my breakfast and took it upstairs to eat. I spent the next couple of hours with my laundry, either hanging it up or putting it in the machine. 

I watched some YouTube and then went downstairs before 3 to get my lunch. When I came back, I didn’t watch anything on TV. I wrote a text to a person inviting her to meet up when I’m in her area in two weeks. 

I ate my lunch and it was nice. The last couple of days I had my lunch on English muffins. That made a nice change. 

I watched most of the news at 4 pm and then F called me a bit late tonight. I went downstairs to get started on dinner. As it is Friday, I did my usual pasta and it was nice. We had salad and some bacon with it. Everything disappeared, there weren’t even leftovers for my lunch on Tuesday!

I did the dishes and listened to my podcasts. It didn’t take too long tonight as I hadn’t done a lot of dishes. When I finished, I just went upstairs. I didn’t say goodnight to anyone, I just left. I didn’t want to speak to anyone. F cut up a nashi and got in my way after I’d asked him not to so it was a tad annoying. 

Upstairs, I YouTubed for a while and then around 10 pm I went downstairs to take my shower. I did that and then just as I was going to make myself some popcorn…F hogged the kitchen to make some rice for the morning. It’s not a big deal really, he needs rice to feed K, but I’ve realized that I can’t share the kitchen with F as he doesn’t think the way that I do. Anyway, I waited until he was done in the kitchen and he was surprised to see me waiting for him to finish when he left the kitchen. 

I made my popcorn and then brought it upstairs. I ate it while I watched some shows off Apple TV. Tonight it was Dick Turpin and then I tried an episode of Side Quest which is an offshoot of Mythic Quest. It was okay but not fabulous!

And that was about it. I also did a row of my knitting tonight. It’s going okay for now I think. I hope it’ll be big enough!

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. F is off work on Monday so it’s kind of a long weekend here. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. It is for him as he has business on Monday, but for me, I have things I’d like to get done. Oh well.

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