May 12, 2026

Tuesday - Hot and sunny

Today was a day. I’m tired as heck, the sun, heat and the walking that I did, plus the slightly less amount of sleep from last night means that I’m a bit tired. 

I woke up around 5:30 or so. F was sitting at the bottom of the bed, playing with his phone. I don’t know why. I went back to sleep. 

I had set my alarm for 7:15 but in all honesty, I woke up before that. I stayed in bed until my alarm went off and got up and said goodbye to F. He left before 7:30. I got dressed, checked my email quickly and then went downstairs. I was in the genkan about to put on my shoes when I noticed the time. It was 8:17 and my bus was at 8:20. Yikes. I put on my shoes, locked the door behind me and then did a fast-walk to the bus stop. I got there, but the bus didn’t come. I thought that I might have missed it, but I hadn’t seen the bus go by. I decided that maybe I’d catch the bus going in the other way…I might be late for my train, but there would be one a bit later. I was about to cross the road to the other stop when I saw my bus coming towards me. It was about 12 minutes late. The norm is about 5-7 minutes so 12 seemed a bit much.

I rode the bus to the station. Since the bus was late, I had less time in the station. I bought my ticket then went into the convenience store and bought a sandwich, water and an onigiri. After that, I made my way over to the platform and got on the train a couple of minutes later.

I had a lovely ride over to Sakata. I haven’t been on this train in years, and I missed it. I used to ride the train to Sakata twice a week for work and I always enjoyed the scenery. In Sakata, I got off the train and had a washroom break. I ended up missing the bus that I planned to catch, but Google Maps told me that I could catch the next one in about 10 minutes. It worked out for me as the bus deposited me in a place I knew, so it was easy to make my way over to the Immigration Office.

When I arrived, I freshened up as I was a tad sweaty, then went into the office. I was the only person there and was basically done in about 25 minutes or less. I have my new Zairyu card. Yay! Unfortunately the picture is horrible but I refused to try and have my picture taken again so I’ll deal with it!

I texted my Sakata friend to let her know that I was finished and she texted me to say that she was really busy for a while. I let her know that I would walk back to the City Hall and if there was a coffee shop along the way I’d chill out for a while. Well, there wasn’t, but there was a nice chill out space in the city hall, so I grabbed a table and an iced cocoa and relaxed and read a bit on my phone. There was a cafe section and I got myself an iced tea and a couple of sweet treats. 

My friend let me know that she was free for a bit, so she picked me up at the parking lot and we went to a bakery near the big park. The bakery is next to the building that was used in the movie Departures (Okuribito). I grabbed some bready things and then ordered myself a katsu sand, a tonkatsu sandwich. It was big! I ate too much, even though things were amazing. I actually had to have the waitress wrap one of my goodies as I couldn’t eat anymore!

My friend had to leave as she had to go back to work. She did offer to drive me to Mikawa later in the day, but we discovered that there would be a bus in about 45 minutes so I told her I’d take that instead. She dropped me back at City Hall. I stayed inside for a few minutes before making my way over to the bus stop. The bus was on time and I boarded and rode it all the way to the Mikawa Mall.

At the mall, I didn’t do too much. I was tired so decided to have another drink. I went to the Food Boat Cafe (mall kiosk) and had an iced tea with boba. I nursed that for a while and it was very nice. 

I did a very little shopping after that. I got a few things from the grocery store and then went over to Seria, a one hundred yen shop. I got another eye mask for myself. I really like the one I’m using now, but it lets the light in. I’m not sure what the point of that it. I like the style and I like the feel of it, it goes down quite low on my cheeks, but it isn’t light blocking at all. 

I decided I’d go to Doutor and have a drink and relax more. I did that. I didn’t feel too bad about taking up a nice table as they weren’t busy. I drank my iced rooibos and surfed Facebook on my phone. F phoned me after he finished work and I invited him for a drink. When he arrived about 15 minutes later he didn’t want a drink. He wanted an ice cream! I bought him one and I got another drink, this one a decaf latte. It was very nice. He did ask if I wanted to go out for dinner, but I reminded him that I had bought food for dinner tonight. It was only store pizzas and salad, but it wouldn’t take too long to get on the table. 

We drove back to Tsuruoka and went in the house. I changed my clothes and then went downstairs to get dinner on the table. It didn’t take too long. We had a smallish teriyaki chicken pizza and a quatre fromage pizza, plus salad and some kabocha salad. Dinner was good, but F was still hungry afterwards. He had some noodles later!

After I finished the dishes, F and I left the house and went to the grocery store. I had decided I’d do my stir-fry with seaweed but they didn’t have any of the seasoning packets left. NO! I was so sad. I got another packet and I’m going to try that instead. We got our food for the next couple of days and paid and left. 

We hit up a drugstore on the way back to the house. We were running low on toilet paper [I NEVER want to get too low on TP since it is one of the first things that disappears from the stores in the event of an earthquake!] and dishwashing liquid. We got a few things and then checked out.

We came back to the house and F made some rice for tomorrow night. I put the groceries away and then went upstairs. I watched Law & Order at 11pm and then turned off the TV. I’ve watched a little bit of YouTube and I’m just winding down so I can get to bed soon. I probably won’t be getting up early tomorrow. I’m quite tired. I walked about 8 times the amount I usually do and I feel good…but my feet are a tad sore!

Anyway, that was my day. It was good. I got to see my friend, renew my Alien Registration Card, and ride buses and trains and walk in the sunshine. 

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

May 11, 2026

Monday - Cloudy then sunny and warm

I woke up for the first time before my alarm and made a trip downstairs. I came back up to the room and went back to sleep after I watched a couple of videos. I woke up quite late, having slept through most of my alarms. Oops.

I got up, dressed and went downstairs. I sorted out my laundry and then did a couple of loads, and hung them up in my room to dry. I did the normal Monday things that I usually do like changing the towels in the kitchen and bathroom, backing up my computer and I also restocked the toilet room’s TP. 

I had lunch a bit after 3 pm. Today I watched an episode of One Mississippi. I quite like that show. 

F called after 5:25 or so and said he was on his way back. I went downstairs to start dinner around 6 pm. Today I did Toaster Oven Chicken, but I used my air fryer! I liked it much better this way. We had it with salad and a spinach/corn/bacon mix that I bought at a drugstore a few weeks ago. I liked it. Neither K nor F had much food today, I was a bit sad. Oh well. 

After dinner, I did the dishes and then went upstairs and got ready for tomorrow. I put my clothes together and packed my back pack too. 

I went downstairs after 10 pm and took a shower. When I came back upstairs I watched an episode of Evil. It was a very weird one, but when aren’t they? I also noticed that WOWOW on Demand has more episodes of Elsbeth and Matlock available so I’ll have to check them out. Woot. 

F is mostly sleeping and I’m off to bed right away too. I have to get up around 7:30 tomorrow morning to catch my bus at 8:20. I’m off to Sakata tomorrow to hopefully renew my registration card at the Immigration Office. 

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

May 10, 2026

Sunday - Warm and Sunny

I woke up late today, but it is Sunday! I got up a lot later than I planned and had to scramble a bit. I got dressed and then I had some breakfast. I made myself my yogurt and cereal and then the sandwiches I bought yesterday. 

At one pm, F and I and K assembled in the living room, but the social worker didn’t come! At 10 past F called her to see where she was and she thought the meeting was at 1:30 Oh dear. F told me that it was 1pm, but he may have made a mistake. Nonetheless, she showed up a few minutes later and we had the meeting. F discussed a few things with the social worker about his mother and made a bit of a game plan. We made arrangements for next month’s visit and off she went. 

F and I went out to the Chido Museum and renewed my membership. After that, we went into the exhibit room and had a look. It was all about Geta, the old style Japanese sandal usually made of wood. I had no idea there was so much variation of geta. We had a good look at the exhibit and really enjoyed it. 

This was a replica of a geta shop set up.

One group of fancy geta in the shop.

My favourite garden.

After we left, we decided to go and have something to drink. I suggested Doutor and F was okay with that, but when he turned into the Starbucks parking area I was a little annoyed!He said Doutor and thought Starbucks. Oh well. We went in and F had his usual frappucino and I had something new, and iced passion tea. It didn’t have caffeine. It was nice, but a bit sour. It dried out the back of my throat.

Once we left the coffee shop, I asked F if he wanted to take his mother out for dinner, seeing as how it is Mother’s Day today. He thought it was a good idea, except he wanted to take her for soba. He makes soba and other noodles for her all the time so I thought he was nuts, but whatever. We went back to the house and he cleaned out the back of the car, with my help! 

He told his mother we were going to take her out so she got dressed. F even called the restaurant to make a reservation. We arrived and went in. At first, F was planning a lower cost meal for himself and his mother, so I decided I’d have a cheaper dish than the one I wanted. Then, he changed his mind and ordered a set for both of them, and I got a dish that was good, but not what I really wanted. Sigh. 

F asked me if I wanted to take his mother out to the grocery store with us but the answer was no! Besides, I had left our meat trays back at the house to take to the grocery store’s recycling. We took K back to the house and then we went to the store.

F didn’t feel great so he stayed in the car and I went inside. I did the shopping and it was so nice to have some time alone! I’m going to do chicken for dinner tomorrow night and then pizza from the store on Tuesday.

I came back from the store, put away the groceries and then watched a bit of YouTube. Finally I decided that I wanted to watch a movie. I put on Flora and Son from Apple TV and really enjoyed it. It was directed and written I think by John Carney who did a few of my favourite movies with music (like Sing Street, Begin Again and Once). I liked it a lot.

This could be a busy week ahead as I have to go to Sakata on Tuesday. I need to go to the Immigration Office and renew one of the cards I have to have in Japan. Sigh. If she’s able to meet, I’ll see one of my friends too so I’ll look forward to that. 

Come back later and hear all about my Monday. Until tomorrow….

May 9, 2026

Saturday - Sunny but cooler and very windy

I went downstairs and then went back to bed as usual this morning. After that, I snoozed for a couple of hours. When I got up, I took care of a personal chore that I put off for far too long, then F was all about “Can we go for lunch now?!” Yes, we can. 

I dressed and then we went out to Tenkane again. This morning, we both had sashimi which came on a bowl of rice and had some bamboo miso soup. It was pretty good. The sashimi was nice too.

After lunch, I asked that we go to a clothing store as I was hoping to buy new socks. My feet are hard on socks and I’ve been making big holes in them lately. F needed some stuff too, he needed a new belt and a pair of suspenders! I also got a new chair cushion for my desk chair. It’s so uncomfortable at times. 

When we finished in the shop we went to the nearby hardware store. F got a plant pot of carnations for his mother for tomorrow (mother’s day) and looked at fish. From there, we decided to have a drink.

We headed to Cafe B-Flat for a drink. F did one of his weird things where he just took every wrong turn that he could! I was giving him directions at the end to get him back on track. We had a drink each and also a piece of mango shortcake. That was very nice. My drink was an iced cafe latte. It wasn’t decaf but it was good. F just had blend coffee. 

Although time was getting a bit short, F and I headed over to DCM so he could get some car shampoo. While he was there, he also picked up some tomato plants. K is so in love with mini-tomatoes and they cost more than you’d expect in summer.

Finally, we went back to the house. I went upstairs and F waited downstairs for his mother. Around 6 pm F made dinner for her and then we talked about where to go. I came up with the idea of going to Foodever again. We haven’t been there in ages and I was hoping that the newish Indonesian restaurant would be open. 

We drove to Marica and F parked the car. We went downstairs to the restaurants  and there was really only one open, so we went there. I had promised F that if the prices were too high we could leave, but honestly, they weren’t bad. F had a ginger pork steak which came with rice, salad and soup…I had pork and mixed herbs pasta in an oil sauce. It was very nice, but I did feel that F got a lot more food than I did!

Next up for us, we went to a drugstore to use the washrooms…for some reason, the washrooms at Foodever aren’t open and they were directing people to another building! Say what?! F bought some tape at the drugstore, then we went on to the grocery store.

We bought a few things at the grocery store and then came back to the house. I unpacked the groceries and I went upstairs. I got ready to take a shower and then went back downstairs with my towel. 

I came back to the room and then watched tonight’s episode of FBI. I thought it was a good one, but a bit sad. It was about a clinic which stole people’s babies and adopted them out for a fee. They told the people the babies died. Sad as I said.

Since midnight I’ve been doing my end of day computer things and getting ready to go to bed. Tomorrow we have the social worker in charge of K in the early afternoon, then F and I will have to get in our groceries for the coming week. I’m hoping that we will be able to do something else fun but we’ll see. 

That’s about it for me for today. I’m really tired now so I’m off. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

May 8, 2026

Friday - Sunny then lots of rain from the afternoon on.

I woke up around 7 am. F was getting up and deciding what to do with himself. I don’t think he woke me up, but I did wake up. I had to go downstairs, and then I came back up to the room as well. I did go back to bed, but didn’t really sleep. 

F went off to his doctor to reserve a time slot, I tried to nap but didn’t. I ended up getting up and dressing before 8:30. F came back and decided to do some planting in the garden before he left again. 

I left a couple of minutes after F left. I walked to the bus stop and waited. The bus was late as usual, but not too much. Probably around 3 minutes. When the bus came I got on and rode the bus to the end of the line. I got off at S-Mall and went into the mall. It had just turned 10 am so the store clerks were waiting in the aisle and bowed me into the building! I bought myself a sandwich and some tea then went to the bus station and grabbed a corner seat and ate my breakfast. 

When my next bus came, I got on the bus and found a seat in the back. I had a quiet ride over to Mikawa. 

At Mikawa Mall, I walked down the mall. I popped into the post office to get some stamps for mailing my bestie. Then, I went over to the cinema and bought my ticket and some popcorn and a drink to go and see Now You See Me: Now You Don’t. It was silly but fun. It had plot holes but if you just want to watch a film that is mildly entertaining and you don’t have to think hard about…this one works-ish!

After the movie, I went over to the grocery store, bought a few things for myself including some garlic powder. I like this store’s garlic better than my usual store’s. 

I went to the food court by the movie theatre and had some pasta for lunch. It was okay, a tad expensive but decent. When I finished, I sat and read part of my book on my phone. When it was a bit after 4 pm, I went over to the movie cinema and bought a new ticket to go and see The Sheep Detectives. I just got myself a drink this time. How was it? Really fun. I would put it in my favourite films of the year so far. I got a lot more emotional at this film than I did at Hamnet! My eyes were very moist at the end of The Sheep Detectives, completely dry at the end of Hamnet. 

After the film I used the washroom and then headed out to the mall. I had planned to meet F at the door near the cinema, but I saw him off in the distance coming towards the cinema. I waved and he saw me too!

We met somewhere in the middle and chatted for a minute. We talked about our day and then he told me that his mother had already eaten dinner and asked if I wanted to go for tonkatsu in Tsuruoka. I was really surprised! I had planned to cook if necessary…thought we might get in a pizza or two and a salad…something quick and easy…but F was offering real food. Woot! 

We drove back to Tsuruoka and went to Hirata-Bokujo, the famous around here tonkatsu restaurant. We both had the same thing, a thick cut cutlet. It came, as usually they do, with rice, miso soup, cabbage and pickles. We could have extras on the miso soup and cabbage for free. We both had miso soup refills and I had more cabbage. It was very nice and I missed my big lunch salad today. 

After our lovely dinner, we drove over to Mina where F wanted to get something for K’s breakfast. She’s off to the Day Service tomorrow so he needs to feed her first. F picked up a few things, I picked up a treat for myself!

We came back to the house and I went upstairs. I tried to catch up on my computer stuff, wrote a couple of reviews on Letterbox’d and around 11pm started to wonder what happened with my husband! He still hadn’t come upstairs!

I went down to check on him. He’d been watching Kiki’s Delivery Service on TV and it had just finished. He said he’d come upstairs soon after, and did. I watched episode three of Margo’s Got Money Troubles. It’s quite an interesting show. Elle Fanning has her top off quite a lot in the show…Michelle Pfeiffer has a really hard edge to her, whereas she’s usually a lot nicer of a character. I’m enjoying it!

Since midnight I’ve been watching YouTube and working on my stuff. I nearly fell asleep a couple of times. I didn’t get as much sleep as usual plus I did a lot of walking today. 

I’m not sure what F and I will get up to tomorrow. I hope that we are able to have a good time together. I’m not sure what he thinks of me swanning off by myself, but when he declares that he isn’t going to go to a movie, and it’s one that I really want to see, what choice do I have?

Anyway, that’s it for me for today. Your mission is to come back later to find out how my Saturday went. Until tomorrow….

May 7, 2026

Thursday - warm and sunny

I woke up this morning when F got up. He was sitting at the bottom of the bed and then he got a call from his co-worker. F left to go downstairs…I did have the chance to ask him to make rice for dinner and he did. F had forgotten to turn off his alarm, so I did that for him and then I went downstairs. I came upstairs to bed and stayed awake until F left. 

I did wake up a bit later when my alarm went off, I got up and dressed. I went downstairs and then came back to the room to sort my laundry. I got it done and took the loaded basket downstairs to the machine. I started a load and then checked mail. I got a Postcrossing and also a letter from my bestie. I brought both up to the room with my breakfast. 

I ate my breakfast and then went downstairs for the first of the two loads of laundry. I hung up my clothes and then I relaxed with some tea. I repeated with the second load of laundry. This one was towels and they are in my room. 

I relaxed for a bit, read my friend’s letter and registered my postcard. Then, it was time to go downstairs and get my lunch together. Today I had a couple of bagels with cheese and ham on them. Yum. I brought them upstairs and ate while watching another episode of Breaking Bad. Some of it is really funny and then something horrible happens. 

After the news F called after 5pm and said he was on his way back. I went downstairs and then did dishes and such. F came back to the house and I got on with cooking. Tonight I opened the big pack of chicken drumsticks. I put half of them in the freezer and prepared the others tonight. I got them in the air fryer. Woot. We had rice, chicken drumsticks, salad, leftover curry and K and F had mini tomatoes. Dinner was good. I had hoped to do another side dish, but honestly, I don’t think we needed it. 

After eating, I cleared the table and gave us each a doughnut that F had brought for us. It was very nice really. We relaxed and then I had to go and wash dishes.

I did the dishes, and also made a jug of mugi-cha. I listened to my podcasts too. When I was finished I said good night to the living room crowd and then went upstairs for a bit. 

I watched some YouTube and then after F came upstairs I went downstairs and took a shower. 

When I came back up to the room I watched tonight’s episode of The Rainmaker. That show is really growing on me. I watched it and then turned off the TV afterwards. 

When F came upstairs earlier I had asked him if he’d like to go to the movie in the afternoon. The mall’s cinema is showing The Sheep Detectives in English in the afternoon. I thought it would be a fun time for us, but F said that he wouldn’t go. I asked him if he’d pick me up afterwards if I go. He did say he would, but I’m not completely convinced. I’m planning to catch a bus in the morning and go out to the mall. I’ll spend the day there, which might be a bit hard as the mall doesn’t have as much stuff as it used to, but hopefully it’ll be okay. 

So, that’s about it for me. Hopefully I can get myself up and out of bed early enough to go out to the mall. And double hopefully, F will come back to the mall and pick me up afterwards!

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