December 18, 2025

Thursday - Sunny but cold

I woke up before my alarm again this morning. I went downstairs and then came back up to the room. I sorted my laundry and then went back to bed. I did watch a few videos and then I had a snooze. I managed to get up a little earlier than yesterday. I got dressed and then I went downstairs and took the kerosene tank with me. I filled it, filled K’s as well and then took mine upstairs with me. I came downstairs a few minutes later to get my breakfast. I brought it back upstairs to the room.

After I ate my brekkie, I checked the movie schedule on NHK. Today’s movie was Notting Hill. I had to watch it! I started to do some printing as well and I printed all of my nengajo today. Now I have to write them! That should be fun.

The movie was wonderful and I just love it. Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant….so much fun. 

After the movie I was a bit late for my lunch, but it was worth it. I went downstairs and made lunch, then came back upstairs and watched an episode of The Big Bang Theory because I didn’t have time for anything else. 

Later on I watched some of the news and then a little while later some YouTube. After F called, I relaxed for a few minutes then changed and went downstairs.

Today, I turned on the heater in the living room as it was really cold in there. I also noticed that “GASP” F hadn’t made rice last night. I asked him twice! I knew if he came back soonish he could still make it and that’s what happened.

He came back to the house, we had a nice reunion and then I asked him to make rice. He did, so I let him have the sink and the kitchen space for a minute or two. He put it on to cook and then he relaxed.

Tonight I made chicken drumsticks and steamed some broccoli and shimegi mushrooms. We had a salad and the fresh rice. Dinner was good but there was a little bit of food left. I packaged it up, so F might be able to give it to K if she needs a meal.

After dinner, I did the dishes and then headed upstairs. I watched a bit of YouTube for a while and then headed downstairs for a shower. When I came back to the room, F was in bed and so I turned off his lights. I watched another episode of Lazarus. It’s a very twisty show and I like it, I think. 

Since midnight or thereabouts, I’ve been doing the YouTube thing and blogging, getting ready to go to bed. F is off work tomorrow and we are going to city hall. I’m also planning to get my hair cut, so that should be nice. F is supposed to be making nabé for dinner too, so I guess I should look forward to that. (But I don’t really!)

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

December 17, 2025

Wednesday - Rainy and cloudy

I woke up this morning before my alarm, but after F had left for work. I made my usual trip downstairs and then came back to the room. I went back to bed and watched videos for a while and then I fell asleep. I did not wake up when I expected! I completely overslept. Oops. 

I got up in a hurry, dressed and went downstairs. I made my breakfast and brought it upstairs. I ate and then watched a few videos while I relaxed. 

Lunch was a little close to breakfast today, but it was okay. I had my usual, plus a little bit of the stew. That was lovely! I watched an episode of The Good Fight and it was a good one. 

I did get another Christmas card today, from my friend in Britain. It was a lovely newsy one with pictures of her sons. She even labeled the picture for us so we knew who was who!

F called me after 5:30 or so to say he was on his way back, but via the grocery store. I went back downstairs a bit later to get a start on dinner. Tonight I did a simple one, just premade burgers with fries and a salad. I added on a spicy cabbage dish that got good reviews too. 

After dinner I did the dishes as usual and then I did up the garbage. F gave me a hand with his mother’s stuff. That woman makes more garbage than anyone else in the house. Yuck!

I came upstairs and relaxed. I made a few more nengajo designs from the Post Office website and then F helped me with my renewal form for the MyNumber card. We’re going in on Friday to start the process. F has to pick his up. The cards are tied to our birthdays which is why we couldn’t do ours together. 

I watched tonight’s episode of WildCards. They showed quite a bit of Vancouver from the outside and it was beautiful. I’m getting a bit homesick. A few years ago I flew back to Canada around now to have Christmas in Canada…actually that was around 2019, just before the big C hit the world. 

I digress. As usual. But, I’m pretty much done. Tomorrow I should do some laundry and hopefully I can print out a few nengajo too. I’m going to need ink I think. I hope I can get some if I need it. 

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

 

December 16, 2025

 Tuesday - Rainy but warmish

I woke up this morning a bit late. I’d woken up earlier around 5:30 and went downstairs so I was able to sleep in a bit. Of course I ended up oversleeping again. Oh well.

I got up finally and went downstairs and grabbed my breakfast. I brought it upstairs and ate. I watched a lot of YouTube and I’m a tad embarrassed to say this but I fell asleep at my computer for some of it! Oh dear.

Around 3pm I went downstairs and made my lunch. It was just my usual open sandwiches and salad, but it was good. Today I watched an episode of Elspeth and it was good. It was one where she was on a jury and her real-life husband was the judge. It was quite cute….even though he was the baddie. At 4 I watched some of the news and also did my usual computer stuff.

F called me after 5:15 to say he was on the way back. I went downstairs a bit later to get busy with dinner. He tried to help me by doing the dishes but I made him stop as he wasn’t doing it right. He was using cool water and a yucky sponge so I told him I’d just rewash everything he did anyway!

Tonight’s dinner was the rest of the stew from yesterday. I heated it up in the oven tonight and used some frozen pastry to turn it into a cottage pie kind of thing. It turned out well and F seemed to be quite impressed! We also had potato salad and regular salad, and finished up the kimchi in the fridge. Dinner got good reviews!

I did the dishes afterwards and then went upstairs to change my clothes. F and I went out to the grocery store. I made him stay in the car as I usually have a better time finding stuff than I do when I’m with him. 

I bought groceries and stuff for breakfasts as well. I paid and then went back to the car. We came back to the house and F and I put away the shopping. He went upstairs and I followed a few minutes later.

I had a look at the Post Office website and looked at their New Year Cards forms. You can use their cards for free, so that is cool. Usually I buy a book in the store, but today I’m trying to keep the costs down. If this doesn’t work, I can always try to get a book at a bookstore with patterns for cards.

At 11pm I watched today’s episode of FBI: Most Wanted. It was okay. After it finished WOWOW showed a bunch of shows that will be on their On Demand system in the new year and there are a few that I’ll probably try to see. One of them is Cardinal, the Canadian show I watched the first bit of on Prime. Another is Lynley. I’ve read a lot of the books so I’ll be quite interested in that one, although the reviews were a bit meh. 

Anyway, that’s about it for me. Oh, before I forget, I’m going to get a hair cut on Friday. My hair is getting shaggy again. I’m rather happy about it if I’m honest!

So, come back later if you like and hear all about my Wednesday. Until tomorrow….

December 15, 2025

Monday - Cold and rainy

I had to go to bed a little bit early (for me) last night as we didn’t have anymore kerosene in the room. I was in bed a good 30 minutes earlier than usual.  This morning, I woke up when F was still in the house. I went downstairs but K was in the washroom and F was coming up the stairs. We chatted a bit, but he left soon enough. 

I ended up going back to bed and changing my alarms wake up time to later. I watched videos for a bit and then went back to sleep. And then….F arrived and came in the room. I’m not sure what he was doing and why he was there. He turned on the lights which really annoyed me as I was trying to sleep.

I ended up getting up and going downstairs to get kerosene. A few minutes later he left and I was still up.

I sorted my laundry and then went downstairs to get my breakfast. Although I was going to make stew, I wanted to eat first. I brought breakfast upstairs and ate. I also watched a video on YouTube and stayed upstairs a bit too long.

I went downstairs and started working on my stew. I did all the veggie prep and then parboiled some of them. They got dumped in the slow cooker. After that, I sautéd the ground pork and added it to the slow cooker. I was done, and it only took two hours. Bah!

I had my lunch next. I didn’t have time to watch a programme so I just watched a little YouTube for a few minutes and then watched the news. 

F called after 5:30 and said he was on the way back. I went downstairs around 6 pm as I had already done a lot of prep for dinner obviously! I washed the babyleaf lettuce and some dishes and F came back from work. He wasn’t feeling that great, poor guy. 

Around 7 pm I got F to put rice in the dishes and then I added the stew on top. Dinner was nice and we all seemed to enjoy the stew. The best thing is that there is enough for tomorrow night’s dinner. Yay.

After dinner I washed the dishes and put them away. I went upstairs afterwards and F followed me soon after. Around 10:30 I went downstairs to take a shower and then came back up to the room. I watched the last episode of season one of Cardinal and it was really good. I think WOWOW is going to get the show soon so I’ll hopefully get to watch the rest there.

And, that’s about it for my day. It was a pretty good day. I got my laundry done while I was making the stew so that was a very good thing!

So, come back later if you like and hear all about my Tuesday activities! Until tomorrow….

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….