July 3, 2025

 Thursday - Hot and Sunny with clouds

I woke up this morning and checked the room temperature. It was 28 already. Unfortunately, I turned off my first few alarms and didn’t wake up again until later! I went downstairs, came back upstairs and watched a couple of videos on my phone. I didn’t manage to fall back asleep so I just got up a bit later. 

I had to turn on the air conditioner around 11:30 this morning as it had already reached 31 degrees in our room. That’s insane. I’m worried about August, I really am. 

I had a quiet day today. I didn’t have any space to hang up laundry so I didn’t do any. I did take down some of my dry clothes though, so at least there isn’t a wall of drying clothes between the rooms. 

I grabbed lunch around 3 pm and came back upstairs to eat. Today I watched the show I missed on Saturday night, the FBI. It was quite good. 

F texted me today, he’d had a slow day at work so he made up a schedule for my nephew’s visit. Some of it was great, but some of it….I think F forgets that my nephew is young. He had him down for two Japanese style meals in a row….good, but why not take him for okonomiyaki or something fun for one of them. We don’t even know if he eats fish. He’s only here for 2 and a half days, we don’t know what he’d like to do yet! I did just get an email from him today, so that’s good.

Around 5:30, F called to say he was on his way. A little later, I went downstairs to get dinner started. I was busy in the kitchen tonight. I cooked garlic pepper chicken in the toaster oven and steamed some broccoli. We had potato salad and then some cucumber sticks with miso paste to dip them in. We also had a salad and some rice. It was a nice dinner. It was pretty low stress for me. Hurray. 

After dinner I did the dishes and then went and sat in the cool living room for a few minutes with F. I then went upstairs to change to go out. 

F drove me to Mina, the local grocery shop I like and I went in. I bought a few things for the next couple of days. Or tomorrow really. I got something for dinner tomorrow, I got breakfast for F and K and some juice for K. She’s started drinking juices. I don’t mind too much, I want her drinking during the summer. 

We came back to the house and I put the food away and then went upstairs. I crashed on the bed for a while under the air conditioner, playing games on my phone and chatting with F too. 

I watched Yellowstone at 11pm. It was an odd episode. The first part was great, and then the second part was like it happened after last week’s episode. Strange.

And that’s about it for my day. We still have the AC on at 2 am. It is so darn hot inside and out. If we open the windows it may be cooler out there, but it is definitely more humid too. 

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow, but come on back later and find out. Until tomorrow….

July 2, 2025

Wednesday - Hot and sunny

I woke up this morning before my alarm. It was already so hot in our room. It was over 28 degrees by 8 am. It was horrid.

I went downstairs and turned on my fan when I came back. I went back to bed for a nap. I watched a couple of videos and then went back to sleep for a bit. I overslept and when I woke up it was horribly  hot in the room, over 30 degrees. Sigh.

I grabbed my breakfast and then came up to the room and sorted my laundry. I took a load downstairs and then ate my breakfast. I hung up my laundry when it was done and washed even more! There are clothes all over the room at the moment. 

I went downstairs to get my lunch around 3pm. K was sitting up in the living room and I suggested that she turn on the AC in the living room. She said no at first, but then she did! Woot. She’s such a stubborn old thing but I don’t want her getting heatstroke. 

During my lunchtime I hung up a load of laundry and watched an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was a fairly good one and I enjoyed it. I’m afraid that I’m still not seeing the big deal about the show!

I relaxed and watched the news at 4 pm. F called me around 5:30 to say he was on his way. I went downstairs a few minutes later and got started in the kitchen. Today I had to wash dishes and then I washed the dishes that I was planning to use for the meal. It took ages and it was hot. Until now, I have been waiting for F to get back before I turned on the AC in the living room, but today I turned it on right away. K had gone back to bed and had turned things off again.

Tonight I magicked up a new dish for us. I took some ground pork and added some onions, garlic, mushrooms and then some canned corn. I put on some Worchestershire sauce, a pinch of herbs and then tasted it. It still needed something so I added some fish sauce and that was it. It got great reviews and F went back for seconds so that was good! We also had some salad and potato salad with it and that was nice as well. 

I did the dishes and put them away. After that, I did the garbage up in the kitchen. F took away one of the bags and put his garbage from upstairs in it. I did mine afterwards.

I took a shower around 10:20 and then came back to the room and watched Grey’s Anatomy. I noticed that The Quick and the Dead was playing on another channel afterwards and I nearly watched the end of it but didn’t. It’s one of my favourite films!

So, that’s about it for me. It’s late, but earlier than I’ve been to bed recently, so I should probably get a bit more sleep. Come back later if you like and hear all about my Thursday. Until tomorrow…. 

July 1, 2025

Tuesday - Hot and muggy, rainy

Today was a very nice day, for the most part! Oh, and before I forget, Happy Canada Day!  And yes, it is a real thing!

I woke up fairly late this morning. F had already left for the hospital He had to have a check up about his knee. It’s been about two years since his operation and the surgeon wants him to go next year too.

Well, I slept on for a while, but F came back and after a bit I got dressed. We talked about going out for lunch and I suggested going to Cocos. We almost never go there for lunch and they have a different menu so I thought it sounded nice. F agreed and so off we went. 

I had a lovely lunch, F less so! I had pasta, they had a lemon and shrimp and avocado pasta which came with drink bar, salad and soup. F had a Thai noodle dish which he didn’t love. We shared an order of fries and that was nice too. 

After lunch we decided to go to the museum. They have an exhibit about Leonardo DaVinci on at the moment. It isn’t his real works, just information about them and replicas of them. It was quite interesting though. We spent quite a bit of time in the Art Forum and then left. 

                                                

We went to Starbucks next and had a couple of Frappucinos. F had his usual, I tried the special double chocolate frappucino. It was lovely. F and I wore our Canada T-Shirts and the clerk in the Starbucks asked me about them. I told her it was Canada Day. I’m not sure that she’d heard of it!

After our drinks we went over to Mina to buy groceries. I went in and picked up a bunch of stuff for the next couple of days. I came back to the car and then we went back to the house. 

When I put the groceries away in the fridge, I checked the ice cartridge. I picked it up and there was a lot of pink fluid underneath it. What the heck? It turns out that F had opened a bag of ginger…the yucky pinky/red stuff that they like in Japan…and had put the remainder in the fridge. He’d tied the top with an elastic I think, but it had things put on top of it and the liquid was everywhere on the door of the fridge and under the ice cartridge. I had to empty out the bottom shelf on the door, pull out the plastic shelf as it had seeped underneath it, clean all of it and then clean the ice cartridge and underneath that. I took off my lovely Canada T-shirt as I didn’t want to yuck it up. I was not a happy camper. It needed a good cleaning anyway, but I just didn’t plan to do it then. 

It took a while, but I got it all cleaned up. I threw out a few outdated things too and then put everything back. Whew. Done.

I went upstairs for a while and relaxed. I had bought K a nice bento so F gave that to K and then he relaxed upstairs too. 

Around 8pm we went out for our dinner. F wanted the Japanese place I used to like and I thought that since I got my choice for lunch, it was only fair that he get his choice for dinner. However, when we drove to the place it had already closed for the night. Instead, we ended up at Yoshinoya and both had gyudon. F had the regular kind, I had Kalbi on rice. I’m not that sure what the difference was. It was fine, but I didn’t like their miso soup. 

After dinner we started driving. F said something about driving near the city center and that was okay with me. He ended up taking us to Komeda and we both had iced caffeineless coffee. The funny thing was that F had left his phone at the house, so I had to order and also….we actually talked to each other. I didn’t think it was fair to be on my phone when F didn’t have his, so we had a nice chat.

When we finished in Komeda, I asked if we could make a quick trip into MaxValu. They sell my favourite lunch meat there and I forgot to buy any at the other store. F said yes and gave me some money to go in. He tried to give me a lot, but really I only needed a little. I told him I’d buy some mixed frozen veggies too and maybe a snack for myself.

Well, it all came in under ¥1000, so that was good. They were already out of my favourite lunch meat (sliced chicken, the dry kind) so I had to buy the moist kind. Not my favourite, but t’will do. 

After all of that, we came back to the house. I put away my stuff in the fridge and then came upstairs. I watched FBI: International at 11pm and then got stuck into some YouTube.

F is still up and it is late. He has to go to work tomorrow so I hope he’ll be okay. I have a mound of laundry to do so I had better start it tomorrow and not put it off anymore!

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

June 30, 2025

Monday - Sunny, warm and humid

I went to bed quite late last night. It was getting light. I did my reading in bed and then turned off my phone and got ready to sleep. I was just nodding off when F got up and went downstairs. I’m afraid I didn’t hear him come back to bed as I fell asleep!

This morning I woke up with my alarm. I also had just received a text from F to say that his sister was coming over to take his mother out. I went downstairs and then came back to bed. I did watch a video and then fell asleep again!  I woke up a bit later, got dressed and spent more time on the bed. I heard K come back to the house and after a bit I went downstairs to grab breakfast.

I brought my food upstairs and ate breakfast. I backed up my computer but I didn’t do any laundry. In fact, later on in the day, I spent a lot of time looking for my Canada T-shirt so that I could wear it tomorrow. On the search for it, I found a bunch of things that I haven’t worn in ages and made myself a huge mound of laundry! I won’t be doing that tomorrow though.

I had lunch around 3 and watched another episode of Major Crimes. I enjoyed it. It was one of the Philip Stroh episodes. 

F called me after 5:30 and we chatted for a minute or two. He rang off and a few minutes later I went downstairs.

I got busy. I washed my dishes for the day, I got some cucumber pickle made, I was quite busy. F wanted me to make some miso mayo dip for cucumbers but I didn’t do any of that tonight. Dinner was quite good. We had salad, ginger pork, cucumber pickle, steamed veggies, mini-tomatoes and I even made a pineapple mango infusion/tea. We had dessert as well afterwards.  F had made rice last night, or had set up the rice cooker. Dinner got good reviews.

I did the dishes and put everything away. Then I went upstairs to relax for a bit. I ended up having a text chat with my bestie in Canada, so that was lovely. We haven’t been on line at the same time for a while. 

I took a shower before 11pm and then came back to the room. I watched an episode of Severance which was very interesting and confusing. F is sleeping. I had hoped that he would help me put my big quilt away, but he didn’t tonight. He’s off work tomorrow, he has to go back and see the surgeon that operated on his knee two years ago. He was supposed to go last week, but it was postponed. 

So, that was my day. I’m not sure what we’re going to do tomorrow. I told dear hubby that I’m not cooking tomorrow night, so I hope he’s making some plans for us! Ha!

Come back later if you like and find out how I spend my Canada Day. Until tomorrow….

June 29, 2025

Sunday - Cloudy and cooler (but still hot!)

I woke up this morning when F came into the room and asked me when my nephew was visiting us. I was mostly asleep and didn’t appreciate his question then! I suggested that he turn on the AC, which he did. However, when he closed the window, he left the curtains open too so the sun was coming in the room and I couldn’t see or go back to sleep. I ended up getting up and turned off the AC five minutes later.

I got up a bit later and got dressed. F came back around 12 or so and we talked about lunch. I suggested the Daiichi Hotel again and we decided we’d try it. When we got nearby, there were a lot of people walking in and out of the hotel so we decided it might be too busy today!

We drove on and then F suggested a traditional Japanese restaurant. I said okay. I was worried as it is a touch expensive, but the food is good. We both had the monthly special which was rather big! We had some sashimi, tempura, grilled fish, and a bunch of the tiny delicious dishes that we often get with this type of meal. It was lovely.

After our lunch, we decided to go back to the house. However, F remembered that he needed fish food so we had to make a detour to the hardware store! I stayed in the car. F came back out but then remembered that he needed to get plant food! He went back for it. 

We did come back to the house, via the convenience store. We got some iced cafe-au-laits and ice cream there. When we got back to the house, we put K’s in the fridge or freezer and then came upstairs. We turned on the AC and basically took naps. We were both tired and it was hot and humid outside. 

A few hours later, F made dinner for his mother and then we went out for ours. F wanted to go for sushi to the good place, but they would be closing soon. I suggested going to the second best, cheaper place and that’s where we went. We had an okay dinner there. F kept wanting to order a lot of deep fried foods but my stomach was a bit upset tonight so I thought it was better not to have any.

After our dinner, we went to PAL shopping area to buy groceries. I went into the store and bought the groceries. Usually I like the store, but tonight they didn’t have any bread. I got most of the other things though. 

I went back to the car and we drove towards the house. We went into another grocery store to buy some rice and I looked at the bread. They had some, but it was best before the second…that’s three days away. I think I’ll wait until Tuesday night and then buy it!

We came back to the house and I put away the groceries. I went upstairs and relaxed, watched a little YouTube. Around 11:30 I watched the latest episode of Murderbot. Ooh, it was good. I’m happy the episodes are short, but they are never long enough once I’m in them!

That’s about it for the day. Tomorrow I’m not sure what I’m going to get up to. I might do something like laundry as F will be off work on Tuesday so I won’t have much time to do it then. It’s so exciting, this life I lead!

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

June 28, 2025

Saturday - Sunny in the early part of the day, cloudy at night.

I woke up around 9 this morning and went downstairs. I expected that F would have left with K by now, but they were still here. I think they left just afterwards. When I came back upstairs to the room I discovered that F still hadn’t taken my card to mail. I was rather annoyed. He forgot it yesterday and today too. 

I went back to bed for a while and snoozed a bit. I got up a bit later and got dressed. F came up finally, but it was nearly 1pm. My dentist appointment was at 3 so I was worried about running out of time. As usual, F wouldn’t think of a place to have lunch, so I finally suggested the restaurant in Kushibiki that we like. 

We drove out there and got a table after a three minute wait. That was amazing! F had fried rice and I had mapo-yakisoba. Mine was good, a little spicy. F said his was good too.

After lunch we headed back to Tsuruoka and F wanted to go to the grocery store. I suggested picking up a bento for K’s dinner and F suggested getting some ice cream for us! We did that, after running all over the store for F and his shopping needs. We got back to the house about 2:30 and I reminded F that we would need to leave in about 15 minutes to be on time for my appointment. 

We ate our ice cream and I brushed my teeth to try and prepare for the dentist. Then, we drove over to the dentist’s office. We were a couple of minutes late so I was sad. We had to wait in the lobby for a bit and then I was seen to. Apparently, I was just going to have my teeth brushed (?) but the dentist noticed that my bottom teeth were chipped. So…she decided to fix those today. I have to go back again…I don’t really need my teeth brushed thanks anyway. I think she means a teeth cleaning. I couldn’t eat for an hour after my appointment since the stuff on my teeth needed to dry or bond or something. 

We went back to the house and got there before K came back. I went upstairs and F stayed downstairs. I spent time on my computer on the bed, with the AC on. It was 30 degrees in our room. 

K returned and a while later F came upstairs and we talked about our evening plans. I wanted to go and see F1The Movie and F was okay with that. However, we needed dinner first. F would not even suggest places to go. Finally at 7 pm I rattled off a few ideas and he picked one. I dunno. Why can’t he do that? It annoys me to no end. 

We ended up at the Udon chain restaurant on the way out of town. We both had the same thing, cold udon with sudachi and oroishi. We got some tempura too, and had that with our meal. I got freshly made sweet potato tempura and some chicken tender tempura. It was very good. 

We got to Mikawa Mall in what should be lots of time, and I bought the tickets while F used the washroom. It was a bit tricky as I mixed up the “Go Back” button and the “Continue” button. Oops. I figured it out finally. Then, I got in the very long line for the concession stand. We both needed drinks and I was looking forward to some popcorn. I don’t want to complain about the workers but it was Saturday night and there were only two people working the concession. They should have had some prepackaged popcorn or drinks to help. There were a lot of people in line. 

After I bought our stuff, I gave it to F to take to our seats and I made a washroom run. Then, it was time to watch F1 The Movie. It wasn’t the most intelligent movie I’ve ever seen, but it was enjoyable, surprisingly funny and we both enjoyed it a lot. Brad was good and there was a romance that was basically age appropriate too. Or at least it seemed to be. 

We came back to Tsuruoka after the movie and we went to buy gas. F had taken the car right down to 34 km left. Why does he do that? He knows how upset I get with him when he does stupid things like that. After the 2011 Earthquake, we couldn’t buy gas for weeks. It’s not like earthquakes give advanced warnings!

Back at the house, I went upstairs and opened the window. It was about the same temperature inside as it was outside, so why not. I’m trying not to run the AC when it isn’t necessary. 

Since we came back, I’ve been watching some YouTube and just relaxing. It’s been nice. 

Tomorrow I’m not sure what we’ll get up to. I have to buy groceries for Monday, but F is off on Tuesday so I’m not planning to cook!

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

June 27, 2025

 Friday - Cooler and overcast

I woke up this morning when my alarm went off. I wasn’t too happy with my phone! I waited a couple of minutes and then went downstairs. I went back up to the room, sorted my laundry, watched a few videos and then went back to sleep. I woke up later when my alarm went off, but I decided 5 minutes more and woke up 45 minutes later. Oops.

I got up, dressed and went downstairs to pick up breakfast. I took my laundry down with me and put it in the washing machine. I made breakfast and took it upstairs to eat. I had a fairly quiet early afternoon. I went downstairs to pick up my laundry and brought it upstairs to hang.

I watched some YouTube and then went down for lunch a couple of hours later. I brought it upstairs to eat and finished Season 9 of The Great British Bake Off while I ate. I had a feeling the person who won would win, not completely sure that they should have won!

I watched the news and since I hadn’t heard from F went downstairs to get started on dinner. Of course, he called me when I was working. He was on his way.

Tonight I made garlic mayo pasta and served it with salad, lemon chicken and cucumber pickle. I think it was good. 

I did the dishes after dinner and listened to my podcasts. I enjoyed the movie ones especially. 

Oh, big news….I forgot to say that my nephew is going to come over next month. He’ll come up to Tsuruoka for a couple of nights so that will be nice. 

I went downstairs around 10pm to take my shower and then when I came back to the room I decided to watch a movie. I picked something from a while ago on the DVR. I didn’t really know what it was as it was listed in Japanese! It turned out to be Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael with Winona Ryder and Jeff Daniels. It was okay. It wasn’t the best film I’ve ever seen but I didn’t mind it at all. It had its moments. 

And that was basically it for my day. It was hot, but not horribly so. I managed up here without the air conditioner, but I was grateful when F turned on the AC in the living room when I was cooking. It was hot in the kitchen. 

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