August 23, 2017

Wednesday - Cloudy & humid

A good day.

Had my usual sort of morning, got up and watched the news, etc.  I had breakfast with K this morning and then came upstairs to spend time on my computer and drink coffee.  I began printing a few things for my trip.  I needed an itinerary for my husband and one for me too. 

I went down a bit later for lunch but K didn’t want any.  That was okay.  I just had it upstairs by myself.  I watched some of Agents of Shield from the DVR and enjoyed it a lot.  

This evening, F came back to the house and brought us a drink each. Yay.  We talked about dinner and he said he didn’t really want any.  He’s been having stomach troubles and is trying to take things easy.  I suggested that we go to Gusto because I could get something I like there and he had a few options, plus drink bar.  

We went and it was fine.  F had a tofu salad and I had some grilled chicken.  We both had a kakigori too, just small ones.  We bought a few groceries at the supermarket and then came back to the house.  

On the way we started talking about walking and how we were planning to do it, but never did, so F asked me if I’d like to go tonight.  Yes.  I changed my clothes and then F and I went off for a bit of a walk.  It was only the first night, so we only went for a mile, but it was quite nice.  I hope that we are able to do it again.

We came back to the house and while I watched Grey’s Anatomy I finally finished darning in the ends on one side of my poncho.  I did start the second half of it, but only got a few done.  This is not the fun part!

And that’s about it.  F and I had a bit of a serious talk tonight about stuff.  It was prompted by an article a friend posted on Facebook.  Basically, it was how children don’t really want to take on the stuff of their parents.  We don’t have children, so I asked him what he’d like done with one of his family heirlooms if he shuffles off this mortal coil before I do.  He told me to take it to Canada with me, but I don’t think I could.  I think it should go to a Japanese family member.  He’ll get back to me on that.  

And that was basically my day today.  I did finish writing my column, although I have to proof it and then format it before I send it to the editor.  I hope it'll be okay!

Come back later on and see how Thursday goes.  Until tomorrow....

August 22, 2017

Tuesday - Hot, humid and rainy

A good day.

I woke up this morning and said a sleepy goodbye to F, then snoozed a little longer.  I got up before the news at 8 am and then stayed up.  I started up my water pot and had an early coffee.  Yay.

I went down and had breakfast with K and then remembered that I’d left some of my laundry in the garage.  I went over and brought it in.

Around 12:30 I went down to see about lunch.  K wasn’t awake, and didn’t wake up when I called her name.  In that case, I just decided to let her be.  I had an okay lunch of nama ham, salad, bread and dressing.  

I spent a long time upstairs today.  It was very hot up here and the fact that we didn’t have air conditioning made it difficult for me.  I did more work on my movie column and wrote about a few more movies.  I think now I need to write the opening and closing, as well as about a couple more films.

I did some printing today too. I needed the itinerary of my trip for my backpack and I printed a little version for F.  He’ll lose it, but it is good that I did it.

When F came home, he wasn’t feeling great.  As  usual, he asked me to pick the restaurant.  I suggested a few, but he wasn’t interested.   We decided to try for sushi again, but not our usual haunts, a place we rarely go to.  It was…okay.  Actually, tonight was the worst I’ve ever seen it.  They have drink bar and the waiter brings over your first drink.  He got mine wrong.  The sushi master wouldn’t take our requests, we had to write them down and pass the slip over to him.  Things like that, small aggressions really.  Oh, and the best thing of all?  F had forgotten his wallet and wanted to go back to the house for it.  I suggested that I pay for things tonight. Which I did.

Tonight we spent a few minutes in McDonalds and I got a cheaper burger and their Black Thunder McFlurry.  That was quite nice.  I hadn’t eaten enough sushi so decided to treat myself.  

We picked up a few groceries afterwards and then came back to the house where we took showers and relaxed.  I did some darning on my poncho and watched Suits.  

It was sort of a quiet day today, but that’s okay. I need another day like that at least so that I can get my column finished.  Wish me luck with it! 

Come back later and see how Wednesday goes down around here.  Until tomorrow….

August 21, 2017

Monday - Hot and humid

An okay day.

I got up this morning around 8 am…I had woken up when F had to go to work, so I snoozed for a bit after that.  I watched the news and also had some coffee in my room.  

I went down after 9:30 and had breakfast with K.  That was quite nice.  She’d slept in our old bed last night and said she enjoyed it.  Yay!  That means she isn’t sleeping in the living room for now.  

I did a few loads of laundry and while I was hanging up the third load, F’s nieces and their children arrived to visit Great Granny.  I stopped in for a few minutes to be friendly, but then begged off to do some writing.  

I started my column today. Yay me!  I wrote about two and a half reviews so far, hopefully I’ll be able to write more tomorrow.  

I did watch a bit of telly this afternoon too.  I saw the first episode of season 4 of Agents of Shield. It was good.  

F called around 5 to say he would be a bit late, and he was.  He called later to say he was on his way, but it was past 6 pm I think. F came back to the house, bearing cold drinks.  Yay!

We decided where to go for dinner.  F’s stomach is still giving him trouble so I told him that I’d let him pick something that he wanted.  His requests were rice or ramen…so I suggested the Udon shop we’ve been going to.  F countered with several other restaurants which I agreed to go to.  Then he picked one that’s far away that I really don’t like and I said so.  That’s when he got annoyed.  Why?  I said yes to at least 5 restaurants that were not very good, only because he liked them, yet he gets angry when I said no to one more.  Don’t get it personally.  

We ended up at the first place I suggested and had an okay meal.  We had to move during the meal as F was by the bug zapper and the bugs were driving him crazy.  He told me not to look out the window behind me, but of course I did.  There was a huge swarm of mosquitos there.  Yikes.  

We had a couple of udon dishes and shared a tofu salad.  Unfortunately it had bait on it.  Bleck.  Fortunately, the F told the shop owner about the bugs and he comped our salad.  Woot!

We spent a few minutes at Mosburger using their wifi and then 10 minutes zooming around Yamazawa for some groceries for tomorrow.  We came back to the house and spent a quiet couple of hours here.  I darned in some ends of my poncho and watched The Good Wife. So many ends to go though.

And that’s it.  I watched  a little bit more TV, but don’t plan to watch more until the morning.  Not sure what I’ll get up to on Tuesday, plan to work on my column though.  

Come back Tuesday evening and see what I get up to.  Until tomorrow….

August 20, 2017

Sunday - Cloudy and Hot, muggy

A surprisingly good day!

I slept in this morning.  Quite late!  I woke up first around 7, then went back to sleep and woke up around 10.  The next time I woke it was almost 12 and I hurriedly got out of bed and got dressed.  

F and I talked about lunch and even invited K, but she didn’t want to come with us. We stripped our bed and gathered the other bedding we wanted to wash. For lunch,  I suggested going to East, the Grand El Sun’s restaurant and F was okay with that.  We went and had a good meal. I had shrimp and zucchini pasta, F had curry.  I thought that mine was going to be cold pasta, but it wasn’t!  I misunderstood the kanji.  Still, it was good, so it really didn’t matter that much.

After lunch, we went over to the laundromat in Voice and did our bedding.  We got there just before another lady who seemed mad that we took two washers.  However, we did leave one large one open and she seemed to be able to get everything in it, so not sure why the grump?  I read more of my book, F did stuff on his phone and we got the stuff washed and then put into the dryers.  I paid for most of it, which is a bit of a surprise for me, but I had saved most of the money up.  No big deal.

We bought a few groceries and then came back to the house.  We made one of our old beds up for K in a room downstairs, and then made our bed upstairs.  We had some ice cream and then came upstairs again.  I read a bit on line and realized that there might be a festival in Tsuruoka tonight.  F looked into it, and so did I.  He found there was a flag festival near the main post office and I found that the big waterfall in Sakata was lit up for the last time tonight!  

We ended up going to both.  F drove us near downtown and we parked the car.  Then, we walked to the festival.  We looked around and thought about buying food, but didn’t.  The flag waving, when they actually did it, was very cool.  However, the MC was really in love with his own voice and never shut up.  He was gabbing on and on about nothing and it was really boring for me.  Maybe not for other people, but it was dull as ditchwater for me!  

After a while, it looked like some people were packing up, so we left.  We walked back to the car and then drove out to Sakata.  F couldn’t set the GPS for a while, although he did try.  We ended up somewhere in the boonies of Sakata.  Finally, F set the GPS and we were fine.  It took about 25 minutes to get get to the parking lot near the falls.  I was so hungry by this time it was crazy.  F bought me a tama-kon which was only okay.  

We walked up to Tamasudare no Taki Waterfall.  It’s the tallest one in Yamagata Prefecture.  They light it up during Obon and one other festival I believe.  Tonight was the last night, so it would be our last chance for a while.  Last year, F tried to take me there but it was about a month too late!

I took a few pictures of the falls…

We stayed near the falls for a while.  It was lovely there.  There seemed to be a nice scent in the air and it wasn’t too busy.  The sound of the water was relaxing and I would have stayed until they turned off the lights personally!  

We drove back into Sakata and had dinner at a Cocos.  It was fun finding it…I thought it was one place and I was right, but F said it was at another.  We went in, and I had taken two of the dessert coupons we were given at our usual one.  When we ordered, F only ordered one dessert!  I said to him, “ Oh, you aren’t having dessert?”  He said to me, “Oh, you want dessert?” Umm, yes.  We amended the order!

We drove back into Tsuruoka but it was quite late when we got back.  It was around 11 pm when we made it to the house.  We relaxed for a while and then took our showers and such.  

Tomorrow we are back to the normal rhythm of life I think.  I have no idea how that is going to go…it’ll be nice to have some quiet for a change!  I have things to do however, I really must start writing my column.  Come back if you will on Monday night and see what I get up to.  Until tomorrow….

August 19, 2017

Saturday - Hot, cloudy and then rainy

A good day.

F and I both got up this morning later than usual, but still early for a Saturday.  After some computer checking for me, we got dressed and went out.  He dropped me off at S-Mall and then he went off to his doctor.  

I visited a couple of shops and even bought a couple of things in the hundred yen shop.  The mall was busy today as there was a concert of sorts going on and a meet and greet with the band.  It was also Tsuruoka’s fireworks day, so the mall was preparing for that.  They open up their roof and allow people to watch from there.  It gives some of their shops the chance to sell to customers in a different way and adds to the fun.  

I went to Doutors to wait for F and was lucky enough to get a table for myself.  I had a late breakfast and drank some coffee and read my book. I enjoyed myself.  F took ages in the doctor’s office and didn’t call me until after 12:30. He came to get me, but stopped and had coffee and a sandwich too.  

We went for a very late lunch to the new sushi restaurant.  We had a crazy amount of sushi and tried different things today too.  F won a magnet with the dropping plates lottery.  

We came back to the house after lunch and came upstairs.  F took a nap and then later I did too.  I set my alarm for 6 pm however and got up then.

We drove to Mikawa and then had lunch at the Bibinba stall.  While we were there, we noticed that we could see the fireworks in the distance, so moved our trays over to the window seats and watched them a bit.  I missed the noise more than anything, but actually didn’t mind missing the fireworks at all.

We went to see Spider-man: Homecoming again.  I had missed part of it last week in Niigata due to an unfortunately timed washroom break on my part and there wasn’t anything else playing that we hadn’t seen.  

We both enjoyed seeing the film again.  After the movie it was late, but I asked F if we could go over to Don Qihote to pick up a few things for my trip.  We went over and had a bit of a look around.  We left with two bags of stuff!  It was fun though.

We came back to the house and F went to sleep quite soon.  I’m up much too late, so I should really get myself off to sleep.  So, I will!

No idea what we’ll get up to tomorrow.  Come on back and find out.  Until tomorrow….

August 18, 2017

Friday - Cloudy and rainy

You know how you have a day that you think will go one way and it goes in a way that you never expected?  That was my day today!

F didn’t sleep well last night and was awake when I woke up at 5 am.  He managed to get a little sleep but wasn’t sure if he would go to work today.  He went off finally.  

I had a quiet morning, K didn’t want breakfast again today, so I had mine upstairs.  I got a message from my friend asking if I could meet her for coffee. Sure!  

I got ready for her, but of course I was ready oodles before she arrived.  It wasn’t a big deal, and I did a little bit of end darning while I was waiting.  When she arrived we discussed where to go and I suggested going to the Kimuraya Factory store.  They have a nice selection of baked goods and free coffee, so I thought it might be nice.  We went and had lunch together.  Yay.  

I got back to the house around 2:00 pm and then around 2:30 pm I got a call from F.  He was on his way back.  He’d taken the afternoon off to go to the doctor.  When he got back here he changed and we discussed what to do.  He was all for letting me out at the mall, but the mall was in the opposite direction and I wouldn’t know how long he’d take.  I finally decided to just go with him, so that’s what I did.

We were at the doctor’s office for more than 3 hours.  While we were waiting, I did some reading and also some colouring!  I had brought along my colouring pencil crayons and some postcards that I work on at times.  I even gave a colouring sheet to F and he did some.  It was rather fun.  I did quite a lot of work on my postcard.  F was seen to a couple of times and then we were able to go.  He has to go back tomorrow too.

We talked about what to do for the evening. We decided to get K something for dinner and then take ourselves off to the Internet Cafe.  We did that too.  I just watched some TV and had dinner.

We came back around 10:00pm and had a quiet evening in.  We had a bit of chat time together, then he did his thing and I did mine.  

That’s about it.  It wasn’t the day I expected, both F leaving work early and me going out with my friend were surprises, but turned out to be good ones.  

Come back later on Saturday to see what we get up to.  Will we see a movie or go to the fireworks?  Will we have a good morning, or a rushed one?  Hmmm.  Until tomorrow….

August 17, 2017

Thursday - Hot and muggy

An okay day.

I got up this morning early because someone came back into the room and made so much noise that it woke me up. Really woke me up.  

I watched the news and half of Agents of Shield before going downstairs.  I set up the washing machine to wash the blanket.  I had asked F to show me which button to press for the delicate cycle, and I put the blanket into a laundry bag too.  

I asked K if she wanted to have breakfast, but she begged off today, said she wasn’t feeling good.  I had breakfast in the kitchen, and that was perfectly fine.  I did my dishes and was done just in time to take the blanket out of the machine and then I hung it upstairs.

I watched some TV, drank some tea and coffee and then came down for lunch.  K was asleep, or at least looked that way, so I didn’t disturb her.  I prepped lunch for myself and then brought it upstairs.  I stayed upstairs for quite a while today.

I began working on my column a little.  I made up a list of movies that fit the topic and even tried to see one of them on YouTube.  I didn’t have time today, perhaps tomorrow?

It was horribly humid in the afternoon, so I spent too much time changing my clothes, trying to stay cool and dry.  Didn’t quite manage it, but that’s okay.  

I took my dishes down to wash and saw K.  I told her with gestures that I had lunch while she was sleeping.  She didn’t seem upset. She was probably relieved that she didn’t have to have my weird western food! 

I went back upstairs and not too much later F called and then came back to the house.  He brought us some drinks which were greatly appreciated.  

He suggested going to Gusto for dinner tonight, so we did.  I had a Thai style curry, F had chicken and we shared some fries.  

After dinner we hit up the MaxValu for some groceries, both for his mother’s dinner and for my lunch tomorrow.  We came back to the house, gave  K her dinner and came upstairs.  We’ve had a pretty quiet night really.  F has been listening to his iPhone, and I’ve been watching TV or using my computer, so a quiet night all round.  We both showered and are still up quite late.  

I’m probably off to bed in a couple of minutes though.

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow.  If I’m smart, I’ll probably work on my column, but I’m not sure that I am smart!  Come back later and see what happens.  Until tomorrow….