May 26, 2019

Sunday - Blazing hot and sunny

I went to bed quite late last night and slept in until 9:30. I made a run downstairs. F had set up a loaf of bread overnight and I could smell it. I hadn’t worn my glasses downstairs, but it looked like the bread was finished. I came back upstairs and woke F up to see if the bread was done. It was and happily for me, he dealt with it.  He even gave me some an hour or so later, the next time I woke up!

We went out for lunch today. I had suggested a good restaurant near the centre of the city, but it wasn’t open today. Boo! Instead, we ended up going to the butcher’s restaurant. It’s a tiny place with great, meat-based food. Recently, they’ve had hamburgers on offer. Good hamburgers!  I had one today too, and F had the roast beef lunch. We were both pretty pleased with our meals.

After lunch, I suggested getting a drink or something, but F countered with going to the aquarium. As he pointed out, it would be cooler there.  We drove down to Kamo and spent the next hour or so looking at underwater creatures, but especially the jellyfish. It was great.

We came back towards Tsuruoka. F had suggested walking along the beach and I was fine with that, but  I kept falling asleep.  He changed his mind and we ended up in the Mikawa Mall instead.  Newsflash, there’s going to be a Post Office inside the mall. That’ll be cool.  

We had a coffee at the coffee shop (mine was decaf and iced) and used the wifi for a bit. F fell asleep at one point. We were on comfy couches and he was sitting there with his head thrown back. I think if I hadn’t woken him, he’d have started snoring soon!

We decided to buy things for dinner in the grocery store in the mall, so walked down and had a look. We picked up a treat tray with some deep fried shrimp, some meatballs, some gyoza and some spring rolls, a sushi assortment and I suggested a crispy noodle salad. We brought it all back to the house and while F washed his winter tires (?) I got dinner on the table.  I didn’t have a clue what he was doing. It was strange!

Dinner was nice except we were watching the news and it talked a lot about Trump’s meeting with Abe. Neither person is very popular amongst my friends.

After dinner, F washed the dishes and I dried them. He wanted to go to the onsen so I said I’d go to, and if we stopped at the grocery store afterwards, I’d buy stuff to make dinner as well. 

We went to the onsen. I sat in the lobby and read my book, I drank a couple of drinks from the coffee machine and ate a few senbei. F came out and vegged for a while too, but we left just before the place closed. 

On the way back to town, he suggested more coffee, so we went to Komeda and I tried their decaf iced coffee. It was good, not sweet either. Yay. F had his regular decaf. 

We finished up by going to the store and getting things for tomorrow’s dinner. I’m going to make up a stew packet and hopefully cook enough for two days.  

We came back to the house and I did up the kitchen garbage and the upstairs's too. I took a shower as well.  F has finally gone to bed and I think is sleeping. He’s tired, but doesn’t really want to go back to work I’m sure. I asked him if he had a good weekend but he said he didn’t know. Sigh. That makes me sad as I had a pretty good one overall. 

Not really sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow as I have a few things I need to do and even more that I want to do! Come back later and see which wins out!  Until tomorrow….

May 25, 2019

Saturday - HOT and sunny

I slept in a bit today, but F got up quite early. I finally got up and dressed in time for F to come in and demand to know where I wanted lunch. Since my stomach was still sore from last night I didn’t really want to eat for a while. We did end up going to Futaba just up the road and had quiche, which was lovely, and quite nice for sore stomachs.

After lunch, F wanted to see the parade, but I’m afraid I didn’t. It was so hot, I wasn’t feeling great yet and I just couldn’t be bothered. He suggested going to the bookstore, but then drove into the parade zone. I could not believe it. Every freaking road that he drove down was blocked off, and I TOLD him that it would be. It took ages to get to the bookstore. 

We spent a bit of time in the bookstore. It’s a bit boring for me because they don’t have English books so I spend my time looking at DVDs, CDs and crafting books. F picked up a local eatery magazine because it featured hamburgers and sandwiches. Yum.  We went over to Starbucks then and had a couple of cold beverages. I had iced coffee, F had a frappuccino. It was really busy there, so F got me to find a seat and then he got the drinks. I found one that was in the sun and was quite hot really. After a while a group near us moved, so F and I changed our seats.  The ladies that had been sitting next to us decided to take our old seats but we warned them about the sun so they changed their minds.  Good call!

We went back to the house for a while and then popped out again to get something for dinner. F wanted an hors d’oeuvres platter, but we couldn’t find one. At the third grocery store, he found a very expensive sushi tray and got that for us. It was really good, but a little small. When we brought it back to the house we all enjoyed it a lot.

We stayed in tonight. There weren’t any movies still so F and I watched a couple of shows off the DVR. We finished up Castle Rock tonight and started the second season of The Good Doctor. We enjoyed the shows.

F had a snack and then fell asleep, I had a snack and used my computer a lot!

I do feel a bit sorry that we didn’t see the parade today as I know that F wanted to see it. However, it was really hot this afternoon, F said his car thermometer said it was 34 degrees. That is much too hot for me. 

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

May 24, 2019

Friday - Hot and sunny

I woke up around 8 this morning and got up to make a trip downstairs. I saw F in the living room with his mother.  They’d had breakfast together. I came back upstairs, watched some of the news and then ER of course. F came back upstairs and went back to bed. I did go over for a cuddle until I had to get up again.  F snoozed a bit and didn’t really move again until the afternoon.

I found a new place on Facebook so I suggested going there. They only had a few things on the menu, but it sounded like a neat place. F decided it was a good possibility too so off we went.  It was a “Share Cafe” and it was really good!  We were the only customers but enjoyed ourselves. We both had the lunch set of curry and bread. It was great, even though the curry was tomato based.  We had bread with the curry, and also herb tea. It was really nice. I bought a few postcards there too as they were unusual. They were more expensive than the ones I usually get though.

After lunch, we went to the new concert hall to check out the activities. There weren’t many. There was a Marche or sale of goods going on. We bought some chiffon cake for K and for us too. We took it back to the house and we had our snack.  Yum. 

F had booked himself a massage in the afternoon, so I asked to be dropped off at S-Mall. He did, although we had to take a detour due to the road being blocked for the festival. At the mall, I hacked around the hundred yen shop and then got my picture taken in the photo booth at the door. I have to renew one of my living in Japan cards soon. 

I went to Doutor and had a drink and read part of my book today. I very nearly finished it before F showed up to meet me. 

We bought a bento for K’s dinner at the grocery store and then delivered it. She’d already made herself something. Oh well. 

I changed my shirt to something warmer and F called a taxi. We had decided to go to the Korean izakaya we like for our dinner.  We arrived there and had a good meal if a bit meat based. I didn’t order the food, it was all on F. He’s the one who doesn’t want to eat meat usually. 

When we had eaten too much there, we just came back to the house. I would have liked to stay out a bit longer, but F was tired. Unlike me, he had a couple of drinks. We came back to the house by taxi and just relaxed.  I did take a late shower as I really felt I needed it.

F is sleeping away now and I’m still up. My stomach is acting up a bit, I’ve no idea why. Hopefully, things will recover soon.  

Tomorrow is the Tenjin Matsuri Parade. I’m not sure if we’ll go and see it or not. F wants to, but I need my stomach to be better, and somewhere shady to stand!

That’s it for me. Come back later if you want and see what I get up to.  Until tomorrow….

May 23, 2019

Thursday - Sunny and warmish

I woke up quite early for me this morning, I did snooze a bit until my alarms went off, but I also watched some of the news I’d recorded. I was up for ER and went downstairs and got my breakfast. I didn’t do laundry like I had planned. Oh dear.

I spent quite a long time on my computer this afternoon. I was trying to get enough points at something, I finally managed it, but it took ages.  

I caught up a bit with some of the stuff on the DVR, I had a fabulous lunch too. I ate a bunch of the leftovers that I had been leaving for K. She left them there for days, I was going to throw them out after today!

F phoned to say he’d be late tonight but would try to call me to tell me he was on his way. He managed too.  When he called me around 6 pm he said he was on his way. I went downstairs a few minutes later and started to work on dinner.  Basically, I was going to make the same as I did on Tuesday, yakisoba, but I was changing it up a tad. Today I didn’t have mushrooms, so I used an onion. I also put a fried egg on top of F & K’s plates.  I’m ahead of myself.  F arrived at the house and I started frying things. He came downstairs and showed me his glasses. One of the lenses had come out. Oh no! The glasses shop closed in a short while, so he decided to race over there to see if they could fix it. We decided that I’d cook the meal and K and I would eat. 

I put things out in the living room and stir-fried the yakisoba. I had just put everything on plates when F arrived back.  Yay!  He got to eat with us after all. Dinner got okay reviews.  F and I did the dishes afterwards. 

We had a little chat after dinner…I was lying on the bed for a change and we decided to go to karaoke. Yay. I had asked last night if we could, but I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to. 

We drove downtown and went to my usual karaoke box. We got a room, but at first, we went into room 5. We couldn’t get the TV to work, so F talked to the front desk. It turned out that we were supposed to be in room 6. Oops! One of the TVs in that room worked! The slip of paper was a bit confusing. It looked a bit like this:

6 RM  [5]

I just glanced at the paper on the way to the room, and I thought I’d heard him say it was room 5, so….

We got things sorted and for the next 3 hours sang a lot of songs. F tired out near the end, but he’d had an early start and had worked all day, so it was understandable. We left a few minutes before our time ran out. 

We drove back to the house and F went straight to bed, where he still is. I have just had a quiet late night by myself. It’s been nice.

Tomorrow F has the day off. He wanted to see some of the Tenjin Matsuri things, so I’m not sure how that is going to work. Wish us luck and good humour tomorrow! 

Come back later and find out what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

May 22, 2019

Wednesday - Cooler but sunny

I got up quite early this morning and watched a lot of news! Last night I set the DVR to tape 3 news broadcasts from NHK so that I could compare them and see which one would let me see more news in English. I think I have mostly decided that I need to switch the one I record as there isn’t nearly enough news that I want to watch. The one I’ve been recording has only 4 minutes of BBC news and then about 12 minutes of German news followed by a lot of Russian news.  If I knew either of those languages I’d probably be delighted, but I don’t and I’m not.

I did a load of laundry today and hung it up. It took me a while to actually hang it, I was feeling guilty for a bit. I did see K this morning when I was downstairs and said hello. She offered me some popcorn! Obviously, she doesn’t know that I’m a popcorn fiend and should never be offered popcorn. Don’t feed the bear sort of thing.  

I didn’t prepare dinner at all today, so when F called he was a bit whiny about where to go or what to do for dinner. When he got here he said he wasn’t feeling very well and only wanted ramen. I suggested a place that does ramen and some other stuff, he didn’t like it but did go along with my idea. Honestly.  I told him that if he liked he could take his mother out for ramen and just drop me off somewhere else but he didn’t like that idea. Why not? It sounded like a good solution to me. That way I wouldn’t have to put up with a person who couldn’t be bothered to talk to me during dinner. Which is what I got anyway. Boo.

We went to the restaurant with his mum and the food was okay. I had a fairly expensive curry with chicken, he and his mother had ramen and gyoza.  We came back to the house but as we arrived, F said he’d like to go to the onsen and would I go with him. I said I would.

We picked up our stuff and left. I had an hour to myself and it was nice. I checked my apps on my phone, I knitted a bit and changed the circular needle as the cord on the old one was breaking, and I even read a bit of my book. Yay. 

On the way back to Tsuruoka F wanted to go to the grocery store so we did. I didn’t get anything for myself tonight, just suggested some barley tea for our dinners.  He got himself a few things, no big deal.

We came back to the house and I let him put the stuff away. I came upstairs and got ready for my shower. And that was about that. I watched a little bit of TV and spent more time than I should have on my computer. 

Not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow, so you’ll just have to come back and find out. Until tomorrow….

May 21, 2019

Tuesday - Rainy then clearing

I got up this morning on time but watched the news from the bed. I had to watch the DVR News though. I realized after the BBC update had finished that it was only 4 minutes of English news. Not really acceptable to me. Tomorrow I will check out some of the other broadcasts to see what my options are.

I watched ER and then The Black List and did a couple of loads of laundry. I had them hanging in my room for most of the day.  I saw K at one point and did say hello. 

Today was kind of a nothing day, to be honest. I didn’t do a lot of anything. I planned to Postcross, then didn’t. Sigh. 

F called around 5:45 to say he was coming back to the house so I went down and got a start on dinner. Today I made that old Japanese standby, yakisoba. It’s sort of fried ramen noodles with a bit of meat and some vegetables.  I served mine with a side salad and in the yakisoba, we had sausages, mushrooms and cabbage. It was actually pretty darn good.  I even served dessert today, my mincemeat tarts. They weren’t quite a month past their date!  Still, they were nice. 

F and I went out after we did the dishes tonight. We went to the drugstore, then to the coffee shop.  We went for a decaf each and some wifi, but F wouldn’t leave!  When we were there for an hour, I thought it was time to go, but it took F another 25 minutes before he’d put his phone down. So annoying. He is so addicted to his phone, I wonder if he has any idea how bad it is.  Admittedly, I spend a lot of time on my phone too, but I would like to at least have a conversation with my husband. I look around and other people are talking to each other, he just doesn’t look up or talk to me. And he wears an earphone too, so it isn’t like he’s even listening to me!  He isn’t. 

We picked up a few groceries at MaxValu and then came back. Oh yeah, there was some nonsense over the recycling of the supermarket trays they use. They were in a bag and I was taking them out in handfuls to pop in the box. I thought F suggested that I just put the whole bag in the box, so I did. Then he got annoyed at me for doing that. I don’t understand what he wants. I grabbed the bag back since it wasn’t what he meant. 

We had a quiet evening in the house. I watched some TV and F did his thing, no big deal.  

That’s about it really. I’m a tad late for bed, but not too bad. If I go soon I can get enough sleep for the night. If!  Come back later and see what’s new. Until tomorrow….

May 20, 2019

Monday - Sunny and warm

I got up this morning at a good time, but it was a bit difficult!  I watched some news, dozed a little too, before watching ER and getting dressed.  I ended up having a quiet morning and afternoon really.  

I probably should have done laundry today but didn’t. I just didn’t feel it. I managed to watch quite a bit of stuff off the DVR though, so that was good. I did say good morning to K today when I grabbed my breakfast, so that was good too. I worry that she expects me to hunt her down to say good morning. I’m not going to do that. If I see her (and she sees me) I will say good morning, but I’m not going to chase after her or start yelling good morning at her!  

In the afternoon I did my dishes and got a start on dinner. I made more hibiscus tea and set up the garlic soy marinade for the pork.  I combined those and put them back in the fridge for a while. 

When F called to say he was coming I finished what I was doing then went downstairs to start dinner prep. I think he was surprised when he arrived at how far I was and how organized I was. I was surprised that he kept standing IN MY WAY! I don’t have time to stand and chat when I’m cooking.  I set the table tonight along with all the other stuff I did. We had a nice meal. We had garlic pork, marinated mushrooms, broccoli, salad and F and K had rice too. I didn’t.

F washed the dishes and I dried them, so no arguments there. F took in the sink board out to fix it and I washed the frypan and then went upstairs for a rest.

When F was finished, we went over to Yupoka, his spa. F took a bath, I spent some time in the lobby reading my book and trying to get the wifi to work. I didn’t manage much.

After F was finished, we came back to Tsuruoka and went to MaxValu. We ended up getting something for dinner tomorrow night, yes, I’ll be cooking two nights in a row!  We came back to the house after that.

I had a quiet evening in a way. I took a shower and F walked to the local convenience store to pick something up. He couldn’t drive as he’d already had a drink. I watched So You Think You Can Dance and was a bit surprised at the results.  Two of the most talented dancers on the show were eliminated…the one the judges kept warning got to stay on. It wasn’t fair. 

Anyway, that’s about it for me. I’m tired as these hot days are making me rather drained.  What will it be like when summer gets here? I don’t want to think about it.  Come back later if you like and see how Tuesday goes. Until tomorrow….