February 1, 2010

Monday - Sunny in Sendai, snowy in Tsuruoka.

It's almost an insult to look at the weather on this post. Sapporo was gorgeous for most of the time I was there, Sendai was beautiful today, but when I got back to Tsuruoka tonight it was snowing. Sigh.

I had a simply marvellous time at the AFWJ convention, but I'm a tad too tired to go into it now. I got to have actual vegging time with a friend whilst sipping herbal tea and eating dark chocolate, had yummy Indian food with 3 people that I didn't know very well (but got to know better) and sang a bit too much karaoke! Fun though.

I was lucky enough to be able to spend a lot of the day with a member of our group who has been married longer than I've been alive! She lives in Sendai and we were on the same flight back, so we hung out together in the Sapporo airport. We separated in the train station, her to go home, me to go to my hotel.

I checked in and then went out for dinner. I did a little shopping then had gyutan in "our" place . I finished off the evening with some Black Assam Tea Latte and a cinnamon roll at Starbucks. Back to the hotel, I rested, read a little and then took a bath with some lovely bath salts I had bought in the Sapporo hotel's gift shop. I was in bed before 2 am. Yay me.

This morning, I woke up around 8:30, and got up around 9. The big thing I had to do was to pack my suitcase. I managed to do that after a while. I took a shower and at 11, checked out of my room. My first order of business was to find a locker for my suitcase. I knew I was tempting fate, but I found one next to the locker that caused me problems last time! I put in my suitcase and was free for a while.

I went shopping in Sendai. I didn't go too crazy, most of the things I bought were planned out. Still, it was enjoyable to be out and about in the big city. For lunch I tried a new place that I've been trying to talk myself into going to, a Thai restaurant. It was nice. For 980 yen I got steamed chicken and rice, plus an all you can eat buffet of salad, soup, curry and other veggie dishes. It was all very delicious. However, I'm not sure I'm meant to eat Thai curries as I find them a bit hot!

I bought some more readers in Sendai (I had bought some in Sapporo too) and a couple of magazines for myself, then went to Starbucks and had another Black Assam Tea Latte. I nursed it for quite a while because my foot was really painful and I didn't want to walk on it for a while.

A little before 5 I went for a walk. I wanted to see how long it would take me to get to the bus station from the Aer building. The new answer is, "Not long." They have built a bridge over the busy street that was hard to cross and even better, at the end there is an escalator. I like escalators.

After a bit more time wasting, I got my suitcase out and nearly had a fit when the coin jammed at first (I had to pay more). However, I didn't keep pushing and it did come out. I went over to the bus station, waited inside for a bit, then went out and got on the bus. Yay me.

I didn't sleep on the way home, I read some magazines and the readers I had just bought. They were good stories. A little before we arrived in Tsuruoka, I texted F to say I thought we'd be on time. When we arrived at S-Mall, someone was waiting for me. Aww!

We had a nice dinner in Ringo, a new to us Yakiniku place, then went by my school to set the heater. After that, we hit the grocery store, then home. I unpacked and then started on my email. It took hours to read, and I had put two active groups on no mail for the weekend too.

I'm yawning away, so I think I had better get myself off to bed. I've got to go. Night!