Monday - Rainy and then clearing in Sendai. Clear and humid in Tsuruoka.
A really great weekend. We got up early on Sunday and drove to Sendai. I had a plan. We would check into the hotel, walk to the building behind the theater, have a nice Indian meal and then go and see An Education in the same building. It almost happened that way.
We left Tsuruoka early, so arrived in Sendai over an hour early. F wanted to go to The Mall so we did. While we were there, I realized that Precious, the Academy Award winning film was playing there and although we couldn't see it on Sunday, we could probably see it on Monday. Woot.
After a nice lunch at Lupecia we went to the hotel and checked in. For some reason they had lost my reservation. Of course, it was the one time I didn't bother to print out my confirmation sheet. Sigh. Won't do that again. They did have room for us, and we checked in. Whew. On our way out to dinner, I used the pay computer in the lobby to look up the reservation on the site and got F to give them the confirmation number. Yay. I think it all worked out.
We went to the BiVi building and had a nice dinner at Namascar. It's an Indian restaurant I went to before. We had a nice meal and didn't overdo it. We could have had the special but it was expensive and I think our way was a little bit better for us. We had an order of samosas and then each picked a small curry and a naan. I had almond chicken curry and sesame naan, F had chicken bartha curry and butter naan. We both really liked our meals. We had oodles of time before the movie started so we ended up in a game center. I really don't like those places, but we haven't been in one in ages.
We went to see An Education and both really loved it. I was surprised at how much F liked it. He really likes dramas more than action movies, I forget that. Carey Mulligan was luminous and the whole thing was great. I loved seeing a movie where the girl was extremely intelligent, had a great relationship with her parents and was popular in school too. So many films are about the unpopular students these days.
After the movie, we visited Starbucks and had our Assam Black Tea Lattes before going back to the hotel room. We spent a nice night in, watched a little TV and a little CNN, I got stuck into my book (Cold Comfort Farm) finally and had a fairly early night.
This morning, we got up at 9 for breakfast. Happily, the hotel is undergoing a few changes and they've improved their breakfasts. Usually I don't like what they serve, but today the eggs were decent and there was bacon. Hurray. F had a huge mostly Japanese style breakfast complete with natto so he was really pleased.
We checked out and drove back to The Mall. It wasn't as crowded as yesterday. Yay. We were early again, so we had frappucinos in Starbucks and then went up to the theater. We went to see Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire. It was a difficult film to watch, but the acting was very good. I enjoyed Gabourey Sidibe's performance very much and was even quite impressed with La Mariah Carey as the social worker.
After the film, F and I went to have tea in a tea shop across from the mall and then we headed out of town. I was a bit hungry, but didn't say too much. We'd both had a lot of popcorn and before the movie had shared a Starbucks sandwich, but I wanted something.
We drove for a while and I'm afraid I fell asleep. I woke up when we were driving past Yamagata, a city we often stop in at on our way home. I somewhat testily asked if we couldn't get off the highway and go into Yamagata for something to eat! I didn't know at the time, but we'd passed our usual exit, so we had to get off and then drive back quite a way. We ended up at a Big Boy restaurant. It wasn't bad. I had a burger with cut steak and salad bar, F had an okonomiyaki burger and rice.
We made a quick stop at a hundred yen shop and then headed back on our merry way. We took the highway and it was free for a change. Yay.
Back in Tsuruoka, we came home and unloaded the car and relaxed for a bit. We headed out to get a few groceries and then came home again.
It was a great weekend, probably all the better because we didn't really plan that much for it. I took F to two movies that he would never have chosen on his own, but he enjoyed them both. He's still mulling over them, a lot more than I am!
I thought it was interesting that both films we saw were about young women on the verge of adulthood, both learning and trying to make their lives better. They were very different lives though.
That's it for me. I'm off to bed. Have a good night.
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