March 2, 2015

Monday - Rainy then sunny and windy

A good day.  

I got up quite early for me today.  I was in my hotel room in Sendai and I got up for breakfast.  The hotel was quite nice I have to say.  Technically I was in a room that was billed as a double, but honestly, it would have been too small with two people in it.  As it was, it was quite nice for me!  It wasn’t fancy at all, but the bed was comfortable and the breakfast was okay, so all in all, a good choice.  It was also really convenient, which was great.  I could reach it from the walkways, I didn’t have to go down to street level, except for in the evenings when the shop that opened onto the walkway closed.  

So, this morning, I had breakfast, then came back to my room and took a shower.  I checked out a bit later, and left my bag in storage at the hotel.  For the next few hours I walked all over downtown Sendai and shopped up a storm!  I didn’t buy as much as I could have, but I tried to be practical rather than crazy shopaholic.  For example, I bought a pair of kitchen tongs with silicon on the ends so that I can use them in my non-stick cookware and in my good frying pan.  Practical, right?  I’ve been looking for a pair for a while and I found them today.  I bought tea, my main drink…so I’ll go through it.  I also got a lot of decaf teas today.  Yay me.

I had lunch at the gyutan restaurant and it was delicious.  The waiter was a bit worried about whether I’d understand the menu, but luckily I speak good menu Japanese, so I was fine.  Plus, I’ve been there a lot of times, but I don’t think he knew that!

I found myself having to budget my time today as I seemed to be running a little low on it.  I think my lunch combined with a later than usual check out had the blame for that.  I did enjoy my time through the shops, although I didn’t find everything that I wanted.  

I zoomed through the bookstore and even though I saw at least two books that I’d love, I decided not to get them today.  I have a big “to read” pile and I would like to reduce it a bit.  

I had a tea at Starbucks and then went back to the hotel and got my suitcase and bag.  I walked over to the bus station, bought a sandwich for the road and when the bus came, got on the bus.  

It was a very uneventful ride home.  I’m reading W is for Wasted, the Sue Grafton novel, so I was quite engrossed and entertained for the trip back.  

F was very glad to see me when i arrived.  We had a light dinner at Cocos.  F had eaten before, so he had their cheesecake and I had chicken and we both were happy.  

We bought a few groceries and then came home.  F’s schedule this week will be quite odd as he works late and early, so I feel sorry for him. 

I gave F his souvenirs, which were things like tea and earphones for his iPhone, which he seemed happy about anyway.  I got him a bag of flour from Canada at the import food store as it makes lovely bread.  Things like that!  

I’m up a bit late, but I need to get some sleep soon. I am very tired.  I had a brilliant time with my friends on Sunday.  It was lovely meeting up with them.  The restaurant was perfect and everyone was there before me.  I thought I’d be first and have to reserve it, but I turned out to be the last person in!  We went to an Indian restaurant in Sendai and it was very nice.  

What wasn’t so nice was I had a strange person keep phoning me.  I thought at first that it was one of my friends, but when I called the number back, the person didn’t say anything, so I knew it wasn’t her.  We played phone tag for a while, but I got rather perturbed when the person called me at 4:00 am.  I blocked the number on my phone this morning.

Well, I must be off.  I hear my dear husband being a bit restless, so I’ll close now.  Come back soon and hear all about my day!  Until tomorrow….