July 18, 2016

Monday - Cloudy in the morning, Sunny in the afternoon

A really great day!

Today didn’t start out that well.  I woke up early and tried to get up, but didn’t.  F came back to bed and slept, I got up a bit later, went back to bed.  Finally I dragged myself up around noon, and F came through a lot later.  I sent him over to his mother’s house because he hadn’t even seen her yesterday. I took a shower while he was gone.

When he came back, it seemed like he just wanted to go back to bed, but I was hungry!  I asked about going for my picnic, but F said that he didn’t want to as it would be too wet.  I suggested Gusto as a quick alternative for lunch, but when I finally got outside to jump in the car, the weather was looking up.  F agreed to the picnic idea, so we jumped in the car and went to the grocery store. Over at Pal, their grocery store has fabulous sandwiches made with decent bread, so we grabbed a couple there, plus a few other things and something to drink, then we drove out to Oyama.  We sometimes go to the bird sanctuary, but today we went up the hill near it.  We parked the car and found a stone table and ate our yummy lunch.  I was so happy.  I had been wanting to eat outside for a while and this was lovely. Good food, nice weather and views, and not many bugs!

Our food- Camembert Sandwich, Fish Sandwich, Katsu Sand, Soba and Mugi-cha.  So nice!

One of the views from our picnic table

Gorgeous lilies growing almost wild

A modern version of an old fashioned bridge

We walked around the hill and did a bit of exploring.  We saw a couple of old temples and some lovely flowers growing almost wild.  It was fabulous really.

When we were done there, F wanted to drive out to the ocean, so off we went again.  We stopped in Yura and walked over to the little island.  The last time we went there, we came just after they had closed off the walkways for the evening, but today they were open.  We climbed a bunch of stairs, which didn’t make me very happy and then found a whole lot more stairs!  Still, we were committed and I took them slowly and carefully, and it was fine.  When we made it around the island I was so proud of myself!  

View from the island of the mainland

In a lull between the stairs!

The walkway we had to use.  There were bits where we looked down into the ocean.

Gorgeous views!

We drove back to Yunohama with the plan to go to the cafe with waffles, but when we got there, they had just called last order and wouldn’t let us in.  I was a bit ticked at that since the sign on the door said they were open, but whatever.  We drove off to the Farmers Marche and had a lovely cup of iced coffee there instead.  We left just as they closed!

We came back to Tsuruoka and had dinner at our old favourite Jiro.  It was great.  We decided to do a little shopping, so went to Gyomu Super for some nice stuff.  I bought the last two packages of frozen tortillas…I like these ones because they are smaller, better for my diet.  We got some oatmeal, some ice cream and some frozen foccaccia.  I’m looking forward to trying some of this stuff.  We brought it all home and put it away.  

We went to the drugstore next and got a few things for the apartment.  I needed detergent, and we also found some lavender tea in a bottle. We got one for each of us.  We went to Gusto for dessert.  I wanted to try their “Stone-Bowl Desserts”. It is sort of like a cold bibinba….the one I ended up having had ice cream, whipped cream, cheesecake and berries.  You mix them up and then eat them.  It was pretty good, but a little expensive for the amount of food!  F had a kakigori which needed more milk he said.  

The Stone Bowl Dessert...with F's Kakigori in the background.  Yum!

We bought some groceries for the next couple of days and then came home.  We put away the groceries and then got changed and went out for a walk.  We did a shorter one than usual, but actually it wasn’t all that short!  It was good and we avoided the convenience stores though.

At home again we relaxed.  F got himself ready for work tomorrow, I texted with a friend who had to cancel our plans for this week.  

Honestly, it was such a nice day.  I am really glad that I pushed the idea of the picnic to F, I’m not sure he was really looking forward to it, but it was fun.  Tomorrow, sad to say, we’re back to normal. The weather is supposed to be bad again so I may just stay home.  

Come back later and see if Tuesday was as good as my Monday was.  Until tomorrow….