Living La Vida Loca In Japan

January 30, 2012

2012-01-31T02:44:00.000+09:00

Monday - Cold, snowy….repeat ad nauseum

A good day. I got up this morning at my usual time but I was still tired. I watched something on TV and then decided to go back to bed for an hour. I did, and it was great. I had a lovely nap. I got up in time to watch The West Wing. Yay.

I had a quiet afternoon at home. I watched a bit of TV, and some of it was even educational. I had lunch, and went outside and shovelled a bit of snow. It’s all quite packed down now, so it is quite difficult to scrape up. I didn’t really manage, but I got F’s parking space a little easier to see, at least I thought I did!

F called me around the time I thought he’d be coming home to say that he was still on the way back to Tsuruoka. He’d had to drive to Yamagata today. A few minutes later, my student for tomorrow called and cancelled her lesson. She has a good reason and she’s within her rights to call me the night before to cancel, so I understand. I was worried about going over to shovel snow tomorrow anyway.

F finally got home well after 7 pm. Poor thing. We decided to go out to Cafe Framboise, so we headed over there. We were the only people in the restaurant, but we had a lovely meal. F had his usual Japanese set dish, and I decided to have steak tonight. I don’t usually, but their steak is cheaper than their chicken dishes!

We bought a few things at the grocery store afterwards and then came home. I wrote up a couple of postcards to send out. I’m a little excited. One is going to Brazil, and the other is going to Denmark. I’ve never sent to Denmark before, and only once to Brazil. Woot.

I watched Harriet’s Law and did a couple of rows of crochet. I’ve now done 16 rows on my throw and it is looking nice. Yay. I’ve got the pattern down now, it just isn’t automatic quite yet. I think it will be soon though.

That was my day. It was quite a good one. I’ll bid you all adieu then. Night!

January 29, 2012

2012-01-30T02:54:00.000+09:00

Sunday - Snowy, cold, sunny, snowy

A good day.

I went to bed before F last night. It doesn’t happen often, but he was watching a movie in Japanese and I was exhausted, so I wished him good night and went to bed. I think I was still awake when he came to bed, but only just.

This morning I woke up first around 10 and F was still in bed. That never happens! I was very surprised. Next time I woke up it was quite late and he wasn’t in bed anymore. I woke up because I was in the middle of a dream and it was odd. I had just met Heidi Klum and wanted to compare divorce stories with her. She wouldn’t. I was also trying not to tell people how a certain episode of ER finished, I wanted them to find out for themselves. It was strange.

After a short time of checking my computer groups, we went out for lunch. F had suggested one place, but after we went outside and he dug the car out from under the snow, suggested another. We went to Grado and had a lovely meal. We both had the same dish, rainbow trout in a gratin sauce. It was comfort food for winter.

After lunch, we went to the train station and bought train tickets for me. I’m going to go to Niigata next month to attend an Oxford presentation. It also gives me a chance to meet up with a friend, so I have two reasons to go.

We went driving a little after going to the station. We ended up in a store that sells a bunch of stuff that you don’t really need. In Canadian terms, it would be like San Francisco. It was fun, but we didn’t buy anything. After that, we went home!

I was on my computer for a while and then went to have a nap. I slept or dozed for a while. We finally went out a bit after 8 pm.

F wanted to go to an izakaya by the station, so we tried. Unfortunately it was too busy, so we went to another place close by. We had quite a good meal there. We had sashimi, yakitori, tofu, salad, and a few bits and pieces of other things. Yum.

We hit up the grocery store on the way home and got some essentials for the next couple of days, then came home. F watched a movie for a bit (okay, me too) and then ran off back to the izakaya to get his notebook which he’d left behind. Silly guy.

Anyway, we’re both chilling out now. He should have gone to bed ages ago, but if I prod him now he’ll get angry and we don’t want that!

Tomorrow I don’t have any plans, but I’m thinking about going over to my school to shovel a bit of snow…don’t want to though. I’ll have to do a lot on Tuesday if I don’t and then teach afterwards. Bleck.

Oh, I’m posting a few pictures for today. So far, we don’t seem to have the same amount of snow that we did last year, but we still have a lot. We got quite a lot last night. It made everything look clean and sparkling, but F had to dig out the car today. Night!

January 28, 2012

2012-01-29T03:05:00.000+09:00

Saturday - Snowy, sunny, cold and windy

Had a good day today.

I got up this morning, showered and a little while later, F and I went out for brunch. F had breakfast, I had lunch. F ordered, but they got his order wrong, so he had to send it back. Mine was fine!

F drove me to my school and helped me clean the parking space. I did a lot of the walkway. Today it was really covered with snow and the snow was packed down. I couldn’t move most of it.

My student came and we had a good lesson. She had done her homework this time and finished a book so I was quite happy with her! She’ll be back next week.

I waited for my next student, but filled time by reading a newspaper, doing paper work and planning a couple of lessons. When the other student’s time came, she didn’t. I phoned her and she was in a business meeting. Once again, we had to cancel.

I knew that F had an appointment later on, so I called him and asked him to come and get me. He did, and we made a quick stop at the drug store, before going home.

I stayed at home while F went for a massage. He was gone about an hour, and seemed happier when he came home. We went for dinner a little later. I gave him the choice of three restaurants and he picked his favourite Chinese place. We had a nice meal there, but to get out of the drafts from the door, we had to sit in smoking. When we arrived, no one was there, but then, a family sat near us and one of them smoked. Blurg.

We came straight home afterwards and throughout the night have watched some interesting TV. There’s been Top Gear, Gossip Girl, Machete, and bits of The Celebrity Apprentice. Oh, and to start the night I made hub watch The Cassandra Crossing. Old 70’s schlock, but fun. Richard Harris, Sophia Loren, Ava Gardner, Martin Sheen, OJ Simpson and Burt Lancaster were all in one odd movie about a plague on a train. We just finished watching Machete. It’s not a good movie, but the cast of actors is almost as varied as The Cassandra Crossings’ was!

Anyway, I should probably end this now as it is late and I ought to get some sleep. Tomorrow I have no plans, I’m just hoping to relax. Tune in tomorrow and see what I do! Night.

Postcrossing Cards - Incoming

2012-01-28T03:02:00.000+09:00

To January 27, 2012

I've received 3 new postcards recently so thought I'd blog them. Postcrossing has also just reached 10 million postcards exchanged, so it's a little exciting. The 10 millionth card came from Japan, which is great, but it wasn't from me sadly.

On with the show....

This first card comes from Finland. The sender loves movies and books. She wrote that she has seen Lost in Translation several times. She is also into winter swimming, or swimming in a hole in the ice. Unbelievable!

This postcard came from The Netherlands, from a lady who has been to Alberta. It's quite a beautiful night view of Amsterdam and the canals.

My final card is from Switzerland. The sender didn't say too much, just listed a few of his favourite movies. He likes Arlington Road, Love, Actually, and Wag the Dog.

There you have it, 3 lovely cards. Any comments?

January 27, 2012

2012-01-28T01:58:00.000+09:00

Friday - Cold and snowy.

An okay day. I slept in a bit this morning. I'd like to blame F for that, but he didn’t make me! He closed the bedroom door this morning when he went to work, so I couldn’t see the clock easily. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

I got up, had a quiet morning around the apartment. I watched a bit of TV, including the news, made myself some nice chicken salad for lunch, did the dishes and even read the paper today.

Around 4 I went outside and shovelled the snow from F’s parking space. It was very cold out and the snow was very light. It didn’t take too long, happily.

After F came home he napped for a bit and then we went out. We went to get gas for the car, then to my school to preheat the heater for tomorrow. After that, we went to Aki for dinner. We had different meals than usual tonight. We shared an order of pork skewers, and then I had a “tonpeh” and F had an okonomiyaki. The tonpeh was kind of like an okonomiyaki, but it had raw cabbage and a raw egg in it. It was good, I just wasn’t expecting the raw stuff! I think I would have preferred a bit of cooking for the cabbage especially, but it was good. The ones with the noodles are a bit too heavy, and I’m off soba noodles anyway. F won’t order the kind I like, so I’d rather have none at all!

We came home and I watched The Walking Dead. I quite like the show, but think it’s a little gruesome. Tonight was violent as well. Interesting though.

I watched The Good Wife tonight and did my crochet through it. I did another couple of rows. Yay! It still won’t be done anytime soon, but I’m really glad if I can get a couple of rows done per night.

That’s about it for tonight. Tomorrow I have a couple of classes and then I’m done for the week. I think F will try and relax for a bit, and maybe even get a massage. He’s not doing well lately.

That’s it for me. Got to go. Night.

January 26, 2012

2012-01-27T01:36:00.000+09:00

Thursday - Cold, windy and a bit snowy.

A good day.

I got up early for me, right around 9 am and showered fairly quickly after that. I had a busy morning. I had to do my internet stuff fast and then I made my brunch. I left the apartment before 12 to walk to school.

I made reasonably good time and I got to my school. I had to do a bit of snow shovelling, but it wasn’t that bad to be honest. The snow wasn’t packed down, and it was dry and light.

My class went quite well today. The student still seems a little nervous, but really she’s doing nicely.

After her class I did more planning, I read the paper and did paperwork. I was getting bored after a couple of hours, but F called me to say he was home. I asked him to come and pick me up.

We had dinner tonight at Kintaro Sushi. It was fairly quiet there, so we had a nice meal. Afterwards we came home.

We each watched a bit of TV. F went to bed fairly early tonight. He’s not doing well with all of the snow shovelling he has to do at work.

I did a couple of rows of my afghan again. It’s looking quite good. The colours do go well together and even though one of the colours is a pink, the fact that it is matched with two browns makes it not girly at all. I’ve only done twelve rows, so it’s not very big yet, but it is getting bigger all the time. Yay.

That was my day more or less. Tomorrow I’m not sure what I’ll get up to. I have a few things that I could do, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do them or not! Talk to you later. Night!

January 25, 2012

2012-01-26T02:04:00.000+09:00

Wednesday - Cold with a little snow.

Happy Robert Burns Day!

I got up this morning and watched a little TV. Then I watched some more! I found The West Wing on TV again at noon. Yay! I had a very low key day at home to be honest. Once again there’s a “situation” with my woman’s group and someone is acting up. I’ve been keeping up with it all day.

F came home around 6 tonight and was tired. He had a nap on the couch and then later went to bed again. I made my dinner. I steamed a couple of chicken breasts, then used one of them and made a pasta dish with snap peas and chicken and garlic. It was good, and I really enjoyed it.

I woke F up around 10 and he drove me over to my school to set the heater for tomorrow. On the way back we went into the grocery store and got him a few groceries.

At home I watched Private Practice and did another couple rows of my throw. It is looking quite good. The next stripe is the dark brown again. That’s the slowest one because it is so dark.

That’s really about it for me for today. It was quite a quiet day, but that’s nice. Tomorrow I have an early class and I’m not sure if I’ll come home afterwards or if I’ll stay at my school until F picks me up. I think it will depend on the weather. Night!

January 24, 2012

2012-01-25T02:59:00.000+09:00

Tuesday - Clear and gorgeous, then snowy at night.

A good day.

I went to bed a little earlier than usual last night. F didn’t even believe it when I sneaked into bed at 2:30! I’m usually much later than that. I even slept late this morning, despite waking up for F’s alarm clock and the telephone ringing at 8:30 am.

I had a good but quiet morning around the apartment. I didn’t watch a lot of TV, just did some internet stuff.

In the afternoon, Jurassic Park 3 was on, so I watched it as I got ready for work. It is supremely silly, but entirely watchable. I was debating whether to ride my bike today or walk. I noticed there were some dark clouds up there, so I decided to walk.

I left the apartment around 3 and walked to work via the drugstore. It was clear out so I didn’t have to shovel any snow. Yay.

I got to my school, and set up for the day. I didn’t have a lot to do as I had already done it before. When the time for my class came, unfortunately, my student didn’t. She was busy at work again. I used the time to plan a lesson and also to read the newspapers, and finish the Sunday puzzle.

A couple of hours later, I finally decided I should go and called F. He came to get me and we decided to go to Cocos for dinner. At Cocos I had my usual chicken with basil sauce and F had deep fried oysters and shrimp.

We came home via the grocery store and I got some stuff to cook for myself tomorrow night. I’m a bit sad that we are doing it this way, but I really can’t eat fish as much as F wants. I suggested me cooking something like pasta and then we each add our own sauce/toppings or a vegetarian stirfry which we could each add what we like to it, but he wouldn’t hear of it. Sigh. Still, we were quite friendly tonight, so I don’t mind too much.

At home I watched Criminal Minds and did a couple of rows of crochet. I’ve basically got the pattern down, so now I can just relax and do it. After midnight I watched James Franco on The Actors Studio and started blogging.

A couple of things happened while I was blogging. I started to think about a friend from High School and thought I’d do a Facebook search. I’ve looked for her before and she wasn’t listed, but Eureka! She was there and on line! Woot! She was one of my group of close friends, so I’m really happy to find her. And then, at 2:45, the telephone rang. Just once, but it was odd. I hope it was just a wrong number.

And that was my day. I’m happy to find my friend and see what’s going on with her…and I’m happy that I didn’t have a fight with my husband. Got to go. Night!

January 23, 2012

2012-01-24T01:32:00.000+09:00

Monday - Sunny and warmish

An okay day.

I got up this morning, came through to the living room and did a little computer checking, before going back to bed for a while. I was so very tired that I just needed an extra sleep. I got back up a bit later and showered and felt much better.

I had a fairly quiet day at home today. I could have gone out, but decided to stay in. I swept the lobby today and then came in and vacuumed the apartment. Or tried to anyway! I was going to vacuum the heater as it had cooled down and should be done now and then. I took the big floor attachment off the vacuum cleaner and went over to the heater. I vacuumed a bit of it and then saw something just off to the side, so I moved the nozzle. Unfortunately, an empty 10 yen coin case got sucked up into the vacuum hose! I couldn’t get it out. I tried everything I could think of, but nothing worked. I had to stop.

When F came home he was quiet again and basically took off his work clothes and went straight to bed with the door shut again. I gave him a bit of time and then went in to see him. He was just tired, so I suggested that we have dinner. I needed to go to my school too. I told him about the vacuum hose and he gave the end a few shakes, and the coin case slid out. Unbelievable! I did that and it didn't work.

We decided to go to a Japanese fish restaurant near my school. It was quite busy but surprisingly tonight the crowd was speaking English! There were quite a lot of non-Japanese people there and they were all chatting away. It was quite fun to eavesdrop, although I wasn’t really close enough to hear very much anyway! Dinner was okay. The fish was nice, but they’d given me a piece with lots of bones so I wasn’t terribly happy about it. I don’t like bones in fish!

After dinner we went to my school and I set the heater and took in the shopping from yesterday. A package of paper is too heavy to carry when I’m walking to work.

We came home after dinner and I watched a bit of TV. We both got postcards in the mail today, so F was registering his and doing other internet stuff. I watched some American Idol, then Sex and the City, and finally Harriet’s Law. For the last show, I went over to the chesterfield and did a bit of crochet. I’ve now used all three colours and it is going rather nicely. Yay.

That’s about it for me. It has snowed a little bit tonight so depending on how much more snow we get tomorrow, I might have to go early to work to shovel snow. Boo! I had better get going anyway. Night!

January 22, 2012

2012-01-23T03:09:00.000+09:00

Sunday - Cloudy but warmish, rainy at night

A good day. WOOT!

I stayed up late last night watching TV and blogging. Rather than staying on my computer until I was ready to go to bed, I decided to shut down the computer and do a little crochet. I found one of my favourite movies on WOWOW (Predators, but in Japanese) so watched it and did a row of my crochet. It was much more relaxing than playing games on my computer.

In the morning I slept in till about 11 I think. I got up, and F was quite nice to me. I was rather surprised, but happy. I made myself a bit of breakfast and did my computer stuff. I requested that we go to the electronic shop to get some ink for my school’s copier, so we did.

We went to the shop and I got myself a box of ink cartridges, and we also got some paper for our copiers/printers. Yay us.

F mentioned that today was the anniversary of the day they first served curry for school lunches and invited me to have lunch at Coco Ichibanya, so we went there. I had the Grandmother curry, he had seafood curry. I was rather surprised by this “nice” F. I haven’t seen much of him lately.

After lunch we went to another electric shop. We’d forgotten to buy a battery for our kitchen timer, so went over to the other major store. We picked up the battery, and then found the massaging chairs section. We both picked a chair and spent 10 to 15 minutes getting a massage. I was really in love with my chair and would have loved to bring it home with me! It was very relaxing, although F was asked to take off his shoes. He was sitting in a chair that had plastic all over the leg part, so we hadn’t thought it was necessary.

After our massages I suggested going to S-Mall for a drink. Any food with rice makes me thirsty. We had a nice time in Doutors and then went up to the hundred yen shop. We got a few things, coat hangers, file folders, that kind of thing then headed back to the car.

F wanted to go to a fish restaurant and I didn’t want to do anything to spoil the mood, so I agreed. The food at the place he wanted to go is good, but I dislike having to sit on the floor. I’m too old and creaky these days. We managed to get in after driving around for a bit. It is a very busy place. Dinner was great. We had a set menu with lots of fish, both cooked and uncooked.

After we ate, we came home. I watched Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont and did a couple of rows of my crochet. I’ve done 4 rows now and it looks quite good. Next time I’ll have to use the dark yarn.

When the movie finished there was another movie on. It was Gaku, about a Japanese boy who gets stranded in the Canadian Rockies and has to struggle to survive. It wasn’t good. The scenery was beautiful, but the acting was awful and so much of what happened in the movie couldn’t actually happen. I got quite annoyed, but decided to write it off as a fantasy.

So that’s about it for me. I had a good day today and I have to say that I deserved it! It’s been bad around here lately and I just hope that it doesn’t get bad again any time soon. Night.

January 21, 2012

2012-01-22T02:03:00.000+09:00

Saturday - Cloudy and warmish, rain at night.

A day.

Had a very odd morning. F went to a doctor then came back and wouldn’t talk as usual. He went back to bed and then when it was time for me to leave for work, he drove me to Gusto and left me there. He had originally offered to pick me back up after my lunch and drive me to work, but I was so angry that I just walked to work from the restaurant.

At my school I did a little bit of snow clean up. I didn’t have to do much as it had been melting for the last few days. Yay. I went into the school, did the dishes and got on with my morning. My student came and we had a good class. She had been away for two weeks though and hadn’t done her homework! Egads!

After she left, I got busy. I did paper work, read up on my new text, read two newspapers and then did up my financial records. I’m up to date, practically to today. Woot!

When I finished I called F. He had said he’d pick me up. I needed to go to an electronics shop, and a drugstore. I called for more than 30 minutes and left messages and didn’t get any answers. I was just about to head out the door and walk home when he called me. He hadn’t noticed that I called. Since he usually has his phone in his hand 18 hours a day, I found it a little hard to believe. He picked me up and did take me to the drugstore. I think the electronics shop would have been closed by that time.

After that, we went to the grocery store and each got our own food for the night. I got some chicken, a salad, and some stuff for tomorrow. He got himself a bunch of deep fried stuff from the deli. We came home.

I cooked my chicken, some kabocha croquettes and heated up the last of my soup from the other day. I had a really nice meal. I left some chicken and some salad for tomorrow, but enjoyed what I ate. I did dishes.

F ate his stuff too, and had a couple of drinks. He watched some stuff on TV, that wasn’t as terrible as usual probably because it wasn’t originally Japanese! I noticed that An Affair to Remember was going to be on tonight, so I suggested watching it. He watched it for a while with me then got really bored and went to bed.

I watched the movie and of course cried at the end. Sigh. I’m such a softie nowadays. It’s such a romantic film, in a way!

I watched a bit of TV and taped more for the rest of the week. I’ve had a nice night by myself.

Tomorrow I have no idea what’s going to happen. I have a few errands that I’d like to run and they are much, much easier with a car, but apart from that, no plans. There’s a movie on TV tomorrow night, but no idea if I’ll be able to watch it or not. So, I’ll talk to y’all tomorrow night, more than likely. Night.

January 20, 2012

2012-01-21T01:55:00.002+09:00

Friday - Gorgeous and sunny, a little cold

Half great, half downer day

When I woke up this morning I was really tired. I checked my email groups and such, then went back to bed for a few minutes. I tried to sleep, but I couldn’t really. Outside our apartment, the snow was being removed from the parking area, so it was rather noisy.

I got up again and got dressed. I headed out a little before 12. It was a little cold out, but so sunny and clear that it was nice to be out. I made it to the mall safely and waited a few minutes for Nikki to come.

She came with her baby and we had a lovely lunch in the Daiichi hotel. After lunch, we bought a few groceries and then drove over to my school. We were able to spend a bit of time there and had either coffee or tea together. All too soon it was time for her to go back to her town, so I asked her to drive me back part of the way and I walked home from there.

At home I relaxed a bit, and even received a parcel from Canada. I think my birthday present from my sister has arrived. Yay! I haven’t opened it yet though.

When F came home today I greeted him and tried to be as friendly as possible, but he wasn’t receptive. He wasn’t exactly rude, but the first thing he did was change into his pyjamas and turn the bath on. After that, he disappeared into the bedroom and I didn’t see him again for ages.

I ate some of my leftover soup from yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it, then did my dishes. I told F that he should take his bath, so he did.

I watched a couple of things on TV tonight. I enjoyed The Walking Dead and a bit later The Good Wife. For that one, I actually went over to the couch and did some crochet for a while. I suggested that F get his stuff off my side of the couch for that first though! He stayed up till midnight then went back to bed and closed the door.

So I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. I have an early class and I might just stay later at the school and do some work. I have some work that needs to be done over there.

And that was my day. Hope tomorrow is better! Got to go. Night.

January 19, 2012

2012-01-20T03:20:00.000+09:00

Thursday - Warm and sunny

Was a good day…went downhill later on.

I got up this morning, watched a little TV. Same old thing. I had a quiet day at home and then in the afternoon had a snack and then went for a walk to the post office.

I made a payment for my school and then walked back home. It was so nice I didn’t want to go in, so I moved a little snow from F’s parking space, and then did a bit of the area in front of his space.

When I came in, I started to get dinner ready. I peeled potatoes and started making the soup. F came home a bit late. He didn’t call, which I was a little irritated by because I’d asked him to. When he came home I was washing the dishes I’d used so far in my cooking and I washed the potato peeler too. Unfortunately, I sliced my finger with it. Instead of getting any sympathy or help, I was asked, “How many fingers do you still have?” I turned down the pots on the stove, ran through to the bathroom and washed my finger and tried to dry it enough to put a bandaid on it. It was bleeding profusely and hurt a lot. I came back out to the living room and F was missing. The bedroom door was closed.

I got on with dinner. I did have to go and redo the bandaid as the blood had soaked through. It was pretty tough cooking without my right index finger, but I managed. I got everything ready and called him. He was in bed and said he didn’t need any dinner. Okay. Fine. I ate. When I finished, I was going to do dishes, but he came through and started making himself ramen. He was taking up most of the kitchen, so I couldn’t put things away. I took out a bowl and asked him if he’d put the remaining piece of chicken (cooked, and still in the pan) in it. He threw it in the garbage. I asked him what he was doing and said that I could have eaten that tomorrow. He started looking in the garbage for it and saying he’d get it for me. He also told me that I didn’t have to cook for him anymore, ever.

He ate his ramen, then I went into the kitchen and did up my dishes. I threw his dinner out too. He disappeared back into the bedroom after watching something inane on TV, then reappeared around 9:50, offering to take me to my school as I’d asked him earlier. However, I wasn’t willing to go out just then and refused.

He went out, came back and watched what I was watching for a few minutes, ate and drank noisily and then disappeared into the bedroom again. That’s the last I’ve seen of him.

This is getting serious because I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now. What do you do when you start to realise that things are never going to get better? Do you cut and run or do you keep hoping that something will improve?

Tomorrow I’m supposed to be having lunch with another foreign wife. I’m hoping that I’ll have a good time, but honestly, just being out and about with other people besides him will probably do me the world of good. Night.

January 18, 2012

2012-01-19T02:52:00.000+09:00

Wednesday - Sunny and warm.

A good day. I dragged myself out of bed this morning and managed to stay up. I watched a little TV (The Taming of the Shrew) before I got dressed. I finally forced myself to get dressed by realising that I would most likely get one or two deliveries today and I didn’t want the delivery men seeing me in my PJs.

A little before 12, F called and asked if I needed kerosene right away. He would have gone for it during his lunch hour. Nice guy! I told him that it wasn’t necessary, so he invited me out for lunch. Woot. He came by a little after 12 and I went out to meet him. We ended up going to Marumatsu. It’s a low-end Japanese food chain. My lunch was fine, F’s wasn’t as good. I tell you, I just have good Menu-fu! I had the chicken cutlet lunch set, F had some kind of fish. He didn’t like it too much, but I thought mine was quite good, especially for ¥500.

He brought me home again and as it was so nice out, I shovelled his parking space. There wasn’t much snow left on it, but it had ice that hadn’t melted. I broke up the ice and shovelled it away. Yay me.

I did receive two deliveries this afternoon. My books for my school and my shoes. Woot.

F came home a little late tonight, and we vegged for a while. I tried on my new shoes too. I had ordered 3 pairs, in slightly different sizes to see what would work best. The best pair also had the highest heel. Sigh. That was a bit sad. F made arrangements to send the other two pairs back for me.

We went out for dinner to Grado tonight. It was F’s idea, but it was a good one. We had a really nice meal there and then we got out groceries and finally our kerosene. We came home after that.

I watched Private Practice later on, and then The UK’s Next Top Model. It is weird. I think I like it better than the US one, but meh!

I also started on the couch throw tonight, although F thinks it isn’t wide enough and wants me to make the rows longer. He’s probably right, I’m just not sure if I’ll have enough wool if I do. Do I frog what I have, or do I keep going? Decisions, decisions!

That’s it for me. Tomorrow night I’m cooking dinner and I have to do some laundry. I hope I get everything done. Night!

January 17, 2012

2012-01-18T03:07:00.000+09:00

Tuesday - Warm but cloudy. A melty day!

A good day.

I got up this morning, mostly because I had to, not because I wanted to! I was tired, but I had to go to work today.

I had a quiet morning, I didn’t dawdle too much before taking my shower. That’s when I really noticed it. My dear husband turned down the water temperature. We usually have it set around 60 degrees, suddenly it was now set to 35 degrees. What? I know in the interest of saving fuel, they asked people to turn down the water heater by a couple of degrees, but that was ridiculous. I had my lukewarm shower and ranted a bit. I also had to fill up the kerosene heater today and discovered that I used up the last of the kerosene. Sigh. Bit of a rant about that too. Good job no-one was around to hear it!

I had a nice brunch of an omelette, then made the trek to my school. I made fairly good time today. I grabbed my shovel and the big scoop and went to the back parking lot. My space was under a couple of centimetres of snow, but I made short work of it. Well, short if you count 35 minutes as short! I did more than my space though, I did a bit of the path as well, as no one seems to take responsibility for that but me.

I went inside around 2 pm and started to get ready for my class. My student phoned me at 2:30 and I was a little nervous in case she was cancelling, but she wasn’t. She was checking on things. She showed up at 3 with some homemade bread for me. Yum! It smelt divine. She’d just taken it out of the oven before she came. We had a good class and she left nearly on time.

I had a bit of a break before my next class, so I did paperwork and read a bit.

At my student’s class time she didn’t appear, but I got a call from F saying he’d be late tonight. I reminded him that I was still working too! A couple of minutes after my husband hung up, my student arrived. Yay! First time I’ve seen her in ages. However, she was still under the weather and didn’t want to stay long in case she gave me her cold. We set up a schedule of classes for the next few months and she left.

When she was gone I read the newspapers, did more paperwork and then sent F a couple of texts which he didn’t get. Sigh. I finally called him and he came to get me.

We came home and he finished making the nabe for our dinner. It looked good. I offered to help, particularly in making something to drink and he took me up on my offer. (See, I do help him sometimes!) We ate and the nabe was quite good. I did the dishes afterwards and then we relaxed for the night.

I watched Criminal Minds at 11:00 and tried out a new pattern for crochet. I couldn’t get it to work very well, so I might just give it another try and see how it goes. Fingers crossed it goes well as I’d really love to try this pattern. It’s a ripple and I’ve never done one before.

That’s about it for me. Tomorrow I don’t have a lot of plans, but if the weather holds I might even try and get out of the apartment for a change. Maybe! Night.

January 16, 2012

2012-01-17T02:18:00.000+09:00

Monday - Warmish and cloudy.

A good day.

F got up this morning and took out the garbage. Hurray for him! He came back in and sat on the chesterfield in his coat. He thought he turned on the heater, but it was one of those weird situations where he hit the button, but just turned it off instead of starting it. I got up a few minutes later when my alarm went off. I checked email and then got sleepy.

I went back to bed and after a few minutes so did F. We both fell asleep for a couple of hours. I got up around 12 and stayed up for a bit, before going in and waking F up an hour later.

We went out for lunch to Kappa Sushi. F thought the sushi was on sale during the day, but it wasn’t. We had a nice lunch and then went over to my school. I set the heater for tomorrow and then looked for some nylon socks. F wanted to take me shoe shopping. I have been after him to help me order from the catalogue so that I can find shoes in the right width for me, but he has really been resisting. I told him today that I have a hard time finding shoes in Canada, so it is almost impossible here. And, it was. We went to two different shoe stores. One had a pair that would almost do, but it had a strap over the instep and it made my feet look puffy. Finally, he agreed to catalogue shopping!

We went to the main post office to mail off some postcards and then I suggested going to karaoke, so that’s what we did. We went to the place near our grocery store and had a couple of hours of fun singing. I did quite a lot of good stuff and I really enjoyed myself. I haven’t gone to karaoke in ages.

After we finished it was dinner time, so F suggested The Grand El Son. I was worried about cost, but F said it was okay. We got there and were seated right away. The pasta set had tomato sauce so I couldn’t have it, and F didn’t want the special menu. We decided to have the meat dish and the fish dish. I thought that they probably didn’t have anything with them, but F said that they would. He ordered them, and ordered bread for me but the waiter told him that bread didn’t come with the meals, we’d have to order it separately, ditto the rice for him. So, we thought a little and F had Shonai Pork with rice on the side and I had fish with bread and soup. It was very nice, but frankly, a little small!

We came home via the grocery store. I needed stuff for brunch tomorrow and F is going to make a nabe tomorrow night. We got all the ingredients so it is just a question of throwing them into the nabe pan.

We had a fairly quiet evening in. We watched a bit of American Idol, then I watched the end of CSI: Miami before Harriet’s Law came on. I like Kathy Bates, so I’m hopeful about this show.

Oh, and the best thing? F finally did help me order shoes from the catalogue. I have 3 pairs coming. I’ll send the pairs that I don’t want back as they have a good return policy. Woot! If this works out, I might be able to talk him into ordering me more clothes when I need them! We’ll see.

Anyway, that was it for me tonight. It was a pretty good day. Tomorrow I’m back at work. I have to leave here early and shovel snow for a bit at my school. I’m so very excited! Not. Night!

Postcrossing Cards - Incoming

2012-01-17T01:23:00.000+09:00

January 2012

I've had a great month so far for post cards. It's a little overwhelming at times, in fact. I also feel a little bit sad for F as he hasn't been receiving as many as I have. Still, I have some great ones for you to see today. There are six cards, so let's get on with it, shall we?

I love this first one. I collect actor portraits in black and white, and did even before I joined Postcrossing. This is a French Actress, Myléne Demongeot. She was still acting in 2006 and from the pictures on Wikipedia, still very beautiful. I'm going to look out for her work!

The card came to me from Germany and was sent early this year.

On the same day, I also received this other black and white card from Italy. It came from an Italian teacher. She lives near Florence and this postcard shows the square "Saint Ghost" in Florence in 1959.

She lists a few of her favourite films and includes The King's Speech amongst them. A woman after my own heart!

I really love black and white photos. They have a timeless feel about them, don't they?

This "knitted" card comes from China and was sent by a high school student who is quite new to Postcrossing. She writes of her love of the film Pride and Prejudice and particularly mentioned the 2005 version. I suggested that she try and find the lovely Colin Firth version too as it is my favourite!

Poland is the focus of this next card. These are beautiful Polish towns that border the Dunojec River. The sender writes that she thinks her country is beautiful, and from the views, I agree!

Although the next card has a Vietnam picture on it, it actually comes from Taiwan. The sender bought it when he was in Vietnam a couple of years ago.
He likes many movies but mentioned The Bucketlist as one that inspires him to make his own list.

The English on the back of the card says this is The Mount of Fighting Cocks.

The last card for today is rather special. This card is of an actor and it is in black and white. However, this actor is known for something else besides acting. He went on to become President of the United States.

I give you Lieutenant Ronald Wilson Reagan. He enlisted as a private in the U.S. Cavalry in 1937.

This card was sent from a Postcrosser in Florida, in the US. I love it because it shows a different side of Reagan from the ones that I knew, and as he was an actor, it fits right into my collection. Thanks!

There you have it. Six great cards. What do YOU think?

January 15, 2012

2012-01-16T03:07:00.000+09:00

Sunday - Cold, with a bit of snow.

A nice day.

I got up before noon this morning, just after F left to visit his mother. While he was gone I did all my morning computer stuff and then when he came back, we decided to go out. At first I suggested a restaurant behind the mall, but took it back when I realised I’d have to take off my boots. It’s too hard to put them back on.

We drove out to Mikawa and had lunch in the mall. I had salmon on rice and F had tempura on rice. It was fine. After that, we did a bit of shopping. I got more socks, then we found a potato masher and a rolling pin. I didn’t get the rolling pin as it was just a narrow wooden pole. I’ll have to look for the one I want. We had one at home in Canada that was plastic and you could fill with water to chill pastry. We had a drink at Seattle’s Best and F took our stuff out to the car and moved the car closer.

At 5 o’clock we went to see Fright Night. It was a remake of the old movie and I liked it. I loved David Tennant, but thought the film needed more of him. Also, Colin Farrell didn’t really show how compelling the vampire could be. There was a surprise cameo from the first movie though that I was very pleased about. I think I was the only person in the theatre that knew who it was!

We couldn’t really agree on a place for dinner until F suggested going to Bistrot des Pointes. We went there and had a fabulous meal. We haven’t been there in ages and I feel bad about it.

We came home after dinner and watched a bit of TV. I watched American Sweethearts, which was still as bad as when I first saw it, then F watched some weird stuff. That’s really about it for the day.

Tomorrow I’m not sure what is going to happen. F is off work so I may get dragged around the country or maybe I’ll just stay in bed and pull the covers over my head! Got to go. Night!

January 14, 2012

2012-01-15T02:34:00.000+09:00

Saturday - Cold and snowy

Got up a little late this morning as I had stayed up late last night. It wasn’t a big deal as I didn’t have an early class today.

I got up and showered and F came home somewhere in there. After that, I went through to the living room, used my computer for a bit and then took a nap for an hour. I broke it up by setting my alarm to ring every 20 minutes. I felt much more awake when I got up.

We had a mostly nice lunch at Ringo-en. We both had bibinba with some yakiniku too. There was one not so great part though. When the waiter came in the room to bring us food, a draught came up and swept the wrapper for F’s oshibori to the floor. The waiter picked it up and put it back on the table. After it had been on the floor. F and I both stared at it after the waiter left our room! F moved it off the table to a nearby chair. I think he was quite grossed out by the whole thing.

After we got to my school, F helped me by shovelling a lot of snow. He cleared most of it out of my parking space. While he did that, I cleared the snow on the walkway and from the parking space to the walkway. There was such a lot of snow today. F left after a bit and I did a little bit more on my space. I’m quite picky and don’t like there to be much snow or ice on my space at all if I can help it.

It was all for naught however, as my student didn’t come today. She called a few minutes before my class and told me that she was still not feeling well. She didn’t sound very good, so it was probably better that she didn’t come today.

After I finished up in the school I called F and reminded him to come to the parking lot. The front entrance to my school has huge snow boulders in the way and even though I cleared the snow from the sidewalks there, I couldn’t climb over them, especially not in the dark. I tore the ligaments in my foot doing that last year and they still aren’t healed so I really don’t want a repeat. When F arrived, of course he came to the front entrance. Sigh. I kept pointing to the back but he didn’t even look at me for ages. Gah. Finally he got the message and then when he came into the parking lot he wouldn’t stop the car long enough for me to get in. Hells bells, it was cold out there and he wanted to get into the perfect position?

We had dinner tonight at the Spa/Farmer’s market place again and it was nice. They had decent food tonight, and lots of it. There was actually quite a few things that I liked so I was happy.

We came home after dinner and had a quiet but nice night in. We watched Shrek Forever on WOWOW. It was much better than the third film. It was a bit like Shrek does It’s a Wonderful Life! I followed that up with some Top Gear, a little Project Runway, and then Gossip Girl. Wow. I don’t usually watch that much, it’s just that lately Friday and Saturday’s have stuff on I want to watch.

And that was my day. We might go and see Fright Night tomorrow. It is playing in Mikawa. I’m not sure. Tune in tomorrow and find out what happens. Night!

January 13, 2012

2012-01-14T01:19:00.000+09:00

Friday - Snowy & cold

An okay day.

I had a really hard time getting up this morning. It was dark outside, even at 9 am. And the snow! It was coming down thick and heavy. Yuck.

I got up, watched a bit of TV, read the paper, had breakfast, the usual. In the afternoon I ended up watching Leonie, a movie about the mother of Isamu Noguchi. She was an American who had a relationship with a Japanese man. She followed him back to Japan only to discover he was already married. She stayed in Japan for a long time and even had a second child. It was an interesting movie, except the Japanese man she was in love with didn’t come off very well.

When the movie finished, I went outside and shovelled a lot of snow. A couple of days ago, F had told me that he’d built the mountain of snow up behind his parking space. Well, he really had. Sigh. It was so tall. I couldn’t slide the “dump” up it and when I tried to throw snow up with the shovel only half of the load made it on the mountain. I gave up after I got most of the snow cleared.

When F came home he thanked me for clearing snow which was nice of him. I got dinner started fairly soon, and the same thing that always happens, happened again. F just sat there like a bump on a log. Even when I banged his cup into the microwave (not on purpose, promise!) he didn’t even move. We at dinner and it was nice. We had nama fettuccine with mushroom alfredo sauce, salad and shrimp. Yum. After dinner, I told F about my frustration with him not even offering to help me. I’m not sure I’d take him up on his offer, but to not offer is rude. He said that if he was in the kitchen he’d prefer to be alone. I said that was fine, but don’t I usually offer to help anyway? Let’s hope he remembers this conversation.

After F did the dishes, we went over to my school to set the heater for tomorrow, then came home via the grocery store. I refused to go in as I didn’t need anything AND I was in a rush to get home because….

The first episode of Walking Dead was on tonight and I really wanted to see it. A friend of mine has been talking it up lately on Facebook and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. It started a bit like The Stand, but was quite different for the rest of the hour. I’ll have to tune in next week to see if I keep liking it.

We watched quite a bit of TV tonight. I went over to the chesterfield for The Good Wife and did a few rows of crochet. I haven’t done any for a bit and it felt good to get my fingers working on some wool again. Yay me! It was relaxing. I think I’m going to have to try and work in a few rows of crochet every day.

And that’s about it for my day. I have an afternoon class tomorrow, but I think F and I will have to go over to my school and shovel snow for a bit first. Sigh. The snow is so deep right now and we are running out of places to put it.

Got to go. Night!

January 12, 2012

2012-01-13T02:54:00.000+09:00

Thursday - Sunny and warmish, with snow later on.

I went to bed early last night too…two nights in a row. Wonder what happened? I won’t be going to bed early tonight though.

I got up at the first alarm this morning, because I needed to. I had to be at my school fairly early today. I showered early and then quickly did my computer stuff before making breakfast for myself.

After breakfast and dishes, I walked to the school. Today the weather was gorgeous and I made good time. It was a little slippery and I started thinking about what I would do if I fell and broke my ankle. A few minutes later my earthquake warning alarm went off. It was rather a freaky moment. I didn’t feel anything, but there was quite a big one on the other coast.

When I got to the school I did a lot of snow shovelling and then went inside to get ready. Of course it started to snow after I was inside. I got changed and got myself and my classroom ready for my student. She came and we had a fairly good lesson.

After her class I did my paperwork and a few little things I’d been putting off, before reading the newspaper. After that, I did a puzzle, well, started on it anyway, then F called and said he’d come and pick me up.

We had yakiniku tonight for dinner and it was nice. We also had salad bar and F had raimen and I had tamago soup. We came home via the grocery store and then had a nice and quiet evening at home. We watched the end of August Rush, then I watched Shameless, The Thick of It and then some ER. I’ve followed all that up with some Lipstick Jungle! I think Thursday is a big TV night for me!

Anyway, tomorrow I’m off work and I hope to relax a bit and do some of the stuff that I haven’t had time for this week. Wish me luck with that! Got to go. Night!

Postcrossing Cards - Incoming

2012-01-13T01:36:00.000+09:00

January 2012

I've received quite a few postcards recently, but haven't had time to write them up. I don't really have time to write them up now either, but here goes!

The first one is a card with a Colgate cartoon on it. It is rather funny and quite old fashioned. This one comes from Poland from a woman who is going to night school and then Art School.

This lovely card is from Praha, Czech Republic. It shows a street scene. The sender writes that she teaches English too, but mostly in companies.

This next card has the title "Happily watching its cub" in English shows Lugou Bridge, Beijing, China. It comes from China but the sender is from Russia. They didn't write very much on the card, which is a little sad.

This mischievous young man arrived on my nephew's birthday. Since he's about the same age as the boy in the photo, it made me rather happy. My nephew is a real sweetie, I don't know about the boy on the card. It was sent to me from Belgium. The sender thinks that the little boy is probably all grown up now as it is an older card.
The sender's favourite movie is Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which I have still never seen all the way through!

My final card of these is from Rotterdam, in The Netherlands. I always sing the song by The Beautiful South when I think of Rotterdam, as I really like the song!

This card came from Lenie, but she didn't say very much. I like the card, but
it got a little bit damaged on the journey. Still has some beautiful pictures.

That's it for now. I hope you like the cards that I have received...I do.

January 11, 2012

2012-01-12T01:49:00.000+09:00

Wednesday - Cold and snowy. Windy too.

Went to bed last night quite early for me. I was rather surprised by that to be honest, but I knew that I’d have a busy, tiring day today, so it was for the best.

Today I got up, showered, all that good stuff. Although my class didn’t start until 4 pm, I knew I had to get over to the school to shovel snow and get my parking space cleared out. My intended time to leave home was around 1pm.

I managed to leave a bit after 1, probably around half past to be honest. I went via the bank machines to make a couple of deposits and then continued on my merry way. I got to my school, dumped my backpack, grabbed my shovel and “dump” and spent the next 30 or 40 minutes or whatever it was, shovelling snow. I cleared off the front steps of the building, all the way out to the road, and also did my parking space. There was someone parked in my space, but it was one of the cleaning crew and he moved his van when I asked him. Another tenant was opening up the gate area. The snowplough comes along there and blocks it every time they do our side road. When I finished my space, I tried to give him a hand, but he’d already done most of it. Around 3 pm, I went back into my school and got set up for work.

My student showed up on time and we had a good class. I hadn’t seen her for about a month due to her work, so it was nice that we were able to catch up. She also chose a textbook for us to use, which is a big relief for me too. We were using newspaper articles, but her topics were quite difficult to find for me.

After she left I cleaned up, did paperwork and read the newspapers. I waited for F to phone me but he didn’t. It was close to 7 before I started texting him and then I finally called him after 7. He’d been home for ages, but had been shovelling snow with the neighbours. I felt sorry for him to be honest, but he knew what time I finished work and I’d asked him to call me when he was off work.

He picked me up and we went to Cocos for dinner. It was quite nice and we shared a pot of their monthly tea. It was yuzu tea and was very nice, especially sweetened a little.

We came home and after F watched his craptastic fighting show, I watched Private Practice and then UK’s Next Top Model. I like the model’s accents, but don’t really care for the whole premise of the show.

That’s about it for today. I ordered the textbooks for my student, and also got a bookmooch for the first time in ages. I got a message that a book on my wishlist was available, so I mooched it. I now have my own copy of Miss Happiness and Miss Flower AND Little Plum, both by Rumer Godden. I credit Miss Happiness and Miss Flower (and James Clavell’s Shogun) as major influences in my wish to come to Japan. Crazy eh? Got to go. Night!

January 10, 2012

2012-01-11T01:34:00.000+09:00

Tuesday - Warmish and sunny, snowy at night

An okay day.

I got up a little late today and noticed that F had left his cell phone at home again. That meant that he would be by a little later to pick it up. I was correct about that. He showed up when I was watching TV in my PJs. There was a British Sci-fi drama called The Deep on and it was quite entertaining. Silly and all that, but entertaining.

After it finished I was thinking about going out, but I got caught up in a movie on WOWOW. It was rather good, so I stayed and watched all of it! It was called Mother and Child and starred Annette Bening and Naomi Watts, amongst other people. It was about three women, one a mother who gave up her child for adoption when she was 14, another woman who had been adopted, and the third was a woman trying to adopt a baby with her husband. That two of the story lines connected didn’t surprise me, but how the third one intersected them all was a nice surprise. Anyway, a well acted film about interesting people. Even the small parts were played by good actors… a bit like a British movie would be.

When it finished I decided to go out for a bit and see if I could clear any snow. I did a bit, but there was so much on the road already that I’m sure no one noticed.

When F came home tonight it was later than usual. I was trying to get set up for dinner, but he was so tired that he wanted to go to bed. As he was complaining again, his phone rang. It was my student wanting a lesson tomorrow. Sigh. That means that I have to walk over early to the school tomorrow and shovel snow over there so that she can use my parking space. I hope it goes okay.
F and I made a quick trip to the school to set the heater and then came home. I suggested grabbing a bite to eat but he didn’t want anything, so we just came home. He had a bath while I made myself something to eat. I chose Mac & Cheese, one of my Christmas presents, but I added a tin of tuna to it. It was pretty good. I offered some to F but he wasn’t having any. He went to bed for ages.

Around 10 pm I turned on the TV again to watch CSI: New York, with the headphones on and guess who got up. Yep, F. He made himself some food and then played with his computer for the next 3 hours. He’s only just gone back to bed.

Well, tomorrow is usually my day off, but I have to work. I hope it’s a good thing! I’ll catch you tomorrow night most likely. Night!

January 9, 2012

2012-01-10T03:27:00.002+09:00

Monday - Warm, with a bit of snow

An okay day.

I slept in a bit. F was a good person and got up early to do snow shovelling.

After I got up and did a bit of computer stuff we went out for lunch. I suggested going to a hotel, but on the way there we changed our minds and went to Restaurant Futaba. It was a good choice and we had the baguette sandwich lunch. That was a sandwich with scrambled egg, bacon, avocado and it said cheese, but I’m not so sure on a rye baguette. It was yummy. It came with soup and a salad, plus we had dessert too.

We took a drive over to the Farmer’s Market type place, but they had nothing that I wanted to buy for veggies. I am quite disappointed. I realise it is January, but they had exactly the same stuff as my local grocer, plus it cost more.

We came home and then after a while I went to bed as I couldn’t keep my eyes open. F came in for a nap too, so the two of us were asleep for a couple of hours. I got up first and did computer stuff, while F slept.

Around 8:00 we went out again for dinner. F wanted to go to a fish restaurant, I didn’t really, but didn’t want to make a scene. Anyway it was okay. We had to sit on the floor which I’m not a big fan of now that I’m old and cranky, but shoganai. I was cold too, as my place at the table seemed to attract all the drafts from outside. Sigh. I had a salmon and salmon roe donburi and it was very good. F had some kind of tuna donburi and he said it was excellent. I have the sad feeling we’ll go back there.

We came home via the grocery store where they didn’t have anything I wanted to buy. Not really anyway. I’m making pasta for dinner tomorrow night and I wanted a salad. The salads were all gone and the plain lettuce was blooming expensive.

When we came home tonight F watched his usual crap and then I watched Harriet’s Law, the new Kathy Bates show. I had seen this episode before, but I have to get F used to me watching certain shows, or he’ll put on kickboxing. I also did up 3 cards for postcrossing. I’m sending out to the US, the Netherlands, and Belarus this time.

And that was my day. Not bad, not great. We didn’t have any major arguing, so that was almost cause for celebration. Got to go. Night!

January 8, 2012

2012-01-09T02:59:00.000+09:00

Sunday - Cold with some snow, warmer at night

Today was okay. It was the first day off together since the big holiday, so of course I slept in. I also went to bed before F which was a big surprise for me!

I got up the first time around 11, went back to bed and then got a phone call just before the time I had planned to get up. It was my student who didn’t come yesterday. She had been ill. No harm, no foul. I was glad to hear from her, and we set an appointment for next week. I went back to sleep for a bit.

I got up later, checked my email and such and then got dressed. F and I went out for lunch to Kappa Sushi. It wasn’t bad. They didn’t have my favourite foods on offer today, but some of the sushi was quite good. I had a very nice piece of salmon and also tried the crab salad. Yum.

F was crying about needing new socks, so we went out to Mikawa and got him some new ones. We got me a few pairs too. F even persuaded me to try a couple of men’s socks for a change. Some of the Women’s ones do fit, but they are a little tight or short. The cotton socks I brought back from Canada last year are already wearing out. Sigh. The gorgeous ones I bought in Australia are doing quite well though! Yay Australia!

We drove back to Tsuruoka and came home for a bit. I cooked a pizza that was in our fridge and due to expire, then we wolfed it down. It was okay.

We headed out again to the theatre in Tsuruoka and saw “Morse” or as it is called in English, Let Me In. It’s the US remake of Let The Right One In, the Swedish vampire film. I have to say that I was quite impressed with the remake. It was quite good. It managed to be more than a scene by scene recreation of the original.

After the movie, F asked if I was hungry so we ended up at McDonald. I had a drink and some chicken, F had a chocolate shake. I noticed an interesting picture on the wall, so I snapped you a picture of it.

Someone didn’t stay awake in Geography class.

We came home and had a quiet and peaceful evening in. I looked for patterns for an afghan. I bought some wool today at the mall and I want to make a throw for our chesterfield. It can get a little cold in the evenings and a nice throw would be good. I’ll keep you posted on what I make.

And that basically was my day. Tomorrow is a national holiday, but the powers that be have decided that the apartment dwellers must get up and shovel snow at 8:00 am tomorrow. I think I’ll still be sleeping when F goes out. Poor guy. I sort of feel sorry for him. Not that much though! Night.

January 7, 2012

2012-01-08T03:14:00.002+09:00

Saturday - Cold and snowy

An okay day.

I woke up on time this morning and was surprised that it was morning already. Funny how that happens!

I got up, showered right away, and then spent a bit of time on my computer before we went out for brunch at Gusto. I had chicken and F had breakfast so we were both happy. After that, we drove off to my school and shovelled snow. Yay. Both of us. There was a lot.

F left around 12 and I got to work getting my school ready for my class. I happily got everything done just in time and when my student came we had a good class.

After her class I did a bit of paperwork and then some reading. About 30 minutes before my next class I went out and re-shovelled the parking space. The student had said that she wasn’t sure if she could come today, and hadn’t responded to my email yesterday, so I didn’t really think she’d show up, but wanted to be ready in case she did. And…she didn’t. Oh well.

I waited all through the class time and then I cleaned up and called F. He didn’t answer the first or second time I called. He was out doing errands for his mother. After a while he came to pick me up.

We did a drugstore run, then went for dinner to Coco Curry House. I had the bibinba type curry today and it was good. I really enjoyed it. F had pork cutlet curry. It looked good, but too close to my lunch really.

We came home after dinner and had a quite nice evening together. We watched a lot of TV and it was fun. I taped one of the CSI shows and also Project Runway and Models of the Runway. We watched MTV’s Disaster Date and F surprised me by laughing a lot at it.

Anyway, that’s it for today. It was a pretty good day to be honest. Oh, yes, F also booked my flights for my convention in March. Yay! Got to go. Night!

January 6, 2012

2012-01-07T01:57:00.000+09:00

Friday - Cold and snowy

I got up this morning on time and read the newspaper. I kind of like that routine. I hope I keep it up for a while. Weekends will be tough though.

I had a really quiet day at home for the most part. I did a few things that needed done for my school tomorrow, but I relaxed a lot. Earlier on in the day I watched A Letter to Three Wives. As always, I really enjoyed the acting and the story. Even the lessor characters were well written. They don’t bother much with that nowadays. Later on I watched Enough, the Jennifer Lopez movie and it was supremely dumb, but kind of fun too. I felt sorry for Billy Campbell playing such a mean guy, especially since it came out of left field.

After the movie, I went outside and did a little bit of snow-shovelling. Okay, I did a lot of snow-shovelling! I cleared a path to the apartment and then F’s parking space. Yay me!

F came home a little later and immediately turned on the bath and headed for the bedroom. I asked him if he wanted to go for dinner first, so he reconsidered.

We had dinner in Grado tonight and it was good. We had steak, but it was prepared more like a roast, with some appetisers and soup. We had an odd night though. F kept knocking things on the floor (advertising, ashtray) and I spilled my soup all over the place.

After dinner we headed to my school so I could set my heater for tomorrow, and then we just came home. F wasn’t doing too well, so he took his bath early and then went to bed. I watched a very odd movie with Adrien Brody called Giallo, then went over to the couch to watch The Good Wife. I also started a new crochet project tonight but I didn’t get much done. I did a swatch and then I started the first row. I didn’t finished it or anything, but the thing is started. I’m trying to make myself a shrug, and I hope it works out!

Since midnight, I’ve been watching a bit of this and that, nothing too exciting though. I should try and get to bed early tonight, but I probably won’t. I do have to go back to work tomorrow. Wish me luck with that! Night.

January 5, 2012

2012-01-06T02:45:00.000+09:00

Thursday - Cold and snowy

An okay day. I woke up first when I got a phone call from my husband. He wasn’t trying to phone me, his phone just decided that I needed to wake up then! I did get back to sleep, but it put me off my routine a bit.

I got up this morning, read the paper and in fact didn’t go on the computer until after 11am. I finally did, and then I showered. I had a quiet day at home…I even went back to sleep for a bit. In bed and everything. I was so tired.

When I got up I had some brunch and watched Valentine’s Day. I had taped it before the New Year. It was okay…glad I didn’t pay to see it at the theatre.

Around 5 pm I went outside the apartment. I did a little sweeping of the building-it’s our month to do it, then I got dressed up and went outside to shovel a bit of snow. I cleared the bit in front of the apartment door, then cleared F’s parking space for him. The snow was light and not packed so it wasn’t difficult, but it was cold and the snow was blowing mightily. I finally finished, and went back inside.

F came home a few minutes later and was quite pleased with what I had done. I was glad that he said something!

We went out for dinner after a bit. The roads were very slippery, and we saw a car do a U-turn in the middle of the road right in front of us. They slipped on the ice. They righted themselves and then when we went over the same piece of ice we skidded a bit too. F was going to take me to a Chinese Restaurant that we’ve been to a couple of times, but changed his mind. We went to a different Chinese Restaurant that I’ll call the Panda Place because there was a picture of two pandas on the front. The meal was quite nice, if a little greasy. I’m sure F will try and take me there again, and there’s a lot worse places that he’s taken me!

We came home via the gas station for more kerosene and my school to check for mail. I thought we’d go through the grocery store, but we didn’t!

At home, I suggested that F watch The Bridges of Madison County. For some reason they put it on in Japanese rather than English. He enjoyed it, which is good. We watched Shameless again at 11 then I watched In The Thick of It at midnight. I followed that up with two episodes of ER.

Tomorrow is my last day off before I’m back to work. However, I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself. The weather makes it hard to get places, so maybe I’ll just stay home again. As always, tune in tomorrow and find out what I do. Night!

January 4, 2012

2012-01-05T02:58:00.000+09:00

Wednesday - Cold and snowy. I didn’t go out.

I stayed in today, but I got a lot of things done, so it was worth it. I got up early enough this morning, but really felt shell-shocked for a while. I couldn’t get myself to even think clearly for a bit.

I did a few loads of laundry and I made soup. From scratch. I got to use my new peeler that I bought in Sendai on the potatoes and it worked so much better. I feel like I didn’t waste half of the potato! It made short work of the carrot and even the broccoli stem too. It took me a while to chop all of the veggies. I had planned to use my slow cooker, then I decided not to. I made soup on the stove top, which meant I had to check it fairly often.

I was just sitting down to make some nengajo when F called. He told me on the phone that he’d like me to make him some nengajo too. For a man who didn’t want to send any, he changed his mind quickly!

After F came home, I got dinner sorted out. We had bought some cabbage rolls and some meatballs to put in the soup, so I brought it up to the boil again, and slipped them in. When it was time to serve, I got F’s bowl full and put it back on the table. I tried to do mine next, but my bowl got too hot, I tipped it a bit, hot soup splashed my hand and I let out a howl and knocked my bowl into the soup pan. I was a tad upset with myself and with F who was still sitting on the couch playing with his cell phone. I yelled at him that if he hears his wife yelling in pain, it might be a good idea to come and see what was wrong. What an idiot. I had to run my poor finger under cold water for a while, then sit through dinner with a wet compress on it. It was lobster red. F waited till I got myself a bowl of soup again and went back to the couch. WHY?????

Anyway, when I finally got him to come to the table he was surprised at how good the soup was! Hah! I have always made great soup. One of my many skilz!

After dinner I cleaned up the table a bit, put away some of the remaining soup and left the dishes for F to wash. I worked on his nengajo and ended up printing up 7 of them. He wrote his and I decided to request a few Postcrossing addresses. I wrote 3 cards tonight. They are going to Taiwan, Russia and Germany.

F was really annoying tonight with his TV choices. He watched some crappy TV show about teens being too fat and then going on super diets or something. I was more than a little annoyed. Japan has many food shows and programs where eating is the main focus, then when someone likes to eat they film it in very “isn’t she disgusting” kind of way. Mak oop yer mind, ye canna hae it both ways. (Sorry…it’s the Scottish coming out in me again.)

I got to watch Private Practice at 11 though. I had “booked” it earlier in the evening. It is now back on again. Tonight was kind of silly, but it’s okay. Hopefully it’ll get better.

That’s about it for my day. I have clothes drying in the spare room, 3 postcrossing cards, plus 4 nengajo going out in the morning and a lot on my mind! What will happen tomorrow? Come back and find out. Night!

January 3, 2012

2012-01-04T04:07:00.001+09:00

Tuesday - Sunny and warmish in Sendai, cooler with snow at home.
NY-day recap
I wish that I could tell you that things got better on New Year’s Eve, but on the actual morning of the first, things got very much worse. I won’t go into it, but things were bad.

Things got mildly better in the morning around 11ish. We had a meal, and went to the Shrine for our Hatsumode. It was fine, but took longer than either of us had expected. The weather in Tsuruoka was nice and there were a lot of people waiting.

We came home, packed a bag each and left for Sendai. I didn’t even bother setting up my iPod, I just went to sleep. I was too tired to care. I slept most of the way to Sagae, a rest stop that’s a little over halfway to Sendai. I managed to stay awake after that.

We got to Sendai, found a parkade and then found our hotel. F had found this place and it was okay. I was worried because it was in an area with a lot of drinking places, but the hotel was clean, quiet and comfortable. We went out looking for food and walked quite a few blocks, before coming back and eating at an izakaya near our hotel. After dinner, we came back to the hotel via a convenience store and then went back to our room.

I read 3 newspapers then at 11:30 I went to bed. I was exhausted. I slept almost all of the night, I woke up at 6:30 to find I’d had an email from my sister, then went back to sleep!

On the 2nd, we had breakfast, then went out shopping. We made our pilgrimage to the the Apple Store, but didn’t buy anything. F was eyeing the AirMacs and I was canoodling with an iPod Touch. Or something like that.

We did a lot of shopping that day. Not for anything too amazing, some more postcards, some books…lots of books…and kitchen equipment. I finally got a vegetable peeler. Yay me. We had lunch at a Pepper Steak restaurant, then went to see Paul. It was a hoot. I’d heard about it and got a lot of the funny lines. It was a bit strange even in Sendai to be the only one laughing.

We did more shopping in the station and its area, then had dinner at “our” gyutan restaurant under the station. We just squeaked in before last order. Whew! We ate and then walked back to the hotel. That was a bit of a hike, but it was pleasant.

I stayed up a bit, I was up till a bit after midnight, F fell asleep around 9:30 pm. I was a bit surprised at him.

Today
We had breakfast in the hotel again. It was quite decent and most things were good. Then, we checked out and drove to Nagamachi Mall. That was a bit of a nightmare as our GPS doesn’t always know the right lane to drive in and F will always get into the wrong one!

We parked at the mall, checked on the movie times and then did a bit of exploring around the mall. We looked in a new section of the mall, I did a little shopping while F went to the car for something. I waited for him for ages and he finally showed up. He had been looking around the mall for me. I told him that I wouldn’t have left the store! That would be silly. His phone battery had died so there was no way for us to contact each other. He’d apparently come back to the store, looked for me, but didn’t see me, then moved on. I honestly don’t know how he doesn’t see me!

We had lunch at Lupicia. It wasn’t big, but it was just enough as we weren’t too hungry. After a tad more shopping we went to see Real Steel. That was rather fun. I knew it was supposed to be fairly good for its type, and I thought F would like it, but I wasn’t sure that I would as much.

After the movie, we left the mall and had dinner at a tonkatsu place, then got back on the road. F drove us home. The middle part through the mountains got a bit hairy as there was a lot of snow falling, but we made it back safely.

After buying a few groceries we came home and vegged. I caught up a bit on my email, relaxed a bit. The last couple of days were fairly good, thankfully, but I’m not sure what’s going to happen in the future to be honest.

That’s it for me. Night.

December 31, 2011

2012-01-01T03:51:00.000+09:00

Saturday - Warm, with a bit of snow. Clear and beautiful at night.

Kind of a crap day if I’m honest.

I woke up late, mostly because I stayed up late again. F was gone so I thought I’d work on my column. Of course he came back 10 minutes later, put on the TV very noisily and proceeded to explain all about the TV show. Did I care? That wasn’t important.

We went out for lunch to Cocos and had an okay time. I tried to get some sense of what he wanted to do for the rest of the day, while explaining that I had a deadline and I was nearly done, but needed time to work on my project. It went in one ear and out the other. As usual. He was all for going to the shrine at midnight with me. I thought it would be nice, if the weather held.

We went home and this time he put on boxing and proceeded to explain all about the noisy fights, despite my not asking or caring. I finally had to ask him to stop as I wasn’t interested and was still trying to work. At last I got my column done, proofed and mailed off. Yay.

Then he wanted to go out to eat. What? Didn’t he realise that it is New Year’s Eve and most places would be closed? He didn’t care. So out we went. He wanted to go to a fish restaurant first. It was open, surprisingly, but closed in 10 minutes. We ended up going to a yakiniku place and having quite a good meal. We left and they turned off their lights. Happily, we weren’t the last people there for a change though.

We came home and what should be put on our TV? Oh yes, Ultimate Fighting. This was on our New Years Eve together. I muttered under my breath a lot and put on my earphones and listened to P!nk for a while. It was cathartic.

Close to midnight I closed down my computer and made ready to go to the shrine with my husband. Except he wasn’t ready. And wouldn’t be ready for an unknown amount of time. The fights weren’t done. I went into our bedroom, fully dressed for going outside, except for boots and had a lie down on the bed. It didn’t help. I started muttering a bit too loudly I suppose about fighting shows and how it was only men who liked to look at other men half naked that watched it and had the bedroom door closed on me. That did it. I took it for a couple of minutes until I realised that it must be the new year by now, came out, wished him a happy new year and left the apartment. I went for a walk. I didn’t go to the Shrine, I couldn’t be bothered. It’s something I had wanted to do with him, but it became rather pointless. It’s a little ironic, when he asked me to wait he said that he wanted to be with me. Actually, I think he’d rather be with the halfwits on the TV who were beating each other senseless.

Anyway, when I came back I was given the silent treatment. Hurray for that.

We are supposed to go away for a couple of days tomorrow, but I don’t really want to go anymore. I’m not interested in spending time in another city with him.

Happy New Year, eh? Last year I was at a party in Canada eating great food and meeting new people. Today I’m stuck in a pokey J-apartment with a morose, whiny man. I’m so lucky.

And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

Happy New Year…this is such a horrible time of the year to be in Japan when you’re a foreign wife. I should just get drunk, but I don’t drink. Sigh.

Gotta go. Just remember if I don’t post I probably did go away with him…so don’t miss me too much. Night.

December 30, 2011

2011-12-31T04:09:00.000+09:00

Friday - Cold and snowy

If I’m not concentrating on what I’m writing at the moment, it’s because I’m watching Love, Actually and it is 3:30 in the morning. I love this film!

Anyway, slept in a bit this morning and then got up. F was watching an old Japanese movie that wasn’t annoying, so I let him watch it all! It’s just that a lot of recent movies have such terrible overacting that it makes me annoyed.

We had lunch at Jiro and then came home again. I worked on my next column for a bit, and also watched a bit of TV.

We went out for dinner and tried to go for yakitori, but the place was closed so we went somewhere else. We ended up at an izakaya (Oh gosh…Colin Firth just made the sweetest little speech to the Portuguese girl….tears are streaming down my face….) Now it’s the end credits…I love this damn movie!

We bought a few groceries after dinner, but I really couldn’t get F to make any sense. I told him, and have told him a few times that Christmas food was my worry, New Year’s is his. We’ll likely be eating kitchen scraps knowing him. Or soba till I can’t take it any more!

Anyway, I worked more on my column. I’m not done yet, but I’m more than half done I think. Hurray for that. We watched a few movies this evening too. We watched Amelie and a couple of other films which I can’t remember at this moment. F went to bed just as this was starting. I was surprised that it was after midnight.

Now I’m about up to date. I think this New Year Holiday is going to be like all the holidays I have with my husband…a bit of a waste of time. He makes no plans at all and expects me to do all of the planning. I however have no idea how he wants to spend the holiday and he also has family obligations that he doesn’t tell me about. Grr. Oh well. No big deal really. I don’t mind staying home that much. I’d rather stay home than have a bad time somewhere else.

That’s it for me for tonight. I’ll most likely post tomorrow night. Have a good night!

December 29, 2011

2011-12-30T03:25:00.002+09:00

Thursday - Cold, rainy and snowy.

A busy but good day.

I got up a little later than usual, but earlier than I would on a Sunday. We chatted for a while and then took another nap. Gotta love days when we can do that!

In the afternoon we went out for lunch. F chose the restaurant, so we had soba and tempura. It wasn’t bad. We were the last people in the restaurant when we left!

After lunch, we did a little shopping and then F drove me over to my school. He brought our stepladder into the school for me and then left.

I had a busy afternoon and evening. I took down the curtains, washed them and rehung them, took down all the Christmas decorations and cleaned the water pot. Yay! I was busy.

I finally called F and asked him to pick me up and help me take the lampshade in the middle of the room. He did, bless him, and then we went out for dinner.

Tonight we had sushi, but not at our usual haunts, we went to the more expensive place. We were seated fairly quickly and had a few plates of sushi. It was quite good, but I missed some of my usual ones from the other places.

We came home and had a quiet evening. I watched my Thursday night shows, laughed my head off at Episodes and enjoyed ER a lot. Kind of a flashback to see all the actors again when they were so young.

That was my day. I’m glad that I was able to get over to the school to do the cleaning. I keep it pretty tidy, but it’s hard to find the time to do things like curtains or the water pot.

Anyway, today was good. I hope that tomorrow will be good as well. Got to go. Night.

December 28, 2011

2011-12-29T03:59:00.001+09:00

Wednesday - Clear and sunny.

A mostly good day.

I had a quiet day at home today. I watched parts of a couple of movies on WOWOW today, How to Train Your Dragon and The Sorceror’s Apprentice. They were quite amusing.

After F came home we watched the end of Percy Jackson and then left the apartment. We went to the local theatre and bought our tickets, then had dinner at the restaurant. Tonight we went to see Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and we both thought it was a lot of fun. The effects were great, and the story worked quite well too. It was much more enjoyable than M:I 2 which was on TV the other night.

When we left the theatre we went to the grocery store and got a few things for the next couple of days. We’ll probably have to go back. I’m sure I won’t be wanting to eat F’s food.

We came home and F watched a bit of TV before just up and going to bed. He’s off work for the next few days and I’m a tad worried about it. Tomorrow I might go to my school and do a bit of cleaning and maintenance on the place, or not. I’m not sure yet.

So, that’s it for me for tonight. Night!

December 27, 2011

2011-12-28T02:42:00.000+09:00

Tuesday - Cold and snowy, with hail

A good day. I got up fairly easily this morning and had a quiet morning at home. I read the newspapers for the last couple of days and decided what to do about dinner.

In the afternoon, while the sun was still out I went outside and shovelled a bit of snow. I cleared a path to the apartment building’s door, and also most of our parking space. Unfortunately, the hail came up twice while I was doing that, so when I left, the parking space was covered over again. Argh!

I came in and started on dinner right away. I peeled the leftover potatoes and made some soup base. I got everything in the pan and then started to prep other things for dinner. I had the table mostly set and was waiting for F to call me when he came home. Sigh. I think he’d taken time off to go to the doctor.

Since he was home, I finished up the soup and then invited him over for dinner. I very, very rarely have things waiting for him when he comes home. I just don’t like to eat so early anymore.

We had really yummy potato soup, plus salad and leftover chicken. I’d also put out a cheese and cracker plate so we had a few with our dinner. After we’d finished, F did the dishes.

He was in a quiet mood tonight and watched a bunch of things on the TV. It wasn’t as annoying as usual, but we could have been watching a movie or something so a tad mean on his part. Later on I took over the TV and watched the last episode of the Criminal Minds offshoot. They left it on quite a cliffhanger.

Anyway, F was off to bed fairly early for him. He’s tired from all the snow shovelling he has to do at work. I’m up too late again. But, now that I’ve blogged I can perhaps go to bed early? Night!

Postcrossing Cards - Incoming

2011-12-27T20:25:00.001+09:00

December 27, 2011

I had a great couple of weeks for receiving cards, but sadly, not one for sending cards. I've had a card expire, and a couple where the receiver hasn't been on line for an extended period of time. I hope people head home soon and check their mail.

The first card makes me swoon with envy! I don't have a decent bookshelf, and I'd really love one like this. This card came from Germany and Shelli also loves books.

This card is quite popular at Postcrossing.

This card comes from the USA of course, and is from Terra. She lives in the vicinity of Saint Louis. This card shows the outside of the Busch Stadium, home to the Saint Louis Cardinals. I'm not a baseball fan, but I had just seen Moneyball at the theatre so it was quite nice to get this card.

Thanks Terra!

Reni in China sent me this pretty little card, along with the name of her favourite movie, Flipped. I haven't seen it, but she says it makes her cry heavily. She also wished me Merry Christmas, which was a nice sentiment.

This last card arrived on Christmas Day. It comes all the way from Russia. The sender says that she bought this card at a monastery on the island of Patmos, Altai, Russia. She wrote "Happy Holidays" in her native language, but I'm afraid I can't write it up for you!

She also put some gorgeous stamps on the back. These are beautiful.

Thanks for reading. I wonder if I'll get any new cards before the New Year?

December 26, 2011

2011-12-27T03:03:00.000+09:00

Monday - Cold and snowy.

An okay day. I went to bed a tad late last night and barely managed to get up this morning. Still, I did and spent a bit of time on my computer. After a while I showered, dressed and that kind of thing.

I had a busyish around the apartment day. I did a bit of laundry, I went out and shovelled some snow in the parking lot and even vacuumed a bit. Yay for me.

When F came home I gave him the choice of either leftovers or going out for dinner. He chose going out and even chose the place to go. We saw a new place for us on Christmas Eve and he wanted to try it. It is a kind of noodle place…they have pasta and also yakiudon. F had the later, covered in lots of stuff and it looked good. I had carbonara, but next time I might have the yakiudon too. We shared an order of gyoza too. Our meals came with soup and salad too and the price was quite reasonable. It did get a bit cold though. At one point I put my coat back on over my shoulders and even F did too. The waitress noticed and brought us lap blankets and turned up the heating. A nice place and we’ll likely go again.

We bought a few groceries afterwards. I think we’ll try eating at home tomorrow night. It should be fine though. I’m rather looking forward to it to be honest.

At home F watched Ultimate fighting crap and I watched something on my computer. At 11 I put on the Anna Travis show…not sure what the real name is. It’s a Lydia LaPlante police drama with Ciarán Hinds….oh a couple of minutes at IMDb tells me that it is Above Suspicion: Deadly Intent. It was okay, but not great.

Anyway, that’s about it for me. Nothing too exciting today, but that’s really fine. Got to go. Night!

December 25, 2011

2011-12-26T03:57:00.000+09:00

Sunday - Cold and snowy….Merry Christmas!

A really nice day!

Had a good day today. I slept in a bit and then got up and made breakfast for us. Actually though, to do him credit, F was a big help during breakfast making. I got him to do things for me like cook the bacon and cut the crusts off the bread. I made something I saw on Kayotic Kitchen’s site called Eggs, Bacon & Toast Cups. She’d adapted a Martha Stewart recipe. Anyway, we made it and it was good! Not an everyday thing, but for a special occasion a nice treat.

We ate them all up and then set to opening presents. Yay!

We both did very well in the presents department. My sister had sent along a lot of presents to both of us, so F got quite a lot. We both got t-shirts from Las Vegas, and souvenirs from their trip this summer. I got some DVDs and a new purse too, so just what I wanted (and told him to buy!!!) I never did find the shirt I bought F, so that’ll hopefully be found someday. I gave him a car emergency bag filled with things that I hope will be useful if something ever happens. There’s a blanket, some bandages, chocolate, a lantern, work gloves, a couple of toques, alcohol gel, a reflecting band to wear so cars can see you, that kind of thing. He got a Tintin book as well. He seemed happy with it all.

After a bit, F went out to get a haircut. I was going to take a nap, but decided to peel the potatoes for dinner. I did that, and watched some of the new WOWOW shows. When F came back, we went out for a light lunch to Kintaro Sushi. I wasn’t too hungry, so only had a little, but F had quite a bit! We drove around and saw some Christmas lights, then mailed a last minute nengajo. We went to the butcher’s shop and picked up our chicken, then came home.

I kicked dinner into higher gear and cooked the potatoes, got the salad put out, prepped the Yorkshire Pudding and such. I was busy. After a bit, I asked F to make the gravy for me, so he did that. It’s not a tough job, just I had to be 5 different places at once and couldn’t. Finally, everything was ready and we had our meal. The general consensus was that the food was good. I wasn’t happy with the Yorkshire Pudding though. I didn’t preheat the oven enough, so the muffin tins weren’t hot enough when the batter went in. Either that, or the mix was old.

After dinner and dishes, F asked me to go for a drive. We went to Tsuruoka Park, parked the car and went to look at the lights. Unfortunately, we walked over to them and went the long way round. It was cold out and there was about a foot of snow on the ground, so the walking was tough. We took some pictures and I’ll try and post them tomorrow.

We came home and had some tea or coffee and our Christmas Pudding. I didn’t even try to flame it this year. I think the alcohol has probably evaporated from our brandy! It was a nice end to the day. We watched Mission Impossible 2 on the telly and then that was most of our Christmas.

It was really nice this year. Not too super fabulous wonderful, just nice and quiet, the two of us together for most of it. Yay!

That’s about it for me. Oh, one more thing if you’ve made it this far. I’ve received a couple of nasty comments on my blog. If this harassment continues I’ll likely turn off comments for a while. Please understand that sometimes people with nothing better to do ruin other people’s fun for kicks.

Night, and Merry Christmas!

December 24, 2011

2011-12-25T02:32:00.000+09:00

Saturday - Warmish and very, very snowy.

A mostly good day. I dragged myself out of bed this morning and showered. F stayed in bed for a while. That was surprising! He’s usually up before me. When it was time to leave, we went to Gusto. We had a decent meal there…well, I did anyway. I had a new lunch, F had their standard lunch of the day. Mine was good!

We went to my school then and both of us did some snow removal. It wasn’t that bad as the snow that had come down overnight was light and and a lot had already melted. We got the parking space and the front steps in ship-shape condition and then F left. I got ready for my class.

My student came and we had a good time. She’s an amazing kid. I really like working with her.

After her class I did paperwork and got a few things done around the school. I read my newspaper too. Around 4 pm I poked my head out the door and was shocked to see a huge amount of snow outside. It was really coming down. It was still light and fluffy, but what had been cleared a couple of hours before was now covered over. I went out a little before 5 and re-did everything. Yay me.

My second student had cancelled this morning and my third came a few minutes late. We had a good class too, it was mainly grammar based today.

After class I finished up quickly and called F. He came to get me and was amazed by all the new snow. We had a nice dinner in Cocos, followed by a quick grocery shop and mailing of nengajo. We came home and had a quiet evening ever since.

We watched Top Gear which was totally insane…as usual. Still, we enjoyed it a lot. F was laughing a lot at it.

And that was my day so far. It was pretty good.

Oh..and one more thing….Merry Christmas! Night!

December 23, 2011

2011-12-24T03:26:00.001+09:00

Friday - Cold, with a skiffle of snow

An okay day today. I went to bed late and slept in a bit, a lot if you want the truth. When I got up, one of the first things F asked me was if I wanted to go out for eel for lunch. What the heck? I actually like unagi but I didn’t want it when I woke up. Bleck. We finally settled on Grado near our apartment.

We went out for lunch and it was nice. I had Shonai Pork and F had chicken. When we were leaving I said to F that we could try and have eel for dinner if he still wanted it. I also suggested that he try and have a massage or something since his back was really bothering him. He was in a bit of a mood all day because of it.

He dropped me off at the mall to do some shopping and then he went off to check out his massage places. He called me and said he could get one, so would see me in about an hour. I went shopping. Yay. I got a few things for F’s Christmas, a few things for me and a new decoration for the school. I try and buy a new one every year.

He phoned me to say he was done. When he came to the mall we had a drink and a sandwich at Doutors. He announced that he’d like to do some last minute shopping, so I said I’d buy some groceries and let him have the rest of the mall. It worked out fairly well. I’ll still have to buy salad stuff tomorrow night, but I got the rest of my things for Christmas, I think. Before going home, we swung by my school to set the heater for tomorrow. I set it a little early as it was darn cold.

We vegged for a while at home and then went out for dinner. I kept my word and we went to the eel restaurant. I’d been there once before, just after we got married. I didn’t think that much of the place then, and I didn’t think much of the place now! The eel itself was good, but the dishes with it weren’t so great. There was also an eel heart in the soup, which I made F take out of mine. I’ve got an odd thing going on with my tongue at the moment, so I can’t eat acidic food, and 2 of the dishes with our meal were pickled foods. Not great for me.

We came home afterwards and had a very quiet evening until I mentioned to F that I wanted to watch The Good Wife on NHK at 11.00. He sprang into action, setting the TV to change channels at that time, after he figured out what channel my show was on. Honestly, I wish he’d just pass me the remote! I know exactly where it is on, and I know to always change it into English.

Today I was more than a little irritated with my husband. He’s going to be underfoot for the next couple of days and I don’t know if we’ll make it through without a blowup or two. I just don’t need that at this time of year. He tries about Christmas, but he doesn’t really get it. It makes me wish I’d braved another holiday in my sister’s basement!

Anyway, he finally went to bed. I have to go there soon too as I have a busy day at work tomorrow. I might be done for the year then, it depends if any students want to come next week or not. I’m hoping not!

That’s it for me. Night!

Skiffle Although often used for music, there is a second meaning.

December 22, 2011

2011-12-23T04:18:00.000+09:00

Thursday - Cold and rainy, with thunder and lightning.

I got a phone call this morning as I was waking up from my student. She was cancelling her class for today. That meant that I didn’t have to go over to my school early in the day.

I got up, watched a bit of TV, took a shower and made my lunch. I had an omelette again. I also read the newspaper.

F came home a little late so I asked him to take me over to my school to turn off the heater. It would turn itself off in another hour or so, but I wanted to check that everything was okay. I also picked up a spinach salad and more nengajo for New Year.

F left for his party and I vegged for a bit, then I started to cook my dinner. I made a chicken dish with a package mix and it was really nice. I had the salad and some French bread. Everything was delicious. I even had a decent movie to watch! WOWOW was showing The Taming of the Shrew with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, so I watched that again. Quite good fun.

In the evening I just watched a lot of TV and then tuned into my regular Thursday night shows. Drop Dead Diva was cute and Episodes was really funny and strange. I have to say that Matt LeBlanc really shows a different side of himself. I’m not sure if he’s really playing himself or a souped up version of himself!

F was out at a party with some friends. I had expected him home fairly early, but he didn’t show. I sent him a text message in case he wanted me to rescue him, but when he called me back he seemed quite happy. The hold up was the transportation home. The taxis were really backed up, as was the Drive You Home service. Sigh.

Finally, he came in around 3 am. He seems fine and says he had a good time. Yay.

Tomorrow is a national holiday so I’m not sure what we’ll be doing. There may be a visit with Tom Cruise, I’m not sure. Catch me tomorrow night and I’ll fill in the blanks. Night!

December 21, 2011

2011-12-22T02:39:00.000+09:00

Wednesday - Sunny in the am, bit of snow later on

Had a mostly good day today. I went to bed with a hot water bottle that was really hot so think I’ll wrap it in a towel tonight. It is nice to keep my feet warm on though. F offered to let me put my feet on his back when I come to bed, but I think I’d have to sleep at a very funny angle to do that!

Watched a bit of TV in the am, then didn’t watch anything for a long time. I read the paper, and wrapped F’s presents. Well, some of them. I have misplaced one of his presents. He got me to buy him a shirt and I can’t find it! I’ve looked in the usual places, but I must have really outdone myself this time. Sigh.

In the evening after F came home it got a bit tense. He has been shovelling snow at work everyday and his back can’t take it. He comes home and is really tired and in a lot of pain. During the day, I had taken out our electric nabe and washed it in preparation for dinner tonight. He saw it in the drainer and apologised for not washing it last time…but he did. He got confused and (I think) he thought we’d had nabe last night. Anyway, it wasn’t a big deal, but then he went on the hunt for food and “stuff”. He wasn’t making much sense and he was driving me crazy with the noise.

We ended up going out before dinner to my school to set the heater and to the grocery store so F could get some noodles for the end of the nabe. He really wasn’t doing well, I could tell by the way he acted.

At home again, F put the nabe together and then we ate. It was pretty good, although the soup smelled funny to me. We used a miso ramen base tonight. I made some tea and we enjoyed our dinner.

I did the dishes afterwards. One of the nice things about having nabe is there isn’t much clean up. Yay.

We settled in for the evening. F watched inane Japanese TV…yup, the regular stuff. I thought Grey’s was on tonight, but it wasn’t. At one point tonight I begged F not to make me watch Japanese TV all though the New Year break. Note to self, bring home mini dvd player from school. Remind me, would you all?

Anyway, F went to bed early, but he’s not sleeping that well. I can always tell. I have an early class tomorrow and if I have to shovel snow I’ll have to leave quite early so I had best get off the computer and catch a bit of sleep. Got to go. Night!

December 20, 2011

2011-12-21T02:25:00.002+09:00

Tuesday - Cold with a little snow

Today was an okay day really. At least that’s the way I’m remembering it. I went to bed a bit late, but managed to get up at a fairly normal time. I watched Criminal Minds - Red Cell in the morning and then decided to take a short nap. I slept for about 30 minutes and then did get up. Yay me. I showered and got on with my day.

I wrote up a post card to send. This one is going to Taiwan. I hope it arrives. Many of my cards are stuck in transit at the moment. People seem not to be checking their own mail or something. It’s rather annoying. I want to send more cards, but I can’t now.

I had a visitor a couple of times today. F came back to pick something up and then I’m not sure what the second visit was for. He gave me my mail from our mailbox though!

After a yummy lunch I did the dishes and then walked to my school. Although I might have been able to ride my bike, I really wasn’t sure and thought it might be safer not to. It probably was a good call. I made good time getting to my school and even saw a friendly beagle along the way.

At my school I dropped off my backpack, grabbed my snow shovel and did a bit of snow shovelling. I did the front steps in case my student came in that way, and I cleared off my parking space. It looked good, so I went in to thaw out!

I had a lot of time before my class so I changed my clothes and read some of the paper. I went out to check the snow situation a few minutes before the class was due to start and it was fine.

Went back into the school and the student called to say she couldn’t come. Sigh. We made a new appointment for Saturday though.

I finished reading the paper, had a cup of tea, and then called F. He came and picked me up. I opened the door to see how the weather was and he had just arrived, so that was a good thing!

We had a cheap and cheerful and cold dinner in New York, New York. That restaurant is always a bit too cold in winter and they always sit us near the window. Brr.

We got a few groceries at the store. Tomorrow night we’ll make a nabe and have that. We’re both looking forward to it I think. It won’t be much work as we just bought a store’s kit.

At home, F watched something mindless on the DVR and then I watched the new Criminal Minds - Red Cell on WOWOW. It was one of the least pleasant ones I’ve seen on that show, and since the show is all about serial killers, it’s saying a lot.

F went to bed early, and I might just get there a bit earlier than usual too. I’m a bit tired from all of the exercise I had today! Talk to you tomorrow night. Night!

December 19, 2011

2011-12-20T02:50:00.000+09:00

Monday - Warmer in the daytime, cold and windy at night.

I slept in today for the first time in a few days. I was rather surprised, but it was lovely. I got up and watched a bit of TV, nothing too exciting I think.

I had a bit of a veggie day. I sorted out F’s presents, except I seem to have misplaced one of his presents. Grr. I also bought the wrong kind of batteries for something I’m giving him. Sigh.

In the afternoon I read on Facebook and then confirmed elsewhere that Kim Jong Il from North Korea had died over the weekend. I’m not happy, but let’s just say I’m not broken up about it either. I just hope that North Korea doesn’t decide to invade their neighbours or anything.

I printed some Christmas cards and some nengajo too this afternoon and evening, then I wrote some of them too. Some of the designs in my book are amazing. I love dragons and try very hard to match the person and the picture!

I cooked dinner tonight. We had ginger pork, couscous, lettuce and broccoli, and it was all quite nice. F did the dishes and then we headed over to my school to set the heater for tomorrow. The parking space at my school hadn’t snowed over which is great…unless of course it snows overnight.

We bought a few groceries and then came home. F took his bath early so I watched CSI: Miami for the first time in ages. Time hasn’t improved it! I made a pot of tea and cut some cake for us afterwards and while I was doing that, F changed the channel on me. I protested rather vigorously as I’d told him in the car that I’d be watching a British detective show at 11:00. Men. I got a bit of the attitude, “Oh, were you going to watch something?” Yes…that’s why I was making tea bozo!

Anyway, he proceeded to fall asleep on the couch, so I watched my show and was suitably happy. He slept on, so I turned off the TV and made a video from Santa for him. Hee hee…or should I say, Ho Ho Ho?

Tomorrow I have an evening class, but as I may have to walk over to the school and shovel snow, I might leave early. I’m not sure yet. It really depends on the weather tomorrow. Wish me luck (and no more snow!) Night!

December 18, 2011

2011-12-19T03:54:00.000+09:00

Sunday - Warm and mostly clear. Snow is melting.

A good day. I woke up around 10:30 and set my alarm for 12. I didn’t really think I’d get up, but I did! I went to bed around 5 am last night. I just kept watching TV and was enjoying a Sex and the City marathon.

We had lunch today at Restaurant Futaba. It is on the way to F’s house, so he was reminded of it when he went to visit his mother this morning. He took her shopping as well. I’m glad that he does these little things for his mother since I’m not going to do them!

Lunch was great and then we went shopping. We went over to Musashi and I told F that he had to get lost for the next half hour or so. I wandered around the store and found quite a few things that I wanted to get for his Christmas present. I also found a few things that I wanted for me and my school so I got those too. We both ended up at the cash register around the same time, luckily not the same cashier though. We put our purchases in the car and then went home for a bit.

At home I checked my printer and discovered that a couple of ink cartridges were probably empty, so we went back out to the electronic store to get more ink. After that, we made a quick trip to the mall that turned into a longer trip to the mall. I hacked the hundred yen shop while F shopped in the DVD shop. I wonder what F got me….I have a feeling the initials “HP” may have something to do with it!

We had a drink in Doutors and then visited the grocery store. For the first time ever (I think) I saw a raw, whole chicken in the butcher’s shop there. F was all for buying it for me to cook, but we’d already ordered a cooked one for Christmas day, and it was freaking expensive. The raw chicken cost more than the one the store had cooked! Does that make sense? We drove off to have dinner in a Chinese restaurant. It was one of the places we tried to go last night. It was quite decent food, although we both ate too much.

We followed it with a trip to the MaxValu grocery store. I got the fixings for tomorrow’s dinner, plus had a good snoop at all the stuff there. They had whole chickens and in another first for today, whole smoked turkeys. They only wanted 5000 yen for those. I passed.

We came home after shopping and spent the evening on the couch. F had asked that we watched a dvd so we decided on Fargo. My version is from Canada so it doesn’t have Japanese subtitles, but I think F was okay. He didn’t really like the movie, but then I didn’t think he would. He doesn’t like violent or police related movies. Sadly, Fargo is one on my favourite movies! It had been so long since I had seen it that it seemed new to me. There were scenes in it that I couldn’t even remember. Strange.

And then really, that was about it. F went to bed a bit later than I thought he should, but I can’t really talk. Still, I don’t work tomorrow, so not a big deal. Tomorrow I should make some nengajo and then wrap someone’s presents. I wonder how much I’ll actually do!

Tune in tomorrow and find out! Night.

December 17, 2011

2011-12-18T04:41:00.000+09:00

Saturday - cool and snowy

A good day. I woke up this morning to a strange sound. The heater was on in the living room. I knew that I hadn’t left it on and F was no-where to be seen, so I knew that he’d been home and then left to see his doctor.

I got up, showered, did some morning things. A little after F came home we went for brunch at Gusto, then went to my school. F re-cleared my parking space for me and I did the steps and walkway. He left after that and I went into the school and got to work.

I had two classes today, one early and one late. In the time in-between I did lesson prep, snow shovelling and even newspaper reading.

After my last class I finished up, washed dishes and then called F to pick me up. He came, after a while, and we began the great “drive around Tsuruoka” for dinner! We tried to go to about 5 different places, but they were either closed for the night or permanently closed! We ended up at Moku-Moku for pasta.

We came home and F went to bed as soon as Top Gear was over. He didn’t get much sleep last night at his Bonnenkai. I on the other hand, have watched entirely too much TV tonight, but I kind of enjoy it!

No idea what’s on the agenda tomorrow, but I hope to do a little bit of Christmas shopping for F. I’m hoping that it won’t snow too much, but I think that’s a pipe dream! Anyway, I have to go to sleep. Night!

December 16, 2011

2011-12-17T02:50:00.000+09:00

Friday - Cold and SNOWY

Today was an okay day, but it was very, very white. I peeked outside just before I went to bed and the world was white. Oh no!

I woke up this morning a long time before my alarm, and I got up. I did plan to go back to bed, but never did. Silly me! After a while of being up, I sent my lunch date an email suggesting we cancel. She was supposed to drive in from the next town over and with the weather tanking like it did, I was a tad worried for her. She was going to bring her baby with her, so it really wasn’t a good idea to test the roads on the first day of big snow.

F phoned me a few minutes later and asked me to lunch, so I did get to go out for lunch after all. However, with the snow, he had to eat fast and run, so he left me at the restaurant. I finished up and then walked over to my school.

At the school I grabbed my shovels and cleaned out my parking space. Already there wasn’t anywhere to put the snow! I stopped after a while and as soon as I did, the snow started up again. Sigh. I set things up in my school and then I started the long trudge home. I did make a stop in the drugstore to grab a few things and then came home.

At home I relaxed for a while. I watched some TV and made my dinner. Yesterday I had bought the makings for a stew, so I cooked it tonight. It was good! I am quite good at making stew, at least I think so!

In the evening I watched more TV. I kept meaning to put on a dvd, but I never did. I watched The Good Wife and then ended up watching Zombieland again. I love that movie!

I’ll probably go to bed soon. It’s cold and I’ll be a little busy tomorrow. One of my classes cancelled, but another student has asked for a lesson so I will still have a couple of lessons.

F is off at his bonnenkai tonight. Hopefully he’s having a good time and will be home in time to drive me to lunch tomorrow!

That’s it for me. Have a good day and I’ll catch you all tomorrow night. Bye!

December 15, 2011

2011-12-16T02:44:00.000+09:00

Thursday - Clear in the morning, rainy on and off during the day, snow at night

A mostly good day.

I got up just after my alarm rang this morning and took my shower right away. When I came back I watched some TV and relaxed a bit. I had an early class today, so I couldn’t relax for long.

I made my omelette, ate, did dishes and then left for work. It wasn’t raining before I left, but of course it started raining as soon as I got my bike out. I didn’t put my rain cape on, but biked fairly hard to get to work quickly. I still managed to get a bit wet though.

At my school I got dressed and set up the school for my student. She came a little early and then we got started. We had an okay class, but it was a little difficult I think.

After class I did paperwork, checked my set up for next class, read a newspaper and a magazine. I had a cup of tea and relaxed. The weather was bad and it was dark, so I decided to wait for F to pick me up after work. At 17:50 I sent him a text message and asked him to call me. An hour later I hadn’t heard from him. I looked outside and the rain had died off, so decided to just go home. I got all dressed up and was walking down the walkway outside my school when I got a call from F. I asked him when he’d finished work. It was a little over half an hour beforehand. He hadn’t looked for a message from me. I told him that I was going to cycle home, and then I did so.

It was windy and a little cold on the way home, but I made it safely! At the apartment however, the door was locked and barred. I had to ring the doorbell to get him to open the door for me. Sigh. I told him off. He knew I only had one class today and when it was. When he came home and found that I wasn’t there, he should have called me, or at the least, checked his phone. I asked him what would have happened if there’d been an emergency? If it was a one-off I wouldn’t be so upset, but this pattern has happened more than once and it irritates me. He sits around the apartment with his cellphone glued to his hand, and yet he misses the text that I send to him? Something’s not right.

After a while of checking email and nursing hurt feelings, I asked if we could go out for dinner. He said yes, so that’s what we did. We went to Cafe Framboise and had a nice dinner. We didn’t talk much, but I wasn’t mad anymore. After dinner we made a quick trip to the grocery store so I could get something for my dinner tomorrow night. I think I’m going to make a stew. Hopefully it’ll be yummy!

We watched a bit of TV today, or at least I did. I enjoyed it all. F watched bits of it, but finally went to bed. I should get to bed soon.

Oh, but before I do, I wanted to mention that yesterday, I got two boxes from Canada. Yay! Santa got a bit of help from Japan Post! The poor mailman had trouble carrying both of them. For some reason, the box from my best friend and the box from my sister arrived on the same day. AND I got two Christmas cards too! One was from my sister (written by my 6 year old nephew) and one was from a friend that we saw in Australia this year. Yay!

Got to go. Night!

December 14, 2011

2011-12-15T03:11:00.000+09:00

Wednesday - warm and sunny, then rainy at night

A good day.

I got up early this morning and didn’t watch TV or rather, I did. I didn’t watch the repeat of Grey’s, I chose to watch Rebel without a Cause instead. It was on another channel. I’ve seen it before, but not for a few years. It’s so melodramatic, but it had flashes of brilliance. I’m on the fence about James Dean, but there was a certain je ne sais quois about him.

I got an invitation to go for lunch from my husband, but I turned him down. I was quite busy. I did a couple of loads of laundry today and then wrote some Christmas cards for in Japan. After that, I took the cards, plus my nephew’s birthday card and a postcard to the post office. It started to rain lightly just as I left the apartment so I hurried! I made it in time. I even picked up a few nengajo so I’ll have something to do on Friday night!

I watched the last part of Mildred Pierce that I had taped on Friday night/morning. It was good, but I was expecting more. Kate Winslet was as wonderful as always though.

F came home and after a bit I started to get dinner ready. We had a chicken nabe tonight and it was quite good. We bought everything, didn’t have to prep anything really, except I cut the tofu, does that count? It was quite delicious and then F put some udon in the leftover broth and cooked them. All in all, a nice meal.

We popped out for a few minutes in the evening. I set the heater at my school and then we bought some groceries. Not many as I couldn’t think of anything to cook! I got an avocado that wasn’t as over-ripe as the store usually has, and on sale too. Woot.

I watched Grey’s Anatomy and did a little crochet. I have now finished my latest shawl, but I have a lot of ends to darn in, then I have to try to block it. It might grow a bit! It does look very nice, but I’m not sure of the colour for me now that it’s done. It’s an orangy-peachy thing and I rarely wear that colour. Still, I’ll give it a try. I worked so long on the thing I want it to be used!

Basically, that’s it for my day. Tomorrow I have an early class so I have to work a little faster in the morning. Got to go. Night!

December 13, 2011

2011-12-14T03:01:00.000+09:00

Tuesday - Cool but sunny

A good day. I got up this morning a little early so I was quite happy with myself. I watched the repeat of Criminal Minds-Red Cell and then showered… usual stuff this morning.

I cooked myself some lunch and then headed off to work right on time. My school was fairly warm when I got there thanks to setting the heater. I had a few minutes to get ready so I did the usual things.

My student came and we had a good class. I won’t be seeing her until next year now. That’s a little sad.

In my break between classes I did my paperwork and also worked on finally cleaning off the tape gunk that F left on my window frames a couple of years ago. He was supposed to clean it, but that’ll never happen! I didn’t finish as the remover had a strong smell and I still had one more class to teach. I didn’t want to leave the window open all night.

My student came on time today. I haven’t seen her for ages. Sadly though, she wasn’t feeling well and asked if she could leave after a few minutes. Of course, she needed to take care of herself so I let her go. I was sad that she couldn’t stay, but a conversation class is no fun with a sore throat…been there, done that.

After a while I was just finishing up and thinking about calling F when he called me. I asked him to pick me up and we went off to dinner. Tonight we went to Fireball and had a lovely meal. Well, I did! F wasn’t too hungry, so he had an antipasto dish and I had chicken and eggplant pasta in a spicy Japanese sauce. It was lovely. I did share the pasta with F as he was still a little hungry.

We came home via the grocery store, and bought fixings for a nabe. Tomorrow night we’ll have a chicken nabe with a bought soup mix. I think it’ll be nice.

We had a quiet evening in and didn’t even watch TV until I put on the new episode of Criminal Mind-Red Cell. It was okay.

That’s really about all that happened today. Oh, I did get my third Christmas card today and I’m going to send out a Postcrossing tomorrow afternoon I hope. This one will go off to Germany. Woot. And…goodnight!

December 12, 2011

2011-12-13T03:25:00.000+09:00

Monday - Rainy and cold

A good day. We got up this morning and went and had breakfast in our hotel. Where were we? We had gone to Sakata to attend a Scandinavian Dinner at one of the hotels there. We were able to stay overnight in the hotel too, so F could relax and have a drink with his meal.

The dinner at The Hotel Rich and Garden was gorgeous. There was all kinds of food, including Homard in a curry sauce, some delicious soup, some lovely Yonezawa beef and the finale was a simple rice pudding. It was a little different from the rice pudding I grew up with, it was chewier. Very nice though. There was quite a bit of alcohol and I had some for a change. I really liked the Bellini, an Italian cocktail and for a change I had some red wine with the beef course. It was quite nice, although I really am not much of a drinker. The chef came over to talk to me a few times as I think he was a bit lonely or overwhelmed by all the Japanese-ness of the hall! A nice surprise was bumping into the other AFWJ lady that I know in Sakata. She was at the dinner too, so she got to meet my hubby. I couldn’t meet hers as he couldn’t come that night.

Anyway…today. Breakfast was okay in the hotel. I thought the eggs were terrible and gave up on them. I don’t like scrambled eggs that taste like sulphur. Apart from that, most things were fine. F got to have a fairly Japanese breakfast including natto so he was happy.

When we checked out, we drove over to the Yamaya to have a look at foreign food. I got a few things for Christmas and dinner over the next couple of nights. Some things looked good, but I didn’t get them.

We drove towards Tsuruoka and made a long stop in Mikawa Shopping Center. F bought me my Christmas Present and I bought him one of his, so I guess it was a good trip! We looked at movies, but the only one playing in the next while was about people getting sick and since I think I’m getting sick, decided to pass! We bought some bread on the way out. Toast for tomorrow! Yay.

We came home for a while and then went out for lunch at Cocos. It was fine, then after a brief swing by my school to set the heater, we came home again. We were both on computers until I decided to take a nap. It was a bit long and I was surprised when F woke me up wanting dinner. We ended up at a Gyudon shop. It wasn’t the nicest meal, but it was okay. I really didn’t want anything too exotic after the lovely meal last night.

We came home via the grocery store. F watched some fighting stuff, then I watched a British detective show. It was rather nice.

Tomorrow we’re both back at work. I’ve got a few things to do before I leave for the school and I won’t be able to do them unless I go to bed right NOW! Night!

December 10, 2011

2011-12-11T03:47:00.000+09:00

Saturday - Snow and then cloudy

A good day. I went to bed terribly late last night. I was watching Mildred Pierce and got caught up in it. I had to tape the last bit of it though, I needed some sleep.

This morning I overslept, but as my early class had rescheduled it wasn’t a big deal. I showered and then went back to bed for a while.

F and I had lunch in Ringo-en, a yakiniku restaurant. It was great and we had a good meal. Then, F dropped me off at my school and I got to work.

My first student didn’t come tonight, but the second one did. We had a good class and then she left. I did a bit of paperwork and setting up for next week before I called F and asked him to pick me up.

He came to get me and we went to Coco Ichiban for dinner. We both had the same basic thing, with different add-ons or spiciness. It was very nice.

We came home and I packed my suitcase for tomorrow. I had to check my outfit and the worst part was to try to find shoes. Egads. My shoes have almost fallen apart due to the horrid climate. I think I’ll ask hubs if we can go and look for shoes for me for tomorrow. Not looking forward to that.

Tonight was my big TV night and I did watch a lot. I also taped a lot as I couldn’t watch everything all at once. I’ll have to watch some of it next week.

Well, that’s it for me. Tomorrow night we’ll be in Sakata at a fancy dinner, so please wish us luck. We’ll be back on Monday, so I’ll update you on Monday night. Bye for now!

December 9, 2011

2011-12-10T03:57:00.001+09:00

Friday - Rainy with snowy flurries.

A good day.

I got up this morning, but I was tired. After doing my computer stuff and some other things, I went back to bed for a while. I didn’t sleep all that long, but felt better afterward.

I got up and showered and got on with my day. I went out to the post office and mailed my postcards, then came back home and did some vacuuming. Yay me.

F came home a little after 5 pm and then we went to the post office. With a big box. We took the presents that we’re sending to Canada to the main post office. We had to buy one box for my friend’s presents, and then stuffed my sister’s one with some newspaper as the box wasn’t full. It took ages, but I was organised and listed the contents off while I was off to the side so it wasn’t too bad for other people.

After we did all that, F took me out for dinner. We had thought to go to the Grand El Son, but their parking lot was completely full. Instead, we ended up at Tsubaki, a Japanese “course” meal restaurant. We had a lovely meal and we both enjoyed it.

We drove over to my school to set the heater and as we did so, my cellphone received a message from my Saturday student. She couldn’t come at her regular time, could we reschedule? Okay, not a problem.

We came home and had a nice evening in. F and I watched a vampire movie called Daybreakers until it was time for The Good Wife. I was taping the movie and didn’t want to change the station, but I can’t tape The Good Wife and watch the movie, so…. After my show, back to the movie. It was really a neat little movie. I liked how it worked. It wasn’t a great film, but much better than I thought it would be.

And that’s about it. I’m now watching too much of Mildred Pierce. I love Kate Winslet of course, but I should get myself off to bed soon. Night!

December 8, 2011

2011-12-09T02:46:00.000+09:00

Thursday - rainy…with some wet snow.

I had a good day today. It was mostly quiet, but that’s okay. I need a little peace and quiet now and then.

I stayed home and wrapped presents for most of the day. It was crazy. Still, I think I got them all. At least the ones that I had already bought. Fingers crossed. The box that F bought for me yesterday to mail them all in is almost full, but the box is a bit too big. Still, he kept asking me on the phone what size to buy…how was I supposed to know?

While I wrapped presents I watched my usual Thursday telly and then put on Machete. I had taped it last night, so I watched it today. It was bad, but one of those films that was highly watchable. There were a lot of famous and infamous people in the cast, it was rather unbelievable. It had people like Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, Don Johnson, Steven Seagal and even Robert DeNiro. I would never have thought all those people would be in the same film. Very violent though.

F came home a little late today, but not too bad. We had each received postcards today, although his was just a blank card in an envelope. He was really disappointed not to have any sort of personalised note from the sender. I’ve been there, I get what he means.

I prepped dinner tonight which was a nabe. We bought a kit last night at the grocery store. It was good, but I was starving before dinner and was still very hungry after dinner. We went to the grocery store and bought more food. It usually isn’t me that gets that hungry, but I really needed more tonight.

In the evening I watched Drop Dead Diva, and then Episodes. The show and even Matt LeBlanc have really grown on me. He was always my least favourite Friend, but he’s quite funny here. He sends up his persona rather well.

And that’s about it. Tomorrow we are forecast to have snow, and I’m hoping that F will come home early enough to help me mail my boxes to Canada. Of course, they won’t be able to go the cheap way, but they will go at least! I hope EMS can get them to Canada before Christmas. Fingers crossed.

Got to go. Night!

Postcrossing Cards - Incoming

2011-12-08T18:17:00.000+09:00

December 2011

Just got another card today and realised that it was time to update all my readers on the lovely cards I have been receiving.

The first one of this group comes from Russia. It is a lovely bright design.
The sender writes that she has just seen Eat, Pray, Love and enjoyed it. I haven't seen it yet.

I got my first Christmas themed postcard recently too. It's a beautiful painting by Beate Heinen called Geburt Christi (Birth of Christ). I didn't even realise that it was a nativity scene at first! This card was sent from The Netherlands.

This beautiful snowy scene travelled all the way from Finland to my mailbox. Forma wrote that it was a typical countryside view. I thought it looked a lot like Canada in the snow. Could be a scene from the family farm, except of course it isn't!

I'm very happy after the cold looking (but beautiful) postcard above, to receive one from somewhere warm. This beauty shows Johannesburg South Africa. I have actually been in Johannesburg, but I was too young at the time to remember much about it. We were only there to go to the airport anyway.

Ruan writes that his favourite movies are Avatar, Empire of the Sun and Amelie. I have two of those and have seen the other. Yay!

I just received this lovely card from Minsk today. It shows a view of the Upper Town. I liked that it looked like a small town in Canada, or even parts of my own Tsuruoka.

Today was all rainy and cold here, so this scene made me feel a little bit warmer!

Until next update!

December 7, 2011

2011-12-08T02:59:00.001+09:00

Wednesday - Sunny and cool, rainy at night

A good day.

I slept quite well last night, and even slept in a bit. I was letting my alarms ring a bit when I heard the front door open and hubby came home. Sigh. It was nice to see him, but…I got up and put on Grey’s Anatomy. He had done a drop-off nearby and had to wait until the person was finished before he could go back to his office. So, we watched the entire episode of Grey’s, and then someone put on Kickboxing. So, not only was he not working, he was watching Ultimate Fighting. Hmmm! He did leave soon after and I was greatly relieved!

I did my computer stuff and then F called me to say he was on his way. We had decided to have lunch together today. He took me to his ramen shop again. The non-ramen food is okay, but I’m not a big fan of Chinese food in Japan. I miss Canadian style Chinese food. (I realise that it has NOTHING to do with China, I just like it!)

I came home with him and then got started on wrapping presents. I got a lot done. I wrapped my best friend’s stuff and also most of my nephew’s and all of my BIL’s so that was good. However, I have lots left to do.

F came home a bit after 6. That was a disappointment as we had talked about going to a movie if he came home early enough. We probably still could have gone, but we needed to eat dinner first. Instead we had dinner in Tsuruoka.

After dinner, we went grocery shopping, not to our usual place, but it was okay. Then, we came home. We watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One on TV and then turned over for the rest of Grey’s Anatomy.
After it was on, I cleverly grabbed the remote while F was in another room and ended up watching a film on the people who hosted Woodstock. It was kind of cool in a way. Imelda Staunton played the main character’s mother and she was completely different than she was in Harry Potter. She didn’t even look the same! A quick IMDb check tells me it was called Taking Woodstock. Interesting if the era appeals to you.

F went to bed after his bath and I will probably go soon. I have to get up and wrap even more presents tomorrow! I like wrapping presents, I really do, but it is hard to do when F is around. That’s it for me. Tomorrow, I need to get the presents done. Wish me luck! Night.

December 6, 2011

2011-12-07T02:24:00.000+09:00

Tuesday - Clear and sunny. Warmish

A good day. I got up this morning rather grudgingly. I didn’t sleep that well last night so needed more sleep. I got up, watched Criminal Minds Red Cell and then showered. I did some of my computer stuff and then I took a long nap on the couch. Yup. It was supposed to be for 15 minutes, but segue-wayed into 50 minutes. I needed it though.

I had a nice lunch before leaving for my school. I went into a drugstore on the way to school as well. My first student came 5 minutes early and her lesson just seemed to fly by. I was going to bring out another reading for her, but looked at the clock and our time was up! Wow.

I did a mini clean-up and waited for the next student. She had to cancel again and her life is very busy at the moment so we’ll have to see about her next class too. It may be cancelled.

After doing paperwork and some craft work in the school, I called F. He picked me up and we went to Cocos for dinner. We each had hamburger steaks. Mine was more expensive and in a foil wrapping, his was cheaper and he was supposed to cook it himself! They were okay, not anything to write home about.

We got a few groceries on the way home. I had planned to get more, but F suggested having a date night both for lunch tomorrow afternoon and then to go to a movie tomorrow night if he finishes work early enough. I was surprised, but am quite happy to get out of cooking if I can!

We had a quiet evening at home. I watch Criminal Minds Red Cell…a new episode, and F took his bath and then went to bed early.

Tomorrow I hope to work on Christmas wrapping. I have so much to do, and so little time to do it in. I must get everything wrapped this week so I can send things off. Wish me luck! Night.

December 5, 2011

2011-12-06T02:50:00.000+09:00

Monday - Rainy, with a few flurries of the white stuff

An okay day. I woke up at a decent time and then went back to sleep anyway. I got up in time to watch Rizzoli and Isles.

I had a quiet morning and afternoon. I had planned to go out, but didn’t. I took a shower and then found Jurassic Park on the telly so had to watch that. I did get a little bit of wrapping done, but honestly, it was just a little bit. Sigh. I must do a power wrap on Wednesday I think.

When F phoned to tell me he was on his way home I told him to take his time. Jason and I were having a “thing”. Yes, Transporter was on TV and I was enjoying it a little too much! Luckily, F has a great sense of humour and told me he’d be off with Angelina Jolie for a while. He came home and after a while I started to work on dinner.

Tonight I did garlic pork saute, plus some pasta/haksai/bacon thing I whipped up. We had that with some salad as well. It was all rather nice.

F had received 3 postcards today, so he spent some time photographing the cards before he registered them. After a bit of trial and error, things seemed to work out okay. He did the dishes and then we went out.

I took some things over to my school and set the heater for tomorrow afternoon, then F invited me out on a date. Woohoo! I guess all the talk of Jason baby had made him jealous! We went to Mister Donut for some tea and doughnuts. It was rather nice to be out again.

He wanted to go to the grocery store, but I wanted to go home, so he dropped me off and went. I turned on the heater and got changed into my PJs. I watched the evening version of Rizzoli and Isles with hubby and we had some of the nice things he brought home.

That was that. F went to bed and I should really try to get there soon. I’m trying to get to bed a littler earlier these days. Not succeeding, but trying! Night.

December 4, 2011

2011-12-05T03:04:00.000+09:00

Sunday - Cold and rainy…bit of hail

A good day.

I woke up this morning to an empty apartment. I was rather surprised as usually F wakes up at his regular time and veges on the chesterfield for a while. I thought that he might have visited his mother or gone shopping, I wasn’t sure. I went back to bed and about 10 minutes later saw him come back in. He was laughing and said that he went to work. I didn’t believe him, but it seems that when he woke up, he thought it was Monday. He knew he had to start work early on Monday so he got up and went to his office. When he got there, no-one else was there. He was going to call the security guard to let him in, when he decided to check his cell phone to see what day it was!

My husband is that crazy.

I slept in rather later than I meant to. I had set a couple of alarms for myself and then wilfully slept through them.

When I got up and finished on my computer we went out for lunch. F wanted sushi today, so we went to Kintaro Sushi. It wasn’t terribly busy, but there were lots of people coming in all the time. Their sushi is nicer than the new chain in town, so we had a yummy lunch.

After lunch, I suggested going to S-Mall, so we did. We picked up some things at the hundred yen shop (F got new cord for his old pyjama bottoms and I got some envelopes and mini gift things.) I also found some presents for the hard to buy for people in my circle. In the mall in general, not in the hundred yen shop.

When we left that mall, F suggested a movie and I said that I wasn’t sure there was a good one right now. We drove out to Mikawa Mall and checked out the movies. They would both start fairly late in the evening, so we passed on the films. I did pick up a few things for the youngest person on my list, so fingers crossed, I’m about done my shopping. I still have to get F something, but he’s not that fussed about Christmas really. It’s my celebration, not his.

We came home for a bit, then went out again to have dinner at Grado. We both had pasta and enjoyed it a lot. Then, we bought a few groceries. I’m going to make dinner tomorrow night, but I think something is missing.

We watched Knowing on the telly tonight, it was on regular TV, then F watched something that wasn’t that bad for a while. I prepped a card to send out. Tonight’s one is going to Poland.

And that’s it for my day. Despite the cold and rainy weather, it was a nice day with my husband. Tomorrow I’m alone again. Got to go. Night!

December 3, 2011

2011-12-04T03:18:00.000+09:00

Saturday - Rainy and cool

A good day. I got up this morning almost right away and took a shower. Yay me.

F came home from the doctor and we vegged while watching and old Arnie movie. We were watching to much and almost missed the time to leave!

After a decent brunch in Gusto, F dropped me off at my school and I got busy. Thankfully I had set the heater the night before as it was a little cold in the school.

My student came on time and she told me that she’d just passed the Eiken 3rd grade exam. Woot! I’m not a big fan of exams, but it meant a lot to her and her mother. She’s only 12 so she’s doing really well!

After her class I did a lot of different things. I read newspapers, did filing, did dishwashing and paperwork. Not at the same time!

When F picked me up we went shopping to Musashi, the hardware store. I got one thing for a friend’s Christmas, but the rest was for me!

When we finished we went to a Taiyaki shop. F had gone there a couple of days ago and tried one, so he wanted to take me there tonight. We got a couple of kinds and then came home. We ate the taiyaki on the couch. We had German potato and a weird Japanese one of anko and mochi. It wasn’t that bad!

We had dinner tonight at a yakiniku restaurant. It was a new one in an old place. I quite enjoyed our dinner, particularly since they had a salad bar. That was a nice touch.

We came home after dinner, watched a little TV and chilled out. F is snoozing on the couch and I’m here blogging.

Tomorrow I’m not really sure what we’ll do. The weather has been bad today, so I don’t know if we’ll go far or not. I have to get some last minute Christmas things bought and then the wrapping should begin. Wish me luck eh! Night!

December 2, 2011

2011-12-03T01:40:00.000+09:00

Friday - Cool, but gloriously sunny

A good day.

I got up this morning, did my computer stuff and watched a bit of TV. I watched last week’s The Cape…I understand why it got cancelled, yet I like parts of it. After it was over I found the end bit of Separate Tables and watched that again. One day I hope to see the entire movie from the beginning.

It was after noon and I was still in my PJs so I decided to start on my work. I was just planning to get dressed when F called and asked if I’d like to have lunch. Of course, so I got dressed quickly and when he arrived, we went to the local Chinese restaurant that he likes. Today I had chicken with salad and it was very nice. F had ramen and shrimp in chili sauce. I was very happy with my dish. He brought me home afterwards and then I did the final push with my Christmas Cards. 3 pm was approaching so I finished them, stamped them all with my address, grabbed my post office account book and the info for my payment and headed off to the post office.

When I got to the post office I saw a very interesting sight. There were Yamabushi coming down the street. One of them even had a horn that he was blowing on. Not a thing you see everyday, even in Tsuruoka.

I got the slip to fill out and then went to the machine to make the transfer. I took out just enough to do the transfer, but not the service fee. I figured I’d pay that out of my wallet. Which I couldn’t find. I searched my handbag, my backpack, but it wasn’t there. Yikes. I borrowed money from my school’s wallet (since repaid, btw), made my payment and then headed back home to look for my wallet. My Alien Registration Card is in my wallet, so I was breaking the law by not having it.

I got home, searched the couch, the bedroom, even the bathroom but nothing. Then, I remembered I’d put my wallet in the front pocket of my backpack. I swore at myself rather loudly. I was quite put out. I decided to write out a postcrossing card to cheer myself up. I sent the person a postcard with a picture of a Yamabushi on it, so I hope he likes it!

I went back to the post office, got my Christmas Cards sent (Yay!!!) and came home again.

When F came home tonight, I got dinner ready. Tonight was a pork stirfry. I did what I always do. I bought a back of prepared veggies and then added a few things to it. Except of course I added so many veggies that I didn’t really need the prepared veggies at all!

We had dinner with some canned tea and the leftover couscous. It was quite nice. F did the dishes after his volleyball game was finished.

We went out around 9pm. First we drove to my school to set the heater for tomorrow, then we went to Mister Donut for a doughnut and some tea or cafe au lait. I saw a Canadian guy there and as we were leaving I said hello. I don’t usually, but I’m trying not to be one of “those gaijin” who ignore other foreigners. Anyway we chatted for a couple of minutes before F and I left.

We came home and I watched The Good Wife while F wrote a postcrossing card. It’s fun watching him write. He works so hard on what he says. I can’t imagine writing a card that wasn’t in my own language, but he does a good job. I’m trying to get him away from the “ I am F. I am married. My wife is Canadian.” kind of thing, and more into a friendly casual style. He’s a diligent student!
And that’s about it for my day. I have a class in the early part of the afternoon, then I’m done for the week. Woot. Not sure what we’ll do with ourselves tomorrow night. Come back and find out! Night.

December 1, 2011

2011-12-02T02:48:00.000+09:00

Thursday - Cold, windy, with a few flakes of snow.

Brr. I think this winter thing might have arrived finally. Darn!

Today was a good day! I got up at a reasonable time and then watched Drop Dead Diva. After that, I showered and spent a bit of time on my computer. I finally got ready for work and cooked my lunch. I left for work right at 1 pm.

I got to my school fairly quickly and then started getting things ready. I hadn’t set my heater last night so it was quite cold in there. I warmed up the classroom and set up the water, that kind of thing. Just before class I was washing my hands when a big bubble in the water pipes hit the faucet. I was covered in water with about 3 minutes before my student was due to arrive. Yikes. I quickly grabbed a new shirt and put it on. Safe!

We had a good class and then it was time for her to leave.

I decided to go out for a few minutes to the drugstore, so I hopped on my bike and did that. I didn’t take very long, but I got some supplies for myself. Yay.

I spent the next few hours doing paperwork, reading newspapers and then decorating my school. It looks a little more Christmassy now. And, I changed the display of my postcards a bit too. This way is a little more easy to see them. I do have a few still to put up as F came to pick me up before I was finished. Still I think they look good.

We had dinner at the Japanese soba/sushi place that he likes and I don’t mind. I had a salmon-ikura donburi that was quite good.

After dinner we came home via another drugstore for different stuff, then the grocery store for some food for tomorrow.

At home, we ended up watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, or the end of it. It was great. I really need to re-read the books again soon!

I watched the tail end of Drop Dead Diva, then Episodes. This was the third episode and I thought it was really funny. It’s not a show for everybody, and I can see why a lot of people didn’t like it (on IMDb). It’s a satiric look at American TV done by British people.

I followed all of that up with a bit of ER. Two episodes worth, so I have TV’d myself out for a while. Until I wake up anyway!

That’s it for me now. I should get to bed. I have a busy day tomorrow. I must mail my Christmas cards and I really should do a post office transfer if I can. Sigh. There’s a few other things I need to do too. Wish me luck! Night.

November 30, 2011

2011-12-01T02:33:00.000+09:00

Wednesday - rainy and colder

An okay day. I had a hard time getting up this morning as it was very dark. I can often wake up easier if the day is sunny, but it was dark in the morning because of the rain. I managed to get up and watched some of Grey’s Anatomy. I also caught Crocodile Dundee 2 today, or the last half of it, plus I watched a lot of TV from the weekend that I had taped. Yay for me.

In the afternoon I wrote up a postcard and I was going to mail it, but it was pouring outside so I didn’t. I just stayed home. However, I did get stuck into my Christmas Card writing and I wrote seven cards tonight. Yay me.

I did laundry today too, so I was quite busy. I did 3 loads and it is all hung up to dry.

F came home a little late tonight and was chatty for a change. That normally would be great, but I was trying to finish writing letters to go in the cards and it was distracting. He was also hungry so I had to stop and cook dinner for us. I needed dinner too, so I’m not sure why I was upset. I wasn’t really, just felt a bit stressed out, that’s all.

I cooked dinner and made double the couscous tonight. I want to have some for my lunch tomorrow. I really like that stuff! We had basil chicken, salad and couscous, plus a couple of small tomatoes.

F did dishes and I got back into my card writing. He had put on some horrible Japanese TV and finally around 9 I had enough and found that Harry Potter was on another station. We put that on instead and we were BOTH happy. Yay! Missed the first few minutes of Grey’s tonight, but no biggie. HP vs. McDreamy…I know who I would pick every time!

And that’s about it. I had a quiet day. Tomorrow I have an early lesson at the school and then I plan to decorate for Christmas. I hope my students won’t be too shocked when I leave the tree up after Christmas for a few days! Got to go. Night!

Postcrossing Cards - Incoming

2011-11-30T12:26:00.000+09:00

November Wrap-Up

Beware what you wish for! Last time I said "hopefully I'll have more cards next week." I did! In fact, I have rather a lot of cards to post about now. I've received five cards since I last posted.

The first card, for the movie Madagascar comes from the Netherlands. I like that it is an old fashioned looking card. It looks rather like a vintage postcard for a holiday resort. I haven't seen the movie, but the card makes me want to see it now!

Working clockwise from the top, the next card is also for a film. It is a poster by Alfons Mucha and came to me from the Czech Republic. I knew that Mucha did advertising posters, I just didn't realise that he did film posters too.

The top right card came from Shanghai and shows The Bund in 1912. I love old photos of places, and this shows a famous area of Shanghai. The writer tells me that nowadays there are only tall buildings in this area.

Bottom right is a view of Vaasa, the sunniest city in Finland. The sender is a mother of three who works as a quality engineer and studies Italian on Monday evenings. A woman after my own heart, she writes that she lives in a big messy house!

The last postcard, bottom left, is from the US and shows a fort in Florida. Fort Matanzas is in St. Augustine and was to watch for enemy vessels approaching from the south and via the River. The sender of the card drives a ferry boat to the island where the fort is located.

So there you have it. Another five great cards. What will December bring? Can't wait to find out!

November 29, 2011

2011-11-30T02:27:00.000+09:00

Tuesday - Warm and sunny

A busy day.

I didn’t want to get up today, but I did. I was very late getting to bed last night. As usual.

I checked email this morning. It was a bit difficult as my mouse has stopped working. I changed the batteries, so I’m not sure what is happening. I can move the cursor around, but I can’t click on anything. I’ve probably done something dumb but can’t get it to work. I’m stuck with the trackpad and clicker now. Oh well. It does work, just have to adjust to it.

I watched Crocodile Dundee this morning. What a blast from the past! When I was living in the times that film was made, I didn’t realise how sexist/homophobic it was. Still have to say that parts of the film made me laugh out loud.

I left for work just before 2 and made good time. My classroom was too hot as I’d set the heater on high yesterday and it wasn’t that cold today. Oh dear! Still, I got the place cooled down a bit as I got ready for my class.

Had a good day today. I had a new student start as my second class and things went quite well. We’re still looking into textbooks for her, so hopefully we’ll find something we can both live with soon. My third student cancelled again, so I used her time to catch up on my newspapers.

I called F at 8 and asked him to pick me up. We had dinner at Cocos and it was nice. We both felt like we ate too much afterwards though.

We bought groceries for dinner tomorrow night and then came home. I watched Criminal Minds, the other one tonight and it was a bit scary but good. I like some of the elements of the show, but I really miss the original Criminal Minds.

I also watched a concert/video show of Eurythmics which was cool. I still love Annie Lennox. She is so cool!

Anyway, that’s about it for me for tonight. I’m a bit tired so I might get to bed early for a change. Or not! Night.

November 28, 2011

2011-11-29T03:19:00.000+09:00

Monday - Cloudy and grey.

An okay day.

I went to bed rather early last night. I was in bed around 1:30 and slept quite well. This morning I first woke up around 6:30 and was surprised it was so late. Usually I wake up earlier than that. I did get up around 10:30 for a while, then went back to bed. F did something similar. He wasn’t talking to me, I wasn’t talking to him.

Suddenly, around 2:30 or so, he asked me if I’d like to go for something to eat. It was out of the blue, since we hadn’t spoken in days. I accepted his offer, and things got decidedly nicer over the course of the day.

We had a nice lunch at Jiro, then F went to see a doctor. He’s had a headache since Saturday. I could have told him that it was tension related, but he wouldn’t really believe me. Anyway, off he went to get some medicine that wouldn’t work against all the other medicine that he takes.

I stayed home, watched a bit of telly. Just for Laughs was on, a Canadian gag show and it was pretty darn funny. It doesn’t have any spoken dialogue, so the show works for Japan. It was rather nice to see colourful Canadian money on TV instead of US money. F came home in the middle of it and he was soon laughing at it too.

We had a relaxing evening. Superman 2 was on, so I watched that (Kneel before Zod!) I miss Christopher Reeve. He was a much better actor than people give him credit for.

We had dinner at New York New York because we needed to go somewhere cheap! F had forgotten to get money out and I needed a few groceries afterwards. We had a nice dinner there, got our groceries and came home.

F wanted to watch one of the new movies that I got him for his birthday, so we did. It was Fly Away Home and I’m happy to say that he liked it…as did I. I’d seen it before, but not for ages. It is really a good movie about a family coming together after a tragedy.

And that was that. It was a much nicer day today than I’ve had for the last couple, so I’ll just leave it at that and get myself to bed. I have a busy day tomorrow. I have to go. Night!

November 27, 2011

2011-11-28T01:18:00.002+09:00

Sunday - Clear…I think. I didn’t go out until late.

Another quiet day.

When I got up someone couldn’t be bothered to talk to me, so, childish though it is, I couldn’t be bothered to talk to him. We haven’t said one word to each other all day.

I got up, checked the computer. Did a few things, but then as he was in the bedroom, I sat on the couch and read some of my book. I napped too.

When it became apparent that he wasn’t going to speak to me, I had a bit of a snack in the kitchen. There isn’t much food in the house, so I was still hungry afterwards.

I went out for dinner to a restaurant fairly nearby. I took my book, and after my meal went to McDonald for an ice cream and more reading. I was really surprised how much I got read today.

I came home around 9:30. Same thing. No talking.

I finished my book. Lovely book. Careless in Red by Elizabeth George. It is one of her Inspector Lynley and Barbara Havers novels, except they aren’t the ones in charge this time. It’s quite good. I had a sneaking suspicion who the murderer was and I was right. I wasn’t sure, but suspected the person!

Anyway, I have one more day of this nonsense before we both go back to work. I just hope that I can survive! Night.

November 26, 2011

2011-11-27T01:31:00.002+09:00

Saturday - Sunny and warm. Lovely looking day!

Bad day.

Got up this morning to my alarms blaring away and my husband vacuuming the fan in the toilet room. The fan developed a scary noise last night and he decided to “fix” it. I asked him to get out of the toilet so I could use it and he threw a snit fit that has lasted the entire day. He retired back to his bed, while I took my shower.

I came out of the shower and watched a bit of TV. I relaxed and wondered if someone would smarten up. Well, unfortunately not, as he wasn’t there. He’d done a runner again while I was in the shower. I just didn’t notice.

He came back around 12, not talking to me and made himself some ramen. Lovely. I wanted to leave for lunch around 1. Anyway, I left at 1:00. I hadn’t been spoken to for the last hour and decided that I had to put myself first and get to work under my own power. I heard the apartment door open while I was getting my bike out and then as I was riding down the street I saw our car drive by me.

I went to the grocery store, picked up a bit of food and then headed over to my school. At my school I ate and got a lot of things done. I read the newspapers and prepped for my lessons. I got a call from my first student and she had to cancel. It was a good reason, but I was sorry that I wasn’t able to see her today.

My other student of the day came right on time and we had a good lesson. We learned about things in a shopping mall today. I had to explain that “fast food restaurant” is different from “hamburger shop”. I think she got it.

After my class, I did my paperwork, had a cup of tea and prepped for a class next week. Following that, there was nothing to it but to go home. I put on all the reflective gear I had and went home.

The door was barred.

I wasn’t talked to all night.

He took himself out for dinner after an hour or so.

I ate a tin of sardines and some crackers. He came home and sat on the couch until I was finished in the kitchen. He put on some crap Japanese programme which I interrupted around 11:00 pm to set up the VCR to tape my shows. I went to the washroom and he disappeared again.

So, it’s a little after 1pm, I have a screaming headache, my arm hurts and I have a big rash on it where I got the shot yesterday, so really not doing well here. In fact, I think I want to go to bed as soon as I can. Night.

November 25, 2011

2011-11-26T02:52:00.000+09:00

Friday - Rainy, cold, with snow (that didn't stay)

Busy day!

This morning I got up around 9 am and got dressed. F was a bit impatient with me after a while, but he didn’t talk to me in the morning, try to wake me up or anything. He was just Mr. Cranky-pants. Why? He’d made an appointment for us to go to the doctor for a flu shot. He’s the person that tried to make the appointment for 9:00 am! As if! I’m in bed at that time and he knows it. I suggested 10 am and we were out the door at 9:52…arriving at the clinic a scant 15 minutes later. He was so upset, but no one at the clinic was. We got our shots and had to wait 30 minutes to see if we’d have any reaction. We didn’t. Yay.

We drove out to Sakata then, and had lunch at a Kappa-sushi. It was quite good, the restaurant wasn’t very crowded.

After lunch, we headed for the port area and I went to the Immigration Office. I made F stay in the car. All I wanted was a Re-Entry Permit and I thought that I could handle it myself. When F comes, we end up fighting, so I’d rather do it myself. It was a good call. The man in the office was younger and quite nice. He also knew a bit of English, so we got on rather well. Yay. I was out in about 10 minutes I think.

Since we didn’t have any plans for the afternoon we decided to do a little tourism in Sakata! We went to the famous Sankyo Soko warehouses. They are old rice warehouses. It was quite interesting actually. I enjoyed some of the craft work and also some of the tools they showed that were involved in rice-growing.

We came home via the mall for a drink and a little shopping.

In a couple of hours we went out for dinner to Aki, the local okonomiyaki place. We had rather a nice dinner there. It took a while, but we had a good meal. When we finished we went to my school to set the heater and then we came home.

We had a quiet night in basically. I watched The Good Wife and enjoyed it. It is quite a neat show really. Usually the more labyrinthine a plot gets, the less I like it, but this one is still working on me.

Anyway, that’s about it for me. We had a good day, even though it didn’t start all that well. Tomorrow I have a couple of classes in the late afternoon. I hope that they go well. I’ll report in tomorrow night too. Night!

November 24, 2011

2011-11-25T04:28:00.000+09:00

Thursday - rainy and cold

A good day today. I got up this morning and after my shower I watched a little Project Runway. F was here, sitting up in the dark and cold. I have no idea why he doesn’t turn on the light or the heater…

After a nice lunch at Capri, F dropped me off at my school and I got busy. My student came on time and we had quite a good lesson. After class I cleaned up, and ran an errand! I came back to my school and read some of the newspapers that had piled up when I was away.

F came to pick me up and we tried to make a plan for the evening. I finally suggested a movie with dinner at the theatre’s restaurant. He thought it was fine. We came home to do a little bit of work for my school and then we went back to the theatre.
We had dinner and it was okay, then went to see Moneyball. I really liked it. Of course I’m a fan of both Brad Pitt and Aaron Sorkin (star and writer, respectively) so I was quite sure I’d like it.

We came home via the grocery store for a few munchies for F. We had a quiet evening in. I watched Drop Dead Diva and then a British comedy which I thought was very funny. I rounded out the evening with a couple of episodes of ER. Yay!

So… about the trip. The first day we just drove to Niigata and checked into our hotel. We did a little shopping and then had dinner in an izakaya. The whole thing was okay, except neither of us slept that well.

We got up for the hotel’s free breakfast (rice balls and potato salad if you can believe it) then checked out and after a bit more shopping for F we started on the road to Kanazawa. We were on the highway but had to get off. Apparently there was bad weather and they closed part of the highway. Where we were off the highway was bad too. We saw a bit of slush that turned into an icy snow type thing by the road. Yuck. Finally, we made it to our destination and checked into the hotel. The desk clerk ticked me off though, he asked for my passport. If he’d even glanced at my reservation form, he’d have seen that I have an address in Japan and I don’t need to show it. I didn’t have it with me anyway so I refused! Ha!

The hotel was very swank. Our room was small, but very comfortable. We set down our bags and then went out to find something for dinner. And that’s when it went wrong for a little. F of course wanted ramen for dinner and I didn’t. I would have been okay with a restaurant that served ramen as long as it had something for me. Breakfast was all carbs, lunch was (bad) soba and greasy tempura so I wanted a decent dinner. He whined and complained and basically acted like an idiot. We agreed to go and have a snack at a sandwich place, but after I ate my all vegetarian sandwich I started to feel quite sick. I felt feverish and finally told F that I’d go back to the hotel, give him my key and he could go and get what he’d like. I just wanted to go to bed. I bought a sandwich and some tea at a convenience store and then we went back to the hotel. I was in bed by 7:30 pm and I stayed there.

F came back around 9:30 after having his damned ramen and he went to bed too! I ended up waking up around midnight and having my sandwiches (which had protein—tuna, egg and maybe ham?), some tea and then went back to bed.

In the morning I felt much better. Hurray. We were both in good moods as we’d both slept well. We went for breakfast (included in our room charge) and ate very well.

We headed out for a bit of sightseeing. We had a bit of a problem with the bus we planned to take (it didn’t run during the week), but we visited a few places. We saw a Cultural Exchange Hall and saw some art, then walked over and saw the 21st Century Art Museum. That one was quite cool. There were a lot of interesting exhibits, including some that it was okay to photograph! I’ve never seen that before at a museum.

We walked over to the Kenrokuen Gardens and had a good wander around. They were lovely. It was a good time of year to go. It was so busy that you couldn’t see anything and it was still warm enough to walk around without a heavy jacket. We had our picture taken and also went into a historic house in the park. That was quite cool.

When the park closed, we left. I was going to suggest going for dinner near the park, but F paid for a taxi back to the hotel. He also suggested going to the Teppanyaki room on the 19th floor. Wow. He phoned and made a reservation for us. We were hungry as we hadn’t eaten since breakfast so went out and had a little keiten sushi first. Just a little.

Dinner was amazing. It was beautifully cooked in front of us and equally beautifully presented too. And it was so good! It was supposed to be F’s birthday dinner, but he paid for it. Expensive, but very nice.

We waddled back to our room and had a relaxing evening.

On the last day, we breakfasted and then I gave F his present. He got an Anne Murray Cd set and a double pack of movies. I gave him Fly Away Home and The Waterhorse. He likes movies about kids.

We visited a Stained Glass Museum on our way out of town. Except, it wasn’t really a museum in my opinion. It was a church! The cool thing for me was it had a trio of windows by William Morris. I’d read a book of his in University so I was quite thrilled. My theological knowledge was put to the test with some of the windows and was found sadly lacking.

After a trip to the mall for some souvenirs and lunch, we got on the road and headed for home. The rest you know!

And finally, I am going to go to bed. Night!

November 23, 2011

2011-11-24T04:01:00.000+09:00

Wednesday - Sunny and clear all the way up Japan, rainy in Tsuruoka

We’re back! We got back around 8:30 pm tonight. F drove all the way up a little fast, but we made it. We had a great trip, saw a lot of things and really enjoyed ourselves in Kanazawa.

We got back tonight and I took F out for dinner to celebrate his birthday. Earlier in the day I had given him a DVD set and an Anne Murray cd set. We listened to it in the car and it was good.

I’m a little overwhelmed with emails and things to do since I’ve come back. I don’t really have time for a proper update, so I just wrote this and I’ll put in a few pictures. I must get some sleep. I have to work tomorrow. Night!

Night Scene in Niigata

2011-11-21T01:45:00.001+09:00

Christmas decorations in Niigata. Not bad for a bunch of pop bottles!

November 19, 2011

2011-11-20T02:05:00.002+09:00

Saturday - Rainy and cloudy all day

Today was a good day. I got up at a decent time, showered and then F came home. After a bit we went for dinner to the Daiichi Hotel. It was very nice. We both had lamb and enjoyed it, although there wasn’t very much of it.

After dinner, F dropped me off at my school and I got busy. I did a bit of cleaning and then took time off to read today’s paper.

My student came and we had a good lesson, for as long as it lasted! She left early as she had a function to attend after my lesson.

I got ready for my next appointment. I had a meeting with a potential student today. She is thinking about several options, but things went well.

I did a clean up after the meeting and then called F to pick me up. He did and we went to New York, New York for a quick and nice dinner. We both had the same kind of chicken and then different side dishes.

We came home and I have been subjecting F to my TV! He’s had Top Gear and then Project Runway forced on him. He does like Top Gear so that wasn’t so bad.

Anyway, that’s it for me. Tomorrow we’re on the road, and we’ll be back on Wednesday if all goes well. I’ll update you then. Night!

November 18, 2011

2011-11-19T03:22:00.000+09:00

Friday - Sunny and clear. Gorgeous day!

I got up on time this morning, no problems really. I watched The Cape. Just don’t know about that show. I know it was cancelled and I think it deserved to be. It wasn’t that great.

I showered early and was dressed and back at my computer ready to watch the 12 something news programme when I heard the door lock go. F had come home to pick up his phone charger. He couldn’t call because his phone wasn’t charged up! He picked it up and then offered to take me out for lunch. I was surprised and happy, and even said yes.

We went to a Chinese restaurant fairly close to our apartment. F had ramen (of course) and I had fried rice in a stone bowl. It was good, if a little bit greasy. I didn’t think F had time to drive me home after so I offered to walk, but I got a ride home too. Yay.

I went home, watched Big Wednesday and then went to the post office. Big Wednesday was a famous surfing movie. The surfing was okay, but the surfers in that movie just seemed like self-satisfied jerks. Anyway, it was okay. I lost the plot halfway through and the surfing didn’t do much for me.

I took last night’s cards and two packages to the post office and sent them off. The guy at the post office kept trying to tell me something, but I have no idea what! That is so annoying. I should be in time for the Christmas mail, so no idea. I prefer the ladies that work there, they at least try to tell me something in English, but not him. Oh well. And who didn’t bother learning the language of the country she lives in? Yes, moi. Sigh. Not his fault then, right? Sort of. Oh all right. Not.

I visited a shop near our apartment that I visit when I want inexpensive household goods looking for possible presents. I found a t-shirt that I liked for my sister. I don’t know if she’ll like it, but it is quite nice. It didn’t even have wacky Japlish on it!

I came home and found a postcard to me in my mailbox. It was in an envelope and had no writing at all on it. I was a little disappointed, but the card itself is quite nice.

F came home a bit late tonight, but when he did we chatted for a bit before going out for dinner. He suggested Grado, our local Italian place and we went there. Dinner was great tonight! We had pork saute and also salmon in pastry. Very nice. We had taken some newspapers in for them again, so the chef made our dessert a little bigger than it should have been…yum.

After a quick trip to the drugstore, we came home and had a fairly quiet night. I packed my suitcase a bit and I worked on putting some songs in my computer tonight before stopping and watching The Good Wife. I worked on my shawl a bit too. I’ve finished the actual shawl now, but I’m doing a row of shells by the neck because the neckline is rather hard. It won’t be comfortable on the back of my neck.

F went to bed a while ago and I should go too. I have a busyish day tomorrow. I might go to the school a bit early and do a bit of a clean. I haven’t been there in a few days, so it probably needs it again. I have an afternoon class and then a meeting, so I’ll be a little busy.

I’ll most likely update tomorrow night, but I have to get to bed early tomorrow night, so I might not! If I don’t, I won’t be back for a few days. Please don’t miss me too much. Night!

Postcrossing - Outgoing

2011-11-18T19:17:00.000+09:00

I had a request to post a some of the cards that I have sent out to people, so over the next few weeks I'll try and show my favourite sent cards and write a little about why I sent them.

An early card that I sent is this one. It is still one of the most popular cards that I have sent to anyone! This cat seems to be quite famous in Japan. Since I sent the card I have noticed this cat on calendars and other postcards. The receiver is in the US and she has cats so I thought she would like the card.

I have to be honest about this card. I got it at a hundred yen shop. However, I'm pretty picky about the cards I buy there and I only try to buy ones that I really like. I like the contrast between the small dog and the big strawberries. This also went to a US postcrosser who likes roadside attractions. I hope she liked this card!

This card went to person in the Netherlands. She had requested cards that show activities in the snow, or mountains. ( I think she has since changed her profile.) She was quite pleased with this picture of Mount Chokai, a nearby mountain and the ladies filling in the gaps in the rice fields.

I just saw Mt. Chokai this morning and there is snow on it again. Sigh.

Next time, I'll bring you a few more postcards that I sent. Let me know if you have any questions or comments. Thanks!

Postcrossing Cards - Incoming

2011-11-18T18:46:00.000+09:00

November, 2011

I have received two cards this week. They are rather nice.

The first one fits right into my movie obsession/Movie star postcard collection. He was a legend in Hollywood, although he was never one of my favourite stars. Presenting....

John Wayne. My father (and the sender's father) was a big John Wayne fan, so I often watched Wayne movies on TV.

The sender put some lovely stamps on this card and I am very much in love with the stamp of Katherine Hepburn. It's beautiful.

Today I received another card. This one was from Taiwan. It's a beautiful card, but there's no message at all on it.

I believe it is a picture of the Alishan Forest Railway.

It was a little slower this week, hopefully I'll have more cards next week.

November 17, 2011

2011-11-18T03:16:00.000+09:00

Thursday - Clear and sunny, colder

I got up a little late this morning. I was bone tired and it was really tough to get out of bed. Finally the deed was done and I watched a bit of TV while I checked computer things.

In the afternoon I got so sleepy that I took a nap on the couch. I thought I’d have a snooze for 10 minutes or so, I woke up an hour later. Yikes. And the thing was, I was out of it. I did feel much better afterwards though.

I finally got around to making myself lunch and I took some of last night’s leftover veggies, stir-fried them and then mixed them with some pasta. I had that for my lunch and it was really nice. Yum. It surprised me a bit that it was so good!

When F came home I asked him if he would take me to the camera shop “to get some pictures done.” A few minutes later, he comes out of the bedroom, proudly telling me that he put on his good suit’s pants as they went with his nice white shirt that he’d also put on. As I was standing around in my not washed for 2 days hair, old t-shirt and pants, I was wondering what the heck he was on about. Turns out, he thought we were going to have photos of us TAKEN, I meant have some snaps REPRINTED! I got a good chuckle out of that! I had asked him last night to take me to Kitamura tonight, so I thought he knew why!

We went to Kitamura, had the photos printed and then had dinner at Cocos. There was a little boy there, sitting at a table over the banquette from us, and he would stand up and look at me. After a while, I started winking at him. He’d disappear for a while. He would pop back up after a bit and got bold enough to smile at me and he blinked at me. He wasn’t able to wink yet. It was really sweet. Usually I don’t much like kids in restaurants, but he was funny.

We popped into the grocery store, but didn’t buy much. We are going away on Sunday morning so want to leave the fridge as empty as possible.

We came home and I watched 2 hours of F-type TV. Sports then talking heads and stuff I’m not interested in. I did get to watch Drop Dead Diva and then after it was a new comedy show that seemed to be a mix of UK and US humour. It was about a UK couple of TV producers that come to the US to do a US version of their TV show. In Britain the show’s star was played by Richard Griffiths, but in the US they wanted Matt LeBlanc to play his part. It was a bit odd, but seemed along the lines of Extras….that sort of funny but not funny. I’ll try to catch it next week too. It was called Episodes apparently.

Tonight I finally got stuck into my Christmas cards and got quite a few written. I’ll have to try and mail them out tomorrow. Yay for me.

And that’s about it. It was a good day for the most part. I’m really happy about the Christmas cards! Night.

November 16, 2011

2011-11-17T01:05:00.002+09:00

Wednesday - Rainy and cold
Happy Birthday Vanessa!

Had a good day today. I got up early, re-watched last week’s Grey’s Anatomy, had lunch and then did a bit of Christmas wrapping too. I wrapped up a couple of presents and printed off my Christmas letter. I had to do a bit of work on that too. I was quite busy in other words!

F came home around his usual time and after he changed he got started on dinner. We were having shabu-shabu, so he prepped the veggies and sauces. Good for him. I have no idea what he needed. I offered to help, but he didn’t need any.

Dinner was great and we had a nice meal together. F actually talked to me which was a happy thing too. I did the dishes afterwards and then worked on my computer for a bit.

At 11:00 I made my way to the chesterfield to watch Grey’s Anatomy, the musical episode. It was really good. I didn’t expect it to be so dark, I’m not sure why, but it was. Still I enjoyed it. I taped it so that if F blabbed all through it I would be able to see it later. He wasn’t bad though. He kept quite quiet.

And that’s my day more or less. I got a new postcard in the mail, I’ll try and post it in a few days. I’m going to try and call my sister in a few minutes to wish her a happy birthday. I don’t talk to her that often, so I like to make the effort if I can. Have a good night! Bye.

November 15, 2011

2011-11-16T01:53:00.000+09:00

Tuesday - rainy

I know mentally that it is already November, but somehow I feel rather like it is August and I have lots of time to get things ready for Christmas. I’m living in a dreamland!

I woke up a bit late this morning, got up and watched Criminal Minds - Suspect Behaviour, then showered and got on with my day. I had an early-ish lunch which was very nice. I had last night’s leftovers from dinner and they were just as nice for lunch.

I left and biked over to the school. It was raining a little, but the rain didn’t get bad until I was a few blocks from my school. I managed to get there without getting soaked. It was quite cold in my school though.

I worked on warming up my school and getting it ready for classes. It didn’t take too long. My student was a few minutes early today and we had a good class. Things went quite well.

After class I had a few things to do, so I did them. I waited for my next student, but sadly she called me a few minutes before her class was due to start. She has promised me to come on Saturday though. Fingers crossed that she does!

More paperwork and then I called F and asked him to pick me up. He did and we went to Coco Ichibanya, the curry restaurant. I had Butter Chicken curry and it was nice. The curry part was mild, but the tandori chicken in the curry was very hot. I’m still burping (pardon me!) a few hours later.

We bought a few groceries at the grocery store there and decided to make shabu-shabu tomorrow night. It was F’s idea, so I hope he still wants to do it tomorrow night. I suppose I can do things like clean and chop the veggies if I have time to help.

At 11:00 pm I watched the Criminal Minds (same show, different episode) with Forest Whitaker. I can’t make up my mind if I like the show or not. I like the actors, but I’d really like it to have a tad more happiness in the show. The other Criminal Minds has JJ (at least in the episodes that I watch) and Spencer Reid to add lightness, this one is so heavy. I know that Garcia is in this one at times, but there’s no fun banter going on. I heard it’s been cancelled anyway, but it’s still on here.

And that’s about it for me. Tomorrow I have a few things that I really hope to get done. I need to start printing out my Christmas letters, wrap up a couple of presents and send them and a few other things. Wish me luck. Night!

November 14, 2011

2011-11-15T03:02:00.000+09:00

Monday - Cloudy with rain later on

A good day. I got up this morning, watched my TV shows, but something was different. I’m not sure what! I had some breakfast, did a spot of housework, had a short nap, worked on dinner and then ran out to the postbox to mail a letter. When I came home, I showered and then wrapped my hubby’s birthday present. Whew!

I really didn’t spend that much time on my computer today. Usually I don’t move from in front of it, but today I did. The reason? Well, last night, I had asked F if there was a night this week when he thought he’d get home early enough to see a movie at 6:00pm at the local theatre. He had said Monday. Okay, fine!

We decided not to eat out after, so I prepped the salad and the broccolini for later. I didn’t want to come home after 8:00 pm and have an hour or more prep to do.

F came home around 5:35, changed his clothes and we were over at the theatre in about 10 minutes! Yay us. We used one of my free movies and it was also Men’s Day, so F got in for cheap. We did have a snack from the concession stand, and then our usual popcorn and drink for the show. Wonder of wonders, F didn’t spill his popcorn.

We went to see Source Code, or as they say in Japan, Mission: 8 Minutes. It was okay. I quite enjoyed it. I wouldn’t say that it was the greatest movie ever, but it did set up some interesting situations and the movie didn’t get bogged down in a lot of scientific explanations.

After the film, we came home and I cooked dinner. It didn’t take long. F however, did take a long time to get to the table. He was registering a postcard, but I can’t sit down until he is in the kitchen as I block his way to his seat. We had chicken, couscous, salad and broccolini and it was all quite nice. I’m glad I did the early prep as dinner was on the table fairly fast.

The rest of the evening I’m afraid I paid F back for all the sports he subjected me to last night. I watched CSI: Miami (not as good as last week’s) and then Rizzoli and Isles. I quite like the latter one as it is nice to see a detective show with women that isn’t all boobs and car chases. Still, there’s something not quite there yet. I read on line that there are 3 seasons at least of it, so it might get better as it goes on.

And that was it. I did type up my Christmas Newsletter tonight and ran it past F. Because of the earthquake this year it’s not as full of joy and light as usual, but I hope it will be okay. Tomorrow I have a couple of classes at the school so I’ll be there most of the afternoon. Wish me luck! Night.

November 13, 2011

2011-11-14T03:11:00.000+09:00

Sunday - cloudy then rainy

An okay day. I went to bed much too late this morning so I slept in quite late this afternoon too. My excuse is that if F hadn’t wanted me to sleep in, he would have made some plans or otherwise woken me up, right? That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

A little after I got up, we went to have a late brunch at Jiro. We both had the pork saute in garlic oil. That is so good. I really love it.

We drove to S-Mall and picked up my glasses. They were done. I was surprised when I tried them on at home that the store hadn’t cleaned them for me. Usually I get them back and they are sparkling, not today. We also picked up a few things in the grocery store, including a tiny box of Dare Fondant cookies. Yum!

We came home and watched a movie. It was rather an odd one today, but it was quite funny too. We watched Team America World Police. It was rude and crude and dumb and funny. F liked the digs at the leader of North Korea, I liked the digs at Michael Bay and the digs at America’s image.

After the movie, we watched some of the extras and then F started watching sports for hours. I was a bit irritated and by 9 pm I’d had enough and basically demanded that we go out for dinner. Most nice places were closed so we went to Kappa Sushi. I liked it tonight. We were seated right away and the sushi was fine, but F thought it wasn’t fresh.

We bought groceries and then came home again. F proceeded to watch more sports and then ask me questions about it. I wasn’t paying any attention whatsoever, so got a tad irritated.
Finally, he took his bath and has now gone to bed.

Tomorrow I don’t have any fixed plans, but I should work on getting my Christmas stuff ready for the relatives that I’m sending things to, and maybe work on my Holiday letter. Wish me luck, I’m not sure how that will go. Talk to you tomorrow. Night!

November 12, 2011

2011-11-13T03:37:00.002+09:00

Saturday - Sunny then rainy

A pretty good day. I got up this morning, showered and then went through to the living room to wait for F and to check my email. My first class of the day had cancelled so I didn’t have to be at the school early. F said that he was going to go to his mother’s so I volunteered to go to work early after our brunch so he didn’t have to worry about me. He came back from the doctor and said he wasn’t going. Then he went to bed. I went in for a cuddle, ended up falling asleep and we didn’t get up again until 2. Yikes! I had planned things for the time I was going to be at my school, but I wouldn’t have that time now. Sigh.

We had lunch over near city hall. It’s a place that has good food, but today I just wasn’t in the mood for it. I had pasta, which annoyed me as I had eaten pasta for dinner last night. It was good though.

F dropped me off at my school and I set up the water pot and the heater. I did a few other things to get myself ready. When it was almost time for my class the student called to say that she was just setting out and would be late. She came a bit late, we set her schedule for the next few classes and then she left again!

I finished up at the school and then called F and asked him to pick me up. He did and we bought gas for the car first and then went to Gusto for dinner. F’s dinner was free as he had a coupon for all of it! Mine wasn’t, I ordered chicken but I got the smallest piece ever and I was quite ticked off. I didn’t think it was that small when I looked at the menu picture. Sigh.

We came home and had a quiet evening. F watched Skating for a while and then I took over the TV and watched my stuff. I’m still watching as I write. The Fox free channel has Sex and the City on and even though I’ve seen some of them, I like watching them again, especially the early ones which are quite funny.

And that was my day. Tomorrow I’m not sure what we’re going to do. F was talking about staying home and watching DVDs which does sound fun…as long as it isn’t watching all 6 Rocky movies. Night!

November 11, 2011

2011-11-12T03:30:00.000+09:00

Friday - Remembrance Day/Nigel Tufnel Day

Sunny with showers

A good day.

I slept late a bit today, but no matter. I had no plans!

I got up and noticed that F’s cell phone was still in its charger. I knew I’d be getting a visitor, and sure enough, he came back. It was fine though. He came and left to get back to work quite quickly.

I decided to email my student and was just about to hit send when my cell rang. It was the same student, wanting to book for tomorrow. Yay!

I wrote a couple of postcards for Postcrossing. These ones are going to the US and Germany. I put stamps on them and then biked off to the mailbox outside the post office to mail them.

I came home and a little while later, F came home from work. He was as tired as ever and hungry to boot. He let it be known that he’d like dinner soon, so I started to get things ready. I asked him about cooking the fish and instead of telling me how to do it, was going to do it right then and there. I explained that I wanted him to tell me how and I’d do it. He refused, so I figured it out for myself.

I cooked pasta, heated the sauce, washed the tomatoes and cooked the fish. The consensus was that I didn’t quite cook it long enough, but I think it was mostly cooked! I liked it, F not so much. Dinner was good except for that.

F did dishes and we had a quiet evening in. I watched The Good Wife at 11 and did a bit of my crochet. It’s going very well and I am finally on the last row. Yes! The only thing is that it is going to take forever, but will look very nice when it’s done! The programme was good too!

And that’s about it for my day. It was terribly quiet. I did vacuum part of the apartment, but as I still haven’t found my ring, am a bit scared to do it thoroughly! Talk to you tomorrow. Night!

November 10, 2011

2011-11-11T03:28:00.002+09:00

Thursday - sunny

An okay day. I got up a little late this morning. It always surprises me how I can sleep for 45 minutes or so with my alarms blaring away every few minutes. And yet I do.

I had a very quiet day around the apartment. I got up, watched a bit of TV, showered, had a quick breakfast and then vegged for a while. I read the newspaper, watched some more TV and got ready for work.

I biked off to work, stopping at a drugstore along the way for some stuff… nothing too major. I made it in good time to my school and even did the vacuuming at my school. Yay me.

When my student came we had a good class and then she left. I finished up my paper work and then called F around 9 pm. He picked me up and we went to New York, New York for dinner. It wasn’t bad tonight.

We came home via the grocery store. We’ll have the rest of the pasta tomorrow night, but I also got some fish as I need some protein. I’m adding in a salad to the mix as well. It should be a nice meal.

We watched a little TV tonight, first up, Drop Dead Diva and then F watched boxing for a little. When he took his bath, I watched ER. These are old ones from before I started watching, but I enjoy them so much.

And that’s about it. I’m sending off a Postcrossing tomorrow. My latest one is going to the Netherlands. I think that I might sneak in another card too if I feel up to it! That’s it for me. Night!

Postcrossing Cards - Incoming

2011-11-10T14:36:00.000+09:00

November 9th, 2011

The problem with doing these updates in the middle of the week is that I will probably receive a new card on the next day. No matter!
Here are some of my latest cards.

The first one came from Estonia in Europe. It's a multiview of the city of Tallin, the capital. The back of the card even has a small map so you know where Estonia is. I'm afraid to say that I didn't. My geography is shockingly bad.
Estonia is next to Russia and Latvia, and across a small body of water from Finland. It is across a larger expanse of water from Sweden.

My next two cards feature city views as well. They arrived on the same day too. The first is a large card featuring old and new views of the railway station in Minsk, Belarus. I love it because I like the contrast between the old and new buildings. I like the clean lines of the new building, but there's something about the old buildings that I miss too.

This is an interesting card from Berlin. It pictures the Berlin Holocaust Memorial. It's intriguing and a not a usual city view.

My final card for you today is a treat though. It comes from The Netherlands and was the biggest postcard I've ever seen. It measures about 8 inches square and the post office didn't put it in my mailbox. They very nicely hung it in a plastic bag on my door handle. I'm glad they did as I think it would have been difficult to get it out of my mailbox without damaging it.

I don't usually do this, but today I'm including a picture of the back of the postcard. The sender put a flower on it and some stickers in a beautiful design. She even used different coloured pens to write her message. She really spent some time on it. I love the way it looks.

I hope you have enjoyed my recent incoming cards. Postcrossing is a lot of fun but it does tend to make me a little obsessive about postcards!

Just wondering if anyone would be interested in seeing the postcards that I send (after the receiver gets them) or if I should just continue with my incoming postcards?

Thanks for waiting...sorry I was late posting this but it was too late last night when I started writing this entry.

November 9, 2011

2011-11-10T03:38:00.000+09:00

Wednesday - Warm and sunny

An okay day. I didn’t get up as early as I did yesterday, but it was fine. I was thinking to go out early this morning, but talked myself out of it. I really didn’t want to go out at that time today.

I had a quiet afternoon. A couple of my post crossings arrived to their receivers so I requested a new address, and got one in Japan. It felt a bit strange but I did it. I hope she likes her card.

I took the card and went out for a little afternoon trip to the mall. I mailed it at a post office, and then continued to the mall. I didn’t get too much at the mall today, but I did get a few things for F’s Christmas present. During my lovely time at Doutors, I drank some Royal Milk Tea and sketched out my Christmas letter. The first draft was going to be rather morbid, but I think my second run at it came over a lot better.

I bought a few things at the grocery store and then left to go home. F called me as I was unlocking my bicycle and said he was on his way home. I told him I was too. I actually made it home before him.

When he got home he changed and then went to bed for a nap. Hrumph. I played on my computer for a while before starting dinner. I told him when I was starting dinner and reminded him that he had laundry in the washing machine.

I boiled the fettuccine and heated up the sauce, got the table set and put out the salads from the mall. Dinner was served. It took a couple of minutes for F to get to the table, but he wasn’t as bad as usual tonight! The sauce and the pasta were yummy and I think we both enjoyed our meal. The big downer was that F watched kickboxing or boxing or some kind of fighting show throughout our meal. I was not impressed. He didn’t talk to me at all and all I saw of him was his neck. Usually I make him (or me) turn off the TV when we’re eating, unless it is something special on TV.

F did the dishes and then moaned about wanting to go out. So, at 10 pm, we went to the grocery store for detergent for him. We got that and a few groceries for tomorrow. F knew that I wanted to get home to watch Grey’s Anatomy, so I wasn’t terribly pleased that he decided to hem and haw about cooking dinner tomorrow night. He finally chose not to, so we paid and came home.

Grey’s was fine tonight. It was the episode before the big singing show and I’m rather looking forward to that. I’ve seen a few previews and some of the actors are amazing singers. Anyway, it ended with a cliffhanger. I watched it from the chesterfield and I did some crochet. I got about half a row of the edging done, and it’s working out fine this time. Yay. I wish the instructions were written a little better. I get it eventually, but it’s a waste of time when they don’t work out.

And that was that. I watched a bit of TV and I’ll likely go to bed soon. It’s terribly late and I am going to have to get some sleep soon.

Talk to you all tomorrow. Night!

November 8, 2011

2011-11-09T02:33:00.000+09:00

Tuesday - partly cloudy, coolish

A good day. I woke up this morning about 30 minutes before my alarms started to go off and then stayed up. I was astonished at myself! I checked for foreign news, there was a bit, but it was the type where NHK tells us what they’re going to show us and then only show us one story. Still, I saw a bit.

I had a good if mostly quiet day today. I showered early on, watched a bit of TV, and even had a bite to eat at lunchtime. I didn’t hear from my student so I assumed she was busy or hadn’t received my email.

In the afternoon I decided to go out and have tea or something. When I left the apartment I found a postcard to me hanging on the door in a plastic bag! It was a really big one, about 10 inches square, and the sender had decorated the back of it too. It was beautiful. I’ll try and do a postcrossing update tomorrow if I have time.

I went out, biked to the craft store, didn’t buy much, then hacked around the drugstore and didn’t buy much there either. My original plan was to stop in on the way home at McDonalds and have a tea or something, but it was dark and there were some scary black clouds up, so I decided to skip it and go home. F came home soon afterwards.

We had dinner at Cafe Framboise and it was nice. At first there was nobody but us two in the restaurant, but after a while a few singles came in.

We drove over to Yamaya so I could get more couscous. Of course, we got a few other things too, like fixings for tomorrow’s dinner. We’re going to have fresh pasta with garlic alfredo sauce. I’m hoping to get a salad or something tomorrow to go with it.

We had a quiet evening at home. We watched the first live performance show of the X-Factor and enjoyed it. F went to bed afterwards and then got up about an hour or more later. Argh! He was looking for medicine, now he’s just rustling paper and generally driving me crazy. He doesn’t get the whole concept of peace and quiet being conducive to calm.

Anyway, that’s about it for me. I had a good night and I hope to talk to you all a couple of times tomorrow night. See you!

November 7, 2011

2011-11-08T03:13:00.000+09:00

Monday - Rainy with some clear times

It was an odd day today. I got up at a reasonable time, watched a bit of TV and then went back to bed for a while. I was tired and just couldn’t get motivated to do anything. However, when I got up, I did three loads of laundry and hung it all up.

I watched some of The Road this afternoon. I had been planning to go out, but I got caught up in the movie. However, I have to say that the film was such a downer. It was really sad and depressing so I finally left. I didn’t see the end of it, but I doubt it was a happy ending. Shudder. I know, I know, movies don’t always have to have a happy ending, but I don’t have to watch them either!

I rode off to the post office, mailed a postcard and bought a box for my sister’s present. I was going to box it up there, but I looked at the clock and it was about 3 minutes before they closed so I took the box and the present home again. I used to hate it at the bank when a customer with a million things (or something really complicated) would rush into the branch at the last moment. I’d always get stuck with them, and I was supposed to finish up quickly. Anyway, I couldn’t do that to someone else. (F never understands that!)

I biked home again and waited for F. When he called to say he was coming home, I asked if we could go to the main post office, and he said yes. Yay! He came home as I was finishing sealing the box and we drove off. They were open later than my local branch. It wasn’t too difficult to do, but it was expensive. Sigh. My own fault for not sending it earlier.

We came home again and I started getting dinner ready. Tonight we had a pork stirfry with couscous on the side and it was yummy. I did it all from scratch tonight, no pre-cut vegetables at all. We both enjoyed it. F did the dishes (yay) and then we settled in to watch a little telly. F watched boxing (yawn) so I put some new readers in my school’s database, then started my list for Christmas cards. I still have to write a newsletter, but that hopefully won’t be too hard. I try and keep it short. Every year I receive a very long Christmas letter from an old acquaintance that is 6 pages double sided in excruciating detail about her year and I have yet to read it all the way through. I think the people that know me keep in touch by email or Facebook and the others maybe don’t care that much! Not quite true…I know I’m exaggerating…I have a friend without email, but everyone else has it, more or less.

Anyway, that’s it for me for tonight. Tomorrow I don’t have a class at the moment, although I told a student that if she books before noon I’ll be happy to see her. I guess that means I have to stay around the apartment for a bit. Oh well, talk to you tomorrow? Night.

November 6, 2011

2011-11-07T04:00:00.000+09:00

Sunday - Cloudy and then rainy

A good day. I went to bed before F last night. Unbelievable, but true. I turned off my computer around 5 am, he stayed up to watch his silly martial arts stuff. He said he went to bed around 10 am, so he only got a couple of hours of sleep. I got up around 12 and he was still in bed.

We had lunch over at the mall in Mikawa. It was a Japanese place and I had some grilled salmon on rice with mayonnaise. It was good. I also had some tempura with it. It was nice. We did a little shopping for Christmas presents after our meal. We got a couple of small things. F also got me a cushion for the car.

We went to see Rango, the animated movie with Johnny Depp doing one of the voices. It was rather fun. Johnny Depp was good and so were the other people doing the voices. I was surprised to find out that Isla Fisher did one of the voices.

After the movie we went back to the shopping. We’d put a couple of things on the back burner to go back and get. I looked at the label on one thing and reconsidered. It was a winter sweater and it was dry clean only. It would be going to a teenager and I don’t think she’d be able to dry clean it. The other one was fine though and we picked it up. Yay!

We went back to the car, and as F had already put my cushion on the seat, I tried to sit on it. It was a couple of inches higher than usual, so I banged my head on the car frame…twice. I buckled in and it was fine. We’re hoping that this cushion will help stop me getting sciatica again. I have to be really careful on road trips and we have one coming up soon.

Back in Tsuruoka, we drove around looking for a yakitori shop, but didn’t find an open one, so I suggested going to Grado. We went home, grabbed the newspapers and then went to the restaurant. We had a nice meal and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

After dinner we bought a few groceries and then came home. We had a quiet evening. F went to bed a lot earlier than he has been lately, and I’m still up. Sigh. I wrote a postcard for postcrossing and I’ll try to send it tomorrow. That’s about it for me. I have to run. Night.

November 5, 2011

2011-11-06T04:02:00.000+09:00

Happy Guy Fawkes Day!
Saturday - Sunny then rainy

I got up this morning and took a shower. F came home from his doctor just before I did, and after I finished we greeted each other. We had a quiet morning around our computers!

We had brunch at Gusto and it was okay. It was very busy. We didn’t quite get in there early enough. We had an okay meal and then F dropped me off at my school.

I had a great class with my student and after she left I got really busy. Today I did up my bookkeeping and I also did some chucking out of old catalogues. Yay for new shelf-space. I was busy for quite a while. I called F rather late and he picked me up.

We had dinner in Jiro and then came home. We watched TV tonight and there was an actual good episode of CSI:Miami on. I was terribly surprised. I made F watch Cold Case with me and he enjoyed it. Wonders will never cease! He hates detective shows but he grudgingly admitted it was okay. Also on our idiot box tonight were Top Gear, Project Runway and now Sex and the City.

No idea what we’ll do tomorrow. I hope it’ll turn out to be a good day though. Come back tomorrow night and find out what we do! Night.

November 4, 2011

2011-11-05T03:13:00.000+09:00

Friday - clear and sunny

A good day today. I got up in time to watch my show on WOWOW and only half watched it. I think it’s not that good or I’d really try and watch it more.

I turned off the TV for a while, put it back on to watch the news and then found a Mark Wahlberg movie called Invincible that was quite good. Certainly better than I would have expected since it was based on a true story and was about football. Neither of those are my favourite kinds of movies!

In the afternoon, I wrapped another part of my sister’s present and then took it, and a couple of outgoing postcards to the post office. My plan was to buy a new box at the post office and post Van’s present in that. But, the boxes they had were the wrong size. I mailed the postcards and came home with the present.
Oh, yes, I also watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 as it was on today too. I watched most of it, that is. I missed some when I went to the post office.

F came home around 6 and was exhausted. He’d had to drive to Yamagata city and back twice today. He collapsed into bed for a bit.

I got dinner underway. It wasn’t a big whoop tonight, but it was quite good. It was basil chicken with hash brown patties and salad. I managed to get everything ready at the same time, AND get F to get out of bed, so I think I did rather well!

He did the dishes afterwards and we settled in for an interesting night together. I watched rather a lot of TV it must be said, but I don’t care. It wasn’t his stuff for a change. I made him watch Love Lessons on Fox tonight. It was so awful, but at one part F just started laughing at the show. It was funny. I watched The Good Wife and worked on my shawl again. I found a mistake in the pattern again…and have to either crochet 2 more rows before I start the edging or rip-out 2 rows. Something like that. Annoying. After The Good Wife was finished, I turned the channel and watched Predators. I still love that movie. Adrien Brody is so cool in that one!

Anyway, that’s about it for me. Tomorrow I seem to only have one class, but F needs me to finish my book-keeping for the year if I can. He has to report my income to his employer. I hate this system. There is no privacy in Japan for things I consider private. Night. (and Grr!)

November 3, 2011

2011-11-04T02:43:00.000+09:00

Thursday - Cloudy, but warmish

A good day. I got up quite early for me on a holiday, about my weekday time. I think F was a bit surprised to be honest. However, I wanted to watch my telly, so I needed to be up. I watched last week’s Drop Dead Diva, then Project Runway. I enjoyed both of them.

Afterwards, F and I went out for lunch. F suggested a yakiniku place near our apartment, so we went there. It was a good suggestion and we enjoyed our lunch. I had Korean bibinba and F had ramen. We both had some yakiniku on the side.

We drove out to the mall in Mikawa after our late lunch. We had about 30 minutes to spare before our movie, so we looked for postcards. We didn’t get any, but we looked for new socks for F. He has leg problems these days, so normal socks cause him some pain. We got some he thinks will do.

We went to the movie theatre and bought our tickets. F went to the car to dump his socks off, while I was inside a bit nervous about missing the start of the movie. I thought he was silly for bothering about it, but he did make it back in time. We went to see The Three Musketeers today. It was fun. Orlando Bloom was an interesting bad guy as was Christoph Waltz. It didn’t follow the usual storyline and there were many modernizations of the story, but overall I enjoyed it. If you are a Musketeer purist, you won’t like it, but for a fun afternoon at the theatre, it isn’t bad at all.

After the movie, we went to a hundred yen shop for postcards and wrapping paper, then to an okonomiyaki place for dinner. We chose a “make your own” place tonight and it was fine. F’s one was good, mine was okay. Mine was a bit bland. Still, dinner was nice and quite fun.

We came home via the grocery store and had a quiet evening in. F wrote a postcard for Postcrossing and I requested two new names. I’m sending to The Netherlands and to Poland. I’ll write those up and send them tomorrow.

And that’s about it really. It was a pretty nice holiday together. Hurray. Night-night!

November 2, 2011

2011-11-03T03:44:00.001+09:00

Wednesday - Warm and sunny, rainy at night

A good but quiet day.
I got up, rewatched Grey’s Anatomy and some TV I had taped last night. I also watched an Antonio Banderas film on NHK about ballroom dancing at an inner city school. I’m such a sucker for movies with dancing. Banderas isn’t quite up to Paul Mercurio’s level, but he’s not bad! The accent doesn’t hurt either.

In the afternoon I wrote up a couple of postcards and sent them out. They are off to Germany and the US. Hopefully they’ll arrive there soon. I received 3 cards in the mail today, they are posted below this entry. Feel free to check them out!

When F came home tonight he got changed and made dinner. It was a nabe, so not too much work for him. We ate and it was really good. We’d bought a store broth for it last night and it was yummy. It was the hacksai flavoured one.

I did the dishes and then we settled in for a quiet night. We watched Grey’s again at 11, well, I did and worked on my crochet. The edging bit isn’t working out at all. Boo!

That’s about it for me. Tomorrow is a national holiday so we might go and see a movie or something. We don’t have any serious set-in-stone plans yet. Come back tomorrow and see what we ended up doing. Night.

Postcrossing Cards - Incoming

2011-11-02T22:29:00.002+09:00

November 2, 2011

A bumper crop for you today. I received a card on Saturday as I was heading out of town, managed to register it, but not to photograph it at all. Then, today I checked my mailbox and I found not one, not two, but THREE cards waiting for me. Woo-hoo! Happy dance commenced.

So... here they are...

First up, an interesting card from Slovenia. This shows Erasmus Knight's Tournament, basically a medieval re-inactment. This card arrived on Saturday.

What I like about it is the unusual way the card designer chose to show the multiviews. (Some people don't like multiview cards, but I do) I like the circles. Very neat.

Today, I received these three. First up, one that made my movie/celebrity- postcard-loving heart sing a little. Mesdames et Monsieurs, allow me to present, the one, the only...

Marlene Dietrich. This card came all the way from Helsinki, Finland.

This next one came from the Netherlands, although the picture is Spanish. The sender notes that she went to Barcelona for her holidays and she loves the city.

My apologies for a less than perfect picture. I think I'll have to get a tripod sometime!

Finally, a beautiful card of Washington DC and the cherry blossoms. This one comes from Maryland. The sender chose it for me to show my students. The cherry trees were a gift from Japan and the trees are in full bloom here.

I love the light pink and blue edging around the card, a gorgeous touch, and
a nice change from white!

Well, there you have it. All my beautiful postcards for today. Remember if you would like to see larger sized images, just click on the cards. See more postcards that I have received or sent, at this link.

November 1, 2011

2011-11-02T03:22:00.000+09:00

Tuesday - Warm and sunny

A good day. I got up at a reasonable time today and watched Criminal Minds - Red Cell. I had missed the beginning last week so I thought it was a new episode when it started.

I showered, got ready for work, the usual. I had an omelette for lunch and then headed out to the school.

At the school I quickly took down all of the Halloween decorations and then welcomed my student who arrived a couple of minutes early. We had a fairly good class today.

After class I spent a while doing paperwork and filing. I also did a bit of cleaning and getting the expenses done for my trip. When I started getting closed in, I called F and asked if I should go home or if he’d pick me up. He picked me up.

For dinner tonight, neither of us really felt hungry, so we had a cheap and cheerful dinner at Kappa-sushi. I didn’t eat quite as much as I usually do, so I felt virtuous, F ate the same as usual and felt too full.

We came home and didn’t do too much really. F went to bed quite early, I went to give him a snuggle, then he took his bath and I watched Criminal Minds. I did some of my crochet afterwards, but the count didn’t work out so I’m a little miffed. I guess I’ll have to check it again in the morning. I also ended up watching Orphan tonight. It was quite good, a bit scary!

So, I promised a bit of an update about my trip to Sendai last month. It was good. I had an uneventful trip to Sendai on the bus, except I realised halfway through that I was hungry and I had no food at all with me. Sigh. I got to Sendai, found my hotel quite easily and then went out for some food. I found a Subway and got takeout for the hotel room, so I was a happy camper. I got a few other things at a convenience store and hit my room again. I watched some of the Video on Demand and sadly didn’t go to bed until quite late.

The next morning I got up, showered and had breakfast, all before 8:30. Yay me. And on a Sunday too! I got to the station and caught a train. I was looking for a seat, when I saw the person that was going to be looking after the booth with me, so we said hello and chatted all the way there.

We were joined by another lady at the Expo and the three of us took care of the booth for AFWJ all day. We took turns being the person who stayed behind and not going to presentations. It worked out fairly well as there were times where I wasn’t interested in the presentations, but the others were. One lady left a little early, but the other stayed until the end. We caught a train back to Sendai and she caught a shinkansen home.

I did a little shopping and had dinner at my favourite Sendai Indian restaurant. Five minutes after I’d ordered, the organiser of the event and another person I’d talked to earlier in the day came in to have dinner. We said hello, but then my food started to arrive. I had the tandori set and it was really good. My curry of choice was almond chicken and it was yummy. When I left the man asked me why I hadn’t been there in so long! I tried to explain about living on the other side of the country and not being able to come in due to the earthquake.

I headed back to the hotel after dinner. I bought a few things from the convenience store on the way back, but not too much. I got back to my hotel, called my hubby and then settled in and watched a truly awful film on the Video on Demand system. It was so bad that I took a nap in the middle of it. I stopped the film, set my alarms for the morning just in case, set a timer for 25 minutes and snoozed. I woke up a bit later and did watch the rest. It was called Sucker Punch and I’d heard it was bad, but I didn’t quite believe it. Truly a terrible movie with no redeeming features. Stay away!

I went to bed late that night too. My hotel was a Toyoko Inn. It’s just a business hotel, but is fairly reasonable and clean and this one was quiet. Last year’s one was noisy. It wasn’t exciting, but it was okay.

Anyway, that’s it for me. You are now up to date with my trip. Hopefully tomorrow will be a good day. I’ll let you know. Night.

October 31, 2011

2011-11-01T02:49:00.000+09:00

Monday - Happy Halloween!

A good day. I didn’t go to bed until late last night, but I did wake up early today and then I went back to sleep for a bit. I was in the hotel in Sendai and had slept fairly well, but not perfectly.

I got up finally, showered and then got dressed and made myself some cup pasta for a quick breakfast. I checked out and headed for the station. A very nice lady helped me find my way through the station maze (I was trying a new way for me) and then I stuffed my suitcase in a locker so I could go shopping.

I hacked around many of the good places around Sendai station today. My feet are so sore! I was surprised that the E.Beans building is being torn down. I wonder if it is due to quake damage, or just its time? It was an old building. I didn’t get close, but it seemed that the signs outside said it would be rebuilt.

I had lunch at our favourite gyutan shop under the station. I wanted something I don’t have all the time and something that I was more than reasonably sure wouldn’t make me sick! When you are on a bus for 2. 5 hours you don’t want to have stomach problems! I love Indian and Thai food, but had Indian food the night before and the Thai place I knew was under new management so was an unknown quantity now.

I bought oodles of postcards from a couple of places, got something for F’s birthday next month and some readers for my school. I enjoyed myself a lot.

I caught the bus back to Tsuruoka and F met me at the mall. We were happy to see each other. We had dinner at Cocos and even shared their dessert for Halloween, the mud pie. We were both really glad that we shared it as we both were too full afterwards. I think F was worse off than me. I’d had a salad, whereas he’d had jambalaya, so it was much heavier.

We came home and had a quiet evening together. I told him about my trip, he told me about his weekend. He did a little Postcrossing, I did a lot of email reading.

And that was it! I might try and update more tomorrow night if I remember. I’m quite tired so I’d like to get to bed early. Night!

October 28, 2011

2011-10-29T03:01:00.000+09:00

Friday - Sunny and gorgeous. Lovely day.

I got up fairly early today and turned on the TV. I watched last week’s The Cape and then ended up watching most of the third part of Lord of the Rings. I enjoyed the latter quite a bit.

I had a quiet day for the most part. I wrote up a postcard and sent it off on its way to the Netherlands, and made a quick trip to the bank as well. I needed to get a new passbook and I had to ask to get a new cover for it. Come on lady, I’ve had the other one for a long time and it isn’t in good condition! She gave me one, but I was surprised. We used to hand those out to customers all the time at my bank.

I came home again and watched American Idol. It was interesting. I think the judges were more critical than I had heard. Nobody is as critical as Simon however!

When F came home I was in a tizzy. Somehow I have managed to lose my wedding ring. I have my engagement ring, but the wedding ring must have fallen off my computer desk and I can’t find it. I’ve looked under the desk (and cleaned a bunch of garbage out). I hope it’ll turn up soon. It’s not my favourite ring, but I do treasure it.

Dinner tonight was the same as last night, except I doctored the soup a little bit. I added some curry powder and some cream cheese while I was heating them up. F did the gyoza again and we had a lovely dinner. The soup was even more amazing tonight, and the gyoza were good too.

We spent a quiet evening together. I did some packing and then at 11 watched my drama on NHK. I enjoyed it.

I had a good day, I packed, typed up and submitted my movie column, got a new passbook, but I lost my ring. WAH. Where is it?

Please don’t miss me too much, I’m going to be away for a couple of nights while I attend the Teacher’s Expo in Sendai. It should be good, as long as the earth doesn’t move. Wish us all luck with that. Night!

PS…does anyone else think it is a bit funny that I watched LOTR in the morning and now I’m whining about losing my ring? Did Gollum take it?

Postcrossing Cards - Incoming

2011-10-29T02:00:00.000+09:00

October 28, 2011

I've had a good week with receiving postcards. I even got a couple today.

The first ones have autumn colours. Quite interesting.

This one is the Grand Canyon, a mule trail. It's not a usual view of the Canyon and I like it all the more for that.

From Finland comes a card with an interesting saying on it. My Finnish isn't good, so the sender included a translation. It means something like,"A day without quarrel gives you a peaceful night." I wonder if she's been reading my blog for a while!

The next two cards arrived today. The first is from Lithuania. The sender writes that she likes her country for the wonderful nature, of which the card is a beautiful example.

My last card comes from Cologne, Germany. It shows many locks. Apparently, when a couple is in love, they go to the bridge, put a padlock on the fence and throw the key into the water. This will ensure their love will last forever. I love this story!

I'm hoping to buy a few new postcards when I'm in Sendai this weekend. I wonder where they'll end up going.

October 27, 2011

2011-10-28T03:58:00.000+09:00

Thursday - Gloriously sunny and a beautiful day

A good day. I went to bed a little early last night and was able to get up a little earlier than I have been today.Yay. Not going to happen tonight as I’m much later than usual already!

I had a busy morning. I checked email and the things I have to do, then I showered and then sauteed a lot of my veggies from last night before putting them in my slow cooker. I set it to low and let it do its thing.

I left for work a little late today, but made good time. I set up the school as quickly as I could and got ready too. My student was on time and we had a good lesson. She’s a very interesting person.

After her class I did a little paperwork and then made a quick trip to the drugstore for a few things I wanted, then went back to the school. I worked on my column a little and then read some of the newspapers from this last week. I’d read a couple of them already so it didn’t take all that long.

My other student came and then we had a good lesson too. We finished the vocabulary section finally, and also a lot of the usage today. Hurray.

After she left, I did a quick clean up, and even washed the dishes. I won’t have time on Saturday so will have to leave them. I’ll try to rinse them of course, but must rush out to catch my bus.

I called F to see if he would pick me up. He said he would and did a few minutes later. On the way home we stopped at the grocery store for some French bread and some gyoza.

At home, I put the finishing touches on my soup. I ran some of the veggies through the blender, but it stopped working halfway through that. Oh dear. Did I break it? I added a bit of milk, put some in our bowls and topped with grated cheese and a little bacon that F had cooked up for me before he did the gyoza. We had the soup with French bread and butter and gyoza, and it was lovely. I had seconds on the soup, F didn’t, but he’s trying to diet right now I think.

F did the dishes, which I really appreciated and I checked on all of the things I didn’t get to do earlier. We had a mostly quiet night, except F started watching old shows on the DVR and they had earthquake alerts on them. Talk about freaking me out.

Well, that’s it for me for tonight. I’ll likely update tomorrow, but I will have to either keep it short or I’ll start early. Wish me luck with that! Night.