September 17, 2025

Wednesday - Rainy and humid

I went to bed a bit late last night. I didn’t get my blogging done in time. Sigh. I went to bed and managed to fall asleep fairly quickly. 

Unfortunately, I woke up at 7 am when F’s alarm went off. Where was F? Downstairs taking a shower! He came into the room a couple of minutes later and was a bit damp!

I made a trip downstairs and then came back up to the room. I thought it was a bit rude to go back to bed while F was getting ready for work, so I waited until he left. I was even nice about it and wished him a good day!

I went back to sleep and slept through almost all of my alarms. I did turn off my usual ones though. I dragged myself out of bed and got dressed. I got a phone call from F a few minutes later saying that he was coming by the house and did I want anything? I said no, and he did come over. I gave him some coffee which he drank while I ate my breakfast!

I did a load of laundry but before I did, I cleaned out the drum of the machine because F forgot to empty his pockets of tissues. ACK!

I had lunch a little late today and watched a half hour programme on Prime. It’s not hilarious but it’s kind of funny. It was One Mississippi with Tig Notaro. I’ve watched a few of the episodes but not for ages.

I watched the news and worked on my computer stuff. F called after 5 and said that he was coming back to the house but remembered he had to go to the car dealership. I reminded him that he had to empty out the car first so he decided to come to the house first. 

When he arrived, it was pouring rain outside. It sounded like a monsoon out there. He took the stuff out of the car and then headed out to the dealership. He got a “loaner” car and then came back. What’s happening with our car is that the door locks on my side aren’t opening when F opens the door. It isn’t all the time, but it is often enough to be annoying. He has to open them separately. 

I got started on dinner. F had brought back some mini-tomatoes from a co-worker, but I’d bought some yesterday too. I washed the bought ones and a few of the gifted ones. The ones from his co-worker I put aside for K to eat during the day tomorrow.

For dinner today we had toaster oven chicken, salad, macaroni salad, cucumber pickle and the mini-tomatoes. There was rice too. It was good and most things disappeared!  I cut up a nashi for a quick and nice dessert as well. We all enjoyed that.

After dinner I did the dishes and then I had to do up the garbage. F gave me a hand with some of K’s stuff. I put the garbage in the genkan for later.

I went upstairs and did the garbage upstairs too. I relaxed, had a cup of hot cocoa and watched a bit of YouTube. I went downstairs around 10:30 and took a shower. 

When I came upstairs again, I watched Grey’s Anatomy. It was okay and then I turned off the TV. I’ve had a quiet evening since then. 

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. I should do some tidying up or maybe more getting ready for my trip early next month. We’ll see! Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

September 16, 2025

Tuesday - Hot and sunny

I woke up a couple of times this morning but finally got myself out of bed and dressed earlier than usual. F came upstairs and we talked about what to do. I reminded him that we had talked about going to karaoke this morning to have their lunch deal. He was okay with that.

We went to karaoke and were able to get in right away. We got a room that we had before (I know because the English songs in the history were MY songs!) and ordered our lunch. I ordered pasta which was fine, F ordered yakisoba which he didn’t like. We spent about three hours at karaoke. I enjoyed myself but F didn’t so I gave up after a bit. We left and paid. As I hoped, it wasn’t too expensive considering that we had all the drinks and soft ice cream we could stomach, plus lunch and a free dessert…and karaoke too!

We headed to one of my banks. The most convenient branches of the bank have closed and there aren’t many bank machines either. I have decided that I’d either close the account or withdraw almost all of the money from it. I went to the bank machine and it wouldn’t let me do anything except update the bankbook. 

I asked F to come in with me and after a wait we went to the counter. Sigh. I had forgotten to take my hanko with me (the “seal” that Japanese people use to stamp important documents). They wouldn’t let me do anything. Apparently, I had to update my foreigner card with them too. They had basically frozen my account and wouldn’t even let me update my information without the hanko. To me, it makes NO sense, but whatever. So, they have basically made it very difficult for me to get my money back. I was quite upset to be honest. I know it was my fault that I didn’t take my hanko with me, I just didn’t even think of it. I don’t do much banking these days. 

So, we left the bank. I’m very annoyed. I had thought I might just leave the account open in case I needed it in the future, but I will not now. I’ll have to wait for F to have another day off during the week, but hopefully it’ll be done before the end of the year.

After we left the bank I was a bit overheated and still upset. F had no plans as usual so I suggested that we do our grocery shopping. F was okay with that, so we drove over to Mina. I went in and did the grocery shopping. 

We went back to the house afterwards and I put away the groceries. I went upstairs and then relaxed with my computer. I spent a couple of hours that way. 

F gave his mother her bento around 7 pm and then I suggested that we go out for dinner. We ended up at Gusto. I know it’s not F’s favourite place, but he wanted a low cost place and as it is during the week we could have their combo meals which we can’t at the weekends. 

F had some grilled chicken and some kara-age, curry and rice, and I’m not sure what the other dish was…something with fish I think. I had a burger with gravy, small fries, a small salad and a tiny dessert. Both meals included the drink bar and the soup of the day. I was happy with my meal. F was not. Sigh. 

After our meal, we came back to the house and I came upstairs. F was downstairs for a while. I watched FBI: Most Wanted and it was okay. That’s really the first thing I’ve watched in days!

Tomorrow, I should do laundry and back up my computer. I’ll be cooking dinner and I’ll have to clean up the kitchen as well. F and K left it in a big mess for me. Yay!

That’s about it for me. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

September 15, 2025

Monday - Hot and sunny

I slept in this morning and it was nice. I woke up and made trips downstairs a couple of times. F came upstairs around noon and asked if I wanted to go for lunch then. I said no, so he worked with his fish tank. We didn’t go out for a while, but it was fine.

After 1pm we went over to Kappa Sushi for our lunch. It was okay. We got in fairly quickly and ordered a few dishes. We didn’t have a huge lunch but it was good. 

Sadly, after lunch, F just headed back to the house and didn’t want to go anywhere. I wasn’t too happy. I spent the afternoon on my computer as usual. 

F made something for his mother’s dinner and around 7 pm we went out. I had given him 4 choices and he picked one of them. We went over to China House and had dinner. I had my usual mapo-dofu set meal and F tried a new one to us, a chicken and vegetable stir-fry. He gave me a bite of his chicken but it had a numbing spice on it and I really didn’t like it. Mine was great.

I suggested that we do something crazy like going to McDonald and have an ice cream so F liked that idea. We drove over to a McDonald and went in. We ordered and received our ice cream cones and they were nice. 

Next up we went to the grocery store, MaxValu and walked around the store. F picked up stuff for his mother’s breakfast, but I couldn’t find the one thing that I wanted. Oh well.

We paid and then came back to the house. I helped F put the groceries away and then went upstairs. After a while I went downstairs and took a shower and then went back upstairs. 

I can’t believe, I don’t think I’ve watched TV this whole weekend. I did watch about 5 minutes last night, but that was just to see if it was worth watching a movie. It probably was, but the movie didn’t have enough English for me to watch.

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. Come back later and find out! Until tomorrow…. 

September 14, 2025

Sunday - Sunny and warm

It’s late and I’m tired, so I think you’ll get a mostly pictoral update!

The first part of the day was nice. I slept in late and then we tried a new place for lunch. It really is a new place! It just opened a few weeks ago. 

We went to the Chido Museum today. It was very busy, probably because of the holiday. They had a character walking around but I had no idea about what it meant so I ignored it! I took some pictures of the garden as usual!

We had an iced beverage each at Komeda and then he picked up a nice bento for his mother at MaxValu. We came back to the house and got changed for going out. 

I wore a pair of grey pants that I had forgotten about and a new shirt from my last Canada trip. I also took/wore my sparkly shawl and my matching purse. Before we left, I gave F some money to cover his meal, but he ended up giving it back to me to exchange for some smaller bills for the taxi fare!

We had a lovely meal at Al Ché-cciano. It was an Italian Japanese fusion thing, but I liked most of it and even the stuff that I didn’t love was good. F had a couple of drinks with dinner, I had a bottle of San Pellegrino. Here are the pictures!

Capellini and sea bream. Very nice.

Lettuce and Sawara. This was delicious.

Ayu and grilled eggplant. Not my favourite. We had to eat the whole fish. 

Acqua Pazza...fish in the bottom with veggies and a mussel. Nice.

Grilled Shonai Pork with vegetable. Excellent.

Grilled sheep meat (They said not lamb or mutton!) with roasted potatoes. My tatties are better, the meat was only okay. 

Pasta with pork and zucchini in a cream sauce. Gorgeous!

Grape Brulee...a jelly with pudding and peeled grapes. Quite nice, but I was expecting something show-stopping! With hot coffee.

After our meal we came back to the house by taxi and chilled. F fell asleep but woke up fairly often. I’m getting a bit tired and should get some sleep fairly soon.

I’m not sure what we’re going to get up to tomorrow. It’s a national holiday tomorrow (Respect for the Aged Day). I’m not sure if it means I have to take F out somewhere or if we have to parade K around the neighbourhood. I joke of course. I’m really not that mean!

Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

September 13, 2025

Saturday - Rainy and humid, cooler

I woke up this morning after 9 am. I slept in a bit later and then got up and went downstairs. I checked in with F and he was in the living room relaxing. I came upstairs but didn’t really fall asleep. I tried to. I ended up getting up later and dressing. I spent a bit of time on my computer and somewhere around noon F came upstairs. 

We talked about lunch and I said I’d really like to go to a place that F isn’t too fond of. He grudgingly said it was okay. It’s small, so we decided that we’d wait a little while until the lunch rush was over.

We drove over to Kissa Marina and had a really nice meal. We were able to get a table and I ordered the meal I really wanted, the curry pasta. F had the soup curry and he said that it was good. We spent a bit of time there and then we decided we had to leave. Neither F nor I could think of where to go, so F headed towards the house. I suggested that we go to a nearby drugstore so I could pick up some coffee packets.

At the drugstore, I found a couple of types of coffee and I also got some cocoa. I picked up some pasta and a nice pasta sauce as well.

We left the drugstore and came back to the house. F stayed downstairs and I went upstairs and had some of my new cocoa! I relaxed for a while. I had planned to watch some TV, but I never did. 

F came up after his mother returned, he had a snooze and then went downstairs to make her dinner. When he finished I asked him what he wanted to do tonight. We thought we’d go to a movie in Mikawa, but would have dinner first in Tsuruoka.

However, by the time we got in the car we realized that we wouldn’t really have time to eat in Tsuruoka. We decided to eat in the mall. We drove out to the mall. One cool thing was the fireworks were on in Sakata tonight, so we could see some of them from the road. They looked beautiful.

At the mall, we went and bought our tickets first. I went to the bibinba place and made an order, F decided not to have one tonight. He didn’t have anything to eat. He said his stomach was bothering him. I ate my bibinba and enjoyed it. I took back the tray when I finished and thanked the staff of course.

The food court area was empty apart from us and some staff and just as we were leaving to go to the cinema, one worker came over with two of the leftover crepes and gave them to us for free! We were on our way to the cinema and we couldn’t take them in with us so I suggested that F take them to the car. He did that. 

We got our popcorn and drinks and then went into the movie theatre. We went to see Karate Kid: Legends tonight. It was fun. It wasn’t the greatest movie ever, but it had a good heart and was about decent people. 

After the movie, we left the cinema and came back to the car. It was raining again so we quick-walked to the car. We drove back to Tsuruoka and F was wondering what to make for his mother’s breakfast. I suggested making the gyoza that he bought ages ago but never used. They’re frozen, so it’s not a bad thing! Not sure if he will or not.

I came upstairs and relaxed with my YouTube. I did a few of my usual internet things. When F came upstairs we ate our crepes. I was sad that there were bananas in them. I had said to F that there probably would be, but he didn’t think so. I was right sadly. 

F has been asleep for a while. He was up early poor guy and he’s feeling a bit under the weather again. Sigh. 

Well, that’s about it for tonight. I’ll probably update tomorrow night, but don’t miss me if I don’t. We’re going out for a special dinner so don’t wait up for me!

Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until next time…..

September 12, 2025

Friday - Warm and Sunny, cooler at night

I woke up this morning with my alarm. I hadn’t heard F leave at all this morning. I’m rather glad as I was quite tired from yesterday. I made a quick trip downstairs, came upstairs and sorted my laundry. Then, I went back to bed, watched one or two videos, and fell asleep again. I was rather late getting up next time, but it was okay. 

I took a basket of laundry downstairs and put one load in the machine. I made my breakfast and took it upstairs to eat. It was very nice! It was my usual cereal and yogurt, but this cereal has some mango and papaya in it so it has pops of flavour. 

I spent the next couple of hours running downstairs to either take out or put in some laundry. I hung it up in my room. I also worked on a shirt of mine. I took out the elastic on the wrists and put more in, I made the wrists a little looser so I can push the arms up on my arms. I didn’t finish it properly, but I wanted to see if it would work. I’m thinking of wearing this shirt on Sunday. Not sure yet.

I made my lunch around 3 pm and came back upstairs to eat it. I watched another episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer today. It may be my last episode, depending on what I get up to the next couple of days. 

F called after 5:15 to say he was on his way back to the house so I went downstairs and started to get ready to make dinner. Tonight was an easy meal to finish the week. I did my usual pasta. Last night F picked up some precooked chicken for us, and a salad, so I sliced the chicken. When F came back to the house I asked him if he wanted to eat at 7 and he said yes.  I also asked him if he would go to the shrine with me tonight. I had wanted to go yesterday, but between my trip downtown and hubby being so late, I couldn’t ask. 

So, we ate dinner. After the news, there was a programme on with lots of info about Fukushima and also Sakata in the past. Sakata is the next town up the coast. It was quite interesting. I didn’t understand a lot of it, but the pictures were great. In 1972 I think, there was a huge fire in Sakata. F said that it started in their cinema. 

After the programme finished, I washed the dishes and listened to my podcasts. When I finished, I let F know and I went upstairs to change. 

I got ready to go to the temple. I only took a little bit of money and my ID and phone. I went downstairs and F wasn’t in the house anymore. He was in the car! I had taken out the shopping bags to the car, so when I put them in the car, I asked him if we were driving to the temple.  He thought we were going grocery shopping. What?  I didn’t say anything about going to the store!

He got out of the car, locked the house door, and then we walked to the shrine. It only took 5 or so minutes. We went in and did our offering thing and I sent my love to my family and friends that aren’t here anymore.

We walked back to the house and on the way F mentioned that he needed to do some shopping and asked if I’d like to come with him. I said sure! I did tell him that I didn’t have a mask or money but he said it was okay.

We drove to a nearby grocery store and went in. F picked up some meat for breakfast and then we got some stuff for us! 

We came back to the house and went upstairs after we put away some of the shopping. We had our ice cream right away and then I had some rooibos tea that I had got at the store. After a while, I went downstairs and took a shower. It was a bit shorter tonight since my hair was so much shorter! It was nice.

When I came back upstairs it was too late to watch something on the fire disk, so I just started watching YouTube. F was asleep for a while, but got up and had a drink and maybe a snack. He went back to bed then. 

And that’s my day. It was quite good! I hope the rest of the weekend goes well. F is off work until Wednesday. It’s also our anniversary weekend. We have two days to celebrate, the 14th and the 16th. Yay us. 

Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow…..