April 24, 2026

 Friday - Cool but sunny

I woke up this morning a few minutes before my alarm. I made a trip downstairs then came back upstairs and sorted out my laundry for later. Then, I went back to bed, watched a few videos and fell asleep on them. I ended up oversleeping, but did finally drag myself out of bed.  I got dressed and then went downstairs with my laundry. I had thought to make more oatmeal today, but K was up and in the living room so I chose not to. I also got a couple of postcards in the mail today.

I came upstairs and ate my breakfast. I had to go down a couple of times to get my laundry, but all in all, I had a quiet afternoon. 

I did go downstairs a little early today to get my lunch. When I came back up to the room I watched another episode of Departure. It turns out that Christopher Plummer wasn’t a good guy in this. Sigh. 

F called me a bit after 5 and said that he was going shopping before he came back to the house. I went downstairs and got started on dinner. I did my usual pasta dinner, so we had salad, garlic mayo spaghetti and sliced duck breast. It was quite popular. Both K and I had seconds of pasta, F didn’t. It was unusual for K to have seconds so she must have liked it!

I did the dishes afterwards and then talked to F afterwards. Golden Week is coming up and I suggested that we take turns cooking in the evening that are national holidays. Either cook, or get special meals from the grocery store. I know that going out to eat on holidays, even though we go to relatively inexpensive places, does add up. He said he thought it was a good idea. I just don’t want to get “gifted” with doing all the meal planning, cleaning up and everything else for all three days. Mind you, F isn’t the greatest cook…he thinks he is, but he really isn’t. 

We had a quiet evening. I came upstairs first and watched some YouTube. Then, I decided I’d watch a bit of TV. I watched an episode of Evil and then an episode of The Boys. That was wild. F made a quick trip to a conbini to pay a bill and buy a few snacks for us! I didn’t even know he’d left, he didn’t mention it before he left. 

Since midnight I’ve been doing my end of day stuff and catching up on my YouTube watching. I’m not sure what we’re going to get up to tomorrow. We might go and do some shopping, Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

April 23, 2026

Thursday - Cooler and very windy

I woke up when my alarm went off this morning. F had left and I hadn’t heard him at all. Ear plugs are wonderful things! I went downstairs, came back to the room and went back to bed for a bit. I watched a few videos on my phone and snoozed too. 

I dragged myself out of bed later and dressed. I went downstairs and made breakfast. Today I made myself some porridge and it was very nice. I need to do it more, I know it is very healthy.

I came upstairs to eat breakfast. I also had received a letter from my bestie today so I wrote her a letter back. It was a really long one! I hope I don’t need to add more postage to the envelope.

I had a quiet afternoon. I did watch a show from the History Channel about a heist at a museum. It was hosted by Pierce Brosnan which I thought was funny. 

Around 3 I went downstairs and made my lunch. I brought it upstairs to the room to eat and watched an episode of The Great British Sewing Bee. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it. 

I didn’t hear from F tonight so I went downstairs around quarter to 6 to start getting dinner ready. I did the dishes and had even finished them before I heard from F. He’d had to go to Yamagata city again. 

F came back to the house at 6:45 so I started cooking after that. Tonight we had ginger pork that was pre-marinated, salad, spicy steamed cabbage and mushrooms, steamed veggies and rice. I think dinner was quite good and most of the foods disappeared. Yay me.

I did the dishes afterwards and listened to a couple of podcasts. I made some rooibos tea for tomorrow’s dinner as well. I hope I’m not the only person drinking it.

I went upstairs when I finished in the kitchen and relaxed for a while. After 10:20 I went downstairs and took a shower. When I came back up to the room, F was sleeping and the lights were dimmed. I turned on my light in my side of the room and then watched The Rainmaker. It was quite a good episode again. I’m quite enjoying this show too.

And that’s about it. Since midnight I’ve turned to YouTube and my end of day things. I also updated my Goodreads list as I just finished another book. It wasn’t a good one. My next one looks like it’ll be a bit smutty. I hope it’s fun at least!

Well, that’s about it for me for today. Tomorrow I’ll have to do some laundry and get ready for the weekend. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

April 22, 2026

Wednesday - Windy and cooler

I woke up before my first alarm and made a trip downstairs. I came back upstairs to the room and didn’t sort out my clothes like usual. I just went back to bed and slept and watched videos. I got up a bit later and was in the midst of getting dressed when I heard K yelling for me. There was mail for me. I threw on the rest of my clothes and went downstairs. I got two postcards in the mail today. Woot.

I had a quiet day at the house today. I had my breakfast and registered my cards. I just had a lovely quiet afternoon that I really needed.

F had texted me that he is going to take off another day in a couple of weeks to get the results of the MRI that he booked a couple of days. 

I had lunch around 3 and today watched another episode of Lie To Me. It was quite good. I wanted something a bit lighter than the airplane drama. 

I went downstairs around 5:45 and got started on dinner. Really, I just did the dishes at first. F came back a bit after 6 pm and then I took a break and finished the book I was reading. 

Tonight’s meal was salt lemon chicken done in the toaster oven, frozen vegetables, salad, potato salad and some flavoured rice that F made. It was quite good and I got it on the table very close to 7pm so yay me. 

After dinner, I cleared the table, and then did the dishes. I got them all done and then started on the garbage. I did the stuff in the kitchen and the bathroom, then went into the living room. F helped me by gathering some of his mother’s garbage, but I did some of it too. He seemed a bit testy with me. 

After I finished the garbage downstairs I went upstairs to change. I got ready and then I went downstairs. F and I got in the car and drove to Mina Shopping Area. 

I went into the building and did the shopping for the next couple of days. I’m glad about that. I picked up something for F’s and K’s breakfasts and then I checked out and gave F his change.

We came back to the house via the Post Office for a minute to drop off my postcards that I wrote today. Back at the house I unpacked the groceries and F set up the rice cooker. 

I came upstairs, put on my pjs and then relaxed with a bit of YouTube. At 11pm I turned on the TV and watched The Irrational again tonight. It was about a horse that killed someone. 

I watched the Music Break and then turned off the TV. I got stuck into more YouTube and doing my end of day things. I’m about done now and I should try to get myself off to bed. 

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. Come back later if you like and hear about my day. Until tomorrow….

April 21, 2026

Tuesday - Colder and rainy early on, sunny but cool in the afternoon.

Oh, I forgot to say that yesterday F and I went to the Police Station and checked if the money I found in December was claimed or not. It hadn’t been, so we were able to get it. It isn’t much, but I can put that thousand yen (roughly 10 dollars) to good use!

I woke up a bit late this morning. My alarm went off, but I didn’t really wake up. I finally dragged myself out of bed and downstairs. 

I did do my usual snooze and videofest, and then got up later and dressed. I took my laundry downstairs and started the first load of two. I also brought my breakfast upstairs and had that.

I really had a quiet day today. I received a couple of postcards today from Indonesia and the US, both were quite cool.

Lunch was around 3 pm and I watched another episode of Departure while I ate. It’s a cool show and I’m enjoying it.

F called after 5 pm to say he was on his way back to the house so a bit later I went downstairs and got started on dinner. Tonight it was hamburgers and fries with salad and potato salad. I thought they were good, but K thought her burger was bigger than the one I gave F so she tried to swap burgers with him. If she’d waited until I was out of the room and just switched plates with him, she might have got away with it, but she didn’t. I told F when he came in the room and he made her swap it back!

I did the dishes after dinner as usual and then sat in the kitchen for a couple of minutes until my podcast ended. I went upstairs and relaxed with some YouTube until the new Law & Order show started. It was okay. I haven’t really watched a lot of Law & Order so I’m not sure which version this is. 

Since midnight I’ve been working on my end of day things and blogging. F is still up quite late and he snidely told me he’d be up until 3 as he couldn’t sleep until then. I think he’s hinting that I wake him up when I go to bed. I try not to, but he won’t do any of the things I do to stay asleep. I wear an eye mask and earplugs and I sleep quite well. I’m not sure why he won’t do that. I hope this isn’t going to start a new round of him whining about me going to bed late. 

Anyway, I had better end this here or I’ll be the one whining. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day….until tomorrow….

April 20, 2026

Monday - Warm and sunny

I woke up after my alarm went off this morning. I snoozed until a bit late and then went downstairs. I came back up to the room and then went back to bed for a bit. I watched a few videos, maybe slept a little and then dragged myself out of bed and into some clothes!

F came back from his doctor’s office. He’s going to have an MRI in a couple of weeks. We chatted about where to go for lunch and I suggested going to his favourite place, the Eel place. They have a good lunch special and I know that F likes that place. 

We drove over to the restaurant and got seated at the counter. We had fish! There was sashimi, some fried fish, and a bit of grilled mackerel. We also had miso soup and rice. It was huge, but really good. 

After lunch, we decided to go to the newly renovated Kamo Aquarium. It was a good call as it wasn’t too busy today. They’ve changed a few things and they have more tanks. It looks great really. 

When we left the aquarium we came back into Tsuruoka and went to Gyomu Supa. We picked up quite a few things. F picked up some stuff that he wanted and I picked up some too. I didn’t have as much as I hoped as they were out of some of my favourite things. 

We came back to the house and I put away the groceries I had bought. I went upstairs for a while and relaxed. I think F was a bit upset with me because I told him I had no intention of making dinner. If he springs dinner cooking on me two hours before dinner time on a day when I’ve been walking all over the city and getting tired…it isn’t going to happen. If we’d talked about it in the morning or early afternoon I might have been okay with it. Don’t spring last minute cooking on me darling!

Just before 5 pm we had an earthquake. I was sitting in my room upstairs when the room started to move. There was a big jolt and then some movement of the room. I was sitting up here with my shirt off as I was hot, so I put my shirt back on in case I had to make a run for it! Fortunately, we didn't have any damage here. The earthquake was in the ocean outside Iwate. I've heard from a couple of friends that live there that they are okay. Whew!

F made his mother dinner and then a bit later we went out for our. I suggested a couple of places that I like and F picked one of them. We went to Misono. I had the kara-age platter…I didn’t get rice or miso soup so I was quite happy with that. 

After our dinner, F and I went over to PAL grocery store and did our shopping. I think we did fairly well, we got quite a lot of stuff for our next couple of days of groceries. 

We came back to the house and I put the groceries away. I went upstairs and relaxed for a bit, I put on my pyjamas. After 10:30 I went downstairs and I took a shower. Before the shower though, I did a bit of cleaning in the shower room. It needs more work, but it got started at least. 

I came up to the room and watched a bit of TV. I put on the first episode of the third season of Loot. It was really funny…Henry Winkler was in it too.

F went to bed around midnight and I am still up, but I hope to go to bed soon. Tomorrow I’ll probably do some laundry and of course I’ll be making dinner. Come back later if you like and hear all about my Tuesday. Until tomorrow….

April 19, 2026

 Sunday - Warm & Sunny

I slept in a bit today. I first woke up around 10 I think. I went downstairs then came back to bed for a bit of a longer snooze. I did get a bit of company after a while. F came in the room and we had some snuggle time until I overheated. 

F suggested going to Sakata to a restaurant we like but later on I checked and I discovered it was closed. His second choice was closed too. I suggested that we go to one of the keiten sushi places in Sakata that we don’t have in Tsuruoka, so that’s what we did. 

We drove to Sakata, had to wait about 15 minutes to be seated. After that, we ordered a few types of sushi, some fries (excellent btw) and some other things like duck breast on rice. We both had drinks there, I had an iced cafe latte, F had a yuzu juice. 

When we finished and paid, we left and drove back towards Tsuruoka. I had asked F to stop in at Uniqlo so that I could check if they had the one thing I buy there. They only sell the Mens Tank Tops in summer so I wanted to check. Yattah! They had them in. I had to search for them and there they were. I picked up a few for me and a friend. They are excellent. Cotton, comfortable and nice colours. Today I found light gray, dark gray and navy blue. I bought them and came back to the car. F had stayed in the car as his back was really bad again.

We came back to Tsuruoka and the house. I came upstairs and spent time on my computer. After a bit, F came upstairs and had a nap. He slept rather late.  Around 7pm I suggested he make something for his mother’s dinner, which he did. 

F came upstairs finally and I was wondering if he’d even want to go out as it was rather late in the evening. He said he did, so we ended up at Cocos.

I had the double hamburg plate with a bun and F had the Japanese style kara-age set meal. Mine was fine, he said his was salty. We had a couple of nice drinks from the drink bar. They have decaf coffee so I had a decaf cafe latte that was lovely. 

We finished up around 10 pm so it was too late to go to a grocery store. I suggested checking out a drugstore as they sometimes sell food and have a mini-grocery store there. We found a few things, he got himself some allergy medicine, I got some bran cereal and we found a sandwich for K’s breakfast. She doesn’t know that F is off work tomorrow. He’s going off to the doctor so he won’t have to cook her breakfast. He’s under strict instructions to bring something back for K’s lunch though. 

Back at the house I relaxed with a spot of YouTube before deciding to watch an episode of Cardinal. It was good. It’s a Canadian detective show, albeit one with an American star (but I like him so am not too upset over it). The plot thickened today!

Since midnight I’ve been watching YouTube and getting on with my usual end of day things. I’ll hopefully get to bed soon enough. 

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

April 18, 2026

Saturday - Cloudy and rainy, cooler

I woke up this morning earlier than I planned! I went downstairs and then came back up to the bedroom. I went back to sleep and slept a little longer. 

I got up around 10:30, dressed and got ready for my trip to the doctor’s office. I had had the strangest dream during my snooze that I was back at Le Banc and was trying to sell a customer a big package of nuts for some promotion. I couldn’t ring it in as I couldn’t sign into my till and none of my co-workers would tell me how much the nuts cost so I could just take the guy’s money. It was bizarre. I haven’t thought about the bank in ages!

 F and I left a bit after 11 and made our way to the office. It was the usual hurry up and wait thing, but it wasn’t bad overall. F has been under the weather so he was able to get a CT scan and a blood test and the results today so that was great. 

After the doctor’s visit we decided to go to the Taiwan restaurant for lunch. We drove over and it wasn’t too busy. We went in and ordered fairly quickly. I had the kimchi fried rice which came with two pieces of karage and some egg soup. I liked my lunch, but poor F didn’t like his. He had yakisoba with karage and soup. 

When we finished eating, F said he’d like some coffee so we went to Komeda and after a short wait were seated. I had a decaf coffee, F had real coffee. 

When we finished, we visited the nearby hardware store for some house necessities. I got some liquid hand soap, we got some drain cleaner and some mould killer. We also got some tissues for K.

We came back to the house and I went upstairs and relaxed. F stayed downstairs to wait for his mother. He went off to the grocery store to get some food for his mother and I got ready for going out. I wasn’t sure if F would still be okay with going out and he was. Whew!

We left the house around 5:45 and got to the cinema in time for a change. Yay. I bought a drink and then we bought our tickets. Well, F bought his. I had a free ticket so I used that. We went to see Marty Supreme. It was surprisingly funny but Marty was not the kind of person that I’d consider a hero. The last bit of the film was set in Japan in the 50s so it was cool to see the difference between then and now. Chalamet was good, I see why he was in the running for best actor but the character was horrible. And it was all about Table Tennis. I had a private student who was a table tennis coach at the place he worked and he talked about table tennis non-stop for the 7 years that I taught him. I don’t play table tennis and have even less desire to start now!

After the movie we went to Tsukiya for dinner. It wasn’t the nicest dinner obviously, but it was fine. I had the gyudon with tender crisp vegetables and I enjoyed those. I would have liked more meat though.

We came back to the house and relaxed. F isn’t feeling that great still so he has been sleeping a bit. I watched FBI at 11pm and then YouTube before and after that.

We tried to come up with a few ideas for tomorrow. I’m not sure what we’re going to do. F had Monday off to go and see a doctor. We have a few things planned to do on Monday, but not much for tomorrow!

Come back later if you like and hear all about our Sunday. Until tomorrow….