February 24, 2026

 Tuesday - Warm and Sunny

I woke up earlier than my alarm today, but after F had left for work. I did my usual thing of going back to bed and sleep for a while. However, I did wake up earlier on purpose. I got a text from my friend to say that she would be a bit late. I snoozed a little longer!

I got up and dressed, but today I didn’t wear my normal around the house clothes, I got ready to go out with my friend. I went downstairs and waited for a few minutes and then just decided to wait outside since it was a nice day out there. 

My friend came a few minutes after that and we decided to go over to Cocos. We exchanged a few gifts for each other and then got on our way. At Cocos we ordered the same thing and then began our chatting and catching up.

Sadly, we were only able to spend a few hours together and she had to go back to work. She drove me back to the house and I went in. 

I went upstairs, changed and relaxed for a while. I had some tea and watched the news. F called after 5pm and said he was on the way back to the house. A little later, I went downstairs to get started on dinner.

Tonight I did toaster oven chicken, potato salad, salad, niku-man, and some steamed cabbage with parmesan and garlic. It was good. Dinner was quite good, but the others didn’t want to eat too much. I was sad about that.

I did the dishes and listened to my favourite movie podcast. It was really good, I have more to hear tomorrow. 

I went upstairs when I finished. I realized that Project Runway was on right then so I turned on the TV and watched it. It was….odd. Where the heck is Nina? I don’t really like Law Roach or whatever his name is. I find him overblown with his own importance. 

After Project Runway finished, F came upstairs and he relaxed too. At 11pm I watched Resident Alien which was good, but not great. I also worked on a new loom knitting project. It’s another hat, but I’m planning something a bit different. 

And that’s about it. F went to bed a lot earlier tonight, and is sleeping away now. I’ll be going to bed really soon too. 

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

February 23, 2026

Monday - Cooler and a bit rainy

Today was a different sort of day! I’m not sure if it was a good day or not really!

I dragged myself out of bed to stay around 11 (hey, it’s a national holiday here), got dressed and then went downstairs and grabbed my yogurt and then had some cereal upstairs. I also had my sandwiches that I bought on Sunday. Five minutes later F asked me if I wanted to go for lunch. Nope. 

We left the house around 12:40 and drove over to Machi-kinema. We went in and paid. Today we saw The Fall, in a digitally remastered version. Machi-kinema held this film over as it was supposed to only be around for a week. It was great and visually so beautiful. Unfortunately, just before the end, I had to go and use the washroom. I got back about 30 seconds before the final credits!

After the movie, F and I decided to have something to eat and went to Gusto. I had their smash burger which was decent, F had a burger with an egg on top. We had drink bar too and had a bit too much of that!

We bought our groceries for the next couple of days and then came back to the house. I put them away, F gave his mother her bento and then we went out to Mt. Kinbo again. 

We went to the festival of lanterns tonight and it was …not great. We caught a bus to the temple area and got out of the bus in a really muddy area. We had to walk up the mountain in the dark on a very broken road. It was a very steep hill and I was struggling. Finally, we got to the area where the festival started. F paid our entrance fee and we went in. We walked up a bunch of steps and then got up to another plateau with a bunch of lanterns. F wanted to go up to the temple and I let him go. I was wearing my summer running shoes and there was a ton of snow and muck on the ground. I really did not want to get my shoes wetter than they were. 

Snow Lanterns

Dancing and Flag/banner waving

We had a free snack of some konjac with mustard and then had a few words when I didn’t “move out of the way of the upcoming people”…there were no people coming up. We did stay to watch some dancing and flag-waving which was fine, but it was cold and rainy and honestly, I was tired! We ended up walking back to the bus area and F made us get on an already crowded bus and then we came back to the parking area. 

It was an okay festival, but it was really small in a way. I don’t think I’ll ever go again. The dark roads and the steep hills were not things I like. 

We talked about where to go for dinner and I suggested Coco Ichibanya. We drove over there and got a table. We both had soup curries, F had the roast chicken one, I had the bacon and smoked cheese one. I really liked it and did NOT order it at a level 4 heat like last time. Oh my gosh, that was horrible. 

We came back to the house after dinner and had a quiet night in. F went downstairs to watch TV, I took a shower. However, before my shower I had to clean my dish from breakfast (no prob), do up the garbage for tomorrow, refill the toilet paper in the toilet room, fill up the kerosene heater from the heater in our room and just generally be busy. I was less than impressed to see that F hadn’t bother to clean the stove. It was awful. It _is_ awful as I decided I wasn’t going to clean it tonight!

I took my shower and then took up the kerosene tank to our room.

It is almost 3 am and F is only just going to go to bed. I’ve been trying to get him to go to bed and let me relax a bit before I go to bed!

So, that’s it for me. Tomorrow I do have plans, hopefully they will happen and you’ll just have to come back to find out whether my plans happen! Until tomorrow….

February 22, 2026

Sunday - Cloudy but warm

I woke up early this morning, F was still in bed! I went downstairs and then came back upstairs and went back to bed. I slept a bit longer, got up and dressed. 

F came upstairs and we talked about where to go for lunch. He wanted to go to Arpeggio and so we went there. We had to wait outside for ten minutes but were able to go in after that. We had a lovely meal but it took ages to arrive. We waited more than 40 minutes which I think is quite a long time to wait. It was today’s theme though! I worked on my book while we waited so it wasn’t too bad. I finally got 1984 finished. It wasn’t my favourite book ever, but I’m glad that I read it. Mostly. 

After lunch we hit up a grocery store for K’s dinner and some snacks, then we went back to the house. F stayed downstairs to clean up and I went upstairs to relax.

At 5 pm K’s Care Manager came and we had our meeting. It went okay I think. I don’t always understand what is being said. Her next appointment with us is on a public holiday in March. I’m not impressed! I don’t even want to go to these meetings, and we have to waste a national holiday talking about a nasty old lady who doesn’t like me! F may not see it that way.

F gave his mother her bento for dinner after the Care Manager left. We headed out to go to the festival. We drove to the place where we were supposed to be able to catch the bus to the top of the mountain and…there was no bus! It was dark there. F checked his phone and I checked my online-source and I noticed something odd. The blurb said that the Lantern Festival was on Sunday February 23rd. Great, except that today was Sunday February 22nd! F’s source said the 23rd as well, so….we were a whole day early! Oh no!  We drove up to the temple area to see the lanterns. The lanterns were built and there was a design made out of snow, but nothing was lit up and there were no people at all. I think we’ll try again tomorrow night, probably.

We talked about where to go for our dinner. F was on a ramen kick again and I told him he could go if he dropped me off somewhere else. He then suggested soba, which I was NOT in the mood for either. We made a quick stop by the house to change out of our boots and then ended up going to To-en, the Chinese restaurant on the other side of the park. We were able to be seated right away, but it took about 45 minutes before we got any food. We had ordered by phone so I was wondering if maybe it hadn’t gone through, but F swore it was okay. Sure enough, my dish showed up next. We ordered 3 dishes to share. I ordered Mapo-dofu on rice, F ordered yakisoba with 5 things and we shared an order of kara-age again. I hated his yakisoba and when he gave me some, he gave me too much. It’s so bland I can’t taste it, but he loves that stuff. Anyway, it was fine. We both ate enough and it was good, for the most part.

After dinner, we hit up the grocery store again just to get something for K’s breakfast, and also for mine. If we go to the early movie tomorrow afternoon, I’ll probably need a quick snack/meal. 

We came back to the house. Upstairs, I decided to watch the episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale that I had recorded last week. They were fine. F went to bed and fell asleep. On Facebook I noticed that people were watching the Canada vs. USA men’s hockey game. I decided to look and see if it was on Japanese TV. Big surprise…it was! So, I watched the second and third period of the game, and then that sad overtime period. Canada lost, but it was a good game and the teams were really well matched. There was a nasty penalty that Canada got in the third period (I think) and it really was nasty. When I saw the replay it made sense. 

And that’s it. Today was a mostly good day. I’m glad that I got through 1984 finally. It was quite the slog in places, other parts were fine. 

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

February 21, 2026

Saturday - Sunny and warm

I woke up when my alarm went off this morning. F and K were just in the process of leaving. I went downstairs, used the loo and then came back upstairs. I went back to bed for a bit. I got out of bed around 11 am and went downstairs with my towel to take a shower. 

It was a rare treat to be able to take a daytime shower. Japanese people rarely shower in the daytime…I prefer it, but I wouldn’t be sure of privacy when K is around, so…

After my shower I went in to talk to F and we talked about lunch. He wanted Arpeggio which is a nice place, but I suggested the place we like in Fujishima-machi. He liked that idea, so he called the restaurant and made a reservation. They get busy sometimes, so it is often necessary. 

We left the house a few minutes later and drove out to Fujishima-machi. We parked and went in. We both had the same lunch, a ginger pork lunch set. It’s reasonable and very good. 

Lunch was great. On the way back to Tsuruoka we stopped at the post office so I could mail some postcards. Just two this time, I’ve been busy this week!

We went over to Komeda coffee and after a couple of minutes of waiting, we got a table and had coffee. I had decaf, F had regular. 

We came back to the house as F said he was tired. I headed upstairs, he stayed downstairs. I spent a lot of time on my computer so I relaxed and enjoyed that. K got back at her usual time and F and her spent the rest of the afternoon together watching the Olympics. I also worked on finishing up the hat that I loom-knit. I like it!

After 7:30 F and I talked about where to have dinner. I gave him a lot of ideas but we ended up going to Misono. I didn’t mind as we haven’t been there in a while and I like the food. At Misono we both had chicken dishes, I had kara-age and F had the chicken cutlet. He liked mine more than his! I thought they were both nice. I didn’t have a pork dish as we’d had pork at lunch. 

Following our meal at Misono we headed over to McDonalds. I had noticed on an ad that they had a new dish, Creme Brulé Hot Donuts. I mentioned them to F and we went over to McDonald to try them. They were okay. Not my favourite, but fine. We had to order on their stand at the door which was a pain in the butt and neither of us knew what we were doing! We had a drink and our hot donuts, and as usual, I had to drag F out of the place. He starts playing games or watching videos on his phone and he doesn’t want to go. 

Looks like a chocolate egg. It isn't!

We went to a drugstore next. I bought a few things for myself and the house. They have reasonable prices for pasta sauces so I got one type, then F picked up an adult beverage for himself. We paid and then came back to the house. 

F set up the rice cooker for himself and K, I headed upstairs. I started the heater and relaxed. It was a pretty nice day so far.

I watched The Hunting Party at 11 pm. It was fine, not anything wonderful yet. I’m not sure if the show will move beyond catching murderers who escaped the prison that blew up. I think they are trying to do that, but I don’t like “big conspiracy” dramas really. Oh well.

F went to bed around midnight, I’m still up. I’ll be going to bed fairly soon I think. I had a good day. I got a lot of my book —1984— read. There’s a big bit in the middle that is so incredibly boring and political, but then when I slowed down and think about what he was writing I did get most of it. I’m around 84% in so not too much more to go. 

Tomorrow we have a couple of ideas of how to spend the day. We also have a meeting with K’s Care Manager tomorrow afternoon. I’m not really looking forward to that. Sigh. 

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

February 20, 2026

 Friday - Clear and sunny

I woke up early again today and I was a bit sad about it. I had half planned to get up at my usual time and go to the movie, but I needed more sleep. I didn’t go. I did find out today that the film has been held over, so I have another chance this weekend if I can get to the cinema. 

I went back to bed and slept quite late. I dragged myself out of bed later and went downstairs. I snagged food for my breakfast and brought it upstairs to eat.  After breakfast I did a load of laundry and when it finished, I hung it up in my room. 

K was up for most of the day today. It’s really unusual these days, so maybe the sunny weather woke her up or something? She even ate one of the lunch plates that I made for her…that’s fairly unusual these days.

I also wrote up another movie today for my column. I’m basically done except for the conclusion and checking grammar and such. Woot! I may have to shorten it which would make me sad, but it could happen. 

I had lunch and watched another episode of The Good Fight. I have now finished Season 5, so I have 10 more episodes to go. I should be okay I think, but I have other shows that I’d like to watch as well that are being taken off soon. Sigh.

Around 5 pm I went downstairs to wash my day’s dishes. I came back upstairs and started to get ready for going out. F said that he’d stop and get a bento for K and he showed up around 6 pm tonight. 

He gave K her bento and told her that we were going out. We did! In the car, I made F check that he had his Aquarium card handy. I had already done that in the house. 

We drove to Tacto, the concert hall in Tsuruoka and parked. We went in and were able to get seats near the back of the room. We weren’t in the big concert hall, we were in a little side area. It was a cool space. We were there to see a free concert by a local performer of the Bass and a guitar player as well. They were really good. We’ve seen the bass player before, she runs a restaurant we go to often, but the guitarist was new to us. F enjoyed it so much that he bought their CD afterwards. At first he wasn’t going to do that as he thought we didn’t have a way to play it, but I reminded him that I can play it on my computer. 

After the concert, he talked about going to a restaurant where the performers might show up later. I reminded him that the restaurant was rather expensive so we went somewhere else. 

We ended up at Cocos which was a nice surprise for me. We had a nice meal there too. I had pasta with a salad and drink bar, F had Caribbean chicken which he said was a bit too spicy. We shared an order of fries that weren’t my idea! 

We came back to the house after dinner and I ripped the cd to my computer. Then, we listened to it. It was very nice. 

F was really tired so he went to bed already. He has to get up early tomorrow to help K get ready for her Day Service. I’m going to take a shower in the morning. With K not being around, I won’t need to wait until night. 

So, that’s it for me. I’m not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

February 19, 2026

Thursday - Snowy and cold

I woke up with my alarm this morning, not earlier. That was nice. I did my usual thing of sleeping late, but got up eventually and got dressed. Today I decided to make some oatmeal for myself. Of course, it boiled over in the microwave so I had to clean that up. It was nice to have it for a change though.

I had a quiet afternoon. I went down early for lunch and prepped a marinade for the meat for dinner tonight, and prepared an onion boil too. Then, I did my lunch and took it upstairs. It was good. I did watch another episode of The Good Fight while I ate it. 

F called around 5:30 and actually made it back to the house before I went downstairs. I was a bit caught up in something. Tonight’s dinner was good. We had the coro-coro steak, onion boil, salad, potato salad, kimchi and some cheese sticks I rescued from the freezer. Dinner was quite nice actually. 

I did the dishes afterwards and then I went upstairs to change my clothes. We went over to Mina and bought groceries for tomorrow and then F drove us over to the gas station where he bought some kerosene. We only made one wrong turn on the way to the gas station. Sigh. F has lived here almost all of his life, so why do I know the city better than him in places?

We came back to the house where he put the kerosene away. I filled up our tank from upstairs and K’s tank in the living room too. F was a dear and took the tank upstairs for me. 

I watched the last couple of episodes of Lynley tonight and really enjoyed them. F did his usual distracting thing of talking to me 5 minutes before the end of the show. I really wanted to tell him to stop talking to me! 

Well, that’s about it for me for today. I didn’t work on my column at all, and I’m not sure I’ll work on it tomorrow or not. Come back later and find out! 

Until tomorrow….

February 18, 2026

Wednesday - Cooler and cloudy

I woke up early this morning, not as early as yesterday, but early for me. I went downstairs and then came back upstairs to the room. I sorted out some clothes for me to wear when I went out later on and then I went back to bed for a snooze. 

I woke up later and then decided that I should stay at the house and work on my column instead of gallivanting around the city and going to a movie. It’s a little ironic that I had to stay back from a movie in order to write my movie column! I could go tomorrow but the weather is supposed to tank so I’m not really too keen to go now. Oh well, I can stay here and watch The Good Fight or something else. 

I got up earlier than usual for me and went downstairs. I grabbed my breakfast and brought it upstairs to eat. I had a quiet morning and then early afternoon. I actually did buckle down and wrote quite a bit of my column, actually enough that I could go out tomorrow and not feel guilty. I’m thinking about it!

I went downstairs around 3 to make my lunch. I was late as I was writing for my column. K was up and in the living room so I offered to heat up her lunch for her. She didn’t know what I meant at first, but I gave her the heated up plate and turned on both the heater and the light in the room for her. She’s a funny old bird at times. She was watching the Olympics.

I came upstairs to eat and also watched another episode of The Good Fight. I’ve been enjoying the episodes a lot lately, and I have to get them all watched before March 20th.

I watched the end part of the news and a little later F called me to say that he was on his way back. I went downstairs around 6pm and got started on washing dishes and doing prep work. Tonight we had a pork stirfry with seaweed and chikuwa (fish paste tubes), rice, potato salad, steamed broccoli and salad. Dinner was good, but F wasn’t overly hungry and neither was K so there were a lot of leftovers. The good thing is that I get leftovers for my lunch too. Woot. I packed K’s lunch before I served dinner so she’s got enough. 

I did the dishes after dinner and listened to some podcasts while I did that. When I finished the dishes, I started on the garbage in the room. I got that done and then F helped me with his mother’s garbage. He got her stuff out of her room. I tied up the bag and put it into the genkan for him to take out later. 

I headed upstairs for some rest and relaxation. I watched a bit of YouTube and then went downstairs around 10:30 to take my shower. The water temperature fluctuated while I was in the shower so that was a bit unpleasant!

I came back upstairs and talked to F for a few minutes. I reminded him that there is a free concert on Friday night that he had wanted to go to and told him that if he does want to go, we have to plan it now. Tomorrow we’ll have to get food for breakfast and lunch and maybe he’ll pick up some bentos for dinner on Friday. 

I watched The Irrational off the DVR. I was about 15 minutes late to start watching so I watched it that way. It worked well tonight- it doesn’t always work.

So that’s about it. Since midnight I’ve been finishing up nightly things and getting myself ready to go to bed. I’m not sure if I’ll go out tomorrow or not, probably not if I’m honest. It’s a shame as I want to see the film on a big screen, but I need to finish up my column if I can. I’d also like to send a couple of postcards.

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