May 17, 2026

Sunday - Hot and sunny, but a bit hazy

Today was a good day. We were a bit busy for part of it too. 

I woke up just before 10 am and went downstairs. I did try to go back to bed when I came back upstairs, but F came in a few minutes later and basically wouldn’t let me just sleep! He phoned the restaurant in Fujishima to see if we could get in today. We could, so he made a reservation for noon and a few minutes later I got dressed. We left the house around 11:30 and drove to the restaurant. We were a couple of minutes late, but I think we were fine. 

We had a very nice meal, we both had the ginger pork set meal. F didn’t like his as much as I did, but I thought it was nice. We had a table by the window into the garden so we had a lovely view. After we paid and left, we headed back into Tsuruoka proper.

We had a glass of iced tea or a cup of coffee at Cafe Studio Cinq. It was nice to go there after a long time. We hit the tail end of their lunch time but we only wanted our drinks as we’d just eaten. 

We went to a bank so F could get some money and then I reminded him I needed to go to the conbini. I made a deposit to my Suica card. It was getting a bit low with all of the travel I’ve done recently. 

I asked F if we could pop into a store near the convenience store and he said yes. It was one that I’ve never been in before, I’ve been in another branch but not that particular store before. It’s one of those old fashioned Japanese stores that sells everything. You can buy clothes, food, home goods, and even plants for your garden…all at reasonable prices. I wanted to buy a cheap black cotton T-shirt to mend a pair of pyjamas with. Well, it took me less than three minutes to find one, and then another 30 minutes to leave the store! F found a uniform top for himself, some small beer glasses and a few other things. I got myself some mikan flavoured rooibos tea for half the price I would get somewhere else and I found they had a bunch of craft goods that were half price. I got myself a Tunisian crochet hook for something like 350yen. Next time I want to make something in the round and need new double pointed knitting needles or needles with cord between them, I know where I’m going to look for them. F bought some plants for the garden too.

We came back to the house. I put away some of our stuff and F planted his plants in his planters. I went upstairs for a bit of a relaxing time and F came up a bit later.

I was sitting on the chair that F tried to fix last night. I leaned back a little in the chair and there was a loud crack! Yikes. It’s kind of broken. Dear F went downstairs and got me another chair and it is so much better. It isn’t wiggly like the first one. I feel a lot more secure on this chair. 

F made his mother some dinner around 6:30 and a bit later we went out. We left after 7:15, after a bit of discussion about where to go. F wouldn’t suggest anything so I ran a few places past him. We finally agreed on sushi and drove over to Kappa Sushi. I made him wait a bit and I think I was right to do so. We got in right away and the food didn’t take too long to arrive. 

We had a good meal and a lot of different types of fish and some deep fried foods too. It was fairly decent and I didn’t feel like I ate too much afterwards. 

We followed up dinner with some shopping for tomorrow’s dinner. We went to the nearby grocery store and I bought stuff for breakfasts and dinner too. Tomorrow I’m going to do hamburgers and fries. Yay me. We got a bunch of stuff and F bought some of his adult beverage. 

We also hit up the nearby drugstore and I picked up some personal stuff. I got new shampoo and laundry detergent. I forgot to buy that last time I was in the store. 

We came back to the house and I put away the food and the detergent. F and I headed upstairs and got changed into our pyjamas. Then, we did something that we’ve been meaning to do for ages. We changed the bottom sheet on the bed. It takes a bit of work as the bed is big and F has a lot of things right next to his side of the bed. 

F went to bed soon after and I watched a couple of TV programmes on streaming. I watched an episode of Evil that was fairly gruesome and then the next episode of Margo’s Got Money Troubles. Nicole Kidman was in this one and she was quite funny. 

That’s about it. Since the TV went off, I’ve watched a bit of YouTube and worked on my blog and other end of day things. 

Tomorrow I’m planning to go off to see a movie in the morning and then probably have lunch out. I’ve been jonesing for Indian food, but sadly the place I can get to tomorrow isn’t my favourite. Still, naan is naan!

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

May 16, 2026

Saturday - Hot and sunny

I woke up early when F woke up…It was 6 something am. I went back to sleep. I did get up and make a washroom trip around 8:30. F and K were still in the house.

I went back to sleep for a bit. F came back in the room around 10:15 and suggested going for breakfast but I said no! I wanted to take a shower this morning. I got up a bit later, did take my shower and then got dressed. F and I decided to do something a little different today. We went to Blackbird Market for lunch. It’s a nice restaurant in Tsuruoka. I’ve been a few times. It’s a little expensive compared to the places we usually go, but very nice. 

For our lunches, F chose the starters lunch. We got a small salad and a few hors d’oeuvres, including an omelette, a crispy rice ball, some chicken and some mushrooms. There were other things too and they were all delicious. For our mains, F had a paella with  kinkaton pork and I had garlic rice with kinkaton pork. F liked his, I liked mine, but did find it a bit too salty. I think they had salted the meat before cooking or something. I would have it again, but might ask for less salt!

After lunch, F suggested driving to Fujishima to see the wisteria. I was fine with that. In Fujishima, we first up found a post office so that I could mail off my postcards. I wrote two up yesterday so that was good. 

We finally found Hisu Park and went for a walk through the wisteria. It was beautiful there. We could hear the bees buzzing. They were hard at work and not bothering the people walking underneath the flowers. There were quite a few colours of wisteria and the scent was gorgeous too.

After the park, we made a quick stop to get some Japanese sweets for K (and us!) and then headed back to Tsuruoka proper. F took us over to Komeda for coffee and that was nice. I had an iced decaf and F had his usual blend coffee. 

We went back to the house after this and waited for K to return. F stayed downstairs, I came upstairs to chill out. After a bit, F came up for a rest, but went back downstairs around 7 pm to make his mother’s dinner. 

We didn’t go out until 8:30. I had suggested going to Gusto as I wanted some fries and no rice for my dinner. F didn’t like my suggestion but couldn’t come up with one of his own! 

Finally we drove over to Gusto and found a table. F had a kara-age set meal and I had a mixed grill. We shared an order of fries and we both had the drink bar too. My dinner was nice and I enjoyed it. When we left, I used my senior discount to reduce the cost and then cashed in a bunch of my points to reduce the price of dinner. Yay for me.

We made a fairly long trek through the nearby grocery store to get food for K’s breakfast. We paid and then came back to the house. I headed upstairs and then a few minutes later F came up. I checked the bottom of my chair up here and noticed that it was bolted together rather than just glued. I asked F if he could tighten the bolts sometime. Well, of course he decided to do it tonight! It took a while, but to be fair, it is much better and I really do appreciate it. I watched FBI which was quite an involved one about a Prison riot. It was good.

And that’s about it. F went to bed around midnight or a bit later and I’m still up, but I’m quite tired. I’m not exactly sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. We’ll have to do the usual shopping and getting ready for the week ahead. I hope that we’re also able to enjoy the day together. 

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

May 15, 2026

Friday - Warm and Sunny, muggy in the am

I woke up before F left this morning. He was in the room dressing when I woke up. I’m not sure why I woke up, but I did. I went downstairs and then came back to the room. F left and I went back to bed!

I got up a few hours later and dressed. I went downstairs and then came back up to the room. I sorted out my laundry and then took it downstairs and started the washing machine. I grabbed my breakfast and brought it back upstairs.

I ate my breakfast, hung up my laundry and then decided that I’d write a couple of postcards for Postcrossing. I got them ready before lunch.

I went downstairs to make my lunch and brought that upstairs. I watched an episode of Elsbeth while I ate, it was the episode with Stephen Colbert in it and it was rather funny. 

I watched a bit of the news and then waited for F to call. He called after 5 and said he’d stop at a store to get some food for his mother’s breakfast. 

I went downstairs to start on dinner. It was a simple dinner tonight and everything went well. When F arrived I asked him to pick the pasta sauce and he chose carbonara. No worries. He went upstairs to relax and I got into the cooking thing. Tonight we had pasta with carbonara sauce, ham, salad and after F’s ice cream that he bought for us.  It was all good.

I did the dishes after dinner and then went upstairs.  I watched a bit of YouTube and then decided I’d watch something on streaming. I watched an episode of The Boys and after that the last episode of The Big Door Prize. I’m sad that it was the last episode as I feel there should have been more story. I liked the characters and want to know what else happened to them!

I turned off the TV after midnight and then started doing my end of day things. I’m going to head to bed soon. It wasn’t a terribly long day, but I’m a bit tired and need some sleep!

I hope that we’ll have a good day tomorrow but I can’t be sure. Come back later and find out. Until tomorrow….

May 14, 2026

Thursday - Cloudy and cooler

I woke up after F left this morning, but quite a while before my alarm was due to go off. I came back upstairs and went back to bed and had a snooze. I did get up a bit earlier than yesterday. Yay. 

I went downstairs after dressing and checked the mail. After that, I measured out my yogurt and brought it upstairs. I had breakfast and while I was watching YouTube I got a reminder that there was a book club meeting online later in the afternoon. Ooh. I’d forgotten!

I was expecting a delivery today and I kept hearing the van outside. It was never there!

I joined my Book Club and it was nice. There weren’t too many people there, so it was a nice size. I talked about what I am reading now, what I just finished and got a talking to by the lead for putting myself down for reading a couple of romances! I know she’s right, but I still feel that I’m wasting my degree by not reading classics and good stuff.  However, to be fair to myself, I have read 1984 this year and I’m also reading an Ondaatje when I go to the doctor’s office. And, if the books I read annoy me too much, I stop reading them! 

I had to leave Book Club a bit early as I needed to eat lunch! I went downstairs and made my lunch, then brought it back to the room to eat. I watched an episode of Matlock and enjoyed that too. 

During my lunch time the delivery did arrive so I made a mad dash downstairs and actually received my box. Yay. I brought it upstairs and continued with my lunch!

F called after 5 and said he was on his way back. I went downstairs a bit later but he was here before I got started on the dishes! The thing was, during washing the dishes, I realized that there was no more hot water. I texted him and asked if he’d refilled the tank’s kerosene in a while. He hadn’t. He came back downstairs and filled up the tank for me. Yay. 

Tonight I made chicken drumsticks in the air fryer, cucumber pickle stuff and I also made some mushroom fried rice. That meant that dinner was rather late tonight. Oh dear. F came downstairs before I called him, probably wondering what was wrong. I asked him to take the plates out to the table and he didn’t understand me. Did he really not understand or was he trying to get out of doing anything to help? I haven’t figured it out yet.

We also had regular rice and some salad. Dinner was quite good and we all ate quite a bit.

I did the dishes afterwards. There were quite a lot so it took me ages tonight. I finally got it done and it was around 9 pm.  I talked to F and told him that I thought we would have to go to MaxValu as I wouldn’t be able to go to Mina in time to do a proper shop. He didn’t understand at first. I think he wasn’t really listening. He also wasn’t feeling that great.

I got changed and then F had to run upstairs and get his wallet! We finally left for MaxValu and I went inside and did the shopping. F stayed in the car, as I said, he didn’t feel that well tonight. Poor thing.

We came back to the house when I finished and I put away the groceries. I headed upstairs and at 11pm I watched The Rainmaker. I quite like this show. I think it might be ending next week though. Or soon. 

That’s about it for me for today. Tomorrow I’ll be doing some laundry and we’ll see what else I can get up to. 

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

May 13, 2026

Wednesday - Hot and Sunny

I woke up before my alarm this morning, F had already left for work. I went downstairs, and then came back upstairs to the room. I basically went back to sleep and slept for a lot longer. I was able to get up yesterday quite early, but today I did not!

I got up finally, dressed, and went downstairs. I grabbed my breakfast and then took it upstairs to eat. I had a quiet morning and afternoon. I didn’t get any of the things I was hoping to do today, but I didn’t expect to really.

I went downstairs early to get my lunch. I had most of my usual things, but I didn’t eat my lunch. I also didn’t watch anything on TV during my lunch. I was doing something on my computer and didn’t want to split my focus!

F phoned after 5 to say he was on his way back and then a bit later I made my way downstairs to the kitchen. Tonight I was quite busy in the kitchen. I made the cucumber pickle, first time in ages, then I worked on the main dish. I couldn’t get my favourite stir-fry mix last night so F and I picked out another one. We got one that said to use hacksai and pork. Anyway, that’s what I made tonight. It was okay. I didn’t think it had a lot of flavour. It was nice and easy to make, but honestly, I probably wouldn’t make it again unless I can’t get the good mix. We also had some steamed broccoli and salad and rice. It was a decent dinner.

I did the dishes and listened to my podcasts. When I finished with the dishes I did up the garbage. It was a bit annoying when I got to K’s stuff…she doesn’t sort it out and she doesn’t bag up her tissues. Yuck. F gave me a hand with her stuff from the bedroom so that was good of him. 

I headed upstairs and watched a bit of YouTube while I relaxed. After 10 I went downstairs and took a shower. I forgot to turn up the water heater in the kitchen, so the shower I took wasn’t very warm at all. It wasn’t freezing and I’m glad it wasn’t winter, but it wasn’t the warmest one I’ve ever taken! It was a bit funny really.

I went back upstairs and watched The Irrational. Tonight’s mystery was about astronauts. It was fine really. After midnight, the TV went off and I went back to YouTube and my end of day stuff.

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. I should write some postcards, a letter to my bestie and more importantly, my column. Yikes. Come back later if you like and hear if I get any of it done! Until tomorrow….

May 12, 2026

Tuesday - Hot and sunny

Today was a day. I’m tired as heck, the sun, heat and the walking that I did, plus the slightly less amount of sleep from last night means that I’m a bit tired. 

I woke up around 5:30 or so. F was sitting at the bottom of the bed, playing with his phone. I don’t know why. I went back to sleep. 

I had set my alarm for 7:15 but in all honesty, I woke up before that. I stayed in bed until my alarm went off and got up and said goodbye to F. He left before 7:30. I got dressed, checked my email quickly and then went downstairs. I was in the genkan about to put on my shoes when I noticed the time. It was 8:17 and my bus was at 8:20. Yikes. I put on my shoes, locked the door behind me and then did a fast-walk to the bus stop. I got there, but the bus didn’t come. I thought that I might have missed it, but I hadn’t seen the bus go by. I decided that maybe I’d catch the bus going in the other way…I might be late for my train, but there would be one a bit later. I was about to cross the road to the other stop when I saw my bus coming towards me. It was about 12 minutes late. The norm is about 5-7 minutes so 12 seemed a bit much.

I rode the bus to the station. Since the bus was late, I had less time in the station. I bought my ticket then went into the convenience store and bought a sandwich, water and an onigiri. After that, I made my way over to the platform and got on the train a couple of minutes later.

I had a lovely ride over to Sakata. I haven’t been on this train in years, and I missed it. I used to ride the train to Sakata twice a week for work and I always enjoyed the scenery. In Sakata, I got off the train and had a washroom break. I ended up missing the bus that I planned to catch, but Google Maps told me that I could catch the next one in about 10 minutes. It worked out for me as the bus deposited me in a place I knew, so it was easy to make my way over to the Immigration Office.

When I arrived, I freshened up as I was a tad sweaty, then went into the office. I was the only person there and was basically done in about 25 minutes or less. I have my new Zairyu card. Yay! Unfortunately the picture is horrible but I refused to try and have my picture taken again so I’ll deal with it!

I texted my Sakata friend to let her know that I was finished and she texted me to say that she was really busy for a while. I let her know that I would walk back to the City Hall and if there was a coffee shop along the way I’d chill out for a while. Well, there wasn’t, but there was a nice chill out space in the city hall, so I grabbed a table and an iced cocoa and relaxed and read a bit on my phone. There was a cafe section and I got myself an iced tea and a couple of sweet treats. 

My friend let me know that she was free for a bit, so she picked me up at the parking lot and we went to a bakery near the big park. The bakery is next to the building that was used in the movie Departures (Okuribito). I grabbed some bready things and then ordered myself a katsu sand, a tonkatsu sandwich. It was big! I ate too much, even though things were amazing. I actually had to have the waitress wrap one of my goodies as I couldn’t eat anymore!

My friend had to leave as she had to go back to work. She did offer to drive me to Mikawa later in the day, but we discovered that there would be a bus in about 45 minutes so I told her I’d take that instead. She dropped me back at City Hall. I stayed inside for a few minutes before making my way over to the bus stop. The bus was on time and I boarded and rode it all the way to the Mikawa Mall.

At the mall, I didn’t do too much. I was tired so decided to have another drink. I went to the Food Boat Cafe (mall kiosk) and had an iced tea with boba. I nursed that for a while and it was very nice. 

I did a very little shopping after that. I got a few things from the grocery store and then went over to Seria, a one hundred yen shop. I got another eye mask for myself. I really like the one I’m using now, but it lets the light in. I’m not sure what the point of that it. I like the style and I like the feel of it, it goes down quite low on my cheeks, but it isn’t light blocking at all. 

I decided I’d go to Doutor and have a drink and relax more. I did that. I didn’t feel too bad about taking up a nice table as they weren’t busy. I drank my iced rooibos and surfed Facebook on my phone. F phoned me after he finished work and I invited him for a drink. When he arrived about 15 minutes later he didn’t want a drink. He wanted an ice cream! I bought him one and I got another drink, this one a decaf latte. It was very nice. He did ask if I wanted to go out for dinner, but I reminded him that I had bought food for dinner tonight. It was only store pizzas and salad, but it wouldn’t take too long to get on the table. 

We drove back to Tsuruoka and went in the house. I changed my clothes and then went downstairs to get dinner on the table. It didn’t take too long. We had a smallish teriyaki chicken pizza and a quatre fromage pizza, plus salad and some kabocha salad. Dinner was good, but F was still hungry afterwards. He had some noodles later!

After I finished the dishes, F and I left the house and went to the grocery store. I had decided I’d do my stir-fry with seaweed but they didn’t have any of the seasoning packets left. NO! I was so sad. I got another packet and I’m going to try that instead. We got our food for the next couple of days and paid and left. 

We hit up a drugstore on the way back to the house. We were running low on toilet paper [I NEVER want to get too low on TP since it is one of the first things that disappears from the stores in the event of an earthquake!] and dishwashing liquid. We got a few things and then checked out.

We came back to the house and F made some rice for tomorrow night. I put the groceries away and then went upstairs. I watched Law & Order at 11pm and then turned off the TV. I’ve watched a little bit of YouTube and I’m just winding down so I can get to bed soon. I probably won’t be getting up early tomorrow. I’m quite tired. I walked about 8 times the amount I usually do and I feel good…but my feet are a tad sore!

Anyway, that was my day. It was good. I got to see my friend, renew my Alien Registration Card, and ride buses and trains and walk in the sunshine. 

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