April 1, 2026

Wednesday - Cloudy and cool

I think I did wake up when F was getting ready for work. I sneaked a peek at him and then went back to sleep. When my alarm went off later I got up and went downstairs. I came back to the room and then went back to sleep. I did sort out my clothes for later though.

I snoozed a bit and dragged myself out of bed finally. I got dressed and then had a quick breakfast and tried to spend time on my computer until I realized I had to leave right away to catch the bus. I went downstairs and as K was up, tried to tell her I was going out to the post office and I would be back around 5 pm. I’m not sure how much of that she understood!

I walked to the bus stop and checked the time chart. Today a lot of things like buses change and they had changed the bus time. It was now going to come 5 minutes later. That’s good in a way since the bus is almost always 5 minutes late, but I hope it won’t actually go even later!  It showed up on time and I got on. I rode the bus to S-Mall and got off. I went to the bank machine and then looked for a place to eat. I decided not to go to the hotel’s restaurant. I thought I’d try Pizza Hut Express, but grabbed a few things from the grocery store first, including a drink. I went over to Pizza Hut Express and the worker told me that there was a 30 minute wait for orders. I couldn’t wait as I wanted to catch a bus. I went over to the bakery and picked out a few things and ate them in their seating area. 

I caught a bus soon afterwards and at the station 4 foreigners got on the bus with huge suitcases. One of them even boxed me into my seat. Sigh. When I rang the bell, I said to them that I had to get past them so they did rearrange the suitcases so I could pass. I got off at the Sanno Machi stop. I went over to the post office and mailed my parcel to my sister. I even reminded the worker that I needed to fill out an additional form that she had forgotten to give me! I bought some stamps too and then went over to the banking area. I deposited a roll of 10 yen coins and then went on my way. 

I crossed the road and made my way to Machi-ne Kinema, but then realized I needed more food! I was still hungry. I made a quick trip to the drug store and picked up a couple of onigiri and brought them back to the cinema and ate them. 

I bought my ticket then to go and see Bugonia with Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. It was a very interesting film. The two main cast members were great but the film overall was quite odd. It was very Yorgos Lanthimos! I’ve seen a few of his films now, and this was another of the out there ones!

When the film ended, I left the cinema and headed back to the drugstore. I picked up a few things for myself, including a few bobby pins for my hair. I headed back to my bus stop and waited for the bus to arrive. When it did, I was surprised to see that I was the only passenger. No one else got on so when I got off, the driver was alone. I hope that doesn’t happen often or they’ll cancel the last bus. 

At the house, I turned on the heater in the kitchen and then went upstairs. I relaxed for about 45 minutes, I had a cup of decaf and then went downstairs to start dinner prep. F arrived at the same time.

I made dinner tonight and it was okay. I’d prepared for a tiring day by buying premade burgers and fries, but I also prepped some eringi mushrooms and some baby leaf lettuce. Dinner was okay, but not amazing, 

I did the dishes after dinner and then had to do the garbage up as well. F gave me a hand with K’s stuff. 

I went upstairs to relax before my shower. I got a text from F saying that there was a special about the Kamo Aquarium on TV so I put it on. It was all in Japanese so I didn’t understand much, but I did enjoy seeing the jellyfish. F came up and watched it too. 

I went to take my shower and then watched The Irrational. It was an episode about magic today and the baddie was the father from The Nanny!

Since midnight I’ve been watching YouTube and doing my end of day stuff. F is still up and it is very late for him. I don’t know how he’s going to be at work tomorrow. 

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

March 31, 2026

Tuesday - Rainy and cloudy

I woke up this morning and there were a very handsome looking man putting on his suit in my room. Yes, it was F and yes I did tell him he looked spiffy. I don’t think he understood! I got up and went downstairs and he left while I was in the washroom. Sigh.

I went back to bed and soon fell asleep. I did end up waking up with my alarms a while later. I got up and dressed, then went downstairs. I took down my laundry and did the first of two loads today. I also set up dinner by marinating the meat in some garlic powder and salt and pepper. 

I had a quiet afternoon apart from the laundry. I went downstairs late to get my lunch. K had been bopping around earlier so I was trying to avoid her. 

I took my lunch upstairs and watched an episode of So Help Me Todd. It’s going off my channel tonight so I don’t think I’ll get to see more of it. I liked it, I thought it was quite charming.

I watched the news and relaxed with some tea. Around 5 pm I heard an odd grinding sort of noise from outside and the power went out. It came back on right away but for the next five minutes it proceeded to flicker on and off. Finally, it went off again. So, I had no power from about 5:05. I unplugged things like my water pot and then went downstairs while I still had some light to see by. I took my emergency flashlight in case I needed it. 

In the kitchen, I started a kettle-full of water on the stove (it’s gas) to heat up and rinsed off my dishes. I sent F a text to let him know about the power outage. He phoned me around 5:30 to say he was on his way. He hadn’t seen my texts. He thought that maybe the breaker had gone off, but it hadn’t. I asked him to check the internet to see if there was some explanation. At about 5:45, the electricity came back on! All by itself. K was up by now and I don’t know if she’d even noticed. I tried texting and calling F but he didn’t get my calls. Sigh. 

After the power came back on, I stopped the kettle as the water heater would work again. I did the dishes and F arrived back at the house. Instead of going upstairs as usual, he plunked himself down in the living room and then started to work on his fish tank. Apparently the cleaning filter had stopped working with the power outage. 

Tonight’s dinner was pretty good. I did coro-coro steak with salad, potato salad, and steamed vegetables. We had some rice as well. It was okay!

I did the dishes after dinner and put them away. I let F know that I was going to go up and change my clothes. He went upstairs too and changed. 

We went to the local grocery store and bought our groceries for the next couple of days. I did most of the shopping, F followed me around with the buggy. We paid and left the store. We came back to the house and I unpacked the groceries.

We came up to the room and I decided to prepare a package for my sister. I had to weigh things and then register the package online. I got things into an envelope and taped it within an inch of its life!

I watched a really funny episode of Resident Alien and then turned off the TV afterwards. F went to bed sometime around then and I think he’s sleeping now. 

Tomorrow I’m planning to go out for lunch and then go to a movie in the afternoon. Hopefully I’ll have time to go to the post office either before or afterward the movie.

So, that’s it for my day. It was a bit odd with us losing power for that time. It rarely happens here in Japan and I’m quite thankful for that.

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

March 30, 2026

Monday - Sunny and warm

I did wake up this morning when F was getting ready for work. I peeked out from under my eye mask, saw the light, and put my covers up over my head!

Next time I woke up because my alarm went off. I got up and went downstairs then came back up to the room. I sorted out my clothes for later and then went back to bed. I watched videos for a few minutes and woke up later when my alarms started going!

I got up and then went downstairs to grab my breakfast. I brought it upstairs and ate a bit later. I watched some YouTube and decided to do some of my mending. I’ve had a couple of pairs of pants rip on me over the last while, so I finally fixed them today. Yay me!

I grabbed my lunch around 3 and had a little thing with K today. I was making my lunch and she decided that I should do some housework while I was there. She wanted me to clean the under-tray of the dish rack. I agree that it is a good thing to do, but I was making my lunch. Impatient woman that she is, she did it and honestly, I just grabbed my toast and went upstairs! F has told me stories about her when he was a kid and she just doesn’t understand that other people have other priorities!

Anyway, I ate my lunch and watched an episode of MobLand. When it was over, I watched the US news and then turned off the TV. F called me after 5 to say he was on his way back so a bit later, I went downstairs. 

Tonight I did toaster oven chicken, plus steamed spicy cabbage and salad. F had made rice last night so we had that as well. It was fairly popular but there were leftovers. Yay for me. After dinner I made some dessert quickly in the kitchen. It was a kind of melon flavoured pudding and it was good. Hurray!

I did the dishes after we finished eating and listened to my podcasts. When I finished I went upstairs and watched more MobLand. I actually finished the series tonight. Whew. Safe. I have a couple of other series that I was enjoying but I won’t be able to finish them which is sad. I also did some loom knitting tonight. I’m not actually sure what I’m making now on my loom, but I’ll figure it out!

Since midnight I’ve been watching mostly YouTube and catching up on my end of day stuff. 

Tomorrow I have an exciting day planned with some laundry and whatever I can find to get up to! 

Oh, I’ll slip in a couple of pictures of my loom knit hat that I made. It’s reversible so you need to see both versions! Sorry it took so long to take the photos!

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

March 29, 2026

Sunday - Warm and Sunny

I woke up this morning to drumming. Somewhere outside there was drumming going on and I could hear it through the ear plugs that I wear. F was next to me and he didn’t hear it, in fact, he was still sleeping!

I went downstairs, came back to the room and by then F was starting to get himself up. He said that he was going to take a shower and then he would go and have his hair cut after he made breakfast for his mother and himself. He did all that! 

I dragged myself out of bed around eleven and then got dressed. I spent some time on my computer and then F came back. He asked if I’d like to go out for lunch and I said that I would. He suggested going to Kula Sushi and I was okay with that! 

We drove over to Kula Sushi and were seated after a few minute wait. We had some nice dishes and some okay ones. F did his thing of trying to order plates and plates of sushi and I kept turning him down! I basically told him to just order for himself and then I’d order for me. I was trying to save money and keep the bill reasonable. I ended up not having that much sushi after all, but it was okay. I’d had some nice bread and cheese at the house before we left today. 

After lunch we went over the road to Gyomu Supa and picked up a few groceries. We didn’t get a lot, but it’s a help when I’m meal planning to have some ready made side dishes. 

Because some of the food we bought was frozen or had to be chilled, we brought them back to the house to put away. I had suggested going for a coffee as soon as things were put away, but F said something about changing the water in his fish tank?! I asked him how long it would take and he changed his mind. 

We drove over to Komeda Coffee and had a seat right away. We both had iced decaf coffee and spent sometime relaxing with our phones. After that, we paid and left.

We ended up at Mina to do our grocery shopping. As usual, F kept telling me off for people coming up behind me. I have no idea why he thinks I can do something about the people behind me. I’m pretty darn visible…they can either NOT get so close or can go around me. Honestly, I cringe every time F says that he wants to come into the store with me. He’s absolutely no help to me, he pushes the buggy and keeps buying crap that I wouldn’t buy in a month of Sundays!

We brought the food back to the house and I put most of it away. F did whatever he wanted with his mother’s dinner. I went upstairs and relaxed with YouTube.

Around 7 pm F came upstairs and asked if I wanted to eat together downstairs. I asked him what he meant. We hadn’t bought anything for our dinner. He had stuff for his mother and he could eat some of that. Nice, but I hadn’t bought anything for my dinner because he hadn’t suggested it. Now, lest you think I’m being nasty about this, I did in fact ask F if he wanted to eat at the house tonight and he said he didn’t care. I prefer to eat out as I won’t get out of the house again until Tuesday night if things go as usual. Sigh. I had asked him before the grocery store so if he’d suggested having a meal together I could have got something for myself. 

He went downstairs and I thought gave his mother her bento. Then, he came back upstairs and suggested that we go out. I asked to go to Cocos for a change and he grudgingly said okay. 

We were able to get in right away and ordered our meals. I had grilled chicken and vegetables with rosemary salt, plus a nice bun, soup bar and drink bar. We got a free order of French fries too as I had enough points on my card. I tried to get F to ask for something else but he wanted the fries. 

We both had nice meals and it was a nice thing to be able to have fancy coffee drinks made from decaf. F had a Japanese meal with kara-age that he actually said was good! He couldn’t wait to leave once his phone’s battery ran out so a little after 9 pm we paid and left.

We came back to the house and I discovered that K had eaten part of the food that I had bought for her lunch tomorrow. She hadn’t touched the bento that F bought for his dinner…because he hadn’t given it to her. WTH? Well, I hope she can eat it tomorrow because I don’t have anything for her!

I filled up the nearly empty kerosene tank and brought it upstairs. I ended up watching a couple of episodes of MobLand tonight. They were quite brutal if I’m honest. I like the show, Helen Mirren’s character is totally whacked though. I feel sorry for Tom Hardy as he gets all the dirty work for the mob. 

And…that’s it for me. Since midnight I’ve been doing my end of day stuff and catching up on some of the videos that I’ve missed during the week. 

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. I might do some laundry, I will be cooking dinner, but I’m not sure what else will come up. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow…. 

March 28, 2026

Saturday - Warm and sunny

I woke up early again this morning and had to go downstairs. When I got up, F was awake. He went downstairs and then came back to bed for a few minutes. We had a snuggle and he got up and I went back to sleep again!

I snoozed until 10 something, then got up and took a shower. When I finished we lazed for a few minutes and then headed out. F’s been after me for weeks to go back to Sharin at Atsumi Onsen for lunch. I didn’t like it the first time, but the weather today was good and even if I didn’t like the food, I’d enjoy the drive to get there. 

We drove out to Atsumi Onsen and parked, we went in and it was a little crowded, but we got a table. Sadly, as we were a bit late, a lot of dishes were already finished. I had the same thing I had last time, the yakiniku set meal…basically sautéd pork. F had the motsu meal, he didn’t like his, mine was decent and huge! After our meals we paid and then went for ice cream! I had a cone of blueberry mixed with Shonai milk. We took our cones and went to the other side of the rest stop and sat on some chairs and looked at the sea and the coast. It was lovely.

When we finished, I had to go inside and wash my hands. After that, we went upstairs and looked out from their balcony. I can’t remember even being up there before, but it was nice. 

We headed back to Tsuruoka proper a few minutes later but along the shore. However, we got to one point and we couldn’t go any further…a tunnel was closed, so we had to do a retreat and go around. On the way back to Tsuruoka I dozed a bit, but didn’t fall completely asleep. F said that he needed to pick up something for K’s dinner so we went to a grocery store.

F got a few things at the store and then we came back to the house. At the house, I went upstairs and relaxed in front of my computer for a while. F made his mother some dinner and then around 7 pm we went out for our dinner. I’d suggested a few places and F picked Misono. 

Misono was a little busy but we got a table. I ordered the kara-age chicken plate, I didn’t want or order the rice and soup.  It was enough for me. F had ramen but he didn’t like it as usual!

We came back to the house after dinner. I decided that I’d watch a bit of TV so I watched an episode of MobLand and then one of Evil. Both were good, Evil was a bit scary! I went downstairs after the last one and made a bowl of popcorn. I brought it back upstairs and watched the last episode of The Hunting Party season one. It ended on a bit of a cliffhanger so I hope we get the second season sometime soon.  

Anyway, that’s about it for me. It was a pretty good day for a change. It was also nice to be out in the sun. 

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

March 27, 2026

Friday - Sunny and warmish

I woke up before my alarm this morning. F had already left, but it was still quite early. I went downstairs and then came back to the room and went back to bed. I watched videos and then snoozed for a bit before getting up earlier than usual. 

I went downstairs again and then came back to our room and sorted my laundry. I took a couple of loads downstairs and did them. I hung them up in my room afterwards. I grabbed breakfast and enjoyed that too. 

In the afternoon I wrote up a postcard for Postcrossing and then after lunch and the news I did a couple more. I’m sending to China, Australia and Germany. I think the German one will arrive first, they usually do. 

I went downstairs to make dinner around 6pm tonight. F hadn’t called yet, he’d said that he’d be late tonight. I washed my dishes and got stuck in on dinner. Tonight I did pasta with a seaweed sauce, sliced chicken, salad and for a nice change, garlic toast. I made the toast and it was very nice. 

After dinner, I did the dishes and then to celebrate my 29 year anniversary of coming to Japan I asked F if he’d like to share a root beer with me. He did and it was nice. We sat in the living room together and had our nice beverage. 

I went upstairs and tried to scan my postcards. However, I had a bit of trouble and had to download some software. I got everything sorted I think and it does seem to work. Yay.

I scanned my cards and then watched two episodes of Elsbeth. I managed to watch the last three episodes today, so I’m glad about that. The last one was rather funny as Elsbeth was in jail with a bunch of people that she’d put away! 

F went to bed rather late tonight, but tomorrow is Saturday. He does have to get up and feed his mother before her Day Service so I’m glad he finally went. 

I have no idea what we’ll get up to tomorrow. I might go and see a movie in the evening by myself, or not. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

March 26, 2026

Thursday - Cloudy and rainy

I woke F up when I went to bed last night and then this morning I woke up before 7 and went downstairs. He said I didn’t wake him, that he wasn’t asleep all night, but I’m not so sure. I usually don’t wake up that early, but maybe K was up and noisy?

I went back to bed and fell asleep again. I got up a couple of hours later and stayed up. I grabbed my breakfast and watched an episode of Elsbeth. When it was over I went downstairs to the kitchen and started making my stew.

I did all the prep work today and it took a while! I peeled and chopped up potatoes and then parboiled them. I did the carrots too. After that, I sliced an onion and a half and left them for a bit. I sautéd the ground pork and on the second batch I did, I added the onions and the mushrooms. When it was all softened/cooked I added it all to the slow cooker and added some consommé and seasonings, turned it to high and left it alone.

I washed the dishes and went upstairs for a few minutes to rest. Then, I came back downstairs and made my lunch. I brought it back up to the room and watched another episode of Elsbeth while I ate. I followed that with the US news as well.

F called after 5 and I went downstairs later and started getting dinner ready. The stew was basically finished, but I added some peas to it. 

Dinner was nice, we had rice and stew and salad. I had seconds, F and K didn’t. Sigh. It’s too bad for them!

I did the dishes afterwards and listened to my movie podcasts. When I finished, I let F know that I was done and would be ready to go shopping soon after.

F and I drove to the grocery store and then we went shopping. I needed a few things for lunch and dinner tomorrow. F picked up a few things too. We checked out and went back to the car. F wanted to pop into the drugstore too, so on the way back we did that too. F got some drinks and we got some snacks as well.

We came back to the house and came upstairs. I decided I had enough time to watch another episode of Elsbeth so I did that! I’m trying to get it all done before the end of the month when it leaves my streaming service. 

F went to bed after I started watching The Rainmaker. It was a good episode really. I think I might like this show, we’ll see how it goes.

And that’s about it for my day. It was an okay day.

Tomorrow I’ll probably do some laundry and relax a bit. I had hoped to go to a movie but I think I’ll wait until next week. 

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