January 27, 2020

Monday - Clear and sunny for some of it

I woke up this morning surprised that I had fallen asleep. I wasn’t able to fall asleep as easily as I usually do today, I think it was because of the coffee I had at the restaurant yesterday evening. Darn. F had gone and I hadn’t heard him this morning.

I watched the news as usual and thought about doing laundry but didn’t. I really should have, but the pile is quite big and I didn’t feel like it. I had a quiet morning, but I did answer the door when we got a delivery. I didn’t see K until noonish and then she went back to bed. She needs someone like her daughter to come over and take her out for a bit.  Someone to make a big fuss over her, unlike me who basically just leaves her alone.

I watched some telly, had my lunch and even worked on my column. I think I have it finished, I just need to rework the opening and the closing. Yay me. 

I texted F today to tell him about his delivery and he said that he was thinking of taking a day off soon, did I have an idea of when would be good. I suggested that he take next Friday off and then he could join me in Niigata a day early.  I’d have to get the hotel to accept me having someone in my room, but that probably wouldn’t be a big hassle. I hope. He’s thinking about it, but we’re not sure if it would be a good idea to leave K alone for two nights. He’s supposed to come to Niigata on Saturday for one night. We’ll see how it goes. Fingers crossed it works out. 

F called me after 5 pm to say that he was on his way, so I went downstairs and got started on dinner.  It was a simple one tonight, just roasted chicken in the toaster oven, microwaved broccoli, rice and miso soup for the mister and his mother, toast for me.  I actually really enjoyed it.  Oh, yeah, there was salad too. 

After dinner, F washed the dishes and I dried them, then I did up the garbage for taking out. I’d forgotten last week. I also put the meat trays by the door to return to the grocery shop.

After a few minutes, F and I went out to the grocery shop. We did return the meat trays and I got things on my list. F was a bit odd if I’m honest. He wants to eat the crab that we got yesterday at the gas station for dinner. That’s not that strange, but he keeps saying we don’t need anything else with it. Umm….really? I would like something, not sure what exactly. I’m also not sure that two crabs are going to feed three people…they aren’t THAT big!

We also picked up some kerosene because we were nearly out and came back to the house. I sort of wanted to go out somewhere, but whatever.

We watched Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix tonight. It was good. It’s probably my least favourite of the movies though, I really don’t like Dolores Umbridge!

And that’s about it. I watched a few minutes of the Grammys rebroadcast. I enjoyed “The Body Electric” performance from Fame and I was even happier to see a little flash of Lee Curreri playing the music.  He was Bruno in the film and TV series of Fame, and was my favourite character!

Tomorrow I have laundry to do and to edit my column. I’ll see if there is anything else that I can do too.  Come back later if you will and see how things go. Until tomorrow….

January 26, 2020

Sunday - Warmish and clear

We stayed up much too late last night so this morning we slept in quite late. F shook a leg earlier than me and took his mother off to the onsen. I got up and had some tea. I decided that they’d probably be back in an hour or so and we’d go out for lunch, so I didn’t have breakfast. 

F and his mother got back around 2:45. Then, he wanted to know where I wanted to eat, even though he had eaten something. I wasn’t too pleased but suggested the Gusto near Yamaya since I wanted to go shopping there. I kinda needed to use the washroom but decided I’d wait until we got to the restaurant. 

On the way to the restaurant, F said he needed to buy gas and sure enough, the gas-light in the car was on.  (Why does he do that?) I thought it would be a simple, quick task, but no. It wasn’t. We drove into the new station and of course, it was wall to wall cars. F had to sign up for a customer card and then they gave him two cartons of tissues (five boxes each!). That took ages as he couldn’t get his phone to work. Then he parked the car. Huh? He asked me to go into the station with him. Eye roll. We got in and it seemed that he was applying for yet another credit card. (They pass them out to F like they are candy.) Next thing I know, F is filling out a form for ME to get a credit card. I’m bewildered, but since I’m always, ALWAYS whining about not having a credit card in Japan sort of glad. I was a little less glad when he told the woman that a major department store had turned me down for one.  He didn’t mention it was 18 years ago and I didn’t have PR at the time. I’m not sure if they’ll give me one, but I would really like one. I just don’t know that a gas station credit card was my best choice, however. I still needed to use the washroom.  We were given some frozen crab and MORE tissues. We got 5 more cartons of tissues. 

We finally got to the restaurant and it was after 4 pm. I hadn’t eaten all day!  I wasn’t too happy. I made a beeline for the washroom, then came back and ordered my meal.  The food was okay, I had a mixed grill and shared an order of fries with F.  He had a noodle dish that he didn’t like much.

After our meal, we went to Yamaya and I picked up a few things. I got some tea, some snacks, some nice cheese, and some pasta sauces. Hurray for that. We went over to the hundred yen shop and I ordered a towel that I had collected stamps for. It’s just a little one, but looked nice. We then went to another two hundred yen stores looking for a car garbage bag. F had two hanging garbage bags that we put behind our seats. One mysteriously vanished while I was away. We couldn’t find one that would do, sad to say. 

We went to the grocery store and I picked up a few things for lunch and tomorrow’s dinner. I also got a jar of Real Mayonnaise from the US.  Japanese mayo is okay, but I’m not a huge fan. We also got K a bento.

We went back to the house, took all of those tissue boxes out of the car and put the groceries away. F gave his mother the bento and then we headed out again.

We went to the Internet Cafe and got massaging chairs for the next 3 hours. It was quite enjoyable. We also had our dinner there. Both of us had the yaki-curry, which was baked curry. I had mine with eggplant and spinach, F had one with beef. My lunch had a lot of meat, so I didn’t need it for dinner. I watched quite a bit of YouTube. I did do a bit of knitting, but not that much.

We came back to the house when our time was up. I relaxed for a few minutes then sorted out the garbage in my part of the room and let F deal with his.  Then, I went downstairs and did the kitchen garbage.  I took a shower and then came back upstairs. 

That’s about it. Tomorrow I have to cook dinner, but also I need to work on my column a bit more. It’s nearly done…after I finish I’ll have to polish it a bit. 

Oh, my jaw update…my jaw is a little tender still, but I didn’t have to take any pain medication today. I think it is a little swollen to be honest. My bite feels off too, but I think that is to be expected.

Also, the moral for today is if you have to use the toilet…go BEFORE you leave the house. Always good advice!

Come back later if you like and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

January 25, 2020

Saturday - Clear and mostly sunny

Happy Robert Burns Day!

I had a mostly good day today. I’m in a bit of pain still from my dental work that was done, but apart from that, today was a fairly good day.

F and I slept in. He didn’t get up and take his mother to the onsen. He also decided not to go to Yamagata tomorrow. Sigh. Was hoping to go, but…

He made some food for his mother and then decided to take me out. He suggested Hyakkenbori which was a good suggestion. We both had nice meals, slightly different riffs on the same thing. I had chicken ochazuke and he had tuna ochazuke.  Basically, we got a dish of food and then when we were nearly finished we could put it in our rice bowl and then add some pickles and stuff and then pour tea all over it. It was good!

Original Tray from Restaurant

Ochazuke version 

F's Tuna Tray. He had rice underneath the tuna, different from mine!

F's Ochazuke version

We had a little time after our meal before my dental appointment so we went to the Chido Museum. Their display today was moderately interesting for me. They had some scrolls on offer. Half of them were art works, half were calligraphy. I didn’t mind the art at all.  As usually happens, we went to check out the garden afterward.  It really is lovely. I think of it as my surrogate garden!

We have NO SNOW this year! The trees are tied up to prevent damage from the snow.

We went to the dentist then and basically from 2 until 4:30 or longer, I was being worked on. She removed a couple of my crowns and gave me temporary ones. She wanted me to replace them with ceramic crowns, but the cost was huge and they aren’t covered by insurance. They are at the back of my mouth so I don’t think they’ll be highly visible anyway. I’m going with the ones that we can use insurance for!

We picked up a bit of food for F’s mother’s dinner and dropped it off. After that, we drove out to Mikawa Mall. We went into the mall and I had 4 pairs of new pants measured and put in for shortening at the repair place. They do a great job and it’s a hard one to do by myself, so I’m okay with it. 

We left the mall and went over to Don Quixote for a while. F wanted something electronic for his phone and I was looking for interesting cereal or whatever. I got a couple of cheap toothbrushes and did get a bit of cereal too. Yay. We left the store with a lot of stuff in one bag. 

We went back to the mall and had dinner at the pasta place. The freezing had worn off my mouth, but I still had to eat rather gingerly as my jaw hurts. I had carbonara and so did F, they were different types though. I liked mine a lot.

We went upstairs and bought our movie tickets. We had a little time before the film, so we went to the bookstore. We didn’t buy anything, but we did think about it. 

We got some drinks for the film and then went in to see Cats. F said he liked it and I believe him, I was kinda bored. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. I loved some of the performances, however, but it just seemed to go on and on. 

After the movie, we left the theatre. F said he wanted to go back to Don Quixote. I thought he was joking but he wasn’t. He hadn’t checked out the ramen. Yes, he was serious. And a bit of an idiot. But, he’s mine, what can I say?  We went back and spent a few minutes getting him some ramen.

We drove back to Tsuruoka and came back to the house. We spent quite a while getting the rooms upstairs warmed up and on our individual computers. F has gone to bed and he’s vowing to get up and take his mother to the onsen in the morning. I hope I’ll be sleeping. I took an OTC pain pill when I came back here, I’ll look up the instructions and see if I can take another one now. I don’t want to overdo it. 

So that was my day. It was pretty darn good, despite the dentist stuff.  Come back later if you like and see what I get up to on Sunday. Until tomorrow….

January 24, 2020

Friday - Cold and rainy

I woke up early this morning but got back to sleep a bit later.  I bid F a good morning and snoozed a little longer.

When I got up today I did my usual things. I made the bed, watched the news and NCIS.  I grabbed my breakfast this morning and while I did that, I put together a couple of plates of stuff for K to eat for her lunch. I left it on the table as it was darn cold in the kitchen and went back upstairs. 

Today I got stuck into the cull of my women’s group and it went fairly well. It didn’t take very long this year, something that I am quite relieved about.  

I had my lunch, did a little internet stuff and also worked on my column for about 3 minutes.  I watched the news at 4 pm too.  After 5 I went downstairs to wash my dishes. F called to say he was on his way and to ask if I had any ideas for dinner. I did…we had planned to go to Cocos Ichibanya for curry.  

When F came back to the house, that’s what we did. We drove off to Cocos and when we got there, we all had the same thing, Grandmother’s curry with scrambled egg. Both F and K won free spoons, I didn’t get anything. Sigh. The curry was good at least. On the way back to the car, K almost went to the wrong car!  There was another blue car parked near our car and she headed towards it. I had to chase her down and stop her!

We came back to the house and F and I vegged for a while before going out.  We had talked about going to the Internet Cafe but decided to go to Komeda Coffee instead. I thought it would be a bit cheaper, but it probably wasn’t!

We had a cake and coffee set which was nice. F disappeared into his phone and I did into mine too. After a while there, we went over to the grocery store and picked up a few things.  

We came back to the house. I tried on my new pants again to make sure that I had sorted them into the right pile for going to be shortened.  I hope to go tomorrow and get then fixed if I can.  

I took a shower and when I came back upstairs, F was in bed. He’s snoozing away now.  

Tomorrow I have a dental appointment so I’m not sure how I’m going to be after that. If I feel up to it we may go to a movie at the mall and have my new trousers measured and put in for hemming. If not, I may just go to bed early! 

Come back later if you like and see if I post. If I don’t post, I’m likely in too much pain or too tired! Until tomorrow….

January 23, 2020

Thursday - No idea, didn’t go out

I woke up this morning early…6:00am early. I needed to make a run downstairs but discovered that F had gone down first. When he came back he told me that I had woken him up with my snoring. Huh?!

I fell back asleep and when my alarms went off he had already left for work. I watched the news from the bed, then got up afterwards and got dressed.

I had a quiet day really. I watched quite a bit of TV, I worked a little more on my column and I did some internet stuff. I didn’t really bump into K at all today.

I went downstairs around 5:30 to start working on dinner. F called to say he was coming back to the house so I got busy. Tonight I did pasta with a Japanese ume sauce, a salad from lettuce and I made a soup that I had read about called Fried Water. It wasn’t really fried water, it was a quick-ish onion soup with egg and bread.  It worked out quite nicely.  

F came back and after he changed, helped me put the food on the table. Things went quite well and everything disappeared. Well, most of it did.

I started to clear the table but F did a runner. He’d complained earlier about feeling dizzy. I got stuck with all the cleanup and the dishes. I don’t really blame him if he was sick, but after the last few nights when we’d worked together quite well, it was a bit sad. 

I went back upstairs after I finished, which was after 8 pm. I did some computer stuff for a while and then put on the TV just before 9 pm to catch Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I watched it and F did too. 

That was really about it for my day. It was quiet. Tomorrow I have to do the actual cull of members from my email groups. I find it a bit hard and sad to do, but it really must be done.

Come back later if you will and see what I get up to on Friday. Until tomorrow….

January 22, 2020

Wednesday - Clear and sunny

I woke up this morning very early because a light was shining in my direction. I had to go downstairs, and then I got back into bed. I tried talking to F but he was a bit grumpy. I think he wanted an extra five minutes of sleep, but I had wanted another hour or more!

He left early for work and I fell asleep again. I got up later and watched the news and decided that the earlier news is better for me as it has more news in English. There is news from Australia, the UK, Singapore and maybe even the Philippines.  

When I got up, I had a quiet morning really. I watched some TV and checked my groups and read through Facebook, the usual. I didn’t see K for most of the day again. I got some mail today, I re-activated my Postcrossing account again and I got a Gotochi card from Japan today. Yay. I even managed to work on my column a little too. Hurray for me.

I went downstairs to get started on dinner around 6pm. A few minutes later, F called to say he was coming back to the house. I pulled a few things together for dinner and it worked out quite well. We had a fish stir-fry from the grocery store. I had to defrost it before I cooked it. I also cooked some frozen vegetables and made a butter-soy sauce for it. K and F had miso soup, I skipped it. Dinner was quite good.  

F gave me a hand with the dishes again and then we went upstairs for a few minutes. F wanted to go out, so we headed off to the local drugstore. I told him to go in first while I headed across the street to mail a postcard at the Post Office mailbox. I came back and we did a little shopping.

We bought so much stuff that the small shopping bag that F had brought into the store with him was full. I had another bag in my purse so we used that too. We left the store and came back to the house.

At the house, we got ready to watch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban which was on tonight. It was great. Of course, I’d spent Christmas holidays watching lots of Harry Potter, but it was nice to see the whole thing from the beginning. 

And that’s about it for my day. I’ve been enjoying the Harry Potter movies on WOWOW this week, and so has F. It’s funny how I can hardly ever get him to sit and watch movies with me, but a certain magical lad draws him in.  

Tomorrow I’m planning to cook dinner again, probably pasta but I might make some soup to go with it and the salad. Might being the prime word here. 

Come back later if you like and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

January 21, 2020

Tuesday - Colder and a bit snowy

I got up this morning and watched the news from my boudoir, more or less. Actually, it was just from my bed. I stayed under the covers until the room warmed up. It did eventually!

I watched a few of the morning TV programmes and also did a couple of loads of laundry. I hope it all dries before the weekend as I want to take my pants to the mall to be hemmed. 

K was up today, which was a nice thing. When she stays in bed all day I get quite worried about her. I bumped into her a couple of times today. She does a weird thing that I worry about. She heats up water on the stove and then takes it through to the bathroom to have a wash there. I think she thinks it is cheaper than just turning on the water heater. The water heater that I have on all the time now because I can’t stand the freezing cold water. I dunno. My biggest worry is that she’ll spill the hot water all over herself and really hurt herself. The problem is that she just won’t listen to anyone else about dangers like that.

Anyway, during the day I watched a couple of shows off the DVR and I wrote a couple of reviews on my column. Hurray for me. More than a couple actually. I’m not done yet, but it is going well enough.

I did work a little on the cull of one of my on-line groups, I checked the members to see if they were still in our group. Most were. Yay.

I went downstairs around 5:30 to do my dishes and start heating up the stew. F came back to the house without calling. I wasn’t too pleased as we’d pre-arranged that I would ask him to go shopping for me!  He did obligingly go out and pick up a couple of things for me, so that was nice of him. 

While he was gone I was busy. I cooked some of the frozen broccoli and added it to the stew, and I got all the things out that would be needed to serve the meal. When F came back I sent him off to get changed and put the salad in the bowls. 

We had most of the leftover stew for dinner with some rice and a side salad. It got good reviews, so I’m happy. It was a nice one. F gave me a hand with the dishes afterwards, so that was nice too. 

F wanted to go to the onsen and he wanted to take his mother as well. I tagged along to get some lobby/knitting/reading time and it was nice. I read a bit, listened to music for a while, and read part of my book.  I enjoyed myself. We dropped K off back at the house and then went to Mina for a little grocery shop.

I picked up some frozen food for dinner tomorrow and also suggested to F that he get something for his mother’s lunch. What did he do? He grabbed a bunch of food for himself to eat tonight. Say what? I asked him before we went through the checkout what he had got for his mother’s lunch and he hadn’t go anything. Hmm.  He did have the good grace to go back and pick up a few things.

We came back to the house and put away the groceries. I headed upstairs and started watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It was so good! I made some tea for myself and settled in to watch. F had some sushi and then had some noodles too. So, he had stew for dinner, and then sushi and noodles for second dinner. Is it me or is that weird?

After the movie, I took a shower and then came back to the room to blog and get ready for bed. That was my day. It wasn’t too bad. It was nice not to have to do a ton of cooking tonight because I just had to reheat the stew. Yay for that. 

And that’s it for me. Come back later if you like and see what happens around here. Until tomorrow….