June 29, 2009 - Monday

Hot and sunny, cloudy in the evening.

I'm back, did you miss me? I had a fabulous time in Sendai. Lunch with "the girls", then a nice dinner with Jan yesterday. I even went to bed much earlier last night than I do at home...just after 1 am. Amazing.

I had a lovely sleep at the hotel last night. The Holiday Inn in Sendai is very nice. I didn't have a super deluxe room, but it was enough for me. The bed was comfortable, the room was quiet and cool, what's not to like?

I got up this morning, showered and then had breakfast. I thought I'd missed Jan, but she joined me after a while and we had a good gab. She was running off to have coffee with some other ladies. I was invited, but ended up taking a break in my room. It was nice to just chill for a bit.

I checked out and then walked to the Aer building where I put my bags in a locker. After that I went to Maruzen and mentally marked the books I wanted to buy. I took a walk to another book store, didn't buy much there, and did a lot of looking and very little buying. Finally it was around 1:30 and I decided I'd check out the top of Parco for lunch. There were about 6 or 7 restaurants there, but some of them were strictly Japanese, or there was a Thai restaurant, but I'm not a fan, so I chose the Italian one. The waiter was showing me to a table when I noticed that Jan was sitting with another woman at a table! What a coincidence! I joined them and we had introductions all around. I had gnocchi with gorgonzola cheese sauce and it was very good. Terribly yummy. The other lady had to leave, and then we left the restaurant.

After a few minutes of shopping, Jan had to leave to catch her train, so I went back to Maruzen. I picked up a few magazines for myself, a book (new one by Dick Francis, I couldn't resist) and then some things for the school. I got a few more readers as my adult students seem to be quite motivated to read these days. When I went to the checkout it was a little complicated as somethings came from my pocket, and some things came from the school's. Still, the nice thing was that I got a free bag from one of the publishing companies. I think I'm going to pass it on to my students...but I'll make them work for it. :-)

I had a quick frappuchino in Starbucks, then got my bags and headed over to the bus stop. I was a little early, but that was okay. I got on the bus easily and then relaxed for the drive home. I listened to Quirks and Quarks which was very interesting and then some music.

F picked me up and took me to dinner. We had yakiniku. It was nice, but we didn't get as much food as either of us thought we should have! Still, I was quite satisfied when we left.

We came hom and then relaxed more. F got into the whole relaxation thing and had a beer. Bleck. We watched a bit of a movie and then American Idol. It was good tonight. The theme was The Rat Pack. That genre of music is one of my favourites so I was happy. The right person left tonight too, although he was good tonight.

And that's it. Tomorrow I'm back to work. I suppose that I'm ready. I do feel a little sad. I completely forgot to bring omiyage back for anyone. I was at the bus station when I realized that I didn't have anything for anyone else, not even hubby. Ack.

Night!