October 4, 2010

Monday - a little rainy and very humid in Sendai

A good day. I went to bed early last night. All the running around Sendai made me quite tired and as there wasn’t anything on the telly, I went to bed before 2 am. Unfortunately, F sent me a text message around 2:30 and woke me up. I was so tired that I thought at first that my morning alarm had wrung!

I slept in a little this morning, but was up before 9. I had planned to have breakfast in the hotel, but then didn’t. I showered and had some tea while watching CNN. Ah decadence!

I checked out before 11. It felt somehow wrong not to have to pay for my room….and that gorgeous king-sized bed, but I guess that’s my reward for staying there so many times!

I went into Yodobashi camera to pick up my cd of pictures and then decided to buy F a mouse for his computer. His mouse is horrible and since I end up using it at times, want him to have a good one! Our anniversary was a couple of weeks ago, I think it can qualify as a late present, can’t it?

I did a lot of bopping around the station area of Sendai. I put my bags in a locker and went off shopping again. I did a cursory run-through of the bookstore and made a note of things I wanted to think about, then went and got my lip balm at the Body Shop. It’s pretty much the only thing I can buy there nowadays. Everything else is so highly perfumed that it sets off an allergic reaction and my nose runs for hours. Shame as I love their stuff.

I had a quick and very nice lunch behind the station at a place called Kohi Kan. Just sandwiches with a small salad and then coffee jelly for dessert. My drink was included and it was less than 800 yen. Very reasonable I thought. I went upstairs and saw another movie. I saw The Men Who Stare at Goats. I liked it a lot as I thought it was funny. I was the only person in the theatre who got some of the jokes as some of them were cultural. I know the horrors of Barney…also I know who Oprah is! The film reminded me a lot of last year’s The Informant! The topics were very different, but the style was similar in that was it a drama or a comedy? A dramady? Good actors, sharp writing and a funny idea. I liked it, YMMV if you don’t like movies without a “point”.

After the movie I went back to Yodobashi Camera and had my photos from Hong Kong printed out. I did it myself at a machine. It was a good way to use up some time and I didn’t have to stand either. Yay.

After that I bought a couple of photo albums and then went for a tea. I only had a couple of hours left now, so I checked out Uniqlo and bought a couple of things for my sister’s birthday. I also went into the bookstore again and bought a present for a relative in England. That was it. I didn’t buy myself a magazine. I never have the time to read them.

I got my bags out of the locker and went over to the bus station. I bought a water, and got on my bus. I sent F a text to say I was on the bus and that I would turn off my phone, then put my iPod on and watched or listened to a couple of podcasts. It’s funny how much I appreciate the CBC from afar. I feel a little guilty as I used to denigrate it when I lived in Canada, but now it’s my link to home!

F met me at the mall a couple of minutes after I arrived and we went for dinner. On the way to the restaurant I got a strange call on my cell phone. It was a Japanese woman and when I answered in English as I always do, demanded to know where I was. Pardon me? You want to know where I am? I told her I didn’t understand Japanese (in Japanese!) and then hung up on her.

We went for sushi. Our usual place was closed so we went to the new place that we went once before. It was quite nice. When we ordered something it was made fresh for us so that was nice. I got a call from a student and had to leave for a few minutes, but no worries. I didn’t eat that much, but I didn’t seem that hungry all of a sudden.

We came home and spent a quiet evening at home. I gave F his mouse and I think he liked it, but he didn’t try it yet. I haven’t unpacked yet, but I’ll hopefully do that tomorrow. I have to cook tomorrow as we bought groceries on the way home, so I might be a tad busy as I also have a class in the evening.

Just a quick synopsis of my trip to Sendai…Saturday’s trip in was a bit tough. The bus was full so I had to share my seat with a lady. She was nice, but I couldn’t find a comfortable position.

My hotel was okay, just noisy. It was cheap which was the main reason I stayed there. I went to see Zombieland and thought it was very funny. Not like the scary zombie movies that give me nightmares.

On Sunday, I got up, showered and then had my free breakfast at the hotel. I had miso soup, a couple of onigiri, some meatballs and some scrambled eggs. Mine were really fresh, so quite nice. I checked out and then walked my suitcase over to the other hotel. I did a pre-check in and then left for the expo.

There were good points and bad points about the whole thing. I won a set of a new text from Oxford. Yippee! I got the teacher’s manual, student book and workbook and a cd rom of tests. I met up with a lot of teachers that I met last year and the year before and did a little bit of catching up. Some of the presentations were good, some not so great, but that was okay. I do think it was worth going again this year.

After the expo finished I went back to the downtown area, back to the hotel and checked in. I went out for dinner to the gyudon restaurant and did a little shopping for my school. I was back in my hotel before 9, watching CNN and anything else that caught my eye.

And the rest I wrote about above.

Night!