November 23, 2017

Thursday - Cold and rainy

A good day.  

We slept in this morning so had to hurry and get dressed.  F had made a reservation at our favourite restaurant for noon, but it isn’t in Tsuruoka.  We both hurried to get dressed and then headed out.  K had food leftover from yesterday so she was fine.

We got to the restaurant and had a fabulous meal.  There was a couple of slight hiccups, such as the waitress (who was young and nervous) giving my entree to the people at the next table, but generally, we had a fabulous meal.  I had duck and F had pork stew…we both had dessert too.  

Salad and suzuki marinee

Kabocha soup

Fumihiko's main dish, pork stew with beer sauce

My main dish, roasted duck

Our desserts and coffee.  I had pear tart plus strawberry ice, F had tart tartine plus yogurt ice.

After the meal, we drove to the Mikawa Mall and I bought us tickets to see Justice League.  I was treating F to it since it was his birthday.  We looked in a few shops as we had some time, and then went to the bookstore. I was looking for a nengajo book, F was just looking.  I had nearly decided on a book when he came over with a book and asked me to buy it for him as his present.  Hurrumph.  I had just bought movie tickets, he had said for weeks he didn’t want a present and now he did!  Of course, I did buy it for him, and the nengajo book too.  

We went to see Justice League and it was great.  It was fun.  It’s been a while since I could say that a DC Comics film was fun, (excluding the fab Wonder Woman of course), but this one was.  F didn’t fall asleep and there were a few laugh out loud moments which I got better than the other people in the cinema.  Ezra Miller proves once again that he is an actor to watch.

After the movie, we went to the grocery store in Aeon to pick up stuff for K’s dinner and my lunch tomorrow. I also bought a cake.  My original plan was to buy 3 pieces of cake, but F picked a cake.  It was probably cheaper in the long run, but not what I planned! We then drove back to Tsuruoka.  F was asking me to pick the place we had dinner and was getting a bit stroppy about it too.  It was his birthday, I had hoped he’d pick a good place.  Finally, I came up with a plan.  We’d go to FoodEver and see what was open.  If there wasn’t anything good there, we’d either go across the street to the izakaya/fish restaurant or to another fish restaurant.  

We delivered the food to K and also had cake together.  I think F’s mother forgot it was his birthday today.  I think it isn’t a big deal to many Japanese people anyway.  

F's birthday cake. It was choco-chip and very nice!

After cake, we went out to have our dinner.  We did go to Foodever, and although one restaurant was closed, the others weren’t.  We went to a fish restaurant, but it was a mostly cooked fish place. Hurray.  We had a big starter plate which was lovely. It had lots of little things on the platter, then some eryngii and octopus ajillo.  Our entree was local roasted fish and roasted potatoes.  It was so good!  Not a grain of rice in sight.  Hurray.  They served the fish with lemon too, which isn’t common here.

When we finished F paid.  It was a little pricey, but honestly, not as much as lunch was.  It was pretty darn good too.  F hadn’t wanted to go there originally, but I think he was glad that he did.

We came back to the house via the convenience store for some drinks and snacks.  At the house, I watched a little telly and F had some beer and then went to bed.  I showered too.  F thanked me a couple of times for us having a good day. Hurray.  That does mean a lot.

So that was it.  My day. Come back in a bit and see how Friday goes!  Until tomorrow….