March 30, 2019

Saturday - Cloudy and overcast, rainy

We slept in this morning, but I got up after 11 and F was already downstairs. He made his mother breakfast and I checked my computer and websites, then got dressed. We were going out today!

We drove to Mt. Haguro again to see if the way to the pagoda was free from snow. It wasn’t! I’ve got friends coming next week to see it and they’ll have to bring sturdy shoes or boots.  It was lovely down there. Because the weather wasn’t great, it was fairly quiet. F and I went as far as the pagoda which was looking as lovely as ever. 

Quite a definite line between snow and no snow!

The Pagoda. So lovely.

Selfie of the Pagoda and me.

The steps. We had to climb down them first and then climb back up to the road afterwards.
Not steep, but can be tricky.

After we climbed back up to the road from the pagoda we went for lunch. F found a soba restaurant nearby and we tried it. I thought it was okay, but he complained that it didn’t sell “real” soba. Sigh. He’s such a purist that it is annoying really. I enjoyed my meal!  

I asked F to show me the way to go to the top of the mountain and we got halfway along a road and he thought he was going the wrong way. I got quite annoyed at that. He was right though! We passed the gate and then went to the Gassan Visitor Centre. I’m not sure why that was on Haguro though, but…It was nice and had a few brochures in English too. 

We drove back towards Tsuruoka and then detoured to Matsugaoka. Last time we went there it was under a lot of snow and the sidewalks were being put in. Everything was closed before. Well, today, the sidewalks were done and most of the snow was gone. A couple of the buildings were open and we went into one of them. Yay us. I wanted to know how to get to the area in case my friends want to go next weekend.

We drove back to Tsuruoka and went to Komeda Coffee. We both had coffee and some chicken nuggets as we were both a bit peckish. Then, we visited Yamaya to get some food for the pantry and MaxValu to get a bento for K. F was so tired in Komeda that he was falling asleep so my plan was to feed his mother and then the two of us would take a nap and then go for dinner afterwards. His plan when we got back to the house was to go for a massage around 9 pm, so we had to go for dinner right away. Sigh. 

We went to a local Korean place and it was quite good. We had a lot of nice food, but it was a bit stodgy. It was also a bit spicy!  We came back to the house afterwards, F took a shower and then headed out.

While F was out I sewed a button back on the shirt I wore tonight. I’d lost it just before dinner. I also sewed a couple of buttonholes to make them a little smaller and less likely to come undone. I watched Agents of Shield which was great of course. F came back a bit after 10 and was feeling much better. Yay for that.

He went to sleep an hour or so later and I am still up. I enjoyed today a lot. It was cold on the mountain, but so beautiful in the area. I love going there, I just wish I was in better condition for the steps. With my painful hip, I’m a bit worried that I might have overdone it, but let’s keep our fingers crossed shall we?

Not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. F will likely take his mother out in the morning and after that who knows. I’d like to wash the bedding and change to the summer sheets, fingers crossed we do that!

Come back later if you like and find out what we get up to. Until tomorrow….