Living La Vida Loca In Japan: September 28, 2019

Saturday - Cloudy and rainy, cool

Today was a big day with lots of things happening. It wasn’t all good, but it mostly was!

F got up fairly early and went to his doctor. I did get up but wasn’t too energetic in the morning. F came back and wanted to go out for lunch (he said) right away. It was slightly before 11 so most places wouldn’t be serving lunch yet. We went out and then discovered that we didn’t have enough time for lunch, but just enough time for coffee! We ended up at Starbucks where I had a tea latte and F had his favourite Frap.

We zoomed over to the car dealership and F got his car checked on. It was time for the check-up. Of course, we experienced the fab service they give here. We were greeted at the door by name, seated, given a nice beverage of our choice and then the mechanic came over to discuss some of the options that F could choose. He didn’t want them this time but is thinking over them. We were out of there in about 25 minutes with everything done. Yay!

We had planned to have lunch in Cocos which is next to the car place, but F turned the wrong way. I suggested the Daiichi Hotel for lunch but also suggested looking at some of the new restaurants in the mall. A new one just opened and an old one has moved. Time to check them out? We checked out the new one and went in. It was busy and we grabbed a table that wasn’t cleaned off yet. A guy did clean it a few minutes later, mostly. He left a few things as he couldn’t carry more. We sat and discussed our order, then rang the bell. We waited a few more minutes and rang again. I started timing the staff to see how long it would take to get our order. F was getting annoyed seeing people who came in after us getting served their food. Finally, F noticed that the bell’s and the table’s numbers weren’t the same! Probably our bell didn’t work!

He went and actually got a staff member and we were able to order and get the table cleared completely. I had the salmon lunch and F had a raw tuna donburi. The food was good, the price was reasonable, we’ll probably go again to see if the service gets better.

We also checked out the hundred yen shop in the mall and the new grocery store that just opened. It’s shiny. F bought a few things for K’s dinner since we wouldn’t be around then.

We were going to go back to the house when I remembered that I needed to buy my bus ticket for my trip next week. Ack. We went back to the mall and into the bus station. F was a sweetie and bought my ticket for me. Hurray.

We went back to the house and had a veggie session. I caught up on some computer things and then it was time to go.

As I left the house I suggested to F that he search for his Aquarium passport. I had found mine in my wallet quickly, but I know what F’s wallet is like! He tried searching while driving, looking during red lights, but I made him pull over and really look. Nope. Not in his wallet. We drove back to the house and F looked again. No idea where it is.

We drove out to the aquarium and went in. We were a bit later than we wanted to be. F explained and they remade his passport for a small fee. Yay. We went and had a little look at the fish and the jellyfish, but the concert started before we were finished. We were seated fairly early as we have our passports!

And the concert was…odd. It was 4 saxophone players and halfway through they added a rap artist. To be fair, I don’t know if it was the acoustics in the Dream Theatre or what, but the music wasn’t good. It was noisy. When the rap guy came out, it was really hard to hear him over the noise from the saxophones. There’s been a couple of concerts there that I didn’t love, but this one came very close to hate for me.

We drove back into Tsuruoka and discussed dinner. I suggested a few places, but F wanted sushi. We went to Kappa sushi again and it was fine. He wanted chawanmushi, and the expensive one, so he ordered two for us. I started to eat mine but found a really hot place. It was too hot really, but it was stuck in my mouth. Should I spit it out or try to swallow it? I tried to swallow it, but it got stuck for a moment in my throat. I think I burned the inside of my throat. I’ve been downing drinks but my voice sounds a bit odd to me.

We came back to the house and I helped F get his computer going. He bought the darn thing 2 years ago, opened it up once, and then never again. I can’t really understand it. Now that we have wifi in the house, it was time to try again. It’s been fun. His computer is all in Japanese, I’m not good at kanji. He’s been doing stuff on it, so that is good. I’m glad about that. I want him to get it set up so I can FaceTime him when I’m in Canada at the end of the year.

And that’s about it. I watched a little bit of TV tonight, but nothing too important.

I have no idea what is going to happen tomorrow, so you’ll just have to come back a bit later and find out. Until tomorrow….

And now, time for some gratuitous aquarium shots!