February 28, 2021

Sunday - Sunny and Warm

I went to bed before F last night. I know, I didn’t believe it either! Around 3 am, I got really tired and I closed down my computer and got into bed. F was still up, but came to bed fairly quickly afterwards. He got up much earlier than I did though! I stayed in bed quite late surprisingly. 

In the afternoon I got up and then we started thinking about going out for lunch. F surprised me, and suggested going to a new restaurant. I like trying new places of course, so off we went. We tried Ni Goo today and it was okay. It is the restaurant that took over from Sukaze, my old favourite that closed last year. 

When we got to the restaurant, F parked and we went in. It looks much the same, but the food is very different. We were able to be seated right away. It was quite busy though. When we arrived, we had only two options available to us, we could either have the steak plate or curry. Since we’d had curry for dinner the night before, we both had the Steak Plate. How was it? It was okay. The steak was quite rare and left the rice underneath quite bloody. I don’t mind rare steak, but would really have preferred it done just a smidge more! I found my steak a little tough, but it came with rice, salad, a tiny scoop of mashed potatoes and some onion steak sauce. There was also a tiny bit of wasabi on the plate, which I was happy about. It was good, but it wasn’t a cheap meal. We added on coffee afterwards too.

We made a quick dash back to the house after our meal for F to get eyedrops. After he got them in, we went out again. We went to AU, the phone company we deal with and I got them to actually transfer the email from my old phone to my new phone. The guy that helped me before said that he had done it, but it didn’t work and I haven’t been able to check the old email address for 5 months. I had 110 emails waiting for me. Happily, most of them could be deleted!

After we finished at AU, we discussed what to do. I suggested that since it was such a beautiful day, we might like to go to the Oyama Nature Centre. We haven’t been there in ages and it is outside. F agreed and then said that maybe we could go to the temple next to the Nature Centre so he could pay respects to his grandmother’s grave. Of course that was fine with me. I said to F that since it had just been the anniversary of my mother’s death, I’d like to visit the temple too.

We drove out to Oyama and it was such a gorgeous day. We parked near the temple and went first to his grandmother’s family grave. F did his thing and I did my thing, and then we went into the actual temple. It’s a lovely little place, quite deserted today. 

The walkway up to the temple, from the temple side.
I love the moss!

We left the temple and drove over to the Nature Centre parking lot. We got out and walked over to the pond and then walked along the lake edge. We saw a couple of women with a dog. F asked them if the dog was an Akita and it was. I don’t know that I’d ever seen one “live” before. 

Looking back to the building and the wetlands that birds 
nest in.

The shelter, mountains in the background, and the path around the pond.

Some of the pond. There are birds, but they are quite far away.

We walked a little, went into the shelter for a few minutes and then walked back the long way to the car. We had a nice walk and it really was nice to be out and about together in the sun. We used the washrooms and then headed back into Tsuruoka.

I suggested that we should get K something for dinner so we checked out the new and improved bento shop that moved from Showa-street. It was a little expensive, but looked really good. 

F gave it to his mother when we got back to the house. We were going to go for dinner, but realized that neither of us felt terribly hungry yet. We had a late lunch after all. We came upstairs and spent a bit of time in the room relaxing.

Around 7 pm we left for Kushibiki. We went to the Chinese restaurant there and were able to get a table fairly quickly. We looked at the menu and had versions of the same dish. I had mabo-yakisoba and F had shrimp yakisoba. We also had an order of gyoza that we shared. We gave each other a bit of our dish so we got to taste each other’s. It was nice. I preferred mine as it wasn’t as starchy and was nice and spicy. Yum.

We went to the grocery store after dinner and picked up a few things for the next couple of days. F is so strange when we go shopping. He grabs the basket and then disappears to look at things he likes. I wouldn’t mind if he actually bought them, but he doesn’t. I had told him some of the things that I needed, but he forgets as soon as he hits the store. We got a bunch of things that we needed, and a few things that we didn’t, so same as usual really. 

When we left the store, we used the self-check out. I hate doing it with F. He gives me all the light  stuff first and he has a really hard time getting the food scanned. He goes too fast!  I’m trying to keep up with him by putting the heavy things on the bottom of the bag, then he’ll give me stuff that I can’t put in the bag properly, but if I don’t the machine gets angry with me! 

We came back to the house and F put some of the groceries away. I just realized that we didn’t eat the ice cream we bought for ourselves. I hope that F at least put it in the freezer! 

We had a relaxing evening in. F took a shower and I just relaxed for a bit. Yay for me. 

So, that was my day. It really was a lovely warm day and I am glad that we were able to spend a little time outside in a beautiful place. 

Come back later if you like and hear all about my Monday. Until tomorrow….