May 15, 2021

Saturday - Hot and sunny

I woke up at my usual time but then went back to sleep for another hour or so. When I got up, F was off at his doctor's office, so I proceeded to have breakfast and get ready for my dentist appointment. F came back and was able to have a few minutes of rest before we went off to my dentist.

I wasn’t there very long today. She just did a check of the work from last time and the hygienist brushed my teeth for me. Err….I did that before I came! I’ll go back next month for a fluoride treatment. 

After the dentist it was lunchtime, so F and I discussed where to go and he suggested a place in Amarume that we’ve been trying to go for months. Well, they were full because people had actually made reservations.  We tried their sister-cafe and the same thing. He did a little Googling and drove us to a coffee shop that wasn’t too far away. It turned out to be a tiny little place with one waitress/cook and about 4 tables. However, they did have some interesting drinks on their menu and a lovely smell in the room. The staff told us that she’d be a while, and it was a bit of time before we even got a glass of water, but she was working and working alone all the time.

F and I had the same thing to eat, coro-coro steak and garlic rice. It came with a bowl of salad. The salad bowl had lettuce and potato salad in it. It was nice. There was also vegetable soup, I’m sure it was homemade and really good. On the side of the steak, there were quite a few unusual vegetables, including fiddleheads, spinach and a shiitake mushroom. It wasn’t a perfect meal, I thought the garlic rice was overly salty, but all in all, I enjoyed it because it was so different from what we usually eat. We also had some “fake” coffee with it, a coffee made locally out of soybeans. It was good! We drank it without milk or sugar as the woman suggested. 

After lunch, we stopped briefly at a grocery store where I picked up some drinks for us and then we went driving. F took us on one of his expeditions to try and find a place he might need to take people to for his work. It was all the way back in the middle of nowhere. It was one of those drives that I would have worried a lot if we’d been arguing. He could have pushed me out of the car at any time and I’d never be seen again. Seriously!

I had just watched The Walking Dead and an area like this was where they started Season 6. There was a huge horde of walkers in an area like this. I was glad to get out of there!

We came back to Tsuruoka and F suggested going for coffee and then I suggested going for kaki-gori or shaved ice. The coffee shop makes a really good shaved ice. They cover it with fruit sauce, condensed milk and put some soft ice cream on the side. Oh my! I had the one with Yamagata’s La France pear on it, F had a grape one. We tried each other’s and they were both nice.

After we finished our kaki-gori, we picked up a bento for K and then came back to the house. F had said he was tired, so when we got back, he gave his mother the bento and then we came upstairs. I took a bit of a nap and F played with his computer. 

A couple of hours later I started to insist on having dinner soon. F asked for a couple of restaurants that were closing soon. He finally suggested Sashimiya and since I like it too, that’s where we went. It was very quiet so we could get seated right away. We both had the same thing again, negi-toro-maguro donburi. It was good. We also ordered a couple of special sides. We got asparagus wrapped in pork and some tempura bamboo shoots. They were the least successful dish as parts of the bamboo were inedible. Sigh. 

We paid and then came back to the house. I had asked F if he wanted to watch a movie with me, but he didn’t. I watched some YouTube and then some TV which I enjoyed.

Before he went to bed, F suggested that we take the quilts off the bed and put on the blankets. It was a good idea, I hadn’t planned to do it at 2 am, but why not?  

F has to get his car checked tomorrow and then we’ll have lunch probably. He was thinking to have a massage right after his car check, but I told him I didn’t think it would work. He decided to move it a bit later, so that was good.

That was my day. It was quite a good one. The weather was incredible really. I’m not looking forward to the heat of summer, but right now it is still pleasant and welcome.

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