February 5, 2025

Wednesday - Snowy, windy and cold

I woke up this morning a bit later than usual. I didn’t set my usual alarm but that was okay. I got up around 10:45 to get dressed for going out. It took a while, but we left a bit after 11am. 

We went to Togashi for yakiniku. For a while, we were the only customers. We had their lunch special, but we asked them to make it bigger. They now have the option to make it bigger on the menu.  We had a lovely meal and were nicely full when we finished. 

We went to the Aquarium in Kamo after lunch and spent a few hours there. It was great! There were hardly any people there, so we could take our time and wander around the exhibits. Yay. When we finished, we sat in the lobby and had a hot drink and rested and relaxed.

When we were ready, we drove back to Tsuruoka. The surf was incredible on the way back and the waves were breaking over the coastline. I would not have liked to be in a boat today. 

Back in Tsuruoka, we went to a grocery store and bought a few groceries. We got a nice bento for K and something for her lunch, our dinner for tomorrow and breakfasts for F and K. We paid and then came back to the house. On the way back, F suggested going out for drinks and dinner tomorrow night to an izakaya. I wasn’t sure, but then I remembered that F doesn’t work on Friday, so he can sleep in if need be and well, why not!

We spent about 45 minutes at the house. F gave his mother her bento, I went upstairs and relaxed a bit. 

After 6pm, we started off for the restaurant. Since my first two choices didn’t work out, I was a bit worried about this one. However, F had phoned in the morning and made a reservation for tonight AND it is a fantastic Italian restaurant. We drove through Tsuruoka and into the outskirts of the city. 

We arrived, parked and went into Isukiya. We were seated right away and we looked at the menu. We decided to order one of their set menus. We got salad, soup, appetizers and pizza, pasta, dessert and a drink at the end. We both chose rooibos tea. F told the chef about my tomato allergy and he stepped up and we had nothing with tomatoes in it. The food was fabulous. At the end we realized that there was hardly any meat involved in dinner! We had some nama ham with buffalo mozzarella and that was it. There was some shrimp and bait fish on the pizza but the majority of the food was vegetable-based! It was all so good.  Our dessert was tiramisu and it was very nice. It wasn’t the best I’ve ever had, but it was good.

We paid and left. F had a little problem getting out of the parking area, but really it wasn’t bad. We drove back to Tsuruoka and then F mentioned that he wanted to go to a drugstore. We went to one, he got some eyewash and I picked up some snacks and some pasta sauce!

Back at the house, we both relaxed. I decided that if we go out tomorrow night, I should take a shower tonight, so I did. 

When I came back to the room I ended up chatting with F and reading things online, so I didn’t turn on the TV at all. 

Since midnight I’ve been doing the YouTube thing and catching up online. Tomorrow night I think we’ll be going out again, but if F has a tiring day at work, he may beg off. I’ve asked him to let me know as early as possible because I will have to cook dinner if he doesn’t want to go out. 

It was a fabulous birthday and I got to spend it with my mostly lovely husband and ate some great food and saw some interesting beasties at the aquarium. 

That’s it for me. Until tomorrow….