April 12, 2025

 Saturday - Sunny and warm

I woke up this morning a little after 9 without an alarm. Yay! I went downstairs and then came back upstairs and went back to bed for a snooze. 

F came upstairs around 11 and wanted to go for lunch. I was in the middle of getting dressed. I was fine with going for lunch but then F started getting all whiny about ramen again. I told him that he could go. Then, he remembered about the coupons that we were all sent, we can get discounts at restaurants depending on how much we spend. He listed off some of the restaurants that we can use them at, so I suggested going to one I like. Unfortunately F wasn’t happy but finally caved. We drove over to the restaurant. They had signs up saying that they had a new restaurant style…and prices to match. Luckily for us, they had the prices up outside and they were very expensive. I said to F that we didn’t need to go there after all. 

We ended up going to Kitchen Futaba just up the road. We used to go there quite often as I like it a lot, but F threw a tantrum in the restaurant and refused to eat there once. He didn’t even want to go there today, but I kind of insisted. 

We got a table and looked at the menu. I had today’s quiche plate and F had the baguette sandwich plate. F wasn’t feeling too great so he gave me one of his sandwich bits. It was nice, but slippery!  It had egg and avocado slices inside it, the avocado wanted to slide out all the time. My quiche was lovely. It was potato and bacon I think. 

F admitted afterwards that the food was good, so that was a good thing. He also used a couple of the city’s coupons so lunch was somewhere around 1200 yen. That was an excellent price!

We went to S-Mall next. I had wanted to look at a store that is closing to see if I could get myself a new parasol/umbrella. I chose one and also found some tea to get. When we went to the counter, the umbrella wasn’t on sale! There was no way I was going to pay 4200 yen for an umbrella/sunshade, so I apologized and said that I wouldn’t buy it. I did buy the tea though. 

After that, we went to Doutors. I told F to take a seat and my shopping bag and I would get the drinks. I bought them and I got them on a tray. Unfortunately, just by F, my bag slipped on my arm and my arm’s balance changed. My iced latte fell over and lost half of its contents. There was iced coffee all over the floor, the tray and me! I got F to ask one of the workers to clean up the floor as I didn’t have the tools to do that and ice shouldn’t be left where people could slip on it. After things were cleaned up, we spent some time with our drinks. 

When we finished, we just came back to the house. I was rather disappointed if I’m honest. I went upstairs and spent time on my computer. 

F came up after a while and then went downstairs when he thought his mother would return. He came back upstairs after 5 and said that he wasn’t feeling good again and didn’t want to go out tonight. Sigh. I was resigned to that. He suggested going out to get bentos but I told him I didn’t want a bento and asked if dinner was a possibility. He agreed and then a few minutes later said we could go to the movie!

We went out to get K a nice bento and some stuff for us. F gave her the bento and I took our stuff upstairs. Then, we left the house and drove out to the mall.

At the Aeon Cinema we made a discovery. They have changed the machines to buy our tickets. They were hard to use before, now they are nearly impossible for me. So much Japanese and even less English than before. I’m sure I’ll get used to them, but it will take a bit of time.

We took our tickets to the bibinba stall and ordered some food. With our movie tickets we get free drinks, so we got our drinks too. I got a yakiniku bibinba and F got the Ishiyaki bibinba. We were both pleased with the food. We did have to eat a little quickly as we only had 20 minutes before our movie!

F bought some popcorn and drinks and we went into the cinema. Tonight we went to see The Amateur with Rami Malek and Laurence Fishburne. It was better than I expected it to be. It wasn’t stupid and Charlie (Malek) didn’t turn into a superspy a la Jason Bourne. It wasn’t a great movie, not one I’ll remember for ages, but it was fine.

After the movie, I expected we’d head back to Tsuruoka, but F suggested going to Don Quihote. I was fine with that. 

We drove over and went in. Right inside the door we found some ramen for F. Of course he got some! It was cheaper than the stuff in the regular grocery stores. We also spent some time in the electronic area. F had wanted earphones but didn’t buy any. I almost got headphones, but talked myself out of it. We headed over to the food section and I picked up a few things. I got a couple of types of cereal which I needed anyway and then F picked up a few things too. 

We checked out, packed our shopping bag, and then left the store. We drove back to Tsuruoka and came back to the house. 

F is snoozing away, he’d fallen asleep soon after we got back. 

I’m hoping we’ll go over to Sakata tomorrow for lunch, but I’m not sure if F will be up for it. I have a few things that I want to do over there, but we’ll see. We will also have to do our usual grocery shopping and prepping for the week ahead. Wish me luck!

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