February 22, 2026

Sunday - Cloudy but warm

I woke up early this morning, F was still in bed! I went downstairs and then came back upstairs and went back to bed. I slept a bit longer, got up and dressed. 

F came upstairs and we talked about where to go for lunch. He wanted to go to Arpeggio and so we went there. We had to wait outside for ten minutes but were able to go in after that. We had a lovely meal but it took ages to arrive. We waited more than 40 minutes which I think is quite a long time to wait. It was today’s theme though! I worked on my book while we waited so it wasn’t too bad. I finally got 1984 finished. It wasn’t my favourite book ever, but I’m glad that I read it. Mostly. 

After lunch we hit up a grocery store for K’s dinner and some snacks, then we went back to the house. F stayed downstairs to clean up and I went upstairs to relax.

At 5 pm K’s Care Manager came and we had our meeting. It went okay I think. I don’t always understand what is being said. Her next appointment with us is on a public holiday in March. I’m not impressed! I don’t even want to go to these meetings, and we have to waste a national holiday talking about a nasty old lady who doesn’t like me! F may not see it that way.

F gave his mother her bento for dinner after the Care Manager left. We headed out to go to the festival. We drove to the place where we were supposed to be able to catch the bus to the top of the mountain and…there was no bus! It was dark there. F checked his phone and I checked my online-source and I noticed something odd. The blurb said that the Lantern Festival was on Sunday February 23rd. Great, except that today was Sunday February 22nd! F’s source said the 23rd as well, so….we were a whole day early! Oh no!  We drove up to the temple area to see the lanterns. The lanterns were built and there was a design made out of snow, but nothing was lit up and there were no people at all. I think we’ll try again tomorrow night, probably.

We talked about where to go for our dinner. F was on a ramen kick again and I told him he could go if he dropped me off somewhere else. He then suggested soba, which I was NOT in the mood for either. We made a quick stop by the house to change out of our boots and then ended up going to To-en, the Chinese restaurant on the other side of the park. We were able to be seated right away, but it took about 45 minutes before we got any food. We had ordered by phone so I was wondering if maybe it hadn’t gone through, but F swore it was okay. Sure enough, my dish showed up next. We ordered 3 dishes to share. I ordered Mapo-dofu on rice, F ordered yakisoba with 5 things and we shared an order of kara-age again. I hated his yakisoba and when he gave me some, he gave me too much. It’s so bland I can’t taste it, but he loves that stuff. Anyway, it was fine. We both ate enough and it was good, for the most part.

After dinner, we hit up the grocery store again just to get something for K’s breakfast, and also for mine. If we go to the early movie tomorrow afternoon, I’ll probably need a quick snack/meal. 

We came back to the house. Upstairs, I decided to watch the episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale that I had recorded last week. They were fine. F went to bed and fell asleep. On Facebook I noticed that people were watching the Canada vs. USA men’s hockey game. I decided to look and see if it was on Japanese TV. Big surprise…it was! So, I watched the second and third period of the game, and then that sad overtime period. Canada lost, but it was a good game and the teams were really well matched. There was a nasty penalty that Canada got in the third period (I think) and it really was nasty. When I saw the replay it made sense. 

And that’s it. Today was a mostly good day. I’m glad that I got through 1984 finally. It was quite the slog in places, other parts were fine. 

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