December 31, 2022

Saturday - Colder, windy and a bit rainy and snowy

I slept in this morning. I had set an alarm for 10:00am, but hit the snooze button a few times! I did finally get up around 11 am. F and I had a bit of a snuggle session before getting up which was nice. 

We had quite a busy day, once we got going. Somewhere around 1:30 or so we went out to go for lunch. We went to Cocos today. F had the Soup Curry and I had the pork hamburg in a mustard cream sauce. It was nice. We also shared a plate of fries that I got for free with my app. Yay.

After we finished, we spent a bit too much time relaxing in the restaurant.  We still had to get some food. We went over to the PAL grocery store and did a little shopping. I was starting to get a bit worried about time as the sushi shop had said they’d deliver between 4 and 6 pm. It was now a few minutes after 3 and the store was crowded. I made F do all the shopping because New Year is his thing here. As usual, he was terribly disorganized and hadn’t thought about what meals he’d need and what ingredients he’d need for them!  We ended up getting a pack of party food to go along with the sushi.

We managed to get out of the store at 4 pm. That was rather impressive since it was insanely busy there. We drove back to the house.  I put away the groceries and then went upstairs. While I was upstairs I heard the doorbell and went down and paid the guy. F came rushing out too and repaid me. Yay. 

We waited a while for dinner. Finally, I offered to let F use my air fryer to heat up some of the food from the party tray.  We went downstairs and heated food up and got dinner on the table. I helped F quite a bit I think. We got K up and we had our dinner.

When we had finished eating we were all stuffed. I could barely move and I think F was the same. We cleared the table and then I beetled off upstairs!

F came up a while later. I decided to watch some TV, so I put on an episode of The Great British Sewing Bee which was great, and also Carnival Row. It was a humdinger of an episode today. Philo got arrested and so did Vignette. Wow!

I couldn’t find anything else to watch when I finished as I wanted it to end before midnight, so I just turned off the TV. When midnight happened I wished F a Happy New Year and we had a little smooch. I know he had a beer earlier, I had a little mojito after midnight. 

It was a very low-key New Year’s eve and I’m fine with that. I’m not sure what we’re going to get up to tomorrow. I’d really like to go to the mall in Mikawa and check out the craft section. They usually sell off a bunch of yarn at the start of the year. However, I think that F would like a quiet day at the house, so it depends on how he is doing then too.

Anyway, that’s about it for me for today. I’d like to wish all of my readers, even the ones who lurk, a very happy new year and may 2023 be a fabulous year for all of us!

Until tomorrow….

 

December 30, 2022

Friday - Rainy, snowy but warmer

I slept in this morning and I enjoyed that! I slept well and felt quite good when I dragged myself out of bed. I spent a little time at my computer and also texting a friend. F decided that he’d be okay to go out soon after that. We had a drink first, heated up some food for K and then headed out.

We had lunch at Arpeggio, our Japanese place that we often dine at. It was really nice. F got the last ten item assorted plate and I had my usual Soboro-don. We enjoyed our lunch there. 

Our next errand was to go to the sushi restaurant and set up a delivery for tomorrow. We’re going to have sushi for dinner tomorrow night. I’m a little worried that F hasn’t made any plans for food on Sunday. I hope he knows that most of the food stores will be closed! I won’t be happy if I only get noodles to eat. 

We drove over to the MaxValu area and I went to Yamaya. I rarely go to this store anymore since the other one opened. The foreign food section is definitely smaller than in the other store and there is a lot more alcohol on the shelves. I got a few things, then paid and left. F was waiting outside. He drove me over to Daiso where we nearly had a disagreement. I only was there to buy the plates that they had a campaign for. I didn’t want to get into the long line, particularly since I didn’t have to buy anything else there. We got the attention of a shop worker and he got us the plates. We paid and left.

We went and had coffee at Komeda coffee and stayed there a bit too long. A little before 5 pm, F remembered that he had an appointment at 6 pm!  We had to pick up a bento for K, go back to the house and drop off our shopping, plus F wanted to take a shower and I wanted him to drop me off at the mall!

We paid and left. We decided not to go to MaxValu which was crazy busy but to go to the little local grocery store near F’s house. It wasn’t busy, and we were able to pick up a good bento, plus something for F’s and K’s breakfasts for the next couple of days.

We managed to get everything done. F took a quick shower, I got K up to eat and then we left the house. F dropped me off at the mall where I went shopping. 

I hacked through a few stores, bought a few things and just generally enjoyed myself. When I was finished shopping I went to Doutor and had a glass of Rooibos and waited for F. He came into the mall and I bought him a cup of coffee, which he basically paid for because he gave me money to recharge my card. 

When the mall was about to close, we left. F suggested yakiniku for dinner and I was fine with that. We tried our favourite place, but it was packed. The second place we looked at was busy too, so F suggested going to The Evil Place, a yakiniku buffet. We ended up going there and had a pretty big meal. It was okay!

We came back to the house when our time was up and settled in for the evening.  I took a shower a bit later and F went to bed fairly early. 

That’s about it for us. I’ve no idea what we’ll get up to tomorrow. I hope it goes well! 

Until tomorrow….

December 29, 2022

Thursday - Rainy and a little snowy

I stayed up a little (okay, a lot) later than I had planned so when I went to bed it was very late. I got a phone call from F around 9:30 telling me he was on his way back, and then another one about half an hour later. I was on my way downstairs for that one and I was awake, but I couldn’t understand him. He was either using the cheapo car calling system or his hundred yen shop headphones and I couldn’t understand his words. We hung up!

I was back in bed sleeping when F arrived. He got into bed too and we had a snuggle for a while, but I got up. He stayed in bed for a while. In the afternoon I suggested that we go and get something to eat. I was starving and he hadn’t eaten either. He made a quick lunch for his mother. Despite my asking twice, he hadn’t brought her anything on the way back to the house. Sigh. 

We went out after 2:30 pm so the only place that we could really go was a family restaurant. We ended up going to Gusto which was really fine. I had a big meal, and F did too. His was so big he gave some of his to me. 

After lunch, we went shopping for shoes for him. Because of his brace, he needs one big shoe and one regular shoe. He has the big shoe, but his regular shoe is falling apart and is made for summer. It is now winter. He got a new pair of shoes, but he can only wear one of them. Bit of a rip-off for him. I scanned the shoe aisles but didn’t see anything I wanted. 

When we finished lunch we bought gas at the gas station. The gas light was on in the car. Why oh why does he do that? Next, we drove out to the grocery store on the edge of town and bought bentos. We got a nice one for K and we got some chicken and fries for us. I said I’d use my air fryer to heat it all up later. 

Next up, we visited Starbucks and had a drink. It wasn’t as busy as it usually is and we were able to get seats and relax for a bit. When it got too cold, we left. 

We went back to the house, I heated up the bento for K and heated up the living room, and F got K up to eat. I went upstairs and started heating up our room. It was cold again. 

We had a fairly quiet evening here. We ate around 9 pm. I did heat everything up in the air fryer and brought it upstairs to eat. We had a couple of types of fried chicken and some wedge potatoes. We also shared a macaroni salad.  We had some leftovers at the end, so I took them downstairs and plated them for K. If she’s up before us, at least it’ll be something she can grab. 

I did the dishes and even wiped down the inside roof of my air fryer. It really needed it. I went back upstairs and decided to watch a couple of shows on the Fire Stick. I saw another episode of Carnival Row and one of Mythic Quest. That was rather funny.

I turned off the TV around midnight and got stuck into YouTube and my computer. 

I’m not really sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. F has booked an evening massage for himself, so I’ll probably go to S-Mall and do a little late-night shopping. Hopefully, things will still be open. They should be according to the mall’s info on Instagram!

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

December 28, 2022

Wednesday - Sunny in the morning, rainy and stormy at night

I woke up this morning fairly early. I went downstairs for a couple of minutes and then went back to bed. I slept on until my alarm went off. I got up, went downstairs again and then came back and watched the news.

After the news, I took a snooze and later got up and did a couple of loads of laundry. With F being around for the next few days, I’m not sure I’d be able to do laundry. 

I was a bit late going down for lunch, but I finally did. I grabbed my lunch and came upstairs. I watched an episode of The Great British Bake Off and then listened to music until the 4 pm news started. 

I didn’t go down early to the kitchen tonight, or at least not very early. I didn’t really need to. I washed my dishes from the day and then just hung out in the kitchen. I had turned on the heater a little earlier so the kitchen wasn’t freezing. Yay. The delivery guy showed up at 6:15, so I took charge of the food and paid him for it. I brought the food into the living room. I turned on the light and the heater and called K to come and have dinner. 

She joined me a few minutes later and we had a nice dinner. F had ordered me a chicken cutlet with sushi. It came with a chawanmushi too. K got an assortment of things that looked rather good. She got sushi, tempura, soba and some other things. I was surprised because she ate everything! Usually, she leaves something. After we finished eating I gave her one of the brownies from last night. I went off to the kitchen to do the dishes.

After I finished them, I did up the garbage in the kitchen and bathroom. It took a little bit of time. K went to bed and I brought down the garbage from upstairs. I took it out to the gomi station as I didn’t think F would be back in time to do that in the morning.

I went upstairs and discovered that Venom was on cable. I watched the end of it. The sequel was on next, but I decided that I’d look on my Fire Stick to see if it was there. I could stop the film if I needed to, whereas, with no DVR I couldn’t do that on the cable. I enjoyed watching Venom: Let There Be Carnage again. I saw it in the cinema and thought it was funny.

At 11 I watched The Walking Dead and it was a good one again. This storyline is quite interesting.

I turned off the TV at midnight and fired up YouTube. F and I texted a bit. It sounds like he did a good time. He was having a bath before bed so I let him do that. 

I’ve had a quiet evening but it has been nice. I’ll probably toddle off to bed soon. I need my sleep. The weather outside is horrible right now, so a warm bed sounds good!

I have no idea what we’ll get up to tomorrow. Please come back later and find out! Until tomorrow….

December 27, 2022

Tuesday - Warmish and rainy

I went to bed a few minutes earlier than I have been for ages and managed to sleep quite well, so that was good. I really didn’t want to get up this morning, but of course, I did. 

I got up, went downstairs and then put on the news. I turned off the TV at 9 am and took a snooze.

I went downstairs to grab my breakfast, but F’s sister was there again!  I hadn’t heard the doorbell this morning. I did talk to her a little this morning. She was dropping off some food for her mother. I asked her if she’d please date the food that she brings. K never tells me when her daughter brings food but since I clear out the fridge, I need to know how old the food is! She left us some pickles and some cakes for K. 

I grabbed my breakfast and then went upstairs to eat. I watched some YouTube as usual. I went downstairs and grabbed my lunch a bit later. I also set the heater to come on later. 

I had a quiet afternoon. I watched another episode of The Great British Sewing Bee and enjoyed that. I followed that up with the news. F called soon after 5 and I went downstairs and started to prepare dinner. When F got back I asked him how soon he wanted dinner. He requested 7 pm, so I did my best! Tonight we had hamburgers with cheese in them, shrimp pilaf, salad and beets. We also had a few leftovers from the Christmas meal although some of them are getting a little older! For dessert, we had a tiny little brownie that F and I bought the last time we went shopping together at Gyomu.

After dinner, I did the dishes. I listened to some podcasts and then went upstairs. F was watching something on TV in the living room. I think it was one of those silly gladiator-type things where people do an obstacle course. I don’t like them. 

Upstairs, I watched a bit of YouTube and then F came upstairs. At 11 I watched FBI: Most Wanted. It was okay. I found the American Music Awards and watched for a few minutes, but I wasn’t enjoying it enough to keep watching.

And that’s about it. Tomorrow F is off to his New Year Party with his friends and I’m on K-duty. He did order us food, so I don’t have to make good on my threat to not be here on Thursday!

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

December 26, 2022

Monday - Rainy but warm

I woke up this morning when my alarm went off. I grabbed the kerosene tank from the heater and went downstairs. I brought up the tank and started the heater. Then, I got dressed. I took a bit of a snooze as usual, but I heard the doorbell go. I went downstairs and it was F’s sister. She was already in the house. I don’t know if she let herself in or if K got up and let her in, but I think it was the first option.

I stayed down long enough to give her the money that we owed her and then went back upstairs. I had a snooze and later when I woke up, I went back downstairs for breakfast. 

I got some mail this morning too! That was cool. I got a calendar from my hairdresser and I got a Christmas card in the mail. I was happy about both of them. 

I ate my breakfast and then for some reason I just couldn’t stay awake. I was falling asleep on my YouTube videos. I decided to take a nap. I slept for a while, then got up. It was after 1pm, and I decided to take down my Christmas tree. I know that in Japan people often take them down on Christmas day, but that’s crazy. I might have left it, but today was a tad warmer and so it was not unpleasant to be in the unheated hallway doing the deed. I could have waited a few days, but who knows if we’d get decent weather or not. 

It took a while to take the ornaments off and re-boxed. I’m not sure if I got them in the correct places, but I tried. I even took the tree apart and boxed it up too. I ran everything out to the garage and put it away there. 

When I came back in, I washed my hands and then grabbed my lunch. It was after three by now, so very late. 

I didn’t get to watch anything off the Fire Stick today, but some of the news was on, so I watched that. We’re heading into the big dry patch for English news sad to say. I expect any day that it will disappear as nothing happens outside Japan between Dec 28 and Jan 4 or 5th. [Sarcasm]

F called a little after 5 to say he was on his way back, so I eventually went downstairs to start on dinner. I wasn’t cooking very much, most of the dinner was leftovers, but I thought I’d make hot chicken sandwiches for us from the leftover chicken. I had a gravy packet and some bread, at least something on our plates would be hot and new. I got the table set, even called F down. I put the chicken on the bread, and poured on the gravy and….no one came. F came downstairs and headed into the washroom. K did come, but she refused to eat anything until F got there. I was angry. Of course, the hot chicken wasn’t hot anymore. At least mine was lukewarm when I wolfed it down. The others got cold gravy. Too bad for them.

I got less grumpy as the meal went on. The food was nice and we all enjoyed it. K went to town on the jalapeño-cheese crackers…I discovered that all the odd crackers I’d bagged up yesterday for today were eaten….by her. I can hardly believe it. There were quite a few and she just ate them all. 

After our meal, F served us the rest of his cake. It was quite expensive, so I didn’t want it to go bad. He’d been keeping it outside the kitchen so I wasn’t sure that keeping it much longer was a good idea. 

I did the dishes and it took a bit of time. I didn’t use a lot of stuff today, but more than yesterday had to be washed. When I finished I let F know that we had to go out tonight for some food. 

We drove over to MaxValu and I went in. I decided I really didn’t want to do too much cooking tomorrow, so just got some pre-made burgers and a shrimp pilaf. I’ll see if I can toss in a veggie or something too. I picked up something for F and K’s breakfasts and her lunch as well. 

We came back to the house and I put away the groceries before a bit of rest. I took a shower and then came back to my computer and some YouTube. 

And now, I think I’ll try and get an early night. I’m fatigued today. I think I’ve been under a lot of stress with Christmas and doing nengajo, so I just need to take things easy for a bit. 

Anyway, that’s about it for me. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

December 25, 2022

Sunday - Warmer and a little rainy

Merry Christmas everyone! Happy holiday season if you don’t celebrate Christmas.

We went to bed terribly late last night. I thought F would go to bed earlier, but he didn’t go to bed until 4 or something. I was a little later than him too. 

This morning we both slept in. I made a quick trip downstairs around 9:30 or so, but then slept later until 11:30 or so. I got up then and so did F. He wanted to go out for lunch right away, but I suggested that he cook something for his mother’s breakfast. He did that and I got dressed!

We decided that we’d go to Kintaro Sushi for brunch. It was my idea and I wasn’t sure if F would really go for it, but he did. We went to the closer restaurant and got right in. We had quite a good meal, but we were both surprised that they have raised their prices. They are worth it, but it was a big jump for a lot of our favourite sushi plates. 

After lunch, we ran a lot of errands. We visited a drugstore, then went to the main post office for me to drop off my nengajo. I did that. Next up, we were going to buy some groceries. F drove into one of the grocery stores parking lots, but then asked if we could go and visit his car dealership first. I said okay.

We went out to the car dealership and we went inside and talked to one of the salesmen. We got a drink each and a little later went outside and looked at a couple of the cars.  F is still thinking about cars. I nearly fell asleep in the shop! I was also getting a bit nervous about time.

Soon enough, we finished and F drove me to the grocery store. We picked up a few things for tomorrow. We had lots of food for Christmas, but not so much for the day after! 

We came back to the house, I put the groceries away. I turned on the heater in the kitchen and then went upstairs for a bit of a rest.  

I went downstairs a little after 5 and got started on cleaning the kitchen and getting ready for cooking. I started with the chicken. I prepared my chicken for roasting and got it into the air fryer. Yay. After that, I worked on making some veggie sticks and after that, I plated some of the food that we had bought over the last few weeks. I set the table and put all the food out. There was so much food!I almost didn’t have enough room for everything. 

Finally around 7:30 the table was set and the food was on the table. I texted F to come down and he got K up and to the table. 

My Nibbles Buffet!

We had a lovely meal. The chicken was great and the other food was nice too. We had veggie sticks, cold meat, cheese, crackers, chicken and some paté. It was all very nice. When we were all stuffed, I cleared the table and F got his cake out. He cut the cake and served us each a piece. It was quite nice. I’m often a little cynical about Japanese cakes, but this wasn’t too bad. 

F's Christmas Cake - Bought of course!

After that, F headed off upstairs, K headed to bed and I headed to the kitchen for the clean up. Knowing that I would be stuck with the clean up, I had used paper plates and platters, so it was mostly a case of just tossing things, but I had to clean the cutlery, cooking utensils and a few other things. It got done. 

Around 10 pm I went upstairs and relaxed. I put on my pyjamas and then I watched a couple of shows from the Fire Stick. I did another episode of Carnival Row and then one of The Red Green Show. That was quite funny and rather silly as usual.

And that’s it. My Christmas Day wasn’t too bad really. I still don’t have a working DVR (although to do him credit, F did call the cable company but they weren’t open), but I think I’ll survive. F is off to work tomorrow, but his last day this year is Wednesday.

I’m done. Have a wonderful holiday and thanks for always checking back to see what I’m up to. Until tomorrow….

December 24, 2022

Saturday - Rainy and warmer and wet

I heard F leave this morning. He took his mother off to get their vaccination. I slept a bit longer. I dragged myself out of bed around 9:30 or 10 I think. I went downstairs for a minute and saw that F was making some food for his mother. 

I went back upstairs. A little later, F came upstairs. We talked about going for lunch, but then I offered F a cup of something. He accepted and had some coffee. We relaxed for a few minutes and then we went off for lunch. 

We went out to Fujishima and had lunch at a place we’ve gone a few times. We were in an almost empty restaurant. I had a hamburger patty with veggies. It was served stew style, rice on the side, with a salad and a cup of coffee at the end. F had Pork Sauté and seemed to like his too. 

After lunch, we went over to Mikawa and did a little shopping. First of all, I got a new pair of slippers at Uniqlo and then we zoomed over to the big mall. We did some shopping. F got me a few things from the ladies department for my present and then we went over to the men’s department. I got him a new shirt and some underwear. It’s what he wanted, so it’s fine. After that, we went downstairs and had a drink at Mr Donut. We had a doughnut each too. 

We didn't eat KFC, but I just wanted to 
show Santa Saunders. KFC is Christmas
Dinner for many people in Japan!

We picked up a few things at the grocery store in the mall and then headed back into Tsuruoka. We had to pick up the cake at the mall and I wanted to visit the hundred yen shop. I did a quick run through of the shop and then went back to the car where F was waiting for me. 

We drove back to the house but we couldn’t park the car. The snowplough had gone through during the day and there was a wall of snow blocking us. F grabbed the big snow scoop, I went into the house and grabbed the smaller scoop I usually use, and we both moved snow. F did most of the work and cleared the entranceway, but I cleared the steps to the house and the area around the garage doors. 

F drove the car in and we took our stuff out and went into the house. I took most of our shopping upstairs and he gave his mother her bento. A few minutes later we left to go out and have our dinner.

I had asked that we go out to Cocos and F was okay with that. We were able to get seated almost immediately and ordered. I had the soup curry again and it was really nice. F had a hamburger set meal with a fish donburi too. We both had the drink bar and I ordered the special Christmas dessert. I gave F a little bit of it, but he didn’t want too much of it. 

They called this a Christmas Croquembouche! It was nice.

We came back to the house and came upstairs. I asked F if he would try and set up the DVR player and he took it out of the box. He started trying to set it up, but has discovered that he needs a code from our cable company. It’s not like I didn’t ask him to look at it earlier in the week when he would have more time to contact the company. Sigh. I would have liked it if he had. Still, at least he tried.

I watched a bit of TV tonight, but around midnight I turned it off. Nothing was too fabulous.  A little after midnight I wished F a merry Christmas and we had a little smooch. 

It is very late at the moment. Tomorrow we should do a little grocery shopping maybe and then I have to make Christmas dinner. I’m just doing a Nibbles Buffet again, but I am going to roast a chicken in my air fryer. 

Anyway, I’m off to bed. Merry Christmas if you celebrate, have a happy holiday if you don’t. Until tomorrow….

December 23, 2022

Friday - Cold and snowy, with thunder and lightning

I got up at my usual time this morning and then watched the news. I fell asleep a little afterwards and then got up a bit late. I sorted my laundry and was just about ready to take it downstairs when I heard the washing machine already going! K was doing laundry. I waited a few minutes and took my clothes downstairs.

I had breakfast and watched a little YouTube, while I did laundry. I did a couple of loads today, plus I also hung up F’s laundry to dry it. He’d left it downstairs last night.

Around 2 pm I decided I had better go outside and shovel some snow. Yes, it had started snowing again today. There was a lot of snow.  I worked for around an hour and cleared off the parking area and went from the house out to the road. That isn’t as much as you think, but on the other hand, it took a while. I went in when I was done.

I grabbed my lunch and went upstairs and ate. I didn’t have time to watch anything today. At 4 pm, I didn’t watch the news. I watched the first part of The Sparks Brothers. I had seen the rest of the film earlier in the week, but missed the beginning. Today I saw the beginning. It was quite a good documentary. It was fun. 

A bit after 5 pm F called and then I went downstairs to start dinner. It was a simple one tonight, just pasta with a wasabi and mayo sauce and some salad and pepper pork. It was actually quite good. I didn’t get to cook for a long time as F was late, and then when he came back asked for a few extra minutes to relax. 

I finished doing dishes after 9pm which was rather annoying. Still, I did finish. I went upstairs and worked on nengajo for a while and then took a shower. Fumihiko was supposed to take one too, but didn’t. 

I have finally written 6 or 7 cards. I bought 20, so I still have a few to prepare. Sunday is the deadline I think to get them in the mail. Actually, I should check on that!

Well, that’s it for me. I’m not sure what I’ll get up to on Saturday. F and K have another booster shot tomorrow. The last ones they got weren’t Omicron specific, so they’re getting the updated version. I hope they are both feeling okay on Sunday for the Christmas dinner I am planning!

Gotta go. Until tomorrow…..

December 22, 2022

Thursday - Rainy and then windy at night

F did wake me up this morning, but I was able to go back to sleep right away. Whew. I woke up again with my alarm. I went downstairs and then came back upstairs. I heard banging and thought that someone might be at the front door.  I went back downstairs and went to the door. No one was there. However, with the door open, I could hear that there was a lot of banging going on in the area. There are a lot of new houses being built, that’s where the noise was coming from. 

I went back upstairs, watched the news and then did my usual snoozing thing. I woke up a little late, but nothing too bad. I went downstairs and grabbed my breakfast.

I came upstairs and ate, I watched a little bit of YouTube. I printed more of the nengajo that I need and that took a little while. I now have the first ten printed. 

I grabbed lunch, I didn’t see K at all during the day today. She had taken her breakfast stuff, but never took the lunch that I left for her. I had some of the same stuff I left her and it was yum! Maybe she’ll eat it tomorrow?

I watched the news and a bit later F called to say he was on the way. I went downstairs to start dinner. Tonight it wasn’t anything really fancy, but it was a lot of different bits! I did chicken in the toaster oven, chips in the air fryer, salad, a sort of croquette with leftover mashed sweet potatoes and some sautéed mushrooms. Yay me. I did rather well I think. I finally got everyone at the table and eating too, so that was good. 

Tonight F and I went out for groceries. It was very strange because they didn’t have any bread in the store. They’d put a sign up saying that due to the snow on Tuesday the bread wasn’t able to be delivered. Sure, but it is now Thursday!! Actually though, I know that a lot of trains were cancelled yesterday too, so I suppose it makes sense.

Tomorrow I’m just going to make some pasta again. I have no plans to make dinner on Saturday, I hope F will take us out, I hope the weather lets us do that! I’ll be doing Sunday’s Christmas dinner. I’m going to air-fry a chicken as part of it, and F had ordered a Christmas Cake. I’ll have to remind him to pick it up!

After we got back, I wrote a couple of nengajo, so I have started at least. I also watched a couple of shows off Prime. I watched the third episode of Carnival Row and then an episode of Jean-Claude Van Johnson. I haven’t watched any of that for a while. It was pretty funny.

I was able to have a bit of a text chat with my bestie in Canada tonight, so that was a good thing. We both signed off for the night though. 

I blogged and checked a few things on the net. F is sleeping and it is late now. I’m off to bed.

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

December 21, 2022

Wednesday - Sunny and warmer

I woke up this morning when my alarm went off. F didn’t wake me up this morning. I didn’t hear him at all!

I got up, went downstairs and checked out the outside. There wasn’t any new snow. Yay! I went back upstairs and got dressed, then I did the news and snooze thing. I actually overslept today and didn’t get up at my usual time. When I woke myself up, I went downstairs and grabbed my breakfast. 

I didn’t see K at all. I did hear her once or twice today, but I didn’t see her until I went down for lunch.

After I ate breakfast I worked on my printer. I didn’t have much luck. I unplugged it, turned it around and checked for blockages or bits of paper stuck inside, but I couldn’t see anything. I tried it again from my computer and didn’t get it to work. I tried printing something from my printer itself and it did print from the back. A-ha! It does still print from the rear tray.  However, it took me ages and I still didn’t get it to work.

I took a break for the news and then F called to say that he was on his way back. I changed my clothes and went downstairs to start dinner.

Tonight I was making two dishes. One of them was mashed sweet potatoes, a savoury version, and the other was a buta-tama-kimchi thing. I worked rather hard on my sweet potatoes but they didn’t turn out that well. They tasted good, but they were quite dry. I used “fake sour cream” and I may have taken too much liquid out when I drained the yogurt today. Sigh. I’d like to try it again and see if I can do it better.

I didn’t start the buta-tama until 7 pm, when I wanted to start eating dinner! Basically, I just ended up throwing things into the pan, but it worked. I started with the pork and then added in some cabbage when it was cooked. After that, it was the kimchi and finally I added two beaten eggs and mixed them in. It was incredibly simple, but honestly quite good. 

I set the table in a hurry and called F. He had heated up the living room before he came down, so it was nice in there. He woke his mother up and got her to the living room as well. We ate and it wasn’t too bad at all. 

I did the dishes and it took a while. After that, I did up the garbage in the kitchen and took it to the genkan. I went upstairs. As I was doing the dishes I got the idea that since I know my printer works, but the connection didn’t seem to, I decided to remove my printer from my computer’s memory and then put it back again. I tried it and surprise, surprise…it worked! Yes. 

I took a shower a few minutes after 10 and then came back upstairs. I tried the printer again and it still worked. I printed off three nengajo before stopping to watch The Walking Dead. It was a suspenseful show but happily everyone that was important survived. Whew. 

I turned off the TV and got stuck into YouTube and blogging. It’s been a quiet but good night. Tomorrow I hope I’ll be able to print off and perhaps even write a few nengajo. That would be good!

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

December 20, 2022

Tuesday - Warmer and no snowfall

I went to bed rather late last night and then this morning woke up abruptly when F came back in the room and asked me to come and help him outside. I hurriedly got dressed and went downstairs. I went out. There was a ton of snow on the ground. F had managed to get himself out of our yard, but was now stuck on the road!

We did some snow shovelling and some pushing and more shovelling. The car didn’t want to move. Surprisingly, a neighbour came over and helped me push and the car moved!  F was able to leave our little side street. He said that he was a little late for work, but he did make it.  I thanked the neighbour and we both went our own way.  

I spent another 20 to 30 minutes outside shovelling some of the snow. I cleared out most of the parking space. F had just dumped the snow off the top of the car on the ground, so I moved it. I got a lot done and then went inside.

I watched the news upstairs and then took a bit of a nap. No big deal, same as usual. 

I grabbed breakfast around my usual time, came upstairs and watched a little YouTube while I ate. Like yesterday, a while later I got really tired and just went back to bed for an hour. The hour stretched a little longer but it was basically an hour.

I went downstairs to grab my lunch and was in the middle of preparing it when K came into the room. I gave her the bowl of leftover curry from last night. I couldn’t really explain to her what it was. She just didn’t understand me!

F called while I was preparing my lunch and said he was on his way back. I told him that the snowplough had been through and that I hadn’t gone out to clear the entrance yet. He said it was okay. I decided I’d go out and try and clear the road but by the time I was ready to go out, F was already here.  He cleared the wall by himself. 

I went upstairs, and F came up a little later. We chatted for a couple of minutes, but F had to go back to work. I finished my lunch and was going to watch something on TV but realized that I just didn’t have time before the news.

I watched the news and then got dressed again and went outside. There wasn’t any new snow as it didn’t snow today, but I neatened up some of the areas outside. Some snow had fallen off the porch, so that had to be moved as well.

I went back inside and got the kitchen ready for F. He said that he would cook tonight, so I decided to let him!  I think I made it easy for him though. I rewashed the nabe and left him a nice and tidy kitchen to start in. 

When F came back I suggested he get dressed first. He did that and when he came into the kitchen, I went upstairs and took a little break. That was nice. I tried to get my printer cleared off so that I could print my nengajo later on.

Soon, F called me down for dinner. Of course, it wasn’t quite ready yet and he hadn’t put out the glasses for the drinks or the chopsticks. That was annoying. I did all of that.  The nabe finished cooking and F served it to us. It was pretty good. He had used a bought soup base so I was happy, it was a soy milk one and it was very nice. 

After dinner, F got to do the dishes and I attempted to print something out. I couldn’t get the printer to work properly. F finished soon though so we went shopping for groceries.

Our grocery store has a loyalty card programme and F and I both have cards with it. Since I’ve been doing a lot of shopping recently for the family I had quite a few points banked up. I thought that for Christmas goodies we should both use our points to make the bills a little lower. I got F to “help” me with the machine. What I wanted was to cash in some of my points and get gift certificates. What actually happened was my points were cashed in and then put on my card as “money to spend”. It didn’t really matter in the long run, but F didn’t cash in any of his so I’m not sure why my points got used for extra stuff and his didn’t. Which one of us is known for losing their wallet?

We walked around the store and picked up a bunch of stuff. I got something for Thursday night’s dinner and also something for tomorrow night’s. I picked up some cold meat for Christmas too. The store has some lovely-looking Spanish cold meats so I’m looking forward to that.

The bill was quite high, but my points were used to reduce the price. I’m still not sure why F didn’t cash in any of his points though. He’s going to eat dinner with us I think.

We came back to the house and put away the food. I came upstairs and tried to get my printer to work again. I need the nengajo (new year cards) to feed in the back of my printer, but for some reason, it isn’t working. I had to leave it tonight. I Googled for an answer and got some suggestions. Tomorrow I’ll check for blockages at the back and see if there’s anything stuck inside. I have to finish them by Christmas day I think.

I watched FBI: Most Wanted and then turned off the TV. I watched a bit of YouTube as usual and started to blog and do my late-night things. 

We are forecast for more snow on Thursday, but hopefully, tomorrow will be clear. I think F and I need a day off from snow shovelling! 

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

December 19, 2022

Monday - Cold and snowy

I had a hard time falling asleep last night. My feet were cold. I’m not sure why, but they were freezing and I couldn’t warm them up. I finally nodded off and didn’t hear F when he left this morning. I woke up a bit later and the room was cold. Brr.  I went downstairs with the kerosene tank and filled it up. I brought it back up and got started on warming up the room. I also watched the news and got dressed. 

I took a bit of a nap. I got up a bit later and grabbed my breakfast and the two cards that were waiting for me from the mail slot. I got a Christmas card from the exchange that I’m in and one from my sister and her family. Yay!

After I ate breakfast I watched a bit of YouTube and then, I’m sorry, but I took a nap. I got into bed, pulled the covers up and went to sleep. I was asleep for an hour or so. I really needed it though.

I went downstairs and grabbed lunch. I checked out the snow situation outside. It didn’t seem all that bad. I noticed that the snowplough had gone by, so I’d need to go and open up the parking spot for F before he came back. 

I ate lunch and watched an episode of The Great British Sewing Bee. I saw the first episode of season 2. After that, I watched the US news. I turned off the TV and got dressed to go outside. 

When I was outside I was really surprised. We had had about a foot of snow, maybe more in the last couple of hours. Egads. I got to work. I cleared off the steps and gradually made my way to the road, clearing off the parking space and opening up the entrance to F’s parking spot. I worked pretty hard. Most of the snow was powdery and soft, but near the road, it had a lot of big lumps. I got the parking area opened out, and I cleared a little of the road too, I just had to! Finally, I decided I had done enough, so when I got to the door, it was under snow again. Ack. I cleared it off again and went in. 

K was up when I went in and she told me that I was covered in snow. I really was, but I didn’t care! My hair was wet, and my coat was wet and covered in snow. When I took off my coat, the floor was covered in snow. Oh, dear. 

I went upstairs and changed. F had called to say he was on his way, but the roads were slow tonight. He wasn’t sure how long it would take him to get to Tsuruoka. It took a long time.

I prepared a lot of things for him to make the nabe with. I washed the cooking pot, and the cutting board and got out the bowls and such for F. However, he didn’t get back until after 7 pm. Quite a bit after 7 pm. Of course, he was tired and really didn’t want to make the nabe then. I suggested that I open up a bag of retort curry that I have for emergencies and we all have that for dinner. F liked that idea.

I went back to the kitchen and put water on to heat up. I got out the rice and the dishes and had dinner on the table in about 10 minutes. We were all quite happy with it. It wasn’t the best curry ever, but it was okay and we were all quite hungry!

I did the dishes afterwards and then went upstairs. I tried to warm up the bedroom. Our heater is going cuckoo at the moment and it stops a few times a night. It’s a pain really. When I’m sitting next to it it isn’t too bad, but when I’m doing something in the other part of the room it gets annoying. 

I took a shower a little later and then came back and watched another episode of Carnival Row. I’m quite enjoying it. Mind you, Orlando Bloom…Need I say more?

And that’s about it for my day. Tomorrow I may have to get up with F to shovel snow as we are under a heavy snow warning. It depends if the weather forecast is correct or not. If the snowplough goes through, he might need help with the entranceway. 

I didn’t get a chance to do nengajo today, I had better find a few minutes to print some out tomorrow. 

Come back later if you like and find out about my day. Until tomorrow….

December 18, 2022

Sunday - Snowy and cold

I went to bed at a crazy late (or early) time this morning. I slept in and didn’t do too much this morning. F made lunch for his mother and then came up to see about our lunch. He suggested yakiniku, but the place he wanted to go was about 30 minutes away and it was already 1:40…they had last order at 2:00 so we wouldn’t make it at all. 

We went over to the bus station tonkatsu restaurant. We had the pair set and we also had dessert today too. They sell a low carb pudding, although I’m not sure if it really was low carb! It was nice but poor F was feeling really cold today. 

We went to buy some groceries at Yamaya and then to Gyomu Supa. I wanted to get some last minute Christmas treats and picked up a few things so that was good. We came back to the house to put the frozen/refrigeration necessary stuff away. A few minutes later, we headed out again to go to the grocery store and the gas station.

We both went in the store and F did that thing where he disappeared with the cart so I was walking around the store with armfuls of things that I needed. Still, we ended up getting a few things so that was good.

We picked up kerosene and then some gasoline for the car. We came back to the house with it all and F put the tanks away. I heated up the bento we got for K and also turned on the heater in the living room so that K wouldn’t freeze while she ate. 

We headed out to have our dinner. We didn’t really have a destination in mind. F would suggest someplace and I’d check it and they’d be closed. He suggested going to Foodever which was fine for me, but then wanted to go to the fish Izakaya across the street from it. I didn’t want to go there as it is a horrible place with terrible waitstaff. That’s where we went. I was looking at the menu when F wanted it so I handed it over. He picked 3 things right off the bat and and I had a really hard time finding anything on the menu I wanted to order. He told me that he’d take me somewhere else afterwards but I didn’t want that. I ordered some chicken nankotsu and fried chicken. 

When the first one of his dishes arrived he tried to give some to me, but I didn’t want any. He was upset with me. For heaven’s sake, in 26 years of living in Japan, I’ve never eaten oden and I hopefully never will. It reeks to high heaven. He had also ordered some gyoza and a donburi of sashimi, so he got a lot to eat. I didn’t. Mine was small, and honestly, not very good. After we finished we came back to the house in the car. We didn’t talk to each other.

He stayed downstairs for a while and I came upstairs and heated up the room. I hoped that F would set up the DVR but of course he didn’t. He claimed to be feeling not well when he came back upstairs and was dizzy to boot. I actually think he did feel bad and I felt sorry for him, but honestly, what did he think was going to happen at that place? How about consulting me and seeing if there was something I’d like to share with him? He just ordered oden and didn’t even ask if I’d like any. I would have refused it, giving him a chance to order something else if he wanted to share. 

He went to bed and I watched something on Prime. I saw the first episode of Carnival Row which I quite liked, and then turned over for the majority of the documentary The Sparks Brothers. That was fun. I watched them on Top of the Pops when we lived in Britain and had a thing for them. Also, this year I saw Annette, the film that they were the creative team behind. It was one of my favourites of the year. 

And that’s it. It’s late and I do need to get some sleep. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow…. 

December 17, 2022

Saturday - Rainy with sleet at night

I slept in a little this morning. I did hear F leave for his massage, but I got up around 9:30 and got dressed. When he came back after 10 we went for a short nap, but F got up fairly soon afterwards. He went downstairs to make something for his mother, I snoozed a little longer!

We talked about going out for lunch. F suggested yakiniku and I suggested the Daiichi Hotel’s lunch as their special sounded good and it’s a reasonable price. We decided to go with my suggestion today, and maybe F’s tomorrow!  We haven’t really decided yet. 

We went to the Daiichi Hotel and got a table. We found out that there was only one plate of the special left. F nicely let me have it and he had their curry. He said it was very spicy but okay. Afterwards, I used my customer point card and got us 10% off our meal so that was nice. We ate for under 2000 yen. Yay us.

After lunch, we hit up the post office so I could mail my in-Japan Christmas cards. F bought a bag of mini-tomatoes for his mother too. 

Next up. we drove over to K’s Denki and looked for a new DVR. We thought we had one picked out and F was prepared to ask for a discount, but sadly, they had sold out of it! We looked a bit more, and decided on another one, the same brand as the one we had before, but obviously an updated version. It also has more memory which is something that I’m rather happy about! It took me a long time to fill up the old one, but I did eventually!

We were both thirsty so we went over to Komeda Coffee and had a coffee each. I had decaf, F had a large regular. After about an hour, we left.  As we were next to the grocery store, I went in and picked up a bento for K’s dinner and also a few snacks for F and me. 

We came back to the house and dropped off the DVR and the inks that I bought for my printer. I heated up the bento and the living room for K and got her up and gave her the bento. She seemed pleased. 

F and I left soon after and went off to Mikawa.  At the mall, we went in and bought our tickets to Avatar: The Way of Water. Then, we went for dinner.  We went to the Bibinba place and had the same thing, a pork and kimchi bibinba.  When they were ready, the guy at the kiosk nicely brought F’s tray over for him, I carried my own.  F’s wasn’t too hot temperature-wise, mine was extremely hot! It was still sizzling 5 minutes after I got it. Mine burned on the bottom, and some of it got really stuck in my bowl. 

After we finished our meal we went to the cinema and grabbed some popcorn and drinks. Then, we went into the theatre. As usual, the guy had to use the temperature gun on me, rather than the phone-scanner. It doesn’t read me. I might be too pale or something. 

Well, how was Avatar: The Way of Water? I didn’t like it. It was beautiful but I was bored. I didn’t look at my watch but I thought it was too long (3 hours and 12 minutes or something!) and just James Cameron showing off. Just because you can create a film set in another world, doesn’t mean you should!

After the movie, we left the cinema and drove back to Tsuruoka. It was sleeting a bit on the way. It wasn’t nice. We stopped at a convenience store just before we came back to the house. 

At the house we heated up the food that we bought and then came upstairs. It was quite cold up here when we got back.  I’ve been on YouTube for a while and F is doing the TikTok thing I think. 

That’s really about it for today. It turned out to be a pretty good day. I hope that Sunday is as good too. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….