December 31, 2023

Sunday - Cool and a bit rainy

I can’t say that I got up this morning because I didn’t. I woke up in the morning, but I didn’t get up to stay until the afternoon. Oops. I learned a bit from yesterday and didn’t just stay upstairs and pout. I grabbed my very late breakfast and ate it upstairs.

I also popped into the living room to see what F was doing (not much) and then went back upstairs too. I finally texted F a couple of hours later to see if he was ready to go out or not. He hadn’t been thinking about going out but was fine and then we did.

We went to Cocos and had a late lunch. I quite enjoyed mine. I had a burger with some cut steak. It was so much better than yesterday’s. F had a burger too and we shared some dessert. They had a sweet potato dessert that we tried and enjoyed.

After our lunch, we went shopping. We got something to drink at Yamaya and then hit up the grocery store. F bought his stuff and then was ready to leave. I made him go over to the Deli section and we picked up a couple of things. We got a tray of starters and some tempura.

After our shopping, F picked up some kerosene and filled up the car at the gas station. Then we came back to the house. F disappeared into the washroom so I unpacked most of the groceries and then went upstairs. 

I came back downstairs an hour or so later and was surprised to see the table set and a big bowl of soba at my place. None of the stuff that we bought was on the table and neither were the drinks, my chopsticks,  or any food that I wanted to eat.

I offered to heat up the tempura that we had bought so I used my air fryer. It took a little while, but was nice. I got out drinks and my chopsticks too. I gave F a bit of the soba back because as usual, he gave me too much. I don’t like his version of soba and as usual, this was not good. He gave me some saké, even though I told him twice that I didn’t want any. 

We ate and I didn’t like the soba. The soup was lukewarm and the soba was sticky. The tempura was good. When I finished eating, I took my plates to the kitchen and I washed them. I set up another jug of mugi-cha, washed a few more dishes, dried them all and put them away. Then I went upstairs. I figured that I helped F a lot more than he ever helps me so that’s enough. 

I was upstairs for a few hours and then I needed to go downstairs. I did go in and see how F was. He was in the living room watching TV and using his phone. He complained about having a headache.

I came back upstairs and decided that I’d watch something off the Fire Stick, so I watched another episode of Deadloch. It’s getting quite good and I enjoyed it. F came back upstairs while it was on and brought me a cake and then chatted a bit. He’s now in bed. 

At midnight we said Happy New Year and a little bit later, F went to bed. He’s sleeping now. 

So, our year ended with a whimper. The weather was bad around midnight and F’s knees are paining him so there was no Hatsumode tonight. We might go tomorrow if he’s feeling better. We don’t have a lot planned for tomorrow. We have booked sushi for lunch and I have the big platter to go with it. I had told F that I’d like to go out and go to the mall tomorrow. I’d like to see if I can get any lucky bags or perhaps more yarn! They often have yarn sales in the first few days of the year. I don’t know if they have any this year, but I’d like to see for myself.

Anyway, that’s it for me for today, and this year!  I’d like to wish my readers a very happy new year. I hope that 2024 is a wonderful year for you all. 

Until tomorrow….

December 30, 2023

Saturday - Cloudy but clear, warmish

We both slept in quite late this morning. I dragged myself out of bed just before noon today and I think F was a few minutes later. 

I got dressed and waited for F to make some sort of plan to tell me what was going on downstairs or give me any sort of knowledge about the day, but he didn’t. I didn’t see him for 3 hours. I should have gone downstairs and just talked to him but I couldn’t be bothered!

Finally, F came upstairs and offered to take me out. I had thought about catching a bus and going out but never got around to it. He’d been downstairs watching TV so I’m not sure why he couldn’t come up and talk to me. 

We went out to Gusto and had an okay meal. For a change, mine wasn’t very good. I had cut steak but the texture was off. F had chicken which he didn’t like that much. We stayed there for quite a while and then we left. We were going to go to a drugstore next, but we were close to a grocery store, so went there first. We needed to get K a bento, and something for our meals too. 

We did hit up a drugstore and got a few things there, then, we came back to the house. We spent a bit of time in the house. F gave his mother her bento but I don’t think she wanted it. She’s not eating too well at the moment and we’re both a bit worried about it. 

I was at my computer watching some YouTube when F came upstairs and asked if I’d like to go to Fujishima tonight. I said sure!  I was still dressed, so I got my jackets and put them on. We went out and drove over to Fujishima. It was a nice drive. We found a good parking space and walked through Hisu Park. The lights were beautiful and it wasn’t terribly crowded. Yay. We wandered through the park and took pictures and enjoyed ourselves. It was a lovely night to be out, it wasn’t cold or windy. 

This was a pink pathway...fun!

Waiting for a Catbus with a special friend!

The area is famous for wisteria, this is a light version of it.

We drove back to Tsuruoka and on the way, F asked me if I wanted to go somewhere else. I suggested getting a hot drink somewhere. I mentioned Starbucks, McDonalds or Mos Burger. F liked the idea of Starbucks. 

We went into Starbucks and ordered. They didn’t have their latest drink anymore, a hoji-cha latte, so I ordered a chamomile tea latte and so did F. We found seats and spent a bit of time in chairs. It was nice and a relaxing time for us. 

We came back to the house and I decided to take a shower. I did that and then heated up the pizza I had bought for my dinner. I came upstairs and watched the latest episode of The Great British Sewing Bee and ate my pizza. It wasn’t bad. It was a teriyaki-tamago-chicken pizza. It didn’t have tomato sauce, which was good for me. 

And that’s about it for the rest of the day. I had some chatting with my sister which was nice. I don’t talk with her enough really. 

So, that’s it for me. It’s the second last day of the year. I’m not sure what we’re going to get up to on Sunday. I might take tomorrow off, it depends on what I get up to. Please don’t worry if I don’t update tomorrow night. I might need some sleep!

Come back later if you like and hear all about my adventures in my corner of Japan. Until next time….

December 29, 2023

Friday - Drizzly and then cloudy but warm

I slept in this morning, which was lovely. When I woke up finally F was gone and the heater in our room was on. That was a nice touch. The room was warm and I was almost too hot in bed! I got up and got dressed, then checked out the internet on my computer. I was here for a while before F came upstairs. He’d been busy this morning. He’d gone to an onsen, the post office and had made his mother breakfast. Yay him.

We decided to go out and get me something to eat. I suggested one place, but it was closed for the holiday, so we ended up in Nikuya Shokudo. I had seen a picture of a meal I had there a few years ago on my Facebook Memory page and I thought it would be great to have another one. However, they didn’t have the same thing available, but that was okay. We did have to wait for a few minutes for a seat, but it wasn’t too busy today. 

I had chicken cheese sasami, which was basically a chicken roll, deep-fried. I liked it but it was big. F had a vegetable stir-fry and he liked his too. F was sitting next to a guy from Peru who was in the restaurant with his Japanese friend so there was a lot of English going on down there. It was a little funny being able to eavesdrop on them. We chatted a bit afterwards. I think we were the last 4 people in the restaurant!

F and I went for coffee after lunch. Well, we tried. There was no parking available so I suggested going to the hundred-yen shop first. F was okay with that. I went in and got a few things. F came in for a couple of minutes, but then went and sat in the car. 

After the time in Daiso, we were able to get into the coffee shop and it wasn’t until I nearly fell asleep that we left. We drove over to a grocery store and picked up a few groceries and a bento for K’s dinner. 

We came back to the house and relaxed for a bit. I tried to get F to leave earlier for the mall, but he didn’t see a need for that. 

We finally left “at 6:30”. That actually meant that we left at 6:45 because we had to do the washroom thing and then the finding of jackets and other things. Ack. 

We got out to Mikawa after 7 pm and bought our tickets. Then, we bought dinner. We both had bibinba, but different types tonight. Mine was really nice when it was ready, F didn’t seem to like his as much. 

We were a little late going back to the cinema. I got in line for the popcorn and drinks, and F went to sit down. I dropped off the snacks at our seats and then did a washroom run. We went to see The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Bad title! It was okay. I really quite enjoyed it and thought the performances were good. I haven’t read the book so I’m not sure how close it stuck to the story. 

We came back to Tsuruoka after the movie and didn’t stop anywhere. At the house I made some tea for myself, F filled up the kerosene tank and we had a quiet evening, for the rest of the night. 

I have NO idea what we’ll get up to tomorrow. F isn’t one to make plans. That drives me crazy because I like to have plans or at least a rough idea of what we might do. The one good thing is that the weather is fairly good right now. There is still snow on the sides of the roads, but most roads are drivable and we haven’t had to shovel snow for a few days. Whew. It means if I need to go for a walk, I probably can if I want to. 

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

December 28, 2023

Thursday - Clear and sunny, cool

I woke up early this morning and had to make a trip downstairs. I came back to bed and got some husband snuggles before he got up and went to work. I slept on but did get up a bit later. 

Today I did a couple of loads of laundry. With F around for the next few days, I might get little chance to do any. It’s hanging up in our room trying to make the heating do double duty!

I had a fairly quiet day and didn’t see K at all during the morning or afternoon. I watched an episode of The Closer again as I ate my lunch. Around 4:20 F called me and said he was on his way back. I was really surprised since he doesn’t finish work until 5:15.  It turns out that many of his coworkers had already finished for the day so he thought it was already 5:15. I was sorry that I had to break the news to him. He called me back an hour later to say he was on the way back. 

Tonight, I went downstairs and got dinner underway right away. We were planning to go out and see the lights. I heated up the water for pasta, cut the duck breast, made a mushroom dish and did my best to get everything done and cleaned up quickly. 

F was very tired after work and came upstairs soon after he came home. I got dinner on the table quite soon afterwards. It was before 7pm when I got K up and called him down.

We ate. Tonight I cooked pasta and put a cheese cream sauce on it. I liked it, I’m not sure if the others did. I was done quite early, and F and K took longer. 

I did the dishes and tidied everything in the kitchen before 8pm. I went upstairs and changed and a few minutes F came upstairs too. And then he begged off. He was really tired. I was upset because I worked really hard to finish early. If he had begged off before I cooked I wouldn’t have minded so much, but whatever. He was tired and I get that. He had to work today, I didn’t.

I watched some YouTube including a Miranda Reunion. It was lovely and so funny. I was laughing out loud quite a lot. When that was over, I got F and I a snack and I watched an episode of Deadloch. I liked this episode more as we got to learn a little more about the characters. 

I put on some music after the show and that was nice to hear some Christmas music. I had no idea that Billy Idol had done a Christmas song! My mind is blown. 

I’ve switched to YouTube now and am blogging. It’s going to be an interesting week as F is off work for the next few days. We have no plans at all which quite worries me.

Anyway, that’s about it for me. I’m off to bed soon. Come back later if you like and hear all about my Friday. Until tomorrow….

December 27, 2023

Wednesday - Warmish and cloudy

I woke up when F got up this morning, but I fell asleep again. I got up a couple of hours later and went downstairs. I got dressed and then went back to bed and took a bit of a nap.

When I got up again I went downstairs and grabbed my breakfast and some mail. I came back upstairs and relaxed while I ate. 

I had a quiet morning and early afternoon. I watched some of the news and a little too much YouTube as well. I went downstairs around 3 to get my lunch and while I was there the doorbell rang. F had a delivery and I was able to accept it for him. Yay for that!

I went upstairs again and texted F that his delivery arrived. He was happy to hear it. While I ate my lunch I watched an episode of The Closer. It was rather a good one. 

F called around 5:15 and said he was on his way. I went downstairs a little before 6 and F still hadn’t arrived. 

I got everything just about ready to go and then when he arrived I could just turn up the stove and start my air fryer. Tonight we had hamburg patties with French fries, salad and spaghetti salad. Dinner was quite good except no one ate very much. F did his usual only eating a tiny portion so he could make himself ramen later. That is so annoying. 

After dinner, I did the dishes and then I cleaned out the fridge and the old bento boxes. When F does cooking on the weekend, he forgets that he has leftovers too to give his mother. It’s sad because I have to throw them out after a few days. 

It took a while and I was rather tired when I had finished. We had two bags in the kitchen, which was extra for us. I went upstairs when I was done.

I rested and relaxed for a bit and then after F came up I started to go downstairs. However, I remembered that I had garbage up here to send out as well. There won’t be any garbage for a week due to the New Year Holiday, so it was important to get as much out now as we could.

I left my half of the bag with F for him to fill up and I went downstairs and took a shower. I had hoped to watch something when I came back but wasn’t able to as it was a bit late. I did suggest to F that we check out the light installation in Fujishima tomorrow. If he isn’t too tired, we could go and look at it as the weather should be okay.

I watched more YouTube and started blogging. I’m now up to date with you all!

I’m hoping to do a bit of laundry tomorrow as F will be off for a few days after tomorrow and I won’t get a lot of time to do laundry when he’s around most likely!

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

December 26, 2023

Tuesday - Warmer, but rainy

I woke up this morning when my alarm went off. I got up, went downstairs and then came back to the room and got dressed. Then, I headed back to bed for a snooze. It didn’t really work, so I got up again and did my usual morning things. 

I got a Christmas card in the mail today from Australia and I also got a Christmas Card that I had sent out back. There was no reason given. I sent a quick email to the person that should have received it and she hadn’t moved and has no idea why it didn’t get delivered!

Around noon I got dressed to go out. I knew my friend was finishing work around then. After a bit, I went downstairs and waited for her. I did tell K that I was going out. I have no idea if she understood!

My friend came and we went out. We decided to go over to Cocos. We did that and had a nice lunch. We ate, we drank a lot of drinks from the drink bar and all too soon it was time to go. Sigh. 

She dropped me off at the house and I went in. I relaxed and changed my clothes and got ready to go downstairs. 

F called me and I went downstairs to put dinner on the table. I didn’t cook anything tonight, but I did plate a few things and opened a few things too. I sliced up some of my chicken too. The table was just about as loaded as it was yesterday too. We all sat around and ate. K really got into the crackers today. I didn’t really mind, it’s just that other people would like some too!

We finished F’s cake tonight too and after that, I cleared the table and did the dishes. 

Next up for us was to go for groceries. I changed to go out and then F and I drove off to Mina. I did some grocery shopping and then we came back to the house. 

We headed upstairs and I realized that my usual Tuesday night show wasn’t on, so I watched something off the Fire Stick. I watched the second episode of Deadloch. It was funny-ish. 

And that’s basically my day. I had a great time with my friend and dinner was quite nice and not too hard to put on the table either. Yay.

Tomorrow I’m cooking again, but nothing too strenuous. I’m not sure what else I’m going to get up to.

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

December 25, 2023

Monday - Rainy and then clear, warmer

Merry Christmas!

I woke up this morning when my alarm went off. It was later than I thought it was. F was long gone to work. I got up, dressed and got on with my day.

I had breakfast and then a bit later got really tired. I took a nap.

I got up a bit later and then grabbed a snow shovel and went outside and moved a bit of snow. It hadn’t snowed much, but a lot of snow was on the ground. It had fallen off the roof. Sadly, there is still a lot up there. 

I grabbed my lunch on the way upstairs and ate. After watching the news in English, I went downstairs to get started on dinner. Over the next couple of hours, I air-fried a chicken, plated some cheese, cut up some veggies, plated some cold meat and opened up some cans of tuna, pâté and oysters. I made a plate of crackers too. I put a tablecloth out on the table and then started to set the table. We had a lot of different foods out there.

The scary knife is for the chicken, promise!

The chicken was finished and it was glorious. The recipe I found online was delicious. Around 7 pm, I went upstairs and asked F if he’d like to come down for dinner. I changed my shirt too so I didn’t have to wear my stained cooking shirt. 

We had a nice dinner. The food was good, the chicken was nice. We drank some sparkling grape juice, which was nice and had no bad effects on us! We did have a couple of oopsies though. K knocked her grape juice into the plate of pâté so I had to go and grab a bowl so we could drain the juice out of the pate! I put my fingernail through the tablecloth, but I'm not too upset about it since it was from the hundred yen shop.

When we finished munching, I cleared the table and put things away. Then, F got out his Christmas cake. I had put the kettle on and I made us all some rooibos tea. We each only had one piece of cake as we were very stuffed!

I wish it was as tasty as it looks.

I did the dishes. There weren’t that many as I used paper plates tonight. I don’t want to spend all my time on Christmas doing dishes. I cleaned up the air fryer too and listened to podcasts. I got a bit of a chuckle at the CBC News one. I think someone got into the eggnog a bit early. When it started there was an ad for another podcast…that’s standard. Then, there was dead air for about a minute and a half. After that, some jazzy music played for a while before we got the Maritime Weather report. It was followed by a woman playing the music of her childhood Christmases! It was pretty odd. 

I got done finally and then went upstairs. I came downstairs almost right away and took my shower. When I finished, I went upstairs again and watched an episode of Fringe. I haven’t watched that for a while. It was good though.

And really, that’s about it. I had a fairly good day today. It wasn’t an exciting Christmas, but it was quite nice. I’ll take that over a bad day, any day!

Come back tomorrow and hear all about my day. I have plans to go out! Until tomorrow….