April 30, 2022

Saturday - Sunny but still cool

I woke up early this morning and then went downstairs. I came back upstairs and went back to bed for a while.  F came back to the room and went back to bed for a while too. I got up before 12!  F and I talked about where to go for lunch today and I suggested a couple of places. F then suggested another one that was a little nicer than the place I suggested. We ended up going to the nice tonkatsu place near the Co-op.

F and I had the same thing, fairly big tonkatsu. It came with rice, miso soup, cabbage, pickles and tea. F had refills on rice and cabbage, but I didn’t. I didn’t really want any. After lunch, we did a quick run through the nearby Daiso. I bought a few things, F didn’t!

We went for coffee at Starbucks. It was a little unfortunate, the inside of the shop was full when we got there, so we went outside and sat there. It got a bit chilly after a while, especially since we were drinking Frappuccinos!

After our drinks, we drove along the road and went to Gyomu Super and then over to Yamaya.  Gyomu had their British cheese in again. Yes! We looked for a few things, I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted but that’s okay. Yamaya was okay too. I got some Apple vinegar and a little bit of tea. I know, I have too much tea, but these were cheap teabags. I like the tea though. In the morning it is hard to think enough to make tea from tea leaves.

We bought a bento for K and a few other things and then came back to the house and dropped off the bento. 

We drove off to the mall in Mikawa and bought our tickets to go and see a movie. We took our movie tickets to the bibinba place and ordered and got two free drinks with our tickets. Yay for that. It’s a bit difficult for me right now because F can’t carry his tray at the moment because of the crutches. That means I have to do both trays. I can’t carry them both at the same time because they are heavy and the bowls are HOT. 

After we ate, we went back to the cinema and got our drinks and popcorn. When they let us in, we went into the cinema and dumped our stuff and hit the washrooms!

We went to see Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard and it was okay. I had heard it was terrible. It wasn’t great, not really good, but both of us laughed and had fun at it. After the movie, we left the mall and drove back to Tsuruoka.

I wanted to get a couple more seals to try and finish my special offer for a bowl. F took us to MaxValu and I picked up some bread-y treats. F picked up a lot of weird stuff!  

We came back to the house and basically relaxed. I watched something at 11 pm and F has been looking at new computers for himself. He damaged the screen on his laptop and he can’t see much on most of his screen. It’s quite sad. 

Anyway, that’s about it for my day. It turned out okay. I’m not sure what we’re going to get up to on Sunday, you’ll have to come back and find out. Until tomorrow….

April 29, 2022

Friday - Rainy

I woke up this morning to an empty house. It was later but still before my first alarm. To be honest, I probably got up earlier than I did most of this week!

I took care of a personal chore and then I came back upstairs. I was mostly dressed so I put on a nicer shirt and waited for F to get back. Since he wasn’t here, I realized that he was right about his doctor being open today. I found F’s phone, he’d left it behind and I noticed that it was barely charged so I plugged it in for him. I’m so nice!

He came back a few minutes later and we had a quick discussion about where to eat. Since F’s appointment was at 1:00 and it was 11 when we were discussing it, I suggested Gusto if it wasn’t busy. They are quick and if you are careful about what you order, not too bad. He liked my idea, so off we went. We were able to get in right away and had a fairly decent meal. As usual, I had to twist F’s arm to leave. He was enjoying YouTube on his phone. Over lunch, we did have a nice discussion about the car and when to replace it. I was quite surprised that F wanted to have that discussion with me. He didn’t have any discussion with me over our present car…well, except for the colour and he hates that. It’s okay, I hate the car, except for the colour! To be fairish, I was out of town when his old car died and he had to buy/order the next car very quickly, so I wasn’t around. 

We came back to the house and about 3 minutes later the insurance lady showed up. I gave her and F some mugi-cha and then I scarpered! She left a little while later. 

F came upstairs and we had a bit of a snuggle. It was nice. All too soon K came back! F went down to see her I think. 

F started asking about dinner around 5 pm.  Around that time I started to feel really, really cold. I was already wearing a sweater, I filled up the heater and turned it on. The room was 17 degrees so not that cold, but I started to shiver and I couldn’t get warm for ages. We started talking about Chinese food for dinner, then F suggested pizza and then switched somewhere in the middle to sushi. I was freezing and did not want any cold food! He practically had his order made out when I just said I didn’t want any and he could go ahead and order it for him and his mother. I didn’t want any. The cold spell hit me around then and I sat in my chair and just shivered.  It was horrible. I started to worry if I was sick but my temperature was only slightly elevated. 

F finally suggested going to the Indian restaurant. I wasn’t sure that he meant it, but it seemed he did.  We went, and it was nice. It wasn’t busy tonight, which was nice for us. We had the couple set so we shared two curries (pork saag and chicken korma) a basil naan and regular naan, some tandori chicken, shish kebab and a piece of chicken tikka. We also got ice cream, soup and salad, and a drink. It was really good. 

F ordered a bento from the other Gusto from his phone and then we went along the street to get it. I didn’t know that he had ordered it from Gusto so was surprised that he turned there! He went in and a few minutes came outside with the bento. I held it on the way back to the house.

F got K up and I washed the glasses from earlier in the day. She ate and I went upstairs.

I relaxed upstairs for a bit, then took a shower. That was nice and I enjoyed it. It was also really warm in there because I used hot water! Well, hotter than usual for me. 

And really that’s about it for the day. It was good. I could have done without the fighting over food, but it is pretty normal for the two of us. I just wish that F didn’t bait and switch so much. Going from Pizza to sushi is quite a switch. Under normal circumstances, I’d probably be fine with it, but today was cold outside and I really needed some warm/hot food. 

I’m honestly not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. F was talking about making a nabe for dinner. That’s fine if he doesn’t mind doing the work for it and doesn’t leave me with a huge mess to clean up! He usually does though. 

Anyway, come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

April 28, 2022

 Thursday - Sunny but cool

I did wake up early this morning, but I can’t really blame F for that today. He was up around 7 am and I woke up then too. I made a trip downstairs and then came back upstairs and went back to bed. I overslept again, but not quite as late as yesterday. Probably. 

I got up and did a couple of loads of laundry. I got some shirts washed, most of which I’d worn last week on my trip. I thought I should have something clean for Golden Week! I also had breakfast and read my blog for yesterday.

In the afternoon I grabbed my lunch and then I watched a couple of shows off the DVR. I also worked on my column and got it finished. Woot. After the news, I listened to my column and made a few last-minute changes.  F called to say that he was on his way back so I went downstairs and started to get ready for making dinner.  

During the day, I had watched a YouTube video on making a spinach side dish flavoured with sesame paste and I realized I could do something similar. I followed part of the person’s instructions and I soon had a bag of spinach cooked and drained and squeezed out. I added some sesame paste from the fridge and mixed it all up.  It was nice! It did get good reviews too, so that was good. 

It took F more than an hour to get back to the house, I was rather worried about him. He’d stopped somewhere along the way.

Anyway, he did get back and I kicked dinner up into higher gear. We had pork chops and salad, sesame spinach and a spicy pilaf. That was one of the weirdest things we’ve bought. F wanted to buy it because it was mega-spicy or something, but it was TOO spicy for me and K. F didn’t like it much either. The second time and also tonight when I made it, I mixed it with regular rice. That made it slightly better. To make matters worse, when we bought it, F bought two packages of the stuff. Why oh why? If it was a product we already knew then it wouldn’t have been a problem, but to get something so awful and get two of them…argh. 

After we finished eating I watched the news for a bit. F announced that he needed to go to the onsen so I sent him and K off to the local one. They left and I did the dishes. No, Cinderella, there is no onsen for you. It’s okay, I don’t want to go to the onsen with K around!

After finishing the dishes, I came upstairs, did one final pass through my column and then sent it to the Journal Editor. Woot. Done. 

F and K came back around 9 pm and F came upstairs. A few minutes later K called him downstairs. She can’t hear us when we say that we’re coming, so she stands at the bottom of the stairs and just keeps repeating his name until he goes down. He doesn’t always hear her, I usually do, so I send him down! She has misplaced something. I swear, like mother, like son!

F did offer to take me out if I wanted, but he made it quite clear that HE didn’t want to go out, so I declined his offer. He fell asleep fairly soon after this. I’m still up, obviously!

Tomorrow F is planning to go to the doctor. He swears the doctor is open. I’m skeptical since it is a national holiday, but he has been correct before! He also made an appointment to meet his insurance person and then hopefully we can go and have lunch together. K is going out with her daughter tomorrow, so we get a bit of a break! 

I’m not sure what we’re going to do for the rest of the day. You’ll just have to come on back and find out!

Until tomorrow….

April 27, 2022

Wednesday - Dark and cold in the morning, sunnier later on.

This morning, F woke me again. He did it on purpose today. He had misplaced his wallet and his car keys. I don’t understand it. I went downstairs and had a little search in the kitchen but he found his stuff upstairs. And…he found his long-lost keys for his car. Whew! He didn’t find the spare set he lost overnight though!

I went back to sleep after he left and didn’t get up until quite late. I wasn’t mad at myself though. I was tired.  When I got up, I dressed and grabbed my breakfast. I ate breakfast. 

Today I worked on my column and I think I have it almost done. It’s funny how much difference there is between the way I felt in January and the way I feel now for writing it. I had such horrible writer’s block in January and couldn’t even start the column. 

I watched an episode of Yellowstone and an episode of This is Going to Hurt after lunch. I enjoyed both of the shows. At 4 pm I watched the news and then relaxed afterwards. 

I went downstairs around 5:45 and started to get on with dinner. I heated up my stew and plated some salad and some pickles. Earlier today I had made some orzo with a small carton of milk so that was going to be one of the drinks tonight. 

F came back when I was almost ready and the stew was getting hot. I texted him when I was ready for him to come and eat and I put the stew out too. Tonight I broke out my jar of harissa from the fridge and we all had some in the stew. It was good. We mostly finished the stew, there’s a little bit left for K’s lunch tomorrow if she wants it.

Over dinner, F said that he wanted to go to the onsen, so while I was getting the dishes done, he left with K to go to the onsen.  I finished the dishes and then I went upstairs and relaxed for a bit. 

A little while later F came back. Apparently, the onsen was closed, and so was the second place they tried. Oh, dear. F might go early in the morning to go to another place, but he won’t take K of course!

I had a shower and then watched today’s episode of This is Going to Hurt. It was quite good again. I really feel for the doctor that Ben Whishaw plays. Unlike in Grey’s Anatomy for example, TIGTH actually shows the blood and guts and the doctor gets dirty at work. It’s very different!

And basically, that was it for my day. Tomorrow I have to do some laundry and I have to cook dinner as well. Friday is a national holiday, it’s the start of Golden Week. F will be around a bit during GW so hopefully, we’ll spend a bit of time out rather than in the house.

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

April 26, 2022

Tuesday - Cloudy and dark, torrential rain at night

I woke up this morning around 7:30 when F snapped on the bedroom lights. I wear an eye mask when I sleep as I’m very light sensitive, but the light still wakes me up. He’d misplaced his car keys again. Happily, he found them a few minutes later in his clothes from yesterday. 

Because I was woken up before I wanted to be, I’m afraid I ended up oversleeping. I didn’t mind too much though. I got up, dressed and went downstairs.  I came back upstairs for a few minutes, but just before 11am I went back downstairs and started on dinner. Today I made a ground meat stew and put it in my slow cooker. I had to do a bunch of veggies, and get them all cut up and that took a bit of time. I also had to brown the ground meat too. I finally got it all in my slow cooker and I left it to do its magic. 

I didn’t eat breakfast today and had a late lunch so I was a bit punchy this afternoon. Luckily, there was no one around! K had gone to the doctor with her daughter, so I had the house to myself for a while. I didn’t really take advantage of it though.

I watched a little bit of TV off the DVR and I made a start on my column. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to get it done in time, but I’ve at least started. In January I couldn’t even write a word.

F called quite late today to say he was on his way but would go to the car dealership first. They had fixed his car so he wanted to pick it up. I went downstairs and washed my day’s dishes and then set myself up for today’s dinner.

When F came back I told him that I would have dinner on the table soon, so he went upstairs to change. True to my word, dinner was on the table in minutes. 

We all seemed to like the stew, but no one but me had seconds of it. That was a little sad. Oh well, we’re going to have it for dinner tomorrow night too. 

I did the dishes, but since I had done all the cooking dishes earlier in the day, there wasn’t much to do. Yay for me. 

After dinner, F and I went to the grocery store and picked up a few groceries. They were having an 88 yen sale at the entrance, so F picked up a bunch of cup ramen for his mother I think.

We came back to the house and I watched some TV. F took a shower and then went to bed. He’s quite tired these days. 

I’m going off to bed soon too. Not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll write a little bit more of my column and then we’ll see. 

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

April 25, 2022

Monday - Warm and Sunny

I woke up this morning after my alarm went off. I hadn’t heard F leave this morning. Yay for that. I watched the news and then fell asleep. Oops.  I woke up around 10 am and then heard the doorbell. K summoned me downstairs a little later and I found out that F’s sister was taking her out for a while. I wished her a good time and made sure she had a clean mask.

While K was gone, I cut the stems of some flowers that we’ve had in the genkan. I’m hoping that some of the flowers will last a little longer now. Sadly for me, some of the flowers that were left too long made a huge mess all over the floor so I had to clean that up!

I did a big load of laundry and also swept the stairs up to our room. I was busy for a bit and then I just relaxed for a while! 

I made a sort of start on my column and I listed a few movies that I might write about. That’s always a good way to start. 

I watched the news and then got ready to go downstairs. When I was in the kitchen setting up, F called and said that the car was making an odd noise, so he was going to go to the car shop. He went there and I went on with dinner.

Tonight I roasted some chicken with Lemon Pepper coating, microwaved some broccoli and some bulgar pilaf that I had bought a few months ago and put a salad in a bowl and also made some instant soup. I put things out on the table and tried to tell K that F would be late because of the car but she didn’t understand anything. I even used my phone to translate the message for me but she didn’t understand it. 

F came back just after we were finished or almost finished eating. I made his soup for him and he ate dinner too. He didn’t like the bulgar (and neither did K), but I had really liked it. I will get it again for myself!

I did the dishes and as I was doing that, F set up the rice cooker for tomorrow. He was in my way of course and also made a lot of noise so I had to stop my podcast until he was done.  He did ask if I wanted to go out with him. He has a loaner car from the dealership and needed to hit up a store. I said I would go.

When I finished the dishes, I went upstairs and changed my clothes. F and I went to the new drugstore nearby and he got what he wanted, plus a few treats for all of us. 

We came back to the house. I took a shower a bit later and F backed out of his. Sigh. 

When I came back to the room, F was basically in bed asleep. He had left his computer on my side of the bed, so I asked him to move it. I also reminded him to set his alarm for the morning. He did and then went back to sleep!

I’m still up, watching a few YouTube videos as I blog. Tomorrow I have a few things to do. I’m going to be making stew for dinner, I’ll probably do it in my slow cooker starting in the later part of the morning. Wish me luck with that.

That’s about it for me tonight. Wish me luck with dinner tomorrow. The good thing is that hopefully clean up after dinner tomorrow night shouldn’t take too long. 

Until tomorrow…. 

April 24, 2022

Sunday - Warm and Sunny

I woke up this morning quite early, made a trip downstairs and then went back to bed for a while. F came back to bed too and I didn’t wake up again until he sprang up in bed to get the door. My suitcase had arrived. Yay. Despite me telling him NOT to bring it upstairs…I didn’t want him to damage his knee even more…he did. He has his moments! I still haven’t opened it though. I’ll do that tomorrow and get some laundry done too I think.

F suggested going to a soba restaurant, one that neither of us had been to before. I really didn’t feel in the mood for soba, I wanted something lighter for lunch, and preferably not Japanese. However, he was getting his knickers in a knot again, so I agreed to go. I wasn’t very gracious about it. F called and made a reservation and then we started to go. Except, he couldn’t find his wallet. Seriously? He spent about 10 minutes looking for it and couldn’t. I told him that if lunch was under ¥5000 I’d pay for it and he could pay me back later. 

We drove off to find this restaurant. F was too busy pontificating on something and turned too soon. I half-thought he had, but he wouldn’t listen to me. We got to the restaurant and were shown into a fake tatami room with a table and chairs. Whew!  It had a plastic barrier in the middle of the table and F took it upon himself to move it to the end of the table. Where it promptly fell apart as it was longer than the width of the table. I just rolled my eyes. 

Lunch was surprisingly (for me) good. We both had soba with chicken gobo soup and shared an order of chicken tempura which was very good. We came back to Tsuruoka after I paid and back to the house. I was shattered. I was tired and F was just being annoying. He was worried about his wallet. I went to bed and tried to nap a little. 

F found his wallet finally and did pay me back.  We decided to go out fairly soon after that. I wanted to buy groceries and get that chore out of the way. We went to the grocery store and I bought a few things. F insisted on coming in the store with me so I had to carry the groceries and keep up with him and put up with him getting in my way and such. We bought the groceries and took them back to his house. I unpacked the bag and then we went out again.

We didn’t do too much then. We tried to go to Machi-kine to see a rummage sale, but sad to say, the things on display weren’t things that I’d actually want to buy. After that, we decided to go to Mcdonald's for a drink. We went to one and had a bit of downtime for a while. We both had drinks and I had a flurry too. 

When we left, we tried to order K a nice bento for dinner but the company said they were busy. They suggested that we show up and they’d make it when we were there. We did, and very quickly F was back in the car and we were off to the house. 

F gave her the bento and then the two of us were off on the road. We went out to Mikawa to see CODA. 

When we arrived, F had to have some food. We got our tickets. F surprised me by wanting to sit quite far back in the theatre. He’s on crutches, I would have thought he’d want to sit near the front. Nope.

While he was finishing up his food, I went and bought the popcorn and drinks. He joined me and we went in. Before I went to the washroom, F gave me back the money for the drinks and popcorn. That rather annoyed me because I have a thing against getting money from him in public. I’m just not sure why he does that. 

Anyway, the movie was great! F really liked it, as I knew that he would. We both had a good time. The only bad thing for me was that the ASL was subtitled in Japanese and not English. However, I was able to read a few words here and there AND I had read that originally the film wasn’t subtitled at all, so I figured that I was seeing it almost as intended!

After the movie, we left the theatre and happily F did a wallet/key check before we got far. F couldn’t find his wallet. Ack. We asked for permission to go back in and look for it. F found it under his seat. Yikes. Glad he checked.

We left the mall and went back to Tsuruoka. F wanted to go to a gyudon shop for dinner but I said no. I really didn’t want Japanese food. I suggested a Chinese restaurant. We tried to go, but they had already closed for the night. We ended up going to the Thai restaurant. We haven’t been there in years, but it was nice! They were quite busy tonight but welcomed us in.  F ordered Thai-style ramen and I had Thai-style yakisoba. It was huge but really nice!

After our dinner, we paid up and came back to the house. We had a quiet evening in. At 11 I watched a show I just found, Superman and Lois and then ended up watching the end of Perfume. It’s such a weird little movie, but I love it. 

And that was my day. It was an odd one. F and I are fine, he’s had a bad pain day and took some medicine. It always seems to make him more forgetful than usual. I’m missing my holiday and being on my own. It’s hard for me to come back to “real life” where I have to get on with other people!

Tomorrow I have to do laundry I hope, cook dinner and probably clean up the kitchen. Ack.

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

April 23, 2022

Saturday - Sunny and warm, some clouds

F forgot to turn off his alarm this morning when he got up. That would be the alarm that went off at 7:00 am. I turned it off, said a few mean things and then went back to sleep. Sometime later, he came back into the room and flicked on the light. That was my second time waking up. I wasn’t too happy with F at that time!

I went back to sleep and the next time I woke up it was because MY alarm went off. That wasn’t so bad. I got up after a little snooze and then got dressed. F called me to say that he was coming back soon. 

We went to the doctor’s office and had to wait for an hour to be seen. I had my book with me so I didn’t mind too much. I finished my book and really enjoyed it. I had bought it in Sendai while I was there. It was Midnight Library by Matt Haig. I didn’t know, but there is quite a huge variance of opinion about this book on Goodreads. 

Anyway, we were able to be seen, and after we paid, we went to the pharmacy and picked up our meds. I had to pay because F hadn’t brought enough money!

We had lunch at Okazaki today. I had tuna cheek and it was very nice. It didn’t seem very fishy at all. Hurray for that. F had the mountain of fish Donburi and he liked it too.

After lunch, we didn’t really know what to do with ourselves. We popped into an automotive store for F and then went for a drive. When we came back to Tsuruoka, we went and got a drink and a treat at Gusto. That was actually nice. I also got the idea to order a bento for K before we left, so that she’d have something hot and freshly made. 

We popped into the house for a bit. F gave his mother the bento and she enjoyed it. I went upstairs and relaxed, F joined me a little later.

We went out for our dinner a bit after 6:30. F had an appointment with his insurance lady at 8:00pm so I suggested someplace fast! We went to Coco Ichibanya and had curry. I had the Spice Curry and it was delicious tonight. F had chicken cutlet curry. I ate mine quickly so that we could leave soon, F dawdled.  I had been a bit salty about this appointment since it is our tradition to see a movie on Saturday night and there was one that I really wanted to see. However, there’s always tomorrow, hopefully. 

We got back to the house about 3 minutes before 8 pm and the lady was already at the house. Oops. I provided F and the woman with some mugi-cha and snacks and then came upstairs. That’s pretty much where I have been ever since!  

Later on, after the lady left, I took a shower and then watched a TV programme and then something off the DVR. I’ve been watching some YouTube and blogging ever since.  

I’m not too sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. I hope that we’ll go and see Coda at the cinema, but maybe we’ll get up to something else fun too.

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

April 22, 2022

Friday - Cloudy, hot and then sunny

I’m back! I had a great time in Yamagata city. I made a couple of side trips as well, I went to Tendo to the big mall there, and I also went to Sendai for a few hours. That was cool because I haven’t been to Sendai for more than two years. Some things have changed!

So, this morning I got up, watched the news and took a shower. I finished packing my suitcase, locked it and then checked out. I got the desk clerk to send my suitcase back to me and then I went off to the station.  I found a locker and put my backpack in it. I was free for a while. 

I toddled around the station for a while, I had a drink and a sandwich at Starbucks and then a little later went for a walk around the area looking for a good place to eat. I didn’t find one.  I ended up going back through the station to a little cafe and had pasta. It was really nice.

I went back to the station area, got some souvenirs and then got my bag out of the locker. I got in line to get on the bus. 

I got a seat and read my book for a while before I fell asleep!  It was an interesting ride. F called me while I was on the bus and I had to tell him I couldn’t talk!  I arrived in Tsuruoka right on time. F was nowhere to be seen. 

I went to Doutor and had a glass of iced tea.  I waited for a long time and then finally messaged him again. He wrote back that he was busy and would be half an hour. Ack!

He showed up a bit later. What happened was he went back to the house and cooked dinner for his mother. He didn’t change his clothes though. 

We bought a new pair of insoles for my shoes and then went off to have dinner. We went to Cocos and had a nice, not too expensive meal. I had my usual hamburger in mustard cream sauce and F had chicken. He said his was too salty. That’s sad. I did the drink bar runs for us because F is still in a lot of pain with his knees. Poor thing.

We came back to the house and I checked out the kitchen and wished I didn’t. It isn’t too bad really, but it wasn’t great. I did make more tea for drinking, so that was good. 

I watched a couple of shorter shows off the DVR and then switched to YouTube. I’m back!  I really enjoyed being away, but it was a little lonely. I’ve been talking 19 to the dozen to F. I think he was a little overwhelmed!

Tomorrow could be a bit busy. F and I have to go to the doctor, F wants to go to his other doctor too and we’ll see what else comes our way!

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

April 17, 2022

Sunday - Warm and Sunny

I got up this morning and got dressed. A little while later, F came upstairs and we talked about going out for lunch. We decided to go to Naa, the Farmer’s restaurant. It was a fairly good meal. I enjoyed mine, even though I had fish that I’m not the hugest fan of.

After lunch we talked about what to do. We finally decided to go to Mikawa and see a movie. When we got there, F wanted to go to the hardware store first, so we did. After that, I took his purchase to the car and met him in the mall.

We went upstairs and watched Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. It was okay. It wasn’t my favourite film ever, but it had moments. 

We left the mall when it was over, and visited a couple of grocery stores. I picked up something for my breakfast tomorrow, F picked up a few groceries for him and K. 

We dropped off the food at the house for K then went out for our meal. There was an amazing moon tonight. It was huge and bright orange at first. Sadly, my photos of it didn’t turn out very well, so I won’t post them. 

We had a comedy of errors night. The first two restaurants we tried to go to were closed and then we talked about going for Indian food or Thai or Taiwanese. Sadly, the Taiwanese won. It was horrible as usual. I did suggest the restaurant, but their menu is quite bad. I had some bifun that was incredibly salty. F added on some steamed chicken that was nice. He had a bowl of noodles too. 

We hit up a drugstore so I could get some masks for my trip. I also got a few coffee creamers and F got himself some snacks I think. 

We came back to the house and I took a shower. I also checked out my suitcase. I took a book out and tried to put even more stuff in! I was trying to make it lighter, I promise!

F booked my taxi tonight for me, as he’ll be going to Yamagata tomorrow too. He’s working though, and will be there before me I think!

So, I’m off for a few days. I’ll be back in Tsuruoka on Friday but may not be able to blog until Saturday or possibly even Sunday. Don’t wait up! Have a great time without me and I’ll talk to you again later in the week. 

Until…..

April 16, 2022

 Saturday - Cloudy but sunny and warmish

I woke up around 10 this morning and got up. I got dressed right away. A little while F came back from his doctor’s office and asked me to phone his phone. Yes, he misplaced his phone again. No answer. He decided he must have left it at his doctor’s office. I suggested searching the car before he went over there. He went over to the doctor’s office, and asked if anyone had found it. They hadn’t. He checked the car. It was in the car. He phoned me and told me and of course, I did say, “I told you so!”

When F came back to the house I made sure he was feeling up to going out and suggested that we go out for lunch. I didn’t have any ideas today, so F had the idea to go to a restaurant in ex-Fujishima. He even called and made a reservation. Woot! We drove out there. Sadly for F, the closer parking lot didn’t have any space left, but we drove to the nearby annex restaurant and F parked there. We walked back to the restaurant and went in. 

We had a lovely meal there. F had the pork saute and I had the roast beef donburi. Both meals were good and we enjoyed our lunch there. Over lunch, F asked me if I’d like to go to the cafe near Mount Chokai. We haven’t tried to go there this year I think, but last year, both times we attempted going there the place was closed. I said it was fine if he called to make sure that it was open.

When we got back to the car, he called and they said they were open. Woot. We drove out to Yuza and went to the cafe, stopping for a pit stop along the way. 

On the way to the cafe today, we saw a lot of herons in the fields. The fields haven’t been planted yet and the birds were everywhere. It was lovely to see them. 

From the parking lot of the cafe, we could see about 5 herons! That was cool. We went in and both had coffee and castella. The view was amazing. We could see the fields and the mountain and it was beautiful. We took a few photos inside the cafe and when we were leaving the cafe owner offered to take our photos. He took a couple inside and then a few outside. That was really nice!

We're looking out at Mt. Chokai.

We drove back to Tsuruoka but made a stop at Don Qihote for a few things. We each got a new lightning cord, we got some snacks and I picked up some pasta sauce as well. We paid and then headed on to Tsuruoka. F decided that he’d like to get us all fish donburi for dinner, so we went to the place he likes and ordered. We came back to the house and got K out of bed. It wasn’t even 6 pm yet, not sure why she was in bed! 

We had a nice dinner and then I got to wash the dishes and the bento boxes. Yay me. I didn’t dry the dishes tonight thought. Oh, and news update…the cans were out of the sink again. They were back in the garbage but not much cleaner than they were before. I don’t care. If she wonders why the kitchen smells before the bag gets collected, she’ll maybe know why?!

After dinner, F and I headed out to …karaoke. Woot! We’ve both been boosted recently and I’ve been desperate to go to karaoke for a while. We got a package for 3 hours and had a good time. We also got drink bar with that, which included soft ice cream, so it was a good time. We ordered a bit of food along the way and just enjoyed ourselves. 

We had a pretty good time at the karaoke box and it wasn’t that expensive. We came back to the house then.  I watched FBI and then Free Guy again. I enjoyed myself. F stayed up for quite a while but finally went to sleep a little while ago. 

So that’s it. That was my day. It was surprisingly great, considering we had no plans before the day. Tomorrow I have to finish getting ready for my trip. I need my husband to order my taxi for me for Monday and I need to get a bit of food to either eat before my trip or while I’m on the bus. Probably before I’m on the bus is better and safer. 

Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….probably! If I can’t update tomorrow I’ll catch you later in the week, around Friday or Saturday. 

April 15, 2022

 Friday - Rainy and Cooler

I woke up this morning when my alarm went off. I went downstairs and then came back and watched the news. I did snooze after the news, but got up and did a load of laundry and hung it up.

I had a quiet day today. I avoided K as much as I could. (Nope, she still hasn’t washed those fish tins!) I packed my suitcase in the afternoon and I also watched Greenland. It was pretty good. I needed to take the film off our DVR! I watched the news and went down to get dinner started.

F called me a bit late today. I needed him to pick up a salad for dinner, so he did. He came back to the house a few minutes later.

Dinner was fairly fast today. I just did pasta with lemon & olive oil sauce, smoked duck breast and the salad that F brought. He also brought some celery pickles too. They were surprisingly good.

Dinner was pretty good. I ate more pasta than the other two, but I think we all enjoyed the meal. F and K took off after dinner and went to the onsen. I was left with the dishes. Yay for me.

I did the dishes and listened to my podcasts. I went upstairs afterwards and relaxed for a while. F and K came back. I thought they had gone to the local onsen, but apparently, K wanted to go to the farther off one, so they did!

F wanted to go shopping when he got back and asked if I’d come too. I was happy to get out of the house. He asked me if I’d pick up his alcohol and I told him I wouldn’t. Then he said he wouldn’t go. I was okay with that too. Then he said he would go. We went. F got his stuff and I grabbed some chocolate for myself. 

We came back to the house and then I took a shower. At midnight, I watched Dolittle, the recent film with Robert Downey Jr. It wasn’t great, but for a late at night movie it was fine. I’m glad I didn’t spend money on it though.

And that’s about it. I’m not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. F is probably going to go to the doctor again but after that I have no idea. Come back later and find out what I get up to on Saturday. Until tomorrow….

April 14, 2022

Thursday - Cloudy, cool and rainy

I got up this morning when my alarm went off. I was a bit surprised that it was morning already! I got up and went downstairs, then watched the news. After the news, I did a little Facebooking and other things on my phone. I didn’t snooze for a while, and then I did! I had a very hard time getting up after that. I was rather late today.

I grabbed breakfast, ate upstairs and watched some YouTube. I grabbed lunch later and watched Yellowstone and then the news. F called after he finished work and then came back to the house.

I went downstairs and got a start on dinner. I didn’t do anything too exciting today. We had chicken nuggets, spicy rice, green onion cake, potato salad and a couple of homemade sauces. I made some honey mustard dip and some wasabi mayo dip for the nuggets, and I found a recipe for green onion cake sauce. It was okay.

I did the dishes afterwards and listened to a couple of podcasts. That was interesting. When I finished I went upstairs and F came up a little later.

I watched the last episode of The AfterParty on Apple TV+ and then The Rookie. I followed that up with today’s episode of Bake-off. I turned off the TV after that. 

During The Rookie and Bake-off, I did a little bit of crochet. I’m nearly finished the turning round. It’s a bit hard on my hands so I stopped a bit before I finished the round. 

I’ve been having a bit of a passive-aggressive fight with K. For some of her lunches, she’s been opening some canned fish. That’s fine. I have no problem with that. But, what she’s doing is leaving the cans in the sink. I’m assuming she expects me to wash them. I’ve left them where she put them, in the sink. Today at lunch I found that they weren’t around. Hmm. I checked the metal garbage bag and there they were. Still not clean. I pulled them out and left them back in the sink for her. I haven’t asked her to wash them as I’m rather sure that she’s going to ask me to do it for her. I didn’t eat the fish, I shouldn’t have to clean it up.

I did pack a few things into my suitcase today. I’m a little worried that F is going to have his hands full next week. He’s also going to be driving some distances so he won’t be around. K will have to muddle through by herself. I hope F remembers to leave her some food for the daytime. 

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

April 13, 2022

Wednesday - Rainy and cooler

This morning, I woke up when my alarm went off. That means that I didn’t hear my husband leave today. Yay! I went downstairs and then came back and watched the news. I did take a nap afterwards though.

When I got up, I started a load of laundry and then grabbed my breakfast. I made up a plate of food for K as well. I put that back in the fridge and then went upstairs to eat. I ended up doing a couple of loads of laundry today as I need it to dry before I go away. Fingers crossed that it will!

I had a fairly quiet afternoon. I watched a quick show off the DVR and then checked the NHK schedule for the next episode. I was really surprised to see “British Baking” in Japanese on the schedule for right now. I checked to be sure….and yes, it was The Great British Bake-Off!  It was older, maybe the first season and the first episode? They only put on half of the episode, but they did show when the second half was on and it is already set in my DVR!

As I ate lunch, I watched one of yesterday’s Yellowstone episodes. It was good, but then again, they usually are. 

I got a message from F saying that he was going to take off a couple of hours from work and go to the doctor. I was fine with that of course. He got back to the house around 4:15. He changed and then went off to the doctor’s office.

Around 6 pm he still wasn’t back, but I decided to go downstairs and get a start on dinner. Tonight I did a fairly simple meal because the night before I was a little too busy! We had boil-in-the-bag burgers, salad, sautéed spinach with bacon and corn, and french fries done in the air fryer. I think dinner was good. Most of it disappeared and we enjoyed it. 

I did the dishes and the garbage. I discovered that someone had taken all of the garbage bags away and hadn’t told me! Ack! I was a bit rage-y about that. I grabbed a bag from upstairs for the kitchen. F and I went out to the drugstore. I needed to get a few things for the house. He stayed in the car which was fine and I did the shopping. I got garbage bags, laundry detergent, snacks for F and me, breakfast for F and K and cereal for me. Yay. 

When I got back in the car F and I were on our way back to the house when we noticed that F’s car’s gas light was lit. Oops. We decided that we should go and get some gas right away. F has this bad habit of running the gas almost out. He did have enough to get to the gas station which was good. He filled up and we came back to the house.

I took a shower this evening and then watched the latest hospital drama with Ben Whishaw. It was good but a bit sad.

F went to bed around midnight and I should get there soon. I might do more laundry tomorrow, I’m not sure!

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

 

April 12, 2022

Tuesday - Warm and Sunny

Well, I woke up early this morning, but F wasn’t responsible! I just woke up, I’m not sure why!

I watched the early news and then took a bit more of a snooze. I got up a bit later and grabbed my breakfast.

I had a quiet day again today. I watched some YouTube and didn’t watch the news today. When I brought my lunch upstairs I watched another movie off the DVR. I had just recorded it on the weekend. It was Ammonite with Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan. It was okay, a little slow in places, but interesting. It was about a love affair that Mary Anning supposedly had with a married woman. It was good, but didn’t answer all of my questions!

F called a bit after 5 to say he was on his way. I asked him to pick up a little more meat for dinner. I was making steam shabu-shabu again. I had bought one type of meat but I thought there wasn’t enough for the three of us. I also suggested getting some ice cream for our dessert too.

When F came back to the house he had bought some expensive meat! It was the really good stuff, and there was a lot of it! Yikes. He also got ice cream for each of us. It went into the freezer right away.

Tonight I sautéed some eringi mushrooms and also did the steam shabu-shabu. I put some shredded cabbage in my steamer and then added slices of the pork. I covered the steamer and then a few minutes later took the meat out. 

Dinner was good and got great reviews. It was quite a bit of work for me though as I had to heat up some leftovers, get the table set and call F downstairs. It was hard to get everything done in time, but dinner finally came together.

After dinner, I did the dishes. It took a while, but finally, they got done. After a little break, F and I went out to the grocery store. Tonight it was MaxValu. I’m afraid I didn’t go overly healthy for the next couple of days!

I came back to the car and we came back to the house. I unpacked the groceries and then came upstairs. Tonight I watched a couple of TV programmes and enjoyed them. 

That’s about it for me for today. I did work a bit on my basket earlier on. I’m doing the turning edge, so it is a little difficult at the moment. I could only do a little bit tonight.

Tomorrow I have to do some laundry and maybe start packing my suitcase for my trip next week. It’s getting closer and I’m getting alternatively nervous and excited!

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

April 11, 2022

Monday - Hot and Sunny

I woke up this morning when my dear husband made a lot of noise. I went downstairs and then came back and went back to bed. Thirty minutes later he woke me up in a panic because he couldn’t find his car keys. And then he found them. 

I went back to sleep for a little while and got up around 8:30. I watched the news on the TV and then snoozed for a bit. I did get up a little early though. I had breakfast and watched the early-on news from the DVR. 

I had a fairly quiet day. It got really hot in our room as it was terribly sunny today. I decided to go over to the garage and look for my fan. The one that F thought he’d hidden in our room. I had to really search for it, but it was in the garage. I had to move a bunch of stuff to get it out though. Why does F always hide things?

I brought it back to the room but decided I’d try opening the windows first. The windows in my part of the room don’t really open, so I did the ones in the other half of the room. It did make a difference, but in the end, I did run my fan a bit too. 

I had my lunch and I watched a film that I recorded last night. It was Guns Akimbo with Daniel Radcliffe. It was a really violent, crazy film. It wasn’t great, but it was entertaining, mostly!

A bit after 5 I played telephone tag with F. He’d phone and hang up, I’d phone him and there’d be no answer…it was weird. I assumed that meant he was on his way back to the house. 

I went downstairs and got on with dinner prep. Tonight I found a new recipe for canned kidney beans and it was pretty good. I also did an eggplant stir-fry, but it wasn’t that great. I wanted it to be a little more cooked. I think I started it too late. We had baked chicken, salad, beans and eggplant. It was a decent meal. F supplied dessert, well, I did a little bit too. I got the ice cream out of the freezer. He gave us some strawberry cake and it was good.

I did the dishes and then did up the garbage for him to take out later. I came upstairs and watched Love Sarah off the DVR. For some reason, WOWOW isn’t showing an English show on Monday night. They are showing a Norwegian one though, but my Norwegian is pretty rusty. (In all honesty, I can only count to ten and say my name is…so I can’t actually speak it!)

Love Sarah was good. I had seen it at the cinema last year on my birthday. It was a perfect movie for a birthday celebration. 

And that was about it. F is sleeping away and I need to get some sleep soon. I’m rather tired and I have the sneaking suspicion I’ll have another wake-up call in the morning. 

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

April 10, 2022

 Sunday - Warm and Sunny

F and I both went to bed rather late last night. I went down sometime around 4 I think. Sigh.

This morning, F woke up before 9:00 and went out. He took his car and went to the grocery store. Of course, he woke me up when he left the room. I went downstairs and then went back to sleep. I think I did manage to snooze a little bit, but not all that much.

A bit later, F came back and he went to sleep as well. I woke up when my alarm went off. I eventually dragged myself out of bed. I was up for a couple of hours and F was snoozing away. Finally, it was almost 2 pm when I suggested to F that we go and get me some food! He had eaten with his mother, at least a little, but I hadn’t had anything yet. 

We ended up going to Kappa Sushi and had an okay meal there. We ate quite a bit of sushi and also had some onion rings and fries. I felt rather stuffed when I finished.

We went to Doutor in the mall and had a drink. I’m not sure what it is, but sushi always makes me thirsty. F got the seats, I got the drinks and we had a nice little while in the cafe. F asked about movies, but I said the only movie that we could see would start at 8:00 pm so it would be too late for him. He does have to go back to work tomorrow.

F decided that he’d like to get a new adapter for his iPhone. His cheapo earphones don’t fit into his phone, so he needs an adapter. We decided to go to one of the big electric shops to get it. He drove us over there, we parked and went in. He found his adapter by asking someone, paid for it and then we were off again.

I asked that we do our grocery shopping next, so I went into the store and F stayed in the car. I was tasked with getting K something for her dinner and also for the next couple of evenings worth of food. I enjoyed myself in the store. It’s so much easier by myself!

I paid for the groceries and went back to the car. F told me that his sister had just called him and said she was going to the house and bringing food. Oh yay. I know its for her mother, but usually it is food that I don’t want to eat, and so it turned out to be. However, we just bought food for her mother, so then we wasted money. Sigh.

Neither F nor I wanted dinner yet, so we hung out for a bit at the house. It was really hot upstairs. The temperature outside today was 23 degrees. That’s quite warm already. 

Around 8 pm I roused the old guy and told him we should go out. His stomach wasn’t great today, so I suggested going for udon to the chain place on the outskirts of town. He was okay with that, so off we went.

They were really nice to F there and one of the staff carried his tray for him. I would have done that in stages, but it was nice that they did.

After we finished eating, I took back out trays and then we left. We stopped at the grocery store again so F could get himself some [fake]beer. I don’t think it is fake at all, but since it isn’t true beer, it costs a little less apparently.

We came back to the house. F took a shower and I watched Mortal Kombat! It was a crazy movie, based on a video game, but it wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t good, but it had some interesting stunts and some good Japanese actors in it, so….

I took a shower close to midnight. F is in bed and is hopefully sleeping. I’m going to go off to bed soon too. I’m quite tired and I would like to get a few things done tomorrow.

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