Living La Vida Loca In Japan: August 2012

Showing posts with label August 2012. Show all posts

Incoming Postcards

To August 31, 2012

I'm quite behind right now with Postcards so there will be more cards shown on my blog soon. Right now, I'd like to present you with some of the cool cards that I received in August.

To see the pictures in more detail, click on them.

Hokkaido Fox

This first one is actually not a postcrossing card, but I wanted to show it off anyway. It comes from a friend of mine who lives in Hokkaido and who knows I collect the Gotochi cards.

Isn't he great? Thanks Vicky!

Thomas from Singapore sent this next shaped card. He writes that Singapore is a clean and safe modern city with summer all year round. It is a multi-racial, multi-cultural society and as such, it has a wide variety of ethnic food. He writes that he hopes to see me there some day.

I have been to Singapore and I agree with him. I loved Singapore and apart from the humidity, enjoyed it. I felt very safe and free there. The food was excellent as well.

This next card came from Ann in Belarus. She wrote a lot on the back of the card, but I won't write all of it. She writes that her country has a long history and she loves learning about it.

She also says that she can't choose her best movies because she's seen so many. She likes historical films, and also melodramas and dramas. She likes cartoons. The last cartoon she saw was Madagascar 3. The last movie she saw was "My Boyfriend is an Angel" which is a Russian film that she likes.

Monument to a dog.
Bridge in Nyasvizh Park

Thanks so much for a great card Ann. It was so nice to get a card with a lot of writing on it. So many people don't bother writing more than 10 words.

The next two cards arrived the same day, and they are of the same person! I've never had that happen before. Fortunately, they aren't the same picture so it works out well for my collection.

The first comes from Austria. Martina says that she's from southern Styria, one of the most famous wine regions.

She writes that she likes action movies like "Jumper", but she doesn't have a favourite film as she likes a lot.

Marilyn Monroe

Thanks Martina!

The other Marilyn card comes from Moscow in Russia. The sender writes that her name is similar to mine, Lena. She says that one of her favourite movies is "Love and Other Disasters" with Brittany Murphy.

Marilyn Monroe
Photo by Milton H. Greene

Thanks Lena!

Vera sent this card from Lithuania which is near the Baltic Sea. She writes that she is Russian and loves Russian movies or philosophical films, especially those of Andrei Tarkovsky. She wishes me a good end of summer.

In a separate email, Vera told me that this dish is the Russian-leaf of beet soup. It is a cold soup with boiled potato, beet, and greens. There is Russian cider made from rye flour and malt.

Thanks for an interesting card Vera.

There you are, six very cool postcards. I've got six more already coming down the pipeline, so come back soon to see them.

What do you think of these cards? Comments are welcome below.

August 31, 2012

Friday - Hot and sunny….so tired of writing that!

Kind of a blah day.

I got up in time to watch my shows this morning. I wasn’t sure when my husband would be home so I showered and waited for him. In the afternoon, I got so sleepy that I had to take a nap and of course, that’s when he came home. I slept on for a bit and missed my rebroadcast of Torchwood.

We didn’t talk for ages. It was a really weird homecoming. He ate noodles, then he took a nap when I got up.

We had dinner together later and it wasn’t great. We went to a fish restaurant. His doctor told him to eat more blue fish. I told him he can eat all the blue fish that he wants, I’m just not going to cook it. I don’t like blue fish. I imagine the next few weeks are going to be very painful.

We came home again and watched more of the Charisma Dog Whisperer. I think I’m a little hooked on the show.

In the evening there were tsunami advisories on the TV for the Pacific Coast. There was a big earthquake in the Philippines and there was a chance that there’d be a tsunami. The warning was lifted finally, and happily.

F wanted to go to the grocery store, so off we went. He did the weird thing he always does. He left the apartment without telling me and without turning off either the TV, air conditioner or fan. I had to turn off everything and then go out.

We got a few things and came home just in time for me to tape Torchwood. I watched Desperate Housewives and things got very interesting and weird on the show! Ugly Betty’s dad has just shown up and he isn’t a good guy.

Hub went to bed and I stayed up. I really need to go to bed earlier than I did yesterday, but I’m not sure I’m ready for bed yet!

Not sure what the schedule will be tomorrow. I have a class, and we might go to a movie if F is up to it, but I’m not sure. Oh, I did manage to finish and email my column, but I still have to do my area report. However, I only received info from the ladies in the area tonight so….

That’s it for me. Night.

Postcrossing - Incoming

To August 27, 2012

I have a bumper crop of cards to write about. Since my last update I have received about 11 cards, so I have decided to break this into two postings. As always I welcome comments about the cards or Postcrossing below!

Also, to see the cards in more detail, please click on them.

Sara sent this card from Sweden. She writes that the card shows some views from Sweden in all seasons. Her favorite movie is Titanic. She thinks it is the best romantic movie of all time. She ends by wishing me a Happy Postcrossing.

To me, the card looks a lot like parts of Canada! Thanks Sara.

Dagmar from Germany sent this next card with lots of greetings. She notes that on the picture you can see a typical landscape in the southern part of Baveria. She lives in part of Bavaria and says it looks very different. She also drew a picture of the difference between the steeples of churches.

Farchant in the Werdenfelser Land

Thanks Dagmar!

I received a postcard with this lovely lady before, but this looks like she is still in her youth here. This is Romy Schneider.

Romy Schneider

Maud from The Netherlands translated some wording on one of the stamps she used, and then used the rest of the space to tell me about her favourite movies. She likes Amadeus, Seven Years in Tibet and Hitchcock movies. I also like Hitchcock films, I haven't seen the other movies for years.

Thank you Maud!

This card also comes from The Netherlands. This one came from Marianne. She writes that it was difficult for her to chose a card for me, but she finally picked this one. She wrote,"2 four-leave clovers. Here in the Netherlands we say they being luck. So, actually, I am sending you a lot of luck!"

Indeed! Thanks so much Marianne!

There's a sad story about this card. The sender received my name over a year ago. This may be a second card or a very delayed first card. In any case, it was sent this year, in fact it was sent during August, but I wasn't able to register it at Postcrossing. Cards expire after one year. It comes all the way from Brazil and is a card for a film Festival.

Heres wrote, "Hello Helen! I hope you like this Almodovar's Postcard! Kisses from Brazil!

P.S. Sorry By Delay

The card shows a scene from Pedro Almodovar's The Skin I Live In. I haven't seen it, although I do enjoy Almodovar's films. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown was one of the first foreign films I ever saw (with Antonio Banderos in a small role), and I love it. It is so funny.

Thanks Heres and I'm sorry that I wasn't able to register the card. As you can see, it did get a bit damaged on the way to me.

There you have it. Five lovely cards from Europe and South America. Come back next time for more interesting postcards. Where will the next ones be from? Find out soon!

August 30, 2012

Thursday - Hot and sunny and humid

A really, really nice day!

It is so late right now that I should have been in bed a couple of hours ago, but I have to blog.

I woke up a couple of times this morning. It was so hot and humid that I was soaking wet. Yuck. When F got up to go I got up too and gave him big hug. He wasn’t off to work, he was off to the hospital for his Ningen Dock. He is doing a super health check and they are keeping him overnight. I think it’s odd, but a day to myself is never something to sneer at!

I got up again before 9:00 and watched Ghost Whisperer. It’s a silly show, but I like it. Followed that by The O.C. and a few more things on the telly. I went out for a late lunch around 2:30. I took myself off to KappaSushi and had a nice lunch there.

After lunch I ran a few errands and went to the craft store. I bought a couple of postcards there and then visited the drugstore. I finally came home and spent a bit of time there.

Around 8 tonight I went out to have dinner and went over to Grado. I had a lovely meal, I really did. I had Suzuki meuniere and chicken with cheese in a mushroom sauce. It was really yummy.

After dinner I came home and watched a bit of TV and worked on my computer again. I sent some email, scanned some cards, wrote a couple of cards for Postcrossing. I just enjoyed myself, what can I say?

I talked to F a couple of times today. He was doing okay but I think he was lonely. He tried to tell me that the doctor told him to eat Ramen every day, but you can imagine how I reacted to that!

He’ll be back sometime tomorrow. I hope not too early, but you never know with him. He’s famous for leaving places before I even wake up. He’s a crazy lad.

That’s it for me. Night.

August 29, 2012

Wednesday - Hot and sunny, a bit cloudy in the afternoon

A good day.

I got up this morning around the same time my alarm started ringing so that was good. It was hot in the apartment, but there was a breeze so it wasn’t unpleasant. I had quite a lot of email that I had to answer.

I watched a little TV and then took my shower. In the afternoon I started working on my column again and got it finished. Yay! It took a while and I still have to review it and polish it. One down, one to go. Whew.

F came home tonight around 5:30 and relaxed for a while. He’s not going to work tomorrow, he’s going for an extended health check, so we had to eat early.

Tonight he said he wanted ramen, so we went to his favourite Chinese place and had basically the same dish. He had mini-ramen with his, I had soup. It was quite nice.

After that, we did a quick check of my school, then bought ourselves some ice-cream at McDonalds. After that we bought groceries and came home. We watched a bit of TV and then F went off to bed. I am still up, obviously! Tomorrow I have the day to myself…what shall I do? I do have my Tohoku report to write, but I’m hoping it won’t take very long. Come back tomorrow to see what I get up to! Night.

August 28, 2012

Tuesday - Hot and sunny

An okay day. I had trouble sleeping again last night, so I overslept this morning. I got up and had some of my cold brewed tea and watched a little TV.

I had a quiet day at home and didn’t go out at all today. I received two postcards today and they were both portraits of Marilyn Monroe! Different pictures, but the same person. Quite cool. And, I found out today that one of the cards I received yesterday has expired! The person was supposed to send it before. A whole year went by. The card wasn’t travelling for a year, it was just sent, so I’m not sure what the story was!

In the afternoon I became so sleepy that I had to take a nap. I went to the bedroom and set my alarm. When it rang, I reset it, and so on. I got up a bit later, but did feel quite a bit better. This heat and humidity is kicking my butt.

I worked a lot on my column today. I have about one more movie to write about and then I’m going to wrap it up.

When F came home we relaxed for a while and then I went to the kitchen to make dinner. Our main dish was a prepared one from the store, beef and garlic stalks in a sauce, and I sauteed some zucchini to go with it, plus made some couscous. I thought it was all quite nice, and F said it was too. However, he made himself some Korean noodles a few minutes after dinner. I wasn’t terribly happy about that.

We watched a bit of TV tonight and relaxed. Really, that’s about it. I spent a lot of the evening on Youtube re-watching parts of movies and then writing so I wasn’t talking much.

Tomorrow I hope I can take a bit of a break and go out if I get enough written. Come back tomorrow and see what happens! Got to go. Night!

August 27, 2012

Monday - Hot and sunny, a little humid

A good day.

I didn’t sleep that well last night when I went to bed. Another night where I couldn’t shut off my brain, well, that and the heat that threatened to cook my brain! Egads.

I got up this morning, watched a bit of telly, had a quiet morning. I wrote another postcard and later on scanned them. I did a load of laundry, made the bed, showered, no big whoop.

Around 5 pm I did a quick run to the post office and then came home. F was a bit late tonight and after a bit we went out. We needed to get a few things from the store. We hit the drugstore for F’s sport drink and then the grocery store. I thought since we were getting things for tonight, we might as well get things for tomorrow night’s dinner too!

We came home and I cooked dinner. It didn’t take long to get things ready and then we had dinner. There weren’t really enough vegetables, but it was okay.

F did the dishes and we had a quiet evening. We watched a bit of TV including America’s Next Top Model. That wasn’t my idea! I got my Torchwood fix after midnight, and that was about that.

I didn’t do any work on my column today, nor this weekend. Tsk, tsk. I have to type like a mad woman tomorrow. Wish me luck with that! Night.

August 26, 2012

Sunday - Hot, sunny and humid

A better day than I expected!

I got up a couple of times this morning. Once I turned on the AC and went back to sleep, another time, I saw F in the living room with headphones on. I got up “for real” at 12 and went to my computer. F still sat on the couch with headphones on, and stayed that way for a while. When he asked about lunch I went back to bed for a nap.

We didn’t go out for a while and he was in a mood. It was one of his, “I don’t know where I want to go for lunch so you have to pick the place and it better be good or I’ll be angry all day” kind of things. I had suggested a couple, but due to both of us not getting our act together until it was too late, had not much choice in the matter. I suggested Patio in the mall, so that’s where we went. F had udon, which was the only Japanese noodle available, and I had soup and salad with tuna and mushroom pasta. It’s quite nice. We did a little hacking around the mall and then left.

Over lunch I was wracking my brain about what to do next as F was not being helpful. He is so passive-aggressive sometimes it is driving me crazy. I finally suggested going to the Chido museum to see whatever their new exhibit was. F looked it up and said it was woodblock prints. I was sort of yawning on the inside at that, but since having some kind of plan was better than no kind of plan, we went to see it. And…it was amazing! The prints were by Kiyoshi Saito, a Fukushima artist (To see some of his work, click on the link on the left side directly under the yellow bar. The brochure is there, but it is sideways. This link will likely degrade over time). The prints were so beautiful. He used the woodgrain to great effect and I just loved them. To be honest, there were only a couple of prints that I didn’t like, but I would happily hang most of them on my walls!

We were both rather surprised at how much we enjoyed the exhibition, since neither of us had heard of the artist before. We each got a packet of postcards of his work to take with us. We’ll probably postcross them, although I might just keep one or two!

After the museum we visited a couple of gift shops and got ourselves some taiyaki since it was on sale today. We bought more postcards and then came home.

At home, F was the one who took a nap while I hacked around on the internet.

We went out for dinner around 8:30 to Cocos. We didn’t have a lot of choice as it was too late for most places again. Sigh. It was fine though. I had butter chicken. I told F that it is one of the few places I can have it. My favourite place for it is in Sendai, but we never go there anymore.

We bought a few groceries and then came home. F watched a bit of TV, including something on the Butchart Gardens, where I took him the last time we were in Canada. That was cool to see it again. I watched the new show Ringers and then later Pretty Little Liars. F was late going to bed tonight. I hope he’ll be okay for the morning.

Anyway, that’s about it for me. I think we need to start planning our weekends. It is really bothering me how much pressure F is putting on me about where we go and eat. He knows I don’t want any Japanese noodles. It’s not that hard to remember, yet, I am constantly told I have to pick the restaurant because “I don’t like the ones he suggests.” Men. Okay, just my man! Got to go. Night.

August 25, 2012

Saturday - Hot, humid and sunny

A good day.

I woke up earlier than F this morning and I was the one suffering from the heat. I got up and turned on the air conditioner before going back to sleep for a bit. I got up just a bit after 9 and showered, then dressed.

F and I went out for brunch at 11 and then he dropped me off and I got to work. My first student came and we had a great class. We checked schedules afterwards. Next month is difficult as we’ll both have days off.

After her class I did paperwork, changed the postcards on display, read the newspaper and took a short nap at my table. I woke up, made myself ready for my next class and…the student called to say that she was in a meeting and couldn’t come. Sigh. Oh dear. We rescheduled for next week.

I washed the dishes in my school, worked on a project, and then called F to pick me up. He very nicely came to get me and we drove off.

We went to McDonalds to try their new McFlurry, the Caramel Pudding one. It was okay, but I wouldn’t say it would become a favourite. After that, we went home for a few minutes.

We decided to have keitensushi for dinner, so went first to Kappa Sushi. It was really busy though, so we tried Kintaro. It was also busy, but we tried our luck. We had to wait a bit, but had some nice sushi. F contacted his on-line friends and they said that they cancelled the second party as they only had a small group tonight.

We decided to have our own party tonight, so went over to Manikineko for a spot of karaoke. It was fun. I sang a few songs to remember my Dad. I was surprised that they didn’t have any Leo Sayer in their catalogue. We had a 10% off coupon, plus a coupon for free French fries, so our two hours was quite reasonable. We even had drink bar, and F had so much soft ice cream that it’s a wonder they didn’t complain!

Hubs and I came home and watched a little TV. Well, I did anyway. F went to bed just before 1 and he’s already asleep.

I’m not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. I hope that it’s something fun, and cheap! Thanks for reading. Talk to you later. Night!

August 24, 2012

Friday - Hot and Sunny

An okay day.

I had been asleep for about an hour when I woke up this morning. F was too hot in bed and got up and turned on the air conditioner. What woke me up was his closing the bedroom window above my head.

I slept for quite a while and when I woke up F was gone. It was also just a few minutes before my alarms went off, so once I again, I got up early for me. Weird!

I had a quiet day at home. I had breakfast, a shower and later lunch. I took a nap in the afternoon because I was really tired and sleepy. Yay for me.

After 4 pm I went out and updated my bankbooks. After that, I went to McDonalds and had an iced tea and worked on my column. I find I concentrate better when I’m not at home.

I came home and a little while later F called to say he was on his way.

I cooked dinner and it was quite nice. I had originally planned to cook pasta, but took it off the menu as I thought we had enough! Tonight we had zucchini and eggs, with basil chicken and salad. It was quite a nice dinner really.

The evening was nice and quiet until I caught F watching one of the stupid wide shows. It was about wrestling and some of the “talents” on the show were wearing fake noses because they were pretending to be “foreigners”. Oh it was so funny. I asked F it was funny to him and didn’t he think it was somewhat racist? He didn’t agree. We didn’t really fight about it, but I was angry, particularly since there were other better programs on TV at that time.

F went off to bed quite early and I watched Desperate Housewives and then The Closer. I’m now watching quite a weird movie on WOWOW called Sleeping Beauty. It’s a very art-house movie, art-house and weird!

Tomorrow I am finally back to work. I have a couple of classes and I am looking forward to them. After work F and I may go to a party, I’m not sure. So if I don’t update, I was probably out, if I do, maybe not! That’s it for me. Night.

August 23, 2012

Thursday - Hot and sunny…getting so boring!

An okay day.

F and I both woke up this morning before 6 am in a horrid sweat. I often wake up sweating in this heat, but F rarely does! It was so bad that we decided to turn on the air conditioning. It was 30 degrees at 6 am. Unreal.

I fell back asleep and F went off to work. I had a good day. I got up before my alarm, watched a bit of TV, and just relaxed. I started typing out my column, but stopped after a while.

I had a quiet day at home. I had breakfast and then later lunch. I watched a bit of TV, took a nap, and just had a nice quiet day.

F came home around 6 and after a bit we decided where to go for dinner. We both thought of Cocos, and went there and had a nice dinner. We had a nice dinner together and then went across the road to the grocery store.

We bought things for tomorrow’s dinner and then made a quick run to check on my school. After that, we came home.

F surprised me by putting on House, so we watched that, then Bones and then I watched Drop Dead Diva while he took his shower. I am now watching The Pirates of Caribbean - On Stranger Tides. It’s okay. I’m quite happy that we didn’t spend money on seeing it in the theatre!

And that was my day. No idea what I’ll get up to tomorrow except for cooking dinner. Come on back tomorrow night and see what I did! Night.

Postcrossing - Incoming

To August 23, 2012

Another pretty good week of Postcrossing happened here. My biggest complaint this time is that a couple of people didn't write much on the backs of their postcards. I'm a chatty person on the back of mine and I like it when other people try to write something to me.

Dasha from Belarus sent me this card. She wrote that she is a student on holiday. The pancakes on this card are the national food of Belarus: draniki. They are potato pancakes and she says they are very tasty.

They do look delicious. Yum!

It's funny how sometimes you get a run of a certain type of card. A couple of days later, I received another food card, after not getting any for ages. This is Friesland sugarbread. It is basically just white bread with lumps of sugar in it. It is a traditional Netherlands bread.

The sender wrote that after she finished writing the card she was going to bake some chocolate cupcakes for her father. Hey, send one to me please! Thanks Herma.

Friesland Sugarbread

I received two cards from Poland this week. The first is a movie card for Mulholland Drive, a David Lynch film. I have to admit that I haven't seen it, although I would really like to view it. I know that it is quite controversial in some circles.

I love getting movie cards, even if I haven't seen the actual movie. Thanks Lucja!

The sender of this next card comes from the US. She only wrote "Have a great summer, Happy Postcrossing" on her card, so I was a little disappointed. I am curious as to why she sent me this card.

Having just done a bit of research on manatees I can say that they are interesting creatures that sadly have much to fear from mankind.

Manatee

This next card comes from Poland. The sender didn't even bother to sign his/her name to it. So, that's pretty much all I plan to write about it!

Town-park, Vajdahunyad Castle, Agricultural Museum

Another batch of interesting cards. Which one is your favourite? Maybe there'll be more in my mailbox tomorrow. Until next time!

August 22, 2012

Wednesday - Hot and sunny

A good day. I woke up early because I got an email from a student. It wasn’t too long before I was supposed to get up anyway, so not a terrible thing. I got up and watched Ghost Whisperer. I used to get up for the news in English, but NHK seems to have forgotten they are a news channel.

Had a good day at home. I worked on the card that I was sending to the US. It was fun and I hope she likes what I did with her card!

In the early part of the afternoon, I showered, then did a little dinner prep. I had my own lunch too, which was quite nice. Above Suspicion was on this afternoon, so I watched that and when it was over, I made a run to the post office.

I came home and a few minutes later, F came home. He’d gone to Yamagata on business today and brought me back some Nutella. What a guy! Maybe even a keeper?! Or it could be that he’s eaten most of my other jar?

I cooked dinner after a bit and it was nice. We had garlic pork, lettuce and macaroni and cheese with tuna in it. It was quite nice and F was complimenting me without needing prodding!

He did the dishes and we had a quiet night in. He went to bed early and at midnight I found myself dozing in front of my computer. I think this hot weather is sapping all of my strength! Yuck.

One nice thing is that I got a call from a student today. She’s been away for a while and booked a class today for Saturday. I was glad to hear from her, and happy to know that she’s doing better.

And that’s about it for my day. It was rather good. I’m not sure what I’ll do tomorrow but I hope to go out for a bit. Wish me luck with that. Night!

August 21, 2012

Tuesday - Hot and sunny, slightly cooler

I got up this morning, watched a bit of TV, had breakfast…instant oatmeal with yogurt. Yum. I did a couple of loads of laundry, which was sorely needed by moi.

In the afternoon I relaxed a bit, and prepared for going to the mall to meet up with my husband. I had lunch too, which was leftovers from last night and it was very delicious. I need to eat more often than I do.

Around 4:30 I bicycled off to the mall and visited the hundred yen shop. After that, I went into Doutors to have an iced tea and work on my next column. F called me while I was there, and we arranged to meet up.

He came around 5:30 and we headed over to the travel company. We paid for my trip in September, then came back to Doutor and I bought F a drink. And myself too, of course.

We came home briefly for F to change and then headed out for dinner. We went to the fish restaurant. I don’t know what it’s called as it is all in kanji. We both had fish on rice and it was good. I had salmon and ikura.

On the way home we made a brief stop at my school to check things out and then bought groceries at the shop. I’m going to cook tomorrow night. I’ll be making garlic pork I think.

We came home and had a quiet evening in. I requested a new couple of addresses for postcrossing and got the address of a woman in the US who wants postcards that have been altered by the sender. It’s an interesting challenge and I’ll have fun trying to do it tomorrow. That’s about it for me for tonight. Got to go. Night.

August 20, 2012

Monday - Hot and Sunny (Getting boring isn’t it?)

An okay day.

I got up this morning and took a shower, watched The O.C. and then pre-cooked the broccoli for dinner. F likes it cold and I don’t mind it that way.

I wrote up a couple of postcards today too, and then took them to the post office just before 5 pm. Some of my cards are finally travelling. I do have one that seems to be stuck. Bah.

F came home at his normal time and we relaxed for a while. I cooked dinner after a while and it was quite nice. We had couscous, salad, chicken and broccoli.

After dinner, we relaxed some more and watched Ocean’s 11, then I watched Rizzoli and Isles followed by Torchwood. It’s darn spooky/scary. Typical of the way I feel about Dr Who as well.

That’s about it. Last night before going to bed I finished my book Wake Up, I’m Fat by Camryn Manheim. It was okay, but I wouldn’t say it was great. She’s quite a character and I’d love to meet her, but am not sure the book did what she wanted it to do.

Tomorrow I think I’m going to go for tea or something to the mall. Maybe I’ll get started on my Journal article for this month. I have a lot to do in the rest of the month that is remaining.

That’s it for me. I hope tomorrow is a good day too. Night.

August 19, 2012

Sunday - Hot and sunny

An okay day. I got up at 11 this morning, sat at my computer for a while. F ignored me as he was watching both the TV and his computer. After 45 minutes I decided to have a 15 minute mini-nap and went back to bed.

F decided that he should join me, and honestly, that’s where we spent most of the day. I haven’t seen him sleep much in the afternoon, but he did today! We didn’t get up until close to 6 pm.

We decided to go out for breakfast/lunch/dinner so got dressed and then left the apartment. The first place we tried wasn’t open, the second didn’t have any rice, so we had to come up with another place. We decided to go to Pacific Airy Heights. We arrived there and F tried to make a quick turn to beat the car that was coming, and ended up running over a curb. It was just a curb, with no sidewalk, and the car very nearly got stuck going over it. I have no idea what kind of damage was done to the underneath of the car, F says not much, but then again, what does he know? Ironically, about 6 months ago we did the same turn and I thought he was going to hit the curb and made him stop. Then he told me off for not trusting him.

Anyway, we went in and had a nice meal. I had chicken, F had pork. Getting out of the restaurant was also a problem as someone had parked near us and there was construction happening so the actual area of the parking lot was smaller than usual.

We drove over to Yamaya and had a look around. They don’t have a lot of stuff there anymore and I’m a tad worried. Still no couscous, and not a lot of anything else that I’d like. I did get some jasmine tea, some sunflower seeds, cumin and best of all, cheddar cheese!

After that, we came back to our own grocery store to get stuff for dinner tomorrow night. We’ll have chicken saute with cold broccoli and salad. I’m debating serving the broccoli hot and serving it with a cheese sauce. But…my cheese is mild and I’d probably need a lot of it. I’ll think on.

We had a fairly quiet evening at home tonight. We both wrote a couple of cards for postcrossing. Mine are off to Russia and Lithuania. Woot.

My chest is a little sore where it hit the seat belt tonight. I don’t think it’s anything serious, but if it gives me any trouble tomorrow I’ll ask F to take me to see a doctor about it. Now I have an idea why seat belt injuries were always so serious on ER!

That’s about it. Tomorrow you’ll get to read all about my fascinating Monday. Come back if I don’t bore you to pieces. Night.

August 18, 2012

Saturday - Hot and sunny

A good day. I went to bed rather late last night, so I wasn’t able to get up at a good time today. Oops.

F went out and then came home. We both vegged for a while and I had a lovely chat with my BFF on a chat system. It’s rare that we are able to connect as she’s a morning person and I’m a night owl.

We had lunch in a yakiniku shop. I had yakiniku and bibinba. I was surprised because the bibinba was cold. I’ve never had it that way before. It was still good though. F had ramen of course.

We made a quick trip to the hardware store and then drove out to the big mall. We checked on the movie and it was starting in 10 minutes so we paid our money and went in. We saw The Avengers and it was fun. We both enjoyed it a lot. It was so much lighter than The Dark Knight Rising. We stayed until the very end too, and are glad that we did as there’s a scene at the end of the movie.

Afterwards, we had dinner at the mall. Not in the place F wanted, and not in the place I’d have preferred, but in a place where we could both have something we wanted. I had a burger and F had …ramen …of course.

We drove home and finally made a bit of a plan to go away next month. I made a reservation, but it ended up that the hotel is going to charge more than I thought. Grr. Still, I hope it’ll be okay. It’ll be nice to get away.

We watched a bit of TV and it’s been quite quiet here at home. We had a good day. I hope that tomorrow will be good as well. That’s it for me. Night.

August 17, 2012

Friday - Hot and sunny, slightly less humid than yesterday

An okay day.

I got up this day, and felt a bit better than yesterday. It was slightly cooler and much less humid in the morning. I had a quiet and slow morning. I requested and wrote up another Postcrossing card. This one was also going to Canada. My second in a short time. Yay.

In the afternoon I ran out to the post office and mailed off my cards, then made a quick run to a convenience store for my late lunch.

I came home and ate. I even tuned in at 5 pm to watch the Agatha Christie on NHK, just to find that there wasn’t one today. Boo hiss!

F didn’t get home until after 6 and we chatted and vegged for a while. I watched Nigel Slater’s Simple Dinners and drooled as always over the lovely food and his fabulous garden. I started dinner just after the show.

Tonight we had fried chicken drumsticks, salad and bought chawanmushi. F was going to eat one of the drumsticks when I noticed that it wasn’t quite cooked. He was going to eat it anyway. Ewww. I took it back from him, along with all the other pieces of chicken and threw them back in the pan. After a couple minutes more we tried again. They were finally cooked.

After F did the dishes (not many tonight) I asked him if we could watch a DVD. A student of mine had loaned me a movie. I had seen it before, but not since I came to Japan, so more than 15 years ago. It was Secrets and Lies and it was fabulous. F enjoyed it too. I never know if he’s going to enjoy the weird little movies I make him watch, but he does.

At 11:15 I put on Desperate Housewives and it was good. The writers pulled up their socks in this season, a little bit anyway.

F went to bed around 12 and I watched a little more TV before turning it off and doing some internet surfing and listening to music.

My class for tomorrow has cancelled, so I don’t have to go to work. It’s been a bad week for work. F has a few errands to run in the morning and then I’m not sure what we’ll get up to. We could go and see a movie or go to karaoke depending on timing and how we both feel. That’s it for me. Night.

Postcrossing - Incoming

To August 14, 2012

I've had another interesting group of postcards come to my mail box over the last few days. I'm posting these for your viewing pleasure!

This card, and the next one are computer generated free cards from Touchnote by Samsung. They presently have a promotion where they will send postcards for free to people around the world for you. Sadly, two of my postcrossing matches chose to send them to me. Generally it sounds like a great idea, but as a postcrosser, I don't like them. They have to input my address into the computer system which is not something I like. Also, they never touch the card. The writing on the back is all done by computer, and the stamp is a printed Post Office mark. I was happy at first as it is from Guernsey, and I've never had a card from there, but it isn't. I do Postcrossing to connect with other people, not with an anonymous computer somewhere. Anyway....

This card was sent by a woman in China. It shows Lin Dan, a badminton athlete at the Olympic Games. I think she tried hard to make it a good cross for me as she was friendly and enthusiastic about the athlete and the Olympics.

Lin Dan - Gold Medalist
Greatest Badminton Player of all Time

This card comes from Russia and shows a Turkish night-time historical soap opera called Muhtesem Yuzyil.

Muhtesem Yuzyil

The person who had this card printed didn't write their name , just mentioned that they come from Yekaterinburg and that they enjoyed this show.

I hadn't heard of it before. I wouldn't be able to watch it here because of the language difficulty.

This is a real postcard, and what a difference! This card also comes from China. Mabel sent it and wrote that it is still hot and wet where she is (here too!) She wrote that she stayed near this place for half a month, and relaxed because it was a natural place.

The Lotus Group in Luomei Cave, Leye, Baise

I can't find much information about this place in English.

She put real stamps on her card as well. The one marked 60 isn't a real stamp, but the bird stamps are real. I like them a lot.

Thanks Mabel. I like learning about areas of the world that I didn't know about.

Another lovely windmill card from the Netherlands!

Barbara writes that she has visited Canada 3 times and that it is her favourite country to visit. She will go again next year.

Greetings from Holland

Thanks for a lovely card.

Well, there you are, 4 interesting new cards. I already have a couple more, but will try and update next week.

What's in your mailbox today?

August 16, 2012

Thursday - Humid and hot, rain at night

An okay day.

It was so terribly hot this morning that I couldn’t sleep. I got up before my alarms which was the first time in a long time. Watched a bit of TV and then I did a load of laundry.

I had a quiet day around the apartment. I did a bit of tidying up. The problem for me, is that there is so much stuff belonging to F and I have no idea if he needs it or not. He’s such a pack-rat. He’s never met a piece of paper that he didn’t want to keep. Argh.

In the afternoon I watched The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and then a Poirot mystery. Today’s one was good, but I missed a lot of it. It had John Hannah, Elizabeth McGovern and Tim Curry in it. F came home near the end of it.

F brought us some Tai-yaki when he came. It was hot out of the press and really yummy. We had that, and relaxed for a bit.

We went out for dinner around 8pm. Dinner was courtesy of Kappa Sushi and was okay. It was busy tonight, probably because of Obon week.

After dinner, we made a quick check of my school and then came back towards home. We stopped at the grocery store for tomorrow’s dinner and then came home.

We had a quiet evening at home. F watched some stuff and then I did. It was all terribly civilised until he watched Piranha from 1973 (or so). A horrible, bad movie. He went to bed, and I have been watching ER ever since.

Tomorrow I’m not sure what I’ll get up to. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get out of the apartment for a bit. I’d like to go to the mall for a bit, run a few errands. Wish me luck with that! Night.