Living La Vida Loca In Japan: August 2013

Showing posts with label August 2013. Show all posts

August 4, 2014

Monday - Hot and sunny

An okay day.

I got up this morning and had my usual kind of morning. I had breakfast, watched my shows and had a shower.

In the afternoon I didn't really do that much. I did wash and hang 3 loads of laundry so a little something was done. I also had lunch…leftovers from last week.

When F came home tonight he barely talked to me. He didn't really want to. He took a shower and went to bed. I tried to talk to him, but it was more of the same old stuff. How I wouldn't eat what he wanted to eat. How he doesn't want to eat out so much. Hey, I don't really want to either, but when we only buy groceries for one day, what an I supposed to do? I left him alone and didn't really see him again until after midnight.

I had an okay evening by myself. I made an omelette instead of going out. That was nice for a change. I did offer one to F, but he didn't want one. I did up my dishes and just had a quiet evening really. I did write up 4 postcards for Postcrossing, so hopefully that'll be exciting!

Tomorrow I have an early meetup with a friend and then I just don't know. Hopefully my day'll go better. That's about it for me. Got to go. Night.

September 1, 2013

Sunday - Hot and sunny, bit of rain in the afternoon

A mostly nice day.

I went to bed late last night, but not as late as usual. I got up this morning, F and I had breakfast and met up with our friend and her son. We agreed to load the car, then F and I would go shopping and they would join us later.

F and I drove over to the Aer Building and parked. Then we did a bit of shopping. I got a lot of postcards and many Christmas cards. Woot. Yes, it's early, but they were inexpensive and gorgeous, so a good purchase I think.

I bought a book and a magazine in the bookshop and then we met up with my friend. Her little boy was sleeping, so we decided to go for lunch. We had a lovely meal in the Parco Building, then grabbed a Starbucks drink and went out to the car. We drove out of Sendai and hit the highway.

It was a long trip, but we took a couple of breaks and made good time. We were back in Tsuruoka around 4pm. My friend and her son went on their way, F and I unloaded our stuff from the car.

I spent some time catching up on email and the internet, then napped. I got up much later and although F asked if I wanted to have dinner, he insisted that I pick where to go. I ignored him and an hour and a half later decided I'd take myself out. He offered to drive, which he did. He dumped me off at Gusto and said he'd be back to pick me up.

I had dinner and I was angry because I didn't bring a book. I had thought he'd be with me so I didn't bother. I finished and he was waiting outside to pick me up. I very nearly walked home, but I had a sore foot.

We mostly ignored each other for the rest of the night. He's gone to bed, I'm still up. He's off work tomorrow, so I hope we can have some kind of thaw happening.

That's it for me. I'll be back tomorrow with another scintillating update from me. Night!

August 29, 2013

Thursday - Hot and sunny, but cloudy too

A good day, mostly.

I managed to get up fairly early this morning. I watched a little TV and remembered to watch my show on WOWOW. I had a good morning. I read the paper, had some breakfast and chilled out. I even took my shower.

I watched a bit of Heartland today, but not a lot. I had lunch and the plan was to go out before 3 but…I started feeling really bad. I ended up having to lie down for a while. I finally decided to go out around 4. I needed to go to the mall and get some yarn so I can finish my scarf I'm working on. The second frill is just eating yarn.

I was washing my hands and getting ready to go out when the door opened and F came home bearing gifts! He brought some ice cream, but I said not now! He was nice enough to give me a ride to the mall. He was going in that direction anyway.

I hacked around the mall for a bit. I got my yarn…last two balls of it, then checked the bargain bin in the grocery store. They had rhubarb compote on sale, I noted for later! I went to Doutors and read the Journal and also had a rooibos tea while I was there. F finally phoned me around 6. He met me and we got the rhubarb compote and some other stuff in the mall, then ran a couple of errands. Then, dinner.

Tonight we went to a little Yakitori-ya and had a good meal. We had lots of chicken and a bit of duck. I wasn't sure if it was okay for me, but it seemed to be.

We came home and had a quiet evening in. I did some stuff on the computer, but also took time out to watch Desperate Housewives and do some crochet. Whew!

Tomorrow, I won't be able to update as I will be heading off to Sendai early on Saturday. Don't miss me too much. I'll be back sometime on Sunday, with lots of news. Talk to you then! Night.

August 28, 2013

Wednesday - Sunny & warm

A good day.

The first thing I remember this morning is waking up with F sitting in the living room laughing at me. I don't know how I did it, but I overslept again and someone had sneaked home and was eating yogurt on the couch.

I wasn't happy, but I got up and was quite nice to him. After all, the person I was mad at was myself, not him!

He left to get back to work and I got on with my day. He'd brought me some glue for my crochet hook. I have a lovely bamboo hook and it came apart last night. I glued it back together and hoped for the best.

I had a quiet day at home. I had breakfast. F had made yummy sunflower seed bread in the bread maker and it was fabulous. Later on, I had some toast and my avocado for lunch. Yum.

I had a fairly quiet day at home. I worked on my new blog, Little Epistles, checking on settings and the layout, etc. Later on, I posted some of the cards to it as well. Yay for me.

F came home tonight and worked on the driveway again. The poor guy is so busy. He came in and took a bath so I got dinner underway while he was away. It came together fairly quickly tonight, and was okay. We had sauteed garlic and black pepper chicken, salad and some Chinese style dumplings. They were good, but needed a little spice. I couldn't find any hot mustard in the fridge.

In the evening we relaxed a bit. F checked on some things for our trip, so did I. Then, at 11 I went over to the couch for a little bit of crochet and Grey's Anatomy. I think they must have pulled up the writing a bit again, because I'm enjoying the show again. I almost stopped watching last year.

That's about it for me. Tomorrow I'm going to try and get out to the mall so I can get some more wool and finish my little scarf. It is very ruffly and cute! I'll try and post a picture when I get it done. I have a few craft things to post. Well, one completed work, one is still in process. That's it. Talk to you tomorrow. Night!

Postcrossing - Incoming to August 17th

To August 17, 2013

I'm back with what might be my last Postcrossing post on this blog. I have begun a new blog for Postcrossing, Little Epistles, and I hope to use it for individual cards rather than groupings of cards. Sometimes I just don't have time to write about five or more cards at once so I am hoping the other blog will be more timely.

In the meantime, I'd love to hear from you about the cards in this blog entry. Please click on the cards to see them larger.

The first card comes from Belarus and was sent by young Maja. She's a future Olympic Champion at Track and Field. She says that she loves dogs and the sea too.

Letter to Elise No. 10
Yana Fefelova

I really like this card. I looked up the artist and he/she? has done a series of this subject.

Ausra sent this card from Lithuania. She writes that she is a mother and in her twenties. She loves Jane Eyre's story very much and has read the book twice. She hopes I like the card too.

Jane Eyre

Anna from the Ukraine sent this card from her collection. She is now a mother and says her work now is more important than her work before.

Meryl Streep

These are the stamps that she used on the card. They took the top third of the card up in space, but are lovely. Thank you.

Wietze sent me the smallest card I have ever received from Postcrossing (so far)! The scan of the card is much bigger than the real card. I am told that the picture is a typical cake from her province of the Netherlands. It is called "Orange Cake".

Varya sent this card to me in an envelope. She lives in a small Russian city and wishes me a great day. Thank you!

I love this card. Katharine Hepburn was always one of my favourite actresses, and this is a very beautiful picture of her.

Katharine Hepburn

Gotochi Cards--Received as trades from other postcrossers

These were not regular postcrossing cards, but rather cards that I swapped with other members. The Hiroshima Okonomiyaki one makes me smile, my local shop makes that kind and I love it!

On an early trip to Tokyo with F, we visited Tokyo Tower, so this card brings back some happy memories for me!

Well, there you are, 5 postcrossing cards, some stamps, and 3 lovely Gotochi cards. What will be in my mail box next time? Please follow my new blog Little Epistles to find out!

August 27, 2013

Tuesday - Hot and sunny, very rainy at night

A good day.

I managed to get up earlier today than yesterday. I still wouldn't call it early, but it wasn't too bad really.

I had a quiet morning, I read a little, had some tea, and wrote a couple of postcards. In the afternoon, I watched two episodes of Heartland…some of the bush scenes just make me long for the wilderness of Alberta again…and part of a movie too.

I invented my own lunch…it was sort of a pasta/yakiniku blend and it was yummy. Really nice. I did dishes, and then I scanned my cards. I only did my outgoing ones at first because I wanted to run them to the post office quickly. I needed a special stamp for one of the cards. I got to the post office in time, then came home again and scanned the rest.

F came home as I was finishing up the last card. He went outside to do more cutting of brush, and I relaxed for a bit and watched Project Runway.

We decided to go to Pacific Airy Heights tonight. Well, I decided after F mentioned the place that he likes and I hate. We had a lovely meal there, I had chicken and F had pork. The owner comped us some watermelon and it was nice. He gave us each two pieces. I gave F one of mine because I don't really like watermelon, but at the end wished I hadn't! Kidding! After dinner, we had floats at McDonald. That was a nice little treat. I had mango and F had blueberry. I don't need it again, but I'm glad I tried it.

We bought groceries and I'm going to make chicken for dinner tomorrow. Chicken with salad and Chinese-style dumplings. I hope it'll be okay.

We had a quiet night in. I watched The Following and it was quite scary/gruesome again. F did his usual rustling of paper and what not during my show. It drives me nuts. He also couldn't sit still, which again, drives me nuts. I was quite glad when he went to bed.

I had to go into the bedroom a little later though because we got a huge rainstorm. I needed to close the window. It was a good thing I did as the room was getting soaked. I hope my bed isn't wet. F didn't hear it as he wears earplugs to bed.

Anyway, that's it for me tonight. I'll catch you tomorrow night I think. Won't that be fun boys and girls? No? Night!

August 26, 2013

Monday - Hot and sunny

An okay day.

I got up late today. I got up so late I was shocked! I turned off my alarms when they went off this morning, so I was really surprised when I opened my eyes and saw the time. I got up and stayed up after that.

I did some laundry and used our new drying rack. It looks good, it may be a bit high though. It's hard to balance the height levels though. F is quite a bit taller than me, and what works for him doesn't work for me.

I was doing laundry today when F came home, one of two visits during the day. It annoys me to no end when he comes home. I feel like I can't get any privacy at all. I do realize that this is his apartment too, and he has the right to come here any old time, but I want to spend some quiet time without him. He came home the first time, had a bite to eat. I hadn't even eaten breakfast yet, and he's munching away. Annoying.

As well as doing laundry, I also finished wrapping up my book to send and then wrote my sister a letter too. I had to run them to the post office before 5, and I was in the washroom before I left when F made his second visit home. Argh! I never even saw him that time!

I made it to the post office on time, but the lady was a bit confused by my package. It took her a long time to figure out how to send it. I hope it'll be okay! The letter was easy. I had wanted some stamps too, but it was almost closing time at the post office, so I decided to wait until next time.

I came home and had a quiet time until F came home for good. After a bit, I started to prep for dinner. We were having Yakiniku, so I cut up some kabocha, then an onion and two eggplants. We had a really nice meal, even though F was a big pain during the prep stage. I reminded him that the breadmaker needed extra cleaning and he decided to do it right now and right there in my way. I suggested he move and so he did. Yay for that. Anyway, dinner was good, but we had quite a few leftovers.

It was a quiet evening here. F watched boxing but did let me watch CSI and then Scandal. Thanks dear! He went to bed after a bath and a nap on the couch.

I wrote a few postcards this evening and watched some TV. I did a little crochet too. That was nice. I'm almost sure I'm going to have to buy another ball of the wool for my scarf. Still, so far, so good!

Tomorrow, I may go out, but I'll have to scan some cards first. I have plans for an awesome leftover yakiniku lunch first though! Night.

August 25, 2013

Sunday - Rainy, clear, then rainy again

A good day. I got up late today. I went to bed really late last night, early this morning and slept for ages.

When I was finally out of bed, F gave me some of his lovely new bread. It was good. After a while, we went out for lunch. It was just Kintaro sushi, but it was nice. Neither of us ate all that much, our lunch was incredibly cheap!

We drove down to Homac and bought a new laundry rack for our apartment. Mine broke a couple of days ago and wasn't fixable at all. Then we hit up Yamaya for some imported food. We got some mint tea, some junk food, some Nutella and some cheese. Yay for that. We drove over to the 100 yen shop and I made a quick reconnoiter but didn't find what I was looking for. When we arrived there I realized that Corey Hart was on the radio, singing one of my favourite songs of his, Never Surrender. F wouldn't let me hear the end of it, but it was so cool to hear THAT song and on this day too.

We came home and F went outside and did some more clearing of brush along our roadway. He's taken it on himself to do the work. He was out there for a while, but a very strong rainstorm came out and he had to stop for the evening.

We had a nice dinner at Jiro and then bought groceries for tomorrow. F suggested Yakiniku which really surprised me as he's been a bit anti-meat again this weekend.

We came home and F put together the rack for us. He hit his head on a bit and it was bleeding, so I was rather surprised when I went in the room and saw blood running down his nose. He was fine, it was just messy for a minute or two.

We had a quiet evening. I watched a little TV and let F watch some boxing. F set up the bread maker for the morning for breakfast. He's off asleep now, I hope. I'm still up, but really should have an early night too. I have a few errands I'd like to run tomorrow. I have a bookmooch to send and a letter to my sister. I think I'll hold off on postcrossing for a couple of days though. Maybe! I could only send 2 cards right now anyway. Come back tomorrow and I'll fill you in on all that went down. Night.

August 24, 2013

Saturday - Rainy, sunny, and rainy again

I got up this morning and F was making bread and the next time I got up he was sitting on the couch watching YouTube. I had a shower, got dressed and basically demanded that I get to watch CSI! It was on earlier in the week but someone watched boxing instead. To be fair, he was fine with it. He took a nap on the couch.

I took a nap on our bed, and before I knew it, F came in too. The two of us had a nice afternoon nap!

F went out briefly to buy dog food and to deliver it to his house, then we went out for our food! We went to the Komagihara buffet and it was quite nice. I ate a lot, but not too much. It was my first and only meal of the day, so I think it was okay.

After dinner, we drove out to Mikawa Mall and went to see White House Down. I thought it was a hoot. It was so funny. Really. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be as funny as I thought it was, but I laughed a lot. I was the only person in the theatre laughing though. I enjoyed it. It was an action film, but not a "dumb" action film. Plus, it had Channing Tatum in it and he's quite easy on the eyes!

We came back to Tsuruoka, grabbed a few groceries at the store and then came home. We had a quiet evening. F stayed up with me for quite a while, even through Project Runway.

That was mostly my day. It was okay. I'm not sure what we'll get up to tomorrow, so please come on back and we'll see! Got to go. Night!

Postcrossing - Incoming to August 10th

To August 10th, 2013

I have a nice batch of cards again. I've been receiving a lot of cards, as I sent a lot of cards lately. I was trying to outdo my own record for a month and did! That is why I have been receiving a lot of cards in the last couple of months.

Click on the pictures to see them slightly bigger. And now, let's get down to business!

Kate sent this card from the Ukraine. She describes her city as a tourist city with many monuments, famous buildings and green parks. She likes reading books, listening to music and watching movies. She likes Anime, documentaries and films with Johnny Depp.

Picturesque Bukovyna.
Myhovo Village. "Myhovo" Resort.

I was very pleased to receive this card. First of all, it is a cool card, and second of all, it comes from a new to my list country, Bosnia and Herzegovina! My first card from there.

Sonya writes that she is 34 and writes about the card saying, the postcard shows a night winter view of her city.

Banjaluka with Love

Jason sent this yummy card from Britain. He writes that he is married to another Helen and they have two beautiful children.

He says that he is a huge fan of Canada, especially Quebec.

He notes that he is trying to learn Japanese, but it is very difficult. (Tell me about it!)

The next card is from Taiwan. ZhenHe writes that they live in the central city in Taiwan. They say that it is very hot there too. Sometimes the temperature goes up to 40 degrees Celsius. Wow!

Simon the Penguin sent this card from Germany. He writes that the account was made by his Godfairy family. He wishes me all the best!

Lavender of Provence, France

There you are. Five wonderful Postcrossing cards from Asia and Europe. Which one do you like best? I love the Fish and Chips one because I miss fish and chips a lot, but I also really like the Lavender one.

Until next time, I'll be wondering what will be in my mailbox tomorrow!

August 23, 2013

Friday - Sunny, then rainy at night

An okay day.

I got up early this morning and stayed up. I put some clothes on early on too, which was good as I got a delivery from the post office today! I didn't have to shock the postie in my pjs!

I had a lovely lunch of leftovers. I watched some afternoon TV and planned to go out, but somehow I just never did. By the time I thought I should it was too late, and starting to look overcast so I stayed home.

When F came home tonight he got to work. He's been cutting the grass around the apartment. He was planning to work on it tomorrow too, but with the rain we're not sure that he'll be able to. He can't do it next weekend, so I'm not sure what'll happen with that.

When he came in, we started to talk about where to go for dinner. He first off suggested a fish restaurant which was just not what I wanted, but in the end I decided it was okay. Besides, he's been bringing up one of the crap restaurants that he always wants to make me go to. It's the kind of place where the portions are huge, but the food isn't that good. I've always found the food to be greasy and just not my kind of thing. I told him he was welcome to go there by himself, I wasn't going with him.

We went to the fish restaurant (I had a pork stir-fry) and then went to the Internet Cafe. We were both able to get into the massaging chairs area and for the next 3 hours were quiet and occupied. It wasn't too bad for me tonight as I did a bit of writing with pen and paper and finished the movie I started watching last week. I also watched the end of the Harry Potter movie on the terrestrial channel. Love HP! I think that for the most part, I'm going to avoid their computer as I just have problems getting it to work. I'll watch their movies, the ones in English and then read or crochet or write so I don't have to use the horrid computers!

We came home and F went to bed almost right away. It was raining and we had strong rain a while ago, now it's better, but probably still wet. Well, I should get off to bed soon. It's been a fairly good day. I don't know what we'll get up to tomorrow, hopefully it'll be fun and I'll write all about it tomorrow night! Got to go. Night.

August 22, 2013

Thursday - Hot and sunny - NOT humid

A good day.

I got up early for me today, but promptly fell asleep on the couch for two hours. I missed all my Thursday morning programmes too. Sigh. I did get busy after that.

I turned F down for lunch again. I'd rather stay home and watch re-runs of The Newsroom, the show is THAT good. After it was over, I showered, then got ready to go out.

I biked over to the nearest Yamagata bank and deposited the last of my school's money. I had a lot of coin and it took ages in the machine. I got quite paranoid about the machine breaking down, so I took the last 7000 yen or so into the branch to do there! Still, it is done.

I came home again, and then scanned my cards that I was sending. I was sending 5 and had received 2, so scanned them. I also did a bunch of older cards that I had photographed rather than scanning them as the quality wasn't that good. I uploaded the new versions and then toddled off to the post office on my bike after 5 pm.

It was now wonderful outside. There was a gorgeous breeze and the oppressive heat was gone too. It was just a lovely summer afternoon. I wish they were all like that here in Japan. I'd love summer if they were.

I came home again, and a bit later, F came home. I gave him some of my overnight tea and we relaxed for a bit.

We had dinner in Moku-Moku tonight and it was okay. I had their cold pasta with tomato and shrimp again, F was different and had a hot pasta with salmon and shrimp.

We came home afterwards and relaxed. During Desperate Housewives I crocheted on the couch and F YouTubed on his computer. It was nice that he was at least physically present though. I had mentioned to him at dinner that we started watching Desperate Housewives together and now he doesn't watch it at all, so I felt a bit disappointed. He reminded me of how late it is on. True enough. But he stays up late a lot of the time anyway.

Anyway, it was a good day today. I feel much better because I didn't turn on the air conditioner at all. Yay! I have the windows open and the fan going, but no AC. So glad! That's it for me. Tomorrow I might go out, or I might continue working on cleaning out my corner. Wish me luck! Night!

August 21, 2013

Wednesday - Cloudy? I didn't go out

An okay day.

I got up late this morning and vegged for a while. I had some breakfast and even read the newspaper. That was a good thing for a change. I watched Martha Stewart and as always wondered why.

In the afternoon I did something fairly radical. I got out the financial books from my school and brought them up to date. Yay me. Now, F can have the books next year when he does my taxes for me.

After F came home, I cooked dinner. It was a nice quick one today as I had bought a prepped package from the store last night. We had kimchee beef with veggies, salad and cold kabocha soup from a packet. It was nice.

In the evening, I did a bit of postcrossing. I wrote out 4 postcards. I'll scan and send them tomorrow, hopefully early on.

F watched baseball for most of the evening. It was most annoying. I dislike sports on TV, but baseball is my least favourite of all sports. Well, except boxing and ultimate fighting which are other sports F loves to watch. Grr.

So, pretty much, that was my day. Tomorrow I hope to go out if the weather holds up…to send off some postcards, but also to do a little business. Wish me luck? Got to go. Night!

Postcrossing - Incoming to August 7th, 2013

To August 7th, 2013

There are another bunch of great cards awaiting your perusal in this entry. I hope that you enjoy looking at them as much as I do. As I am quite far behind, I will be as brief as possible in describing the messages.

To get a better look at the cards, just click on them.

Nanne from the Netherlands was quite pleased to tell me that she had found a movie card for me. She writes that she likes Johnny Depp's acting work quite a lot.

From Hell

Veronika sent this stylish card from Russia. She lives in Siberia. She noticed I had listed this card as a favourite and was nice enough to send it to me. She writes that the temperature was 26 degrees Celsius when she sent it, so not bad really!

She used a couple of amazing stamps on the card too. The big one is for the Olympic Games.

My next card was a little worse for wear as some of the back of the card is ripped. It is mostly still readable though.

Iris from Germany posted this card to me. She is married and likes older films including The Englishman Who Went up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain. She notes that it is fabulous. (I like it a lot too.)

The card is for A Streetcar Named Desire. Sadly, I've never seen the entire film all the way through.

A Streetcar Named Desire

I love this book stamp. I've never seen it before.

And, one more movie card!

Caro sent this film from Germany. She writes that she liked this movie.

The Intouchables

Lukie sent this card from the Netherlands. It shows the famous Inge Löök ladies reading. She writes about herself that she is married with two adult kids. She lives in the centre of Holland. She has a lot of favourite movies and loves to go to the cinema. Her last film she saw was Now You See Me.

There was a beautiful stamp on the back of the card, a very lovely tulip.

Well, there you have it. Five more great cards and some wonderful stamps. Do you have a favourite? I think I like the card from Russia the most, even though I have no idea who is on the card.

I wonder what will be in my mailbox next week! Until next time....

August 20, 2013

Tuesday - Rainy and cloudy

An okay day. I woke up a bit late today, but I didn't really care. I didn't have any plans you know !

I got up, had a bit of breakfast, read the paper, watched Medium for a change of pace and then relaxed a bit. After my British serial at 12, I took a shower, then watched the news and the second daily instalment (and last episode-sob) of the Brit serial. Tomorrow I think they start a Taiwanese show. No offence meant to Asian dramas, but I can't understand them so I won't be watching. Sigh.

F came home for a little visit, to pick up his medicine. After he left, I had lunch. Yum. I did the dishes up too. I attacked the pile of stuff on my desk this afternoon. It is by no means tidy, but half of the desk can be seen over now. I have the other half to do soon! I do have a place to put important papers since I brought my cabinet into the living room. I really want to muck out my corner though.

F came home a bit late as he visited a doctor after work. He came home and after a little while we went out for dinner. We went to his Taiwanese place. I had subuta, or sweet and sour pork. It was good, but with the rice and side dishes there was too much and I knew that I shouldn't have eaten it all.

We bought a few groceries for tomorrow night. I'm doing a bought kimchee stir-fry tomorrow night.

We came home and had a fairly quiet evening. I watched a bit of TV, F You-Tubed it. I watched The Following and did a bit of crochet, nothing too special today really.

Tomorrow I haven't decided what I'll get up to yet. If the weather is decent I might go out, or I might just stay home and clean the other half of my desk. What a choice! Night!

August 19, 2013

Monday - Cooler, cloudy and muggy

An okay day.

I got up this morning, had a bit of a veggie day for a bit. I wrote a couple of postcards and then scanned them early. I had a late breakfast too. I even showered in the afternoon.

I took my cards over to the post office and mailed them off. Then, instead of going home, I went to the drugstore. It was a nice ride. The clouds made it less hot, and there was a nice wind too, so it seemed much cooler outside than it did inside!

When I came home, I got dinner started. I marinated the pork, then started washing the salad greens. I was still doing that when F came home. I got dinner prepped, and then I cooked it. Tonight we had stir-fried zucchini with parmesan, salad with lots of interesting greens, celery, and garlic soy sauce pork chops.I added on couscous for me and F had rice and fish with his. I don't know why!

Everything was delicious, the pork was especially good!

F did the dishes (yay) and then we relaxed for a bit. F watched some bloody awful boxing crap and wouldn't surrender the TV so I could watch my bloody CSI show at 10. His stuff was over at 11 so I did get to watch my show then. Yay for that.

He had an early night tonight and I'm hoping to go to bed a little earlier than usual. Fingers crossed I make it! Tomorrow, I have no plans as of yet, although I am thinking of doing some tidying up. I have to redesign my computer area! Wish me luck. Night.

August 18, 2013

Sunday - Hot, mostly sunny

A good day.

We both went to bed last night after daylight came up, so I think we both slept a bit late. F was up before me of course, but even I got up at an almost civilized time.

We had lunch at Kintaro Sushi. It was busy today, probably as a last hurrah of O-bon. I'll be glad when people go home!

After lunch, we went to the Chido Museum. The display we saw wasn't that interesting for me, but F seemed to like it, even though he'd already seen it. He took his mother a few weeks ago.

We drove down to the Komagihara market to have a drink and later an ice cream cone. That was rather nice. We looked at veggies too, but that late in the day there wasn't much left, plus it would have to sit in a hot car until we went home. Not a good idea really.

We drove to the Machi-kine theatre and went to see Star Trek Into Darkness in 3-D! I was delighted to see that the film was being shown in English with Japanese subtitles, even in 3-D. The norm lately is to show it in Japanese in 3-D and then the 2-D in English. I don't care a lot about 3-D in all honesty, but it was cool in this film. I loved the movie. You know me…I'm a Trek fan and a Benedict Cumberbatch fan, so I enjoyed it tremendously.

We had dinner after the movie in Bikkuri Donkey, then bought groceries for tomorrow's dinner. I'm going to do garlic pork I think, with a biggish salad.

We came home and I watched a bit of TV while F made bread for the morning and played with his computer. I also did up 3 postcrossings as a few of mine have either expired or arrived. I'll likely have to do more soon.

That's really about it for today. It turned out to be a pretty good weekend. Hurray for that. Night!

August 17, 2013

Saturday - Warm and sunny

Argh!

I got up late this morning. Gilmore Girls weren't on and I went to bed late, so…. When I did get up, we talked for a bit and then went out for lunch. F and I went to Grado and had a lovely lunch. I had chicken, F fish.

In the afternoon, we spent quite a bit of time at the Internet Cafe. F got a massaging chair, I waited in an office for a while and then got my own massaging chair. I watched a Jean Claude Van Damme movie, it was terrible, but I enjoyed it anyway! I was watching a better movie when we had to leave.

We went to S-mall and spent a frustrating hour just wandering around not really knowing what we were doing. The fireworks started at 7 and finally, after buying drinks we went upstairs. We discovered that there were tarps put down on the concrete already, but it was crowded. F found us places to sit and that was nice. We were able to see the fireworks, but there was a stair-house in the way. People had their kids there and the kids were running around being kids so it wasn't really great to go there. Still, it was nice and it was nice to hear the fireworks, since that is a big part of them for me.

After the fireworks, we went to Gusto for a late meal. We both had cold noodles, tan-tan men. They are quite spicy…after I'd mixed the noodles F mentioned that I could take off the red "stuff" to make the dish less spicy. Bad timing. Then, I was eating them and managed to splash myself in the eye with the spicy soup. Ouch. I had to go to the washroom and try to rinse my eye. When I came back and ate more of my noodles, I got sauce all over my brand new white shirt. Sigh.

When we arrived home, I stripped off my shirt and put it and a few other things in the washing machine to get them all done at once. I pretreated the shirt and it looks like I might have got the stains out. Finger crossed. However, when I started to hang up my clothes on my drying rack, it broke. I had clothes everywhere. It had been threatening for a while, but now I'll have to get another one. Sigh. So, then, I had to find places to put all the clothes that were on it, except I can't as I can't get into my wardrobe right now. It takes a few steps and it was midnight.

I did put away some of my clothes, but some I need to hang up later.

Anyway, my day started well, but ended badly-ish. I should get to bed fairly soon. I'd like us to go to see Star Trek tomorrow, but I'm not completely sure that it is playing in English or not. Hopefully, it will be. I want to see Benedict! And that's it for me. I have to go. Night!

August 16, 2013

Friday - Hot

Today started a little oddly for me. The phone rang at 8:15 and it was for me! One of the ladies in my area called me to talk. Of course, she woke me up, but we chatted for a few minutes.

I passed on the message from her to some of the internet groups I belong to, and then I went back to bed. I didn't manage to sleep really, and then got up later when my alarms rang.

I had a quiet day at home. I never went out, didn't really even think about it. I finished my column and that took a bit of work, and emailed it off to the Journal Editor. I knew that I wouldn't get much chance to do it this weekend.

I ate a very, very late lunch around 5, just before F came home. It was rather a good thing I did, because F came home around 6 and proceeded to make himself noodles and go to bed. It is now almost 3 am and he's still there. In all fairness, I went for a couple hours nap, but I got up afterwards.

The original plan was to go to a flea market that was supposed to be set up tonight and do a little strolling around. However, that didn't happen. Sigh. Tomorrow night the fireworks are in Tsuruoka, but I'm not sure if we'll be going off to watch them or not.

I'll likely go to bed in a few minutes. I spent the evening watching TV and writing up my blog entries for my Postcrossing cards. That's it for me for today. Night!

Postcrossing - Incoming to August 2, 2013

To August 2, 2013

Another interesting bunch of cards this week. Let me know which one(s) you like! I'm a bit behind so I probably won't write as much as usual.

Renee from California, USA sent this Picasso card to me. She writes that she loves the movies Amelie and Pulp Fiction. She mentions that she used to study Japanese and would love to visit Japan someday.

Reading, 1932
Pablo Picasso

Tami sent this lovely movie card from the north part of Germany. She didn't write much at all, so that's it!

Sini/Saint sent this card from Finland. She writes that she loves to travel and has been to almost all of the countries in Europe. She loves Pedro Almodovar films, British comedies and European cinema in general. She prefers to watch movies in a cinema on a big screen. (Me too!)

Sini also used this great stamp on her card. The bus looks even older than the school bus that I used to ride as a teenager!

Mini-Max, a nine-month old sent this card from Russia. He apparently had help writing the card from his parents!

Moscow. View of the State Historical Museum and Red Square

There were even more stamps on this card, but these are the most interesting ones. The stamps took up most of the top of the card. I love the circus one.

Bhaskar from India sent me this yummy looking card. I love Indian food so I was really happy to get it. He writes that he is a 38 year old guy who lives in Delhi with his parents.

Cuisine of India

Well, there you are. Five great cards and a few cool stamps. I welcome your comments and would love to hear which one is your favourite this time.

Remember you can click on the pictures to see them larger!

Until next time!