August 31, 2014

Sunday - Mostly sunny, some rain in the early evening

A good day.

I got up this morning around 7 and took a shower.  I dressed and checked email, and made myself ready for my trip.  My friend came on time and we began the long drive to Koriyama in Fukushima.

We made pretty good time and arrived about when we hoped we would.  We had a really great afternoon.

We had a lovely meal at Angelo's, a Koriyama Italian restaurant and bakery, then we all walked around the park.  When we did that, we came back into the restaurant's tea shop and had tea and cake.  It was very nice.

Sadly, we had to break up our little party as it was time to head home.  We had a long, long trip home.  We started out, managed to get on the highway fairly easily and then that was when the weather changed.  It had been hot and sunny, but then it became rainy.  However, we managed to outrun the storm and turning back on to the Yamagata Highway took us out of the worst of the traffic and weather.

We had an okay dinner at Sagae in the rest-stop and I picked up a little souvenir for my husband.  Then, it was back on the road.  I got home a bit before 9 pm, and my friend a few minutes later.  

Although it was a long car-ride to get there, it was a great afternoon, and really spiritually refreshing to meet up with other ladies and just have fun and great talks.  

F was glad to see me, and his souvenirs, and I was glad to relax.  We had some tea and after a bit I watched a little TV, and F went to bed.  

No idea what I'll get up to tomorrow.  I hope it's fun though!  I've got to go.  Night!

August 30, 2014

Saturday - Cloudy and then sunny.  

A nice day.

I got up this morning in time to watch Gordon Ramsay.  After that, I headed back to bed for a nap.  I had a lovely nap.

After a while I got up and F & I went to lunch.  He suggested a couple of nice places and then suggested Simon.  We went there and it was lovely.  We both had the same thing, hamburg with vegetable sauce.  We had soup, and a squid salad and a few other things with it, plus I had a bun and tea.  I really enjoyed it.  

When we finished lunch we headed over to the bike shop.  Since my tire blew yesterday F & I were talking about whether I should get a new bike or not.  I don't really need one, but F told me his cunning plan tonight.  He is thinking to get me a new bike and he'd use mine.  His bike isn't that great, and mine is, so it wouldn't be a bad thing really.  I'm looking at a bike catalogue and trying to decide if there's a new one I want.  We just popped in quickly to see if he had a tire for my bike.

We continued to the Mall.  We got something for F at the hundred yen shop, and then had a drink at Doutor.  

We came home for a bit.  F took my bike over to the bike shop and then he started to cut the grass around the apartment.  He was outside for a while, so I did a lot on my computer and watched a bit of TV.

F took a rest and then walked back to the bike shop and brought my bike back.  He said that just one tire was replaced and it cost about 4000 yen.  I should be good to go for a while.  

We talked about dinner.  F suggested yakitori, so we went to the place we both like.  We had a nice meal there.  It was quite busy, though, so food took a long time to arrive. 

I needed something a little lighter after I finished eating all that meat, so we went to the grocery store for some salad and other stuff.  I came home and got ready for tomorrow, then ate my salad.  Yum!

Tomorrow I am heading off with a friend to Koriyama to meet up with a few other ladies who are married to Japanese men. I have to get up very early on a Sunday (for me it's early!) as we have a very long drive ahead of us!  Ack.  

So, that's it for me.  I hope to update tomorrow night, but if I don't, I'll see you in September.  Night.

August 29, 2014

Friday - Overcast in the afternoon, sunny and hot in the morning.

A good day.

I got up late today, but still went for a walk.  I was just getting into it when a strange car drove up beside me and the driver said, "Hello," to me.  At first I thought…stalker…but it was F!  He was driving in his work car, had just delivered something to our apartment.  I was surprised to see him, then said bye and went on with my walk.

I had the usual sort of morning that I have usually! It was quiet, calm and nice.  I read the paper, ate breakfast and relaxed.  

I took a shower in the afternoon and then got dressed.  I watched a bit of TV and after a while I scanned my cards.  I ran them to the post office a little before 5 pm.  On the way back from the post office though, something happened.  My back tire blew.  The man at the bike shop had been recommending that I get new tires…guess he was right!  I walked the bike home and parked it.  Sigh.  

During the day, I took some pictures of my lovely new purse.  Would you like to see?  I thought you'd never ask!

Mermaid's Tears Purse
(pattern by Bernat)

Close up on the flower. The thread has a lovely little shimmer to it. It doesn't show in the photographs very well.

The bag standing up.

F was quite late tonight, but I did a few things before he came home.  I set the table, peel the potatoes, that kind of thing.  When he called to say he was coming home, I asked him to bring us some bacon.  I was making German Potatoes from a spice packet in the shop, and I needed bacon.  He brought some home with him, plus a few other things!

When I cooked everything it was very nice.  We had basil sausages, German potatoes (potatoes fried with an onion and bacon, covered in a cheesy-curry sauce…a version of stovies?), salad and leftover asparagus.  

F did the dishes much, much later, and watched a whole bunch of TV too.  There isn't too much on Friday nights for me anyway, but I would have liked to watch something.  Oh well.

Tomorrow I hope that he'll take me to the bike shop to order or buy new tires for my bike.  I know that F is planning to cut the grass around our apartment and if he still feels like it, we might go fishing in the late afternoon if the weather holds up.  Come back tomorrow and find out what we get up to!  Night.

August 28, 2014

Thursday - Overcast, cooler and rainy

A good day.

I got up early this morning and went for a walk. It took a while to prepare, but I had a good one through the park.  My foot still hurt, but I think I did okay with my walk.

When I came home I watched TV, checked my computer, had breakfast and even worked on my bag again.  I sewed on the last handle.  Yay for me.  

I showered, did more computer stuff and then had lunch.  I finished up some of the leftovers in the fridge.  It was a little closer to 3 pm than I wanted, but I left to see if I could get my hair cut.  I biked off to my hairdresser.  She was with a client, but said she might be free at 4:30 or 5, so I agreed to come back.

I biked over to the mall and did a little hundred yen shopping and then had a drink in Doutors.  I had my drink and read some of my book, so it was a nice break.  After a while, I left and made my way back to have my hair done.  My hair was quite long before, it had lost all of its shape.  I have it cut in another pixie, but this time the top is a little longer than the sides.  It is still very short!  I love it!  Yay me.  

I came home after I paid.  It was raining, but it was just random drops falling.  I thought I should probably get home quickly in case it poured. 

F called me but went to check on his mother before coming home.  Before he arrived home I did up the lunch dishes and got a little started on dinner.  

Tonight we had a pork stir-fry from the grocery store, with some asparagus and hash-browns from the freezer.  It was a nice meal really, came together quite fast.  I should have had more food honestly, but it was okay.

After dinner I watched a lot of TV. X-Files, House, Bones and The Good Wife. That one has just finished the season, so soon they'll put on Once Upon a Time. I also wrote up 3 cards for postcrossing and made some tea for myself. I also sewed the flower on the bag.  It is basically done now. Yay!  I do want to make a second, possibly removable strap for the bag, so I'll see if I do that. It would be a good idea I think! Hopefully there'll be pictures tomorrow.

That's really about it for me. I had a good day and with my long delayed haircut, I feel really good too! Night!

August 27, 2014

Wednesday - Cooler, overcast day.

An okay day.

I didn't wake up early this morning, I overslept a bit and I decided not to go out for a walk too.  My foot was still sore and I thought I'd try giving it a bit of a rest.  I did get up and stayed up for the rest of the morning.

During my "Charmed" time I ate breakfast, and worked on my bag.  I had to make the handle a little longer in order for it to be the same length as the other one.  Funny how that works!  It should be okay now, but I still have to sew the handle in. And then the flower!

I had a quiet day really. I scanned my cards in the afternoon and ran them off to the post office.  The Hidden, an old Kyle MacLaclan/Michael Nouri movie was on and I had to tape the last half hour of it because I didn't want to miss it! I was in the post office, bought stamps and then came home with them.

F was a bit late tonight because he went to check on his mother.  She was fine so he came home and we went out for dinner to Cocos.  I had a hamburger with veggies and a salad, F had some cold noodles. He didn't hate them, but he didn't like them much either.  

We bought groceries afterwards and then came home.  I was hoping to get the ingredients to make stew with, but they didn't have them, so I'm trying other things.  Hmm.  Sure hope I know what I'm doing!

We each watched a bit of telly tonight, so that was nice.  It was just a quiet day. 

I hope I'll be able to walk tomorrow.  I really missed going out this morning.  I like listening to my music and seeing the world around me.  Well, that's it for me.  Come back tomorrow night and we'll see what I get up to.  Night!

August 26, 2014

Tuesday - Overcast then sunny later on

An intriguing day.  I got up this morning and put on my walking outfit.  I went out earlier than yesterday and had a good walk.  I was debating coming home a different way when I realized that my foot was sore, so just decided to come home.  

I was coming up the road to our apartment when I saw a familiar car coming towards me.  It was F.  He stopped and told me that his mother had called him this morning to say that she had a sore back.  He was on his way to take her to the doctor.  After that, he'd probably come home and we'd decide what to do.  

I went home, watched my shows, had my breakfast and even a shower, then waited for F.  I did a load of laundry and was just going to hang it up when he finally came home. 

His mum was okay, she had received some medicine from the doctor and was feeling better.  We decided to go over to the internet cafe for some massaging chair time and lunch.  They have a fairly low cost lunch there.  So, that's what we did.  I had chicken & rice, F had a ramen set (that he complained about afterwards, of course!)  

It was actually quite nice there.  I worked on finishing my little bag.  I finished the bottom, then sewed on 3 parts of the straps…one more to go.  I also have to sew on the flower.  But, I'm nearly done.  Woot!  What did I watch? Part of Person of Interest, part of a Foyle's War episode, and part of Hawking, a film starring my next husband, Benedict Cumberbatch.  Maybe next time I'll get to finish the film!

After our 3 hours were up, we left, hit the drugstore for a few minutes and then came home.  F left to check on his mother, and after a while I got dinner started. 

Tonight we had pasta with 4 cheese sauce.  I put a bag of spinach in the cheese sauce too and that was a nice twist.  We had that with a side salad and it was a nice dinner.  I think F was surprised that we were eating at home, but I couldn't keep the spinach for another night.  

After dinner, F did the dishes and I used my computer.  We both watched some TV and I went and took a nap for an hour.  I was so tired!  

I got up, made some tea and watched The Following.  That show gets more and more weird all the time!  

F went to bed a while ago and I am still here.  I had a good day.  Tomorrow I hope to go out to the post office and maybe a little further if the weather holds up.  Wish me luck with that.  Night!

August 25, 2014

Monday - Warm and muggy, overcast most of the day.

I got up this morning, a little later than I planned, and went for my walk.  It wasn't too bad for a change.  It wasn't sunny, so I didn't feel too hot and wasn't worrying about the sun that much.  I also didn't sweat quite as much as I have lately.  Yay.

When I came home, I changed out of my clothes and about 5 minutes later F came by to drop something off.  He didn't stay long, didn't really notice that I was sweaty or anything!

I had a quiet morning.  Oh, now in the gap between Charlie's Angels and Charmed, they put on The Middle today.  I'm glad!  I think it is quite a funny show, and it beats an infomercial in Japanese any day.  I had breakfast, then a shower, and a little after that, had lunch.  For some reason I was starving this afternoon.  

I got my computer stuff done and then I turned off the TV and finished writing my column.  I was happy with what I wrote, just hope the editor likes it too.  I finished around 6 pm, just when F came home.  Whew!  I was done.  

I relaxed for a little, but I realized F was hungry and tired, so I started dinner fairly quickly. It was a pretty easy one tonight.  I made a chicken stir-fry.  I had a packet of prepared veggies from the store, but I added some mushrooms, an onion and a cucumber.  It was nice.  F came and we had a nice dinner.  He even did the dishes afterwards, even though I half offered to do them.

I watched a bit of TV tonight, but I wasn't too mean about it.  I let F watch some too!  I relaxed for a bit and even wrote up 3 Postcrossing cards. I hope to have a little time to do more tomorrow.  

This is an anniversary of something sad for my family too.  I don't know if I mentioned it last year or not….This year it was a quiet one, I'm glad about that.

That's really about it.  My column took up most of my time, and now I have to do a bit of housekeeping tomorrow so that I have clean laundry next week!  Tomorrow I'll go to the post office to mail my cards if I can and cook dinner.  Yay me!  Night.

August 24, 2014

Sunday - Overcast, but hot and humid

A good day. 

I got up late this morning…and it was still morning, although not by much! We had a relaxing morning and early afternoon, decided to go and have lunch at a Chinese restaurant near Yamaya, the foreign imports store.  It was okay, but not great.  F got a bit mad at me because I wouldn't let him translate the whole freaking menu, but honestly, I stopped him in the middle of telling me all about a dish that had seafood in it.  I rarely eat seafood.  AND HE KNOWS IT. 

Anyway, my food was fine, his ramen wasn't great…same old, same old basically!

We got some stuff at Yamaya today.  F got himself some canned coffee for very cheap, and some root beer too.  I got some bottled jasmine tea and darjeeling tea, plus a box of UVA tea that was going for cheap.  We got some barbecue sauce too, and some basil.  Just stuff, nothing too exciting really. Oh, and feta…that's almost exciting, isn't it?

We came home, dropped things off and then headed back out to the Internet Cafe.  When we got there the parking lot was full.  Seriously, there was no place to park.  F took us for a little detour and we ended up at a DVD rental shop.  Of course, I looked at the DVDs for sale and bought 5.  They had a deal that if you bought 5, they'd be 1000 yen, so not bad really.  We got How to Train Your Dragon, White Oleander, Blitz, The Three Musketeers (latest version), and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  So Yay.  I haven't seen White Oleander or Blitz, but I have all the rest.  

We went back to the Internet Cafe.  This time there was parking, but it was packed inside.  No massaging chairs, no karaoke booths, and even the regular computer desks were full.  We left and came home for a bit.

We talked about it, decided to go for dinner, get groceries and then come home and watch one of our DVDs and that is exactly what we did!  We went to Pisolino, the Italian Buffet and it was nice.  I had cold chicken banbanji pasta, F had something cold with fish eggs, there was a 3 cheese pizza that I had one small piece of, plus a big plate of salad.  I did have a small dessert, but this might be one of the few times I've ever come out of that place not feeling like I ate too much.  

We got food for the next two days at the grocery store.  Tomorrow I'm going to do a chicken stir-fry, Tuesday pasta with spinach.  I just hope I can cook everything well enough!

Oh, usually I do the garbage on Wednesday night for F to take out the next day, but when I put something in it this afternoon I discovered that he'd put his fishing bait in the garbage today.  What??? It was either leave it to stink up the joint until Thursday morning or do it all tonight.  I did it tonight.  Bleck.  I had told him I couldn't go to a frozen foods grocery store until I had room in my freezer!  I have a little bit now :-)

The movie we watched tonight was How to Train Your Dragon.  F loved it as I thought he would.  I went over to the couch and watched it from there.  I darned in some of the ends of my little bag, and crocheted up the bottom.  I might have to undo it later though, so I didn't finish it yet.  

That's about it for me.  Tomorrow, that column must get done or my editor will get mad at me.  Come back tomorrow night and see if I managed to get it done and walk to the park in the morning.  Night!

August 23, 2014

Saturday - Sunny and hot

A good day.

I got up this morning and watched Gordon Ramsay.  F came home when it was over.  We chatted for a bit and then I got tired and went back to bed! I slept for a while and then got up.

We had lunch at Grado and it was nice today.  We both had the same main dish, pork saute. It came with potato and corn soup, plus a canape, either bread or rice and a drink.  It was good.  

We came home and after a bit F took his mother shopping.  They were gone for quite a while.  After a while, he came back and we talked about our evening plans.  We didn't have any so decided to see a movie.  

We drove out to Mikawa and had dinner.  We both had bibinba, which was great.  Sometimes they don't get the bowl hot enough, but it was today.  I added a touch of hot sauce tonight and it was yummy.  After that, we had ages before the movie, so we explored the mall.  I looked for stuff for me, but didn't see too much I liked. We did get some socks though. We went downstairs and had more luck.  There was a bargain rack selling hats, so I got another hat that is supposed to be a bit UV proof, and then I saw jimbei on sale and asked F if he was interested.  He tried on the top over his clothes and it was fine, so he decided to get it.  When the clerk was folding up the jimbei we noticed that it had three pieces, a top and two bottoms.  One was short shorts and the other was longer.  That was great really.  

We took our stuff out to the car and then went into the theatre.  F bought the tickets and then we got into the line for the popcorn.  I had told him that I wanted a medium drink and a medium popcorn, thinking that was what I used to get all the time.  Er…no, it wasn't.  I got a huge tub of popcorn for myself, and F got one too.  We went to see Into the Storm and while it wasn't a great film that will stand the test of time, it was a great popcorn film!  We both finished our popcorn…and F doesn't usually finish his at all! 

We came home afterwards.  I changed into my PJ's but F went out for some drinks for himself.  Actually, he got me some too, which was very sweet of him. 

At midnight I was very happy to report that Project Runway was back, and in English!  I have missed it.  It was okay tonight, but honestly, I feel like when they went to the one hour format, it lost a lot of interesting stuff. Today they had 16 designers in Times Square.  16 people in one hour makes it hard to really get a feeling for anyone.  There's a Japanese designer this time, and he didn't get slung out today, so maybe that's a good thing?  Not sure about his clothes though.  

And that's about it really.  It turned out to be quite a good day today.  I have no idea what we'll get up to tomorrow.  I am hoping that we'll get to the foreign food store and maybe to hang out and have a drink or something nice together. Got to go.  Night!

August 22, 2014

Friday - Hot and sunny, thunderstorm in the afternoon!

A good day. I got up this morning a little late, but okay, got dressed and went out. I up my route through the park a bit, and I saw a couple of herons near the water.  

I came home and had a quiet morning at home. I drank cold raspberry chocolate tea and ate breakfast, and had a relaxing time.  

In the afternoon I watched Notting Hill and loved it as always.  I had lunch…I made an omelette for a change and that was nice.  I used up the last of the fajita stuff too.  

After F came home, I cooked dinner.  Tonight was simple, chicken, salad and asparagus.  The asparagus was okay…I splashed it with red wine vinegar.

F did the dishes and we had another quiet night.  I'm presently watching Good Will Hunting. I had forgotten just how good it is.  Matt Damon is really a breakthrough artist in this, and Robin Williams is pretty good too.  

I'm not sure what we're going to get up to tomorrow.  I'm hoping that we'll have a good time, whatever we do. Come back later and find out what I do get up to! Night.

August 21, 2014

Thursday - Drizzly and muggy, hot

A good day.

I got up around 8 again today. It was a bit of a struggle, but not terrible.  I wasn't sure if I'd be able to go as there was torrential rain an hour before.  In true Japanese fashion though, it had stopped.  

I got dressed up and went out. It started to drizzle for a few minutes and I debated going home, but kept walking.  The rain stopped after a couple of minutes so it was a good thing. I had a nice walk today. I went around the park one and a half times today, and my iPod worked rather well. 

I came home in time for my telly.  I fired up my computer, did a few things and then went over to the couch for breakfast and my newspaper.  

I took a quick shower later on and got on with my day. I had a quiet one at home. I had a can of sardines on bread for lunch and did up some of the dishes afterwards. 

After F came home tonight I got dinner on the table fairly quickly. It was mostly leftovers anyway, so it was all cooked already, it just needed reheating.  F did the dishes afterwards and we had a quiet evening in. I watched a lot of TV though. It was my big night, and it was fun too.

Around 11:30, F prepared a peach for us that we bought yesterday. It was good, but not quite ripe.  

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to get up to tomorrow.  I really need to work on my column. I did a little today, but I'd like to have most of it written by tomorrow night.  That will take a lot of work.  Still, I think it is doable.  

That's about it for me. Night! 

August 20, 2014

Wednesday - Hot and humid, rainy in the afternoon

An okay day.

I got up this morning quite grudgingly.  I really didn't want to!  I hadn't slept well last night and woke up all sweaty and hot this morning.  Still, I did.  I managed to get up, get dressed and went out.  My iPod worked today too, so that was a great bonus.  It wasn't the nicest walk ever, but it was okay.  

I came home, checked email and around 10:30 went over to the couch for breakfast, the newspaper, and Charmed.  I was going to have a shower when F called me at 11:30 inviting me for lunch.  I showered anyway, but had to hurry a bit to get ready.

We first wanted to go to Kintaro Sushi, but it was busy.  We tried the gyudon shop nearby.  It was busy, but were able to get a seat within a few minutes.  Lunch was okay.  I had the gyu-lite, basically beef on salad and tofu.  It's fine, and quite filling.

In the afternoon at home I relaxed quite a bit, started my Journal Column, tried to fix my iPod again, and registered my cards when they arrived.  This week I have already received 9 cards!  It is almost too much.

When F came home he changed his clothes and then went over to his mother's house to check on her and take her shopping. 

He came back and I tried to get a straight answer out of him.  Would he rather have dinner at home after we make a grocery store run for some extra food, or, should we eat out tonight, and eat in the next two nights?  We decided to eat out and went to Kintaro Sushi for dinner.  

Kintaro Sushi was busy again, so we had to wait.  We were seated, but many of our favourite foods were finished for the day.  I only had 4 plates of sushi plus a chawanmushi.  It was nice though.  

We bought a few groceries for tomorrow and Friday and then came home.  We had another quiet evening.  I made a pot of decaf tea and we enjoyed that.  I had put on a movie at one point, but it was a little too creepy for me, so I shut it off.  

F went to bed early on tonight. I'm glad because last night I actually was in bed before him.  

Not sure what I'll get up to tomorrow.  I'd really like to work on my column and perhaps I'll get out of the apartment in the afternoon for a bit.  Maybe!  Wish me luck, and come back and see what I do.  Night.

August 19, 2014

Tuesday - Hot and muggy.

An okay day.

I got up this morning, got dressed quickly and went out for my walk. I even got my iPod to work this morning so I was rather pleased. There was a bit of excitement on my way though, I noticed that there was a bicycle vs. van accident near the park.  There's a bad corner and cars (and bikes to be fair) zip around it.  I think they must have collided.  I saw the bike off the side of the road and the front tire was bent out of shape.  The people were standing by on the road and seemed okay.  I minded my own business as much as possible and then went on my way.  I walked a couple of times around the park today, but it was so hot it wasn't really pleasant.  Still, the music was good, so I managed.  

I left the park after 20 or so minutes.  An ambulance had arrived for the guy, I'm hoping it was just a precaution.  

I had a quiet day at home for the most part.  I did some laundry, watched some telly, scanned a lot of cards too.  Around 5 pm I biked off to the post office to mail my postcards.  I went there and back in less than 10 minutes…pretty good eh?

F came home a little bit later, and a little bit after that I made dinner.  Tonight we had chicken fajitas, and they were gorgeous.  Really yummy.  Sadly we couldn't find limes the other day, but the lemon wasn't too bad as a replacement.  

F did the dishes tonight and we settled in for a quiet evening.  I watched The X-Files  (oh how I love saying that!) and a few other shows.  I even allowed F to watch some Japanese TV! 

Today was good, except I had to turn on the air conditioner much earlier than usual.  It was so muggy and unpleasant.  I am hoping that tomorrow will be a bit cooler or less humid.  I'm thinking about going out for a haircut tomorrow, but I won't hold my breath. It depends if get organized or not!  

Come back tomorrow night and see what I get up to.  Night. 

August 18, 2014

Monday -  Cloudy, then clearing.  Hot

A goodish day.  

I overslept a little this morning, but still got up and went for a walk.  I did have some problems this morning though.  I couldn't get my iPod to work. The screen was all messed up, and without seeing what I was doing, one song started to play.  It was "God Shuffled His Feet" by the Crash Test Dummies.  It was rather funny as the whole thing is about how God didn't do anything when people asked him questions.  I just wanted to know why my iPod wasn't working but….  It stopped working after one song!

Still, I made it around the park a couple of times and then came home.  I was a sweaty mess of course, but that was okay.  I took a break and checked my email and such.  

I went over to the couch for breakfast and Charmed.  I read through the papers too.  I'm afraid I dozed off near the end.  F called me close to noon, but I had asked him before not to ask me out for lunch!  We had quite a few leftovers that I wanted to use up.  We laughed and then he rang off.

I took a delayed shower and while I was in there did a bit of cleaning.  It is usually F's job to do it, but he's not been doing well lately so I did some.  I might do more next time too.

I had a quiet afternoon. I was trying to get my iPod to work.  I thought I had it, but I'm not sure.

F came home a bit late and soon after I got dinner underway.  Tonight I did buckwheat fettucine, four cheese alfredo sauce (from a jar), pork chop and a salad.  It was quite nice and came together quickly although I did manage to burn my finger on the kettle.  Ack.  

After dinner, F had to go to his Mum's house to check on her air conditioner so I got stuck with the dishes.  Oh well.  It didn't take long and they weren't that bad anyway.  

We had a quiet evening around the apartment.  I watched some TV, although I did offer to let F watch some.  I wrote up 3 postcards too.  That's all I can send until some of mine arrive. Ohh, and I got a bunch today too. I got 6 in the mail from places like Chile and New Zealand!  Woot.

Tomorrow I am going to make fajitas for dinner, at least my version of them.  They should be quite yummy!  I'm not sure what I'll do during the day. Perhaps I'll work on my movie column, which I have finally just started.  I have the intro and a few movies picked out, so I have a direction to move in.  

And that's it for me.  I'll talk to you tomorrow if all goes well.  Night!

August 17, 2014

Sunday - Cloudy, with some sun & rain

An okay day.

I went to bed before F last night, but he still got up before I did this morning.  Of course, Sunday is my day to sleep in and so I did.  I tried to get up around 11, even set a couple of alarms, but slept right through them.

I got up, and F came back from visiting his mother.  We decided to go out for lunch, and F plumped for his fish restaurant.  We went, but had to wait for quite a while.  We both had the same thing, chirashi sushi.  It was very good to be honest.   There's a couple of things that I don't like about this restaurant though.  After the meal, they give us coffee (or citrus juice), that is included in the price.  I don't drink coffee or orange or grapefruit juice, so that's a bust for me.  During the meal they give out mugi-cha. It's okay, but it's not my favourite drink.  That means that F gets to drink 2 cups of coffee to my one (or possibly 2 if I get a refill) drink of something I don't really like.  Sigh.  

After lunch we went to the new drugstore on the road along from the Chido Museum.  It was hard to find what I needed there, but I did eventually.  We also got a couple of bottles of Elderflower and Lemon Peel Sparkling water (really nice) and a bottle of lemongrass tea.  I've never seen the latter bottled before, so that was why I got one.  I'll let you know later about it.  We came home past the Chido Museum and F realized that he wanted to go there today.

We went home, unloaded our shopping, used washrooms, etc, and headed back to the Chido.  It was the yearly Katana Show. This year they had newly made swords.  If you are into swords they are interesting, if you aren't, not so much.  I told F to take his time and enjoy himself.  I looked at all of them, and thought they were beautiful, but they are weapons…not my sort of thing.  Still, he puts up with a lot of my interests, I can do this for him!

We had a quick drink in Doutor after the museum.  That was nice actually.  We went back home to get ready for going to the festival tonight.  

F had to clean up his bike, oil his chain, that kind of thing before we went.  There were some scary cobwebs on his bike, and probably mine too.  I pumped up my tires too, and added a bit of oil to my bike's chain.  We set off a little before six to the Sanno Night Market.  I navigated us and we made good time.  We parked our bikes and I had to chain them together as F had lost his bike chain's key.

We watched some flag waving, which was interesting for about 1 minute.  After one minute, they started explaining who everyone was and where they came from and it was long and tedious. I was looking forward to cool festival food, but F was being an old stick in the mud and didn't see anything he wanted to eat.  I did buy a spaghetti squash that was on sale for really cheap (200 yen!). I brought it home to cook later.

Finally, I had enough of his telling me he didn't care about any of the food and anything was fine…I was hungry and I wanted something to eat.  We went to a Thai stand and got some grilled chicken and a couple of pork ribs, a Korean stand for a chichime and then had a problem.  There was nowhere to sit.  Really.  There were tables but they were being hogged by families and they wouldn't be moving soon.  We thought we'd find a quiet spot, but there weren't many and they were all crowded.  I asked F if he had any ideas. No.  None.  I finally said, fine, I'm going home.  So I marched back to the bikes, and after we pulled them out of the huge pile, we rode home.

At home we heated up the food and ate it.  It was pretty good honestly.  I loved the chicken and the rib was okay.  The chichime was okay, but we should have heated it a bit more.  

I also found out that F had stomach problems and I probably should have given him a break tonight. 

We went to the grocery store and I picked up food for a couple of night's dinners.  Tomorrow night we'll have pasta, Tuesday I think it'll be fajita night!  Yum.  I'm looking forward to that one.  

It's been a quiet evening here.  F isn't feeling genki yet and I'm a bit tired still. I'm hoping for a couple of quiet days soon so that I can write my Journal column.  I may have finally picked a theme for it.  

Tomorrow I have a few things around the apartment I want to get done and hopefully I'll do lots of writing too.  I also hope to have you back here tomorrow night to check on me.  Got to go.  Night!

August 16, 2014

Saturday - Rainy and drizzly, clearing later on.  Bit cool.

A good day.  

I got up this morning after F came back from the dentist.  This dentist malarky in Japan is driving me nuts.  He goes every Saturday morning at 8:30 am…for all of 10 minutes.  Or something.  

I watched Gordon Ramsey's cookery show and then I went back to bed for a snooze. It was nice…not too hot for a change.

I got up again a bit later, took a shower and then F and I went to a Taiwanese restaurant for lunch.  I had a pork & veggie stir-fry, F had fried rice.  He didn't like his, mine was pretty good, but not terrific.  We drove over to Voice, the shopping area after lunch to see if the restaurant there was opening their patio up for people to watch the fireworks.  They were.  

We came home and vegged for a bit.  F went over to his mum's to check on her and take her shopping.  He came back an hour or so later and then we went out.  We had a bit of a misunderstanding because he headed to S-Mall to watch the fireworks up there, but we had planned to go to Voice. We headed over to Voice.  We went to the grocery store and grabbed a few things for our dinner, plus some drinks and then went to the restaurant's patio.  We weren't able to sit right up front this year because someone had reserved those seats, but we were in the third row and had a table, so we were quite happy.  We ate our food & also bought some from the restaurant, so it was nice really.  

The fireworks were excellent as usual, but sadly there was a lot of smoke/clouds tonight so some of them were blocked from where we were.  Still, we really enjoyed ourselves.  It was cool enough that I wore my lumberjack shirt, and F was glad that I'd made him bring along a jacket too.  

After the fireworks were over, we just came home.  We had had a nice time, but were tired!  I watched CSI and then Intelligence and that was it.

I have been falling asleep half the day. I'm not sure what is up with me.  I didn't stay up very late last night and I didn't get up early this morning either.  Maybe just tiredness!

Tonight at the fireworks I realized that I have now lived an equal amount of time inside Canada and outside Canada.  That's a bit of an odd thought.  Will they take away my Canada card if I stay here longer??  They had better not if they know what is good for them!

Not sure what we'll do tomorrow.  We might go to the Sanno Road market tomorrow night.  I like those local kind of things, but it depends a bit on the weather.  I'll fill you in tomorrow.  Night!

August 15, 2014

Friday - Rainy and cloudy most of the day

A good day.

I had a hard time dragging myself out of bed this morning, but I did it.  I told myself that if it was raining I didn't have to walk…it wasn't raining.  Then I told myself that I could stop after 20 minutes, but of course I didn't.  I had a good walk, did it a little differently this time.  Today I went around the outside of the park. It was nice.  I was nearly home when it started to rain!

I had a quiet morning.  I tried to snooze between my shows again, but woke up after it had started.  Still, I caught most of it! 

F called me to say he was coming home to eat lunch and did I want him to get me something.  I asked for some grilled fish, which he did bring.  That was nice of him.  He was in a rush, so really could only eat and run.

In the afternoon I worked on my postcards to go out.  I had lunch and then I scanned quite a lot of them. I had a few in-coming cards and a few outgoing to do.  It was 5 when I finished and I thought about going out, but it was raining again.  

F came home and was a bit tired. He had a headache too. I did feel quite bad for him.  We talked about dinner and decided to go to the Nepali/Asian restaurant again.  We were the only people there tonight (again!) but we had a nice meal.  We both had the same kind of curry, Sag Chicken, but different heats.  I had normal, my husband had hot.  

After dinner we came home and watched a bit of TV.  I had asked that we watch Warm Bodies tonight, so I put it on at 10:30.  It was a romantic comedy zombie movie and was actually rather sweet!  I enjoyed it, and F seemed to like it too.  

And really, that is about it for my day.  It went quite well.  Tomorrow we might go and see the fireworks if the weather co-operates.  I'm not sure where we're going to go to watch them though.  Come back tomorrow night and I'll fill you in on my day.  Night!

August 14, 2014

Thursday - Cloudy at first, hotter later on.

A bad day at first, got better

When I got up this morning, I was basically ignored.  I got dressed and went for a walk to the park.  I did take out the garbage on the way.  Yay me.

It took a long time and a lot of fighting before F asked me if I'd like him to drive me to Sakata.  I said yes and we went.  The matsuri was smaller than I expected and my friend had nearly sold out of her sandwiches, but she let us have a couple and we had some of her yummy tea.  We had our food and then were able to have a chat with my friend.  It wasn't fair to monopolize her, so we went into the big department store nearby and did a little shopping.

We went to the top floor and had lunch.  It was a Japanese udon and soba shop, but it was okay.  I had a salad udon, F had a salad soba.  We were quite friendly by this point.

We went through the store, I looked at the hundred yen shop there, we wandered down the floors. On the way out, I looked at hats, but they were too expensive.  In the foyer of the shop, they had a hat sale on and I looked.  I got a hat, for a reasonable price, and could have bought a couple more…but when do ladies wear hats these days except for summer sun?  F suggested getting a drink so we went to a gelato place and had a gelato.  It was rhubarb flavoured, but the rhubarb was so light I couldn't really tell that that is what it was.  

F drove me back to Tsuruoka, even though I offered to take the train back.  He got a call on the way from his party people and they were wondering where he was.  He was with me!  

He dropped me off at S-Mall and I went shopping, he went back to his party.  I didn't buy much. I toured the hundred yen shop, found a liner for my hat that is supposed to stop sweat staining the inside. I had a sandwich at Doutors along with some tea and a bit of my book.  Then, I went to Subway and got a sandwich to bring home with me!  So, if you're counting, that is in fact 3 sandwiches I had today.  And they were good!!!

I walked home. It was hot and humid outside and my feet were starting to hurt.  It only took about 15 minutes so it really wasn't that bad, but when I came in I closed the window and turned on the air conditioner and had about 3 cups of water immediately!  I was tired.

I dozed a little and watched TV.  A little after 7:00 F called to say he was on his way too.  That surprised me!  When he came home he did offer to take me out tonight for dinner, but I told him I had brought my sandwich home.  He went out again to get something, then came back and made his dinner. I ate my sandwich.  It was nama ham and mascarpone, and it was lovely.  So nice.  That might be one of my favourite ones to eat cold.

We had a quiet night in.  I watched my Thursday night TV, F didn't object. I'm actually quite tired from all of the walking I did and the heat.  It's so draining in summer.  

It didn't start well today, but I'm happy to say that it ended much better.  That's it for me.  Night. 

August 13, 2014

Wednesday - Sunny, with some cloud

An okay day until the end….

My day began when F's alarm clock went off.  He raced back to the bedroom to turn it off, and did, after I handed it to him.  I went back to sleep.  The next time I woke up, his cell phone alarm was going.  I had to really wake up to turn that one off.  He was gone, so I had the feeling that he'd be back soon.  I had dozed off again and there he was.  He didn't even say thanks for handing it to him, or goodbye.  

My alarm went off a few minutes later, and then I got up, got dressed and went for a walk.  I walked off to the park, did two laps today, and then came home.  As I got back to the apartment building we got a surprise shower so it was good timing really.

I had a nice relaxing morning and then F called and invited me out for lunch.  I said yes and then he picked me up after 12.  We went to Sukiya today and it was busy. We were very lucky to get a seat.  We had to sit at the counter.  F also wouldn't talk much to me.  I asked him what the point of taking me out to lunch was if he didn't want to talk to me!

I had a quiet afternoon back at home.  I got a postcard from a friend on holiday, and a postcrossing card.  I did my computer stuff and before F came home, got started on dinner.  

When F did come home, he was in a bit of a mood.  I wasn't sure why.  I got on with dinner prep, and then he took a bath.  I decided to keep cooking while he was there.  When he came out dinner was ready.  He ate, but didn't eat like he did last night.  I did!  I was quite hungry.

F did the dishes and we had a quiet evening for a bit.  I turned on the TV at 9 and offered to make tea.  I made a pot for us, and we were discussing tomorrow's plans, and where we should park.  I disagreed with his idea as I thought it would be full and he snapped my head off and told me he wasn't going to go anymore.  I told him it was fine, I'd go by myself.  

He turned off the TV and demanded that I not talk to him anymore.  I told him off at that point.  I've had enough of it.  I told him I was his wife, not his slave and I wouldn't stop talking.  I left the TV off for a while, but turned it back on at 11.  I used headphones.  Halfway through the show he turned on the air conditioner.  I asked him if he meant to and he said he did.  I pointed out that the windows were open, so he closed one, and closed the door to the other room.  It was crazy.  

All of a sudden he disappeared, I guess to bed.  He left the air conditioner on.  I turned it off.  I don't understand it.  I didn't need it on and I'm usually the person who does! 

And that's about where I am now.  I prepped the garbage for tomorrow. If he doesn't take it out, I probably will on my way out of the apartment tomorrow if I go for a walk.  I'm not sure if I'll go over to the other city or not.  I had a great plan, but F has struck again.  Let's hope he doesn't wake up on the wrong side of the bed tomorrow!

Got to go.  Night.

August 12, 2014

Tuesday - Cooler, a little rainy and overcast

A good day.

I set my alarm for 8ish this morning and actually got up.  I was a little late, but I did it.  I got dressed and went for a walk.  Yay me.  I walked to the park and then did a lap and a half before coming back home.  It was quiet and quite nice to be there.  It was threatening rain, and it was my first day, so I didn't really want to spend a lot of time on it.

I came home, checked my email and Facebook, the usual.  There was news all over Facebook this morning about Robin Williams.  I'll try and write a little more at the end of this entry about that.  I went over to the couch to watch Charmed and read the paper/have breakfast.  F called me around 10:40 and invited me out for lunch.  I told him I had to shower first, but we agreed to meet.

At a little after noon, I met my husband outside and we went to Marumatsu.  It was a little busy for lunch, but we both ordered quite quickly.  Then, we had to wait, and wait and wait.  It took ages until we got our food.  In fact, F had to wolf down his food with less than 5 minutes to spare before we left.  He was not impressed, and neither was I.  The food itself was good, but the restaurant wasn't that busy.  We drove back towards our apartment, but I told F to just let me out on the main road to save him a couple of minutes.  He did that, and I walked back home.

At home, I did some laundry, got started on today's dinner (marinating some pork) and the things I always do on the net.  I also scanned my cards and stamped and addressed them.  

I took them to the post office a little before 5 pm.  I dropped them in the box and came home.  

F was a little late tonight.  I (over)cooked the broccoli in the microwave, sauteed the pork, and put out the remains of yesterday's salad.  Dinner was quite good really.  F however was really hungry tonight.  He had rice with his meal, and then when he was finished, had ramen too.  I was quite surprised because he usually says he isn't hungry.  Still, I'm glad he had an appetite.  

We had a fairly relaxed evening.  F watched some Japanese TV.  Only some of it was annoying!  I put my headphones on and listened to some music.  I tried to make up an ever-changing playlist for my iPod.  I used to have one and it was great.  I'm not sure if I can do that with the new iTunes.

At 11 I watched The Following with was a bit freaky as always.  F has gone to bed and I should go soon too.  I'm a bit tired from this morning!

Okay…so, Robin Williams.  I'm really of two minds about him.  He was funny at times, he could act, but often didn't. He used his shtick. At times he was so over the top that the movies seemed to be about him or his character, rather than the story the writer and director wanted to tell.  I admire him for the charitable work that he did, for the genuine friendships he seemed to have, and for some of his films.  It's funny, but my favourite films of Robin Williams aren't always other people's favourites!  He was great in Good Will Hunting and Awakenings, but I liked some of his other films better.  It's an extended cameo really, but his appearance in Dead Again was surprising because it hadn't been advertised that he was in the film. Even though I shouldn't like Jumanji, I always find myself watching it, and really enjoying it when it comes on TV. 

Before I came to Japan, one of my male friends loved Robin Williams and would always make me go to see Robin's latest movie. Unfortunately, that was in the years when Robin's films weren't that good.  I saw a lot of bad films and I'm afraid that I grew to dislike Robin Williams.  It is only as I look at a list of his films that I realize that I do rather like a lot of them!  

No idea what I'll get up to tomorrow.  Come on back and find out.  Night!