October 13, 2024

Sunday - Sunny and warm

Well, today did not get off to a good start. I woke up before 11 and got up. F came into the room and demanded that I tell him if he should make a lunch reservation. He didn’t tell me to what or where. I was confused and let him know. He was angry at me again and said he was going to go and eat by himself. I said, “Goodbye!” He kept ranting at me so I kept saying,"Goodbye!” to him and he left. 

I looked at the bus schedule and realized that if I hustled my bustle, I could catch the bus downtown. I did. I got dressed, grabbed a mask and my sunhat and went off to the bus stop. I made it about 5 minutes before the bus. I was the only passenger for a while, but people did get on soon after. There was a Matsuri down by the hospital. It looked like fun, but grumpy guts would never think about going to something like that. 

I got off the bus at S-Mall and went into the Hotel. I checked their menu for today and their cheaper lunch was something that I could eat. I went to the hotel and had lunch there. It was very nice. I had a nice salad, pork saute with a mustard sauce and a bread crumb topping. That was nice. I also got coffee with it. Because I have a membership card from the hotel, I also got a small discount when I paid. Woot.

I did a little shopping in the mall and even bought myself a bento for tonight’s dinner in case F continued being a pain. I went to Doutor and had a decaf iced coffee and then left for the bus station. The bus was a little late I think, but I waited. There were a few people on the bus with me. 

At the stop before mine, a young man got on with a bunch of boxes and he put them right in the doorway. That meant when I tried to get off the bus I had to squeeze around them. Oh well, I did manage.

Back at the house, I put my bento in the fridge and then I went upstairs. F was upstairs on the bed and I didn’t say anything to him, I just went over to my computer and spent a while there. 

Around 7 pm F actually talked to me and asked if I wanted to go for dinner. I said sure. At first I thought he wanted to go with me, but he’d already eaten and was having stomach issues again. I asked for Gusto as they have a nice pasta dish at the moment. For some reason, F took me over to the far Gusto and when we got there, the parking lot was busy and even worse, there was a big group of teenage boys waiting outside. I went in the entryway and there were a lot of people inside as well, and not just the teenage boys. I went back to the car.

I asked F to take me to the other Gusto and he obliged. When we got there, the parking lot was busy, but there was a space for him. I went in again and there was no line-up. The waitress pointed out a few tables I could take and I took one of them. 

I had a nice meal. They have a mushroom pasta dish that I like, so I had that with a side salad, drink bar and a small order of fries and mayonnaise. It was nice. I read my book and got close to finishing it. 

I paid, which is a whole procedure these days, and went out to the car. We drove back towards the house and when we were two-thirds of the way, F asked if I’d like to go for a drink! I was fine with that, so we turned around and went back to Komeda Coffee. It’s close to Gusto!

We went in and both of us had a cup of decaf hot coffee. F spent time on his phone, me on mine. I even finished one of the books I was reading on mine. It was a historical romance, but the heroine was interested in chemistry and it had a lot to do with the British silk industry which made it rather interesting. It also was unusual in that the heroine didn’t want to get married either. 

We came back to the house afterwards. I did up the garbage in the kitchen and that was fun. F had done a not-very-thorough job of it last week.  When I finished I went upstairs and I changed into my PJs. I bagged up my stuff and F took it downstairs and out to the garbage station. I took a shower after 10:30 and then watched an episode of Elsbeth on WOWOW on Demand. It was fun. 

That’s about it. Despite F claiming that he couldn’t sleep, he seems to be sleeping. He’s asked that we go to the aquarium restaurant tomorrow for lunch. I’m okay with it, but not thrilled. Since we’ve had troubles with lunch the last couple of days I will try and make it work tomorrow. 

It’s a long weekend here, which is why F has the day off. Hopefully, things will go well. Fingers crossed since I don’t want the entire weekend to be a dud.

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

September 28, 2024

Saturday - Cloudy, hot and humid

Yesterday, F and I went to Costco and things went really well. We left on time, had breakfast in Tsuruoka and then lunch in Yamagata. We did a little shopping at the mall and then went on to Costco. I got a lot of the things we needed and a few things we didn’t!

We had a snack at Costco and then drove back to Tsuruoka. In Tsuruoka, we dropped off our food first. I did some putting of bagels in the freezer and other things into the fridge. 

F and I went and had a light meal at Cocos. Well, he had a light meal, I had pasta. We came back to the house and relaxed. F went to bed, then I did quite late.

This morning I got up around 10 and around 11:00 I went down to see F. He was not in a good mood since he was having a meeting with his mother’s case worker again. I said that I didn’t want to join him, and he said that he didn’t want me there. I said that I could just hide out upstairs, but he didn’t want me in the house at all. He also didn’t want to come out for lunch with me. Sigh. So, I left.

I caught the bus downtown. I got off near Ginza-dori and then walked down the street. I was thinking of trying a cafe in the community center, but the chairs looked uncomfortable and the menu wasn’t that exciting for me either.

I ended up at Arpeggio and got a seat at the counter. I had a nice meal there and even added decaf coffee at the end as I had time. 

From there, I walked down to Machi-ne Kinema and went to see One Life with Anthony Hopkins. It was quite good and I enjoyed it. It was a weepy movie, but done well, without being the best movie ever. lt’s about a man in the Second World War who tries to bring refugee children from Czechoslovakia to Britain. Many years later he wondered what to do with some of his records and tries to find a new home for them. It is based on a true story.

From the cinema, I tried to find the best place to catch a bus down to the Mall. I ended up walking a bit, but that was okay. From the old bank building, I caught the bus. It was fine. I cruised the hundred yen shop but didn’t buy anything. I cruised the grocery store and got quite a few things. Oh well. 

From there, I had ice cream at Baskin-Robbins and then went to Doutor and had a sandwich and a rooibos tea. I read my book and finished it. It was very good. Then, I texted F to see if he really would come and get me. He said he would and a few minutes later he came into the coffee shop and we left.

He did offer to take me out to get my dinner, but he didn’t want to eat. I suggested just taking me to a drive-through and that’s what we did. I had a kara-age bento which was okay. It was a lot like my lunch if I’m honest.

We came back to the house and F said he was tired. I said I’d go upstairs to eat. He came up around 9:30 or so. He went to bed and slept. I took a nap until 10:30 or so and then got up again. I watched my CSI: Las Vegas at 11pm and then turned off the TV.

F has been sleeping for hours which is probably a good thing. He said earlier that he should have gone to the doctor…it was his choice not to today. 

I didn’t ask him how the care-worker thing went. To be honest, I don’t care. He is the one responsible for his mother’s care and no one asks my opinions or thoughts anyway. 

I have no idea what I’ll get up to on Sunday. If he’s going to be a jerk again, I’ll go off on my own again. I honestly had a great day today by myself. I didn’t have to make other people happy by what I ate or didn’t eat, I could do what I wanted and I didn’t have to worry if someone else was enjoying themselves. It’s making me look forward to my solo trip to Yamagata that is coming up soon. 

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

August 11, 2024

Sunday - Hot and sunny with a few raindrops in the late afternoon.

I woke up around 8:30 the first time, went downstairs and then I came back upstairs and went back to sleep. I had the weirdest dream this morning. I dreamt that I was back in university, trying to find a place to live and for some reason former President Trump was there and was trying to sign up 2 young boys to the same school. It didn’t make any sense, as dreams rarely do!

I got up a bit later, F came up to the room while I was getting dressed and we talked about where to have lunch. He said he didn’t want any as he’d eaten with his mother. Okay then. I suggested Arpeggio but as we were going to the car, I thought about another place. We ended up going to the nearby cafe, Cafe B-Flat. It was quite busy today but we got in right away. We looked at the menu and I chose their special, but I couldn’t have that as they were out of salad! I ended up having carbonara and it was quite nice. I had Darjeeling tea with it, F had a strawberry shortcake dessert and an iced coffee. I did quite a bit of reading on my phone and even finished reading Anne of Green Gables, which was so lovely to read again. I cried at the end, when the sad thing happened. F didn’t notice!

While we were in the cafe, F booked himself a massage. I didn’t mind, yesterday he was talking about booking it at odd times like 9:00 am when I was asleep. Of course, he could go, but I wanted to have some time at S-Mall because I haven’t been there in ages. The mall doesn’t open until 10 am, so there wouldn’t be a point in me going out with him, even if I was awake!  Anyway, he could get a massage at 3:45, so we left the cafe at 3:15 and went on our way. 

F left me at the mall and I did a little shopping. I went to Daiso and tooled around and just enjoyed myself. The most interesting thing I got was  a couple of silicone rings to fry eggs in. I was thinking about using them when I make gapao rice. I don’t generally like fried eggs, so I don’t make them well! I’ll see if they help. 

After a bit of store wandering, I went to Doutor and had a decaf iced coffee and a piece of pound cake. I was relaxing and enjoying my phone when F phoned to say he was done. I told him where I was and that I’d see him soon. He showed up about 2 minutes later!

I bought a new round of drinks and F subsidized me so that was good. After our drink, I suggested that if we were going to go driving tonight, we should get F’s mother something for dinner. 

We went to the grocery store and F picked up a few things. When we left the mall, there was an incredible rainbow overhead. It was basically the full arc. It was lovely!

The picture doesn't do it justice.

We drove back to the house, F fed his mother and then we drove off to the wilds of Yamagata!  Now, I guess I take a little bit of responsibility because I didn’t check where F was driving to, but he didn’t check with me either! He also didn’t check that the place we wanted to go was open. We drove off to see the falls. We went a different route than usual, but F said it was a new route. After 30-45 minutes of driving we arrived. At the wrong place! I asked F where we were and I don’t think he knew. He said he did, but I don’t know why he didn’t take us to the highest waterfall in the prefecture. We’ve gone there a few times this time of year. I Google mapped it and it said it would take us about 35 minutes to get to the correct place. Okay then. Off we went. Now, keep in mind that 2-3 weeks ago, we had torrential rain and the area we were in had flooding and some road damage. We dodged some of the damage on the roads and finally arrived at Tsumedare Falls. And, the road to the parking area was blocked off. The road to the Falls was blocked off! Oh no!  F looked it up then and discovered that there had been some damage up near the falls and they were probably not open. Why did he wait to check? He should have checked before we drove out there!

We drove back into Sakata, making a pitstop along the way. We decided to have dinner at a keiten sushi place, one we don’t have in Tsuruoka. We had a pretty good meal and enjoyed ourselves. 

After that, we drove back to Tsuruoka and came back to the house. It was quite late when we arrived. 

In the kitchen, I washed the drink jugs and set up a new bottle of mugi-cha and one with some watermelon-lime tea that i bought today. It sounds interesting, I hope it is good! F doesn’t seem sure.

I didn’t watch any TV tonight, just a few YouTube videos. That’s about it for today.

I’m not sure what’s going to happen tomorrow, literally. Supposedly, there is a typhoon on the way and we have been getting warnings on our phones’ weather apps about it. 

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

June 22, 2024

Saturday - Hot and Sunny

I woke up this morning a bit early but went back to sleep until my alarm went off. I got up, dressed and got ready to go to our doctor's appointment. We managed to get there on time and then we had to wait. And wait. Honestly, we didn’t get seen for an hour. Sigh. I know he’s busy but it does seem ridiculous. It did give me enough time to finish my book, which I was happy about!

While we were waiting in the pharmacy we started talking about lunch. I was using Google Maps and F asked me about a place in Mikawa. It sounded good so I said yes.  F said that he’d call from the car to see if we could get in. I needed a pitstop so we went to a grocery store. I used the washroom, then bought us some drinks. However, when I got back to the car, F said that the restaurant was really busy, so we couldn’t go there. Oh dear. I suggested our favourite restaurant in Mikawa, Bistrot des Pointes so F called them. They were happy to have us come. F let them know that we were on the way, but wouldn’t be there for a while. 

We got to the restaurant and had a lovely meal there. We both had the beef steak and it was great. The only thing we had that was different was the dessert. I had a sakuranbo clafoutis and F had a rice pudding/cake thing. Lunch was great and we really enjoyed it.

We came back to Tsuruoka and back to the house. I went upstairs and took a nap with the AC on. It was 30 degrees in the room. Yuck.

I asked F when he came up to the room which show he’d like to go to. I thought he’d like to go to the late show like usual, but he chose an earlier showing. That meant that we had to get started immediately. We went out and bought K a bento for her dinner, and then dropped it off. We next went to a drugstore so that F could get some cold medicine and I could get more throat candy. Then, we drove out to the mall. 

We bought our tickets at the mall early and then as we had a little bit of time, we went to the bibinba kiosk and ordered the same thing. We both had the pork kimchi and it was nice. It was so hot it was hard to eat, temperature-wise, not spice-wise. 

We went to see The Watchers and it was okay. It wasn’t a great film, and I probably won’t remember it forever, but it was mildly entertaining and thought-provoking. I did expect a little more though.  

After the movie, we came back to Tsuruoka. I asked F if we could go somewhere for me to get something with protein. Bibinba is mostly rice and I had a ton of popcorn, so I wanted something else. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything I wanted at the convenience store…why does he always stop at 7-11?  I really dislike that store! He did offer to take me to another place as well, but I said not to bother.

Back in the house, we had a quiet evening. F went to bed and relaxed, I stayed up and watched YouTube and then the new Canadian drama, The Spencer Sisters. It wasn’t fabulous! I’ve read that it doesn’t get better, but I might watch it next week to see how it is. 

Since midnight I’ve been watching YouTube and trying to get sorted for going to bed. This blog is nearly done and then I’ll be going to bed!

I’m not sure what I’ll be getting up to tomorrow. F has a meeting in the afternoon and apart from that, I’m not sure. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

May 17, 2024

 Friday - Rainy and windy then sunny and warm

For the fourth morning in a row, F forgot to turn off his alarm when he got up and left the room. It woke me up of course and I wasn’t pleased. I had to make a trip downstairs and I let F know that it was the fourth day of this. I don’t think he cared that much. I went back to bed and slept for a while. 

When I woke up a bit later, I got dressed and got myself ready for going out. F did come back and we decided to go to Costco in Kaminoyama, outside Yamagata city. 

We had lunch at F’s favourite fish restaurant in Tsuruoka. It was a bit busy so we weren’t able to get a table with chairs. They did give F a chair, but I just sat on the tatami with a couple of cushions. We had the same food, the weekly special. It was masu and sashimi. I liked the masu a lot. 

We got on the road and made good time. We stopped at Sagae as usual and bought a couple of bread things at the bakery there. We ate one of them right away, but it wasn’t great. 

We got back on the road and then stopped at the mall in Yamagata. At the mall, I bought a few things in Kaldi and then a few things at 3 Coins. I got a steamer for veggies for the microwave and a splatter screen for my frypans. F got himself some hangers for his pants. 

Next up, we drove to Costco. F got a great parking space quite near one of the entrances so that was good. Before we left, I had asked him to check if he had his Costco card, but he didn’t. Fortunately, I did! We went in and then F came around with me for a few minutes. He got bored and then he went off to get something from the Food Court and I did the shopping. What did I buy? I got some raspberries, tortilla chips, radishes, potatoes, potato chips, toilet paper, tissues, Havarti cheese slices, puddings, sausages, yogurt, and a few other things. We took the things out to the car and packed them away. (For us, it works so much better. We used to try and pack the groceries in bags while we were at the register, but it caused us to argue and F was forever yelling at me about being in people’s way.)

We went back into Costco and went to the Food Court. We ordered some food. F had a hot dog and soda, I had a bulgogi bread thing, ice cream and a drink. F had eaten his ice cream earlier. The food was good. I didn’t enjoy the bulgogi thing as much as I was hoping, but they didn’t have a lot of things that I wanted. The ice cream was great however.  I even managed to finish my book that I was reading on my phone. It was by a member of my women's group and was set in Tokyo. I quite enjoyed it. It was called The Butterfly Café.

We talked about having dinner in Yamagata vs. going back to Tsuruoka and decided to wait. Since we’d both eaten we didn’t need to eat for a while.

We left Costco and started the trek back to Tsuruoka. We made good time and I dozed off quite a bit. As we were coming up to Tsuruoka we started talking about where to have dinner. F wanted a fish place. I reminded him we had fish for lunch. He knew. We tried to go to one place in Kushibiki and it was closed. Our next place was also closed. Oh well. We ended up at F’s second fish place and it was open. We went in and had our meal there.

At Hana, we had a decent meal. I had tonkatsu and F had grilled mackerel. He didn’t like his much, mine was nice. 

After that, we came back to the house and I got to put the groceries away. I’m so lucky. I split up the bagels I bought but left a couple out of the freezer for lunch tomorrow. I suggested to F that we eat at the house instead of fighting about lunch tomorrow.

Anyway, F went to bed fairly early. He didn’t get to nap in the car so I understand it! I watched an episode of Loot on Apple TV and thought it was good. 

So that was my day. It was quite a good day surprisingly. I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow, please come back later and find out all about it. Until tomorrow….

March 9, 2024

Saturday - Snowy and cold

I woke up around 9 am this morning and when I went downstairs I looked out the window and saw a world of white. It had snowed overnight and kept snowing for much of the day. I did go back to bed for a bit, but dragged myself out of bed later and got dressed. 

F and I went over to our doctor’s office and for a change were a touch early. That almost never happens. We were seen after a long wait, finally! I had brought a book with me, Jennifer Weiner’s The Breakaway, and got stuck into it. It’s good so far. When it was payment time, F asked me if I could give him some money…Yes, I could as it happened. I paid him.  

Our car after 2 hours during the snow.

Along the street from the doctor's office.

Near the river in the middle of Tsuruoka.

We left the doctor’s office, although I was behind as it took me a while to put my boots on again. F was in the car and I wasn’t sure what he was doing. We had to go to the pharmacy next door. He was looking for money in the car. He didn’t have any, so I volunteered (!) to pay for our meds. We waited a few minutes at the pharmacy, but were soon on our way. We went to the bank and F paid me back. 

We talked about lunch then and went to a couple of places that we’d talked about trying. Sadly, neither of them were open for lunch. We ended up at our neighbourhood place, Kitchen Futaba. I had the pork meal and F had the fish. We were both pleased with them. They have raised their prices there, but I don’t think they were overpriced. F might though!

We ran a couple of errands after our meal. First F went to Musashi to pick up some wood for his fish tank. I stayed in the car. After that, we went to another hardware shop since F had forgotten to get screws. I did go into that one. I was looking for my new pot again. I found where they were in the shop, but sadly they didn’t have one that I liked. I did manage to drop the lid of one pot and it made a huge crashing noise when it hit the floor. Did I mention the store was having a big sales push and there were lots of people around? Big crash. I was embarrassed!

We came back to the house after this. Both F and I did a little bit of snow shovelling outside. In the house, I went upstairs. F stayed downstairs and welcomed his mother back and did whatever he needed to do for her.

Around 6 F came upstairs and asked about dinner. He was also wondering about his mother’s dinner. Since he didn’t want to take her out, I suggested using one of the packets of curry that I have in the kitchen. He disappeared for a while and then was back. He’d given her the last packet of curry from yesterday, plus rice and soup. 

We decided we’d go for sushi and since it was early, we could try to go to Kintaro Sushi. We drove over there, and did have to wait for a little while before we were seated. We had a nice meal. We could have most of our favourites, not all, F ordered a lot of stuff, but I ordered a bunch of rolls too. Yay me. 

After dinner, it was still a bit early, so I suggested a “second party”. I suggested either McDonald’s or Starbucks, so F chose Starbucks. When we got there, we ordered our drinks, I paid with my card and then F found a seat. We sat and enjoyed our drinks (decaf latte for him, chamomile tea latte for me). I read a lot of a novel on my phone and F watched YouTube or something. When it was time to go, I suggested going over to the nearby drugstore for a few minutes. We did that, and picked up a few things for ourselves. 

We came back to the house and settled in for the evening. I watched FBI at 11 pm and F had his phone and computer going on. 

F went off to bed and he’s snoozing away. I told him I plan to sleep in a bit tomorrow. I hope that we don’t get too much snow overnight….but it is forecast. We have no real plans for tomorrow. Today worked out, I hope tomorrow does too.

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