November 21, 2023

Tuesday - Warm and sunny

I’m back!  I had a great time in Yokohama, and it was quite simple to get to Yokohama as well. I Google-Mapped it and it got me to a bus stop next to the hotel, so that was really cool.

The convention was really well done and Yokohama was a great place to have it. The hotel was fine…I didn’t like the bathroom, it was tiny and there was a high step to get into it. Not my favourite thing. Apart from that, the room I had was big, the bed was comfortable, and I really didn’t have many problems.

On the last day, we all checked out and then had a panel discussion. A bit later, we walked to Chinatown and had a dim sum lunch at a restaurant. The convention organizer knew the owners and got us a great price. 

After lunch, I walked back to the hotel, picked up two of my bags and then walked to a train station. I caught a train to Yokohama station and then transferred to a train going to Tokyo. I found Yokohama station to be insanely confusing. It wasn’t well marked and I had no idea where I was going. 

I got myself on a train to Tokyo station. It might not have been the best option, but it was fine. I got a seat all the way, so that was good! Tokyo Station was easy to get around and it is very well marked. I found the Shinkansen area easily and bought my tickets up to Niigata. I had a bit of time before my shinkansen was going to leave, so I grabbed a couple of bentos. I was starving! I’m not even sure why. 

I got on the shinkansen and for the first couple of stations I didn’t have a person sitting next to me so I gobbled up my bentos. My seatmate got on and we had a quiet ride to Niigata. 

In Niigata, I checked into my hotel and it was a lovely experience. Last year, a different hotel, that I often stayed at, gave me a terrible time and was extremely rude to me. In both cases, I had joined the hotel’s membership so they had my address in Japan. Basically, if you are a foreigner who is a resident of Japan, you don’t need to ask for ID. Last year’s hotel accused me of being an illegal alien and was so rude when I checked in. This year, a different hotel and no ID. The hotel was much nicer, the only downside was that it was a few hundred meters down the road from the station. 

I went out to grab some dinner, I went over to Royal Host which is a place I often go by myself. I had a nice pasta dinner and then walked back to the hotel and had a quiet evening. I watched a bit of YouTube and fell asleep. I woke up at 5:30 am on top of my bed and ended up going to bed properly then. Although I could get a free breakfast at the hotel in the morning, I decided to just sleep in. I had put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door so I got to sleep in. Yay!

A little after noon, I went out. This was Monday. I went over to the Aeon Mall and did a little shopping and wandering around. I didn’t buy too much, although I found a Twinnings Tea Advent calendar that I got for myself. I had lunch in the mall too, that was nice and quite good. I ended up leaving the mall a bit earlier than I had planned. I got back to the station and did a little shopping and picked up a tea at Starbucks. I grabbed a bento and went back to the hotel. I also somewhere along the way bought my ticket back to Tsuruoka on Tuesday.

Back at the hotel, I bought myself a movie card and then went upstairs, talked to F and then watched a movie. I stayed up a bit late but did get up and went down for breakfast this morning.

After breakfast, I took a shower and finished packing my suitcase. I checked out at 11am and left my backpack and my suitcase at the hotel.

I walked over to the Bandai area of the city and went for a decaf coffee in LoveLa2. I wasn’t feeling too great today, unfortunately. I checked the movie schedule and realized that I could go to a movie in a couple of hours and then I could relax and sit down for a while. That’s what I did. I went to see The Marvels again and quite enjoyed it. 

After the movie was over, I walked back towards the station. I stopped to have a light lunch at a food court and then made it back to the hotel. I grabbed my stuff and walked to the station. I was quite early, which was nice as I didn’t need to rush or panic.

I had decided to treat myself to the Green Car on the train. It’s like first class. It was a bit expensive, but the seat was nice and comfy and the car was very quiet. There was space for my suitcase on the floor behind my seat and I just really enjoyed myself.

F picked me up a few minutes after I arrived and we went to Cocos for dinner. He got his birthday dessert…his birthday is on Thursday but we have plans…and after dinner we went over to Pal shopping area and I bought a few groceries for tomorrow. I hope it goes well!

We came back to the house and two things happened. North Korea apparently sent a missile over Japan again, so F wanted to see the updates on the TV, and my DVR stopped working entirely. I assumed the batteries were dead in the remote, but when I hit the buttons on the machine itself, nothing happened. Despite my asking F to look at it, he got angry and refused. He told me there was too much stuff in front of the machine. Yes, there is a lot, but right now I don’t have the energy to move everything. I asked him if he had done anything to the machine while I was gone. Apparently not. I was gone for 4 days, how would I know what he’s done?

Anyway, I have an idea of what to try tomorrow and I’ll see if I can get it working again. Unfortunately, I missed my show tonight but that’s okay. 

This is terribly long, sorry about that. Are you still with me?

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

May 3, 2023

Wednesday - Sunny and hot

Today was generally a lovely day. It was a little hot for me and I was out in the sun almost all afternoon, so I want to get to bed very soon. I’m tired!

I slept until 10:30 or so and then got up. I realized that F was going to be on his way back from his massage any minute, so I should get moving. I dressed. F came back but he didn’t bring the breakfast for his mother that I had suggested. He brought ice cream all round. I turned mine down because I needed some breakfast or something that would keep me going for a while.  He went downstairs and made his mother something to eat, but for some reason, not for himself. I went down and toasted some bread for myself and had it with cheese and chocolate raspberry jam. I brought it up to eat and then F announced that he’d go and make his breakfast. I asked him to wait because my friends were arriving in Tsuruoka Park and I needed him to drive me there. Of course, I hadn’t quite finished my toast so it didn’t seem too fair to him. 

F grudgingly and not happily drove me to the park and dropped me off outside the park. I had a few minutes where I tried to find my friends before I finally found them. We were still a couple of people short, but they turned up soon enough.

We did a little walking through the park and I took everyone over to the little bagel shop. We debated eating at the bagel place, but it was hot and we needed shade. We ended up back at Tsuruoka Park in the brand new sun shelter to eat. There were picnic tables in there, so we were able to sit together and eat.

We spent a bit of time walking through the park and went over to the Chido Museum to have a look.  We spent quite a bit of time there…it is a fascinating place and we enjoyed it. We looked at the sashiko examples and we looked at my lovely garden, we got pictures taken by another visitor and then we left the museum. We went into another museum but didn’t spend a whole lot of time there. 

We came back to the cars. The others had to go to their hotel, but I had nothing to do. I was tired, so decided to go back to the house. One of the ladies drove me back to the house and I went in.  F was still a bit grumpy, but thawed soon afterwards. He offered me ice cream, which I took.

I took a bit of a nap too. I was just so tired. After that, I got dressed again, and F drove me to the restaurant. We waited for a few minutes and just when I was going to go in and let them know that the others were late, my friend from the next city arrived. We went in together and grabbed seats at the table. 

The others came in soon afterwards and took their seats. We had a great meal.  We had a lovely green salad, followed by asparagus penne with gorgonzola sauce, then a chicken paella. Everything was so nice. Some of the ladies had some wine and some of us had a soft drink. I had an elderberry soda that was quite nice. For dessert, we had Japanese style pudding, but it had ice cream in the middle of that. We all had requested no caffeine tea earlier, so we were given rooibos tea to drink. It was a lovely meal and everyone was quite impressed with the place we went. We paid and then went out to the parking lot. We had two cars as we were going in two directions, so there were hugs all around and then we left.  

My friend brought me back to the house and then she went off on the road back to her home in Sakata. 

I came upstairs and talked with F a little bit. I made some hot water and I had tea, F had coffee. He’s not mad anymore, which I’m glad about. I don’t think he did too much today, but maybe he got a bit of a rest because I was out and not bothering him all of the day!

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. There’s a faint chance that I’ll meet up with a friend for lunch, but other than that, I hope to spend a fairly quiet day.

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

October 18, 2022

Tuesday - Cloudy and then rainy

I’m back!  I had a fabulous time in Toyama and an okay couple of days in Niigata. My travels went incredibly smoothly and the only problem I had was with my Niigata hotel. 

Convention was fun, I made some new friends and spent a bit of time with some old ones. I did have to sit at a table with an enemy one night though, that was horrible, but the people near me were okay. 

On the second night, the headband I ended up making with my leaves on it was quite popular. Quite a few people had made headdresses with artificial leaves, but mine was handmade so it was a bit different!  I even won a door prize, but I think I’ll give it to a friend as it doesn’t fit me that well.

Today, I took a bath in the hotel’s onsen bath around 2 am and then went to bed. This morning I got up eventually and checked out. I went over to the LoveLa buildings and had lunch and then did a little window shopping. I didn’t do much real shopping today. I had dessert in one shop and then a tea latte in another so that I could spend some time relaxing.

I walked back to the hotel to pick up my bags and then went across the street to the train station. I caught my train handily and had a quiet trip back to Tsuruoka.

F came into the station at the same time I did! We had a quick hug…it was too hard to kiss with masks on! After that, we went back to the car. F suggested going to Nagomi, a Japanese Soba/Udon restaurant that I actually like, so I said it was okay. I did suggest that if it was closed or too busy, we could go to another restaurant in the vicinity. We were able to get in at Nagomi and had a good meal.

After that, we went grocery shopping. I hoped F would stay in the car, but he came in. I’m going to do chicken tomorrow night, and then tacos on Thursday I think. I asked F if we needed any staples like eggs or milk, and he said no. Of course, when I got back to the house, there was only one egg left. Ack. I asked!! I put away the groceries and then I took my suitcases upstairs. That was hard. 

I unpacked tonight, I should do some laundry tomorrow too. I watched FBI International. It was okay. 

And that’s about it for my day. I’m quite tired tonight so I think I’ll head off to bed soon. 

Come back later if you like and hear all about my Wednesday. I’ll try and find a pic of my headband too, or I’ll take one!

Until tomorrow….

September 11, 2022

Sunday - Hot and Sunny

I went to bed fairly late last night, but so did F. I was later of course. This morning, I woke up when my husband turned into a snuggle bunny. It was actually rather a nice way to wake up.  

We finally got up and started to get dressed.  F suggested a couple of places to eat, both of which were lovely.  I was fine with either. He chose one and I suggested giving them a call to make sure they were open today. We’d never gone there on a Sunday before. He phoned and actually made a reservation. Yay. 

We got on the road and then drove out to the town where the restaurant is. We parked and went in.  We were seated right away. We both ordered a hamburger lunch, but the waitress came back to say they only had one left. F ordered something else, instead.  We had a really nice meal. The hamburger was good and F liked his ginger pork. 

After our meal, we drove to the Mikawa Mall. I wanted to go and get something at Uniqlo. I love their men’s tank tops. I sleep in them and wear them under my clothes. I’ve sent them as gifts to my friends and family and they love them too. I was afraid they might have put them away for the season but they still had some. I picked up 6! A couple are for gifts, but most of them are for me. 

After Uniqlo, I asked F if I could buy him a coffee at the mall.  I did. We had Costa Coffee at the food court and spent a bit of time relaxing. When we finished our drink I went shopping.  We went upstairs and I got a couple of pairs of socks. F paid for them, which was nice of him. They were on sale, which is good!

We left the mall soon afterwards, we did spend a few minutes looking at an outlet book sale but didn’t buy anything. When we were back in Tsuruoka, I suggested getting our groceries, but F wasn’t feeling well, so we went back to the house. 

I came upstairs and relaxed for a while. I caught up with a few things online and before I knew it, it was 6 pm and we started to talk about dinner.  I suggested the Kushibiki restaurant and taking his mother with us. F was fine with that, so a few minutes later we all piled in the car. Of course, the restaurant was closed when we got there!

F and I suggested a few other places but ended up at Tai in Voice. We were seated after a few minutes and were able to order soon afterwards.  Both K and F had ramen and F ordered some gyoza too. I had curry and rice with chicken and long onion cutlets.  It was okay. Honestly, I’m not a big fan of their curry, but once in a while, it is just what I want. 

We came back to the house and let K out of the car. After a few minutes, F and I went to the grocery store. I went in and did a little grocery shopping. Tomorrow night I’m going to do make your own pizzas. Well, technically, I’ll make the pizzas but everyone else can eat them! Tuesday night will be chicken I think.

We went to the gas station and F picked up some kerosene. We came back to the house and F put the kerosene in the water heater. I put the groceries away and then did up the garbage in the kitchen. There wasn’t that much, but since we won’t be around for the next garbage day, thought I should get it out of the house. 

I offered to take the garbage out to the corner and I told F that I was going to take a walk over to the temple. He looked at me a bit oddly but didn’t say anything. September 11th was my mother’s birthday and I wanted to do something to commemorate it. The last couple of Sept 11ths the two of us have been fighting, so it was nice to not be fighting for this. I dumped off the gomi, walked to the temple/shrine/whatever it is and did my thing. I didn’t spend long there, so I walked back quickly and came inside. 

The rest of the evening was quiet. F was on his phone and I watched Project Runway. I quite enjoyed today’s episode. It was the last one before the big runway show.  I also finished my scarf while I was watching it.

And that basically was my day. I’m up much too late again but will end this and get myself off to bed in a minute or so. Tomorrow I have to start getting ready for our anniversary trip, and also my convention if I have time. I have to see if I have any dresses that would work or if I have to try and buy new ones…somewhere!

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

April 3, 2019

Wednesday - Snowy, rainy and clear

I woke up this morning, and stayed up, at least for a while. I watched the news I’d recorded earlier on and it was fine. ER was great of course. 

I had breakfast and then ended up taking another nap a bit later. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. 45 minutes later I was feeling better.  

I heated up my soup again at lunch and offered some to K.  We had a nice mini-lunch for me and later after-lunch for her. We finished up the vegetable soup from earlier this week and had a piece of toast with a slice of ham on it. It was nice.  

I washed the dishes and came back upstairs. Today I didn’t do much of anything. I can’t believe that I am saying that, but it is sadly true. F was a bit late today, he got back around 6 pm. He told me that his mother wanted to go to an Udon restaurant, and it was okay with me. 

We all got in the car and went out. First, we went to S-Mall and F went into the mall. He picked up a magazine from the bookstore and then we went to Udon Ichi for dinner. It was really good tonight, especially as we haven’t been there in ages. It was a bit odd as usual. So, K did this thing where she offered F some of her noodles as she “couldn’t eat that much”. Right.  I suggested adding on a salad and some tempura to our meals, so F had ordered that too.  Well, we all got some salad, I had a tiny second helping, F had some seconds, his mother too, and then she cleared out the bowl.  When the tempura came, I had a piece of kabocha, F had a couple of pieces, K had at least 3 I think. She also took the last piece!  Methinks she really didn’t want to give her noodles away at all. 

We came back to the house and then F wanted to take a bath. I begged off going tonight as I had things to do.  He went to the local bath and I spent a fun hour watching NCIS: LA and doing a little on my mini-con scheduling.  

When he came back I went downstairs and did up the garbage in the kitchen, I took down the garbage from up here too for F to take out in the morning.

I spent a quiet evening watching a bit of TV and preparing for my event. I want to call it a trip, but I’m not going anywhere!  I really hope things go smoothly. There are so many things that could go wrong, but hopefully, more things will go right and we’ll have some good times. 

I’m not sure if I’ll blog tomorrow night as I have an early start on Friday. I won’t be here on Friday or Saturday night, and quite possibly not Sunday night either! Come back a bit later and see if you can catch me. Until next time….

March 30, 2019

Saturday - Cloudy and overcast, rainy

We slept in this morning, but I got up after 11 and F was already downstairs. He made his mother breakfast and I checked my computer and websites, then got dressed. We were going out today!

We drove to Mt. Haguro again to see if the way to the pagoda was free from snow. It wasn’t! I’ve got friends coming next week to see it and they’ll have to bring sturdy shoes or boots.  It was lovely down there. Because the weather wasn’t great, it was fairly quiet. F and I went as far as the pagoda which was looking as lovely as ever. 

Quite a definite line between snow and no snow!

The Pagoda. So lovely.

Selfie of the Pagoda and me.

The steps. We had to climb down them first and then climb back up to the road afterwards.
Not steep, but can be tricky.

After we climbed back up to the road from the pagoda we went for lunch. F found a soba restaurant nearby and we tried it. I thought it was okay, but he complained that it didn’t sell “real” soba. Sigh. He’s such a purist that it is annoying really. I enjoyed my meal!  

I asked F to show me the way to go to the top of the mountain and we got halfway along a road and he thought he was going the wrong way. I got quite annoyed at that. He was right though! We passed the gate and then went to the Gassan Visitor Centre. I’m not sure why that was on Haguro though, but…It was nice and had a few brochures in English too. 

We drove back towards Tsuruoka and then detoured to Matsugaoka. Last time we went there it was under a lot of snow and the sidewalks were being put in. Everything was closed before. Well, today, the sidewalks were done and most of the snow was gone. A couple of the buildings were open and we went into one of them. Yay us. I wanted to know how to get to the area in case my friends want to go next weekend.

We drove back to Tsuruoka and went to Komeda Coffee. We both had coffee and some chicken nuggets as we were both a bit peckish. Then, we visited Yamaya to get some food for the pantry and MaxValu to get a bento for K. F was so tired in Komeda that he was falling asleep so my plan was to feed his mother and then the two of us would take a nap and then go for dinner afterwards. His plan when we got back to the house was to go for a massage around 9 pm, so we had to go for dinner right away. Sigh. 

We went to a local Korean place and it was quite good. We had a lot of nice food, but it was a bit stodgy. It was also a bit spicy!  We came back to the house afterwards, F took a shower and then headed out.

While F was out I sewed a button back on the shirt I wore tonight. I’d lost it just before dinner. I also sewed a couple of buttonholes to make them a little smaller and less likely to come undone. I watched Agents of Shield which was great of course. F came back a bit after 10 and was feeling much better. Yay for that.

He went to sleep an hour or so later and I am still up. I enjoyed today a lot. It was cold on the mountain, but so beautiful in the area. I love going there, I just wish I was in better condition for the steps. With my painful hip, I’m a bit worried that I might have overdone it, but let’s keep our fingers crossed shall we?

Not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. F will likely take his mother out in the morning and after that who knows. I’d like to wash the bedding and change to the summer sheets, fingers crossed we do that!

Come back later if you like and find out what we get up to. Until tomorrow….

March 29, 2019

Friday - Sunny but cool

I had an okay morning today. My favourite news had been taken off due to sports so the DVR gifted me with news from another time. It was quite good and at least I got my fill of Brexit stuff. 

I dragged myself out of bed to watch ER and then a bit later downstairs for breakfast. I thought about doing laundry and then didn’t. Sigh. 

I had a fairly quiet afternoon. I thought about Postcrossing but didn’t, thought about reading but didn’t, thought about watching a movie and did. It was one I’d seen before, The Consultant, but I like it. I did send some email that I’d been putting off and I also got an email from an old friend from high school that I haven’t heard much from lately.

F had popped into the house in the morning for a few minutes, but since then I hadn’t heard from him at all. I didn’t know if he was on a driving assignment or not, so I didn’t call. Around 6:45 he still wasn’t back so I decided to go downstairs and make dinner for K and I. I made what I was planning to make for the three of us. I reasoned that when F came back I could just boil more pasta for him. It came together fairly simply, we had basil sauced pasta with broccoli and smoked duck breast on the side. I was rather amazed at how much of the duck breast and broccoli K ate!  Much more than me, of course, I ate a bit more pasta. 

When we finished I cleared the table and did the dishes. It was getting on for 8:30 and I thought that F might prefer going out when he finished work to my pasta, so washed up everything.

I went upstairs and it wasn’t until 9:15 or so that he called to say he was finished and on his way back. Poor thing.

We went out for dinner. I was just going to keep him company really. He looked for a ramen shop, but they’d mostly closed by this time. Finally, he decided on a keiten sushi chain and we went in. It wasn’t that great and F kept complaining about the food. I had a few pieces of sushi or some onion rings, but I didn’t eat too much. F kept asking me to have more stuff, but I didn’t want it. 

We came back via the convenience store. F got some beer and snacks and then we came back to the house. I watched some TV and F ended up going to bed fairly soon. He’s very tired and in a lot of pain so didn’t want to stay up. 

We should have a bit of a busy weekend. I have to do a few last minute things for my mini-con, in fact, I spent much of the evening working on a playlist of tunes for us all. I hope everyone likes it!

Come back later-on to see what we get up to. Until tomorrow….

March 24, 2019

Sunday - Snowy then clear and sunny

We woke up to a world of white this morning. The snow wasn’t very deep, but it was coming down quite fiercely. 

View from just outside my bedroom

F went downstairs and fed his mother then we decided to go out for lunch. I wasn’t feeling my best and asked for simple food, nothing fancy or raw (as in fish). I suggested Cocos and then F suggested going to the one near Mikawa Mall. It sounded fine. However, he had to get money first!  He went to a bank machine in the mall and then we went over to Cocos and had a fairly decent meal. 

I had chicken with a bun added on, F had a Japanese style meal with fish and we shared an order of fries because they have good ones. 

We went back into the mall after lunch and bought some socks. I’ve worn through a couple of pairs of socks recently and since the only place I can get decent socks is the mall, had to go there for them. I got a few pairs that were on for half price so that was good! And yes, I had to buy men’s socks because the women’s ones are too small. 

We walked around the mall a little and I suggested getting a drink. F wanted to go to Doutor, so we did. I gave him my card to get the drinks with and found a seat. Today my sciatica was really bothering me and F is a great one for making me walk all over malls. 

After our very long tea/coffee break for wifi, we went back to the grocery store and got some food for dinner. F got a combo udon and sushi for him and his mother, I picked up some chicken and some salads that were potato or pasta based. 

On the way to the house, we stopped into S-Mall. I wanted to talk to the restaurant in the hotel to see if we could arrange a meal for a friend who is vegetarian. It was quite annoying as F insisted we talk to the front desk clerk and then seemed to be telling him the entire story of our group. I just wanted F to ask if a vegetarian dish could be had easily, but apparently no it couldn’t. We’d have to “negotiate” (how F translated it) with the chef. That would be a no then! Okay, guess the hotel won’t be getting our dinner money. 

We came back to the house and got things on the table quickly. F was being really annoying and taking things out to the table before we’d even put away the groceries. He has the weirdest way of doing that. Instead of doing it methodically, he spreads all the new stuff out on the table and I’m expected to just grab my stuff and put it away. 

F & K’s bentos didn’t need heating up, but mine did. I dished mine up in the kitchen and then went out to the living room, making runs back for glasses for drinks, and the salads which I was sharing. After dinner, I got the joyful task of clearing the table and then doing the dishes. F threw a tantrum at me about me being polite to people (I never understand what he’s on about….he does know that I’m Canadian, right??) and yelling at me that he shouldn’t have to say “excuse me” or “please move” to me when I’m in his way. Dude, whatever.  So, after he stormed off, I got to wash and dry the dishes. There wasn’t much or there would have been a bigger fight.

I went upstairs when I was finished. He had the TV on blaring away and I couldn’t stand the noise. I put my headphones on and listened to P!nk for a while. She’s always good for lifting my mood.  I offered him tea or coffee later on, and then just after nine was asked if I’d go to the onsen with him.  I would and did. 

We got there just before 9:30 so F was okay to go in and take his bath. I sat in the lobby and read some of my book and then it was time to go. 

F asked if I’d like to go somewhere else and I said it was okay, so we went to Komeda Coffee for almost an hour. F wanted to use the wifi and so did I, I think.

We came back to the house and after midnight I took a shower and brought you all up to date on my life. It’s so exciting!  

The snow is mostly gone but there is a bit on some cars and there are some big lumps in the middle of roads where it has come off other cars.  Better now than when my convention happens!

That’s it for me. I’ll be cooking dinner again tomorrow, so I hope things work out. To be honest, I’m getting really tired of F not keeping up the balance of the domestic work. I know he’s tired, but so am I, and these days with my hip being so painful am not enjoying all the running back and forth I have to do around here. 

Come back later if you will and see how things go. Until tomorrow….

March 23, 2019

Saturday - Sunny but cool with a strong wind

Before I went to bed last night, I looked outside and noticed that the world was white. Yes, it had snowed last night. Egads. This morning, there was still a bit of snow, but it wasn’t anything serious as the roads were clear.

I woke up this morning when F came into the bedroom. He’d left the ryokan early so that he could go to the first of his doctors he wanted to see today. I managed to stay in bed and sleep a little longer. I got up at 9, turned on the water-pot and the heater then went back to sleep for a bit. I dragged myself out of bed at 10. 

F was back around then and had turned on the TV while I was out of the room. I really didn’t want to listen to J-TV, but tried not to get annoyed. We left the house about 20 after 11 and got to the doctor’s office soon after. I took The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye with me and got a good start on it. Our appointments went fine and that was that.

After we finished I suggested going to Naa for lunch. F liked that idea so we invited K along too. We went over to Naa and were able to get in right away. We had a nice lunch there and for a change, it wasn’t busy at all. 

After lunch, we came back to the house and I asked F to call and make the reservations for my mini-con for me. He was a star and did them all. Whew! One thing off my list. Or three, depending on how you look at it! 

To say thank you, I offered to take him out for a coffee and did. We went to Komeda and had coffee and wifi time. We left around 5 pm, went to the grocery store and bought a bento for K’s dinner. We delivered it and then F and I drove out to Mikawa.

There was only one new to us English movie in the area and it was Bumblebee. Although I like Hailee Steinfeld, I didn’t want to see it. The Transformers bore me and the last few films were horrible. F said he wanted to see it and since I always pick our films thought fair was fair!  

We got our tickets and then had dinner. We both had Bibinba at the food court. They were good but so hot. I realized that we only had 10 minutes before the movie started and I was only halfway done mine!  I sent F off to get drinks and popcorn then finished mine and put away the dishes. I joined F and we went in to see the movie. And, you know what?  I actually enjoyed it. It wasn’t the best movie ever, but it was fun and I didn’t feel stupid for watching it. I wonder if it had something to do with the fact it was written by a woman? It was a bit of a coming of age movie and I personally liked the tributes to The Breakfast Club!

After the movie it was too late to go to Aeon for socks for me, so F suggested going to Don Qihote. I did get a pair of socks, and also a lightning cord, a drink and a cushion for my chair. I didn’t get cereal though. Sigh.

We came back to the house. F headed to bed quite quickly and I’m still up but plan to get some sleep soon. I’m not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. F suggested going to Yamagata, but I don’t think we should do that. I have a few more pre-convention things to prepare so if I can, I’ll ask if we can do that instead.

Come back later and see how our Sunday goes. Until tomorrow…

March 18, 2018

Sunday - Cloudy and cool

A good day.

I got up this morning a few minutes after F and his mother left for the onsen.  I had a piece of toast and some peanut butter for breakfast and took care of a few personal things.  I made the bed, got dressed and sat down to do some computer stuff. I darned in the ends of my new scarf, so finished that too. Yay me!

My loom knit scarf...fun!

F came back as I was finishing up my scarf.  He’d taken his mother to the usual place, but it was closed.  They’d gone to another onsen in Haguro and then had lunch together, with my blessing.  They had ramen and as we all know, I don’t do ramen.

I was getting a bit hungry and came up with places to eat, but they were probably finished with food serving due to the time. Finally, I said we should go and check out the new restaurant in the Daiichi Hotel.  We drove to the mall and parked.  Sadly, the newly renovated restaurant was past the last order time for lunch, so we didn’t go there.  I decided to try the Pizza Hut Express and had a look at their menu.  Due to my weird food intolerances, I wanted a pasta with no tomato sauce or cream sauce.  They did have a very interesting looking pepperoncino pasta with grilled vegetables and bacon, so ordered that.  F went off to get himself a dessert and then bought a drink at Pizza Hut too. 

The guy brought my pasta over to me and I just looked at it.  It was pasta with chicken on top, and a packet of nori beside the plate.  No vegetables.  I checked the receipt. He’d rung it in correctly, grilled vegetable pasta, but delivered the wrong one. Oops.  F took it back for me and the man said that I could eat that one too if I wanted, but I didn’t really.  I got the correct pasta a few minutes later.

When I was eating, I asked F what else he’d like to do today. He didn’t have any ideas so I suggested going for a drive to the beach. He liked that idea. When we finished eating, I sent F off to the grocery store for drinks and I went to the ladies. 

We drove off to Yunohama and had a good look at the beach. We got out of the car and walked along the beach for a while. It was very dirty and covered with crap from other countries and Japan too. However, it was still lovely to be out near the ocean. We took some silly pictures of each other and found a couple of lovely seashells before we got back in the car.

You can just see the snow on Mt. Chokai in the background.

Some beachcomber

We drove back towards Tsuruoka proper and I suggested coffee at a bakery I had seen.  It turned out to be a fancy cake shop, but they did have a few tables and chairs for people to eat in.  That was really nice actually. I had a pear tart, F a strawberry shortcake. 

In Tsuruoka we stopped off at a store to pick up a few things for ourselves and a bento for K’s dinner if she wanted it. We went back to the house where K was cooking up a storm of smelly fish for herself. She’ll have the bento tomorrow I think.  

F and I went out for our dinner. We didn’t really have any plans so I suggested one place and then on the way there suggested another.  We decided to go to Sukaze.  We’d last gone there about a year ago, I’d been reminded of it by my blog. It was a good choice. F had Dadacha-mame pasta (our local soybean) and I had a hamburg. Both dinners came with salad, coffee and dessert, mine also had soup and bread too. I was quite touched when after the meal they brought me tea to drink. Whenever I’ve been there before I wasn’t drinking coffee, so always asked for tea.  I didn’t specify tonight, so expected coffee, but they remembered that I drink tea. How nice! F doesn’t always like the place and tends to complain that it is expensive, but the food is good. Tonight he liked it.

After our meal, we came back to the house. K was still up so F went to talk to her and I went upstairs.  We had a quiet evening here.  I worked on options for my Duos Mini-con and did a lot of research for that.  

And now, you’re up to date.  I would like to get to bed soon, so will end this and then get some sleep.  Come back later if you would like to and find out how Monday goes.  Until tomorrow…. 

February 27, 2018

Tuesday - Snowy and cold

An okay day!

Did you miss me? I had a great time in Chiba around Narita and since there wasn’t snow there, and there is here, just didn’t want to come back. It was great seeing many of my friends and I was able to get to know a few people better, so I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  

I got back last night and after a nice dinner basically went to bed around midnight. I was so tired I couldn’t stay awake any longer.

Today I got up around the right time and watched the news. I got dressed too and made the bed, but didn’t have a drink for a while. I grabbed my breakfast and watched a couple of episodes of my teen show.  

I was supposed to have been all about my Journal column today, but I procrastinated and caught up with many other things!  I read blogs, Facebook and read email too. I wasn’t ready to write yet. 

I saw K in the early afternoon when my suitcase arrived.  I gave her a souvenir from my trip and instructed her to eat it soon!  It was a very perishable one and I wanted her to enjoy it while it was still good.  

I got lunch for myself and came back upstairs. I had a fairly simple lunch today as my stomach is rebelling from all the rich and almost unfamiliar food I had over the last few days.

I did my dishes rather late and was shocked to see that we’d had a couple of centimetres of snow again today. Sigh. 

When F called to say he was done work, he asked if I’d come to his car dealership with him. While I was away, someone had hit his mirror on the passenger side of the car and knocked it off. Today it was being replaced and he wanted me to come with him. We’d wait for the repair and then have dinner in a nearby restaurant.  That is what we did. The car dealership also had free wifi so I got to play on my phone for a while.  

We had a good dinner at Cocos and then came back to the house.  F wanted to go to an onsen, but I didn’t, so I sent him off while I worked on my column. I actually did work on it and wrote about a couple of movies. Yay me.

F came back just after 10 pm and then went out again. He did offer to take me out with him, but I was working on my column and things were going well so I didn’t want to leave.  He came back a bit later and went to bed fairly soon afterwards.  

I’ll likely go quite soon as I’m still a bit tired. What did I get up to when I was away? Well, the train trip itself was basically 6 or 7 hours long. We did karaoke, sightseeing, some shopping, some temple viewing, some eating, some drinking and a whole lot of enjoying ourselves with each other. The ladies that I spent time with belong to my women’s group AFWJ. We’re part of the subgroup for women who don’t have children. It was great to just spend time together. We went our separate ways on Sunday and I stayed on an extra night in a different hotel in Narita city. It was really enjoyable, but there was a 2am earthquake to keep things exciting! On Monday before my trip back I visited the Naritasan Temple again and did a little shopping on the street leading to the Temple. In short, I just really enjoyed myself. I didn’t really want to come back as there was no snow and the weather was so much nicer than it is here!

Well, that’s it for me.  Come back later and see what happens on Wednesday!  Until tomorrow….

May 30, 2016

Monday - Hot and Sunny

A good day.

I spent the last few days in Tsukuba at the annual AFWJ Convention.  It was marvellous and I really enjoyed myself a lot.  I was in the company of roughly 150 other foreign wives and had a lovely, life-affirming, “you aren’t an idiot for marrying a Japanese person” kind of time!

I left Tsukuba yesterday and made good time to Niigata.  In Niigata last night I went out for dinner and bought some books too.  I ended up crashing in bed at before 1am which is rare!

Today I woke up early, watched Castle in my Hotel room and after a bit checked out.  I asked the hotel to keep my bag and then I went out.  I did a little shopping, I did a little eating and drinking and a lot of reading too.  It was rather fun!  I probably spent too much but I enjoyed myself.

I was able to pick up my bags from the hotel and I caught the train handily. I had been most worried that I’d miss it as I had to walk to the train station a little faster than I had planned.  Still, I made it.

When I arrived in Tsuruoka, F was nowhere to be seen.  I phoned and apparently he was running late.  He did come and pick me up within  a couple of minutes so believe him!

We had a cheerful dinner in Cocos and then bought some groceries.  I’ll be cooking tomorrow night, so be warned Japan.  

We came home and I tried to catch up on my Facebooking.  I don’t think I’m quite there yet. 

However, I am yawning up a storm and I am very tired, so I think I’ll just end this and get some sleep.  Talk to you later.  Until tomorrow….

May 25, 2016

Wednesday - Hot and muggy, rain at times.

A good day.  I got up this morning, watched Castle and had a bit of breakfast.  I took a quick shower and then got dressed and waited for my friend.  She was able to come from the next city over today.  Yay.

F came home for lunch, but just after he arrived, so did my friend, so I left!  My friend and I discussed where to go and finally decided on Simon.  It’s a French/Japanese fusion place.  She had never been, so I had to navigate with lots of help from Google Maps.  The restaurant wasn’t busy, so we were seated right away and got down to the serious business of talking, eating and enjoying ourselves.  I had fish for a change and my friend had steak.  Hers looked really good, I sort of wished I’d had it too!

We were politely asked to leave the restaurant and then went over to Komagihara Spa.  We wanted some ice cream and a place to chat.  First we toured the veggies and she bought a few things.  I decided not to as I’m going away soon.  After that, we had ice cream, followed a little later by coffee or tea.  All too soon it was time for her to go, so we drove back to my apartment, detouring a bit for the Tenjin Matsuri events in the park.

I had a few minutes in the apartment to relax so I did.  Then, I changed my clothes and went out to sweep the lobby. It took a while, but I got it looking decent.  I came back in and then worked on getting my suitcase ready to go.  

I took everything out, and then checked that I had enough outfits that I would wear and would be practical for this time of year.  It’s already quite hot where I’m going, but air conditioning can be too cold in places.  I put most of the stuff back in my suitcase, added a little, but kept out a couple of things I wouldn’t need.  

When F came home he was tired and I was sad about that.  He was the kind of tired where misunderstandings could happen easily. He changed and we brought my suitcase to the courier service.  Since I’m travelling by train, I really don’t want to have to take it all the way by myself.  I’ll have them deliver it back here after I come home too.

We went out for dinner.  F wanted his Taiwan restaurant and since he’d helped me and was tired, I said it was okay.  We had a good, if much too big meal.  I even managed to give him a bit of mine, but I still left some of the rice.  

We did some grocery shopping after dinner.  We got a few things at Yamaya and then MaxValu.  I’ll cook dinner tomorrow night, probably just pasta, but I won’t have to cook for a few days and that’s a nice thing!

We came home and a few minutes later went for a walk again.  Tonight we were out for over an hour.  We walked back through the park and as we did, it started to rain.  Oh dear.  We made it home but were a little wet.  

I watched Penny Dreadful again, and F took his bath and then made noise as usual on the couch.  I worked on my crochet by darning in some of the ends on the little motifs I’ve made.  I still have a few to do.  I’ll probably try and do a few more tomorrow night.

And that’s about it.  I’ll probably skip tomorrow night because I’d like an early night. Don’t miss me too much, and I’ll see you next week if all goes well.  Until….next week then!