December 31, 2018

Monday - Cold and snowy

I got up this morning around 9 am. I had to watch NCIS, which was on TV surprisingly. F got up and made his mother something to eat. I vegged up in the room for a while. I had planned to go and get my breakfast, but I got too tired and took a nap instead!

When F came back upstairs he asked if I’d like to go to lunch and I said sure. I mentioned that most local restaurants would be closed, but sometimes the big chain ones would be working.  He asked about Jiro, since it is one I like I said we could try it, but it was closed. We ended up going to the new steak place, Ikinari Steak across the street. 

It was an odd restaurant. We were seated but had to go and order our steak at the window near where we came in. We sat side by side and then ended up sharing our table with two university-aged guys that we didn’t know. That was odd to look across the table and have someone there you didn’t know. The food was okay, but I wouldn’t say it was great. Maybe we didn’t have the most expensive steak, but I didn’t expect to have as many sinews in my food as it did. To top it all off, F couldn’t eat all of his steak, so I had to have his extra bits.  I was so stuffed afterwards!  I don’t think I’ll go back unless I feel meat deprived.

We went to Starbucks for a coffee and had to wait about 20 minutes for a table. I would have left, but F wanted to wait. I think he likes Starbucks more than I do. We both had fairly plain coffee today. I had iced because it was from Kenya, he had the hot drip of the day. 

After our drinks, we went to pick up some groceries to go with our dinner. F picked out some Osechi, or traditionally prepared food for New Years, I wasn’t so sure about it. We came back to the house and relaxed for a while.

F went downstairs when the sushi was supposed to arrive but was there for a while. He watched TV with his mother I think. I came down around 6 and we got things ready for dinner, but still no sushi!  It was a bit late but finally did make its appearance.  We had another feast.  I did eat most of my sushi, but not too much of the osechi. I was still really quite full from lunch. After we ate, I gave F a hand with the dishes, then went back upstairs to take a nap.

I didn’t really end up napping. I watched some telly and then did some computer stuff. Finally, F came upstairs.  We had a little chat and decided not to do the big first visit to Tsuruoka Park, but we would walk to the nearby Shrine instead. We got all dressed up, and walked to the Shrine. It was very nice and not crowded at all. A couple came in just after us, and we saw another on their way, so other people obviously had the same idea. 

When we came back to the house, I grabbed the rest of the Christmas Pudding and a couple of cans of drink and headed upstairs. F made himself some soup and brought it upstairs. We had a little feast of Christmas Pudding and ice cream and F had some soup. I watched the last episode of Bates Motel and thought it was interestingly odd.  

That’s about it for today. F and I didn’t fight which is crazy good. We enjoyed being around each other for the most part too today. Hurray for that!  

We’re off for a night to Yamagata for our annual New Year Costco run, so please don’t miss us. If all goes well, I’ll post again on the 2nd of January.  So, from me to you, Happy New Year!

Until next time….

December 30, 2018

Sunday - Cold and Snowy

We slept in a bit this morning.  F got up and made his mother some breakfast, I stayed upstairs.  He asked about going out a bit later and that was fine with me. I suggested going to my Indian Restaurant from yesterday so that’s what we did. It was really cold in there though, but the food was good. We both had the all you can eat naan set. I had chicken curry, F had a paneer curry. They were both good.

After lunch, I asked that we visit a craft shop. I’ve been eyeing those “Shawls in a Ball”  things and wanted to see if they had any on sale. Well, they did as a matter of fact. I bought a couple of balls since I’m a little larger than the typical Japanese woman! I also got some warm socks for around the house. Yay me.

We visited the drugstore before this. I wanted some medicine for my gum. I’ve got a sore spot and with us planning to go away on New Years Day didn’t want to be searching for open drugstores on the way. F said I should go to the dentist, which of course would be my preference, but it was Sunday and the Sunday before New Year.  Not too many dentists open. He did have the good grace to agree with me.

We went to Doutor in the mall to have a drink and relaxed there for a while. F’s former back doctor came over and said hello. It was nice to see him.  After our drinks, we bought a few things from the grocery store and brought them back to the house.  K was in bed when we arrived, I think she’d been in bed the whole day.  She got up to eat her bento from yesterday. I went upstairs with our shopping. 

F and I decided to try to go to karaoke in the evening, but I suggested calling first to see if they had space for us. Of course, none of the places did. Some did invite us to come and wait in their lobbies in case there was a vacancy, but we decided not to go. 

We went over to the Internet Cafe for some massaging chair time. We were both able to get chairs so we stayed there for three hours. I enjoyed it. I did a touch of crochet, watched some videos, had dinner and got to relax. 

We left when our 3 hours was up and then came back to the house. F took his shower first, and then I did. I had planned to bring up some of my Christmas Pudding for us, but he got a bit snippy with me and so I decided he didn’t deserve any. I didn’t have any either. 

He went to bed but has been coughing for hours. Finally, he got up around 2:30. I’ve offered him some tea, but he keeps turning me down. Oh well. 

I’ll most likely be posting tomorrow night, but we’re planning to go to Yamagata City for a Costco run on the 2nd so I won’t be here on the 1st. Of course, it all depends on a lot of factors like weather, grandmothers and mothers and whether F and I can stay in the car together.  Come back and see what happens before all that!  Until tomorrow….

December 29, 2018

Saturday - Cold and Snowy, windy

We slept in a bit this morning. I got up around 11, but F was already up. He’d told me he was going back to bed at one point, so I was rather surprised that he was gone! He came back in a bit and we talked about going out. I suggested going to the Indian Restaurant in Tsuruoka, and F was okay with that. On the road, however, he suggested another place. I wasn’t too pleased but said if it wasn’t busy and there was parking we could go there instead.  There was parking and it turned out not to be busy…but they had a new item on the menu. Hamburgers and French fries. Yes!  Of course, I had to try one.  

Yum!

F had the roast beef and rice, and I had a hamburger.  Well, it was definitely the best burger I’ve had in Tsuruoka, and pretty close to top three in Japan. Woot! I was stuffed afterwards.

We went to the drugstore to get some cream for F’s cold-split finger, and then to Starbucks for a drink.  F had a latte, I had the new Goma Goma Goma Latte and it was good. I also got a sample of the Goma Goma Goma Frappucino and that was nice. Poor F didn’t get one.  

We went shopping to get a few more small things for my BIL and then hit up the hundred yen shop and the grocery store. We got bentos for each of us and then came back to the house. 

K was in bed. Sigh. F got her up to have dinner with us, but she said she wasn’t hungry. F got her to have part of yesterday’s bento, and then F and I had our bentos.  

After we ate, I washed my dishes and then went upstairs.  I spent most of the night up here.  I fixed my photocopier first. I needed to be awake when I did it, I wasn’t last night at 1 am.  I did some computer stuff and then  F came up and went to bed. He isn’t feeling well at all. This cold he has is quite bad.  

I watched some TV and messed around on my computer. F woke up after a while is sitting around using his phone to post to Google Plus.  

Anyway, that’s about it for me. I’m not sure what’s going to happen tomorrow. I don’t care too much as long as I don’t have to hang around the house watching Japanese TV!  Come back later and see how things go. Until tomorrow….

December 28, 2018

Friday - Snowy and cold

I got up at my proper time today, although I was really tired for ages. I half planned to take a nap all day, but never did.  K mostly kept to herself, except she did let me know when I got some mail this morning.

In the afternoon the delivery guy came by for my package. Luckily he called out in the genkan because I didn’t hear the door, and I had the TV off so should have heard the doorbell. I dealt with him and off he went. 

I had my lunch just after that and it was good. I had quite a bit of cheese and some of the salad sticks. I noticed that K had eaten her bento that was supposed to be her dinner. Sigh. 

I went out after lunch to do a bit of snow shovelling. The snow was light, but it was cold and windy so it wasn’t that pleasant to be out. I cleared out the car area quickly and also did the steps of the house too.

F called me and said he was coming back to change. He didn’t feel well and was talking about not going to his party tonight. Oh dear!  When he arrived, he talked to his mother and she would like a bento or something for her dinner. F was still thinking if he should go tonight or not!  I insisted that he go, or if he didn’t, he had to go to bed. It’s just that he never goes out with friends and I know he enjoys going out with these guys he knew from work. 

We made a quick run to the grocery store for a bento for his mother. I got a small packet of chicken for me and then we came back. F called his taxi to go to the party, and I got things ready on the living room table for our dinner.  I put out the last of the veggie sticks too, plus a container with some dressing in it for dipping.  

First thing K does is dip a piece of my chicken in the dressing. Then, when F told her off, she took it out and held it over her glass of tea. Sigh.  It was sort of funny, in a painful way though. F left when his taxi arrived and we continued eating. K stopped at half of her new bento, but ate half of my chicken and most of the veggie sticks. She double dips most of the time, so I stopped dipping at all.  She’s a character. I didn’t really grudge her the chicken, just thought it was funny she announced she was finished eating, then helped herself to more food.

I did the few dishes when I was done and came upstairs. I watched a bit of telly tonight, finished another Christmas bauble and started another one. I was watching Castle when K called me downstairs around 9:30. She was going on and on about something, but I had no idea what. I think she wanted me to call F and get him to come home. It was 9:30 and F is a grown man!  Isn’t that up to him?  I think so!

I didn’t call him.  I was a tad surprised when I hadn’t heard from him at all by 11pm. I took a shower and sent him a text. After the shower I did get one back. He was waiting for a taxi. With the bad weather and the time of year, taxis are hard to find. 

F got back around 1 I think. I had spent my time well. I made a packing list for the box I need to sent to my sister. I’m not sure when I’ll get it sent, but it is nearly ready to go. 

F was quite happy when he came back. He is glad that he went, but I’m not sure he will be in the morning. I did get him to drink something though. 

And that’s about it for me. I’m tired and it’s late.  No idea what we’ll get up to tomorrow. Come back later and find out. Until tomorrow….

December 27, 2018

Thursday - Cold and snowy

I overslept a bit this morning, not sure why. I didn’t go to bed very late at all, by my standards. I dragged myself out of bed, watched the news and learned that Japan is going to do whaling again. Of course, they always were whaling, it is just that they pretended it was “Scientific Research”. 

Watched my shows, did a couple of loads of laundry which entailed putting away other loads of laundry and making space for the freshly washed stuff. I was quite tired in the afternoon!

I watched a bit of TV and then went down for lunch. K was around in the kitchen heating up her lunch, so I said hello. I offered her some of the veggies from Christmas day and she accepted. I made her a little plate with some dips and put them on the living room table for her.

After my lunch and before the news, I went out and shovelled snow for about 45 minutes. It was still very light and not too deep, so it wasn’t difficult. The sad thing was that it was very unpleasant as it was still coming down.  At one point a lady delivering flyers came in the driveway and I jumped about six feet.  She was wearing a red coat and I think I must have been thinking Christmas Elves or something…anyway, we both had a laugh.

I went into the house and up to my room. I watched the news and finished wrapping the gifts for my sister and her family. F called to say that he was on the way. I could barely understand him. He keeps using the car’s microphone to call me and I hate it. There is so much background noise I can’t catch what he’s saying.

F spent some time arranging for some clothes that I ordered to be sent back. It took a long time and sounded terribly complicated.  They should get picked up tomorrow. Yay.

We went out for dinner to Udonichi. I like that place a lot, but F said it is terrible. Maybe that’s why I don’t like his udon when he makes it!  I think his is terrible.  It was cold where we were sitting. K and I had the same dish, udon with some tempura, F had udon and rice and tempura.  We planned to take K to the store, but then F said just the two of us should go, so we dropped her off at the house and went to the store.

The first shop had nothing for K and me for dinner tomorrow, so we went to another store. We got some stuff there, but we didn’t have much choice. F will be away tomorrow night at a party if he’s feeling better, so K and I need some food.  I don’t want to cook tomorrow.

We went to the drugstore and then the supermarket, and then went back to the house. F got quite shirty at me and was not a very nice person for a while. I’m not sure what the problem was. He even got mad at me for whispering to myself when I was across the room. I know he’s feeling bad, which is the only reason I didn’t go ballistic on him tonight.  

He went to bed fairly early, I’m off as soon as I post this. The weather is windy and cold and I have to turn off the water before I come to bed. Oh yay. I so love that. 

Tomorrow I have a few things to do around the house and I’m sure I can always shovel more snow! Come back and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

December 26, 2018

Wednesday - Rainy at times

Today was a draggy kind of day. I think after the worry and anticipation of Christmas Day, Boxing Day felt like such a letdown. I had a hard time getting up, and then when I was up, had a hard time doing anything else. 

I watched my show and then tried to rewatch the US news, but discovered that it wasn’t on. I think the news was off in the US for the holiday. I had planned to do a bit of laundry but changed my mind. Tomorrow.  Or that’s the plan at the moment!

I had breakfast and watched a bit of TV, later on, had lunch too. I watched quite a bit of TV and some movie on this afternoon too.  Can’t remember what it was though.

In the afternoon, I wrapped some of the presents for my sister’s family. That felt weird, wrapping them in Christmas paper after Christmas. Then, I went downstairs to get dinner on the table.

Dinner was just leftovers, but there were a lot of them.  I didn’t try and make things as fancy as I did last night, but all the hard work was already done. I set the table and tried to let K know that the cheese needed to warm up before we ate it! F called just after 7 pm to say he was on his way, but I asked him to try and get more dip for the vegetables. He did try but didn’t find it, so I told him to just get some salad dressing instead.

K and I had had a few bites when F arrived, so he changed quickly and joined us for dinner.  We ate until we were stuffed!  There were lots of veggies, but also cheese, crackers, chicken, cold meat and more smoked oysters. It went down a treat.  

F helped me with the dishes and then we went out.  I needed more salad for my lunches, and just to get out of the house. We went to Komeda coffee and basically closed out the place. We were the last customers and the staff wanted us out! I understand though, but….

We got a few groceries and then came back to the house. I did up the garbage for tomorrow and then took a shower where I had a huge moan about my life and how I have nothing to show for my life in Japan.  It’s sad, it’s true, and I’m rather upset about it.

F isn’t feeling very well. He may have my cold now, or a worse one from someone at work. He coughs a lot and is sleeping noisily. I hope he’s okay.

No idea what is going to happen tomorrow. There is some of the white stuff forecast for tonight though. I’m a bit scared of that.  

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

December 25, 2018

Tuesday - Rainy, with thunder

Merry Christmas to my readers!

I had a good day today, so now I’m here to tell you all about it. I overslept a tad in the morning, but was still up before 9 so quite okay with that. I got dressed and later on did a couple of loads of laundry.

In the afternoon I had mostly quiet time. I was tired and thinking about the meal prep. F even visited for a few minutes between driving runs. 

A bit before 4, I went downstairs and started preparing things for dinner. I started with the vegetables as they’d take the longest. I washed, sliced and cubed some vegetables and filled up 3 dishes with all sorts of vegetables for dipping. Yum.

Over the next while I got everything plated. I kept things even simpler this year than last. We got a roasted chicken from a restaurant, I put out crackers, cheese and cold meats.  I put out some smoked oysters as well. When F finished work, he went to pick up the chicken and brought it back. It was tiny, but it was big enough for the three of us. 

When we finally ate, we feasted.  F opened a bottle of sparkling grape juice and we toasted the holiday.  It was nice. We could eat as much or as little as we liked and everything was delicious. Yay.  I still get a little tense before serving it, and it isn’t traditionally Christmassy, but it is nice to relax and just enjoy oneself. 

Afterwards, F and I did a few dishes and then we served the Christmas Pudding. We finally were able to serve it en flambe--woot!  I only gave us a tiny amount of the fruit pudding and ice cream as it is so rich and we were all stuffed.

F and I finished up the dishes and then we got ready to go out. I wanted to go and get some kitchen supplies because we were running low. I also had to send my nengajo.  We drove off. F put the postcards in the mail for me, then we went to Starbucks. Actually, we detoured to the grocery store for the supplies and then went to Starbucks. I had a caffeine-free tea and F had some chai. He seemed to enjoy it a lot, and I did too. 

Around 11, we left and came back to the house. I put away the groceries and came upstairs. The heater was empty, so I filled up the tank and then went back upstairs with it. 

And that was about it. F went to sleep a bit early as he’s tired and under the weather. I’m just tired, so I’m heading off right away. 

It was a bit of a low-key day, but it was a good one. I really enjoyed it, but am glad all the Christmas stuff is nearly over! 

All the best to my readers.  If you celebrate something this season, I wish you joy and happiness, and if you don’t, I still wish you joy and happiness!  

Until tomorrow….

December 24, 2018

Monday - Rainy and snowy

It’s Christmas Eve folks…go be with your friends or family…!

I got up this morning around 9 to watch NCIS and check my email groups. F was in bed for ages. I had told him last night I wanted to leave the house at 10:30.  About 10:25 he was still in bed, so I got in bed and had a ten-minute snooze, then got up again. To do him credit, he did get up and we went off to have lunch.

We couldn’t think of a place to go, so finally I suggested the Daiichi Hotel’s restaurant.  We got there a little early, but they did have some dishes in our budget. Yay. F had a very Japanese meal, the local “lord” family’s chicken and I had pasta. Mine was lovely, his looked good. 

After lunch, I went upstairs and picked up a fruit knife from the hundred yen shop. I’ve been collecting stamps for a couple of months and got this. Woot.

After that, F and I started doing some shopping. I got him to take me to one of the stores that sells foreign food. We got a bit of the stuff I wanted. Some of the food from this store was frozen, so we delivered it back to the house and put it in the freezer. Then, we went out again. 

We went to Yamaya, the liquor shop, and I picked up some sliced meat and some interesting cheeses. I got a few more crackers, F got some beer for himself and I found some sparkling juice for us to have with dinner. 

After Yamaya, we went to the big grocery store and had a look around. We picked up bentos for our dinners tonight and a few other things for lunches and dinner.  

After that, F and I had a coffee in Komeda Coffee and used the wifi. It was a nice little break, even if we spent more time with our phones than each other.

We did a quick and unsuccessful run through the hundred yen shop and then came back to the house. We unloaded the car, loaded up the fridge and then since F and K were both hungry, had dinner. For a change, we all had the same bento so it was nice to just chill for a bit. 

F washed the dishes and the glasses after dinner, I dried. We decided that we’d go to the onsen, so drove out there. F did put together a loaf of bread in the bread maker too. 

We had an okay time at the onsen. I did some crafting and listened to a podcast, after his bath, F sat for a while and watched videos.  I was freezing in the onsen and couldn’t wait to leave. 

We came back to the house and had some of our stollen from a day ago. It was quite nice. Then, F and I opened our presents from my sister and her family. I feel so guilty, we haven’t sent our presents to them yet, but we enjoyed getting our presents!  I got a bunch of kitchen tools, one interesting one being a garlic cutter/shredder.  I also got a pair of pyjamas and a new shirt, plus an Oilers toque.  F got an Oilers cap (think hockey!), a t-shirt and a couple of other things.  

I took a shower and then came upstairs and watched an episode of ER from Friday. F went to bed and I should go there myself. I had hoped to finish my nengajo tonight but didn’t get around to it. One more thing for tomorrow I guess! 

Come back later if you like and see what tomorrow brings.  Will it be a nice Christmas, or a hard one? It might snow overnight, I hope it doesn’t for poor F. He has such a hard time with snow at work. 

Until tomorrow….Merry Christmas!

December 23, 2018

Sunday - Rainy

We both slept in today. The first time we woke up it was because K was banging on the door to ask F about the water. He’d turned off the water to the taps last night before bed because it was supposed to get cold. He went downstairs and helped her with that, then came back and went back to bed. I dragged myself out of bed finally around noon, F was a couple of hours later.

K didn’t want any lunch as she had some bento left over, so F and I went out. We discussed a few places but finally went to Kintaro Sushi and had a lovely meal there. Their sushi is so much better than the famous keitensushi places in town. We ran a few errands after lunch and got ourselves some kerosene for the house too. We dropped it off, plus a bit of food for K for later on. We also visited The Grand El Sun again, to see their craft fair. There were some lovely things on offer, but the prices were a bit much for me. One nice thing is that F bumped into a friend of his and had a chat with him. I want F to socialize more, but he doesn't want to!

We drove off to Mikawa and went to see A Star is Born.  We both really liked it. I have always appreciated Bradley Cooper, and I am a fan of Lady Gaga. However, I’m not sure the film was as good as people have been saying! There was just something about it that I didn’t quite like. Still, it was enjoyable and I liked most of the music.

After the movie, we zoomed over to the craft area to look at yarn for me, but the stuff I wanted to buy would have been too expensive. I’ve been thinking of trying some of the colour changing yarn, but the “shawl in a ball” type they had was a colour scheme I didn’t really like. They had small balls of yarn, but they were only 34 meters long and 100 yen for a ball. I would go bankrupt!  I’m hoping at New Year they will go on sale and then I can pick up a few balls to try out. 

We left without buying anything. We drove back to Tsuruoka and then came back to the house. We had a quiet evening and that was that!  

Tomorrow I have to face the shops and try and get some food for Christmas day’s dinner. I am thinking of cold cuts, cheese and crackers or buns again. We’ve ordered a roasted chicken and I’ll see if anything else will strike my fancy. Come back later and see how things go. 

Until tomorrow….

December 22, 2018

Saturday - Cloudy and dark

The day started fairly badly but ended well. This morning, my alarms went off at 9am, but F was already gone. I hadn’t slept that well, F was in pain and made a lot of noise when he moved. 

I got up, dressed, filled up the kerosene tank in our room, got my hot water on for drinks, started the heater, and did a bit of running around.  My online meeting was to start at 10 am. F came back around 9:45, still in pain and rather grumpy. He said he was going to stay in the room, which was fine. Then he started moving cans around and making noise. I asked him to stop and he got annoyed at me. The meeting was starting and I was waiting to connect when F stormed out of the room. I went online and said that I couldn’t attend the meeting after all, and hung up. 

After a bit, I went to check on F. His sister had come by and was going to take his mother out for lunch. Lovely! 

I went back upstairs and went back to bed for a bit, as did F. I couldn’t sleep so I got up and wrote some of my nengajo. 

Around 1 F suggested lunch, so we went out. We went to Foodever and both had gapao rice. It was good. After that, we had a coffee or tea at the coffee shop there. We ran a few errands after that.

We went to the sushi shop and put in an order for sushi for Dec 31 for our dinner, got some food at the grocery store and then delivered it to the house. 

F and I were doing fine by this time. F was still in pain, but we were talking and not arguing anymore.

I spent some of the afternoon trying to figure out what to wear. Sadly, some of my favourite clothes are too small at the moment. Finally, I decided on a pair of yoga pants and a black and white polka dot shirt.  For good measure, I wore some Christmassy earrings and then threw on my boa from a few years ago.  

At 6 our taxi came, and we went to The Grand El Sun. It was rather fun at the party. Officially it was a Christmas Beer Hall, but really it was a buffet with a lot of different types of food and drinks. We had some crab, steak (too tough really), sashimi, pasta, Chinese style food and a bunch of other things. For dessert, I had a bit of stollen and then some chocolate fondue.  It was all really nice. F had a couple of beers and some wine to drink, I had a couple of non-alcoholic cocktails before having a hard cider. We left at the end of the party and had had a really nice time.  

Click to make bigger.  F and I after the party.

I am glad the F made the effort to go. In the morning when we were fighting he said he couldn’t go, but he did have a good time. I know that being in public is good for him.  The venue is the place that we had our wedding at, so most of the staff know us.  I was probably their first Western bride, and I spoke a little less Japanese then than I do now, so they remember me!  

We came back to the house and came upstairs. We actually had a nice chat for a while and have been really friendly all night. I watched some of my TV and drank a lot of tea.

I’m not really sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. I’m hoping to do a few last minute Christmas things and maybe see A Star is Born if we have time.  Come back later and see how Sunday goes. Until tomorrow….

December 21, 2018

Friday - Sunny and gorgeous

An odd day.

I woke up at 7:30 this morning, so halfway between early and my regular time! I got up, and then basically stayed up.  I did watch the news from the bed and had a bit of a snooze during the non-English bits, but saw most of it. 

I had a quiet morning, but it was okay. I got a Christmas card in the mail and brought that upstairs with my breakfast. 

I watched a lot of telly today, I really wanted to clear some space on the DVR. Tomorrow night I’m going to record a couple of movies on WOWOW, plus need to catch my regular stuff, so I needed the space.

In the afternoon, I got a delivery of a box from Canada….yay!  My presents from my sister.  I also printed up 20 nengajo. I just have to write them now. Sigh.

F came back to the house after his work and we talked about dinner. I suggested bentos again and he liked that idea. I thought the idea was that we’d eat together and then he and I would go out to the onsen.  Anyway, we picked up a box of goodies from the convenience store…my order from the other day…and then the bento. When we came back to the house things got a bit odd.  F put the box in the pile with other boxes and asked if it was okay. I preferred it to be left at the foot of the stairs so that we wouldn’t forget to take it up. He got angry and said that it was dangerous, so he took it upstairs. I was annoyed since I had rather a lot of stuff to take upstairs and hadn’t planned to.  Whatever. I realize that leaving things at the bottom of the stairs isn’t terribly safe, but considering he won’t put a safety rail on the stairs, think he doesn’t really need to lecture me about safety.

I was a bit upset but tried not to show it too much. I got out the glasses and some drink for our meal, F had gone the miso soup route again.  (At least he hadn’t put onions in mine.) We ate and then as F seemed glued to the TV, I cleared the table and washed and dried the dishes. I half expected him to come and help but he didn’t. I went directly upstairs and waited for him. I didn’t watch any TV because I assumed we’d be leaving right away. 

About an hour later, I came down and asked him if he was still going out. He said he would, but not to the onsen. Hmm.  

I went back upstairs and didn’t see him until almost 11pm!  I decided to watch stuff I wanted so enjoyed my time. I also wrote a couple of my nengajo.  When he finally made an appearance around 11 pm I asked him if he still was going to go out. He said he would, but I said no because it was late!  He’s had a really hard day at work with lots of snow shovelling, and his back is really protesting. He went to bed and I took a shower.

When I came back I wasn’t sure if he was still awake. He was, but really not doing well. I’m hoping that he will go and see a doctor tomorrow. I’m glad that this is a long weekend so he has a chance to rest up a bit.

However, tomorrow we’re going out for our fancy Christmas dinner, so I hope that he will be a bit mobile for that. I hate it when he’s in so much pain.  

Anyway, I should go. Tomorrow morning I have a telephone meeting I want to attend and in the evening our party. If I have too much fun I might not blog tomorrow night, otherwise, I’ll probably be here.  Come back later and see if I’m here! Until tomorrow...?

December 20, 2018

Thursday - Cloudy, with thunderstorms

A good day.

I got up on time this morning and that was good! I didn’t oversleep. I got dressed, watched the news and also NCIS. I went downstairs a few times to do dishes after breakfast. I spent a lot of the day in my room though.

I was watching the TV and I heard K sweeping the stairs and the hall outside my room. I hate when she does it as I feel it is my responsibility, but since I don’t have a broom, only do it when I can vacuum in peace. I decided to just let her do it today.  I did come out of the room a bit later and I said thank you to her. It’s so hard to communicate with her.

Around 4 pm I started to wrap the presents that we have so far for my sister’s family. I weighed everything, wrote down the values and got ready for sending things. I didn’t finish, but I started and that is a good thing!

F came back fairly early tonight. I asked what he wanted to do for dinner, but he didn’t have any ideas. I thought that he and his mother wanted to go to an onsen tonight, so I suggested going to the Chinese Restaurant in Kushibiki and then dropping me off at the house before going to the nearby spa.  He thought that was a good idea and talked to his mother about it. She decided she didn’t want to go to the onsen anymore, and then F decided that too. 

We went to the Chinese Restaurant and it was good tonight. K had a mabo-rice dish, or spicy tofu and meat on rice, F had his usual yakisoba with starchy sauce and I had my usual stirfry of egg, black fungus, pork and veggies. It was good.  We enjoyed our meals very much. 

We came back to the house and stayed in tonight. I watched quite a bit of TV tonight, including ER and NCIS. F watched a fishing show later on with my blessing.  

Tonight was quiet but good. F and I had a bit of a bonding moment. This house isn’t good for us being together. I’m usually in a different room from him and the physical separation seems really large, even though the room isn’t that big. 

Tomorrow I have to finish the rest of the wrapping if I can, and also make a start on my nengajo. Wish me luck with that!  Until tomorrow….

December 19, 2018

Wednesday - Rainy and cool

An okay day.

This morning I woke up around 7 again, went downstairs to use the ‘loo, and then came back upstairs and fell fast asleep. I didn’t wake up until 9 this time! Yikes.

I got up, dressed and watched my morning drama and then went down to grab breakfast. I saw K, but didn’t interact with her.  I came upstairs again to eat. 

F called me around 1 to say he was taking time off in the afternoon.  I wasn’t too surprised since he’d talked about it before, but I wasn’t sure why. Still, it would be nice to see him. 

I had lunch and just as I was finishing up, he called to say he was done and hadn’t had lunch. Sigh. When he arrived, he checked on his mother and then we decided to go out for his lunch. 

We drove around for a while to find a place for him to go. He wanted ramen, but it was around 3 pm and most of the ramen places close after lunch time. I suggested gently going to a family restaurant, a 24-hour place or the curry place.  He chose the latter. He had some yummy looking soup curry and I had a dessert and a drink.

After we left, he suggested going to the Internet Cafe for a while so we did that. It wasn’t too busy and we were able to get massaging chairs right away. I did some crochet and watched YouTube videos. It was a nice relaxing bit of my day.

We left on time and on the way back to the house to pick up K, she called us.  F’s grandmother had taken a turn for the worse and we should go and see her.  I begged off. I said to F that the last thing his grandmother needed was having someone around with a bad cold. My nose is still running and I just don’t need to spread what I have to the family. 

He agreed, so K and F set off to the family home.  While they were gone I caught up with some internet messages and websites.  They came back after an hour and a half or so. F had wanted to go to the onsen tonight, but it was around 9pm, so a bit late to go then. I said he could maybe go with his mother tomorrow night…

In the meantime, I was hungry and needed to pick up a few things. We went off to Mina, the big grocery store nearby. I got some fried chicken for myself and a frozen soup pasta, also some salad for lunches and a few other things. F got one or two things too. 

We came back to the house and I said to F that I would do the garbage up after I finished eating my dinner. I didn’t want to do the garbage first.  As I started heating up the soup, he brings down the garbage bags from our room. What? Why?  So, all through me preparing my food, I had to contend with him playing with the garbage in the kitchen. I was so annoyed. And to make it worse, he didn’t even do it right!  He put a bag back in the garbage can but didn’t get it sitting right. He didn’t clean out the drain or the corner box.  Of course, I ended up doing it.  

I’m a little embarrassed to say this, but I wasn’t the nicest person to him for a while. I was quite annoyed with him.  I wanted to have my dinner. F had had something to eat at the Internet Cafe, plus the soup curry earlier….that’s two things, to my one lunch 8 hours earlier. Not exactly fair, was it? 

I ate finally and then went downstairs with my towel.  I finished up the garbage that F had abandoned in the kitchen because he was mad at me for being mad at him, put it in the genkan, washed the dishes that he’d left in the sink and then took my shower.  

I went upstairs afterwards and apologized for being grumpy. I was hungry and told him so. Then he had the nerve to tell me he was hungry too. Doesn’t count dear. You got to eat.

I watched a bit of TV and F did whatever he does. He’s gone to bed now and I’ll hopefully go soon too. I’m not sure what is going to happen with the granny situation. She’s been close to death for two or three years I think….not sure what will happen with her in the next little bit.

Come back later if you like and see how Thursday goes.  Just a note though if something does happen with F’s granny, I may not be able to post. Hopefully, until tomorrow….

December 18, 2018

Tuesday - Rainy

An okay day.

I overslept this morning because I got up early on to use the washroom, then fell asleep. I didn’t hear my alarms at all.  I woke up around 8:30, managed to watch the US and then the UK news after I cued it on the DVR.

I didn’t see K most of the day, but I did hear her. She bopped around rather a lot today. I was really hoping she’d go back to bed like usual because I was so sleepy I wanted a nap. No such luck.

I had planned to make dinner tonight, but with being tired and having a runny nose, thought I should pass. Then I decided to take some cold medicine and go for it. I went downstairs around 5 pm and started peeling potatoes. I was making Bangers and Mash. When F called I asked him to pick up some stuff including some salad for dinner. I was busy in the kitchen, and I really was. I couldn’t find my potato masher, sad to say, so had to use a fork.  We had mashed potatoes, sausages and gravy, with a side salad.  Dinner got good reviews, but I’m not completely convinced it was good!  Still, it was homemade and that counts for us these days I think.

I washed half the dishes and then F took over. That meant I got to dry all the dishes….hey, that’s not fair! F did clean the stove which was nice. I had planned to do it, but he wouldn’t move.

He wanted to go out and get gas for the car and I wanted to get some things from the drugstore for the house. We combined our trip. We got some garbage bags, some liquid hand soap and some detergent in the drugstore as well as a few other things. F filled up the car at the gas station, and then we headed off to Kameda Coffee for a break. 

I noticed they had a cake set available now, so we each had that with some decaf. We used the free wifi there for a while. It wasn’t until I started snoring that F roused himself. I was really sleepy and just wanted to leave. 

We got back to the house and put away the shopping. I came upstairs and F had sneakily grabbed the remotes and had put on Bates Motel. Now, I like the show a lot, but I watched it on Friday Night, so I didn’t need to see it again. I didn’t mind too much until I noticed that F wasn’t watching it.  Grr!

I watched a couple of other shows and then turned off the TV. F has gone to bed and he’s snoozing away fairly noisily.  

So, today I didn’t feel that great but did cook dinner. Yay for that! Come back later and see how my Wednesday goes. Until tomorrow….

December 17, 2018

Monday - Rainy

A good, productive day.

I didn’t have a great night. When I first went to bed, I was cold, then overheated and then it was morning!  F woke me up when he left, but I got up soon after anyway. 

I had a fairly normal morning except I made myself oatmeal for a change. I used one of my new bowls to make it in the microwave. It was fast that way.  I really enjoyed breakfast. I also did a couple of loads of laundry and hung it up this morning. I caught up with some of my email stuff, had a bit of email trouble this morning…but it seems to have sorted itself out.  Hurray.

In the afternoon I watched some DVR TV and put away laundry and caught up on a few things.  I had my lunch and then decided to start wrapping my best friend’s present afterwards.  I semi-cheated by using gift bags but got it done and boxed up.  F phoned to say he was on his way back to the house, so I asked him to take me to the post office.  I was printing out a packing list when he called and of course, my printer had jammed.  He thought I was outside, but really I was just trying to get him to hang up so I could use both hands to fix my printer!

After F came back to the house, we decided that we’d go to the post office, then to the grocery store so we could get his mother something to eat. After that, we’d go to the onsen and then go to dinner.  That’s pretty much what we did.

The post office went fairly smoothly. It was expensive of course, but that’s fairly normal. At the grocery store, we each picked up a few things in the basket and finally went through the checkout. As we did, the clerk gave a surprised look when she scanned something but didn’t do anything about it. However, I looked at the total and it was high. Really high. F didn’t notice at first until I said to him that something was really expensive.  We checked the totals. His “shiokara” or stinky squid guts as I like to call them, had a price of more than 3000 yen. It probably should have been less than 300 yen. Somewhere, someone had added an extra number to the price! The clerk was new, so she had to find out what to do. She went off to get us a new package…scratch that….not US…him…a new package that cost around 300 yen. In the end, it all worked out of course, but luckily I had kept an eye on the bill. F might have just paid it and not thought about it.

We delivered the food to K and put the rest in the fridge or wherever.  Then, we drove out to the onsen.

Even that was slightly eventful tonight as we couldn’t get the sound system to play my tunes. Finally, F had to pull over and try a few things before restarting the car. That seemed to work. I told him it was okay to wait, for some reason he just wanted to keep trying.

At the onsen tonight I read a little, crafted a little, and updated my phone a little, so that was good. I haven’t finished either my book or my craft, but that’s okay. 

We had an okay for me dinner in Gusto tonight. F had been trying to get me to go to the new steak place tonight, but I told him that with my nose running I wouldn’t enjoy it very much. Why have expensive food if I wouldn’t be able to taste it? In Gusto, I ordered some Keema Curry and also shared an order of fries with F. I added on some of their truffle sauce and that was good!  F foolishly had ramen. I don’t know why. He hated it, said the noodles weren’t cooked right. They aren’t a ramen shop, they can’t possibly meet his impossibly high ramen standards.  

We came back to the house and had a fairly quiet night in.  F isn’t feeling too well, and my nose is running, so we’re quite a pair. 

Tomorrow I hope to start working on present wrapping for my sister’s family. I have a few things already, although I am waiting for their main presents to arrive. I may do more laundry or not. I’m also thinking about cooking dinner tomorrow night. I want to do bangers and mash, but I haven’t decided if it is a good idea or not. It depends on my nose I think! 

Come back later and see what I get up to. Isn’t it exciting?  Until tomorrow….

December 16, 2018

Sunday - Clear and warmish

A good day.

Apologies for not updating on Saturday. I was sick! I had a slight sore throat on Friday which turned into a horrid sore throat plus raging fever on Saturday. I literally spent most of the day in bed. I felt horrible.  I couldn’t eat, didn’t drink enough and F and I ended up calling it a night around 8:30 pm. I woke up a few times overnight but slept most of the time.

This morning I woke up feeling much better. My nose is a little plugged/runny now, but my throat has eased and my temperature is back to normal. Whew!

We had a busy day today. K wasn’t feeling too well today, sad to say, but I was feeling better.  F and I went out for lunch to Restaurant Futaba, just down the street. For me, it was a good choice as I had quiche and salad and soup, nice easy to digest things.  I hadn’t eaten much on Saturday at all. 

F and I went shopping for my best friend’s presents for Christmas. We got a few things and I think she’ll like them if they are the right size. Fingers crossed. I may have erred on the larger size so I hope she can at least wear them. We had a drink at Starbucks, we both had the Christmas Tree Frappucino which is a pistachio flavoured drink. It was nice, and not too sweet.  I wanted to get some blank nengajo and thought they were selling them in S-Mall.  Well, we went there and there was no booth.  Sigh. We went to a convenience store though and I got some there. Whew!

F started muttering about getting a haircut so we decided that he’d drop me off in S-Mall and he’d go and get his hair cut.  That was nice. I had a bit of time to shop and then I went to Doutors and had a soy tea latte. F joined me there when he was done and he had a quick drink too.

We decided to do the bento thing for dinner again, so we ordered with F’s phone and then headed out to do our grocery shopping. I got my usual stuff including some yogurt and cold meat, F bought udon. 

We picked up the bentos and came back to the house. F got his mother up to eat (before 8 pm and she was in bed already) with us and then we did the dishes. 

This evening I finally ordered clothes for my family in Canada. They won’t arrive until just before Christmas though, I’m a little sad about that. The mail strike in Canada has made everything late.  Boo! 

I took a shower tonight which was only worth mentioning because I forgot to take my towel downstairs to use afterwards. I had to use the hand towel in the bathroom. Luckily I had just put it out this morning so it was clean and mostly dry. I replaced it of course!

And that was my day. It was good. It is surprising to me how much better I feel today than I did yesterday. I’m not sure if it was a bad cold or a bit of flu, but it was nasty. 

Tomorrow I have to wrap presents and try to catch up with things that I didn’t get done on Saturday. Come back later if you like and see what gets done. Until tomorrow….

December 14, 2018

Friday - Snowy and cold

A good day.

I woke up this morning after F had left for work. I was sad as I wanted to see him before he left. Oh dear.

I saw K in the morning for a change. I received a Christmas Card this morning and she called me down to get it.  I saw her a couple of times during the day. 

I spent the morning writing a few last minute cards and then decided to take them to the post office. I tried to let K know I was going out, but she’d gone back to her room. I could have knocked but if she was sleeping she wouldn’t hear and then I’d have trouble explaining!  

Anyway, I strode off to the Post Office. The closest one isn’t a full-service place and they don’t get a lot of international mail.  The lady today didn’t know where Canada was.  Argh. Also, I told HER how much the international mail cost.  I hope I did it right! My Canadian cards are already late.  

After the post office, I went to the convenience store for a few supplies and then came back to the house.  I don’t think K knew I was gone!

I spent a quiet afternoon and grabbed my lunch later on. I realized I had forgotten to buy a salad last night for today, somehow I thought I had one in my fridge! I could have picked one up at the convenience store when I was there, but I didn’t.

The rest of the afternoon was fairly quiet.  F called me to say he was off to his party and a few minutes later I went downstairs to prepare for the meal that K and I were having.  I had asked F to order food in for us so we could have a nice evening together and he came through for us. I knew what we were getting, but K didn’t. I think she liked it all.  She got tempura, soba and sushi, I got chicken cutlet and sushi.  They came with chawanmushi and packets of clear soup.  

K's dinner

My Chicken and sushi. Very nice!

Setting up the table was a bit of a chore though because we had to keep getting new dishes for K’s sauces!  It was fine really.  The food was great. I finished mine, but only just, K didn’t eat all of her tempura.  I cleared the table and washed all the boxes and containers. It didn’t take too long really. I put the boxes outside on the stoop and went upstairs to watch TV. 

I had a quiet evening by myself. I really enjoyed it. I watched my TV shows and drank a lot of decaf tea. I did a little crochet too.  Sad to say, I’m not feeling that well. My throat is sore and I’m quite tired. I hope I’m not coming down with something.  

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. F will likely come to the house in the morning while I’m sleeping. I hope he doesn’t wake me up too early! Come back later and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….