February 28, 2014

Friday - cloudy but clear

A good day.  I got up this morning and had breakfast and watched my show.  After that, I took a shower.

When I finished my shower and was dressed, I took the monthly city magazine that we get and distributed them around our apartment building. I had inadvertently worn my glasses, so I hung them from one of my shirt pockets.  When I came out of the other building, I swung around and my glasses flew out of my pocket and landed on the ground.  They chipped at the very bottom of my left lens.  I am so annoyed.  I can see the chip when I'm wearing them, but I know it could have been worse.

I came in the apartment and got ready to watch the NHK movie.  Today they put on Fried Green Tomatoes.  I'm a big fan of Mary Stuart Masterson so it was lovely to see it again.  

I finally buckled down and finished my column.  I wrote it, and then I edited it, and then I edited it again.  Then I sent it!  I got a notice a few hours later that it hadn't gone through yet, so I re-sent it via another email account.

When F came home, I cooked dinner.  We had garlic chicken courtesy of a packet mix in the grocery store.  It was good, but not great.  In the end it seemed like a lot of work for a little pay-off.  We also had salad and some stir-fried broccolini that I overcooked unfortunately.  Sigh.  

F did the dishes and we had a quiet evening in.  We watched a Japanese show on the Dewa Shonai mountains (our local attraction) and even though I didn't understand it, it was incredibly beautiful.  

I watched a few TV shows tonight and wrote my last Area Report.  It was a little bittersweet, but fine really.  

And that's about that.  I managed to meet my deadline.  Tomorrow is the real deadline, but when F is around I am not able to do any real writing and we have plans for tomorrow.  We are hoping to go to the mall and catch the English showing of The Hobbit 2.  Wish us luck with that.  Night.

February 27, 2014

Thursday - Clear and then rainy at night

A good day.

I got up this morning just after F made a special appearance to get his wallet.  Sigh.  I overslept again. 

I got up, watched my show, took a shower, had breakfast and watched The Listener, and for the rest of the afternoon either watched some TV or something on tape.  I also worked on my column finally. I have one more movie that I intend to write about and then I'll be done! Yay.  

F came home a little late tonight and after he had a chance to relax we went out for dinner.  I chose Fireball tonight and it was nearly empty when we got there.  We had smoked salmon and mushroom pasta in a vodka sauce plus a chicken and gorgonzola pizza.  For a change, I would say the pizza was actually better than that pasta.  It was a nice meal.  

After dinner we hit up the grocery store for tomorrow's dinner. We're going to have a garlicky chicken thing that I bought in the store…sort of a shake and fry kind of thing.  

We came home and had a nice quiet evening in, until I made a comment about the tatami room which F didn't like.  He has the opinion that it is lovely in there, I think it is mouldy and gross and no one should leave anything they like in that room!  He was going to go off on me and get all tanty, but I tried to change the conversation.  He went to bed soon after and didn't want to say good night to me.  Sigh.

Tomorrow, I have to finish up my column, do an area report and prepare for the weekend.  Wish me luck!  Night.

February 26, 2014

Wednesday - didn't go out, didn't even look out!

A good day.

I didn't feel great when I got up this morning, but I did get up. I had a bit of breakfast while I watched my show, read the paper early on too.

I did get a bit of my column done today, but not enough. It is really hard this time to just sit and do it.  I have to get it done tomorrow.  

I did spend a lot of time emailing people to see if I could have permission to do something.  Some people got back to me, some didn't.  

F called me to say that he'd be home late tonight.  It gave me a bit of extra time to prepare for dinner.  I cooked our broccoli and then made myself some couscous.  F was going to have rice and I didn't want any.  When F came home, he changed and he cooked our fish.  Now, for some reason last night he bought two types of fish for our dinner. I thought it was odd, but whatever!  We had shark grilled in the fish grill and buri with a garlic sauce done in the microwave.  The shark was okay, but rather tasteless I though, plus it has surprising bones in it.  

F did the dishes, I had done up a bunch before dinner so it sort of made sense, and we settled in for a quiet evening.  He watched some J-TV and then I wanted to watch some stuff so it was okay. I made a pot of tea so we finished up the Valentine's Day chocolate that he'd made with our tea.  Yum. I did some more knitting on my scarf, but have decided that I want to reknit it. It is much too long, and quite narrow.  Maybe I should use my circular needles or something?  Not sure if that'll work.

F went to bed around 12:30 I think. I stayed up watching telly.  I'm nearly ready to go to bed, so I'll just say good night! 

February 25, 2014

Tuesday - Sunny, a little rainy, and then clear

Today was a good day!

Historically for my family, this isn't a great day as it is the anniversary of my mother's death. Sometimes though, when I stop wallowing in self pity, it becomes a much better day.

This morning I woke up when my alarm went off the first time and dragged myself out of bed.  F wanted to go and get my taxes done as soon as the mall opened…or so I thought!  As I got up, I heard the tell-tale sound of the bread maker.  He'd just started a loaf of bread. It wouldn't be ready for two hours.  

I was perturbed, but on the other hand, I was able to watch Ghost Whisperer, so not really perturbed!  While we were waiting, F checked the tax numbers and then received a call to say that he'd left his bank card in a machine and he could come to the bank and pick it up.  Off he went, and in the meantime I got dressed.  

We had some bread when it was baked, it was nice.  Then we headed to the mall.  We were able to get my taxes done as soon as we got there.  It was simple, just a couple of stamps and a bit of discussion between F and the Tax Worker.  Done!  Whew.  

He suggested lunch in the Daiichi Hotel's Monami Restaurant, so we went there and both had the same thing.  It was pork in a pie shell, with two layered soup salad and dessert.  Of course dessert had banana ice cream with it, so I gave that to F.  

After lunch we took a drive and wound up…nope, sorry.  Not gonna tell you :-)  Think of that what you will.

Later on, we ended up at the mall for a drink and then dinner at the Bibinba place.  Yum. Long time no bibinba.  I just like typing that.  Bibinba, bibinba, bibinba.  

We came back to Tsuruoka, got groceries and then delivered them home, then went to the Internet Cafe for a while.  I read a newspaper, then did some knitting and watched The Lincoln Lawyer which I really liked.  We stayed at the Internet Cafe until 11:30ish and came home.  I watched some TV and then started blogging.  

It is terribly late now, so I have to get some sleep and go to bed.  Or the other way around.  No idea what tomorrow will bring.  Got to go.  Night.

February 24, 2014

Monday - no idea…didn't go out!

An okay day.

I got up this morning a little bit late, but had no plans so it wasn't a problem.  I watched my show while I ate breakfast and read the papers.  F popped home for a bit and did offer to take me out, but I didn't really feel like it.

He brought a bento home and ate it, then headed back to work. I had a quiet rest of afternoon.  

When F called to say he was on his way home I went into the kitchen to get a start on dinner.  Tonight I cooked Brussels Sprouts and they were very good.  I found a recipe where you cut them up and then stir-fry them in brown butter.  Nom! I also sauteed a couple of mushrooms that had been hanging around, plus the chicken for dinner.  We had all of that with salad and it was really good.

F worked on my taxes again this evening. He had to re-copy the sheets and was generally being a bit of a pest.  He wouldn't let me turn off the TV during dinner, and then after dinner proceeded to watch crap most of the night.  I noted that I'd like to watch something at 10 and then changed my mind, so he got angry. I'm not sure why. He got to watch more stuff than I did tonight.

I put my walkman on for a while and listened to a podcast. It finished just as F went to take a shower so I started watching TV.  

My night so far has been quiet and calm, the way I like it.  Tomorrow, who knows?  We're going to take my taxes to the place in the mall.  I really think it'll take all of two minutes, but F wants to go early…along with everyone else in Tsuruoka I bet.  Then of course we have no plans for the rest of the day.  Sigh.  Come back tomorrow and I'll try and fill you all in what happened.  Night.

February 23, 2014

Sunday - Mostly clear, bit of snow

A good day until a bump near the end.

I got up before 12 today, surprising and true, but only just!  F had to go and take his mum shopping, so I stayed home and watched The Gilmore Girls.  Yay.  Then, I napped on the couch.

F came home and we chatted for a while, decided to have Kintaro Sushi for lunch.  We drove over there.  Even though it wasn't busy, it wasn't quiet there either.  

After lunch we popped into the mall for a bit of tea.  I treated F for a change. It was nice, but I had Royal Milk Tea and the milk stuffed up my nose.  Following that, we tried to go for karaoke at the Internet Cafe, but it was busy.  We went instead to the place by our grocery store.  We had a nice couple of hours while we sang a bunch of great songs.  

Next up was dinner, and while I was okay with going to a fish place for F, he suggested Bikkuri Donkey! so that's where we went.  We both had nabe, two different versions. Mine wasn't too spicy, but it was nice.  And that's where we hit the old bump.   F got out his iPhone and started watching videos on it.  I was furious.  We were having such a nice time, I thought, up till then.  He puts his earphone in and starts watching videos.  Hmm.  I stopped talking to him.  When it was time to leave I walked off and left him, and then when we were near the grocery store, I said yes when he asked if I needed stuff.  

I went in, bought stuff that I wanted for dinner tomorrow and then left.  I did tell him to get what he wanted though.

We came home and after a bit he got started on my taxes.  He did them up and then explained them to me.  However, just looking at the numbers I could see that he'd messed something up, so I suggested he check again.  He did and found his mistake.  Then, after I gave him some tea and thanked him for doing this for me he explained that he was watching videos about doing taxes at the restaurant.  Why didn't he say so?  He could tell I was upset, why didn't he just say,"This is about the tax forms"?

We got a bit friendlier, but honestly.  He went off to take his bath, so I set up the bread maker for tomorrow.  We're going to have whole wheat bread and I'm quite happy about it.  I like it a lot.  F makes a lot of weird breads (in my opinion) but I'd rather have plain bread made with healthier flours whenever possible.

Anyway, that's it for me. It was mostly a good day, but I have a lot of work to do tomorrow.  I have to work on my column as F will be off on Tuesday to take me to the tax booth in the mall.  Night.

February 22, 2014

Saturday - Snowy then clearing

A good day.

I got up a bit later than usual this morning as we'd gone to bed horribly late last night/this morning.  I was up and we talked about going out and didn't.  I served us some of my tea bread and even ended up taking a nap on the couch while F was at the other end!

After a while, we got dressed and went out.  We had to do a bit of snow shovelling first.  We had a really nice lunch in Grado…roast duck in a red wine sauce, then did a little bit of driving around the city.  

We finally drove out to the Mikawa Mall and parked the car.  We went had a drink and a doughnut at Mr Donut, finally using up our coupons, and then went back to the theatre for Rush.  I really enjoyed it and I hadn't expected to.  F was the one who said that he'd like to see the film, I was prepared to give it a miss.  

After the movie we did a little shopping and then headed over to Cocos for dinner.  We both had a decent dinner and then came home.

We watched a bit of TV tonight, mine mostly, but F did get to see bits and bobs of the Olympics.  He went to bed a bit ago and I'm still up, but am hoping to go to bed soon. 

No idea what we'll get up to tomorrow, but I'm looking forward to finding out!  Night. 

February 21, 2014

Friday - Cold and a little snowy

Good day.

Last night I set up the bread maker so there was bread for breakfast.  Yay.  I made tea bread and it was nice.  

I had a quiet morning, but a nice one.  I watched TV, read the newspaper and showered.  F did invite me for lunch today, but I said no because I had  lots of food to eat for lunch. 

I watched a bit of TV today and then in the later afternoon when there was nothing on TV for me, I put on the last two episodes of Call the Midwife Season One.  They were excellent of course.  Now if I could only find the box for the dvd!

When F came home, he was in a pretty good mood.  He relaxed for a while, and then asked if I wanted to go out to the Internet Cafe.  I did, as it happened, so that's where we went for the evening.  We had dinner there too.  I did a lot of knitting of my scarf tonight. I'm nearly done, but not quite.  I'm honestly not sure if I like it or not.  It's a lovely colour, but the feel isn't great.  

We came home after midnight and both of us are still up. I'll probably go to bed soon, but I'm watching So You Think You Can Dance.  Not too sure what we'll get up to tomorrow…come back and find out tomorrow night!  Night!!

February 20, 2014

Thursday - Cold and a little slushy

I woke up this morning about 7:30 and when I went to the toilet I noticed that F hadn't taken out the garbage.  Oh dear.  I got dressed and took it out. No big deal really.

I went back to bed and slept for a while. I also got up and slept on the couch for a while. Sigh.  I spent a fairly quiet day at home.  I did my computer stuff, a load of laundry and also got dinner prepped and ready to go.  I also decided that today was the day to break out my new frypan that I got last year.  Yay!

When F came home it wasn't great.  He wasn't feeling well. I felt bad for him.  While he watched the Olympics, I cooked dinner and then ate it.  He never did have dinner. I washed my dishes afterwards and we had a quiet evening in.  

F went to bed around midnight.  I had done a bit of knitting and then I set up the bread maker for the morning.  I'm now up late watching TV and blogging.  

I don't have any plans for tomorrow, or the rest of the weekend. I need to do more work on my column, and I also need to do a little bit of "stuff".  I hope it all works out!  Talk to you tomorrow.  Night.

February 19, 2014

Wednesday - Snowy with clear times

A good day.

I got up this morning, not terribly early but not too late either, showered and then had a quick breakfast. I got dressed and then went out to wait for my friend.

When she came there was a huge snowstorm going on, so we thought about where to go and I suggested Bis. We got there and it wasn't open.  Boo!  Then we decided to go back to S-Mall since the weather was questionable.  We went to Patio and had a decent pasta lunch.  After that, it was ice cream at Baskin-Robbins and then it was time to go.  Sigh.  It was great getting together with her, we talked, laughed, supported each other.  Yay.  

In the evening, F came home and then we talked about dinner.  We decided to go to one place but once on the road changed it to Coco Ichibancho Curry House.  We both had "Grandmother's curry" and it was nice.  We both enjoyed our meal I think.  

We hit up a drugstore on the way home and then the grocery store.  Tomorrow I'll finish up the soup at dinner and we'll have something with that.

F wanted to watch the Skating tonight but I wasn't exactly happy about that.  I did agree to tape my 11pm show, and then he DVR'd the skating.  I do have the feeling that it'll be repeated tomorrow evening anyway, because of how popular it is, so he'll be able to see it anyway.  I am looking forward to the Olympics being over….

Tomorrow, I don't have a lot planned. I'll have to make a post office run and I really need to work on my Journal column.  I had started it and then I'm re-working it.  Hopefully it'll be better.  That's it for me.  Night.

February 18, 2014

Tuesday - Cold with a bit of snow.  Didn't go out.

Had an okay day today.  I got up early for a change and stayed up, also for a change.  I watched my usual TV programmes.  I had a nice breakfast of yogurt and cereal, lunch was soup and toast with the last bit of the avocado.  

Today was quiet.  I read some of the newspapers and I relaxed a bit.  

In the evening after F came home, I made dinner.  We had soup and macaroni and cheese.  Yep, good old Kraft Dinner.  Yum.  My sister sent it to me from Canada.  

After dinner I cleared some of the stuff off the table and waited for F do to the dishes.  He didn't do them until midnight.  I didn't want to nag him so I didn't.  

I did a bit of knitting at 11 during Criminal Minds and then I came back to my computer.  Today was just a quiet day at home.

Tomorrow I'm going out with my friend and we're going to have lunch.  I'm already looking forward to it!  I just hope the weather isn't too bad or it'll be a lot less fun.  

I'm done for tonight!  Night!

February 17, 2014

Monday - Cold and snowy

A good day.

I woke up a little late today, but got up and checked my email.  I got dressed and started working on my soup.  Around 12, F phoned to say he was coming home and there he stayed!

He'd taken most of the day off and had gone to the doctor.  While he was relaxing on the couch, I was in the kitchen making soup.  I cut up the veggies and I poached the chicken.  I worked quite hard and watched a couple of movies on TV too.  One in particular was kind of fun, Safety Not Guaranteed. 

After a few hours, I left the soup to its own devices.  Then, I worked on scanning my cards.  I scanned the ones I was sending and I scanned the ones I have received recently.  It took a while, but I finally finished.  At that point, I headed off for the post office.  F offered to drive me, but I told him, quite truthfully, that I wanted the exercise.  It was cold out, but there wasn't much snow, so I rode my bike there and back.  I got us something to drink at a machine on the way back.

We had dinner around 6 pm.  We had soup and sandwiches.  The soup was good, but too new.  The veggies hadn't softened and the flavours hadn't melded yet.  I think it'll be better tomorrow.

We spent a quiet evening around the apartment.  It was really cold so we had to turn up the heater a bit.  I was sad about that, but it was me who was too cold.  

I went over to the couch for Under the Dome and started one of my scarf projects.  It's going well, but I wonder if it is okay. I'm half wondering if I should take it down and re-make it.  Maybe not!

Anyway, that's about it for me.  Tomorrow, F is back to work, but we've had a little bit of snow.  We are forecast to have a lot more snow in the next couple of days. I really hope they are wrong about it.  Talk to you tomorrow.  Night!

February 16, 2014

Sunday - Clear but cold

A weird sort of day.

I got up late this morning.  We hadn't planned anything specific for today except I wanted to do our bedding at the laundromat, and have lunch somewhere.  I told F that if he wanted me to wake up, he should make some noise and have the lights on.  Well, it sort of worked, but when I got up for good, it was just the Olympics on TV and I'm sort of over that.  

Still, I got changed into some clothes and then asked F to come and give me a hand stripping the bed.  He wanted to know where to put the dirty sheets and I pointed out the bag on the floor.  Then he accused me of giving him a dirty look and stormed off.  Huh?  For once, I really didn't know what he was talking about.  I am getting so blind these days that I could barely see the bag so I really don't know what he was on about.  Anyway, we yell at each other for a bit and then I pull the cover off my quilt, he does the same for his, and we get ready to go. Does he really think I enjoy laundry so much that I want to go through this every single time I ask him to take me to the laundromat?

I get the coins ready. We charge ourselves 100 yen per regular wash, so that we can buy ourselves a new washing machine someday and/or we can do laundry without panicking about coins.  

We drive over to Voice and first have lunch in Junior Paper Moon.  It is slightly more expensive than I planned, but honestly, not too bad at all.  We both had carbonara and it came in a set with soup, salad, drink and dessert.  It was under 1500 yen, so really quite reasonable.  

After lunch someone was in a better mood.  Oh, and so was I.  We went to the laundromat, did our thing, and sat around and I read for a while.  That was good.  We  transferred our bedding to a dryer and I put in a fabric softener sheet.  Then we set it for 30 minutes.  I had wanted to look at the recycle (secondhand) shop, so we left our stuff and drove over there.  I looked around, but there wasn't anything that was suitable for my workshop.  The few things that would have worked were too expensive.  When it was nearly time up, I couldn't find F so I called him.  

We went back to the laundromat.  Most of the stuff was done, but not all, so we took the dry stuff out, folded it.  Normal really.  F and I both have a different standard of what dry is.  For me, for bedding it had damn well better be desert dry, for him swamp dry is just fine.  We take out our laundry, fold it up, bring it home.

We make up the bed.  We're both almost friendly now!  F goes off to watch the Olympics, I do computer stuff for a bit then get really sleepy so I go to bed for a bit.  I got up later and started to ask about dinner. 

We went to Cafe Pacific Airy Heights and had a good dinner there.  For the first time, F had a Japanese style meal there, and I had chicken so I was happy.  He seemed happy too!  We even had dessert and a beverage there for a change.  

We came home via the grocery store. I'm going to try and make chicken vegetable soup tomorrow.  If I start it in the morning, it should be ready for dinner.  F wants to have sandwiches with it, so I gave him the option tonight of either making bread or buying bread on the way home tomorrow.  He chose to make it.  

I did a few postcrossing cards up tonight, I'll run to the post office tomorrow if I have time and send them.  

So, after a bad start, things did get better.  I am tired of him always grumping at me.  I know his back and neck are hurting, but has he thought about asking about any of my problems lately? No, no he hasn't.  Men!  

That's it for me for tonight.  Tomorrow soup, post office and maybe more laundry are on the agenda.  Got to go. Night!

February 15, 2014

Saturday - Rainy, then snowy, a bit cool

A good day.

I had a big problem getting up this morning.  I did manage, and even had some tea and toast when I was up, but F was rewatching the men's figure skating, so I went back to bed and slept for a bit.  I got up in the afternoon, showered and after five we went out for breakfast. (Okay, it was dinner really.)

After dinner we went to S-Mall for a quick browse through the hundred yen shop, then went over to the theatre.  Tonight we went to see Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit and we enjoyed it.  It was a lot of fun.

After the movie, we just came home and watched a bit of TV.  I watched my usual stuff and then I much too nicely let F watch Olympics.  I must stop that! 

It was a very quiet and laid-back kind of day.  Tomorrow we may go to the laundromat, I'm not sure.  The weather here wasn't as bad as it was in other places, so it could depend on what happens overnight.  That's it for me.  Night!

February 14, 2014

Friday - Cool and clear in the day, snowy at night

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm still up at 4am with my blog unwritten.  I've been watching the Men's Figure-skating and it was great.  Japan actually won, and it wasn't Daisuke who did it, it was the young Yuzuru Hanyu.  He even beat my favourite, Patrick Chan.  Sigh.  Still, it was very good to watch them all.

The rest of my day…I got up at a good time, but took a nap on the couch…for 2 hours.  I was so surprised when I woke up that late.  I got up and read the paper and had a little breakfast and tea.

In the afternoon I quickly wrote a couple of postcards, scanned them and then ran them to the post office.  When I say ran, I mean biked!  I couldn't ride in our driveway as it is all icy, but the roads outside are nearly clear.  I got there and made a transfer of money and mailed my postcards and bought some gotochi cards.  

When F came home I got dinner started right away.  I poached some chicken and started the water boiling for the pasta.  We eventually had poached chicken with spaghetti genovase and salad.  It was darn good!  F did the dishes tonight and then we had some of his chocolate.

His chocolate was wonderful!  Last year it was too sweet, but this year it was just about perfect.  It was very soft.  Who knew that a bread maker could be used for such sweet treats?

Then, we decided to go to the Internet Cafe.  We didn't have any plans and hoped to get a massaging chair each.  F misplaced his card (because I gave it back to him when I went to Tokyo last week!) but they let him in anyway.  We spent about 4 hours there tonight. It was fairly quiet and I was enjoying the TV and drink bar.  I did a bit of crochet, a bit of reading and just relaxed.

We came home and I watched some of my TV shows before letting F watch Olympics.  I quite enjoyed the skating to be honest.  The men were good.  

Anyway, that's it for me for tonight. I'm tired and I need to get a bit of sleep.  Talk to you tomorrow night I think.  Night.

February 13, 2014

Thursday - Cold and snowy.

A good day.

I woke up early today, before F got up.  I tried to take the bread out.  I managed to get it out of the machine, but not out of the pan!  It took F a few hard knocks on the counter to do it later.  He wouldn't get up this morning. It was rather odd. I was worried he'd be late for work, but I think he made it.

I got up, then napped on the couch.  I slept through the nasty infomercial and woke up for Ghost Whisperer.  I had breakfast too and read the newspaper.

Later on I took a shower and thought about going out.  When I looked outside the snow was swirling around so I decided to stay home!  I watched the show I taped last night, and then decided to have lunch.  I made pseudo pancakes with the leftovers from last night's dinner. It was nice really.  

When I finished eating I washed all the dishes and then went outside to shovel some snow.  Unfortunately I used the wrong shovel…I didn't know it had a crack in it, so I made the crack much, much bigger in it. I did move a lot of snow though.

When I came in I did a bit of vacuuming so I was surprisingly busy today!

F came home and was in a much better mood than last night.  He suggested going for shabu-shabu. I didn't mind at all, so that's what we did.  It was quite nice tonight, and we ate quite well.

After a quick trip to the post office to do some mailing, we went to the grocery store.  We're going to have pasta with chicken tomorrow night.  I think it should be good.

That's about it.  I had a good day.  F made some chocolates for Valentine's Day, but he hasn't let me have them yet.  Probably a good thing!   I have to go.  Night!

February 12, 2014

Wednesday - Cold but clear

An okay day.

I overslept a bit this morning, but did get up and watched my show.  While I did that, I had a bit of breakfast.

I spent a quiet day at home for the most part.  I emptied the suitcase I used and scanned a lot of post cards.  I made a quick run to the post office to mail off some cards and a couple of Valentines.  Yes, they'll be late, but at least they'll get there.  

When F came home he was in a horrid mood.  Every time I tried to talk to him he snapped, "What?" at me.  It was like I was being impertinent for trying to talk to him.  He was probably listening to his iPhone, but honestly, take the flaming earphone out of your ear when you are at home.  

I was really upset…I hadn't talked to anyone all day and my husband was in a mood.  I don't know why.  He had to turn on the TV right away to watch the Olympics…bleck.

I got dinner started and then done in fairly good time.  We had sauteed chicken in a basil sauce, then ika tempura from a frozen packet, plus frozen broccoli and a side salad.  It was quite good.

F went and sat on the couch after dinner so I did the dishes too.  When I was trying to clean the frying pan he claimed that he'd been meaning to do the dishes, but he was a little late for that! I didn't really care.

Through the rest of the evening I've been having back spasms.  I think it's from tension and from maybe not drinking enough water on my trip.  I get them sometimes.  

At 11 I taped my show, but at midnight I put on House and then Bones.  F should be getting ready for bed after all.  He took his bath and then went to bed.  He did say that something happened at work, and I know that he's worried about being transferred again, but I'd just rather he didn't take it out on me. 

Tomorrow I need to do laundry if I have time and I should go to the post office again.  I have a thank you letter to mail.  Talk to you later I hope.  Night.

February 11, 2014

Feb 07 to Feb 11, 2014...a bit long...sorry!

Tuesday - Cold but clear

A not great day.  I got up this morning late because I hadn't set any alarms.  F and I hadn't discussed plans for today, so I wasn't aware we had a schedule…we didn't.

He went to see his mum for a while and then came back.  I was hungry, watching Heartland and he started asking me about going out.  I not very politely asked him to be quiet so he stormed off to the bedroom and slept for hours.  

He didn't get up until 7ish.  We went out for dinner to Kintarosushi, then bought a few groceries.  We had a quiet evening in.  F watched some TV, then I did after 11pm. It worked out fairly well, but the middle of the day was a waste.  

So…on with my trip…

I left here on Friday morning.  It had snowed overnight, but was sunny and crisp.  When I got to Tokyo I had lunch at the West Park Cafe in Haneda, then toddled off to the International building to have a look-see.  The bookstore was re-opened, so I got some postcards and a new book.  After exploring all of the airport terminal, I left for Kawasaki.  It was lovely weather outside, and I got there quite easily.

However, finding my hotel wasn't very easy.  I couldn't read the map so I end up walking for miles and miles out of my way.  Sigh. I asked for help, and that was a good thing.  I finally found where I wanted to go…my hotel.  I checked in, went up to my room, dumped my suitcase and then decided to go out.  

I went back to the train station and caught a train to Yokohama.  From there I transferred to a local line and went out to Minatomirai.  I ended up in the Landmark Tower area.  I explored a little, didn't buy that much, but did have a Starbucks tea and then dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe.  It was cool because soon after I came to Japan, I went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Yokohama with friends, but they wouldn't go in.  I went to the gift shop and bought my sister a sweatshirt…and vowed I'd be back.  I was!  Yay.

Hard Rock Cafe, Yokohama 

Yokohama.  You can just see the old ship in the harbour. I think it's a museum.

I tried the pulled pork sandwich.  Good, but not what I expected!

I went back to the hotel and watched a little TV after I explored some of the big department store on my way to the hotel.  It was a good night.

I woke up the next morning, Feb 8, to a world of white.  It had snowed over night and it had become quite cold.  I breakfasted at the hotel and left for my meeting a little early.  I caught my trains and arrived in Zushi almost on time.  Some of the trains were running late so I was lucky. At Zushi Station, I got in the line for a taxi.  I was there in the cold and snow for 25 minutes.  I was nearly at the head of the line when I saw some of the other women going to the meeting.  I waved them over, and we shared a cab to the meeting place.

Our meeting was good, but the snow continued falling.  At lunch when I went to the restaurant to pay for the sandwich I had ordered, I was shocked at how much snow had fallen.  After the meeting, we heard from one person that JR had stopped running, and the other train line was still going, but could stop any old time.  My friend that was going to come and stay in my hotel and I decided to skip the dinner and go directly to the station.  One problem, there weren't any taxis.  We had to walk.  So, five of us set off in a blizzard to the station.  We didn't know which way we were going, luckily we asked a young girl who was going in the same direction and she walked with us part of the way.  

Lunchtime in Zushi.  Usually there isn't any snow at all in winter.
(Not my photo, borrowed from a friend with permission.)

It was horrible walking.  The snow was blinding us, and was getting deep.  We were walking for 30 minutes or so I think.  Finally, we found the station and there was a train there.  We found out that we'd have to change trains after 3 stations, but at least we could get out of Zushi!

We warmed up a bit on the train and did change trains at the third station.  We got on another train which was running as a local. It stopped at every stop and far more people got on than got off.  We became human sardines.  I was nearly pushed into some guy's lap..half the time I had to stand with my legs twisted into odd positions.  Horrible, horrible, horrible.  

After Yokohama, things got a little better.  Many people got out there, and I was able to get a seat.  Another stop later, and my friend sat too.  Whew. Finally we made it back to Kawasaki.  Really, we were lucky.  Other members of our group stayed later and couldn't get trains as even our line had stopped running.  All the hotels were booked up too. 

On the way to the hotel.  There was a lot of snow!
(Not my photo, borrowed from a friend with permission.)

We went to our hotel and she checked in. We agreed to meet up a little later and go out for dinner.  We did, we had yakiniku and it was nice.  After that, it was back to the hotel.  We went to our separate rooms for the night.  I watched a little TV, but fell asleep 10 minutes into the show.  I woke up at 2:30 in the morning with the TV and lights still on!

On Sunday, Feb 9th, we breakfasted together and regrouped.  I didn't know if the trains would run up to Tsuruoka or not.  F said he thought they would, but one of my friends was checking the JR website and said that they were running, then they became doubtful and finally were cancelled.  Yikes.  I decided to check and see if I could stay at the hotel another night.  I know the hotel is usually not as busy on Sunday nights.  They said it was fine.  

My friend and I walked over to the JR station and had Krispy Kreme donuts…my first time!  It wasn't bad.  Then we rebooked my train tickets, and did a little shopping.  We had lunch together…her treat, which was sweet of her.  We had planned to get together with my Duos Ladies for a big lunch in Tokyo that day, but none of them were able to travel with the snow either.  The funny thing was that the weather wasn't bad by this time.  It was warm and sunny and the snow was definitely melting.  

All too soon, my friend had to go.  We picked up her suitcase from the hotel and I walked her to the train station.  She made it to the airport, but had a very, very long and crowded wait at Haneda.  Luckily, she had other friends that were also waiting at Haneda for planes, so she wasn't lonely.

I went back to my hotel room and took a nap, then got up and went out to the big train station again.  I had dinner at a family style restaurant then walked around a bit more.  Finally I headed back to my hotel and watched a movie and some TV.

Monday, February 10th, I got up and had breakfast at the hotel.  Then, I checked out.  I took my suitcase and takkyubined it home.  It was a small case, but I really didn't want to bother with it.  I would be meeting friends, walking around and taking trains so I consider it 1250 yen well spent!

I took the train into Tokyo and even changed trains on the fly when it appeared that my hoped for train wasn't running.  I met up with two friends and we had a lovely lunch at a place called Bubbys.  We even had pie for dessert…a not very common thing in Japan.

We walked over to a bookstore, where I bought many, many postcards and a book, then back to the station.  We said goodbye to V who had to leave, but M and I hacked around a bit.  We visited the big Post Office and then had tea and cake in Daimaru on the 13th floor.  Very ritzy.

Part of the ceiling of Tokyo Station's rotunda.

I had to leave then, so M and I hugged and I went through the gates.  I caught my train quite easily and had a good and quiet trip to Niigata. I had a window seat and it was fun to look out the window and see all the snow and buildings.  

At Niigata I changed my train and settled in for a quiet ride.  I did a little crochet on the train, I listened to a podcast and I think I took a little nap.

F picked me up at the station. My train was about 5 minutes late, but nothing major.  We had a quick and simple dinner at Cocos and then came home.  Last night F watched Olympics and that was fine. I did miss my show, but I watched it tonight in the rebroadcast.

And now you are up to date.  I will try and add in some pictures, probably tomorrow, so check back and see if I do.  I hope to use some that a friend took too, so I have to have her permission first.  

It was quite the weekend.  It's one thing to get stuck somewhere in Canada where I can speak the language, but to get stuck somewhere in Japan where I can't….Argh!  Night.

February 10, 2014

Had an interesting weekend that became extended due to massive storm in Japan.

Too tired to blog now.  Will try and blog tomorrow.  Night!

February 5, 2014

Wednesday - Cold with snow

Brr.  When I got up this morning it was a cold 10 degrees in the apartment. 

I had a quiet morning.  I skipped breakfast, but did have some tea, read the paper and took a shower.  I got dressed and watched a bit of TV.  I watched part of a movie, Water for Elephants in the afternoon. It was okay, but not great.  I received a  package in the mail so I got a bit distracted towards the end.

My BFF in Canada had sent me some clothes.  I got some pyjamas and a leisure outfit, something nice and cozy for being "at home" in.  Everything looked nice and fitted well too.  Yay!

Around 4 I decided to do some shredding!  I have been saving up a bunch of papers that I want to shred before I throw out, but I don't like getting out the shredder because it is noisy and takes a while.  I can only do 5 sheets of paper at a time, but most of what I need to shred are things like envelopes and post office mailing records.  It was therapeutic to get it done though!

I wasn't sure how things would be when F came home as he was mad at me yesterday, but he was quite nice when he came home.  I hadn't changed yet as I wanted to see how things were, but I got dressed quite quickly and then tried to put on a little make up.  I had a weird thing happen.  I put on some lipstick and my lips started to burn.  I hope my lippy isn't contaminated or something. I washed off the lipstick. I was using an old compact make up box, so maybe it's time to chuck it, but the eye and cheek stuff were fine.  Weird!

We went to Bis, Bistro Des Points Wine bar and had a lovely dinner.  We had an assortment platter for our appetizers, then some French Fries.  Our entrees were nice.  We shared an order of duck and an order of venison.  Very nice.  I had a couple of drinks, one was a no-alcohol cocktail, a sparkling chardonnay and the other was a real drink, a cassis sour.  

We shared our desserts too. I had ordered an apple tart, but they asked if I minded getting a pear tart instead.  Of course not! They put a sparkler in mine and lit it, that was sweet!  F had chocolate cake, it was nice, but I liked mine more.  We cut our pieces in half and swapped them.  

Dinner was lovely.  F had a couple of glasses of wine too, so dinner wasn't cheap, but it was nice.  We called a taxi and came home again, where F gave me my presents.  I got some chocolate, some handkerchiefs and some gloves.  They're a light beige, I think they'll go nicely with my new coat.  

We had a quiet night in, I watched some Telly, my Wednesday usuals.  It was nice.  It's hard to believe that last night F and I weren't talking.  

Tomorrow I must have an early night as I'm off to Tokyo on Friday morning.  I'm probably not going to update my blogs tomorrow night as I will need to get some sleep.  Wish me luck and I hope to see you on either Sunday or Monday night. Bye!

PS…Happy Birthday to Me!