July 31, 2024

 Wednesday - Rainy, humid, hot

I woke up this morning when F turned on the light in our bedroom. Ack. I wear a sleep mask, but it had slipped. I covered my eyes again and fell asleep again. I did wake up fairly early though. F had left for work and I needed to make a run downstairs. 

I came back upstairs and after a bit, went back to bed and slept. I didn’t wake up early today though. Sigh. I got up, got dressed, went downstairs and grabbed my breakfast. I came upstairs and ate and later watched the news. 

In the afternoon, F made another appearance at the house. He did come bearing ice cream which was nice! He stayed for a while, I gave him a cup of coffee and then he left. 

I went downstairs and grabbed lunch, I came back upstairs and watched an episode of The Good Fight. Today, Rob Reiner was on as a judge, it was quite interesting to see him again. Also, there was some interesting news about Lucca.  Her brother was in the episode today too.

After F called, I went downstairs and got started on dinner. Today we had a nice meal of chicken drumsticks, rice, salad, potato salad and okra. I think it was good, but I’m biased. 

I did the dishes after dinner and listened to some podcasts. It didn’t take too long as I did try and clean as I worked today. When I finished the dishes, I did up the garbage. It was as much fun as ever. 

I was a bit annoyed at K and F tonight as they didn’t lift a finger to help. I had actually asked F to carry something to the table, but he didn’t hear me. That’s what he said anyway. So, when I finished working in the kitchen and had put the garbage in the genkan, I grabbed my stuff and went upstairs! I didn’t say goodbye or goodnight I just came upstairs. 

I spent a bit of time upstairs. I was surprised to see that F had left the AC on in the room when he came down for dinner. He was downstairs for a long time! After a while, I went downstairs and took a shower. When I was in the kitchen to turn up the hot water, I was surprised to see the sink was full of dishes again, including my frypan. Hmmm. I don’t remember F asking to use it. And it was really messy too. He better have cleaned everything before he came back upstairs!

I came back to the room after my shower and watched an episode of Buffy. It was a bit silly tonight. There was a woman who became a praying mantis and attacked high school boys!

After it ended, I turned off the TV and watched some YouTube. I did my nightly evening stuff and after a while, F came back to the room. He wasn’t very talkative. I’m pretty sure he was downstairs watching the Olympics. He gets rather annoyed with the way that Judo is judged. He says that it is different than when he was younger. 

I don’t really have much else to talk about now. July is over, and I’m glad. I just wish that we weren’t going into August, which tends to be hotter and more humid than July. I’m rather dreading that. 

I’m glad to be shot of July though. 

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

July 30, 2024

Tuesday - Muggy and hot, with a little rain at night.

Last night I went to bed, but I hadn’t turned on the AC when I came back after my shower. It wasn’t too hot when I came back, but by my bedtime, it had risen a couple of degrees in the room and I was too hot. F told me to turn on the AC for a while, so I set it to turn off in an hour. I was able to sleep after that. Whew!

This morning, F woke me up on his way out of the room. I did manage to stay in bed and woke up about an hour later. I went downstairs, came back to bed and did have another nap. It was good. 

I got up, went downstairs and grabbed my breakfast. I came back upstairs to eat and a little later I watched the news. I did a load of laundry around 1:30 and then hung it up later before I went downstairs and grabbed lunch.  I came back upstairs ate and watched another episode of The Good Fight. This one had a substance in an envelope that got all over Maia and Marissa.  It was quite a good one as usual.

I went downstairs to start dinner, and a few minutes later, F returned from work. It was so hot in the kitchen again, even though I ran the AC. K wouldn’t think of running it early for me, she won’t run it for herself, so she wouldn’t bother with it for me. 

Tonight I made a beef stir-fry. I got some Australian beef in the store on the weekend. I liked it more than the pork one I usually do. I probably won’t do it too often though. I also made cucumber pickle again and we had salad with it. F had made rice too, so it was quite a good meal. F watched the Olympics all through dinner so I probably could have served him sawdust and he wouldn’t have noticed!

After dinner, I cleared the table and then did the dishes. I hadn’t used too many dishes tonight so it didn’t take forever, but I was still soaking wet when I finished. I went upstairs and did a complete change of clothing, and did a towelling off too. I still felt hot and sweaty though. 

We went to Mina, the nearby grocery store and I went in. I got most of what I wanted. Tomorrow I will do chicken drumsticks with F’s leftover rice from today. I’m debating making garlic rice with it, but if I do, it’ll be another dish to wash so maybe not! On Thursday I’ll do burgers from the store and fries. I have no creativity left and I’m trying to go easy on myself. 

We came back to the house and I put the food away. I came upstairs and after a little YouTube watched another episode of Resident Alien. It’s such a silly show, but I love it! 

Since midnight I’ve been on my computer watching a few YouTube videos and checking sites. I discovered that Twisters is coming to the cinema this weekend so we might go and see it. F was surprised that we didn’t see Twister together. He’s mixed up with another storm movie I think. Twister was before I came to Japan. 

Anyway, I think I’m done. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day in excruciating detail! Until tomorrow….

July 29, 2024

Monday - Hot and muggy, cloudy with a bit of rain and wind

F woke me up this morning when he was getting ready for work. No worries. I woke up again a few minutes later and the AC was on and I was cold!  F had turned on the AC for me. 

I went downstairs and used the washroom. F was still here so I said goodbye to him and then went back upstairs and watched videos for a few minutes. I got a text from F saying that he was going to take the morning off and would be back soon. 

True enough, F did come back to the house. He’d gone to city hall to get some paperwork and then wanted to relax. I fell asleep and didn’t get up for a few hours.

Finally, I woke up and dragged myself out of bed. I went downstairs and got my breakfast. F had made lunch for himself and his mother. He came upstairs for a while and I gave him a cup of coffee. He had to leave for work after a bit.

I had a quiet afternoon. I watched the news and some YouTube. Around 2:30, I grabbed my lunch and brought it back upstairs to eat. While I did that, I watched another episode of The Good Fight. It was good today. I think it was the first episode of the second season. I think. 

F called me after 5:30 and said he was on the way back. I went downstairs to start dinner and before I did that I turned on the air conditioner in the living room. It was over 30 degrees in the kitchen which is a tad high to do cooking in!

Tonight I did chicken back ribs in the toaster oven, boiled potatoes, cucumber pickle, salad and a tomato marinade.  It turned out rather well and it went down quite well. 

I did the dishes after dinner and listened to my podcasts. That was fun. I did the plastic garbage up and put it in the genkan for F to take out tomorrow. I also asked him if he’d make rice for tomorrow night and he did that.  

I went upstairs and relaxed for a bit. After 10:30, I went downstairs and took a shower.  I came back upstairs afterwards and put on another episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was a little different as it wasn’t about vampires. It was fine.

F came upstairs around midnight. I think he was watching the Olympics downstairs. Better him than me! He likes watching wrestling and judo. He can get a bit heated so I’m okay with him watching it downstairs away from me!

That’s about it for the day. I’ll be cooking again tomorrow and hopefully going out in the evening to get a few groceries. I might ask F about getting bentos or something at the end of the week since it is supposed to get hotter then. 

So, come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

July 28, 2024

Sunday - Hot, sunny and muggy, with rain

I slept in this morning and it was fabulous. I did get up fairly early on to make a washroom run, but I fell asleep afterwards. I dragged myself out of bed around noon and was getting dressed when F came in the room and wanted to talk about going for lunch. 

We decided that we’d try to go to Togashi for yakiniku. We were able to get in right away and ordered. We had the same thing and then shared an order of oxtail soup. We were close to the last people there, we might have been the last people in fact when we left! Still, the food was nice.

We were next to K’s Denki, the big electronic shop, so we made a pitstop there. While we were there I remembered that we needed a fluorescent light bulb for the kitchen. F bought one and he also won a prize at a giveaway. It was one where they tried to make him change his cellphone provider. 

We went over to Komeda Coffee for coffee!  We did think about getting a kakigori, but we didn’t. It wasn’t hot enough today and both of us have stomachs that are acting up right now.

When we finished with our coffees, I went shopping at MaxValu for food for the next couple of days, and K’s dinner. I got her a bento, and F and K some stuff for breakfast as well. I paid and went out to the car. 

We came back to the house and I put away the groceries. I went upstairs while F put the new lightbulb in the kitchen’s fixture. Yay him. Later on, F came upstairs and asked about dinner. We were relaxing for a bit and tossed a few ideas around. Finally, we just decided to go to a gyudon shop and have something there. 

When we arrived it wasn’t too busy. We both ordered and I was surprised that F ordered a curry. I had asked him if he wanted to go to a curry restaurant earlier, but he said no!  I had chicken cutlets which came with rice, salad, miso soup and sauce for the chicken. It was nice.

We left after our meal was done and came back to the house via a conbini. F had suggested getting ice cream for us and I was up for that. I got a choco-mint one, and he got a coffee and chocolate chip type.  At the house, I put his in the freezer and came upstairs to eat mine. 

As there wasn’t anything on regular TV (I’m avoiding the Olympics!) I decided to watch something from the Fire Disk.  I discovered that WOWOW has the first 3 seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on now, so I watched the first two episodes. I liked it, but I still like the movie better! Still, I managed to stay awake this time! The last time I watched any Buffy I had major jet lag and fell asleep on it. 

F went to bed and slept for a bit, but got up later and brought his laundry upstairs. After that, I think he’s back to sleep again.  

I’m not sure what I’m going to get up to tomorrow. I will have to cook dinner, but I also need to think about my next column. Yes, it’s almost that time again. 

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

July 27, 2024

 Saturday - Hot, sunny, and muggy with a spot of rain in the evening. 

I woke up this morning and it was so hot in the room. I went downstairs, then came back upstairs and went back to bed. I slept on for a while. I woke up but fell back asleep afterwards. When F came in the room to see if I wanted to go for lunch, I was asleep. Oh dear.  

I got up, got dressed and we left the house and went to the Komagihara spa. We looked for the restaurant and couldn’t find it for a minute, but it was upstairs. We went in and were able to get seated. It was a “traditional” Japanese restaurant. We both had the cheapest thing on the menu, it was a very nice set menu with chawanmushi, grilled fish and some sashimi as well as a few other things. It was good, but afterwards, we both thought it was a little small!

After our lunch, we toured the farmer’s market area but didn’t buy anything. Then, we decided to go over to Musashi to buy K some drinks. We weren’t sure whether to get her green tea or her favourite soda. We ended up getting both! Not as much soda though, we were worried about her getting too much sugar. I was annoyed because I saw an empty root beer can next to her on the table the other day and thought that she had taken one of my drinks! Ack!  I can’t get root beer in Tsuruoka, it’s so sad!

We came back to the house and put the drinks away. I went upstairs and relaxed, I changed my clothes because I was just too hot. F relaxed for a bit too. We were waiting for the social worker and the person from K’s Day Service to have a discussion. 

They showed up and although I was in the room, I really didn’t catch too much of what was said. Basically, it seems that K is going to go to her day service for an extra hour each week. I’m glad because us having to be back at the house at 3pm is a pain. We’ve normally just finished lunch and don’t have time for other things. 

After the people left, F grabbed a bento from a store for K and then we spent a few minutes thinking about what to do for our dinner. I suggested going to the Chinese place we like on the other side of the big park. F liked that idea so off we went.

We were able to get in, but they were quite busy. Still, we had some time, so it wasn’t a big deal. We ordered three dishes, some fried chicken, some yakisoba with vegetables…F got some crispy noodles which I liked, and we also got a vegetable stir-fry. Dinner was nice and we ate it all. It did take a while to arrive though.

We headed out to Mikawa after dinner. We went to Don Quihote and did a quick run-through of the store. F got a wallet and I got a cord for charging my phone as my usual one isn’t working well now. 

We drove over to the mall and went in. We went up to the cinema and bought our tickets. F and I had a few minutes so we grabbed a seat outside the cinema. The concession stand got a little busy, so I decided to get in line. It was a good call. 

We went into the cinema and split up. F took the munchies to our seats, and I went to the washroom. We went to see Deadpool & Wolverine. I really liked it. I was predisposed to like it of course and I really liked superhero films, so I got a lot of the jokes. I didn’t get all of them I’m sure, but I got most. I really enjoyed the movie. F said he fell asleep in it, but I didn’t. 

After the movie, we went out to the car via the vending machine to get drinks. Then we drove back to Tsuruoka and came to the house. I came upstairs and spent time on my computer, F spent time on his. And that was about it.

Today was a pretty good day. The movie was fun, although it definitely isn’t for everyone. It’s uber-violent and the language isn’t safe for work, but I had fun!

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

July 26, 2024

Friday - Sunny and muggy, hot.

I woke up when my alarm went off this morning. It was nice not to wake up early again. I did end up back in bed a little later and did snooze for a bit. I got up later and got dressed. I went downstairs and took a load of laundry with me. I had sorted it last night so that I wouldn’t have an excuse not to do laundry today! I set up the machine and then I went into the kitchen and grabbed my breakfast. I took it upstairs to eat.

Over the next couple of hours, I did three loads of laundry and hung them up in my room. There’s a wall of clean laundry now!

I went downstairs to get my lunch and the last load of laundry. While I was making lunch, F popped in for a couple of minutes. I said hello and chatted a little bit.

I went upstairs, hung up my laundry and then put on an episode of The Good Fight. It did go a little bit into the news programme, but I watched it anyway. It was another really good episode.

After watching the news and hearing from F, I went downstairs to start dinner. Now, F was planning to come back to the house before going out to have a massage, but he called me to say that he wasn’t going to come back to the house as the roads were really busy.

I got started on dinner. Tonight I did roasted vegetables with sausages, also did cucumber sticks, washed some tomatoes, had some salad and broccoli and that was that. It was rather nice. F returned a bit late and then hid in the washroom for a while. I put food on K’s plate, but she refused to eat until F came to the table. Honestly. Whatever. I did not wait. I am not as “polite” as she is. F always tells her off when she waits!

After dinner, I cleared the table or tried to. I went into the kitchen and started doing the dishes. They didn’t take too long, but I wanted to listen to my podcasts.  I was amused to see a little frog at the window. He was outside using the window as a bug attraction so he could have his dinner.

He's outside!

After I finished, I came upstairs with a can of root beer and some ice. I enjoyed a can of root beer and did a bit of stuff on my computer. A bit after 10 I went downstairs and took a shower. K was bopping around downstairs and it was a bit annoying!  Why doesn’t she just go to bed? I came back upstairs when I finished and watched another episode of The Boys. It was very adult in places and very over the top in others. 

Since I finished, I’ve been watching YouTube and blogging and doing the finishing up things that I do every day. 

I’m not sure what we’re going to do tomorrow. K has her daycare and then we’re supposed to meet up with her social worker after she comes back. I hope to see Deadpool and Wolverine, if the mall and cinema are open! (They weren’t today due to yesterday’s storms.)  Wish me luck.

That’s it for me. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

July 25, 2024

Thursday - Rain, rain, rain with thunderstorms

Well, yesterday I woke up with bad news, today I did too. My phone’s warning alarm went off! There was flooding in the outskirts of Tsuruoka. The alarm proceeded to go off many times today. I am very lucky, there isn’t any problem with my area, but some areas have to evacuate because of flooding or risks of landslides. It rained torrentially in Yamagata and Akita prefectures, the shinkansens have been cancelled until noon on Friday. 

I had a quiet morning except for the warnings. There was one later in the morning so I got up and got dressed. I went downstairs, grabbed breakfast and brought it back upstairs. 

I had a quiet morning. F showed up a couple of times to take a quick rest between his driving assignments, and to dry off. I had thought about doing laundry, but with the warning alarms and the hubby visits I was off my game. 

F came back and made lunch for his mother. He offered me some, but I turned him down. I don’t like udon that much, and I dislike F’s. It’s horrible!

Later on, I made my lunch and took it upstairs to eat. I didn’t have time to watch my show, so I didn’t today. Sigh. 

After 5:45, I went downstairs to start dinner. F called to say that he was stuck in traffic and it wasn’t moving. I think it was to do with the weather personally. 

Tonight I made air-fryer chicken legs, salad, cucumber pickle, spinach and F had made rice for us. Dinner was good and most things disappeared. F was quite late in showing up, but I was even later finishing cooking it. I’m not sure why everything took so long!

I did the dishes afterwards and then changed. F and I went over to MaxValu and I bought a few groceries for tomorrow. 

We came back to the house. F took a shower and later on, I watched The Rookie: Feds. Unfortunately, the channel went out due to the storm a couple of times so I missed some of it. It was okay though, I think I got the story.

F fell asleep, he has to go back to work tomorrow. I’m up watching YouTube and for a while I was texting my sister. My province in Canada is having major forest fires and the town of Jasper appears to have burned down…I have emotional ties to Jasper so it really upsets me.  It’s such a beautiful place, I hope that the fires can be put out soon. If only we could take the rain from here and put it over on Northern Alberta and British Columbia. 

Well, that’s it for me for tonight. Tomorrow I will try and get that laundry done and I have to do dinner again.

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