March 23, 2013

Saturday - cloudy, and warmish

A good day.

F came home all bright and shiny and early.  It was nice to see him.  His party had been fun and he enjoyed himself.  I'm so glad. He spends so much time with me and I think he needs to socialize more.

I hadn't gone to bed until really late, so when I got up I had a headache and went back to bed for more sleep and then some snuggles.

In the afternoon, we had lunch at Patio in the mall. I had a hamburger and fries.  It was okay. It was a pork burger, which I didn't really like, and the fries were slightly soggy.  Still, it was nice to have a hamburger…one served in a bun…for a change.  F had ramen and said it was okay.

After lunch we went to JTB, the travel agency and booked my trip to Kyoto in two months. I'm going a different way than last time, so I'll still have to get train tickets next month.  The only thing I'm wondering about is how to get from the hotel back to the airport.  I used one of the "plan your trip" sites, but sometimes the transfer time between trains is only 2 minutes.  I'll be in  unfamiliar train stations so that might be dangerous really.  Yikes.  

After we got the tickets, F took us for a little drive. We went along the coast for a while. It was lovely along there.  We didn't see anyone fishing though.  I think F would like to go again soon.  

We came home for a while and used computers or relaxed, and finally headed out for dinner at 9 pm. We went to Cocos Ichibanya and had curry.  I had the chicken cutlet and curry, F had the Korean curry. He said his was good, mine definitely was.  After that, we bought a couple of things at the grocery store then came home.

F watched a bit of stuff, but at 11:00 pm I took over the TV. I watched a few things, even saw the finale (I think) of Glee.  It was really sad and happy, but ended the way it ought to I believe.

I made up a mix of brownies tonight, so F and I had some with a little ice cream.  Yum.  He enjoyed them too.  

And that was that.  My day.  Tomorrow I have to go to an ex-student's place for a bit in the afternoon, so I won't be able to stay up all night like I did last night!  Anyway, that's it for me.  Gotta go.  Night!

March 31, 2008 - Monday

Cloudy with hail and rain.

Turned out to be a good day, although it didn't start that way! I wasn't having a good day with hubby yesterday and it carried over into the night. He went out to get something to drink around 1 or 2, while I stayed home. When he came home we had a bit of a spat and I went to bed as soon as I finished blogging, around 2:30. He finally came to bed at 5am - ish. Of course he woke me up. He always does. Then, his alarm went off at 7:30. He got up, turned it off and went back to sleep. I asked him if he was going to work today, and he said no. I thought it was a weird thing, but didn't say much else. Then, around 8:30 I hear him frantically running around the apartment saying, "It's 8:30, it's Monday morning." Apparently someone was under the impression it was Sunday again! He was supposed to be at work at 8:30. So, now, that's how many times that he woke me in one sleep? At least 3. I didn't get up early today. I slept in but it wasn't a nice relaxing sleep. Ach well.

I got up, showered and relaxed. Of course, I re-watched Project Runway. I'm too hooked on that show. I got a text from Fumihiko saying that he'd rescheduled his MRI to April 2nd, which just happens to be my day off. Can I not get a day to myself this week? Please????

Anyway, I ate lunch and then just before 5 left for my school. I was going to have a meeting with a student and her father at 6 pm. I opened the door to my apartment and looked outside. It was hailing. Little pellets of snow, about the size of dill seeds were everywhere. I went into the bike shelter, got out my raincape, and put it on. By the time I did that, it was over! No rain, and no more hail. The hail didn't stay on the ground long, it just melted.

At the school I set up the coffee maker for water, vacuumed and did a little cleaning too. I got a call from Fumihiko around 5:30 and we were quite friendly. He arrived a few minutes before six and then the people came at 6. We had a good meeting and I'm going to be teaching a few extra classes over the next month. I hope it'll be interesting.

After they left, Fumihiko did the dishes for me, but honestly I wish he wouldn't! I don't like the way he does them at the school. I have my own system and it's very good. He doesn't follow anything that I do. Sigh.

We went to Cafe Framboise for dinner tonight. We both had the same thing and it was very nice. We had minute steak, salad, rice or bread, and then dessert and coffee for 1300 yen each. That was a pretty good deal. The restaurant only has 3 tables plus a counter, but it's a nice comfortable place to go.

We went to MaxValu after dinner. I wanted to get some butter, but like the local grocery store, the only butter to be found was in incredibly small, all prewrapped packs. I think they may be going to redesign the boxes or something. Usually before they do that to a product it disappears so that it can be "launched" as a new product with a new wrapper. I also got a big roast for my slow cooker and stuff for tomorrow night's dinner, plus some canned tuna in soup (rather than oil) and of course, sunflower seeds!

We came home and had a lovely evening together. Fumihiko has gone to bed now. He's tuckered out. He didn't sleep enough last night and today he was busy. Tomorrow he's got to take his suit to work. He's getting a promotion or something (he isn't too excited about it!) and has to have a certificate presented to him. I hope his suit fits!

That's my day. So, definitely better than yesterday. Tomorrow, I've had two classes cancel, but I still have two to do in the evening. I'll talk to you tomorrow night.

In the words of Heidi Klum,"Auf Wiedersehen. Bye!"

March 30, 2008 - Sunday

Cloudy.


I want a do-over! I did not have a good day today and I think I really deserve to have another chance at today.

It started last night. I realized after I blogged that I was starving again. I asked Fumihiko if he was hungry, he said he wasn't. So, I got myself a can of sardines and had them on crispbreads. Yummy. Then Fumihiko started making himself some ramen. Huh? He wasn't hungry. Then he announced to me that he wasn't hungry but had to eat to take some of his medicine. Well, if he had said that to me earlier, we maybe could have gone out, even though it was late. I'm not a mindreader after all. He was quite grumpy, so I went to bed around 3:00 or so. I got up around 5 to take a washroom trip and he was sleeping on the couch, lights still on and the TV blaring away. I sent him to bed.

This morning I was sleeping peacefully away when someone's phone rang. It was the car dealership reminding hubby that he should get his oil checked. Why do people call other people on Sunday morning in Japan? There should be a law against it. I got up around noon and after some coffee, we went out for lunch. Fumihiko wanted to go to Simon, a nice French/Japanese restaurant, so we went there and didn't have a reservation. It was just at the end of lunch so we were lucky they let us in. We eventually had a nice lunch but as usual I got the whole menu read to me. I don't need it. I know he's trying to be nice, but much nicer would be letting me ask him if I had any questions. ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH. And then the stupid waitress kept looking at Fumihiko everytime I said anything to her. I asked her to give us more time to make up our minds...in quite good Japanese. She just stood there. Fumihiko had to say something else to her. Then at the end of the meal, I asked for more water, again in Japanese. She looked at Fumihiko to see what I meant. Why do Japanese people do that? Hello? Speaking in Japanese here!

After lunch someone announced that he was going to the car dealership. I asked if I could be dropped off somewhere else. Anywhere else. Much as I enjoy sitting around and drinking coffee, I'd rather sit around in my own home thank you very much. So, we went to one car place. It was busy so we had to wait a while. We had our drinks and Fumihiko started talking about going to another car place to look at cars. HUH?

I not too politely reminded him that I had asked to buy paper for my school 3 weeks ago and we still hadn't done it. I wanted to do that today. Happily he was agreeable to that, and we went to the hardware store where I picked up paper and a bunch of office stationary. We dropped it off at my school and spent a bit of time there. Fumihiko called someone back to set up an appointment for tomorrow night. I'm not very happy about either the time or the day. The day was necessary, but the time wasn't.

After this, Fumihiko proceeded to drag me to two more car dealerships to look at cars. I asked him why he wanted me there. I don't drive and he doesn't listen to my opinions anyway, so I feel sort of useless. The car dealerships themselves were fine, but I just didn't need to be there. We took a test-drive in one of them. The car was okay, but again, I don't really care.

After the third place we went to, I told him I was hungry so we did something that we haven't done in ages. We went out for sushi to a kaiten-sushi place. We had to wait more than 30 minutes to get a seat, but the sushi was good. I ate a lot. I just hope that it agrees with me. I haven't eaten quite that much rice in ages.

We came home after a quick grocery store trip. His highness watched one of the awful TV programmes that he seems to enjoy so I tuned out and watched a bunch of stuff on iTunes. We didn't talk much for hours.

Today I had planned to get a box of books ready and then sent to a friend and then I wanted to wrap my friend's birthday present so I could send it to her. Both things are obviously not important to someone I live with. Sigh. And, I had hoped to go out and buy a present for some friends of ours that just had a baby. But again, not important enough. Not like looking at cars that HE won't be buying for a few months anyway.

If I sound a bit grumpy, I am. Usually we have no plans and that's bad enough, but today was all about my husband. He seemed to forget that this was my day off too, and I had other plans.

Gotta go.

March 29, 2008 - Saturday

Cloudy and cold.


A pretty good day really. I got up early ish, showered and watched some TV. Fumihiko came home and at 11 we went out for brunch.

Fumihiko dropped me off at work around 12 and I got busy. My classes all went quite well today so when the last one finished I felt good! I spent a few minutes relaxing and then I did my paperwork and washed dishes.

Fumihiko picked me up and we went out for dinner to Jiro. I was starving! My stomach was growling during my last class, so I needed to get some food. I had carbonara. Yum.

We came home and watched a movie. Tonight we watched an old Johnny Depp Movie, one of the ones where he played a regular guy. It was Nick of Time. It wasn't bad. I had seen it before, but Fumihiko hadn't. He said he liked it. After that, I started watching my regular TV shows, CSI: New York, Grey's Anatomy and Project Runway. Project Runway was great, but right at the very end, Fumihiko came back from his bath wanting a bandage. He'd cut his finger and couldn't find them. Of course, I had to go and search them out. They were right where I'd left them!

Anyway, that was my day. It wasn't bad at all. I quite enjoyed it. Tomorrow I'm off, and hopefully I can sleep in a little. That's it for me. Night!

March 28, 2008 - Friday

Cloudy, with afternoon rain.


Today was a pretty good day. I got up this morning on time and watched the news. I even stayed awake today! I did my usual morning stuff and thought about the day. There were great thumpings and bumpings coming from upstairs which could only mean one thing. They were moving out. Usually the upstairs people were very quiet. I didn't know them so I can't say that I'm deeply saddened or anything!

I had an earlyish lunch and then left for my school around 3:15. I wanted to get there early today to do my Saturday prep. I got to the school quite quickly. It was raining and I didn't stop for much. When I got to the school I changed out of my wet clothes and hung them up in the bathroom. Since I had to run the dryer fan for them anyway, I decided to do a load of towels for the school. I had just bought some handtowels a couple of weeks ago, but hadn't washed them yet.

I did some light dusting and sweeping, and then I got to work. I got most things set up, except I will have to use the cards in one class and then swap them out for another.

My student showed up on time and was wearing glasses! This was a new thing. He was also in an incredibly happy mood. I honestly can say that I have never seen him so cheerful before. He worked hard in class and I was really happy to discover that he does seem to be reading. He needed a little help to sound out some words, but he understood what I had written down for him. Hurray. After his class, he left and I set up tomorrow's first class. I had to take some of the cards from the lesson I'd just taught for the first class.

I'll be busy at the school tomorrow. If everyone shows up, I'll have four classes with not much time between them all. Sigh.

When I did as much prep as I could stand, I sent Fumihiko a text to see what he was up to. After 20 minutes I sent another one. I didn't get any answer so decided that he must still be working so I came home. It had stopped raining which made the ride home a little cold, but quite pleasant.

I got home and wondered where my husband was. It wasn't until 9:30 that I got a call from him. He'd just finished work. Poor thing.

When he got home we got ready and had dinner. I had reheated my soup, and after we ate that, Fumihiko fried the chicken cutlets that we bought last night. We had those with a salad, and a bento that he'd gotten at work today. It was very nice. Afterwards, Fumihiko did the dishes, and I strained the oil. I think I got the fun part.

That was basically it for the day. It was mostly good.

Oh, I forgot to mention in yesterday's entry that March 27 was the anniversary of the day I first came to Japan. Eleven long years ago I landed over here, and didn't know what I was letting myself in for. Expect an entry dedicated to that topic later!

Night!

March 27, 2008 - Thursday

Sunny but cool.

Today was okay. I got up when my alarm first rang rather than hitting the snooze buttons like always. However, I just put some kerosene in the heater, turned it on and promptly fell asleep on the couch! Silly me. I woke up for the news but fell asleep on it.

I had a quiet morning and afternoon at home today. I did laundry and I watched some TV. No big deal.

The ride to work today went okay, but the bike still wasn't right. Still, I got to the school in one piece!

My classes went quite well today. I had the kids class students laughing so I think they were understanding a bit. The adult class we talked a lot and did a lot of reading too.

I finished up quite quickly after work and then called Fumihiko. He offered to pick me up, but I suggested meeting him at the grocery store. So, that's what we arranged. I finished washing the dishes and then left the school. I got to my bike, unlocked it, and discovered that the light, which I had checked two days ago, didn't work. Luckily I had spare batteries in my school so I relocked the bike, took the light back inside and put in the new batteries. They worked fine. I came back out to my bike and tried to unlock my lock. For some reason it didn't work. I fiddled with it for about 5 minutes, and it finally came undone. I don't know what I'd done! I slotted the light back on the bike and set off. I made pretty good time to the grocery store. It was a bit chilly riding, but not terrible.

When I got to the store Fumihiko was waiting for me. I think he was a little worried. I told him that I still wasn't happy with the height of the saddle, so he adjusted it up for me. Then, we went in the store. We did our usual grocery shopping and got some soy bagels, then came out. I told Fumihiko that I was going to ride home. The grocery store isn't too far from our apartment, so it seemed silly to get him to break the bike down and load it in the car. Anyway, when I got on the bike to ride off I was pleasantly surprised. The new saddle height is just about perfect. What an improvement! I may have to raise the handlebars again, but I can extend my legs now. Yay.

I came home as fast as I could, and reflected that the bike is much better for me at this height. I might get used to the bouncing effect now too!

At home we had yakiniku. It was really good. Fumihiko had been a dear and cut all the vegetables for us already, and set most of the table. He'd also even made coffee. I got a few more things out of the fridge and then we ate. We had the gyutan that I brought back from Sendai, plus some really nice meat from the grocery store that we bought last night. It was reduced to half price, but was really good.

Afterwards, I did the dishes. Fumihiko had turned on a Japanese TV program, so I thought I'd put on my iPod and listen to some good tunes while I washed up. I have to tell you that the first songs I listened to were perfect for cheering me up and making a miserable job a bit more fun. I was dancing around the kitchen to:

1. Not Ready to Make Nice - Dixie Chicks


2. Calling Baton Rouge - Garth Brooks


3. Hold on Tight - ELO


4. Perfect 10 - The Beautiful South


5. What A Good Boy - Barenaked Ladies

Those songs, especially the first 3 were really great for getting the jobs done. I did have to be a little careful that I didn't break anything. I almost didn't want to finish, I was having so much fun!


The rest of the evening was quiet, except for the time when I watched something on YouTube. A friend had sent me a link to a sketch by The Two Ronnies. I was laughing so hard at it that Fumihiko asked if he should take me to the hospital. It was a riot. It was so funny that I sent the link to hubby and he laughed too. There were no subtitles for him and it was British humor so the fact that he thought it was funny, proves that it was. I also watched the wonderful Swedish Lesson sketch. Oh dearie me. What a hoot!

And!!! One last little thing. I finished The Amber Spyglass today, which is the last of the Golden Compass novels. It was great. The last book was a little different from the others but still really good. I finished while I was eating lunch and got cream cheese or something all over one of the pages. Sigh. Silly me.

Okay, I'm done. Night night!

March 26, 2008

Wednesday

Rainy but clearing later on.

An okay day. A bit slow and sleepy which can be nice! I got up on time and watched the news. I also drank a lot of coffee and then watched TV for a bit.

It was raining earlier on so I waited until it cleared up, then I went out in the later afternoon. I rode my new bike to the mall and had a good snoop. I didn't buy much. I even made it through the hundred yen shop without opening my wallet. Wow. I went to the coffee shop and had a very nice sandwich and a cappuccino. It was a little crowded in there, so I considered myself lucky to get a table to myself. I read a bit of The Amber Spyglass too. I'm about 70 pages from the end now. After I finished my coffee and couldn't think of a way to stay longer, I left. I checked out the grocery store's foreign section but didn't get anything, then on impulse looked in the bakery. They had bagels. Plain ones. Big ones! Being the nice person that I am, I bought two of them for me and hubby. They look really nice.

I came home and parked my bike. Fumihiko complained a bit about the bike last night saying it was heavy, and it really is. I can feel quite a difference between this one and my last one. It was lighter, but I never felt quite secure on it. This one I do feel secure, but I'm still not happy with it. There isn't much space between the seat and the base of the handlebars. If I was thin it probably wouldn't be a problem, but I'm not and it is. I also think I should raise the seat again because my legs just don't get any extension. I think I could get used to the bouncing, it was much better today!

I came in and did a bit of blogging. When Fumihiko came home we chatted for a while and then went out for dinner.

Tonight we went to Cocos. It was mostly good. I had spaghetti, Fumihiko had curry. We went to a grocery store afterwards but forgot to buy coffee creamers. Sigh. Tomorrow night's dinner will be yakiniku. We're going to have the last of the soup I think, plus the gyutan I brought in Sendai. It should be good.

We spent a mostly quiet evening at home. I say mostly because *SOMEONE* ate a Japanese snack that was very crunchy. I asked him to keep his mouth closed while he ate, but he couldn't, so I put headphones on and listened to music for a while! Oh, and speaking of music, I spent the evening on YouTube watching Andy Gibb videos! I've been having a discussion about Andy and the BeeGees with another blogger and wanted a bit of nostalgia. I found two cool versions of Andy and Olivia Newton-John doing "Rest Your Love on Me", a song that the BeeGees wrote. Andy was so darn cute, and compared to some of the rockers today, so clean cut! Yes he had long hair, but other than that looked pretty good. (Disclaimer...Andy Gibb was one of my early teen idols. I was deeply in love, so take what I say with a grain of salt.)

Anyway, I'm off now. Today was a good day. Tomorrow I'm back to work, but it should be fine. I'll chat at you soon! Night!

March 25, 2008

Tuesday

Sunny and warm today.

Today was mostly a good day. I went to bed late, but not as late as I do at times. I managed to get up this morning to watch the news, but it wasn't on. Golf was. Bleck.

I showered and then I started on my computer for a while. I was surfing until it was time to have lunch. I cooked my lunch and also set up the slow cooker again for tonight's dinner. It was all from our freezer. Chicken breasts that I put on top of veggies. I turned it on and finished making my brunch.

I rode my new bike to the school. It felt strange. It has a spring or a shock absorber in the back and anytime that I started to get a bit of speed going, I felt like I was on a trampoline. Not much fun for me! I'm also still not too happy about the height of the seat and handlebars.

My classes went well today. I had three and they seemed to go quite well. My last one has two students and they stayed a little late to chat with each other in Japanese. I wasn't too happy about that but....

I did the dishes and called Fumihiko. There was no answer, but he called me back soon. He came to get me. I found him in the parking lot trying to put my bike in the trunk of his car. It was a bit tough. This bike is a bit heavier than my old one and the handlebars don't fold down on this one. It made it difficult to fit into the trunk and then close the lid.

We came home and I heated up the soup and looked for a recipe on-line. Last year I'd made honey mustard sauce and I wanted to make it again. I found the recipe and then thought maybe there's a wasabi sauce somewhere that I could make. I found one and adapted it. It started with wasabi powder, which I don't have, mixed with mayonaise, which I do have. So I took wasabi paste and mixed it with a dollop or two of mayo. I added a touch of soy sauce at the end too. I also made the honey mustard sauce.

When the soup was ready I served it. Fumihiko made coffee tonight and then we had soup and coffee. The soup was really good tonight too, and Fumihiko had seconds. I didn't! The main dish was chicken breasts with veggies. The veggies had turned to mush mostly, but were still tasty. The chicken was mostly great, but the outside was a little dry and needed the sauces. If I'd been able to come home earlier I'm sure the chicken would have been perfect. The wasabi sauce was especially good. I can't believe I've never thought of that before.

Fumihiko did the dishes and at 11 we watched Criminal Minds. It was an interesting one where we find out about a team member's past.

And that was about it. It was a quiet evening. Fumihiko went to bed a little while ago and is already asleep. I'm still working on my book, but I'm thinking an early night might be in order. Can you call 2 am early? I do.

Gotta go! Night night.

March 24, 2008

Monday

Rainy.

I overslept this morning and I didn't get out of bed when I planned to. Tell a lie, I did get up around 8 am for a few minutes but then went back to bed. Then I overslept.

I was a busy camper when I got up. I made soup. I'd been meaning to do it for ages, but the time was never right. I made a chicken vegetable soup with stock made from veggie scraps. I added in the leftover chicken from Christmas...it had been in the freezer and plunked it all in the slow cooker and let it work its magic. I also marinated the meat for dinner. I used my standby, worchestershire sauce. Gotta have my Lea & Perrins!

I watched the weekend's CSI shows and then Project Runway again. Still fun. I had planned to go out and take my new bike for a test drive, but the weather was awful. It was pouring outside.

The afternoon passed by. I relaxed and enjoyed my day off.

When Fumihiko came home we spent time together and then got ready for dinner. I was busy. I set the table, made coffee and even started cooking the meat for the second course. I looked over and there was Fumihiko sitting on the couch peeling himself a mikan. Huh? Did he not understand that dinner was ready? I snapped a bit at him. I'd worked really hard on my soup today and he was going to spoil his dinner with an orange?

Anyway, he came over and we started to eat. The soup was really good. I hadn't put any salt or pepper in it, so we did that and really enjoyed the soup. I think it'll be slightly better tomorrow. The coro-coro steak was good too. I'd used a lot of Lea & Perrins so you could really taste it. Fumihiko enjoyed the dinner and did dishes for me after that.

We had a quiet evening at home. Well, quiet until someone turned on the TV. It was really noisy and really bad, so I put my headphones on and listened to music on my computer. Later I watched an episode of Dexter too. I won't say it was fun, but it was good.

That's pretty much it. Fumihiko has gone to bed and I'm debating going soon too or staying up a bit longer and reading my book. Decisions, decisions. I do have an earlier start to the day tomorrow so I really should go to bed but....

Got to go. Night.

March 23, 2008

Sunday

Partly cloudy, but nice out.

We went to bed terribly late last night, and so I planned to sleep in very late. However, the guy at the bike shop had other plans. He called my husband before 9:00 am. It's Sunday today. He needs a life! Fumihiko got up, I went back to sleep. My neck was a bit sore from all of the head-banging that I did last night at karaoke!

I dragged myself out of bed a little later. Okay, a lot later. A little after noon, it was. My neck was much better. Hurray for that. Hubby was watching some of World Trade Center, but we went out for lunch anyway! We went to the Daiichi Hotel. It was okay, but not great. We were late and we still had to wait about 15 minutes to get in, so we really didn't have a long time, but we managed to eat enough.

On the way back to the school we stopped at the bike shop and picked up my new bike. It looks great. The bike shop guy set it up for me, but I didn't like the way he set it up! When I tried to bicycle home my knees seemed to come all the way up to my ears. I got Fumihiko to raise the seat and the handlebars a bit for me. The bike has a spring on the back, I guess it's a shock absorber. That will take a bit of getting used to for me. I'm not used to that style. The basket looks a whole lot more secure than the last one I had. That one used to come off while I was riding. Scary. This one is well attached, in three places. Hopefully tomorrow I'll go out and get used to it a bit.

We went in the apartment and watched the end of The Sixth Sense on TV. It was as good as always. Toni Collette, what an actress. She's so good. It's hard to believe how many different roles she's played, as she just blends in. She's not beautiful in a classical way, but she is a great actress.

We lazed around the house for ages and finally I got Fumihiko to think about dinner. We decided to go to our favourite izakaya, with another one as back up. They were both closed. We ended up parking at Mr. Donuts and walking to the izakaya in the station. We had a good meal of fish and chicken and my favourite, crab caesar salad. Yum. We paid and then went over to Mr. Donuts and had a couple of cups of Cafe-au-lait there and then left. They'd put a little sign on our window saying that we shouldn't park there so long. I told my hubby not to park there...don't blame me!

We hit the grocery store on the way home and got groceries for tomorrow. I'm going to cook. I'm thinking I'll put on a pot of soup in the morning and we can have that, plus some coro-coro steak and salad for dinner.

We had a quiet evening at home in the evening. We watched last night's Grey's Anatomy. I'm not sure about the spin-off show. Next week we'll see more of the characters. I did notice that half of the cast was on Alias!

And that was my day. I'm still reading and enjoying The Amber Spyglass. I just haven't had a lot of time to sit down and really read it.

So, I'll talk to you all tomorrow night! Ciao!

New Bike!

It arrived today. It will take a little getting used to.

March 22, 2008

Saturday

Sunny and warm.

A surprisingly great day! I got up this morning, watched the news and then showered. Fumihiko came back from taking his mother to the cemetary to visit the family grave while I was watching Criminal Minds. Afterwards we went out for breakfast/brunch.

Fumihiko dropped me off at my school and I got to work. I only had one class today, which went quite well. After my class I did some prep for next week and I also did up my financial records for the last couple of months. Yay me.

Fumihiko picked me up and brought me home. He had a meeting for our apartment to go to. I expected that he'd be gone for hours, or at least AN hour, but he was back in 30 minutes! After that, we went for dinner.

We drove out to Amarume and had dinner in a little restaurant there. It was quite good. The service wasn't as good as the food! We had ordered 2 coffees and received one, the water glasses weren't refilled, and the service generally was lacking a certain something.

On our way back to Tsuruoka, Fumihiko asked me if I wanted to go to karaoke. That was a bit of a no-brainer! I always want to go to karaoke, so we did.

We went to Manekineko for about 3 hours. It was a lot of fun. I sang a ton of songs, a lot of which I did for the first time. There were two songs from Hairspray which I did, plus Slade's Run Runaway. Oh that one was fun! Later on I did a bunch of songs that I love, like the two they have from The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Science Fiction Double Feature and The Time Warp. Why oh why don't they have Sweet Transvestite? I'm shivering in antici..........................................................................pation waiting for the day they get it. I had a special request for Livin' La Vida Loca, so I did that as an encore. Fumihiko sang a lot too. He did a lot of Beatles, Carpenters and a few of his favourite Japanese songs. Of course, he did his standard, the Ge-Ge-Ge song.

We came home after karaoke and watched the last 20 minutes of Grey's Anatomy which didn't make much sense as we hadn't watched the first 30 minutes of the show. We'll rewind the tape later. Then, it was time for Project Runway. Tonight was quite good. They allowed 2 designers to come back and try once more to make a dress. Everyone had to make cocktail dresses tonight and for a change, I absolutely agreed with the judges decision about the winning dress, AND the runner up! I'll likely rewatch the show during the week.

We watched the last bit of Supernatural and I was happy to see Rebecca Jenkins on the show. She's a Canadian actress that I've actually met. She was a customer at the bank I worked at way back when. She seemed really nice in person, although she wasn't a good person in Supernatural! The, we switched over to Charlie's Angels. One of the villains tonight was Dirk Benedict! Oh my. My teenage hero of Battlestar Galactica. AKA the original Starbuck (and Face on The A Team if you're counting.) So, a bumper night of TV for me.

That's about it for tonight. I think Fumihiko is getting tired and hopefully will go to bed soon. I want to too. It's been a long but very good day.

Night night!

March 21, 2008

Friday

Sunny and warm.

Today was a good day. I got up at my normal time today, watched the news, and then did a quick change of channel to catch the last episode of The Sopranos. I honestly had no idea that today was the last episode! I thought there were a few more. Umm. What can I say? Nothing. I don't want to ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. I liked it but it wasn't what I expected at all.

I did laundry which was fine, but first I had to empty someone else's pants out of the washing machine. My hubby does his own laundry, but is a little forgetful. His pants were sitting in there with a whack of powder still sitting on the pants, so I'm not sure how much soap he'd used washing them! I had to run the rinsing cycle a couple of times to get the soap out of them.

In the afternoon I watched CSI before heading over to my school. We hadn't gone by to set the heater last night, but it didn't matter. My school gets the late afternoon sun and so it was a balmy 19 degrees in there. I did turn on the heater as I like it just a little warmer, but it was nice that it didn't need much power.

My first student came 10 minutes early (and was picked up 5 minutes late!). I hate it when students come that early. My school is so small that there really isn't anywhere to put them until class starts. He was in a good mood today so class went quite quickly and well. I gave him a writing assignment for homework. I'm curious to see if he does it. It's all from the first book, so he really should be able to do it.

I had a break so I checked tomorrow's class and then relaxed a little. I finished one magazine and then started another. Yay me.

My last class went quite well. The student and I always have a great time and she's very communicative. When she left after class I locked the door and did my paperwork. I called Fumihiko to come and get me, so he did. He arrived around 9 pm. I guess I could have made myself leave earlier, but I didn't really feel like it!

Fumihiko wanted Japanese food for dinner, so he wanted to go to a restaurant that I've never been to. Okay...fine. But, he went in the wrong direction. We ended up turning around and going somewhere else! We went to a yakitori shop that we go to once in a while. It's really good. The meat they use isn't just chicken. Apparently around here yakitori is also pork. It was good. The shop did have the TV blaring away in the background. It was some terrible Japanese movie about a kid and some ghosts. I have no idea. All the kid did was shout and I don't really understand Japanese ghosts anyway. At one point I said to Fumihiko that it really wasn't as good as The Golden Compass! He did have the grace to laugh.

We came home via a couple of convenience stores and the grocery store. We had a quiet night in after that. Fumihiko is sleeping on the couch. I should get off to bed soon as I do have to work tomorrow. Fumihiko has to take his mother to the temple/shrine/whatever for his father's grave. He got out of going on the national holiday.

Anyway, that's me for today. Have a good one! Night.

March 20, 2008

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Thursday

Cloudy, but no rain.


I finished my book last night and then blogged before going to bed. I was very late, but so was Fumihiko as he didn't work today either. I slept in quite late, mostly because we hadn't finalized any plans and I refuse to get up early unless we're going to do something.

When I did get up, Fumihiko started to watch Snakes on a Plane. I was hoping the news was on, but when I switched channels it wasn't so I turned back to the movie. It wasn't bad. I didn't watch it closely but it had a few yuks.

We had lunch in Cocos today and I tried a new dish, the chicken salad. It was really good. I will definitely have it again. It's a salad with some chicken breast, 2 types of dressings and a big garlic stick. Very nice, and just perfect for lunch. While we were eating I asked Fumihiko what we should do for the day, and out of the blue he suggested going to the beach. Of course I said yes, and after buying gas, that's what we did.

It was a good time to go to the beach. It was a little cold so most people wouldn't go there (although there was one crazy guy trying to snorkel). We had the shore to ourselves and we walked along looking for nice shells or pretty bits of sea glass.

After the beach I suggested coffee somewhere, so Fumihiko drove us to Mikawa and we went to Mr. Donuts in the mall. We had some chat and coffee, it was nice, no big whoop!

Fumihiko was a little hungry afterwards so he suggested going for dinner in Sakata. It was a good idea. We went to a place we've gone once before. This time we tried the teppanyaki room. We had it to ourselves! We had sirloin steak and it was cooked in front of us. We also had soup, dessert and coffee. I had rice tonight, for the first time since I was at Yannis in Edmonton. It was fried garlic rice and it was nice. I didn't eat all of it, I was a little afraid how all that rice would affect my system, but what I had was good.

We came home after dinner, the long way. Fumihiko took us for a drive through parts of Sakata that we rarely go to, and it was pleasant.

We had a quiet evening at home too. Neither of us did much. There wasn't anything interesting on TV either, so I spent most of the evening on my computer.

Tomorrow I'm back to work, with two classes in the evening. I hope the weather holds, I hate bicycling in the rain!

Night night!

A Walk on the Beach

We went for a walk along Yura Beach today. It was a lovely day for a walk, but sadly, the beach is covered with garbage. I brought home the seashells that I found. They are a nice souvenir of our day.

March 19, 2008

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Wednesday

Clear and sunny.


I stayed up quite late last night and decided that I would sleep in this morning. And no wonder! It was lovely quite honestly. I didn't have an alarm on, I just got up when I felt like it.

However, when I got up, I didn't feel all that well, so I took another couple of hours on the couch! I felt marginally better after that. I had a headache for a lot of the afternoon.

I even did a bit of housework...not a lot you understand, but a bit. I swept the floors, which was sorely needed!

Fumihiko had said he'd be home late, but he wasn't really. We talked about where to go for dinner and decided on Cocos, but it was busy so headed over to M's Dining. It was busy too, so we got a table opposite the door. After another table left Fumihiko asked if we could move because I was get blasted with cold air every time the door opened.

We came home and had a quiet evening in. It really was quite quiet. After midnight we watched an odd movie with Helena Bonham Carter (are there any other kinds with her in them?) and now Fumihiko is watching Strings. I'd love to watch it, but it's been dubbed into Japanese. I think it's originally Danish or Swedish. I'm sure it's a SMAP guy doing one of the voices.

Anyway, that's my day. I've just finished The Subtle Knife, but because it was after midnight, I'll do my review tomorrow night I think. I was a bit disappointed not to go out of town tonight, but Fumihiko doesn't seem to be feeling that well. Sigh.

Got to go. Night night.

March 18, 2008

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Tuesday

Warm and sunny.


Today was a busy day! I woke up and got up in time to watch the news. I took a shower soon afterwards. I just wanted to give my hair time to dry properly.

I had a quiet morning at home. I relaxed, read blogs and then around 1 I made my lunch and then got ready to go. I had sorted out my clothes earlier so I didn't have to do that. I made good time over to the school and didn't have any near-death experiences today! At the school I parked my bike and then made the stupid mistake of trying to straighten my bike light. It came off in my hands. I've completely broken the plastic grooves that keep it on my bike. Sigh. I brought the light in to the school, threw it in a drawer to deal with later and got to work.

In the 45 minutes or so before my class was supposed to start I changed, dusted, set up the hot water for drinks, vacuumed and checked my class stuff. Whew! I was busy. Finally I was ready.

My first student was a little late though. Ack. She didn't really give me a good explanation. I had to tell her that I couldn't give her more time today because I had another class booked.

I actually had 3 classes in a row tonight and then another class a bit later. One of my students in the later class had cancelled so the other student and I had a nice class, but did a reading lesson rather than the one I'd originally planned. My two children's classes of the day went well. I think this was the busiest day I've had so far at my school. I may have had a Saturday with 4 lessons, but I'm not that sure.

After my last class I finished up quickly and headed out. I took my bike light and about 20 rubber bands and used them to attach my light to the bike. It seemed to work rather well. It was even better than the original fixture I think. I set off for the drugstore and got there 15 minutes before closing, so not bad. I got my stuff, sweetener for my coffee, then paid and left. After that I was debating where to go with myself. I could go to one restaurant that was comfortable for me, or I could go to one that had the dish I wanted! I finally decided to go to in search of the dish I wanted. It was okay, but not great. Still, I enjoyed my dinner. I had carbonara with a hamburger patty on it. It was okay. I headed back to the grocery store, got a few more things and then came home.

I had a quiet evening in. I watched the end of some regular stuff on TV. Sneakers was on, then I watched Criminal Minds (I keep expecting Gowan to make an appearance on that show, but he never does!) I was at a loss for something to watch but discovered that The Queen was on WOWOW again, so I watched it again. It's an amazing feat of acting that Helen Mirren does. I think I'm glad that I wasn't in Britain when Diana died. I was here and it seemed overwrought even here.

For my blogging time I've been watching a video of Duran Duran videos that I bought ages ago and never watched. I loved Duran Duran, but was a little surprised to see that they had a lot of nudity in their early videos.

And that's my day. I miss Fumihiko but it's nice to have the apartment to myself for a while. I've been able to do a bit of reading at odd moments and I can watch what I want to watch on the TV.

I'm not sure if I'll be blogging tomorrow night or not. Probably, but there is a chance that I might have other plans. Catch you sometime soon I hope! Night.

March 17, 2008

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Monday

Cloudy but not rainy. Yes!


A good day. I went to bed terribly late last night because I had so much blog stuff to do. I did that, and then went to bed. When my alarm went this morning, I got up, went into the living room, turned on the heater and promptly fell asleep on the couch for a couple of hours. Sigh. Oh well, it was my day off after all.

When I roused myself I spent a fun morning watching the weekend's CSI shows and checking out the internet. I had lunch too. I finally started that avocado I bought last week and had some gorgeous bread that we bought on the weekend. Then, around 2:30, I went out.

I needed to get to the bank to pay my school's water bill. I made it to the bank about 10 minutes before it closed. I used to hate customers that did that! However, I did fill out my own form and while I didn't have correct change, I did give as close as I could to the teller. I was in the bank when they brought down the big metal shutters and I was let out a side door. Very intriguing for me. My old bank in Canada didn't have metal shutters. We just locked the doors.

I took myself off to the mall and had a snoop around the stores before going to Doutours for a cappuchino. It was great! I read some of The Subtle Knife, second in the His Dark Materials series. Very good stuff. The thing I like about it is the writing. It's just great. Easy to read, compelling stuff.

I came home and a bit later so did Fumihiko. We discussed where to go for dinner and decided to go to Moku-Moku.

We went to Moku-Moku and both had the same thing with a little variation. We had the Parisienne Plate. I'm not sure why it's called Parisienne, as it has pasta and pasta, plus salad and dessert plus coffee. I had Japanese style pasta and Fumihiko had cream style. I usually have the cream and I think I will next time too!

We headed over to Homac, a hardware store after that. I wanted to get paper for my school, but wasn't happy with their selection. I ended up buying more slippers for the school, and a few more hand towels. This way I won't have to wash them so often. Mind you, I have to wash them to start with!

Next on our list of places was Yamaya, the import foods place. I got some organic pasta, and some pasta sauce and sunflower seeds. Fumihiko got some beer or happoshu. He's always very quick to point out that it's not beer, but personally I think it's beer if it smells like beer.

We came home and watched a dvd. I wasn't sure if we'd like it or not, but I picked one I bought a few months ago called The Cat's Meow. It was based on a real crime that involved William Randolph Hearst, Charlie Chaplin and Marion Davies. I liked it. It's not a flashy movie, but a quite well done character piece with an interesting story.

We watched the end of Ugly Betty. I think tonight was the season finale. Sigh. It was tragic in many ways. I can't wait for next season. I hope that we get it over here!

And that was my day. I'd like to get to bed a little earlier tonight so I think I'll end this and try to catch a bit more sleep than last night. Wish me luck with that! Night night.

March 16, 2008

Sunday - Rainy most of the day.

A great day! I went to bed so very late last night that I didn't think I'd get up early today, and I was right. It was after 12. Still Fumihiko didn't seem to mind for a change. Before I got up we had a big cuddle and then went out for lunch.

Lunch was fish and it was at the Grand Elson, the place where we got married. They have a lovely little restaurant there. We like going there. We got appetizers, salad, bread, soup and the main course plus coffee afterwards for just 1050yen. That's not bad at all. And, it was good food, served in nice surroundings.

After lunch we went to the local bike shop. Fumihiko is buying me a new folding bike as a White Day present! I have one already, but I don't feel very secure on it. I've had a lot of problems with it. At the moment the biggest problem on my bike is the wobbley back wheel. I'm hoping that the new one he picked out for me will be an improvement.

We the spent about an hour at the Chido Museum. Fumihiko has a membership so the more we go, the cheaper it is! Today we saw the Hina dolls and the Sakai family treasures. Both were very interesting. I really like the Hina dolls. It's amazing how well preserved some of the dolls are, and how different the dolls are from place to place, or era to era.

We came home for a while after this, and then Fumihiko checked on the movie listings. He wanted to see a movie. He decided to take us to see Jumper. But first, he had to go and see his mum. So, he went over to her house and then came back.

We had a quick dinner at the tonkatsu restaurant and then drove off to the mall. We paid and went it. The movie was okay, but I wouldn't really recommend it. I thought it was a mess with potential.

After the movie we bought some bread at Aeon and then came home. We did go through the grocery store to get some chicken and other late night munchies, then we came home.

We really just had a quiet night at home. Fumihiko went off to bed a while ago, and I'm hoping to go soon too. I'm just trying to catch up with my posting. Last night before bed I finished my book,The Golden Compass, so I had to write about that, plus the movie, so I had a lot of writing this evening!

Anyway, I think I'm done now, so I'm going to post these and go to bed! And about time too. Got to go. Night night!

March 15, 2008

Saturday

A little drizzly.

A quite good day. Today I allowed myself to sleep in a few minutes longer as I didn't have my earlyish class. That was nice. I also watched Criminal Minds which was okay. It was about stopping a terrorist plot. Made a nice change from the serial killers they usually do.

Hubby and I had a lovely brunch at Gusto. I had hamburger and chicken which was quite good. After brunch I ran over to the store nearby to pick up a big bottle of oolong tea. Then, I got dropped off at my school.

I changed and got to work immediately. I hadn't checked my lessons very much last night because I knew I'd have a bit of time to work on them today. I made sure that the "maybe" student's was ready to go and then looked at the others. I realized that the last student of the day was going to go through what I'd prepped really quickly and then got something else ready for her. The kids class that was at 3 o'clock...oh my gosh. I had a ton of cards to prepare. I don't know what I was thinking. I got as many of them ready as I could before 2 pm, so that I could at least do the class topic. Just before 2 I cleaned everything up so that if the student came I'd be prepared for her. But, she didn't come. Whew! She hadn't made an appointment exactly, just at one point had told me she could come the entire month of March, and then started to cancel classes. She never really mentioned today, so I didn't count it as an absence. I used the extra time to finish up the kids lesson.

The classes that I had today went well and we all seemed to have a good time. Hurray. It wasn't until almost 6 though that I was finished enough to call my hubby.

He picked me up and we went over to S-Mall and had coffee. A nice break in the day. Then, we came home for a bit, and then went out again for dinner to Jiro. We both had pork saute in garlic oil. Yum. It was very very good.

We came home again and tonight watched St. Elmo's Fire. I was happy to see it again, I'm not sure what Fumihiko thought of it. Some of the things were good, Rob Lowe was very cute back then, and Andrew McCarthy looked as troubled as always. I stole the idea of calling my stepmother "stepmonster" from that film too....Blast from the past really.

Hubby tried valiently to stay awake for Grey's Anatomy, but didn't make it. He went to bed in the middle. I watched it and Project Runway. I enjoyed the show tonight. Most of the dresses even looked nice!

I spent the last couple of hours playing computer games and watching Charlie's Angels. You know, I really quite like that show. I didn't get to watch it as a teenager on the farm...we didn't get the right channels for that. Anyway, it's terribly late now and I really must get some sleep. How will I get over my cold if I don't sleep?

Night.