Monday - Warm and cloudy in Niigata, rainy in Tsuruoka.
And a good weekend was had by all. Well, mostly. It was an experience, let me tell you all about it.
Hubby and I had a fight on Friday night, remember? I wasn't spoken to for much of Saturday either, and had to ask if we could go out for brunch before my work. I thought things were getting better, but they weren't. We didn't talk during brunch, I went to work and taught my two classes, and then came home again for a bit.
F drove me to the train station, but we were really early so he parked in a parkade nearby. I told him that I didn't want to leave things on such bad terms before I left so he launched into a diatribe about what a horrible person I am at times. Hmmm, 'kay. Not really what I was hoping for. I stormed out of car and left him there. I caught my train and enjoyed my trip to Niigata.
In Niigata I found my hotel, checked in and went for dinner. I came back to the hotel later and actually had an early night. I was in bed by 1 am. Seriously. I got a text message from F at 2:30am, it was rather nice but I didn't reply.
In the morning my bad gum was sore. I had breakfast, which luckily being mostly eggs was soft. I checked out of the hotel and went to the Workshop, stopping at a drugstore on the way for some pain medicine. I took some medicine and went to the workshop. It was okay. Not great. I think the second presenter had good ideas but a bad way of presenting. It put my back up to be honest and the third presenter was nice but has done the same thing before. I left the presentation without buying anything for my school. I had planned to get something, but my gums were killing me. The pain medicine had worn off and I was told that the medicine was only to be used twice a day. Yikes. I thought about going home but decided I didn't want to. I went to the next hotel, checked in and then spent a few minutes texting and then calling F and talking. He sent me a message in Japanese to take to a drugstore so that's what I did. I got something that is the Japanese equivalent to Ambesol and also picked up a stronger pain medicine. When I got back to the hotel I used the liquid first. It helped a lot. I was surprised because it seemed like my whole lower right gum was swollen and I had what felt like an egg sized bump on my jaw. I was in agony for a while.
The medicine really helped though and a few minutes after I took the painkiller I was starting to feel almost okay. I decided to look for a place to have dinner. I ended up in Isetan, on their restaurant floor. I had a lovely pasta dish with porcini mushrooms in a cream sauce. It was expensive, but good. The food was soft too, so it didn't bother me. Since I had time to get to the theater, I decided to take myself to see Sherlock Holmes. I didn't have popcorn, I thought that would be a bad thing for my gums, but did have a drink. I gave myself one last dose of the liquid medicine before the film and then went in. It was good. I really enjoyed it. Robert Downey Jr has a sort of melancholy naturally, so he made a good Holmes and it was nice to see Watson as a man of action too. Jude Law, although ridiculously good looking, was very good in this film. It wasn't the greatest film ever, but it was enjoyable.
I walked back to the hotel, read some of my book, took a bath, and eventually, went to sleep. I slept well and was surprised when I woke up around 7 am. I slept a bit later, but was up by 9 this morning.
I ran down to the hotel bakery, grabbed a couple of goodies and then went back up to the room. I showered, ate and drank some coffee. This morning, I'm happy to report, my jaw was greatly improved and the swelling had gone down considerably. There's still a bump on my jaw, and I think the temperature of it is hotter than elsewhere on my face, but I'm better now. Whew!
I checked out of the hotel and went shopping. I found a locker for my suitcase and hacked around the shops. I didn't buy myself any books, although I did buy 3 readers for my school. I got a couple of things for my friend's present and also had a sakura steamer at Starbucks. I had gone in to see if I could have an Assam Black Tea Latte, but the clerk (barista?) made me come up to the counter before I had finished looking at the board. Darn. I missed my favourite.
I had lunch at 3 pm. A restaurant near the shopping area had a half price pasta and dessert plan available between 3 and 5 pm. I'd never been there before so gave it a try. It was nice. After my lunch, I decided to go back to the train station, so I took out my suitcase from the locker and walked back to the station.
I caught the train home without problems. I even finished reading my P.D. James novel The Private Patient. When we got to Tsuruoka, F was waiting for me in the station. We had a nice dinner at Moku-moku and after a heater set at my school, came home. It was a nice evening together. I watched my US med shows and that was it. Basically, a nice night. Whew.
Oh, one little story from my time in Niigata. I usually take a bath when I stay in a hotel by myself, and I like to use some kind of bath salts or additive. I found one at Franc Franc last night. It was a simple grapefruit bath tablet. I picked up the one they had there that was broken. It didn't bother me, and I planned to use it that night so didn't care that it wasn't in perfect condition. I thought I'd buy it, since no one else probably would. I took it to the cash register and the clerk called my attention to the fact it was broken. I said it was okay. She disappeared...and brought me a new unbroken one. I didn't have the Japanese to tell her that I wanted to buy that one because it was broken! I meekly took the new one, and later that night, when I ran my bath, I broke the tablet into 3 or 4 pieces before adding it to the water!
Night!
