March 31, 2020

Tuesday - Sunny

I got up fairly easily this morning and didn’t snooze in bed. Yay for that. I had gone to bed quite early for me though so that might have helped.

I had a fairly quiet morning. I watched a little TV, I found that The English Patient was on, and I was drawn into it as always. I loved the novel so much and the film does quite a good job of bringing it to life. 

I decided to plan the other class for Thursday morning, so did that. I hope I planned enough, I won’t know until I get there. Over-planning can be worse than under planning though.

After lunch, I did some work on F’s jeans. I haven’t finished, but today I drew lines on his jeans with a pen I have and found that it was easier to sew straighter lines. 

Around 5 I went downstairs to get started on dinner. Tonight I did shrimp ajillo which was from the supermarket’s freezer section. I defrosted it and also chopped up some garlic to add to it. Last time we had this, both F and I thought we needed  garlic. With that, we had a baguette that F bought on his way home (after going to many bakeries to find one!), some hummus and a couple of tortillas for the hummus, cream of mushroom soup and a salad.  Everything disappeared! It was quite good though.

After dinner, F wasn’t feeling well so he went upstairs to bed and I got to do all the dishes. Oh well, I actually don’t mind a lot of the time. I had wanted to go to the grocery store to get some fresh produce for tomorrow’s dinner, but he “couldn’t” get up. 

Around 9:30 I was playing a game on my computer and literally falling asleep, so I decided to take a nap. I set a timer for 20 minutes and snoozed. I hit the reset timer a couple of times before I got up.

I watched Castle Rock and then a documentary about Elton John that was quite fun.  F finally got up around 12:30 and has been eating and drinking for a while. Sigh. I’d like to get to bed soonish if I can!

That’s about it for me. Oh, I watched the last few minutes of the D-Life channel and they showed a list of all of their programmes over the years and it was quite long. I am really upset by this channel shutting down. I do not want to get the Disney channel, I’d only be interested in the Star Wars stuff and any of the Marvel stuff anyway. Guess I’ll miss the end of Agents of Shield too. Boo!

Okay, enough…it just seems like there is too much bad news in the world right now. 

I’ll talk to you later, probably tomorrow! Come back later if you like and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

March 30, 2020

Monday - Cloudy and cool

I woke up this morning as usual, but actually stayed awake when I watched the news. I got up a few minutes earlier than I have been getting up and I stayed awake too. Woot.

I did a couple of big loads of laundry and hung them up. I caught a lot of Harrow on D-life. They put on the entire season today. I watched the last episode, but I still have it on tape so may re-watch it.

I got a message from the woman that I’m covering for at work and she asked me to check the textbook that I was using. She might need it back for tomorrow’s class. As I hadn’t prepared anything yet, I decided to do that. I planned one of the two classes for Thursday, then she didn’t need the book after all. No worries then.

I went downstairs around 5 pm to get a start on dinner. I wanted to make guacamole, but the first avocado I opened was as hard as a rock inside. I didn’t open the second one. I sliced up the avocado and baked the slices.  

The other part of the meal was quesadillas. I made two kinds, a tuna and salsa mix one and a chopped chicken one. They were both good and I managed not to burn any. As I made them, I put them in the toaster oven to keep warm.

Finally, I managed to get all the food and all the people in the same room at the same time, so we had a nice little meal. We had tortilla chips with salsa, the baked avocado slices and the quesadillas. Oh, there was a salad too. Almost everything disappeared!  It was good. The quesadillas were quite popular, even with K. I wasn’t sure if she’d like them or not.

F and I did the dishes. We didn’t have a pressing reason to go out tonight, so I asked F what he’d like to do. He requested that we watch Tonari no Totoro and I thought it was a fun idea. Heaven knows I could do with a little light entertainment!  We put on the DVD and F finally figured out how to up it in English with Japanese subtitles.

It was as charming as ever and I loved it. I did a bit of crochet during it and loved that too! 

I watched a bit more of Sherlock and then I took a shower. It’s been a quiet evening here and that’s probably a good thing. 

Tomorrow I have another lesson to plan and a meal to cook.  Come back later if you like and see what happens. Until tomorrow….

March 29, 2020

Sunday - Cool but fine

Although it was forecast that we’d have snow, we didn’t. Other parts of Japan weren’t so lucky. I’m not complaining though!

We slept in fairly late, but I got up around 11 I think, F a short time later. He decided to get his mother a bento for dinner and then we’d go out for ours. It was okay with me. He went off and I finished getting dressed.

We went to Foodever as we haven’t been there in a long time. It wasn’t too busy. F and I both had the Gapao rice. It was great! Afterwards, we walked over to the coffee shop area and had a coffee and some cheesecake. They’d made it with gorgonzola cheese so it was quite interesting to look at and to taste. 

We ran a lot of errands in the afternoon. We picked up some supplies at the drugstore, then went over to the hardware store. F got some pop for his mother and I picked up a few cleaning things. We ran them back to the house and went out again. 

When we were at the house, F checked out the doorbell and it seems to be broken. A friend had come by a couple of days ago, rung the bell, but I hadn’t heard it. It is broken. He wanted to get a replacement, so we went to a hardware store, but they didn’t have what he wanted. I spent my time looking at the hundred yen stuff, I didn’t get any. We made another quick visit to a drugstore before going back to the house. 

F wanted to go to the onsen tonight so the three of us packed ourselves into the car. We went to the onsen and K and F took themselves off to the bath. I sat in the lobby and crocheted. An elderly lady came over and looked at my project, she wanted to chat but I didn’t have the vocabulary. Still, it was very friendly and then I saw an old friend of F’s in the lobby. The elderly lady turned out to be his mother.  Whew! I’m so glad that I was nice to her.  F came out a few minutes later but hadn’t seen his friend.

F wouldn’t wait until I had finished my row of crochet so I bundled it back into my bag and we went for dinner in the restaurant there. I had yakiniku without rice or miso soup, F had a tempura donburi and K had ice cream again. I’m not sure why she is doing that! Maybe she likes it, which is fine, but it isn’t really dinner.

We drove her back to the house and then F and I grabbed the kerosene tanks and went off to do more shopping.  We bought some groceries. I tried to get a few extras in case we’re going to be quarantined. We picked up some kerosene and then F finally listened to me and bought a bit more gas for the car. I get quite annoyed when he doesn’t keep enough gas in the car. We nearly got caught out after the big earthquake in 2011, we really don’t need to run the risk of not having enough.

We came back to the house and had a quiet evening in. I watched some of Sherlock which D-Life is running before they shut down. Their final day is March 31 and they are running a lot of series in their entirety. I am quite depressed just thinking about not having D-Life anymore. 

Anyway, that was my weekend. Tomorrow I’m hoping to do laundry and perhaps a bit of work on F’s jeans. Oh, and I do have two lessons to plan for Thursday, so I had better get on that! 

Come back later if you like and see what I end up doing. Until tomorrow….

March 28, 2020

Saturday - Sunny then a little rainy

I went to bed terribly late last night, then got up once to make a trip downstairs. I came back to bed, fell back asleep. I got up around 11 for a brief time and then went back to sleep. I dragged myself out of bed around 1pm.  F was in bed a lot longer than I was. He didn’t get out until well after 2 pm. 

We discussed where to go for lunch and I suggested a few places. I wanted to take his mother out with us but I wanted a quiet place where she wouldn’t have too many people around us. I suggested Coco Ichibanya and that’s where we went.  It was a pretty good idea as there weren’t many people in the restaurant, so we could stay in a quiet corner away from people.  K had a curry with croquettes, F had a curry with liver and I had Spice Curry which was a sort of roast chicken and masala curry. It was amazing!

We dropped K off at the house and then we went out. Today, we drove to Yutagawa Onsen to see the ume blossoms.  We parked in the public parking and then had to walk to the park. That wasn’t the hard part. The hard part was climbing up the hill to get to the flowers! I had forgotten how steep it was and even that there was a hill to climb.  Still, I did it. I had to take it a bit slowly, but no worries. We were there around 5 pm and there weren’t many people there at all. We avoided most of them too so that was good. There were quite a few different types of trees and the colours were interesting. There were light, light pinks to deep almost reds. We took oodles of photos and then came down the hill. I wanted to be down the hill well before sunset so we weren’t taking stairs in the dark.

 

We bought a drink and then walked back to the car. We stopped in at a couple of places. One to buy our drinks and the other because it had a Hina Doll set in the lobby and were selling some sashiko items. Sadly, the items were things I don’t need, so I wouldn’t let F buy them for me!

On the way back to Tsuruoka proper we discussed what we’d do. We wanted to go and see a movie tonight and needed to get K a bento or something in case she got hungry.  F suggested going to a grocery store that we never go to, and that’s what we did. We drove out to the grocery store and found K a bento. Then, I saw something that I thought looked good, and then F did. We decided to get a few things for later. We weren’t hungry right then, but after the movie, we probably would be.  We bought our stuff and came back to the house. 

K got her bento. I wasn’t sure that she’d be hungry already (I wasn’t!) but she ate it. F and I put ours in the fridge for later and then we went off to the cinema.

We went to see Motherless Brooklyn tonight. There were only 3 people in the cinema, and we were two of them. It’s a shame because I loved the movie. The whole mood and tone of the film just intrigued me so much and I really loved it. I’ve always liked Edward Norton (except maybe during the Hulk thing) and I thought this film was amazing.  After the movie, I told F that I needed to buy the soundtrack. He liked it too, he volunteered his opinion so it must be true!

We came back to the house via a convenience store for a few non-essential essentials. We had a really quiet evening in.  F’s been on YouTube all night, I’ve mostly been on my computer. I read some reviews of the film and people hated it! What?  Why?  It was so compelling to me. 

Anyway, I have absolutely no idea what we’ll get up to tomorrow. If you want, come on back and find out. Until tomorrow….

March 27, 2020

Friday - Rainy, but clear in the daytime

I had a usual quiet day here today. It was like all the others except around 1 pm I started marinating some meat for dinner and then after lunch, I did a bit of mending on F’s jeans. This is the third time I’ve had to do a patch on his jeans, I kind of think he needs new jeans, but…. I tacked the patch onto the jeans and did a couple of rows before I had to stop. It looks sort of cool right now. It’ll take a bit of work to get it done though.

Around 5:15 F called to say he was finished work. For some reason, I didn’t go downstairs for a while and he was actually back here before I did. It wasn’t a big deal though.

What actually was a big deal was that he’d come in bearing flowers. He said they were for me, but I really don’t think so. I told him quite plainly that I didn’t have a vase and so maybe he should give them to his mother! 

He did. Oh heavens. She brought this huge flower arrangement into the kitchen from the genkan. It had a lot of yellow flowers that started dropping their petals all over the place. She tried to cut the new flowers stems but did a really bad job. Meanwhile, I’m trying to get dinner ready and I can’t do anything in the kitchen. F was yelling at his mother (she can’t hear otherwise) and I just wanted the pair of them to get out and leave me alone!

Finally, I got things started. I did garlic pork tonight with rice and miso soup, plus pickled eggplants and baby leaf lettuce. It wasn’t a difficult meal by any means, most of the stuff came from the store so it wasn’t hard work, I just needed to get on it. I also made up some raspberry vinegar drink as that sounded nice for a change. F was looking for something for the bread maker while I was getting things ready and it really upset me. I need peace and quiet around me, not rustling papers and raking through drawers. 

Dinner was okay. Of course, F had done a bunk and was in his bunk…I had to go upstairs to get him to come to dinner. The pork was good, very garlicky, and the salad was yummy. Everything disappeared.

F and I did the dishes, he ran off at the end as usual. It’s so annoying. I told him multiple times that I needed to clean the stove but he wouldn’t get out of my way. I finally got it done and then went upstairs. Where he was back in bed.

I reminded him that we were supposed to go out. He didn’t want to at first but relented later. 

We went to Komeda coffee and each had a decaf. We both had a dessert, so that was quite nice.  After an hour we came back to the house.

F went back to bed, I took a shower and then came and watched a bit of TV. I should have watched The Walking Dead tonight, but I’m finding that I just can’t watch too much of it at once. I watched an episode early on today and it depressed me a bit too much!

I watched a bit of comedy that has somehow found its way onto Japanese TV and felt a bit better. 

That’s about it for today. Oh, today was the 23rd anniversary of my arriving in Japan. There is so much I love about Japan, but so much more that I dislike. It’s a quandary sometimes about why I still live here. One day I’ll think more about it. 

Come back later if you like and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

March 26, 2020

Thursday - Sunny and warmish

Today was the 23rd anniversary of the day I left Canada to come to Japan. I was left at the airport by my brother in law, but a few minutes later a friend came and had breakfast with me before I went through security. 

On with today’s report. I did what I’ve been doing for a few days now. Waking up early, then watching the news from the bed. I watched Jamie Oliver from the bed too but kind of fell asleep on him. Oops. 

I got up and dressed, went downstairs to get breakfast, but K was bopping around in the kitchen so I came back upstairs. I went down again a few minutes later.

I had a very quiet morning and early afternoon. A friend was supposed to come and pick up some books from me, but couldn’t. I was outside waiting for her when I got her text to say she couldn’t come. Oh, dear.  

I watched a bit of TV off the DVR today. I got through an episode of The Walking Dead. I love the show, but it is a hard slog to watch it sometimes. I think I am too nervous for it!

F came back to the house around 6:30 and a few minutes later the three of us left for the onsen. I left a bag of books for my friend in the garage so she could pick them up. Her plan was to come at 7 pm.  She did, but I wasn’t there!

F and K went and took baths at the onsen, I stayed in the lobby and did some crochet. I got a row and a bit done on my scrap shawl so I was quite pleased. It is really looking pretty right now.

We had our dinner at the onsen too. K just had an ice cream cone, F had the cheap ramen on offer and I had Katsu curry or curry and rice with a pork cutlet. It was really quite nice, came with a salad too. F didn’t like the ramen at all. K loved her ice cream! 

We drove back into Tsuruoka and dropped K off at the house. I grabbed the books that my friend had left for me and put them in the house.  

F and I went off to the grocery store. I was hoping that he’d want to go for coffee too, but he was tired and sore after work so didn’t want to go. Oh well.

We picked up a few things from the store and came back to the house. We put away the groceries and then came upstairs. I watched a small amount of TV tonight and then turned off the set.

That’s about it for tonight. Oh, I forgot, I also wrote up a couple of Postcrossings today. One is going to Belgium and the other to Tokyo, so that was cool. I hope I can do a few more tomorrow…or some mending for Fumihiko. 

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

March 25, 2020

Wednesday - Sunny, but a bit cold

I woke up after F left the house and got up a couple of minutes later. I did my stay in bed and watch the news thing, followed unfortunately by a snooze in bed through Jamie Oliver.  Sigh. It was an okay show and I did see some of it. I can’t get his ingredients though. I wish I could.

I did three loads of laundry today. I have a lot more to do, but I got my jeans washed, some work clothes and a few nice shirts so that was okay.

I had a bit of a late lunch. I relaxed a bit too much today. I watched the news at 4 and a while later went downstairs to wash dishes and get dinner on the table. I reheated my yummy stew and got it plated for K. She was surprised that F wasn’t here yet, but I reminded her that he was working late tonight.

After dinner, I cleared the table and was washing dishes when a friend started to text me. While I was texting her, F FaceTimed me so it was a bit of communication overload. F was lonely and wanted to tell me he was still working.  My friend wondered how my classes went last night and wanted to make arrangements to pick up the textbooks.  She’ll swing by tomorrow for them.

I finished up in the kitchen and then went upstairs. I was just settling in when F called to say he had finished and was on his way back.

He arrived around 9:30 I think. He was a bit tired so didn’t want to go out. We’ve made tentative plans for dinner tomorrow night. They could change.

We had a quiet night in. I watched a little TV off the DVR and then took a shower, F took one after me. No big deal really.

So, today was a little quiet but really okay. Come back later if you like and see how Thursday goes. Until tomorrow….

March 24, 2020

Tuesday - Snowy and cold

Before bed last night, F called my attention to the snow that had fallen. Well, this morning, it was still there! Bleck. It stayed most of the day, although the snow on the roads melted fairly quickly.

I was in bed before Fumihiko. Well, no, he was in bed before me, but I tried to fall asleep before he did! He tried to go to sleep soon after that, but he was cold so I turned on the heater for him.

When I woke up this morning he was already gone. I felt bad that I hadn’t heard him at all. I got up at my usual time and watched the news from the bed again. Sometimes I just want to pull the covers over my head and sleep until 2021.  

I got up and watched Jamie Oliver. He does some interesting things with food. Sadly for me, quite a few of his ingredients are hard to source here in the boondocks.  Harissa paste anyone? Maybe in Sendai but doubtful in Tsuruoka. 

I had an okay morning. I had breakfast, I watered my plant a little and then I got a text from F saying that he was going to take the afternoon off. Sigh. His back was bad again so he wanted to take time off. Okay, no problem. 

I did a few things in the room, I got my clothes for work all set out. It was a good thing I started early as I had to really search for my new cardigan that I wanted to wear today. I found it. Whew. 

When F came back to the house, instead of just going to the doctor as I assumed he would, he went to bed with his computer. Okay then. He fell asleep. No biggie.  

Around 3 pm I went downstairs and grabbed some lunch and brought it upstairs. I had my usual lunch but added on an extra piece of toast since I wouldn’t be able to eat until late. 

After I ate my lunch F apologized for not taking me out for lunch. It really was fine. I don’t have a good record with him taking me out for lunch before MY work, so I wouldn’t have gone anyway. 

I got dressed for work after 5 pm because I wanted to watch the news today. It was pretty good actually. They ran the PBS news longer than usual and didn’t put Nightline on afterwards, they used the ABC news. I think I prefer that. 

I got ready for work, I ran a few things downstairs so I was ready to go. I was using the washroom when the doorbell rang. F answered the door and I tried calling out to see if it was my taxi. It was…but he didn’t tell me right away. Ack. As I went to the door to grab my coat, backpack and purse and put on my nice shoes F said something about me being nervous. Well, yes, I am actually. I haven’t taught at this place for a year, you are at the house and are getting in my way and just generally being not very supportive at all. I said I was nervous and left. 

Work was fine though. When I got there, I found out that my last class’s students had called in to say they’d be absent. Oh.  Surprise. I took my paperwork for the first class and went to the classroom to set up. I called the company I work for and asked what I should do. They told me that I could just leave after my first class. I’m sure I won’t get paid for the second class, but I was ready for it. I called my husband and asked him if he’d pick me up at the new earlier time. He said he would. Yay!

Only one student showed up, but we had a good class, mostly discussion. After class finished, I cleaned up the classroom, turned in my paperwork and left.  

F was waiting for me in the parking lot and off we went. I asked to go to Cocos for dinner and that’s what we did. I had a Caribbean spicy chicken which was quite spicy and very nice, F had a Japanese style meal which he complained about. The fried fish wasn’t fresh enough for him…why he orders fish in a family restaurant, I do not know. 

After our meal, which lasted forever as F would not leave…too much YouTube…We went over to the grocery store across the street and I picked up a few things for dinner tomorrow night and some salads for my lunch. F will be late tomorrow night so I’ll be doing kitchen duty with K.  

F was supposed to heat up my lovely stew for him and his mother but instead took her out for ramen with him. He’s lost his bloomin’ mind! There’s a pandemic and he takes his 80-something-year-old mother to a ramen shop? Well, at least it wasn’t my idea. I will be able to heat up the stew for K and me tomorrow night! Yum.

Well, that’s a pretty longwinded way of saying that my day was okay. I’m not sure what I’ll get up to on Wednesday. I might do a bit of crafting/mending for F or I might go for a walk in the park just to get out of the house. That will depend on the weather. Come back later if you like and read how my day goes. Until tomorrow….

March 23, 2020

Monday - Clear but cold, snow at night

I work up before my alarm this morning. F had made a lot of noise…no big deal really. I went downstairs and then came back upstairs to watch the news.

I managed to drag myself out of bed a little earlier than I have for a while so that was good. I watched Jamie Oliver, who is now on in the mornings. I enjoyed it but won’t be able to make his recipes as I don’t have the ingredients. 

I did something a little different today. I took my avocado seed out to the shed and I potted it today. It’s been growing in the window for a while, but the weather wasn’t warm enough to take it outside. I watered it after I had put the soil in the pot and left it outside for a while in a sheltered place from the wind. 

I had breakfast and watched a bit of TV.  Then, I took a nap. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I tried. I napped for much too long but finally got up.  I had lunch and then started to work on my lessons for tomorrow. 

I managed to get them both planned out. I know that they might not all get taught that way, but I’d rather have at least a basic plan of what I want to do than show up with no ideas in mind. 

Around 5 pm I went downstairs to get started on dinner. Before I did that, I brought in my plant. I found a new spot for it upstairs on my DVD rack. I put it on a plastic dish and left it. 

I made another stew today. I’m working tomorrow night and it means that F can just reheat the stew for his mother’s dinner (and probably his too) without too much trouble. F called me while I was prepping things and said he’d be back soon. He was.  

After he came downstairs he said that my plant needed more water and he was going to take it outside and water it again. Ack.  I had carefully brought it in so that it wouldn’t get cold and I didn’t really want to water it so late in the evening. He wasn’t too happy with me for not letting him do what he wanted, but honestly. Every time I get a plant he takes it over and does what he wants with it. It was my blooming seed!  I wanted to grow it myself, thanks anyway.

Anyway, I made the stew. F helped by doing the rice and we had dinner on the table before 7 pm. Not too bad I think. 

We did the dishes after dinner and then I went upstairs to change. We went out for a brief visit to get some gas for the car and hit up a drugstore too. We didn’t find what we were looking for, but did find some chocolate so that was nice!

We came back to the house and had a quiet evening in. I took a shower a little earlier than usual and then watched some TV. No big deal. 

I did water my plant a little more. I think he was right when he said it needed more water, I just didn’t want to take it outside. 

That’s about it for today. Tomorrow I’ll check in on my plant and then see if it is warm enough to put outside for a bit. It snowed tonight so that isn’t an obvious thing. 

I have work in the evening too, so I hope that’ll go well. Wish me luck!

Until tomorrow….

March 22, 2020

Sunday - Rainy-drizzly sort of day

F and I slept in very late today. We’d gone to bed very late last night. I went somewhere around 4 I think, but even that was earlier than Friday, so good I guess? 

We slept in very, very late and then F got up to make lunch for his mother. He had a bit too apparently, then took me out for lunch. We went to a place near my first apartment in Tsuruoka and had an okay lunch there. F had cheese toast, so he ate a little something and I had my usual dish. The only problem with the usual dish is that today it wasn’t as great as usual. Usually, they serve it on a spitting hot metal plate…today not so hot. The green beans in the dish were cold…so not what I wanted.  Anyway, it was fine, just not as great as I hoped it would be.

We did a few other things after lunch. We went to the craft shop. I ogled some yarn but ultimately didn’t buy anything. I have yarn at the house, I need to use more of that before I buy more. We went to the Mall to get a coffee and then after a while I picked up some meat, F got a bento for his mother and then we brought it back to the house for her. 

F wanted sushi for dinner tonight. The best place has seating that is very close together around the revolving sushi, so I didn’t think it was a good idea. We ended up at one of the other places and had a table near where the sushi comes out from the back. 

We had an okay meal, but I wouldn’t call it a great one. Some of the sushi was nice, but F is a bit of a snob. He complained about the rice and some of the fish. Same as usual then.

We bought a few more groceries on the way back to the house. I’m going to make another stew tomorrow night and then F just has to heat it up on Tuesday night for his mother and himself. I’ll be at work if all goes well so it will work out nicely for him after work.

We came back to the house and stayed in. We watched Guardians of the Galaxy again in the evening. It’s a fun film. I did a bit of crochet too, which I very much enjoyed doing. I haven’t done any in a bit. 

Oh, did I mention that I’ve been asked to teach a few classes in April too? I really hope that it works out okay. It will help make up for the classes that were cancelled this month because of the Corona Virus. 

From being in the restaurant and some of the other places we go, Japanese people just don’t seem to have heard of social distancing. When F was paying tonight, a woman came and stood directly behind him…when we were at the cinema concession stand yesterday a guy was flitting between cashiers and was again, standing directly behind F.  I feel like blowing a whistle and pushing people away! 

Anyway, that’s it for me. Tomorrow I want to transplant my little avocado plant into a real pot and hopefully get started on my lesson planning for Tuesday. 

Come back later if you want and see what I get up to. Until tomorrow….

March 21, 2020

Saturday - Clear but windy

I went to bed insanely late last night, and I slept in rather insanely late this morning. F was awake and using his computer when I finally woke up to stay.

He gave his mother some food. I like that he makes lunches for her on the weekend, I don’t like that he never puts the dishes away afterwards.  Still, not a big deal. 

While he did that, I stripped our bed and folded up most of the stuff. I got it ready to go out.  We bagged it up a little later and went out.  First, we had lunch at Arpeggio. It’s a little shop on Ginza-Dori. They have Japanese food, but it is quite a nice place. I told F that I didn’t want to go there every weekend, but I didn’t mind a couple of times a month. I had the chicken soboro which F called Gapao rice today. He’s very nearly correct. The same type of dish, just not very spicy.

After lunch, we drove off to Voice and went to the laundromat that we both like. We were able to get a couple of washing machines and washed our bedding, plus a few extras. After that, we dried it. It took about an hour to get everything dried. I read some of a couple of books, so did F.

We came back to the house via the good bento shop. We got a nice bento for K and brought it back to the house. F gave her the bento and I went upstairs and got a head start on making the bed. I had the mattress protector on and the fitted sheet and then I remembered we should turn the mattress. Ack. I just spun it around. F finally came upstairs to help and we got the rest of the bed made fairly quickly. I’m not sure how long it will be cool enough to use the big quilt that I use.  Even today, I kicked part of it off as I was overheating.

When we had made the bed, we left again. We drove out to Mikawa to the Mall. It was quiet there, not a lot of people around 6:30 tonight. We bought our tickets for the movie and then went to find our dinner. We both had bibinba at the food court. They were good, but the stone bowls weren’t as hot as we like.  Still, our movie tickets got us free drinks, so that was good.

We went to see Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn.  I liked it a whole lot more than I thought I would, but it had a ton of bad language. I’m not sure if I disliked that because it was women using it (is that sexist of me to say that?) or just because it seemed overkill?  Margot Robbie was great and it was fab to see Rosie Perez in something again. She lights up the screen with her presence. I’d like more about the other Birds of Prey too.

After the movie, we came back to Tsuruoka. F wanted to get some yakitori but the place had closed so we hit up a conbini. We got some chicken there and also a couple of ice creams.  We came back to the house. I ate my chicken and so did F. I ate my ice cream and then took my shower. F took a shower after me, came back up to the room and realized that he hadn’t eaten his ice cream. I think it was soup by then!

I watched a couple of episodes of BH90210 and thought they were funny. I’ve taped more episodes, will try and watch them later. I’ve also been offered a few more classes to teach next month. I think I’ll do it as I could use the money!

Anyway, that is it. No plans yet for tomorrow. I’m not sure if we’ll stick around the house or not. If we do something it’ll probably be something that keeps us away from crowded places. I hope!

Come back later if you like and see what we get up to. Until tomorrow….

March 20, 2020

Friday - Rainy and mega windy

I went to bed quite late last night so I didn’t plan to get up early. I woke up but went back to sleep. F came back somewhere around 10 I think. He got into bed and went to sleep. He mumbled something about being hungover. 

I got up to stay around 11 am. F slept on. Finally around 2 I went downstairs and grabbed something for my lunch. I was a bit upset with F sleeping so late, but it really didn’t matter that much.

I went back for a nap around 4 pm but set my alarm to ring at 5. When it went off, F suggested that we make a nabe for dinner. We’d have to go and get the ingredients though.  We did that!  

F made the nabe and I did many of the peripherals, setting the table, getting the drinks out, cleaning up the mess that F had made on the stove earlier in the day. 

We’d bought a spicy soup base for the nabe so it was really nice. F had even bought udon to go in it at the end, and that was nice too. We all ate a lot of the nabe and I think we ate it all. 

We did the dishes and went upstairs for a couple of minutes. Then we went out.

We went to our local cinema and saw Knives Out. I’d almost seen it in Canada, but no one wanted to see it with me. It was…okay. I thought it would be a little funnier. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t love it. 

After the movie, I didn’t want to go back to the house so I asked F if we could go for a drink or a dessert. He said it was okay and we ended up at Gusto. It was very quiet there too. We shared an order of fries and an order of kara-age. We each had a chocolate cake with soft ice cream too, and drink bar of course. We’d used coupons on our phone so things weren’t too expensive. 

We came back to the house after midnight. I watched a little bit of TV off the DVR and F went to bed. He’s still tired!

I’m not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. We might do some laundry, we might go out. Come back later if you like and see what happens. Until tomorrow….

March 19, 2020

Thursday - Warm and sunny

I had my usual morning where I get up to watch the news but really snooze in bed for a while. I went downstairs and got breakfast a bit late today, no big deal.

Lovely person that I am (ha!) I went downstairs around 12:30 and gave K some of the leftover stew/casserole. I even heated it up for her. I’m so nice! She seemed happy to have it. 

I had my lunch around 2 today. I had my part of the stew and also a sausage roll. It was nice! 

I stayed upstairs for quite a while and came down after the 4 pm news to wash my dishes. I had brought my wallet downstairs in case the sushi delivery came while I was downstairs. I finished my dishes, dried them and was carrying a bottle of water upstairs when the doorbell rang.  I ran downstairs and our food was here! 

I paid the man and off he went. It was a little surprising today because the company used plastic dishes. Usually, they bring things on china bowls or lacquer boxes, but today everything was one use only. It makes sense with the dread corona virus though. They don’t want to take back any germs from people’s houses…even though people usually wash them first.  

K wasn’t ready to eat yet, so I suggested waiting a while and then we’d have dinner. I came back downstairs just before 6 pm and made the soup and set things on the table.

We had a lovely meal. We both had the sashimi donburi which came with soup and chawanmushi. I had to add water to the soup, but that’s not a problem.  We both ate our dinners, but it was hard to move afterwards!

I did the few dishes and then came upstairs. I spent a quiet evening up here. I watched some YouTube and some TV, I did a little crochet, and I took a shower. I even looked through the texts for my classes next week. I wanted to have an idea of what I should teach the students. 

I’m not sure when F will be back tomorrow, but it will probably be earlyish. I’m not sure what he wants to do this weekend. If he’s up for it there are movies at the cinemas but if he isn’t we can do some other things.

Come back later if you like and see what we get up to. Until tomorrow….

March 18, 2020

Wednesday - Sunny and clear

This morning I got up for a while and then came back upstairs and got back into bed to watch the news. I watched it for the most part, but then snoozed through Bake-Off. It was Masterclass so I didn’t feel too bad about it. 

I got up, took a load of laundry downstairs to wash and then grabbed my breakfast. I brought it upstairs to eat and it was nice. Just cereal and yogurt, but I liked it.

I had a terribly quiet day today. I didn’t see too much of K, but I said hi when she poked her head in the kitchen. 

I was thinking about going downstairs to start dinner when F called and said he was on his way. Yikes. I sprang into action. Sort of.  

I heated up yesterday’s stew, got another pan on the stove with water in and took the puff pastry out of the fridge. I’d taken it out of the freezer earlier on. Like last time, I boiled some pasta and added it to the chicken stew, then poured the whole thing into my casserole dish. I covered it with a lid made out of puff pastry, egg-washed it and then baked it. I also made some sausage rolls with the leftover pastry. I set them aside to bake later. 

I got the rest of dinner on the table. I was going simple tonight. The chicken stew/pot and a salad. That’s it. There were pasta, veggies and chicken in the stew, so it wasn’t like we needed more stuff.  

Dinner got great reviews. The pastry looked amazing on top. It was very dark brown. Another minute or two and it would have burned but I think I caught it just in time.  I baked the sausage rolls during dinner and stuck them in the fridge for tomorrow. I told F he could have one for breakfast, but I don’t know if he’ll remember. 

After dinner and the dishes, F and I went out. We went to Komeda Coffee and had a drink and used the free wifi for a while. It was nice for me to get out of the house.

When we left, we went to the grocery store and picked up a few necessities for tomorrow. I needed bread and a lunch salad amongst other things. At the check-out, I made F practice social distancing by making him wait for the clerk to finish with his  customer before getting too close. He was looking for the lines on the floor to see how far away he should be, I just rolled my eyes. 

We hit up the drugstore too for some shampoo for both of us and a few other things. It was late at night so quite quiet there. 

We came back to the house and had a quiet evening in. F watched YouTube videos, I watched a couple with him. One was about MMA fighting and the other was about filleting anago (eel). The anago one was at least sort of interesting!

That’s about it for me for today. F will be away tomorrow night at a party, so I’m on K watch. Hopefully, he’ll remember to call the sushi delivery place and order some dinner for the two of us. If he forgets I’ll have to whip up something from the freezer!

Come back later if you like and see what happens. Until tomorrow….

March 17, 2020

Tuesday - Rainy with thunder at night

I woke up with my alarm but didn’t stay up. I turned on the heater, got back into bed and watched the news. I snoozed a bit through Bake-Off and then had to rewatch it later as it was the final with the lovely Nadiya in it. It was rather wonderful.

I had a very quiet day today. I didn’t see K at all to talk to during the day. She was up for a lot of the day, which was great.

Around 5:30 pm I went downstairs to get a start on dinner. I was making a stew tonight, so I did my thing. I got all the veggies prepped and then the meat. Most of it was fine, but I’d bought a big piece of meat yesterday and I needed to cut it up. I got it in the pot soon enough and started cooking. It seemed to go together rather well.  

K popped into the kitchen around 7 wondering about F, but he was working late tonight. He’d told me but hadn’t told her I think.  I tried to explain that he had to work late, but she didn’t understand me. Between my lack of Japanese and her deafness, we are a right pair!

I got the stew done and plated it for K and me. I took things out to the table and we proceeded to eat. It was great! K kept telling me that it was delicious and it was! I’d finished eating and was just waiting with K while she finished when F called to say he was done.  I told K that F was coming.  I cleared the table and got most of the dishes washed before he arrived.

F got to have some of the stew and the salad and he enjoyed it too. Yay. He was quite tired afterwards. I did the rest of the dishes, which wasn’t a big deal and then hung around waiting for my friend to come by.

She had texted me to let me know that she would drop off the textbooks for the classes I’m teaching next week. She duly arrived and I chatted with her for a few minutes before she went back to her apartment.

I came upstairs and watched a little TV before taking a shower.  I watched the season finale of The Handmaid’s Tale and it was very cool. Now I have to wait until season 3 gets here. Grr!

That’s about it for me. Although I didn’t go out today, there wasn’t a pressing need to go out. Tomorrow night, however, I probably will need to go out. Come back later and see what happens here.  Until tomorrow….

March 16, 2020

Monday - Cloudy with some rain and snow

I got up this morning to an empty room. I watched the news from the bed as it was quite cold this morning. I had a quiet morning. I should have done laundry but didn’t, I should have moved around more but didn’t.

I barely saw K today. I think she spent most of the day in bed. She got up to watch sumo but was still in her nightwear.  

F texted me tonight instead of calling and I told him that we needed to run errands after dinner. He said it was okay and I believed him. He sounded chipper in the texts.

I went downstairs and got started on the day’s dishes. F came back while I was doing that so I sent him off to get changed. I confirmed with him that we needed to go out to the shops and the gas station tonight. 

I’m not sure why, but I got quite upset with him. He just has this habit of standing in my way in the kitchen and then getting mad at me when I want to move around. Anyway, I muttered a few rude things under my breath and tried to calm myself down.  

I finally got dinner underway. I was making Gapao Rice tonight so I cooked the rice and the chicken, had washed the salad and some cilantro and was trying to figure out how to plate things and how to get things to the table. I was putting the chicken onto the rice when F asked me if I was going to put fried eggs on top of the mixture. I had completely forgotten that I was supposed to do that! Ack.  I got him to get me some eggs out of the fridge and I took a small, clean frypan out to start cooking them in. Meanwhile, he cleaned my big frypan, but not very well. I gave it back to him to rewash it because it still had stains on the side.  

When we ate, it was all quite nice. I did fry eggs for F and K, I scrambled one for myself because I just didn’t care anymore. Everyone liked dinner. I’d used baby leaf salad for a change and it was lovely. I got started on the dishes and got most of them done, washed and dried.  I went to the washroom and then came back to find F cleaning my small frypan and a lake of water on the floor. I’d put water in the frypan so that the egg wouldn’t stick and he hadn’t noticed it. He hadn’t noticed the mess on the floor either. He cleaned it up and then washed the cloth in the basin of soapy water. Then he put my frypan back in the basin. What??? He must have seen my eyebrow hit the ceiling because he did have the good grace to change the water.

After dinner, when I went upstairs, there was F in bed wearing his jacket. No heater on, just in bed. I asked him if he was ready to go out. No. He needed a few minutes. I gave him a few. I came back. Was he ready yet? Bear in mind that we needed kerosene…his mother and I use that to heat our rooms and we hadn’t bought it at the weekend. My tank in my room was nearly empty, and there wasn’t much downstairs. He started ranting about going out at midnight to get some and I told him that wasn’t acceptable since the stores I needed to go to weren’t open then. He mumbled more.

I left him alone for a while, but around 9:30 I tried again. He’d been sleeping for an hour or so, so I was patient in my books! I woke him up and told him that we needed to go out right away as the drugstore would be closing soon. He seemed to be feeling better, so we went out this time.

We made it to the drugstore at about 5 minutes before closing. They were playing the “Get Out” song when we went in. Luckily, I knew what I wanted, grabbed it and went through the checkout. From there we went to the grocery store where I bought a few things for tomorrow’s dinner. I’m going to make a chicken stew so I needed more chicken. We needed rice as well and a few other things for dinner.

On the way back to the gas station, F seemed to forget and wanted to head for the house, but I made him keep going. We needed kerosene and I wasn’t about to let him forget it. He did pick a few tanks up and we brought it back to the house.

At the house, he refilled the hot water tank’s kerosene tank and put the other kerosene away. I put away the groceries and then did up the plastic garbage for taking out tomorrow. 

F is saying that he might go to the doctor tomorrow, but I’m not sure if he really will. He doesn’t have a temperature, but he doesn’t feel well. I think it has more to do with him not sleeping well enough these days. Too much computer in bed!

I watched a bit of TV, drank some decaf tea and tried to relax. It’s a bit hard. I had wanted to talk to F about the night he’s away this week, but when he’s doing the fainting couch bit I can’t talk to him.

Anyway, I’m done for tonight. Tomorrow I’ll be cooking a stew for dinner and I’m not sure what else. I hope I’ll be able to do laundry too. 

Come back later if you are even more bored than I am about these updates and see what is new. Until tomorrow….

March 15, 2020

Sunday - Sunny and rainy.  Beware! It’s the Ides of March.

I went to bed terribly late last night and didn’t set an early wake up at all. I woke up to my 11 am alarm again but was terribly surprised that it was so late!  I got up and stayed up this morning.

F went downstairs and gave his mother some food and then we went out for our lunch. Today I was okay with going to the place that he wanted yesterday. We went to You-me Shokudo and it was okay. They’ve stopped having self-service rice and miso soup for the moment though. I think F missed that more than me. 

After lunch, we decided to go to the Chido Museum for a good snoop. I have the membership this year and it expires at the end of the month. We went in and had a look at the Hina Dolls and the gardens, and a few other things there. It wasn’t busy so it was probably a lesser risk activity. We enjoyed the museum and when it was around 3:00 pm I reminded F that JoJo Rabbit was playing at the cinema in the city at 3:35. We’d talked about seeing it again, so decided we would.  

This Donald Duck is rather famous...he was left behind by his owner 20-30 years ago.
The museum staff have kept him, they bathe him and make clothes for him. A few years ago,
someone donated Daisy so he wouldn't be alone anymore.
They are dressed for the Hina Matsuri.

Food made from candy with Anko in the middle. It is for the Hina Matsuri.  Look at the details...
the orange peel for example. So pretty.

A courtier from a Hina set. He was big for a doll.

The ume tree in bloom.

We left the museum and drove over to the cinema, paid the money, bought the popcorn and went in. Again, because the movie was in English, there just weren’t a lot of people there, but to be sure, there were more than at our film last night. We both enjoyed seeing it again and I enjoyed hearing the dialogue a bit better this time.

After the movie, I suggested going to S-Mall. We could pick up a bento for K’s dinner and see if the hundred yen shop had a glass for our set. We did both things!  They did have a glass, so that was good, we bought it. F wanted to buy more, but where would we put them?

We had a bit of a spat when we were going back to the house. I didn’t feel that well all of a sudden and I wasn’t sure what I should do. F was trying to talk me into going to restaurants and I wasn’t sure I should go out of the house. 

When we arrived, I put some of the groceries away, F gave his mother her bento and I waited upstairs to see what was going to happen. I took my temperature. The first time was a little high, but the second time (5 seconds later!) was normal, and so was the third time.  No fever then. I think it’s a case of allergies from the museum’s tatami room or rhinitis.  I felt better too.

We talked about places to go to. F wanted ramen (He had udon or ramen with his mother in the morning, yakisoba at lunch and still wanted more noodles. The man is an addict I tell you.) I did not want noodles. Well, I’d have been happy with pasta, but that’s neither here nor there. We decided we’d go to the ramen/curry place we go occasionally, but on the way there decided to go to a small Korean place near the house. It was a good choice. 

We had a very nice meal of chichimi and jjigae (stew). It was really good. Sadly for us, a big group came in after us and sat near us and smoked. Bleck. F was more bothered by it than I was.

After our yummy meal, we went back to the car and drove out to the grocery store. I picked up a few things for tomorrow’s lunch and dinner and then we came back to the house.  

I showered and then a little later, we finished up the cake that F bought me for a White Day Present. It was nice. 

And that was my day. It was quite nice, except for the usual fighting about food.

Come back in a bit and see what happened. Until tomorrow…. 

PS  if you'd like to see more pictures from my day, check out my Instagram!