March 31, 2024

Sunday - Sunny and warm 

I slept in this morning and it was lovely. I really enjoyed it.  I did eventually get up and got dressed. A little while later, F came upstairs and we decided to go for brunch. After a little discussion, we ended up at Arpeggio. 

At Arpeggio, we were able to get in almost right away. We both had the new menu item, chicken fingers with rice pickles and soup. Lunch was really nice and we enjoyed it a lot.  On the way back to the car, we made a stop into a building near the restaurant. They were displaying some of the Hina Dolls. I didn’t really want to go, but F did, so we did. We had to go upstairs to see the dolls. The staircase was one of those horrid old-style Japanese staircases that was more ladder than stairs. The dolls were old and gorgeous, but there was no information in English so I had to ask F questions that he didn’t know the answers to. When we left, I went down the stairs backwards. 

We next went to the station so I could check the times for the train on Tuesday. I thought the trains were changing times tomorrow, but it turns out that they already changed their times! I used the machine to book my tickets, but even though it was in English, it wasn’t user-friendly. I paid for my tickets, but it was too little money. F didn’t believe me at first, but he checked on his phone and I checked on mine, and I was correct, the amount I paid was about half of the actual fare. We decided to ask at the office so joined the long queue to talk to the ticket guy. Sure enough, I was right. I hadn’t paid for the train tickets, just the Limited Express fees! I bought the other tickets and then we were on our way. 

We went to the grocery store and picked up some groceries for the next couple of days. I offered to make curry for tomorrow night so that he doesn’t have to cook after work on Tuesday when I’m away. I also picked up a few other things for the family.

We came back to the house and dropped off the groceries. I put them away and then F and I went off. K was with her daughter today so we were glad for her.

We drove to Mikawa and that was fun. Halfway there, F started to turn to go to his office. I had to remind him that we weren’t going there! We went to the mall in Mikawa and bought tickets to go and see Oppenheimer. F went back to the car to get his phone…he was going to be in a movie for 3 hours, why did he need his phone? Curious minds want to know. I bought the popcorn and drinks, and then just went into the cinema. I parked the refreshments and went to the ‘loo! I did bump into F on his way in so that was good. On my way back, I followed a young guy with a tray and he didn’t notice but he dropped his straw. I picked it up and had to follow him up to his seat to give it back to him. It was wrapped in plastic, so hopefully no harm was done. 

Oppenheimer was really good. I thought it was very interesting and well-acted and directed. I talked about it with F after the movie because I wanted his opinion about it and how he felt about it. It was the kind of movie that you need to talk about afterward.

We came back to Tsuruoka and went for dinner at Haretoke. It’s a bar/restaurant that serves Italian food. We had the quatro-fromage pizza again and also shared an order of pasta. That was peperoncino with spring cabbage and baby squid. It was delicious. 

We came back to the house after dinner and basically came back to the room. F went to bed right away but hasn’t slept well. I feel a bit sorry for him. He’s awake again and it is really late. 

So, that’s it for today. Tomorrow I have to get my suitcase or whatever I use to get ready and also make curry for dinner. 

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

March 30, 2024

Saturday - Sunny and warm

Well, today was different!  I woke up before my alarm but dozed on for a few more minutes until my alarm actually went off. I went downstairs. K hadn’t quite left yet. F was up and was just about to wash the toilet room floor. I’m not sure why he needed to do this now, but whatever.

I got dressed and waited for F to do whatever he was planning to do. He didn’t think I was ready, but of course I was. We left the house around 10 am, made a trip to the bank, and then went to Gusto for breakfast. 

Breakfast was quite good today and we left sometime around 11am. We drove off towards Yamagata City. Unfortunately, F became a little under the weather along the way.  We stopped a couple of times for breaks. 

In Yamagata, we decided to have lunch. I requested yakiniku and F was okay with that. We went to a good place and after a 40-minute wait, were seated and had a really nice meal. We had part of their lunch special. We had bibinba and some yakiniku meat, we added on kimchi for each of us and drinks and, a roasted onion done in a stone bowl. That one was really interesting and quite delicious. 

After our lunch, we hit up a drugstore for F to get some medicine for himself and then we headed directly to Costco.  

We were lucky enough to get a parking space near the building AND quite convenient. We went in and after a few minutes of touring the store with F, he finally left me to do my shopping. I did quite a bit. I didn’t need huge amounts of stuff this time, but I got a few things I hadn’t tried before and more than I had. I texted F to tell him that I was going to check out and then I did. The bill came to exactly ¥20000! One of the workers told me it might be my lucky day. 

We took the groceries to the car and packed them away, then we went back inside and I had a drink and an ice cream.  The flavour today was raspberry yogurt, so I had that in a mix with regular vanilla ice cream. It was very nice. 

We left Costco after F gassed up the car at the Costco gas station, then got on the road. We made a stop at Yamaya and I bought a lot of things I shouldn’t have! After that, back on the road.

We did make a stop at Sagae as usual, but apart from that, we drove straight back to Tsuruoka. We came back to the house and unpacked the car. F put some of the stuff away, and I put the rest away. 

We went out for our dinner and after a bit of discussion, decided to go for udon. It wasn’t my favourite place, but F’s still a bit under the weather so I wanted him to have something easy to digest. F had udon with a raw egg and some tempura, I had niku udon (meat udon) plus tempura.

We came back to the house after dinner and I changed into my pyjamas as I needed to relax! I watched FBI at 11pm and did some knitting too. After midnight the TV was off and I turned to YouTube and my computer.

And I’m still there! Some interesting news though. One of my close friends is in Japan from England. She was my manager once upon a time. She’s asked if I can come down and visit, so I’ll be away on Tuesday. I’ll spend a night in Niigata too because I don’t want to spend so much time on a train in one day. So, that’s hopefully going to be fun. I’ll get to see my friend and spend some time away from Tsuruoka. Woot. 

Anyway, I’ve got to get some sleep now. I’m tired!

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

March 29, 2024

Friday - Rainy early on, clearing later in the day

I woke up this morning before my alarm went off. I went downstairs and then came upstairs and went back to bed. I didn’t sleep very well though, I couldn’t really turn off my brain for ages.

I got up later and grabbed breakfast. I came upstairs, ate, watched the news and a bit of YouTube. I did a little bit of knitting today too. I had to count the stitches because I thought I gained one or two last night. I did! I took a little bit back and then I knitted another row. 

I had an early-ish lunch and of course, watched an episode of Fringe. Have I mentioned lately that I’m really enjoying watching that show? 

F called a little after 5:15 and said he was on his way back. A few minutes later, I went downstairs and got started on dinner. As I was making pasta, I couldn’t do too much in advance, but I did a little. 

F got back and suggested that we go to Costco tomorrow. I wasn’t sure about it, but then I thought, why not! I said okay, so it seems like we are going to go to Yamagata City tomorrow. 

I cooked dinner and got it on the table. I tried something interesting today. I put some dried onion flakes into the pasta water and then boiled the pasta. It added a little something to the pasta and it was nice. 

Dinner was good and F had seconds for a change. I was surprised at that, but glad too. After dinner, I cleared the table and did all the dishes and put things away too. 

I changed my clothes and a few minutes later F and I went out. He wanted to get some food for his mother for tomorrow. We went through the store and picked things up, then we went to the drugstore. I went in there to pick up a few things. I paid and left.

F did offer to take me somewhere else, but I didn’t really want to go. Tomorrow F wants to leave fairly early, so I didn’t want to stay out very late. 

We came back to the house and F put away his groceries. I came upstairs but after half an hour, I went downstairs to take a shower. I showered and then came back upstairs.

I had a quiet rest of the evening. I’m watching a bit of YouTube and trying to relax. Tomorrow I’m not sure when we’ll leave. F often wants to leave early, but he loses things so we can’t leave on time!

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

March 28, 2024

Thursday - Sunny and windy

My alarm went off this morning and woke me up. I made a trip downstairs and while I was there, I heard someone unlock the door. I thought F was back for a visit and prepared to say hi, but it was F’s sister. She had a reason to be there, but I didn’t find out about it until later. I find it annoying that she just comes into the house without ringing the doorbell or whatever. She was taking K to the doctor for a checkup or something. I said hi and then went back upstairs.

I got dressed and then went back to bed for a little while. I didn’t really fall asleep although I did try. 

When I got up I went downstairs and grabbed my breakfast. To be honest, I didn’t really grab it today, I made it. I had porridge again and it was lovely. 

I had a quiet afternoon today. I watched the news and some YouTube. When I went downstairs to get my lunch, I had my usual food. I came back upstairs and, you guessed it, watched another episode of Fringe. It was good!

F called a little after 5 pm to say he was on his way back. I went downstairs to start dinner and did a bit of prep before I started cooking. I also had to clean up the area around the sink as there were many things not put away. 

Tonight’s dinner was a pork stir-fry with rice, salad and spaghetti salad. Unfortunately, when I went through to the living room to check on the rice, I discovered that F had set it all up, but he hadn’t hit the start button. Oh dear! Luckily, we still had some bachelor pack rice left, so I used that instead. 

I called F down and we had a nice meal. No one had seconds which made me a little sad, but I thought the meal was good. 

I did the dishes and listened to my podcasts. When I finished, I said goodnight to K and F and went upstairs. I watched some YouTube and then at 11pm watched The Rookie. It was quite a good episode and I think they closed off the storyline of the young female cop that Nathan Fillion is training.  I also kept my hands busy while I was watching. I started a hat! I’m going to try and knit a hat using a pattern I found ages ago. I cast it on tonight, I hope that I can do some work on it over the next few weeks. My hands aren’t enjoying it as the needles are tiny, so they are cramping a bit.

F didn’t come upstairs until midnight or thereabouts. I was starting to worry about him if I’m honest! He went to bed, but he wasn’t sleeping yet. Well, he might have dropped off finally.

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. I’ll probably cook dinner and after that, we’ll see. I’d like to relax a bit before the weekend. 

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

March 27, 2024

Wednesday - Sunny and warm

I woke up a couple of times this morning. F got up around 9 and said he had to go to the bank. Then he asked me to phone him. He couldn’t find his phone. I was sleeping and I didn’t have my glasses on so it was very hard to make my phone work. Finally, it did, but we couldn’t hear his phone at all. He found his phone later. It was outside! He must have dropped it when he paid the taxi last night, and then someone saw it on the road and put it on the neighbour's fence so it wouldn’t get damaged. Whew!

F went off to the bank and left me alone. I went back to sleep. Yay me. I finally dragged myself out of bed and I got dressed. F came back and was going to go to bed. I asked if he wanted to have lunch or if I should go and have my breakfast. I was okay either way!  He chose to take me out for lunch. He suggested one of the restaurants along the shore so off we drove.

And…when we got there…both of the restaurants were closed.  We drove back into Tsuruoka and went to the Grand ElSun. Unfortunately, F didn’t feel like eating, so he had coffee and nearly fell asleep. I had the grilled pork lunch. It was very nice.

After lunch, F was still feeling bad, but he very nicely agreed to drive me to the Main Post Office. I went in and was able to send my parcel quite quickly. However, I also wanted to make a deposit at the post office account, so that took ages. The bank in the post office doesn’t seem to be the most efficient place I’ve ever seen. To be fair though, I’m sure they were doing other work when customers weren’t in front of them. 

I finally made my deposit and went back to the car. We were going to go back to the house, but I reminded F that he was supposed to pick up his new glasses today. He checked his receipt and I was right. He decided to drive out to Mikawa and pick them up. 

We had a nice drive except near the mall, someone made a turn and went too far. Instead of going to the other side of the island, they went into our lane. That meant all of a sudden a car was coming towards us. F slowed and stopped, honked his horn and the person must have twigged about what happened. Anyway, they turned their car and went behind a bunch of people and went in the right direction in the far lane from us. Yikes. 

We parked at the mall, F went to get his glasses and after that, I asked him what he wanted to do. He wanted some ramen! What could I say? I got an expensive nice lunch, so I told him to go for it. He got some and I decided to go for ice cream at Baskin Robbins. The line was so long that it took ages. I felt a bit sorry for their staff.  I got my favourite Jamoca Almond Fudge and tried a new-to-me flavour, Chocolate Mousse Royale. That was very nice. I would have it again if I could. I grabbed a drink from a vending machine and then we drove back to Tsuruoka. 

We came back to the house for a while and F took a nap. I spent time on my computer and I watched the news that I had recorded during the day. 

F finally went downstairs and made something for K’s dinner. He seemed surprised that she was hungry but I pointed out that he hadn’t brought her any lunch like I had suggested!

After she ate, we decided to go out for dinner. I suggested maybe going for Keiten sushi. F still didn’t want to eat a lot of food and didn’t feel like anything heavy. We went and had a few dishes of sushi. We had some tempura too and also shared an order of fries with mayo and rayu oil. 

When we left Kappa Sushi we went to the grocery store and I went in and did a bit of shopping. I needed to pick up a few things and did. F waited in the car, which is something that I really prefer! 

We came back to the house and I put away the groceries. I went upstairs, changed and then did the garbage upstairs in our room. I had a bit of trouble with F trying to do some annoying stuff with the garbage, but whatever. 

I did the garbage downstairs too which wasn’t too bad, just annoying! I think I got it ready. I left it in the genkan for F to take outside later. 

F noticed that a bill needed to be paid right away, so he went off to the convenience store. I took a shower while he was away. I needed one!

Back in the room a bit later, I watched an episode of Fringe tonight. It was a good one if a little bit sad. I turned off the TV when it was over. 

I spent a couple of minutes with F a bit later and then came back to my computer and watched some YouTube. I’ve been working on my blog and a few other things. 

So, that’s it. I’m out of things to say for a change! If F is still feeling bad he might take the day off. I hope he does go to work as I need a bit of me-time! He’s a dear, but I need a little break from him.

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

March 26, 2024

Tuesday - Rainy and dark and gloomy

I woke up this morning when my alarm went off. I went downstairs and used the washroom and as I came out I heard someone come downstairs from upstairs. I was alone when I got up so F must have come in and sneaked upstairs. He came to get his breakfast which he left upstairs. We chatted for a few minutes and I asked for some money to pay for the dinner tonight! He obliged me. 

After F left, I went upstairs and got dressed. I sorted my laundry and then went back to bed for a nap! I didn’t really sleep much, but I did relax a bit.

When I got up, I took a load of laundry downstairs and put it in the wash. I grabbed my breakfast and went upstairs to eat.  I ate and then spent the next few hours doing 3 loads of laundry and then hanging it up in my room. I am glad that I got a lot done today. 

F showed up again in the afternoon. He was able to stay for a little while so I gave him some coffee. I grabbed my lunch and then when I came back upstairs it was time for him to leave again! I ate lunch, which was very nice. I also watched an episode of Fringe. I’m very into that show!

I watched the news at 4 pm and a bit later F called to say that he was on his way back, but he’d already booked a taxi for himself! I went downstairs a little before 6 pm and the taxi was outside the house, just as F arrived. He still had to dress for the party! He did that quickly and left. 

We had booked dinner to be delivered between 6 and 6:30 so I waited downstairs for it to come. I got some dishes ready and some hot water ready, but the food didn’t come. Finally around 7 pm I texted F and asked if he could call the place we ordered from to see what happened. He did and called me back a few minutes later. F had told the guy the wrong date! He told them to deliver it tomorrow night! Ack.  They told him that they could deliver us a food order tonight and they did. It was at our door in less than an hour, bless them! I could have done pasta for us if they couldn’t deliver tonight, but they managed. 

We had a lovely dinner of tuna sushi. It was very nice. It came with a packet of clear soup, which I made up and I added on some mugi-cha. 

My dinner. 

After we finished eating, I washed the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. After that, I said goodnight to K and went upstairs. 

I registered the parcel I plan to send my best friend for her birthday next month. I had to weigh the items and write up what they were made of and where they came from. It’s a bit of a pain, but not that difficult. I was planning to take a shower, but I didn’t. Oh well. At 11pm I watched FBI: Most Wanted and it was okay. Last week’s episode was better. 

Around midnight, I started to wonder where my husband was. He didn’t come back until after one. I wasn’t worried about him, but I was more worried that K might come looking for F. She’d done that before, called me down and told me to call him and tell him to come home! It’s ridiculous really. He’s a grown man!

F was quite drunk but very happy. I advised him to drink some water, but I’m not sure if he did. He seems to be sleeping now, but he was talking for quite a while. 

F has the day off tomorrow but I’m not sure what condition he’ll be in. I’m hoping things will go well with him.  I only have to get to the post office so I can mail off my package and then I’ll be happy. After that, it’s all gravy. 

Oh, and I just remembered that I need to write this. I left Canada 27 years ago today. It was quite the adventure, and it continues to be one!

Come back later if you like and find out what I will do on Wednesday. Until tomorrow….