December 22, 2019

Sunday - Cold and crisp

Today was a busyish day.  I got up fairly early and went upstairs for breakfast.  I had a sleepy, quiet morning really. In the early afternoon I helped my sister make some mincemeat tarts.  It was fun to finally be doing some baking for a change. We didn't know how full to fill them or how long to cook them, but they ended up tasting quite nice!

After dinner some of us drove into Edmonton to see Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.  It was the first time seeing a movie this trip and of course it just started a few days ago so the theatre was quite full. The theatre was much fuller than it would be back in Japan.  I really enjoyed it.  I have a few quibbles about it, I think the dialogue was a little disjointed and there weren't enough conversations!

We drove back to Beaumont and all went to our separate rooms.  I got into bed and promptly fell asleep until 3 am when I got up and wrote this! I did manage to stay awake all day, and even through the movie, even though I yawned a bit.  (I wasn't bored, just jet lagged)

And that's it.  Tomorrow I think we're hitting up Costco. I'm not sure if we'll go to the close one or one in the city. It is so close to Christmas that I think it'll be crazy-crazy but who knows!

I'll try and write again later.  Until tomorrow....

December 1, 2019

Sunday - Clear, cold but cloudy at times

We both stayed up much too late last night spending time on our respective computers so we slept in very very late too. I got up around 11 for a few minutes then popped back into bed for a minute more. 

F went downstairs and made brunch for his mother. It was likely udon again. He did offer me some, but I just can’t. When he came back up he wanted to go out for lunch “for me” but he ignored all of the restaurants that I wanted to go to and suggested sushi. Bleck. Another fish meal. I agreed but said we should go to Kappa Sushi.  We went there and were seated immediately. We had an okay meal. I had a few side dishes and a bit of sushi so I was okay, not too worried about things.

After lunch, we went to get kerosene for the house and then went to the Chido Museum. The new exhibit was on calligraphy. I’m not a huge fan because I can’t understand it, but it didn’t really matter. I sat for a while and waited for F, but it was fine.  We also checked out the garden and that was nice. They have the trees tied up to protect them from the snow so they looked like old-style roundabouts, or maybe witches' hats. There was an odd thing happened at the museum today. When we arrived, there was an ambulance in front of the blue Police building on the grounds.  We saw a person being brought out of the building and the ambulance left. I have no idea what happened. We didn't stand around trying to see anything, we just arrived at the museum then. 

The pond at the back of the museum. I love this place, can you tell?

We had coffee at Cafe Studio Cinq. I wanted to check out the souvenirs on sale there but didn’t buy anything. In the cafe, we used the free wifi and drank our drinks. It was nice.

My cafe latte!  It was really cute.

F wanted to buy his mother a bento so we went to the grocery store. I bought most of the food we’ll need for the next couple of days too. I’m going to make a stew tomorrow night so hopefully, we can have that on Tuesday too. None of this cook new food every night baloney!

We dropped the food and kerosene at the house. F heated up his mother’s bento and then we were off again. F had decided that he did want to see Doctor Sleep, so we drove off to Mikawa Mall.

We parked near the cinema and went in. We got our tickets and were surprised that it was cheaper than usual. I remembered that it was the first today so movies are cheaper. Yay.

We went to the food court and had bibinba.  I had a cheese one, F had a kimchi one. I think he was silly with his stomach, but that’s his choice. We got free drinks with them because we showed our movie tickets. Yay.

We went to see Doctor Sleep and it was much better than I thought it would be. As expected, Ewan McGregor gets his kit off, but it was only at the beginning.  The other actors were pretty good. I liked the young actress (Kyliegh Curran) and it also had the fabulous Rebecca Ferguson in it.  I’ve never been able to sit through The Shining due to my complete hatred of Jack Nicholson, so it might not have worked for me if I had, but really I enjoyed it. It’s not particularly memorable, but for a cheaper movie on a Sunday night, it wasn’t bad!

After the movie, we walked down the mall and went to the grocery store and bought a few things that we either forgot or didn’t think about at the earlier store. While I was there I was really glad that I didn’t enter Whamageddon as I would have lost!  Yep, Last Christmas came on the muzak. 

We drove back to Tsuruoka, most of the time behind a driver that was a bit erratic. F kept his distance and I was glad of that. 

At the house, we unpacked the groceries and then spent a quiet evening. We both took showers and used our computers. When I came back into the room F was surprised and said, “I didn’t have to use my earphones!” Nice to know he missed me. Not.

Anyway, that’s it for me. Tomorrow I have a lot of things to do. I have 7 things on my To-Do list, I hope to do at least one or two of them!  Come back later if you like and see what happens. Until tomorrow….

November 23, 2019

Saturday - Sunny and warmish

Happy Birthday to my dear F!

We slept in this morning, well, I did anyway. I got up once or twice, but basically, I didn’t get out of bed until after 12. Bad me!  We were both up quite late last night so I’m not sure why F was able to get up, but he was.

He made brunch for his mother and then the two of us went out for lunch. He tossed around a few ideas which I agreed with.  I even agreed to a ramen shop because it was his birthday. However, we ended up at Kula Sushi.  We had to wait a while to be seated as we didn’t make a reservation, but had a fairly good lunch. F even won a Star Wars magnet so that was nice.

We made a quick stop back at the house to pick up his phone, and then we went over to Komeda Coffee to have coffee and cake. We were there for a while, but it was okay. I get to a point where I almost fall asleep there. I’ve been drinking decaf and it’s hot and stuffy. They don’t bring round extra water unless you ask for it, and I never catch them when they have the water in their hands. 

We did a quick grocery shop to get K a bento and a few things for the house and kitchen too.  We delivered the bento and then went out for dinner.  F didn’t really know what he wanted but kept coming back to yakiniku.  I was worried about his stomach, but he said he’d be okay.  We ended up going to the new place near the station…not that new now as it has been over a year since they opened. We were able to get a table right away and had a good if expensive meal.  

I was looking forward to going back to the house and relaxing when F asked me when the movie at Machi-kine was. Gulp. The one that was on in 35 minutes.  We had finished our meal anyway, so we paid and then drove up to the cinema.

We went to see Crawl tonight, a movie about alligators and people trapped in a flooding house during a hurricane. It was better than it sounds, but it was quite tense.  It wasn’t MY choice, but F wanted to see it and it was his birthday, so I dealt!  I watched a lot of the film from behind my hands!

After the movie, we came back to the house and relaxed. We both took showers and I’m still up listening to music and blogging away. 

I have absolutely no idea what we are going to do tomorrow.  I have to pick up my shoes from the shoe repair store, but apart from that, it is a mystery!

Come back later on and see what we get up to. Until tomorrow….

November 22, 2019

Friday - Sunny but cool

I slept in until 9 this morning. F got up a bit before and made his mother breakfast. Then, he went off to the doctor. He was gone for a couple of hours.  

When he came back, we all piled in the car and went off to Nagomi. We all had the lunch special. It wasn’t cheap, but it was big!  F and I have been meaning to go there during the week for ages, but never quite made it before. We had a small keisen-don, new soba, some tempura, miso soup and pickles. It was very nice.  

Afterwards, we came back to the house. I thought that we’d go out, but we didn’t. F used his computer for a while and I did too, then I took a nap for an hour.  I got up around 4 and watched the US news.  

F and I had a reservation for dinner, so F made dinner for his mother. She had requested udon, so he made some for her. 

F and I drove off towards Mikawa but stopped at a drugstore to get a few things. We needed supplies for the kitchen and drinks for on the road.  

We arrived at Bistro De Pointes in Mikawa and had a fabulous meal. We were celebrating F’s birthday a little early.  I think the restaurant is closed tomorrow.  We had some amazing food, lovely salad and sashimi, kabocha soup, grilled fish, filet steak, a heavenly bun, and a baked apple for dessert with cinnamon ice cream.  We had a lovely cup of coffee too.  F passed me some money and asked me to pay the bill!  

After dinner, we went over to Mikawa Shopping Mall and did a little shopping. I picked up something for my nephew and something for my niece and also my sister! Woot.  We drove the car around to the cinema side and went to see a movie.

Surprisingly, the cinema was showing Frozen II in dubbed AND subtitled versions, so I was able to go and see it here. Yay!  They don’t do it too often for animated films anymore, but they must have realized that Frozen II would have a lot of adults wanting to see it.  I really liked it and so did F.  The songs were good and the story was better than it had to be. 

After the movie, the mall was closed, so we left.  F wanted to see about getting some electronics for his new phone, so we went over to Don Quihote and he found some. I got another new toothbrush and some cereal, F picked up a few things for himself too.  

After that, we came home. When we got here, I was coming up the stairs when I remembered that The Walking Dead was on tonight and I hadn’t recorded it. Yikes.  Still, I missed a few minutes but saw most of it. Scary stuff!

And that is it.  Since it is after midnight (well after midnight) it is F’s birthday. I have no idea what we’ll get up to, but I hope it is good!

Come back later if you will and hear all about it. Until tomorrow….

November 17, 2019

Sunday - Sunny but cool

Yesterday wasn’t a great day, but today wasn’t bad at all. I didn’t go to bed until very, very late, and slept in quite late as a result. F was in bed quite late too.  I went back to bed and slept for a couple of hours.

F and I went out for lunch after he’d given his mother some lunch. She’s still a bit under the weather.  We went to Arpeggio, the place he’d wanted to go to yesterday. They stay open fairly late. We had a nice lunch, I had soboru don, a chopped meat on rice thing and F had a ton-don, slices of pork on rice. It was fairly basic Japanese stuff but done well. It was fairly reasonable too, but we didn’t add on coffee or dessert today. 

After lunch, I had asked that we visit a store that sells larger sized clothing. I wanted to see if there was something for my nephew.  I found him a couple of things there and I bought them and paid for them. After that, F started driving! I wasn’t sure why, but he drove off towards Kushibiki (a suburb of Tsuruoka) and took us up past the ski hill. It was lovely up there and the trees looked lovely in their colours. We came back because someone had set the bread maker to come off at 5 pm and needed to take the bread out.

From a lookout point.  It was near sunset.

We got back to the house and there was lots of time left. Oh dear. Finally, when F did take the bread out I pointed out the nearly complete loaf of bread on the table. He hadn’t seen it earlier. Still, he’d made raisin bread and that was very nice!

We were planning to go and see the 8:05 movie tonight but had to do some grocery shopping first. We went to Mina, the nearby big grocery store and I got a few things for dinner tomorrow night, plus my lunch.  Then, I tried but failed to find a loaf of French bread so I got croissants instead. I hope they’re okay. We left the store and F realized he forgot to get his rice! We delivered the groceries back to the house. No, dear husband, I don’t want to leave some raw meat sitting in the car, even though it is November and getting colder.  We put the groceries in the house and left again. We visited the local closest grocery store and picked up some rice. That can be left in the car no problem!

We drove over to the cinema. We were quite early, so had a seat in the lobby. We got some popcorn and drinks and went to see Us.  I liked it a lot. It was quite spooky and a bit scary. It was a bit gruesome, but not over the top or anything. 

We came back to the house after the movie. K was up having something to eat, so F chatted with her. I came upstairs and checked my email and such. My BFF was on-line and we had a chat about my trip to Canada. We’re hoping to get together and maybe have a night or two together if we can swing it. We usually manage, but Christmas makes it difficult because we’ll both have family obligations.  

And that’s about it. I took a shower and then came upstairs to blog. It was a much better day than yesterday, probably because we didn’t have to get any kind of shot and the weather was good.  

Come back later if you will and see how my dinner-making goes. Until tomorrow….

November 9, 2019

Saturday - Rainy and cold

I slept in rather late this morning, got up for a little, then went back to bed. When I finally got up it was the afternoon. 

F was in a horrid mood again. I asked him about going out today and he barked at me that he didn’t have any money so couldn’t. Okay then.  He went off to cook lunch for himself and his mother.  When he finished he went back to bed and was still in a foul mood. 

I went downstairs to make my own lunch, brought it upstairs to eat. I was rather annoyed, to be honest. I still need to get Christmas presents for people in my family and I didn’t intend on staying at this house today. After I ate and had some tea I felt better and offered F a cup of tea, which he accepted. 

Around 6 pm we went out for dinner. We did ask K (who had gone to bed already!) if she’d like a bento or to come with us, but she didn’t want anything.  We drove off to Gusto and were on our way into the restaurant when F noticed that he didn’t have his wallet. I had very carefully taken my cash out of my wallet yesterday so I couldn’t offer to pay.  We drove back to the house and he got his wallet. We then went back to the restaurant!

We had an okay and fairly cheap dinner as we used coupons from the website.  I had chicken on beansprouts. I don’t like them much, but the chicken was okay.

When we finished, we went over to the Machi-kine cinema and saw Terminator: Dark Fate.  We both enjoyed it. I don’t think it was a terrific film that I’ll remember past next Thursday, but it was okay. It was great to see Linda Hamilton on screen again. I liked that it was three women against the Terminator.  Mackenzie Davis, whom I liked so much in Tully, was great here too. 

After the movie, we came back to the house. I took a shower and then made some popcorn because we didn’t have any at the cinema tonight! I watched a bit of TV while I was on my computer tonight. WOWOW is running 8 episodes of Killing Eve, the second season this weekend, so I wanted to make sure there would be room on the DVR for it all. 

And that’s about it. F is still awake at 3 in the morning, but then again, so am I. If you stay in bed for most of the day then there isn’t much chance to get tired enough to sleep is there?  Nope. 

Okay, I’m out of here. No idea what we’ll get up to tomorrow. I imagine it’ll involve staying around this house which really does not please me in the slightest. I “get” to do that all through the week normally and I don’t like it. 

Come back later on and hear all about what happens. Until tomorrow….

November 3, 2019

Sunday - Cloudy and rainy, clearing later

Today was a complete mishmash of things that I really want a do-over.  I woke up fairly early today, also got up early too. Well, earlier than yesterday anyway.  

F came upstairs and told me that his new credit card for his ETC had arrived. That made me angry and I told him so. I’ve been trying to get him to help me get a credit card in Japan for the 18 years that we’ve been married. He’s either ignored me or given me wrong and incomplete information for the whole time. He thinks it is funny that I have to have a joint card with my sister in another country rather than one in the actual country that I live in.  Anyway, that’s an argument for another day. 

He got really angry at me and started saying that he’d cut up the credit card and send it back because of me.  I don’t know what that was in aid of. I actually have been after him for 5 years to get ETC (the electronic payment system for the highways...you don’t have to pay cash, you just go through the machine and it charges you automatically.) Five years ago I even offered to buy him the machine for the old car but he refused.  Anyway, he went back to bed and refused to get up or go out at all. Since I’d had quite enough of that crap yesterday, I decided to do something else. I had a quick breakfast and then went out.  

I grabbed my bike and went out shopping. I biked over to a nearby hardware store and had a look around. It’s changed quite a bit. Part of the store is now a hundred yen shop. I bought a few things then went to another hundred yen shop. I didn’t buy anything there! After that, I went to the grocery shop and bought myself some chicken for my lunch, some snacks and found some imported sweet things in the bargain rack.  

I biked back to the house. It had started raining, steadily, but I did get back before I was completely soaked. I locked the garage and came inside. 

I heated up my chicken and then had a couple of pieces upstairs. F was still in a foul mood, but I didn’t really care anymore. I had gone out under my own steam. Yay me.  

It was nearly 2:30 when F asked me if I still wanted to go and see the movie. I was surprised that he was interested. Of course I said that I was.  

We went out and got K some food for later. It, the movie we planned to see was 3 hours long, so we wouldn’t be back before dinnertime. We got her some stuff and then came back to the house. F gave her the food and we drove off to Mikawa.

I was really surprised at the change in F. One minute he was mean, rude and cranky, then the next he was all sweetness. It didn’t make much sense to me.

At the mall we got the new movie cards and then bought our movie tickets. Then, we went off to have a late lunch. We both had the kinoko bibinba. I liked it again, and this time I didn’t put a ton of hot sauce in it. Much nicer that way! I don’t know if F liked it or not. It was very hot and we didn’t have a lot of time to eat it. 

We got drinks and popcorn. I had asked F to just get a little popcorn because I didn’t want to eat all that much popcorn. There was some mistake, either his or the servers, and he got a huge popcorn. Sigh. 

We saw It Chapter Two. I really liked it. It wasn’t as scary or gruesome as I worried it would be. There were tons of jump scares though. Even though I knew they were coming, they still got me!

After the movie, F was a little miserable. His neck was bothering him and he was fading I think. I asked if we could go and check out the men’s department in Aeon for my nephew, to see if the clothes might work for him.  I told him quite honestly that I wasn’t planning to buy anything today, I’d talk to my sister first.  

We went over to the men’s department and I saw a few nice things that might do, but I need to talk about sizes with my sister first. Also, clothes that work in Japan don’t always work in other places.

I suggested going downstairs with F and having a coffee at Mr Donut and he liked the idea. We went downstairs and had a doughnut and a cup of cafe au lait. It was nice.  F was deep into his phone, but I made him leave before 9 pm so that we could walk back to the car through the mall. It’s getting cold outside now.

We drove back to Tsuruoka and came back to the house via the gas station. F did ask if I needed dinner, but I told him it was okay. I had a bit of chicken leftover from lunch.

We came back to the house and I took a shower then went downstairs and made a nice sandwich and had it upstairs. F went to bed fairly soon but didn’t sleep for a while. I think he’s asleep now though.

I have no idea what we’re going to get up to tomorrow. I suggested going to an electric shop as I need new ink for my printer and I’d like to look at getting a wifi booster for his house.  I hope it doesn’t start with another argument. I’m getting to the stage where I’m afraid to talk to him. He’s looking for disagreements with me, at least that is how it feels.  I also hope to go to a hundred yen shop, a different one!

So that’s it. Come back later if you want to and see what happens. Until tomorrow….

October 7, 2019

Monday - Cloudy and cool

Today was an odd day. F didn’t feel well in the morning and took the day off work. He spent most of the day in bed, sleeping or playing with his computer. I sat in the room at my desk on my computer for the most part.

I went downstairs to start dinner. I ended up changing around my dinner plans but it worked rather well. We had bought a few things at Costco that we don’t often have, so I had to prepare them for dinner.  I also tried a new thing for us, Sea Asparagus, so if you have any recipes for me to try, please let me know!  We had blueberries for dessert, baby leaf lettuce with radishes and mini-tomatoes and sea asparagus, plus some oven-baked chicken with a yuzu-pepper coating. It was pretty nice. F and his mother had rice with theirs, I didn’t.

F manned up today and helped me by washing the dishes. I had a bit of a whine with him today and told him that I am feeling a bit of a kitchen skivvy these days. I prepare dinner, set the table, clear the table and often do all of the dishes afterwards and no one lifts a finger to help me. He wasn’t too happy with me at the time but did help tonight.  It doesn’t have to be a ton of help, someone getting up and bringing me the table’s dirty dishes to the kitchen door would be huge…anything so I don’t have to take my slippers off all the time.  Or even blooming ASKING if I need help. They just sit there and wait to be served. 

After dishes, I changed a bit and F and I went off to the onsen. He had a bath, I sat in the lobby. I didn’t do any crochet or reading tonight.  Sigh. 

We went and had a coffee at Komeda coffee and then bought a few groceries at the shop nearby. We got a few things and came back to the house. 

I watched a little bit of TV and had some tea. F played with his computer until he went to bed. He’s complaining about feeling bad again. Sigh. I feel bad for him, I do, but I don’t know how to help him.

That’s it for today. Now, a few words about my time in Yamagata!

On Wednesday I went down by bus. I got F to order a taxi for me the day before. It came on time and I was at the station in lots of time. The bus ride itself was pleasant. The bus was nearly empty and so I snoozed and listened to podcasts. 

In Yamagata, I made my way over to my hotel hoping they’d let me leave my suitcase there. They did, and they also let me check in a bit early. Yay them!

I checked in, rested for a bit and then went out in search of shopping and maybe lunch. I found some lunch and did a little bit of the other, so that was good. I came back to the hotel around 8:30 or so and got a movie card. I watched The Equalizer 2 and thought it was okay.  I had dinner in my room, I’d gone to a nearby grocery store and picked up a few yummy things.

On Thursday, I caught a bus to Sendai and went shopping and tea drinking in Sendai. I had earlier thought of going to have lunch in Ikea but changed my mind. I had lunch in a Big Boy in a department store. It was nice. I didn’t buy a lot of anything except tea, but I did find some foreign foods that I got. I was tired so I came back to Yamagata a bit early and came by train. The train was very crowded at first, but I managed to get a seat after a few stops. Unfortunately, it was in the priority seating, but it looked like I was the oldest person around and there were no other candidates for the seat.  There were a few other spots on the priority seating open too.

Back in Yamagata, I came back to my hotel via a convenience store. I bought myself some dinner there, ate it in my room.  I went downstairs to the lounge and had a few of their nice beverages and read my book.  I didn’t want to put it down, so I went back to my room, ran myself a nice warm bath and finished my book in the bath. Love doing that and I never get to do it where I live. It was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and I adored it.

On Friday morning I checked out of my hotel and walked myself and my bags over to my next hotel. It was really hot (around 28 or so) and it was quite far.  I don’t know why I didn’t take a taxi!  I couldn’t check in yet, but I left my bags at the desk and took myself off to see a movie.

I went to see Joker and I really didn’t like it. I don’t like the type of films that it was riffing off anyway, so I wasn’t surprised. I did like Joaquin Phoenix in the role, just didn’t like the character at all. 

After the movie I did a little window shopping/looking for lunch and then checked into the hotel. I stayed there for a while waiting for F.

Poor F was supposed to drive to Yamagata after his work. That was hard enough, but the problem was he had driven someone to Yamagata on Friday. He had to take them back to our area, finish work and then pick up his clothes at his house and come and join me.  He got back to Yamagata city sometime around 10 pm.  

We went out for a quick dinner at a Yatai (old style food stalls) near the hotel.  He picked the Shonai Fish stall. I was quite annoyed. We live in Shonai, why on earth couldn’t he have picked another type of food.  I had stomach problems for the entire trip, so when F said he wanted sashimi made sure he knew that I wouldn’t be having any. He ordered himself a huge sashimi plate that ran around 1500 yen.  I had a cooked fish (hokke) that he got to eat about half of. I wasn’t too thrilled with him, to be honest.  

We went back to the hotel and ended up going to sleep. It took a while, but we did sleep.

On Saturday, we had breakfast in the hotel and then went out. We drove to a nearby city with a big mall and did a little shopping. F was looking for a jacket for himself…he’s trying to replace one that he had before I met him and wanted an unlined all-season jacket…Autumn is not the time to shop for that!  After a few shops, we did find him something that he liked in H & M so he got that.  We had lunch at a bread buffet Italian restaurant. It was very nice and I was surprised that it was!   We also went to see a movie, Peppermint with Jennifer Garner. It was terrible too, but we didn’t have to pay for it as our stamp cards were full. Hurray. I love Jennifer Garner, but the movie wasn’t good.

We drove back to the hotel and even though I suggested finding a good place along the way, F drove by any interesting place or turned the wrong way or whatever. I wasn’t impressed.

In the hotel room dropping off stuff I told him that there was no way I was going back to the Yatai place. I didn’t want convenience store food either.  

We went walking down the road and by chance found a place down a side road. It was a yakitori-ya and turned out to be very good! We had a very nice dinner there! Yay.

We came back to the hotel, F rushed off to take a bath and I started to set up for bed. I was leaning over the bed when I noticed that there was a bloodstain on F’s pillow.  The bed had been freshly made by the maid that day so it wasn’t from him from the night before. When F came back, I told him and he complained to the front desk. They did switch the pillow out for him, but yuck. It was visible too, I don’t know how the cleaning staff missed it.

We had breakfast the next morning and then checked out. Although we planned a Costco run later on, I suggested doing something else for a while. We went to the Prefectural Museum and spent a couple of hours there. It was quite nice really. The museum needs a bit of updating, but the exhibits were all about how Yamagata came to be geographically. I know I saw them before and was bored, but this time I was quite interested.

After the museum and a short walk we took around the castle grounds, we drove out to Costco. We did a bit of shopping, but nothing like we normally do, since we were just there two weeks ago. 

F didn’t want to leave for Tsuruoka yet, so I suggested shopping at a hundred yen shop we passed earlier. We did that and I got a few cool things for the house.

For dinner, I suggested going back to the food court at the Tendo Mall. It was close to the way we were going back so not a big deal to make a detour.  We did that too.  F had some noodle thing that he wasn’t too keen on, I had a steak with rice that I really did like.  

We drove back to Tsuruoka, hit up a grocery store for a few essentials and then came back to the house. We had a fairly quiet evening. F wasn’t feeling well by then and was talking about taking Monday off if he didn’t feel better in the morning. And the rest you know.

Are you still with me? It was a fun 5 days off for me, I would do it more often if I had the money for it!

Come back later to hear all about Tuesday’s happenings. Until tomorrow….

September 21, 2019

Saturday - Warm & sunny, rainy late evening

I slept in really late this morning. I was quite surprised. I had gone to bed late last night, but I managed to sleep through most of the alarms that I had set. F was up, but still in his pyjamas so I didn’t feel too bad about it. He ate something with his mother and then came back upstairs.

F and I went out for lunch. It was a bit late, a few minutes after 1:00pm.  If we were lucky, I thought we could make it to the place I had in mind before their last order.  But first…we had to go to the bank. And then we had to buy gas for the car. And then it was past 1:30.  I wanted to try a newish place near the station. We parked and walked over to it. We went upstairs but couldn’t see the entrance to the restaurant. There was no-one in the hotel lobby to ask either, so we left. I suggested looking at the izakayas in the station building. One had had lunch today, but we missed their last order. I finally suggested Foodever and we tried there.  I ended up at Yaku again and ordered gapao rice for myself, 30 seconds later, F came over and did the same! 

Lunch was good. I really enjoyed it and I think F did too.  After we ate, I had a little look-see through the souvenir part of the building and ended up buying a little something for my brother in law.

Next up I suggested getting a drink, so we walked back to the car and drove off. F wanted to try Starbucks but I told him that it would be crazy busy. I don’t know if the store was, but the parking lot was. There were cars trying to find places to park and enter into the drive-through so F just drove out. We ended up at Komeda coffee.

We had iced coffee (F) or iced tea (me) and the cake set, so it was rather nice. We spent a bit of time there, but around the hour-mark, we left.

We went over to MaxValu and picked up bentos for our dinner.  We were thinking to just get a bento for K, but I found some nice stuff for me, and F for him, so we decided to do that too.

We came back to the house, but F and I weren’t hungry yet and K was still okay, so decided to wait a while for dinner. F and I came upstairs and relaxed for a while. I got some of my computer stuff done for the day.

We ate around 6:30 and things were nice. We all had different bentos but I put out some spring rolls that I had bought today and the rest of my eggplant stirfry so we got that finished up too. Yum. F and I did the few dishes and then came upstairs again for a little.

We left for the cinema around 8:00pm. I told F that it was too early, but he didn’t listen!  We got there rather quickly, bought our tickets and then had to wait. He was all for buying our drinks and popcorn right away, but I made him wait. I didn’t want to eat it before the movie. 

We went to see Ad Astra and both of us really liked it. It was slow but quite enthralling. And, having Brad Pitt as the lead wasn’t a bad thing either.  I’m not in a hurry to see it again, but I really did enjoy it.

After the movie, we came back to the house and came upstairs. F said on the way that he was tired so I expected that he’d go to bed right away, but he’s still up doing his phone/YouTube thing. I can’t really talk as I’m doing my computer/blogging thing!

I’m not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. I’m hoping that we’ll have a bit of a lazy day in a way. We are expecting a typhoon in the next couple of days so need to keep an eye on the situation. 

If all goes well, I’ll be back tomorrow night with another scintillating report from my corner of the internet. Come back and read it if you like.  Until tomorrow….

August 31, 2019

Saturday - Rainy, sunny, cooler

It’s so very late right now that I should skip the blog, but that would make me sad so here’s the short version of the day.

F and I couldn’t sleep last night. I went to bed somewhere around 5 am…serves me right for drinking that Starbucks Nitro coffee in the evening. F couldn’t sleep due to his back again. 

I did get up finally after 11 and got dressed. F wanted to go out for lunch and suggested an okay place today, so we went there. We had a good lunch, we both had steak, although this time we had smaller steaks than the one F had the first time he went there.

After lunch, we went to the museum to see the exhibit. It wasn’t a really interesting one for me, mostly writing stuff, but there was a fascinating map in the room.  While we were in the exhibit room, it rained torrentially.  We were surprised when we left the building how wet it was.  We did our usual thing of checking out the garden…lovely…and then I asked that we visit the corner of the museum with the sashiko examples.  We did that and as always, they were very cool to see.  The tiny stitching and it was sooo straight. How did they do it?

We went back to the car and I got in. A few seconds later I felt something wet underneath me and pulled it out.  F, dear F, had left the windows open when we went into the museum and the rain had come in my side and soaked my cushion. ARGH. 

We went to the craft store next. I had wanted to see if I needed to renew my membership, but when we got near the cash register, it was quite busy. There were 4 people in line and I didn’t want to wait. F got a bit mad at me, probably because when he suggested I get the app for the craft store I told him that I had asked him to help me with it before but he hadn’t bothered. It’s the story of my life, to be honest. I can ask him to help me with computer things, he says he will and I never see him again. 

We had a nice glass of iced tea and a cake at the kissaten that F likes and then bought his mother a bento for her dinner.  F was taking his own sweet time in the store and I needed the ladies room, so was trying to hurry him up.  I made it back to the house just in time. 

We gave K the bento and then drove out to Mikawa.  We had dinner first but split for that. F wanted udon and I wanted pasta. I had cold pasta with cold carbonara sauce at the restaurant and it was good!  After dinner, F and I met up again and went to the new hundred yen shop in the mall, Seria. We had a good snoop around the store. It has lots of stuff, but I didn’t buy much.  

We went up to the cinema, got our drinks and popcorn and went to see Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the new Quentin Tarantino film.  I really liked it. It wasn’t perfect at all, but I found it quite enjoyable. If you are going to watch two people for almost three hours, it doesn’t hurt if they are Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt! I liked it, but the ending was rather over the top.  

We came back to Tsuruoka and the house after the film.  We had a quiet evening. I caught the last bit of Deadpool 2 on WOWOW and howled at it as always. 

Not sure yet what we’ll get up to tomorrow. There are a few things we are thinking about, come back later and see what we end up doing.  Until tomorrow….

August 25, 2019

Sunday - Cloudy, sunny, warm, rainy

I went to bed terribly late last night but had set my alarm to wake up quite early. F had talked about taking his mother out to the onsen in the morning. While they are out, I have time to take care of some personal things, so I wanted to be awake when they left.  They left, and I got up around 9:30.  I did my deed and then prepared some breakfast for myself. 

I ate and a while later they came back.  F immediately demanded I tell him where I wanted to eat. I got a budget out of him of 1000 yen per person, but when I snorted at that, he bumped it up to 1500 yen.  Still pretty damn low, but doable.  I couldn’t think of any place. Last week he was such an ass about one of my favourite places that I just didn’t want to go anywhere with him.  He left the room for a while, I went back to the bed and when he came back he was really angry at me.  I was waiting for him…not sure why he was so mad. I finally suggested having a picnic. One of the grocery stores has great sandwiches, we could get a couple and go somewhere nice to eat them. 

He really didn’t want to do that, and we had stupid words about the fact that I didn’t want to go anywhere with him.  We did end up going out but when he missed the turn-off to the store I asked him where he was going. S-Mall he said. The mall that doesn’t have a sandwich shop and at this moment doesn’t have a grocery shop? No!

We re-routed and got some food. Now, I went straight to the food area, grabbed a lovely camembert sandwich on a chewy long bun, got a couple of other things and looked for F. He’d disappeared. I looked all through the store for him, even tried texting him. No answer. About 15 minutes later I finally called him. He had been indisposed, so to speak. I asked if he wanted food, he said no. I asked if he wanted a drink and he said he would. So, he came over, grabbed a couple of drinks for himself and then went to the food area and got an onigiri.

I had first suggested the beach but then changed my mind to the nature centre in Oyama. He drove us there. We did try to go up the trail on the mountain, but it was blocked off. We parked by the nature centre and there were picnic tables outside. We sat and ate and drank. Things gradually got a little less frosty between us.

We walked along the path by the big pond. We saw a few interesting birds and there were some lovely lotus flowers too. We went back to the car and then F asked if I wanted to go to the ocean. I did.

Lovely lotus flower

Both Lotus flowers from a distance

The pond and some scary clouds in the background.

We drove to the ocean, down near the Aquarium, and visited Rainbow Beach, a man-made beach there. It was a little busy, but when we arrived, people started to leave! Just as we were walking back to the car, it began to rain, so we hurried a little. Good timing on our part.

We had iced coffee and a bit of a cake in a bakery on the way back to Tsuruoka. I suggested getting K a bento from the grocery store and then us going to the movie.  We could get us a bento too if there were any nice ones going. He suggested a good bento shop instead, and that’s what we did.

We went to the bento shop, ordered, and when the bentos were done, took them back to the house.  We had a nice meal. F ordered K a mixed bento, I had yakiniku and he had a tonkatsu one that he said was too thin.  F and I both did some of the dishes afterwards.  

He suggested going to get groceries for tomorrow at 7 pm. It worried me as the movie was at 8:05 and I didn’t want to miss it. He said it could be done, and it was!  We zoomed over to the store, got a few things…he was pretty cranky in the store and refused to discuss food at all, so I decided to just buy what I like. Chicken it is then.

We got back in the car with our groceries and F asked if we had to go back to the house. Of course! It isn’t 30 above today, but I’m not risking food poisoning by leaving food in the car. We drove back to the house and quickly put everything away.  

F drove us to Machi-Kinema and when we went in asked for tickets to the Kim Jong Un story. He really did. Of course, he meant Rocketman.  We got drinks and popcorn too and went in to see the film.

I liked it a lot, but I wouldn’t say that I loved it.  I think Taron Egerton was great. His singing was excellent and there was so much that was good…yet I keep comparing it to Bohemian Rhapsody. (Same director*….Dexter Fletcher) It just didn’t grab me the same way the other film did. Not sure if it was the base music…but honestly, I’ve liked Elton John longer than Queen. It’s just different.  

It was pouring with rain after the film, so F drove the car near to the movie door for me and I ran in!  Silly guy. It was nice of him though.

We stopped at a conbini on the way back to the house and then came in. F went to bed fairly soon after we arrived. He’s had a bad day with his back and his stomach, but he’s been pretty rough on me today too.  There was really no need for most of his tantrums.  

Anyway, I’m supposed to be cooking dinner tomorrow night.  If you come back later you might be able to read all about it. 

And, for the first time ever I think, I didn’t realize it was the anniversary of my dad’s death today, until it had passed.  Not sure if that is a good thing or progress or what. 

Until tomorrow….

*Although Bryan Singer maintained his director's credit on Bohemian Rhapsody, it is generally believed that Dexter Fletcher finished the film after Singer was fired.

August 10, 2019

Saturday - Thunderstorms in the AM, hot and sunny later on.

I woke up around 7 this morning, made a quick trip downstairs, then went back to bed and fell asleep again.  I woke up a couple more times as I had set my alarm.  F was a little late getting back, I think he arrived around 9:30 or so.  He wasn’t feeling well so came to bed for a nap for a while.

I got up around 10:30 or so. I had some breakfast and gave K a little something for breakfast too. Yay me.

I went back to sleep for a while. F wanted to go out around 2 pm. I said fine, got all dressed to go and then he threw a tantrum and only went to the grocery store to get food for his mother. Fine! He was really being an ass.  

Around 5 we did go out and got his mother a bento for tonight. When we came back to deliver it, I told F that I needed the washroom and would run upstairs and get something for the car (one of my new CD sets so I could put it in the car’s memory).  I did my stuff, grabbed the CDs and came down and waited for F. He was in the washroom for more than 15 minutes. I know he wasn’t feeling well, but I had a sneaking suspicion he was watching videos on his phone since that is what he does these days. 

Finally, we got on the way to Mikawa. When we arrived, we bought our movie tickets and then F just left me so that he could go and get some udon. Since that would make me sick, I decided to go downstairs.  The pasta place didn’t look fast tonight, so I went to Doutor for a sandwich. They weren’t busy when I came in, but right after me 2 women came in and ordered sandwiches. Then a few more people, etc. I waited at the counter for a while, but the woman said to sit down. Meanwhile, I am getting nervous about the length of time it is taking to make a sandwich. The time of my order on my receipt was 6:19 and it was delivered at 6:35.  The best part?  The two women who came in after me were given their sandwiches first.  When the woman brought my sandwich over she was apologetic, but I wasn’t having it.  I wolfed down my sandwich and then left the store to meet F. He was waiting in front of the cinema. I had the tickets!

We went to see The Lion King. They were playing a couple of shows in English at the cinema, and that was very much appreciated by me. I loved the way this new version looked, but it still isn’t one of my favourite Disney films.

After the movie, we came back to Tsuruoka and since we were both rather peckish, we stopped in at Kula Sushi.  I had a little sushi and too many fries and onion rings.  

We came back to the house. I took a shower almost immediately and F watched the news he said. He was in bed when I came back, and has been there ever since. 

I’m not sure what if anything we’ll get up to tomorrow. F never plans anything for our long weekends. I did suggest going to look at the waterfalls tomorrow night, but I won’t hold my breath!

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

July 27, 2019

Saturday - Hot and sunny

There was a big mish-mash of things going on today.  F and I started the day rather badly. He ran off to the onsen this morning with his mother. I woke up in an empty house and had no idea he was gone.  

When he came back I really didn’t want to see him! Actually, seeing him was fine, it was hearing him that annoyed me. It didn’t make any sense, but he does this thing where he asks me to spell things for his social media posts, he never asks if it is a bad or good time…just will ask “How do you spell …..?” in the middle of whatever. I could be on the phone and he’d still ask.  He whined about breakfast, but last night we’d planned not to go out, so I didn’t know what he wanted.

Finally, we got ready to go to the doctor’s office. Things went fine there, but as usual, we had to wait an hour just to be seen for 3 minutes. We got prescriptions afterwards too.  

We visited a Farmer’s Market shop and I bought a spaghetti squash, some carrots and F bought a melon. He also got a bento for K, so he delivered it to her. Then, we were off to lunch.

We went to the place on Ginza-dori that we went to last week, Arpeggio. It was nice today, but I wouldn’t say it was great. I had oyakodon and it was okay. Not planning to have it there again. F had tonkatsu and it looked nice. Towards the end, a family with a couple of noisy kids came in and rather spoilt the quiet atmosphere.  We had planned to have dessert but changed our minds.

We planned to see a movie later on and then I suggested going to see a shop that sells larger sized clothing.  F obliged me and we went for a look.  I did okay there. I got a new summery T-Shirt, a camisole with a built-in bra and a pair of shorts. I’ve been roasting up here this summer.

We had a fast drink in Doutor and then zoomed off to the cinema to see The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir. It was light entertainment but did have a few charms.  I didn’t love it, but I liked it.

As it was after 6 pm we had to get a bento for K’s dinner. We also picked up our insulated bag and a small thermos at the grocery store. We had to save stickers to get them at a reduced price and tomorrow is the last day for them.

We delivered the bento and then we went off for dinner. F did this thing where he wants me to pick the place, but he vetoes everything that I like. I told him I didn’t feel like Japanese food as I’ve had a lot of it lately. He said that both Indian and Thai upset his stomach. He finally told me to just pick a place, which I did. It is a little restaurant just behind City Hall.  I like it a lot.  We went and had a good meal in my opinion. F didn’t like it. He complained to me afterwards about his meal.  It really annoyed me, to be honest. I’m trying really hard to be supportive of his diet needs, but he keeps being a jerk about it. 

After our meal, we just drove back to the house. Sigh. We planned to watch something from the DVR together, but F went downstairs and got waylaid by a call from his uncle. He was gone for a long time.  

When he came back upstairs we watched a couple of episodes of The Good Doctor and enjoyed them. I did some crochet and got a few rows done on my shawl. It’s really pretty! 

We’ve had to have the AC on all evening. I didn’t have it on very strong and F complained, but when he left the room to go downstairs, really understood the difference when he came back. I always think that it is too big of a difference when the AC is cranked to 24 and the temperature outside the room is over 30. But what do I know? 

Not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow.  F has to do community stuff and then hopefully we’ll be able to have some fun or some interesting times.  Come back later and see what happens.  Until tomorrow….

July 8, 2019

Monday - Hot and Sunny

I woke up fairly early this morning. F was in bed too, but he’d already been out to the doctor’s office to put his card in!  He left again a bit later and I watched the news and also texted a friend in Canada.

I was able to watch my morning shows before F came back.  Once he did, he wanted to go out for lunch.  We took his mother and went back to Kintaro Sushi. I’m not sure why, but F put his mother in the middle of us. It was a tad odd, but okay.  We had a nice meal and then we brought her back.

F and I left the house soon after and went to City Hall to get some financial documents for his work. After that, we went over to Komeda Coffee and had kakigori.  It was expensive but huge!  I had a coffee one and it was lovely.

The two of us went to see an eye doctor today. I haven’t had my eyes properly tested in a while and I’ve been noticing a few not so great changes. The workers at the clinic took good care of me and tried many different ways to help me, so I was quite happy with the care I got there.  I did get a prescription for new glasses as well. F got some eye drops for his problem and we were off.  We went off to the Glasses shop and looked at all the neat frames. I found a pair that I really liked so F bought them for me. Come next Tuesday, I should have my new glasses. Woot.

After all of that, we spent a bit of time shopping for F’s stuff. We visited an electric shop, then the hardware store. F needed things for the car and he got his mother some more of the drink she likes.

We did a bit of grocery shopping and I went to the hundred yen shop that I don’t usually visit. I got a few little things there. We bought groceries in the grocery section of the supermarket, not a hundred yen shop.  

We came back to the house, gave K a bento and then we left. We didn’t have much luck with our first restaurant as it was closed. The second one was fine and it wasn’t busy. We had Korean food tonight, we each had a bibinba and shared some gyoza.  

We drove over to Machi-ne-Kinema and went to see Spider-Man: Far From Home again. I loved it, F fell asleep. Sigh. We just had drinks tonight, no popcorn as we were both really full from dinner.

We came back to the house via a conbini for a few things for me. I watched a little TV, F went to bed quite early.

And that’s it. No idea what we’ll get up to on Tuesday. F is back to work, I’ve got a few things to work on though.  Come back later and see what happens. Until tomorrow….