December 18, 2020

 Friday - Rainy, slightly warmer.

Well, yesterday ended badly if you remember, today started okay. When I woke up in the morning I talked to F, he talked to me, things were fine. 

He invited me out for lunch and I went. It was to his favourite fish restaurant in Tsuruoka, we got a decent room, one with table and chairs so I was fine there. I don’t really like their lunch specials but always feel I have to order them since the things I prefer are quite expensive! 

Over lunch, I asked F to check a FB update from a restaurant I like to see if I was right that they are closing. He told me I was. Then, I told him that he must be happy about it. He asked me why and I reminded him that he hated the restaurant and never wanted to go there. He got angry at me. In retrospect, it wasn’t a great thing for me to say, but I do think it was true. He doesn’t like it when I accuse him of “hating” something because he thinks it is childish. It may be, but I have a lot of strong feelings about things and he doesn’t respect them at all. He told me that he wished I wasn’t there anymore and the rest of our meal was in silence. 

He ran a couple of errands after lunch and then we went back to the house. I had received a notice to renew my My Number card before my birthday and I had asked him to take me to City Hall “someday” before then. He wanted to go immediately. I was not really sure about it because 1) we usually fight at city hall and 2) it can be really crowded and takes forever. I had a hair appointment at 4:30 and I didn’t want to be late for it.

We did go to City Hall and wonder of wonders…it wasn’t busy, we didn’t fight and it took about 10 minutes to do everything! Woot.

I needed a drink, so F suggested finding a new cafe we’d read about. We tried to find it, but didn’t. I then suggested going to Doutor in the mall. We did that and we both had drinks. I had a hot rooibos tea, F had coffee.

Around 5:20 we left the mall and F drove me to my hairdresser’s salon. I did offer to walk as it was only a couple of blocks, but it was raining so I’m glad I didn’t. I went in, and while she did have a customer at the time, after she left, we were basically alone in the shop. We both kept our masks on, although I had to hold mine on when she cut my hair around my ears! I got my hair cut very short again and I love it.

F picked me up at the shop an hour later and we went back to the house. It was dark. It was only 5:30 or so, much too early in my opinion to go to bed! F checked on his mother to see if she wanted dinner, but she didn’t. We went upstairs for a bit. 

Sensing that things were much better between us, I asked F if he’d like to go to the late movie at the mall in Mikawa and he said he would.  We decided to eat in the mall too if things were open.

We drove out there and got our movie tickets first. That meant we could get free drinks with our bibinbas. Yay. We both had the pork one with kimchi. I really liked mine, F not so much. During our meal, he got a call from his uncle and found out that the funeral ceremony he thought was on Sunday was actually on Saturday, or tomorrow! Oops. He’ll have to leave early in the morning with his mother to go. 

We went to see WW84 or Wonder Woman 1984 as I think it is called. I really enjoyed it! I don’t want to give out any spoilers, but I thought they got the era well, without hitting anyone over the head with the fact that it was the 80’s. The story worked for me and I liked everything up until the big fight near the end. It was done in the dark and it was really hard to see who was doing what to whom. Still, it was a small beef for me, but overall, a good film.

We drove back to Tsuruoka and the house. We came upstairs. F went to bed quite soon, and I went on my computer then remembered my TV programs are on tonight and watched them. 

I’m not sure what the daily plan will be for tomorrow. F and K have the funeral ceremony in the morning, not sure how long that will go. I’ll be here at the house and might have some time to do personal stuff, at least I hope so. 

We ended the evening in a much better place than the middle of the day, so that’s a good thing. 

It makes me a bit sad to say that last year on this day I was on my way back to Canada. I’m not even sure when I can go back to Canada next, so I’m feeling a tad weepy/emotional about it. Sigh. 

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

December 5, 2020

Saturday - Cloudy, cold and rainy

I went to bed rather late last night, but was in bed and almost asleep before my husband! That doesn’t happen often. This morning, I woke up when my alarm went off. I was surprised that it went off, but it was definitely morning! 

I had a quiet little morning. Apparently, F and K had a family visitor, but I didn’t see the person. Do people not realize that there is a damn pandemic going on and we aren’t supposed to visit older people?

F and I went out for lunch around 12:30 I think. I had suggested a lovely restaurant, if we had the cheapest course. It would have been nice I think, but F wasn’t too pumped about it. When we got in the car, I suggested going to one of the cheaper Keiten sushi places if they weren’t too busy. We ended up going to Kappa Sushi. 

We were able to be seated right away and had an okay lunch. We both ate quite a bit and F didn’t complain about it quite as much as he complains about the other place, so that was a bonus. We shared an order of fries with cheese powder on it, that was okay too.

When lunch was over, we went out to the mall.  The first thing we did was buy our movie tickets and then did a little window shopping. The mall wasn’t all that busy. The parking lot was crazy busy, but the mall inside wasn’t. Wonder why? We looked at a bookshop but didn’t buy anything, and then we went to Baskin Robbins and had ice cream. Yay!  I tried a couple of new flavours, Sachertorte which was a bit like Chocolate amped up to eleven and Melty Stollen which was quite nice too. 

After that, we went to see The Prom in the cinema. The theatre wasn’t very busy at all. I really enjoyed the film, even though I know it wasn’t the greatest film ever. It was a bit like Hairspray-lite. It had an “issue” and a great cast with darn good songs. I laughed, I cried, what else could I ask for?

After the movie, we walked down the mall and went to the grocery store. We did have a gander at some heaters on the way. I had been thinking about getting an oil heater for the kitchen, but now we’re considering a ceramic heater, if it’ll be powerful enough for the space. 

We picked up some bentos for dinner and came back to the house. K was still up, but hadn’t thought to turn on the outside light for us. 

F gave her a bento and spent a little time with her, I came upstairs. Neither F nor I were hungry for ages so we didn’t eat until 8:30 ish.

I watched a TV programme tonight and I also finished my little angels. Yay! I love them so much! 

F and I are both still up at 2:30. I’m going to try and go to bed a little earlier than I did last night, but no promises! 

I’m not sure what we’ll do tomorrow. F doesn’t want to drive up to Tendo, so we’ll likely go shopping in electric shops for heaters and ink. That’s the plan at the moment anyway! Come back later if you will and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

September 20, 2020

Sunday - Sunny but cooler

I slept in rather late today as I didn’t think we had any plans so couldn’t be bothered getting up. Also, I’d stayed up REALLY late last night so probably couldn’t get up either!

When I got up, F suggested going to a restaurant that we both like (yay!) and then going to see the movie (Tenet) in the afternoon. I would have preferred the evening, but know that it works better for F to go in the afternoon. 

We went to Arpeggio and had a nice meal. F had the cheaper meal from our coupon book and I had my usual Soboro-don. It was nice.

We headed out to the mall, but the road was really busy so it took longer than it should. When we got to the cinema, we really only had time to go straight there and buy our tickets. F signed us up for something to get cheaper treats, I’m not sure what that was about. I wish he’d leave my name off things, I really do.

We went to see Tenet and I thought it was very cool. I’d like to see it again too because some of the dialogue was a bit hard to hear at times. I liked the actors and the special effects, but I’m not sure that my mind can quite grasp the time-bending aspects. 

After the movie, F decided that we had to buy his mother some food so we did that. I had hoped to have dinner in the mall, and then do some shopping as I’d asked to do earlier, but that wasn’t important to him.

We got some food for his mother and then drove back to Tsuruoka. F asked about dinner and what I wanted. I had no idea really, I suggested Gusto. F hated the idea and then said Kintaro Sushi. That was fine with me, so we headed there. I had thought that we’d drop the food off at the house first, but F didn’t want to do that. We got to Kintaro Sushi, and it was insanely busy. With the dread Covid19, they don’t want a lot of people hanging around inside. So, F went inside and sat down, and I stood outside in the cold for an hour waiting for us to get a seat. 

When he did get seated I was not a happy camper. I was freezing, hungry and really angry that he hadn’t even thought about either switching places or letting me sit in the car where I had my jacket. I let him know that I was rather angry with him when we did sit down and then he got angry…it was all quite stupid. I felt like I probably got too cold and may get sick from the whole thing, so I’m worried about this. However, I was the one who had to stand outside for an hour. I’m sure he was YouTubing inside and didn’t realize how long he was sat there. 

We came back to the house and F gave his mother her food. I came upstairs. I did take a nap and then took a shower later on. There hasn’t been much conversation between F and me. He’s asleep now. 

I’m finding this time that he has off to be really stressful. He wants me to pick restaurants and then when I do he hates them and doesn’t want to go to them. Then, don’t ask me to pick them! But I don’t want to eat Japanese food every day and I really don’t want to sit on the floor anymore. I think that Japanese food is really bad for him and he is too stubborn/stupid to try eating other types of food to see if it would help his stomach. Oh well. 

We have no plans at all for tomorrow so I am sure it will be a lousy day. Come back and hear all about it later. Until tomorrow….

June 24, 2020

Wednesday - Hot and sunny, cooler at night

It was a jam-packed, busy little day today, let me tell you! Lots of interesting stuff happened, so keep on reading!

I got up at my usual time this morning and watched the news. I took a mini-nap and made myself get up off the bed early.  I got dressed for going out and then went downstairs to leave. I was going to say goodbye to K and to tell her where I was going, but she wasn’t around. Oh, dear.  I just left.  I had left the house a minute or two later than I wanted to leave, so I had to hotfoot it to the bus stop. I very nearly didn’t make it! There was a bus that went by when I was nearing the stop, luckily, my bus was right behind it. I waved to the driver to let him know I was coming and then ran to get to the bus. Whew! Safe.

I had a little conversation in a mixture of English and Japanese with a lady who sat behind me about my mask. That was sort of nice, but I’m not sure why she sat behind me. Not Social Distancing!

I got off the bus at Mikawa Mall and grabbed a quick brunch at McDonald's. I wasn’t really planning on having it, but I noticed they were having a “Canada Burger” on right now. Besides being made of beef, I’m not really sure why it was a Canada burger. Maybe the bacon? It wasn’t back bacon though. Anyway, it was meh. 

Next up, I walked back through the mall and went to the cinema. I went to see Casablanca. Sigh. It was wonderful to see it on the big screen. There were a few people in the audience, not a lot, but more than I expected. Casablanca is such a well-made movie, well-acted too. Ingrid Bergman was luminous. I know everyone says that, but in this case, everyone was right!

After the movie, I did a little shopping. I got a laundry net that I’m going to use for washing my handmade masks. It’ll keep them together in one place if nothing else. I also bought some more double gauze for lining masks and I found a really pretty little floral patterned material that I thought might make a nice mask or two for me or…?

I looked at the ladies clothing department but didn’t buy anything. There were a few things that looked interesting, but to be honest, I’m not sure if there are any new procedures due to the Corona Virus and I didn’t want to cause any problems. 

I decided to have a break and went to Baskin Robbins and had a bit of ice cream.  I tried a new to me flavour, Suica-Summer or Watermelon Summer. It was okay. The watermelon seeds were little balls of chocolate which was neat. The first mouthful or so tasted a quite fake watermelon, then I didn’t seem to notice anymore. I paired that with some Jamoca Almond Fudge and loved that! 

I did a bit more window shopping and ended up back in the Aeon store as I was going to suggest that F meet me there. Around 5:20 he phoned me and I told him where I was. 

I kept an eye out for him, but admittedly was distracted and went to look at bedding. I’m trying to find a new queen-sized fitted sheet for our bed. They don’t seem to have one. A few minutes later F called me to see where I was. He’d gone upstairs looking for me. I’m not sure why! He called me and I said I was downstairs. He got on the escalator and then when he arrived my floor headed in the wrong direction. I was still on the phone with him so I told him to turn around!

We had a couple of cafe-au-laits at Mr Donut, and a doughnut each. It was nice. I think F needed a little bit of relaxation after work. 

We went to the grocery store and bought us some bentos for dinner. F and I had a grilled chicken one each and we got a tonkatsu one for K. 

We drove back to Tsuruoka. F had said that he needed to buy gas, but didn’t at the mall. I didn’t know that the “buy gas” indicator light was on and had been for a while. I was worried about having to push the car back to Tsuruoka, but F just laughed. We did make it to the gas station, but I really wish he wouldn’t cut it that close. I always try to remind him that this is an earthquake country and when there’s an earthquake there are always gasoline shortages. 

We went back to the house and I set the table for dinner and heated up the food too. F got his mother up and we had a nice and jolly little dinner. I brought out quite a bit of food from the fridge and so we had a decent and not just bento dinner.

Miracle of miracles, F washed the dishes tonight, so we were done quickly. I came upstairs and then he did. He’s not able to eat after 8 pm or so tonight as he has a medical check tomorrow. 

I relaxed and watched the news, then Project Runway. I did a little bit of work on the mask that I’m making F. I just put a hem on the facings, but it is a start. 

F took his shower during the last bit of Project Runway, and then I got sorted to do the garbage up for the night. I took it all downstairs with my stuff for the shower. I did the kitchen garbage and cleared the drain catcher, the usual stuff. I took the two bags of garbage and took them to the genkan for F to take out in the morning. 

On the way back to the kitchen to turn off the light, I noticed something odd on the living room door. It’s a glass door with frosted glass so you can see things on the door. There was something that looked like a gecko. I phoned F to come down and take a look. I told him that there was a thing in the living room that was either a gecko or something lizard-y! He came down and went hunting.  He managed to catch it and he took it outside where it went running off. Whew!  

(Photos courtesy of F who said I could post them.)

I’m not actually sure how or why it got in the house, I’ve never seen one here before and I thought it was too cold in winter for them to stick around here. F thinks that it might have come in with some flowers that K was given. I have no idea. 

I took my thankfully uneventful shower and then came upstairs. F has gone to bed. He’s tired. I’m tired too, but a bit wired from the coffee I had earlier.

So that’s about it for my day. It was a good one, but I think I need a day off to recover from my day out! 

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

June 21, 2020

Sunday - Hot and Sunny

I went to bed so very, terribly late last night that I didn’t even bother to set my alarm clock. F got up and made a lot of noise and that did wake me up a bit. I made a trip downstairs and then came back to bed and slept a bit longer. F came back upstairs and invited me to go for lunch to a new place. I didn’t really regain consciousness until later but I did try!

We did go out around 12 and drove to the restaurant in Haguro town. It was down a country road, and then a narrow dirt road. I was beginning to wonder where we were going! Finally, we arrived and F parked the car. We had a disagreement about which direction to go but worked it out (I was right!). We went to Oven and it was quite nice. It was fairly simple Japanese food. F had fish, I had chicken cutlet. It was nice, but perhaps slightly overdone? Anyway, it was nice to be in a new place. This was light and airy and had a lot of art around the room. 

There was an art gallery in the same area and we went there after lunch. I wouldn’t say the art was terrific or anything, but it was okay. There were quite a lot of collections of tchotchkes that were interesting. We did have a good time looking at the stuff.

F wanted to know what to do next and suggested the Aquarium. I was okay with that. I checked my card and discovered that today was the day it expired! We got to the aquarium, it was a little busy. When we went in, we were gifted some extra time on our memberships because of the closure for our not so favourite virus. Very nice of them really. We had a nice walk-through. The museum was marked off in 2-meter blocks, but some of the younger people were just ignoring the tape and getting too close. Yes, they were wearing masks, but they were being rude!

We left the aquarium around 4:45 or so and drove back to Tsuruoka. F wanted to know what to do next, so I suggested getting a bento for his mother and then going to the mall. I had asked him last night to take me shopping. I needed to get something for my niece. Her birthday is coming up soon and I don’t know how long the mail will take (or if I can mail it, to be honest.)

We did what I suggested. We got K a nice bento and the good bento shop, delivered it and then got back in the car and drove out to the mall. We parked near the cinema end and walked down the mall and went to the clothing area.  We had quite good luck tonight and ended up getting a couple of nice things. F was very helpful for a change and found two of the things so I was pleased. We paid and then went to the hundred yen shop. I bought a little more fabric there and even got F to pick out one. I’m going to try and make him a mask! I’ll have to get another colour of thread though. I don’t want to make it with white or black, the material is brown.

We had dinner in the pasta restaurant. I’ve now had pasta for dinner for the last three nights. I’m not complaining really…oh, Saturday was for a late lunch so maybe okay? Snort. At least I had a different kind tonight. I had cold carbonara. I really liked it. F had mentaiko and didn’t like his. He was complaining about the cost, but honestly, it wasn’t that bad. Both dishes were under a thousand yen and I had a full stamp card to take off an additional 500 yen. Poor me though, I had to use my card for him, instead of for myself. 

We went upstairs after dinner and bought our tickets for the movie. Although I had plumped for Casablanca, F chose Guardians of the Galaxy. It was my second choice so I wasn’t too disappointed!

We had a great time at the film, we were the only people in the cinema! I think F enjoyed seeing it again, I know that I did. 

After the movie, we came back to Tsuruoka. We stopped in a convenience store on the way back. I haven’t been able to replace my caffeine-free diet cola yet and I’m a tad ticked off! I guess I’ll have to go to the drugstore to get it, although the one we tried yesterday didn’t have it.

And that’s it for the day. Tomorrow it might be Doctor day. We’re going to try and go tomorrow since F might be working on our regular day. F is also thinking about taking his mother to her doctor as well. We’ll see how it goes. 

Come back later if you like and find out how our day goes. Until tomorrow….

June 13, 2020

Saturday - Hot and Sunny

I went to bed terribly late last night. It was daylight when I finally hit the sack. I slept a bit later today but did drag myself out of bed around 11 am. Drag is the correct word too!

F went downstairs and gave his mother something to eat and then came upstairs a bit later. I asked him if I should go and grab breakfast downstairs. He suggested going out to the coffee shop. I thought that was a great idea. We went out and had to wait a few minutes for a table. After that, I had a sandwich and F had cake.  I did share my sandwich…I’m so nice!

We popped into the hundred yen shop after lunch. I picked up a funnel set and we got K some hairpins too.  We left and went to the grocery store to pick up some food for K’s dinner.  We dropped it off at the house and then a few minutes later got back in the car and drove off.

We went to Mikawa to the mall and bought our movie tickets. After that, we both went to the same place in the food court and had bibinba.  We had different kinds though. I had cheese, F had mentaiko and mayonnaise. 

We went to see Little Women tonight. We both loved it. I would probably put it in my top ten for the year, to be honest. It was a lovely movie, well-acted and directed too.  

After the movie, we drove back to Tsuruoka and came into the house. We had a quiet evening, but a nice one. We were both stuffed from dinner and the popcorn. Both of us have just been kicking back and relaxing with YouTube on our computers! 

I don’t have any idea what we’ll get up to tomorrow. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do something fun and have a good day. Come back later and see what happens!  Until tomorrow….

June 6, 2020

Saturday - Hot and sunny

I slept in quite late this morning. I had set my alarms to wake me up earlier, but when I got up around 11 my husband told me that he had trouble turning off my alarms. I asked him what he was talking about. He said that he thought he’d turn off my alarms to help me wake up…say what?  That makes NO SENSE to me. 

I finally dragged myself out of bed around 1 I think. F went downstairs to make his mother brunch, I got dressed and checked on a restaurant. When F came back he was all for going back to bed, but I kind of insisted that he take me out. I suggested Hyakkenbori since they’ve been closed for ages due to the ‘virus and are only open now for lunches.

We went there and although F was grumpy as hell about it, he ate lunch there too. I had chicken and it was lovely. F had fish. I don’t know if he liked it because he was basically having lunch with his phone and not me. 

We left the restaurant and went off to the hardware shop. F usually gets his mother a case of a pop that she likes so he picked up one of those. I got some bath cleaner (a refill pack) and some mask elastic and a filter pack for masks. Nothing too exotic or spend-thrifty.

F brought us back to the house and proceeded to put a full case of pop on my pasta pan. My pasta pan is in its box right next to the fridge. I protested and F was a tad annoyed with me. He tried to move my pasta pan to the top of the fridge (where I can’t reach it) or somewhere else, but I pointed out that I use it almost every week. If he’d been a tad nicer about it, I might have moved my pasta pan myself, but nope. I suggested moving the pop back to his mother’s old bedroom where we’ve always kept the pop before. He grudgingly did.

We came upstairs for a while. He did give me some coffee, and that was nice.  We relaxed for a bit and around 5:15 I suggested that we get moving. We needed to give his mother a bento. We left the house closer to 6. Ack.  We grabbed a bento, brought it back to the house and I waited in the car while F gave his mother her food.  

We drove off to Mikawa to have our dinner and see the movie. We got there around 6:30 and bought our movie tickets first. Then, we went to the food court…and discovered that the places we were going to eat at had both closed for the night! What?! Argh. I had really been looking forward to my bibinba tonight. F was all for walking to the grocery store and picking up food, but I pointed out that we only had 20 minutes before our movie started.  We went downstairs and I suggested going to the Doutors instead.  We did that. I had a sandwich and F had toast. 

He was dawdling and I was raring to go, so I went upstairs and bought the popcorn and the drinks. F was only a minute or two behind me, so we both went in together.  We went to see Birds of Prey again, the Harley Quinn movie.  I liked it again, but I don’t think it is a highly re-watchable movie after all. 

On the way back into Tsuruoka F complained about how much money he’d spent today so I didn’t ask him if he’d like to go and have dinner somewhere. I decided I could eat leftovers at the house.

When we got back, I did go downstairs and I ate the leftovers from last night. They were good!  I cleaned up as well and then came back upstairs. I grabbed my towel and then went downstairs again and I took a shower. 

When I came back, F went down in a little bit of a huff and fixed his dinner which of course was noodles.  Mine was too, so I probably shouldn’t say anything!

And that was my day. It was okay, but F is acting a bit oddly these days. I know the rainy season is not going to be fun for him and therefore for me either. He’s been a real grump for ages and it is getting annoying. 

That’s it for me. I have no idea what we’ll get up to tomorrow. You’ll just have to come back if you like and see what’s going on. Until tomorrow….

May 29, 2020

Friday - Warm and Sunny

I woke up this morning around 8:30. I got up and turned on the TV and watched the news. It was nice. I did snooze afterwards, but F was in bed too. I did say hello to him, but I didn’t get an answer.

F had suggested going out for lunch today, so I got up around 10 and started to get dressed, and also to check my emails and such. He popped out to get his mother something to eat and I finished getting dressed. I don’t think he was sure that I would be dressed when he came back, but of course, I was. We drove over to Nagomi and had a lovely lunch there. We had soba, mini-keisendon with some tempura and miso soup. It was very good. I was stuffed afterwards.

After lunch, we talked a bit about what to do. I suggested going to see a movie and ran the different times past F. We noticed that there was a film playing in 40 minutes or so that we could make at Mikawa if we went right away.  We decided to do it.

We went in, got temperature checked, bought our tickets and then left again. We had about 20 minutes to wait and there was nowhere to sit and not much to do there. F wanted to go to the food court and he ended up buying himself some yakisoba and half an okonomiyaki. I didn’t understand it at all! We’d just eaten, and it was lovely and stuff that he’d asked for and then he needed total junk from the kiosk in the mall?

We went to see Bloodshot with Vin Diesel. It was pretty cool. It wasn’t a great movie, but for a leave your brain at the door and see some fighting and some cool effects movie it was okay. It was kind of a rip off of Universal Soldier to be honest. I still prefer Universal Soldier…in my younger days I was a huge Jean Claude Van Damme fan. Okay, I still kind of am but…I freely admit that Vin Diesel is a better actor than JCVD!

After the movie, we went over to Don Quixote and picked up a few things. F wanted to get a special lens to put on his iPhone but didn’t actually want to buy it. We got some snacks and things for the kitchen.

We went back to the house after this and relaxed for a bit. F was tired, he might have snoozed a little.

Around 5:30 I said that we really should think about dinner. He suggested bentos for all of us and I was okay with that. He ordered and then we left to pick them up. I asked that we detour a little to the Gyomu Super near the bento place. I was looking for a few things. I got some, but not all. I did pick up a few things that went into the freezer and in the fridge, so that was good. 

When we got back to the house, we all ate. The bentos were quite good. F and I both had bibinba, but I had mine with extra meat, and he had his with an egg. K got a makanuchi bento, which looked okay. For the first time in ages, I really liked my bento. Afterwards, F and I did the few dishes. 

We went upstairs and just relaxed. F was on the bed and I was at my computer for a while. I went over to the bed for a while and spent time with F before I took a nap! I woke up around 11 and went downstairs and took a shower.

When I came upstairs, F was getting ready to sleep and I watched a bit of TV. I’m up a bit late watching YouTube and blogging.  

It was a good day. Tomorrow F has to go into work for a few hours and then I’m not sure what will happen when he finishes. I hope he has a good day. I’ll be here at the house at least until he gets back.

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

April 11, 2020

Saturday - Sunny and nice

I have to apologize...it's really late and blogging totally slipped my mind. I'll try and write more tomorrow!

Come back later and see if I do. Until then!

I'm Back!! Read on for the day....

I don’t know what I was thinking last night. I just didn’t blog and then when I remembered that I hadn’t blogged it was after 4 in the morning and I was tired. So, there is that.

Saturday was an odd day. When I finally woke up for good, F was in a mood.  He demanded that I tell him where I wanted to eat, I suggested getting take out since it was late and we’re not supposed to go out anyway. I suggested a place I thought he liked, only to be told that he hated the place. Great. Another place that he “hates”. There has to be an end to this kind of crap. I’m not a huge fan of the place, but I thought he liked it because he could eat a huge amount of food. Whatever.

He stormed off downstairs and made something for himself and his mother, then came back upstairs and went back to bed.  I went downstairs, took a bagel out of the freezer and defrosted it. I had my brunch upstairs while watching the second episode of The Loudest Voice with Russell Crowe. He’s amazing in it, but not that appealing. He’s been one of my celeb crushes for years…but Roger Ailes isn’t!

F finally roused himself around 3:30. I had discovered that we were out of kerosene earlier when I went to fill up our heater’s tank. It is still cold here, and we still need it on. We grabbed the tanks and went out in the car. 

We went to see At Eternity’s Gate at the local cinema. There were about 6 people, including us, watching it in the big theatre, so the risks were minimal. Also, the cinema has stopped making and selling popcorn. Oh no! We were able to get drinks though, so that was good. The movie was good, about Vincent Van Gogh, with Willem Dafoe as Van Gogh.  It was sad though.

We picked up a few things at the grocery store and  then went to get kerosene. After that, it was off to the good bento shop to get bentos for dinner. We took them back to the house and had a nice dinner. 

In the evening we came upstairs. F went to bed immediately, I think he slept for a while. I watched some TV at 11 and then turned over for Amazing Spiderman. I think F started watching it too.  The second one came on right afterwards. I watched it up until near the end. I had just seen the ending of the film a few days ago, so didn’t need to see it again. 

That was my Saturday. It ended up okay but started badly.  Thanks for reading…hopefully will be back later tonight with Sunday’s update.

Peace out! (I typed Peach first, which would probably be less hip and more me.) Peach out!

April 4, 2020

Saturday - Sunny and gorgeous, then rainy

Today turned out to be a good day, so yay for that. F and I slept in quite late today.  F had been up earlier and had set up the bread maker. He brought me some of the bread for breakfast in bed! It was nice.

We went out for lunch with K to the restaurant near Voice. F and his mother had ramen, I had curry. It was okay, but not my favourite. F ordered extra gyoza and then wanted me to eat some of them, but I really didn’t want any of them. I didn’t have any.  My meal was plenty big enough.

We took K back to the house, spent a few minutes in the garden, and then went out again. F suggested going way out of town to a little coffee shop. I suggested an alternative plan. A closer coffee shop and then a movie. We went with my idea. 

At the coffee shop, we sat and used the wifi for a bit and had coffee or tea plus freshly baked pain au chocolat. That was lovely! We popped out for a couple of minutes too to take photos of the cherry trees by the river. 

Almost ready to bloom!

We went to see Pet Semetary which was F’s choice. I wasn’t sure about it, and to be honest, I really didn’t like it much. The cinema was nearly empty. We were in a big cinema and I don’t think there were 10 people in the room!

After the movie, we decided to buy bentos for dinner for everyone. We went to the shop on Showa-dori and got three nice bentos. We came back to the house and had a nice meal with K. We finished up the baby leaf salad from Thursday and also the raspberry vinegar drink. 

When we finished eating, F and I did the dishes and then headed upstairs. Neither of us really knew what to do. We tossed around the idea of going out but ended up staying in. I suggested to F that we look at his computer and get his iPhone connected to his computer finally. He said no at first but then changed his mind.

It took a while to do a bunch of things to his computer, but I think we got it done. We got the two devices connected and then we updated the system. It took a while, but it is finished for now!  Yay.

I watched a bit of TV around 10 pm and then at midnight I discovered that the last Mission Impossible was on, so I watched that. F watched it too. We weren’t glued to the TV, but it was entertaining. 

And that was it. So, we didn’t go out in the evening, which was good, but we managed to have an okay time anyway!

Come back later if you like and see what happens on Sunday. 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 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 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!