December 17, 2022

Saturday - Rainy with sleet at night

I slept in a little this morning. I did hear F leave for his massage, but I got up around 9:30 and got dressed. When he came back after 10 we went for a short nap, but F got up fairly soon afterwards. He went downstairs to make something for his mother, I snoozed a little longer!

We talked about going out for lunch. F suggested yakiniku and I suggested the Daiichi Hotel’s lunch as their special sounded good and it’s a reasonable price. We decided to go with my suggestion today, and maybe F’s tomorrow!  We haven’t really decided yet. 

We went to the Daiichi Hotel and got a table. We found out that there was only one plate of the special left. F nicely let me have it and he had their curry. He said it was very spicy but okay. Afterwards, I used my customer point card and got us 10% off our meal so that was nice. We ate for under 2000 yen. Yay us.

After lunch, we hit up the post office so I could mail my in-Japan Christmas cards. F bought a bag of mini-tomatoes for his mother too. 

Next up. we drove over to K’s Denki and looked for a new DVR. We thought we had one picked out and F was prepared to ask for a discount, but sadly, they had sold out of it! We looked a bit more, and decided on another one, the same brand as the one we had before, but obviously an updated version. It also has more memory which is something that I’m rather happy about! It took me a long time to fill up the old one, but I did eventually!

We were both thirsty so we went over to Komeda Coffee and had a coffee each. I had decaf, F had a large regular. After about an hour, we left.  As we were next to the grocery store, I went in and picked up a bento for K’s dinner and also a few snacks for F and me. 

We came back to the house and dropped off the DVR and the inks that I bought for my printer. I heated up the bento and the living room for K and got her up and gave her the bento. She seemed pleased. 

F and I left soon after and went off to Mikawa.  At the mall, we went in and bought our tickets to Avatar: The Way of Water. Then, we went for dinner.  We went to the Bibinba place and had the same thing, a pork and kimchi bibinba.  When they were ready, the guy at the kiosk nicely brought F’s tray over for him, I carried my own.  F’s wasn’t too hot temperature-wise, mine was extremely hot! It was still sizzling 5 minutes after I got it. Mine burned on the bottom, and some of it got really stuck in my bowl. 

After we finished our meal we went to the cinema and grabbed some popcorn and drinks. Then, we went into the theatre. As usual, the guy had to use the temperature gun on me, rather than the phone-scanner. It doesn’t read me. I might be too pale or something. 

Well, how was Avatar: The Way of Water? I didn’t like it. It was beautiful but I was bored. I didn’t look at my watch but I thought it was too long (3 hours and 12 minutes or something!) and just James Cameron showing off. Just because you can create a film set in another world, doesn’t mean you should!

After the movie, we left the cinema and drove back to Tsuruoka. It was sleeting a bit on the way. It wasn’t nice. We stopped at a convenience store just before we came back to the house. 

At the house we heated up the food that we bought and then came upstairs. It was quite cold up here when we got back.  I’ve been on YouTube for a while and F is doing the TikTok thing I think. 

That’s really about it for today. It turned out to be a pretty good day. I hope that Sunday is as good too. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

December 3, 2022

Saturday - Clear and sunny, then rainy

I woke up at 9:30 am when my alarm went off. I went downstairs and then came back up and got back into bed. It was cold in our room! I didn’t really drag myself out of bed until after 10, but I was awake. I suggested to F that he get up and make his mother something to eat so he did that.

I got dressed, which took very little time since I put my clothes out last night. After a few minutes, F and I left for the doctor’s office. Today we were doing our usual check and also getting our flu shot. I confused the doctor when I talked about getting “the Covid shot”. He thought I meant I had had Covid recently. Happily, we cleared everything up. 

After the doctor’s appointment and getting our meds, I asked F where he’d like to eat. He actually had an idea today. He wanted to go to a soba place. It’s a good place, so I was okay with it. I did ask that we go to the post office first since I needed to mail some stuff out. 

We went to the post office and it was open. Woot! I sent off a few Christmas cards and a box with the crafts for the ornament exchange that I am doing. Yay me!

We went to the soba restaurant and were able to get in right away. We had a very nice meal of 100% soba and tempura.  I don’t always like soba, but this restaurant is good!

We picked up a couple of bentos for K at the grocery store and then we dropped them off at the house. I took our meds upstairs and changed my shirt. I have a shirt that I wear to get vaccinations in as it has loose half sleeves, but it also is made of polyester and is really rough on my skin. 

Next up, we went to a shoe store. I had suggested to F that he might want to look for a pair of boots that he could wear over his brace. He was lucky enough to be taken care of by the same guy that helped him find shoes last time. He ended up getting a pair of tall boots. They took the liner out of the boot so that the brace would go in and it fit. I am a tad worried that his foot will get very cold if he has to wear the boot for a long time, but he doesn’t think it’ll be a problem. I hope he’s right.  I looked for shoes for myself, and even tried on a few, but didn’t have much luck. I was too hot and I’m quite picky and I have big, wide feet. I can’t even look at women’s shoes so it is really demoralizing! I didn’t get any today. If I’m out during the week I’ll have a look in the mall. 

We followed this up with a trip to S-Mall and had a drink at Doutor. That was nice and we spent quite a while there. 

We had dinner at a Tonkatsu restaurant. It was really nice but quite expensive. We used to go to this place a lot, but they kept getting more expensive.  Our meal was good, however. They do have free refills of cabbage, miso soup and rice and we took advantage of some of that. 

We drove out to the mall in Mikawa after dinner. There must have been an accident between Tsuruoka and Mikawa as we had to detour. It was a good thing that we left early for the mall. 

At the mall, we bought our movie tickets and then went downstairs to Doutor to spend some time.  We relaxed for a bit and then went upstairs, bought our popcorn and drinks and went to see Black Adam.  I quite enjoyed it. I wouldn’t say that it is a great film, but I had heard so many bad things about it that I thought I’d hate it. 

After the movie, we drove back to Tsuruoka and visited a conbini briefly. We came back to the house and headed upstairs. F went to bed a while ago and obviously, I’m still up. It is very, very late and I really
should go to bed. 

Oh...but before I do, here's a daytime picture of the tree from a different angle!

Not sure what will go on tomorrow, just come on back and find out! Until tomorrow….

November 11, 2022

 Friday - Warm and sunny, cooler at night…

I woke up this morning while F was getting ready to go out. I got up and went downstairs. He left to go to the hospital and I got dressed.  I tried to do a little snoozing but after a little while, I decided to get up. F came back just after I did that. His appointment had been rescheduled as there was an emergency at the hospital. Understandable. He didn’t tell me about the emergency until later though.

He went off around 11 am and I washed a load of clothes, the stuff I wear around the house regularly. I hung them up. I relaxed and caught up with a little YouTube.  F came back around 12:30 or so.  We talked about lunch and I very nicely suggested his favourite fish restaurant. We ended up going there. We weren’t sure at first if they’d still serve lunch, but they did. 

When we arrived, we were walking to the restaurant but F exclaimed that he had forgotten his wallet. I offered to pay so we didn’t have to go back to the house before lunch. He agreed to let me!

We had a nice lunch. F had oysters and sashimi, which was the special today. I had the tuna cheek lunch and I really enjoyed it. At the end of the meal, I paid and we headed back to the house for a few minutes for F to get his wallet. 

Our next step was going to a pharmacy for F and then we went to the main post office.  I spent quite a bit of time this morning entering all the details into the system and then trying to print the forms out. I mailed a card to my sister and then finally a box to my best friend!  Her birthday was in April but for some reason (Japan Post!) I wasn’t able to send her presents to her.  We haven’t been able to send parcels for this long. I sent it by EMS so she should be able to get it soon. Only 7 months late!

We went to S-Mall and went to Doutors. I parked F in a seat with a nice drink and I went upstairs to Daiso. I got a few things, even more crochet yarn but sadly, not the glittery stuff I was looking for. Oh well.

I paid for my stuff then went downstairs and had a cup of tea with F. We left the mall when I was done. We went to a grocery store to pick up something for K’s dinner and then went back to the house. F had said he wanted a rest, so I went upstairs and expected him to come upstairs too. He didn’t. Around 6:30 he came upstairs and then we decided to go. We left the house and drove to Mikawa.

We bought our tickets for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and then had dinner. We went to the bibinba stall. I was happy as I haven’t had their bibinba in ages. It was quite good. 

We went to the movie with our drinks and popcorn. It was good. I really loved the original film, it was one of my favourite films of the year it came out. I doubt this one will be in my favourites, but I did enjoy the film. There was something missing…Chadwick Boseman of course, but there was just something else. 

After the movie, we drove back to the house and had a quiet evening in. I took a shower and prepped my clothes for the morning. I have to get my 4th vaccination tomorrow and since I’m up late, I’m not sure how tired I’ll be in the morning. 

That’s about it for me for today. It turned out okay. I’m not sure how I’ll be tomorrow. If I’m in rough shape I probably won’t update. Don’t worry, I  could just be a bit under the weather. I’ll be back as soon as I can. Until tomorrow - hopefully….

September 18, 2022

Sunday - Hot and humid

I woke up this morning before my alarm. I went downstairs, then went back to bed. I was really tired and it was so hot in our room again. I finally dragged myself out of bed. I checked with F that he still wanted to go to see the movies today and he did, so I got up.  He made a quick brunch for his mother and we drove over to Mikawa. We bought our tickets for the movies and then had a quick lunch. We went to one of the places in the food court and had okonomiyaki and yakisoba. It was horrible. 

We went to the movie’s concession stand and got some popcorn and drinks.  We went in and after using the washroom I took my seat. F was already there. We went to see a Top Gun double shot at the cinema. The majority of the people there were not young and there were more people than I expected at a Sunday 4-hour movie marathon!

They played Top Gun first and I really enjoyed it. I haven’t seen it for years and I was surprised how much I had forgotten.  There were all kinds of story bits that had slipped my memory.  

After the film finished we had a short break and then the second film, Top Gun: Maverick started. Of course, we had seen it before, but it was nice to see it again and to see it again after the first film. I liked it even more than thought I would.

We left the cinema when the films were over and went downstairs and had a drink at Doutor.  It was nice to relax but of course, F was on his phone for the whole time.

We left the mall and went to Don Quixote. I told F that I wanted to buy a new mobile battery for my phone. The nice one that I had for a long time has given up the ghost. It doesn’t hold a full charge anymore, which is really sad. With a big trip coming up next month I really want to have a battery in case I need it in transit.

I only bought one thing and we left!  We talked about going for dinner. I suggested a couple of places but as we were coming close to it, F suggested going to the Indian Restaurant in Tsuruoka. We did! It was fine but not terrific. 

We hit up a grocery store to get a few things and a bento for K.  When we arrived at the house, the lights were off but K was up watching TV in the living room. I think she was waiting up for us! I wouldn’t be surprised anyway. She didn’t even want the bento that F got her. Oh, dear.

We had a quiet evening. It was hot and horribly humid in our room when we got upstairs. We got the AC working and I relaxed for a bit.  I took a shower around 10 pm and then came back upstairs to watch Project Runway. Next week is the finale. Woot. 

And, really, that’s just about it for my day. Tomorrow is a national holiday so F is off again. However, I’ll have to do a grocery shop and if we have time I still need to pick up one last train ticket. Hopefully, we can do it tomorrow. 

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

September 3, 2022

Saturday - Cloudy and warm

I woke up this morning when my alarm went off. I did get up and got half dressed.  I knew that F was at his doctor’s office and of course he was. He came back later. I had gone back to bed to take a nap, we had a bit of a cuddle and then F just went to sleep. Sigh. I waited until 1 pm and then got up and had my bagel from Friday. F never mentioned anything about going out at all. I was perturbed. 

I ate and after I felt a little better, I suggested to F that we go out and do a little shopping. We needed more of our favourite masks and I also suggested getting bentos for dinner in case both K and F didn’t feel like going out. I just wanted grocery store bentos, and F decided to order in the expensive ones. Sigh.

We went over to Musashi and I went in and bought a couple of boxes of masks and some soap for the kitchen.  I came back to the car. I really just wanted to get grocery store bentos as I wanted something simple and cheap, F didn’t.

We went back to the house via a convenience store to get more food for my lunch and a drugstore to get booze for F. I picked up some ice cream too. 

Back at the house, I put the ice cream away and came upstairs. F ordered bentos for the evening. He wanted to get some quite expensive ones, but I suggested something else. I wanted something easy to clean up afterwards. 

A little while later, F and K left for the clinic and got their shots. I just stayed here. When they came back, I checked how F was. He said he felt okay and his arm didn’t hurt. That was good.  I took a nap, I got really tired yesterday, so I needed more sleep than I got. 

At 6 pm he went downstairs in case the food was delivered and after a few minutes I came down to help.  I set the table, something that F was pretty useless at.  The food arrived around 6:30 so he got K up and the three of us ate. F made miso soup for him and his mother, I turned it down. We ate and the bentos were nice. We had teka-don or tuna on rice. We also had some ice cream and the last of the blueberries afterwards. 

I did the dishes, and there was a surprising amount. There usually is when we order in, that’s one reason why I didn’t want to order in! For a change, I didn’t dry the dishes. I finished around 7:40, then asked F if he still felt up for the movie. He said he did.

We hurriedly got ready to go. I had to change my shirt as I was wet from washing up. We drove off to Mikawa. F told me on the way that he was low on gas. True enough, the light on the gas was on. Egads. 

We got to the mall and went upstairs to the cinema. I bought the tickets while F got in the line for popcorn. I had a staff member try to help me while I was buying the tickets but actually, she just made me nervous! I know she was trying to help, but I didn’t need much.

When I got the tickets, I met up with F in line for snacks.  I took his place and he waited out of the line. I got the snacks and then it was time to go into the theatre. F sat down, I went to the ladies' room and then came back just as the movie was starting. Yes, I missed the previews. Grr.

We just saw Bullet Train tonight. It was silly, violent, fun and violent. I liked it more than I thought I would, F also liked it a lot too. 

After the movie, we came back to Tsuruoka in the car. F told me that the gauge on the car said he could drive one more kilometre. I don’t understand why he does this. I’ve asked him not to run the car so close to the edge but he thinks it is fine. It isn’t. I tried to make him see that if you run out of gas in Canada in winter you could die. He just doesn’t get it. He did buy gas tonight and filled up the car, but seriously, it bothers me a lot. 

We came back to the house and then talked about what to do for our anniversary in a couple of weeks. F has taken time off work and he wants to go away, except, he wants to take his mother with us. Hell to the no! We ended up arguing as usual. I suggested a hotel in Sendai that I have a membership with but when I went to the hotel’s website, it was full. However, I could book on another website, so that was odd. F was looking up the same place and wanted to book it. I told him not to. I usually stay at a sister hotel when I travel so I want any points/rewards that are on offer. I probably should have explained that to him. Anyway, we didn’t book it and I’m fine with that.

Maybe, I should suggest that he take his mother somewhere and I stay here. That way, we can both enjoy ourselves. Hmm. Not sure if that sounds good for an anniversary trip though!

Anyway, I have no idea what we’ll get up to tomorrow. I hope that F will at least take me out for lunch. I’m really not happy with staying in the house on the weekend. I spend all blooming week here, I need a break. 

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

August 6, 2022

 Saturday - Sunny and warm, gorgeous day

Today turned out to be pretty good. That’s a good thing!

I woke up this morning when my alarm went off. I got up and did a bit of a change. I didn’t get completely dressed, but I got to the point where I could just throw my outside clothes on easily.  F came back from his doctor and we talked about lunch. He wanted ramen and of course, I didn’t. We ended up going to Tai where we both had curry! We also had drink bar which was nice too. 

After lunch, we went over to Hard Off and had a look around. Neither of us saw anything that we wanted to buy, so we left the shop. 

F needed some gas, so we went to the gas station by way of the grocery store. It was in the afternoon and I suggested getting something for K. She’d eaten in the morning and F didn’t leave anything for her to eat.  We picked up a few things for her and my favourite yogurt and then F suggested some ice cream. That was fine with me!

F gassed up the car and then we headed to the house. We relaxed for a bit and F and I ate our ice cream.  F wanted to go and check out the car dealership as he had seen another car that he was interested in for the future. We drove over there and of course, they didn’t have the car he wanted. They had one that was being worked on, and they said we could look at the outside of it. It was in the garage and we stood outside the garage and had a gander. I didn’t like it much if I’m honest. The door handle for the back seat is up on top of the window rather than under the window. I told F that I didn’t think his mother would be able to work it. He disagreed, but I’m pretty sure I’m right! They gave us a bunch of brochures and then we left.

On the way back to the house, F said he needed to visit a bank machine, so we drove over to one. On the way, we talked about dinner. He wasn’t very hungry either. I suggested that we go to an udon restaurant and we drove near it but then all of a sudden, F asked if I’d like to go to the mall in Mikawa. I said sure. We talked about going to a movie so I suggested going back to the house and grabbing jackets or sweaters. Sometimes the movie theatres are really cold with the air conditioning and the extra air being circulated for safety. 

We did that, we grabbed jackets and sweaters and F told his mother that there was food for her in the fridge. I think he pointed it out to her.

We drove out to the mall and F made a slight detour on the way! He turned to go to work, and couldn’t get out of the turning lane. We did a U-turn down the road and came back!

At the mall, we parked and then went up to the movie theatre. It was busy. We didn’t have to use the machine to buy our tickets tonight, we got them from a guy. There was a new Japanese movie starting tonight that was very popular, so the place was crowded. We got out tickets and then went to eat. Sadly, my favourite pasta place was still closed, so we went to the bibinba place. 

In a change of tradition, I didn’t have my usual. I had one with a lot of vegetables, and I think no meat. F had the usual one. Tonight, I ordered for us and then told F that I wasn’t going to put any extra sauces on them. They are heavy, the bibinba bowls in their wooden boxes, plus we were having drinks too. I had to carry them separately so I needed two trips and the mall was busy. I would have to wait to get sauces and do that twice, so it gets difficult. In the end, I did regret not getting more sauces as they were a little bland. Still, I’m not too upset!

When we finished our meal I took back the bowls and then we walked over to the cinema. I wanted popcorn, so we got into line. The line was the biggest I’ve ever seen. I sent F off to wait somewhere else and then I stood in line. I got my popcorn and our drinks and then we had to get into another big line to go into the cinema. They temperature-checked us and then we got in. There were only 6 people in our theatre!  It was fine though. We saw Thor: Love and Thunder again. I actually enjoyed it a little more today as I could hear the dialogue better.

After the movie, we came back to the house and had a quiet night in. F went to sleep a little while ago. 

Tomorrow, F has booked himself a massage for the early afternoon. After that, we’ll probably have lunch. I think I’ll go to S-Mall and do a little shopping while F is getting worked on! Yay for me.

I’m not sure what else we’ll get up to. Please come back later and find out. Until tomorrow….

July 30, 2022

Saturday - Hot and sunny and humid

Last night when I went to bed F woke up and he went downstairs. I had turned off the AC before bed, but it had bothered him and he was complaining about being dehydrated. Sigh. I finished my book and tried to go to bed before F came back, but when he came back, I had to turn off my light so I woke up!

This morning I slept in quite late and it was wonderful. I had forgotten to set my alarms last night so I didn’t wake up. F came back to the house around 11 I think.  We had a hot drink and he suggested going to Amarume to go to the yakiniku restaurant there. I thought it a grand idea, so off we went!

We had a lovely lunch in the restaurant. I didn’t have the usual Korean-style meal, I had a “good” meat lunch. We added on salad bar today as it was a new thing. That was yummy. I had to help F with his as crutches and salad bowls don’t mix well!

We checked out the farmer’s market but didn’t buy anything today. After we left, F suggested going to the airport and seeing what was going on there. I thought that was a fun idea, so off we went.  We went in and the place was so quiet. It was a bit crazy how quiet it was. We got drinks and went up to the third floor and sat in some chairs and drank. We had a great view of the parking lot. F looked out the window and said, “Oh look, there’s another Vitz that is the same colour as my car.” I looked out and told him that it WAS his car! He didn’t think he parked where he had. I thought it was funny. 

We came back to Tsuruoka and picked up some food for K. We came back to the house and relaxed for a bit. F gave his mother the food we bought earlier and she seemed happy.

F and I left the house around 6:30 or so. F suggested going for okonomiyaki. It’s been so long since I had that so I was happy. He wanted to go to a place in Mikawa, but I reminded him that most of the seats were at low tables, and really weren’t good for him.  I reminded him of the restaurant in Tsuruoka that makes it. If we could get one of their tables, we could go there instead. We went and had a look in the window. Both tables were empty, so we went in. We hadn’t been there in ages so I had my old favourite. F had his old favourite so that was good. We did share a bit and had an order of gyoza between the two of us. 

After our meal, we drove out to Mikawa and got our tickets for Jurassic World Dominion. We had enough points to get a free movie each, so that’s what we did. We both enjoyed the film. It wasn’t a great film by any means, but it was fun.  

We came back to Tsuruoka after the movie and hit up a conbini before coming back to the house. It was nearly midnight when we got back.  At the house, we just had a quiet evening in. It’s been rather nice and friendly.

It’s terribly late now and I really should be getting myself off to bed. Come back later if you like and hear all about Sunday. Until tomorrow….

July 9, 2022

Saturday - Hot and Sunny

I woke up fairly early the first time. F was up and getting ready to make his mother some breakfast. I went back upstairs and went back to sleep for a while. Unfortunately, I overslept…I turned off a couple of my alarms and then slept through the others. I woke up at noon! I was shocked. F didn’t seem upset though.

I got up, wrote a bit of email and then F wanted to go out for lunch. It was a bit late then. We got in the car and then F asked where I wanted to go. I asked him where he wanted to go and all he kept rambling about was ramen. As usual, I told him he could go for it if he wanted, but I didn’t want any. He started whining about not knowing what I’d want to eat so I tried, I really did. I tried asking him if he’d like to go for sushi. No, he didn’t like the place I suggested. His preferred one was closing in 20 minutes. Another restaurant I liked was closed permanently, I suggested the fish restaurant in Foodever. He grudgingly went there. 

We got to Foodever, he parked and we went down the elevator. I walked over to the fish place. Today, for some reason, F hadn’t worn socks. The fish place has tatami…I asked him if it was okay. He whined a bit about not having a cloth to wipe his crutches with. I pointed out that the last time we went, the waiter wiped them for him. On the outside, they had a display with their lunch special. It was ¥1100 yen. It was too expensive for F. Apparently, lunch shouldn’t cost more than ¥1000 yen. I pointed out that last weekend we’d gone to much more expensive places so I had no idea what he was complaining about. He wouldn’t eat there.

He was going for ramen. We went back to the car, got in and he announced that he was going to a ramen shop. I asked if he’d drop me off at S-Mall first. No. I told him I’d get out now. He had moved a foot or so in the car, so I opened the car door and I accidentally touched a pillar in the building with the car door. He basically screamed at me. I got out and took the elevator down to the ground level. 

I walked over to S-Mall and checked out the Hotel’s lunch. Unfortunately, I had already missed the last order, so I went to Pizza Hut Express and had one of their set lunches. I got pasta, a mini-pizza and a drink for less than ¥1000. Suck it F. 

I spent an enjoyable time in the mall. I got something at the grocery store, I toured the hundred yen shop, but didn’t buy anything and then decided I’d go to Doutor for a drink. While I was there, I texted F and invited him to join me for a drink. I hadn’t heard from him by 4 pm, so I decided to try and make my way back to his house.  I Google Mapped it and discovered that in a few minutes a bus would leave from the adjoining bus station that would take me near his house. I went to the washroom and then to the bus station. Unfortunately, the bus came but I wasn’t sure if it was the right bus. There wasn’t a bus route number on it and I couldn’t recognize the kanji. I decided to wait. 

I went back into the mall and walked around. I went near the drugstore and saw a car in the parking area that looked like F’s. I checked and it was. I decided that I should look for him. I found a notice on my phone that he had tried to phone me, so I phoned him back, but didn’t get an answer. I walked around and was back at Doutors when I saw him heading towards the exit. I tried to catch up with him but he goes really fast on his crutches. He was back in the car before I actually did catch him.

I got in the car with him and we talked a little bit about nothing. We went back to the house and F relaxed for a bit. I did stuff on my computer. 

Around 6 pm I asked F if he wanted to go and see the movie tonight and he said he did. I pointed out that we should leave soon, but we also should get his mother something to eat. 

We did that. We drove to the grocery store and F picked out a bento for her. We brought it back to the house and F gave it to her. 

We drove out to the mall. Since we were quite early, I asked F if he needed to do some shopping. He wanted a new thermos. His old one has disappeared. We walked along to Aeon and had a look. There was a big display of thermos but we noticed that they were all only for cold drinks. Yes, it’s summer, but we would like to use the thermos in winter too. Around the corner, I found some that were for both hot and cold drinks and F ended up buying one of them. 

We walked back to the movie side of the mall. I asked F if he’d like me to go and put the shopping in the car and grab our jackets. I was trying to lessen the amount he had to walk. He said yes, but ended up chasing me to ask me to get his phone as well. 

I delivered the thermos, grabbed our jackets and his phone, locked the car and went back into the mall. We ended up going upstairs. I made him sit in the food court while I went and bought the movie tickets at the machine. He gave me the money. I came back with the tickets and then offered to go and get his food first. He ordered something from a place that I think has bad food, but whatever. I tried to order it, but couldn’t as they had already cleaned their grill for the day. He ended up having the same thing as me, a pork kimchi bibinba. As we had our movie tickets, we got free drinks with them too. 

It was a bit of a palaver when the bibinba were ready as F wanted lots of extra seasonings on his. I did his first and of course, I had to make two trips as they are big and heavy to carry. 

When it was time to go over for the movie, I carried the trays back to the kiosk. I asked F to not make me go back to the table after my second trip. My hip, which has been feeling pretty good for the last few weeks, started to hurt quite a lot today. 

We bought drinks and popcorn and went through the movie entrance. The guy saw me and reached for his gun…thermometer gun…It’s funny but their temperature scanner hardly ever reads me. I’m not sure if I’m too pale or between my light hair and white masks it can’t see me. Surprisingly, today, it read me! Woot. I wanted to high-five the guy, but didn’t! He was as surprised as I was.

We went to see Thor: Love and Thunder. I had a really good time and some of the cameos were hilarious. I laughed a lot at the film and enjoyed it more than I expected I would. I had heard it wasn’t great. It wasn’t the best film ever, but it was what I needed today.

We came back to Tsuruoka after the movie. F wanted to go shopping so we went to MaxValu. He dragged me all over the store…it was annoying. Still, we got a few things and then came back to the house. 

I missed my programme, so I just vowed to watch it later in the week. I put on some YouTube and started blogging fairly early, but it is very late now.

I’m not sure what I’m going to get up to tomorrow. F has to vote and he’s booked a massage for himself tomorrow. I definitely don’t want a repeat of today’s nastiness. I think I’m going to have to take care of myself before I take care of other people. It may be time for me to take a little break again. I’m a bit overwhelmed this year with the heat and everything else that is going on.

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

July 2, 2022

Saturday - Hot and sunny

I woke up before my alarm this morning. I was alone and sweating. It was so hot in our room. Yuck. I went downstairs and came back up and had a nap. F came back a bit later but had to go to his massage. 

After he came back we talked a bit about where to go for lunch. It was a toss up between Arpeggio and Monami in the Daiichi Hotel. We decided on the hotel since I needed to do a couple of things in the mall.

We got to the mall and went in. We were able to be seated in the hotel’s dining room and after a bit ordered. We had the same thing, roast pork but we had different sides and drinks. It came with salad and bread or rice. I had bread, F had rice! F had iced coffee, I had iced tea.  We paid and then left.

I looked at a few things in the mall and then bought F a drink in Doutor. I left him at the table and went upstairs and ran my errands. I wanted to go to the hundred yen shop to get my stuffed animal from the seal campaign. I got it and a few other things. I joined F at the coffee shop and got my own drink. 

After a while I read on Facebook that there was a problem with our internet/phone provider and many people didn’t have phone service. That was interesting! We tried to phone a bento shop to make an order, but we couldn’t. F was upset to discover that he couldn’t even phone me sitting next to him in the car!

We went to the bento place after a lot of detouring and F got his mother a bento. We came back to the house and he gave it to her.  We left soon afterwards.

We went to Mikawa Mall and did a little shopping. F said that he needed shoes so I introduced him to Skechers. He did get himself a pair.

We drove around to the movie area of the mall and parked there. F and I went in and bought our movie tickets. Then, we had our dinner at the bibinba kiosk.  We both had our usual, the pork kimchi one. They were good. 

We ate dinner and wasted a bit of time. Then we went over to the cinema and bought our popcorn and went in. Tonight we went to see Elvis, the new Baz Luhrmann movie. We both really liked it and I thought that Austin Butler was excellent. 

We came back into Tsuruoka after the movie and made a quick trip into a convenience store. Back at the house we just relaxed and I blogged and F watched something on his computer. He’s gone to sleep a bit I think.

I’m not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. You’ll have to come back and find out, if you are interested! Until tomorrow….

May 28, 2022

 Saturday - Sunny and warm but rainy early on

I woke up this morning and F was gone. I went downstairs and then went back to bed for a bit of a snooze. I did have a bit of texting with my friends because of a group situation.

F came back and we had a bit of a snooze for a bit and then he suggested going for lunch to one of the places that I suggested last week. I was happy to agree to it. 

We went down the road to Kitchen Futaba and had a very nice meal. I had the quiche plate. Today’s quiche was baby shrimp and bamboo, with salad and soup and it was nice to relax and enjoy the food. F had the ginger pork donburi. I think he liked it, but it is hard to say!

After lunch we went suit shopping for F. He really needs a new suit for work and just important events that come up. We had to go to a couple of places and at the second one, F ended up ordering a new suit. He wouldn’t take some advice, but he did take it in other places. It’ll be interesting to see how the suit turns out when it is made.

We went to have a drink after buying the suit. We went to Mosburgers again and spent a bit of time there. We went to the grocery store across the street from Mosburgers and bought K a nice bento for dinner. 

We went back to the house and I gave K her sushi. We headed out again soon afterwards and drove to Mikawa.

F parked the car and we went into the mall. I bought the tickets at the machine. We were both surprised that a big section of the cinema was already full!  We had to sit on the far side of the cinema instead. 

We took our tickets and then went to the food court. I wanted bibinba as usual, and F had it too. We ordered and got free drinks because of our movie tickets. I picked up our food when the buzzer let us know it was ready. I had to do it in two trips because the bibinba is heavy!

We ate and then I had to drag F into the cinema line. We got some popcorn and drinks and then joined one of the longest lines to get into the cinema that I’ve ever seen there. The cinema wasn’t full, but it was the fullest I think I’ve ever seen, including before Covid! There were a lot of people who wanted to see Top Gun: Maverick. How was it? Well, it was okay. I liked it but I didn’t love it. I did enjoy myself at the cinema though. I think F liked it too.

We came back to Tsuruoka and went to MaxValu to pick up a few things for a late dinner. We were both a bit peckish. F also got some things for his mother. 

We got back to the house and I opened the door. We’d forgotten to leave the light on when we left so I had to open the door using only the light from the motion sensor light on the garage. F told me off again for not standing on the right side of the door. It’s an old argument but it still annoys me. He tried to tell me that everyone would stand on the right side. Well, obviously not, since I stand on the left. I think he should just shut up about it.

I put away the groceries or arranged them to go upstairs and then I went upstairs. I changed into my pyjamas and then went online and caught up with friends and even wrote an email. Yay me.

So that’s about it for me. Not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. I hope that it’ll be fun. Come back later and find out. Until tomorrow…

May 16, 2022

Monday - Muggy and warmish, rain at night

Last night our room was rather cold, so I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to sleep. I was! I did put on warm clothes before bed too, so I’m sure that helped. 

I woke up when my alarm went off, I got up and actually got dressed and had some breakfast. I got ready to go and then at 10 am the doorbell rang. K actually answered it, but it turned out that it was F’s new computer. It arrived a little early, so that was good. I took the box and brought it upstairs. 

I texted F to say that it arrived and then I went downstairs and said goodbye to K. I told her I was going to Mikawa and she wished me a safe trip. She asked when I’d come back and I said later with F. 

I walked to the bus stop. It’s over a kilometre away, so I had to hustle. However, I’d left early so I actually had to tell myself to slow down! I ended up getting to the bus stop about 10 minutes early. 

When the bus came, I got on and had a fairly enjoyable ride out to the mall. For the first little while, I was the only passenger! That was cool. 

At the mall, I paid, got off the bus and then did a bit of walking around the mall. I did something a little naughty, I went to see Dr. Strange again. I enjoyed it even more this time if that was possible. 

When I got up after the movie, I could barely move. I’ve been having hip problems and sitting still makes it worse. I managed to leave the cinema, but I did a little shopping in the mall. I got some rubber mats to go under things for my new chair cushion. I’ve been having problems with the cushion sliding around on me. 

In Aeon, I went shopping for clothes for summer. The only things that were on sale were the winter clothes, so not what I wanted. I found a fairly nice top, it’s made from synthetic material though, so I don’t know how it’ll be in summer. It’s a bit long, like a tunic. I’ll probably wear it out a couple of times and then make it a house shirt. Probably. 

I checked out the men’s department too to see if there was anything I liked there, but there wasn’t. I don’t have the correct shape for some of the clothes. 

F called me and we made arrangements to meet up. I saw the car pull up, so I went outside to meet him.  He came back into the mall with me and he ran an errand. We went for a drink at Doutor and then we went upstairs for something to eat. I had a bibinba, but not my usual one, F had yakisoba and takoyaki. 

After we finished, we went back to the car and drove into Tsuruoka. We bought a nice bento for K at a grocery store and came back to the house. K was still up, that was a surprise! I heated the bento up for her and then went upstairs.

I didn’t have much conversation with my husband tonight because he was stuck into his new computer. He didn’t want me to help him with it and was rather rude when I asked if he wanted help. I knew that he’d be obsessed with it, and he was. 

I thought about taking the garbage out so checked it. There wasn’t that much stuff in the kitchen so I left it for this week. 

I watched quite a bit of YouTube tonight and tried to relax. I did an edging on my latest dishcloth and I think it looks great. I’ll try and post a picture tomorrow if I get the ends darned in!

So, was it worth going out to the mall today? Yes, it was. I enjoyed myself, but I’m worried about my hip. It was hurting a bit yesterday, but today it is hurting rather a lot. I think it needs a quiet day or two. 

Tomorrow night I’m back on cooking dinner patrol I guess. I have the feeling that F isn’t going to eat the things that I make. I hope that he does. He should if he knows what’s good for him!!

Anyway, I’m quite tired and I need to get to bed. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

May 5, 2022

 Thursday - Hot and Sunny

I slept in this morning. I didn’t go to bed until very late last night/early this morning. I woke up early this morning, made a trip downstairs and then went back to bed for a few hours.

We didn’t have a great morning around here. F is still in a lot of pain from his knees. He made his mother something for brunch and then we talked about going out. I didn’t really want to go out quite when he did but tried to get ready. He started on about wanting to eat ramen…I suggested that we split up and each have what we wanted, but he agreed to come to a restaurant with me. 

On the way to the restaurant, F said to me that he wasn’t going to come into the restaurant with me. I was quite upset to hear that, he said he was going to go for ramen. I asked him to drop me off at S-Mall instead. He was surprised at that. Well, I like the restaurant we had planned to go to, but I didn’t want to eat there by myself! 

At S-Mall, I checked out the hotel’s lunch but decided it was a little expensive for me. I ended up going to Pizza Hut for one of their pasta lunches. It was pretty good. I got pasta (carbonara), a mini pepperoni pizza and a drink for under a thousand yen. It was quite nice. The pasta was nicer than the pasta restaurant we went to a couple of days ago!

After my lunch, I went and checked out the grocery store then went upstairs. I went to the washroom and F texted me to say he was downstairs. I told him I was going to go to the hundred yen shop. I did a quick round there, got a few things and then paid. I was leaving the store and F was right outside.  

We went downstairs and looked at a display of trick art. We took a few pictures, or rather, F did. He hasn’t sent me the pictures yet, so I can’t show you yet. 

We left the mall and came back to the house. F wasn’t doing very well.  He went to bed for a while and napped, I spent time on my computer. Around 5 pm though, I went and took a nap. I was tired.

I woke up about half an hour later and asked F if he’d go shopping with me now. He was a bit surprised, but I have been asking him all week to take me to Mikawa to do some shopping.  

We got K a bento from the grocery store and then headed out to the mall area. First up, we went to Nitori and looked for storage bags for our quilts. We have large quilts so need something a little bigger to keep our quilts in over the summer. We got a couple of things at Nitori, paid and then left. Next up, we visited K’s Denki to get a USB splitter for me. Yesterday, one of my USB ports died on me, so I needed something to plug my mouse into and my phone when I need to charge it up. 

We went over to the mall because I needed a washroom. We talked about dinner. F wanted ramen again (isn’t that excessive?) but decided to come upstairs with me. I wanted a bibinba. I asked F if he wanted to see the movie too since if we did, I could get a free drink at the bibinba place. F checked out the place he wanted to go but wasn’t happy with it, so he decided to have bibinba too. Then we bought our movie tickets! 

We came back to the food court and ordered our bibinbas. We got the same one as usual, it is that good! I brought F’s over to him and then we ate. They were really good. 

We went into the cinema around 8:20. I hadn’t told F that the movie started at 8:35, I let him think it was 8:30!  If I didn’t, he would be late for the movie! 

We went to see Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. We both enjoyed it. There were a lot of interesting cameos in the film and no I won’t say who they were!

After the movie, I had to rescue F’s crutch which had fallen down behind the row of seats in front of us. After that, we left the cinema. 

On the way back to Tsuruoka, F asked if I wanted to stop in a conbini, so I said yes. All of my meals today were heavily carb-y and I just wanted something light and veggie-like. I got myself a salad with fried chicken on top! It was…okay. I should have gone for the veggie sticks, but…

So, today turned out okay, but the beginning wasn’t that great.  Golden Week is over now, but F has tomorrow off. I hope we get on better than today. 

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

April 30, 2022

Saturday - Sunny but still cool

I woke up early this morning and then went downstairs. I came back upstairs and went back to bed for a while.  F came back to the room and went back to bed for a while too. I got up before 12!  F and I talked about where to go for lunch today and I suggested a couple of places. F then suggested another one that was a little nicer than the place I suggested. We ended up going to the nice tonkatsu place near the Co-op.

F and I had the same thing, fairly big tonkatsu. It came with rice, miso soup, cabbage, pickles and tea. F had refills on rice and cabbage, but I didn’t. I didn’t really want any. After lunch, we did a quick run through the nearby Daiso. I bought a few things, F didn’t!

We went for coffee at Starbucks. It was a little unfortunate, the inside of the shop was full when we got there, so we went outside and sat there. It got a bit chilly after a while, especially since we were drinking Frappuccinos!

After our drinks, we drove along the road and went to Gyomu Super and then over to Yamaya.  Gyomu had their British cheese in again. Yes! We looked for a few things, I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted but that’s okay. Yamaya was okay too. I got some Apple vinegar and a little bit of tea. I know, I have too much tea, but these were cheap teabags. I like the tea though. In the morning it is hard to think enough to make tea from tea leaves.

We bought a bento for K and a few other things and then came back to the house and dropped off the bento. 

We drove off to the mall in Mikawa and bought our tickets to go and see a movie. We took our movie tickets to the bibinba place and ordered and got two free drinks with our tickets. Yay for that. It’s a bit difficult for me right now because F can’t carry his tray at the moment because of the crutches. That means I have to do both trays. I can’t carry them both at the same time because they are heavy and the bowls are HOT. 

After we ate, we went back to the cinema and got our drinks and popcorn. When they let us in, we went into the cinema and dumped our stuff and hit the washrooms!

We went to see Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard and it was okay. I had heard it was terrible. It wasn’t great, not really good, but both of us laughed and had fun at it. After the movie, we left the mall and drove back to Tsuruoka.

I wanted to get a couple more seals to try and finish my special offer for a bowl. F took us to MaxValu and I picked up some bread-y treats. F picked up a lot of weird stuff!  

We came back to the house and basically relaxed. I watched something at 11 pm and F has been looking at new computers for himself. He damaged the screen on his laptop and he can’t see much on most of his screen. It’s quite sad. 

Anyway, that’s about it for my day. It turned out okay. I’m not sure what we’re going to get up to on Sunday, you’ll have to come back and find out. Until tomorrow….

April 24, 2022

Sunday - Warm and Sunny

I woke up this morning quite early, made a trip downstairs and then went back to bed for a while. F came back to bed too and I didn’t wake up again until he sprang up in bed to get the door. My suitcase had arrived. Yay. Despite me telling him NOT to bring it upstairs…I didn’t want him to damage his knee even more…he did. He has his moments! I still haven’t opened it though. I’ll do that tomorrow and get some laundry done too I think.

F suggested going to a soba restaurant, one that neither of us had been to before. I really didn’t feel in the mood for soba, I wanted something lighter for lunch, and preferably not Japanese. However, he was getting his knickers in a knot again, so I agreed to go. I wasn’t very gracious about it. F called and made a reservation and then we started to go. Except, he couldn’t find his wallet. Seriously? He spent about 10 minutes looking for it and couldn’t. I told him that if lunch was under ¥5000 I’d pay for it and he could pay me back later. 

We drove off to find this restaurant. F was too busy pontificating on something and turned too soon. I half-thought he had, but he wouldn’t listen to me. We got to the restaurant and were shown into a fake tatami room with a table and chairs. Whew!  It had a plastic barrier in the middle of the table and F took it upon himself to move it to the end of the table. Where it promptly fell apart as it was longer than the width of the table. I just rolled my eyes. 

Lunch was surprisingly (for me) good. We both had soba with chicken gobo soup and shared an order of chicken tempura which was very good. We came back to Tsuruoka after I paid and back to the house. I was shattered. I was tired and F was just being annoying. He was worried about his wallet. I went to bed and tried to nap a little. 

F found his wallet finally and did pay me back.  We decided to go out fairly soon after that. I wanted to buy groceries and get that chore out of the way. We went to the grocery store and I bought a few things. F insisted on coming in the store with me so I had to carry the groceries and keep up with him and put up with him getting in my way and such. We bought the groceries and took them back to his house. I unpacked the bag and then we went out again.

We didn’t do too much then. We tried to go to Machi-kine to see a rummage sale, but sad to say, the things on display weren’t things that I’d actually want to buy. After that, we decided to go to Mcdonald's for a drink. We went to one and had a bit of downtime for a while. We both had drinks and I had a flurry too. 

When we left, we tried to order K a nice bento for dinner but the company said they were busy. They suggested that we show up and they’d make it when we were there. We did, and very quickly F was back in the car and we were off to the house. 

F gave her the bento and then the two of us were off on the road. We went out to Mikawa to see CODA. 

When we arrived, F had to have some food. We got our tickets. F surprised me by wanting to sit quite far back in the theatre. He’s on crutches, I would have thought he’d want to sit near the front. Nope.

While he was finishing up his food, I went and bought the popcorn and drinks. He joined me and we went in. Before I went to the washroom, F gave me back the money for the drinks and popcorn. That rather annoyed me because I have a thing against getting money from him in public. I’m just not sure why he does that. 

Anyway, the movie was great! F really liked it, as I knew that he would. We both had a good time. The only bad thing for me was that the ASL was subtitled in Japanese and not English. However, I was able to read a few words here and there AND I had read that originally the film wasn’t subtitled at all, so I figured that I was seeing it almost as intended!

After the movie, we left the theatre and happily F did a wallet/key check before we got far. F couldn’t find his wallet. Ack. We asked for permission to go back in and look for it. F found it under his seat. Yikes. Glad he checked.

We left the mall and went back to Tsuruoka. F wanted to go to a gyudon shop for dinner but I said no. I really didn’t want Japanese food. I suggested a Chinese restaurant. We tried to go, but they had already closed for the night. We ended up going to the Thai restaurant. We haven’t been there in years, but it was nice! They were quite busy tonight but welcomed us in.  F ordered Thai-style ramen and I had Thai-style yakisoba. It was huge but really nice!

After our dinner, we paid up and came back to the house. We had a quiet evening in. At 11 I watched a show I just found, Superman and Lois and then ended up watching the end of Perfume. It’s such a weird little movie, but I love it. 

And that was my day. It was an odd one. F and I are fine, he’s had a bad pain day and took some medicine. It always seems to make him more forgetful than usual. I’m missing my holiday and being on my own. It’s hard for me to come back to “real life” where I have to get on with other people!

Tomorrow I have to do laundry I hope, cook dinner and probably clean up the kitchen. Ack.

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