December 29, 2025

Monday - Clear and warmish, rainy at night

I got up first around 8:30, made a trip downstairs and then came back upstairs and went back to bed. F got up to make his mother breakfast, I slept on. 

When I got up later F wanted to go for lunch but I said that I wanted to have my breakfast. I prepared my cereal and yogurt and started the laundry machine. I did two loads today. They are hanging in my room to dry!

A couple of hours after I ate and when my laundry was finally finished and hanging, I agreed to go out with F for lunch. We ended up going to Gusto. They’d obviously been busy earlier as many of the tables weren’t cleared off yet. 

We had a nice lunch. I had my favourite mushroom pasta dish with a small side salad and the drink bar, F had a nabé and it was quite good. He had the drink bar too. 

We left the restaurant around 4pm and came back to the house. I went upstairs to relax for a little while. I changed my clothes and had a cup of tea as well. I went downstairs to start dinner around 5:15 pm.

I had a lot of veggies to prepare today. I sliced or cut up 5 onions, 4 potatoes and a carrot. I added in some mushrooms as well.

Over the next hour and a half or so, I made Japanese curry. My husband has been bugging me for a few weeks to make it again and I decided I’d do it on Monday so we’d have dinner for a couple of days. I had thought that F had to work today so it would be fair if I did the curry. He didn’t have to work. 

Still, I cooked, sautéd and simmered and got the curry done just around 7 pm which was my goal. I got F to put rice in the bowls and I ladled out the curry. We had curry and rice, and some salad. F had bought some pickles and he put them out. 

I finished eating around 7:40 and went into the kitchen to do a quick clean up. I put away the rest of the curry, washed the pan, washed the cutlery I used in the making and put all the dishes away. I didn’t do the bowls from the table. I asked F to wash the dishes tonight. He said that he would. I didn’t ask him at the last minute or anything, I asked him a couple of days ago. 

I went upstairs and went online just before 8pm. I joined a meeting online to watch a movie, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. It was great. I really enjoyed it. Emma Thompson was amazing as ever and Daryl McCormack was great too. As we don’t have Netflix and won’t get it, this was my only chance to see it. It was very good in my opinion.

After the movie, I went downstairs to see how F was doing (and if he’d done the dishes!) Well, he was sitting in the living room and yes, he’d done the dishes and put everything away too. Yay for him. I shared a sweet treat with him that I got from my friends on Friday…that was lovely too.

I went upstairs again and a few minutes later came downstairs again to take a shower. I did that and then made a video. I noticed a drip in the bathroom, on the washing machine’s tap. I knew it would be hard to explain it to F, so I recorded it on my phone for him. I went upstairs and showed F the video. 

Poor thing had to go downstairs and spend around half an hour fixing the problem. He thinks it was an old washer and the last time I was in the bathroom it wasn’t dripping anymore so he fixed it. Hurray!

Then, F decided to take a shower…late at night. After that, he did laundry. He’s a little crazy in my opinion, but whatever!

So, that’s about it for me. It was an okay day today and I mostly enjoyed it. Tomorrow we’ll have curry for dinner again, probably with something on the side and hopefully another salad too. That means we’ll have to go to the grocery store as well. Sigh. It’ll be crazy busy I think. 

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

December 28, 2025

Sunday - Sunny with snow!

I woke up around 10:30 this morning. I went downstairs and saw F while I was there. He was planning to go out and get kerosene. I told him I was going back to bed! I came upstairs but I heard the snowplough going by outside. Oh dear.  I had no idea how much snow was outside so I decided I should get dressed and shovel some for him. 

I got dressed and went downstairs. What did I see in the genkan? Four bright red kerosene tanks. I sent F a text and asked him how he’d get kerosene without the tanks! A couple of minutes later he texted me that he would come back!

I went outside and moved a little snow. There wasn’t too much really, but the snowplough had left a few big clumps in our driveway. I moved them, and cleared the snow closer to my side of the car. I was still outside when F came back. He loaded the tanks into the trunk and left again!

I went upstairs and didn’t go back to bed! I spent time on my computer and relaxed. When F came back we talked about lunch. I suggested that we try the Taiwan restaurant again. F liked that idea, so off we went. 

At the restaurant, I had their lunch special…I had the yurinchi chicken, it was very nice. F had ramen and fried rice. He didn’t like the ramen and the rice didn’t impress him either. I don’t know why he orders ramen at non ramen shops, he’s never happy!

F was really tired after our meal and wanted a nap. We went back to the house and both went to bed for an hour. Now, I had asked F if we could go to the movie in the afternoon. I told him the time was 3:30. My alarm went off at 3 pm, but F was worried about his mother’s lunch. He went out to the store to get some. He came back to the house at 3:24. I was really annoyed. He said we could make it so I got in the car and we drove over to the cinema.

We were a little late really, and if I hadn’t told him the wrong time we wouldn’t have made it. We went to see A House of Dynamite. I really liked it. The acting was good and the situation was quite scary.

After the movie we went shopping for groceries. I suggested that we get bentos for dinner, but the store didn’t have any good ones. I bought ingredients to make curry for dinner tomorrow night. F bought a lot of unnecessary things in my opinion so I was a bit ticked off at him. He keeps buying things like pickles for curry….I don’t eat that crap, why spend money on it. Oh, for him? Yuck. 

We went back to the house and I put the groceries away that were mine. I hid some of the ingredients because if K sees them, she might try and make the curry and that would not be good! I would be very annoyed if she does try it.

F and I talked about dinner and he suggested going out, but as usual didn’t have an idea where. I looked up some places on Google Maps and suggested a couple of places. We ended up going to Nagomi, the udon/soba place.

We drove over and were the only customers. That was a little sad for them, but good for us. We both had the same thing, the nabé-yakiudon. It was very good. It was a big nabé full of udon, veggies and mochi. 

After our dinner we came back to the house. We headed upstairs. I had planned to just watch something on the fire disk, but I checked WOWOW’s schedule. Tonight they were running the Bridget Jones movie series. At 9 pm they were going to play the one I hadn’t seen yet, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. I decided I’d watch that. I caught the end of the one before it and then  Mad About the Boy. It wasn’t the best movie ever, but it was surprisingly emotional and I cried a couple of times. I really enjoyed it. 

After the movie I turned off the TV and F ended up going to bed. I’m still up but really need to go to bed soon. 

I’m not sure what I’m going to get up to tomorrow, so I’ll invite you to come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow…. 

December 12, 2025

Friday - Cold and snowy

I woke up to a world of cold this morning and I didn’t like it! I had set my alarm last night for earlier than my usual time. I wanted to be able to wake up this morning. I woke up, got up and went downstairs, then came back upstairs and got my clothes ready for going out. Then, I got back into bed and snoozed for a bit. I know, y’all probably think that I would have overslept, but I didn’t! 

I got up, dressed and then ate my breakfast sandwich. I went downstairs for a couple of minutes. I checked that K had enough kerosene in her heater (yes) and that I had marked her lunch for her (also yes). Then, I went back upstairs, grabbed my backpack and coat and then went on my merry way. 

I opened the front door, just as a lady came by delivering a local paper. We both jumped! I said good morning and for the rest of the block I followed her before going off on my way to the bus stop. The weather was horrible in the morning. It was dark and snowing and the wind was really strong. Of course, I got to the bus stop early and the bus was running late. Oh well. 

The bus was a bit busy and I got on when it arrived. I had a nice and quiet ride to Sanno machi. I tapped my card and got off. I walked back to the post office and mailed off my in Japan cards and also bought some nengajo. I’m going to try and make some again this year. 

I also deposited 50 yen into my post office account! I’m basically out of rolled coins now. It’s taken a while to get them done, but they aren’t causing me grief anymore.

Next up, I walked to Machi-kinema. I realized I was still hungry so I made a quick trip to the nearby drugstore to get a few snacks. I bought them and then fast-walked back to the cinema. I bought my ticket and then went in to see Black Bag. It was great by the way! It was lovely to see a challenging film with no easy answers at all.

After the film, I took a minute and ate an onigiri in the lobby of the cinema, then went over to the bus stop. I waited a while for my bus. I got on and then went to the mall on the bus. 

I got off the bus and decided to go to the hundred yen shop first. I toured around the shop and found the platters that I couldn’t find on the weekend! There were two packs, I bought one. I also got a few other things at the shop. I paid and then went downstairs in the mall. 

I had a nice lunch at Pizza Hut Express and then walked around the mall a bit. I finally decided that I’d catch a bus back to the house after 4 pm. I decided to have some Baskin-Robbins so I was eating that when I got a call from F. He was out and about at work today and offered me a ride back to the house. I didn’t do everything in the mall that I had wanted to do, but it was enough. 

I met F at the front of the mall and he drove me back to the house. He just dropped me off so I went into the house with my stuff. I came back out a couple of minutes later with my snow shovel and moved some snow. There wasn’t that much, just a couple of cm, but I moved it out of the way. 

I went in the house, turned on the heater in the kitchen and then went upstairs. I caught the last of the news and had a cup of cocoa and relaxed a bit.

F called around 5:30 and said he was on his way. I went downstairs and got a start on dinner. Tonight was my usual pasta night so we had spaghetti with pepperoncino sauce, salad and bacon. We also had the last of the potato salad. Dinner was good and there were no leftovers!

I went into the kitchen and did the dishes, then went upstairs to relax when I had finished. I chilled upstairs and then went down and took a shower around 10:30 pm. 

When I came back to the room, I decided to watch another episode of Down Cemetery Road. It was really good and it was hard to stop after one episode. Sigh. 

Since the episode finished I’ve been watching YouTube and working on my end of day things. I’m done so I’ll be heading to sleep soon. 

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

December 3, 2025

Today worked out rather nicely. I really had a good time!

I woke up in the morning, went downstairs and then came back to bed. I snoozed for a bit, but dragged myself out of bed at a reasonable time. I got dressed, went downstairs and made my breakfast. I brought it back up to the room to eat, then I had my morning set of pills for my cold!

I went downstairs around 11:15 and left the house around 11:25. I walked over to the bus stop and I was really glad that I had taken my umbrella with me. It was pouring!

The bus was on time and I rode it all the way to S-Mall. I got off the bus and went in. I headed up to Daiso first and got the things I was planning to buy and a few other things too. Next up I went to the now re-opened grocery store and bought a few things for lunch. I had hoped that I’d be able to eat something in the bus depot, but that place was busy today. I couldn’t get a seat.

My bus back to the cinema came in, I got on and about 3 stops later I got off. The bus was quite busy too. It was the bus to Mt. Haguro so some of the people may have been tourists or pilgrims I guess. I walked over to the cinema building and went in. Just inside the front door there is a bench so I sat down and ate one of my lunch things fast. 

I went into the cinema and bought my ticket to see The Sound of Music. It’s the 60th anniversary and it has been digitally remastered. I was surprised how busy the theatre was. There were a lot of people there.

How was the movie? It was great. I’m sure that there were scenes in the movie that I’ve never seen before. Also, the movie just looked amazing. I think this was my first time seeing it on the big screen too. I just loved it. I’ve read a lot lately how Christopher Plummer was embarrassed by the film and thought it was beneath him, but honestly…why? It’s such a wonderful film. It’s over the top romantic, but the music is excellent and most of the songs are so memorable. 

After the movie, I headed back to the bus stop and waited for the bus. It was dark and raining when the bus arrived, I almost didn’t see it! I had a pleasant ride back to my stop. I got off the bus and walked back to the house.

I went upstairs and changed into house clothes and spent a few minutes on my computer. F called to say he was finished work and to check where I was. I had told him if I missed the bus or something came up I might need him to pick me up. 

I headed downstairs and into the kitchen. I had started the kitchen’s heater when I got back, so I turned it up. I started the dishes and about the same time F arrived back from work. He headed upstairs, I got to work. 

Tonight we had the coro-coro steak. I had marinated it last night, so it had a lot of time for the garlic to steep! I also make some 4 cheese macaroni from a mix, and we had that with salad, potato salad and a tiny bit of the onion dish from last night. Dinner was good and got good reviews, but there were tons of leftovers.

After dinner, I cleared the table and put away the extra food. I washed the dishes and listened to my podcasts while I worked. Then, seeing as how it is Wednesday, I did up the burnable garbage. Not my favourite job, but I like having things cleaned out and starting from zero again.

I went upstairs to change and a few minutes later F and I went over to Mina to get our groceries. F came into the shop with me which wasn’t my favourite thing, but was fine really. We picked up a few things for dinner tomorrow and Friday and breakfasts, the usual. F was a little annoying, but not too bad! Usually he goes walkabout and then I have to find him to put things in the cart. He was well behaved tonight!

We were on our way back to the house when I reminded him that he needed to buy gas for the car! The gas station he uses is on the other side of the city so we drove over there and F did all the work. I just came for the ride!

We came back to the house afterwards and I put away the groceries. I had asked F to fill up the kerosene tank for our heater for me, but he became indisposed, so I finished it. He started it. I went upstairs carrying the very heavy tank and put it in the heater and started it going. It was cold in our room so we needed it.

We had a quiet evening in. I showed F how to get his iPhone to play Ambient Music for sleeping. I had watched a video from Proper Honest Tech that explained it. I had no idea that was even a possibility. This morning when I had my snooze, I actually played one of the tunes and it was relaxing.

I watched Wild Cards in the evening and enjoyed it. There was a bomb under the captain’s chair and Max was trapped in the building with him. It was quite a cool episode. 

And that was it. So, I didn’t get the tree down yet. I hope to work on that tomorrow….Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

November 30, 2025

Sunday - Rainy but warmish

I woke up quite early today, somewhere around 8 am. F was still sleeping in bed!  I made a trip downstairs and then came back to the room. I went back to bed and slept on. I got up around 11 and spent a bit of time on my computer. Then, F came back to the room. I went back to bed and slept more. I didn’t wake up really until 2:30 or so. Sigh.

I got up, dressed and F and I went out and had lunch at a gyudon shop. I had one with some cheese, plus miso soup and a salad. It was pretty good. 

After that, we went to the new Gyomu Supa and checked it out. It’s big, bright and today was so crowded! We bought a few things there and that was a good thing. I got sunflower seeds, some frozen veggies, potato salad, cereal. F picked up a few things for himself as well.

The next thing is we headed over to Mina and I went in to do the shopping. I bought a few things for the next couple of dinners. F is planning to take tomorrow off. We are both feeling pretty bad today so I think it is a good idea for him. 

We came back to the house and I put away the shopping. It was nice to have a lot of things in the fridge again. I went upstairs and spent some quality time with my computer.

Around 7:30 we decided to go out and have dinner. I asked F if we could stop in at a drugstore after dinner. I really wanted lotion tissues, a box of them. It’s really hard to get just one box now. 

We went over to Misono and had dinner. It wasn’t busy, so we got a table. F had niku udon and I had kara-age without rice and miso soup. It was good!

At the drugstore, we did get some lotion tissues, but had to buy 3 boxes at a time. We picked up some other things and then checked out.

Back at the house, I took a shower and then watched a movie on WOWOW. I’ve been hoping to see it for years and it did not disappoint. The movie was All of Us Strangers with Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell and Claire Foy. It was such a good movie. I came close to crying in all honesty.

Since the movie finished I’ve been working on my computer and watching some YouTube videos. I’m not feeling that great. I took my medicine about 30 minutes ago and I’m really tired now. I’m off to bed!

Come back later if you like hear how my Monday goes. Until tomorrow….

November 23, 2025

Sunday - Warm and Sunny

I woke up this morning around 9 am I think and went downstairs. F went downstairs just after me and then he stayed to make breakfast for K. I went back up to the room and back to bed.

I got up a couple of hours later and got myself dressed. I noticed that F’s bottle of soy sauce had fallen over and was leaking on the precious tatami in the room. Luckily, there was a medicine envelope underneath the bottle that took most of the soy sauce. I took the tube that was in the envelope out and put the envelope in the garbage and then cleaned up the soy sauce. 

I went downstairs with the kerosene tank as it was empty. I tried to fill it up, but the pump started working before I put it in my tank. Yikes. I swore a bit! I filled up the tank and let F know after that we had a situation with the kerosene. He fixed it for me and then carried the full tank upstairs. Yay.

We talked about lunch and he suggested going to karaoke. I was a bit surprised but said it was okay. The karaoke box has a lunch special so we thought we’d take advantage of that. 

We arrived at the karaoke box and the parking lot was busy. The clerk inside said that we could come back at 1:30 and we decided not to do that. I knew that F isn’t that into karaoke and it was his birthday.  

We ended up having lunch at his favourite fish restaurant. We were able to get in right away. They didn’t have a lunch special today, but F had a tekka-don and I had a gindara set meal. We were both quite pleased with our meals.

After lunch we went to the Art Forum. They had a free display of school children’s art related to books that they had read. I didn’t mind some of the art, especially the older kids stuff. We decided to have a drink and dessert at the coffee corner place at the Forum. F had apple pie and coffee, I had a strawberry and blueberry cake and tea. F accidentally hit the table and spilled some of my tea, but it wasn’t a bad thing. 

After our drinks and cakestuff, F booked a nice bento for K. We went over to the shop and picked it up. We came back to the house and F gave the bento to her, I went upstairs and charged my phone.

Later on, F came upstairs and we talked about our dinner. He wanted to go to Fujishima to see the lights first, but I suggested finding a good dinner place before that. I suggested a couple of places, F suggested one as well. I liked his idea, but when he called to see if we could get in tonight, we couldn’t. Aww! I suggested Iskiya, the place that F took me for my birthday and F called them. They said they were busy, but we could come and wait outside and maybe get in if someone left. 

We drove over to the restaurant, F went in to say that we were waiting outside. He came right back outside and called me in. They had a table for us!

We chose to have a set meal and it was great. We told them that I can’t have tomatoes and they were very accommodating for me. Yay. We had some prosciutto and mozzarella, some butternut squash soup, bruschetta with red and yellow peppers instead of tomatoes for both of us. Then, we had some pizza. It was half Genovase (pesto) sauce with Italian sausage, half quatro-fromage (4 cheeses). That part came with some honey. The pizza was excellent and we both enjoyed it. Our last dish was pasta and they used a pesto sauce again. It was good, but not as good as the pizza! Finally, we had dessert and a drink. I had rooibos tea and F had coffee. We had a very nice angel food cake with ice cream and fresh fruit. Everything was very nice and it was worth the price. 

When we paid up, we told the staff that last time  we were there it was my birthday and this time it was F’s. They gave us each a brownie to take with us! Nice!

F asked that we go out to Fujishima to see the lights. I was afraid that it would end before we got there, but we got there quickly. We had about half an hour before the lights were going to be turned off. We walked around and took a few pictures. It was lovely. It was nice because when we come around Christmas it is very slippery and cold, but tonight was great. No snow yet and not cold. What a win!

Fujishima means Wisteria Island and these lights look like Wisteria. Beautiful!

This felt very Star Trekkie!

The Birthday Guy with me!

We came back to Tsuruoka before the lights were turned off in the park. F wanted to get some meat for K’s breakfast tomorrow so we made a quick stop at the grocery store.

Back at the house we came upstairs. I decided to watch a movie and since I couldn’t pick something contemporary, decided to go to one of the free apps on my Fire Disk and watch The Scarlet Pimpernel from 1982 or so. It had Anthony Andrews, Jane Seymour and an incredibly young looking Ian McKellen. It was great. I’d seen it on regular TV when I was much younger and it was a fun movie. Anthony Andrews was fantastic and Jane Seymour was so beautiful. 

And that’s about it. Tomorrow is a national holiday so F is off work again. We’ll have to do the shopping as usual and hopefully will build in a few fun things to the day too.

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