Wednesday - Hot and Sunny
I woke up this morning when my alarm went off. I got up, went downstairs and did not go back to bed! Instead I got dressed and a little while later, F and I left and drove over to the bank. I made sure that I had all the stuff I needed (and a few things I didn’t!) and we went into the bank to close my account. It went a lot better this time than it did last time! We did have to wait a while but that’s usual for Japan! I finally got my money and then we left.
We drove to another bank that I still use and I deposited the money, well, all but the coins in the account. I used the bank machine so I would get charged if I put coins in.
After that, F and I headed over to Komeda Coffee for some coffee and a bite. They offer a “free” breakfast before 11am with our drinks. We each got the same food, a half piece of really thick toast plus some egg paste…basically egg salad. It was nice.
When we finished, we walked over to MaxValu and bought some food for K’s lunch and food for the day. We picked up a couple of onigiri for ourselves as well.
We drove back to the house, I put away my important stuff. F gave his mother her food and soon after that, we got on the road.
F was going to Yamagata to pick up his credit card. He lost it a week or so ago when he was there for work. It fell out of his wallet. He got a letter from his bank about it telling him that the police station in Yamagata city had it. Now, I told him that he probably should check with his bank to see if the card was still active, but he didn’t. Was it the same bank that we were in this morning? Yes, yes it was. Could he have asked? Yes, yes he could have.
So, we got on the road to Yamagata. It was a lovely day for driving in the mountains. We had good visibility and it was sunny and warm. We made a pitstop at Sagae, our usual Michi-no-eki (road service area), walked around a little, used the loo, and then got back on the road and went into Yamagata.
F drove to the police station, went in and got his credit card back. The person who found it didn’t ask for a reward, so that was good. I asked F if he was sure that the card was still good. He was.
We decided to make a quick trip to Costco. Our membership is still on until the middle of October. I was given a strict budget and I did a little shopping. I got some of my favourite cheese, some canned tuna, some bagels, some socks and an umbrella that I can use as a parasol (it was much cheaper than the ones in the shops here in Tsuruoka). Most importantly, I got a case of A&W Root Beer! I’ve been missing that this summer. I sadly put back some sausages from Alberta…they looked amazing but…we paid the bill and it came in just under budget so that was good. While I was shopping, F decided to check his credit card and stuck it in the Costco bank machine. It ate his card. Of course it did!
F ended up calling his bank and they’ll get him a new card next week or something, but honestly! I told him that they would have cancelled his card because if you have both the police and the bank involved that is what they have to do! It’s to protect him. Why didn’t he ask about it at the bank this morning???
We decided to have something to eat at Costco. I had a ham and cheese croissant. That was really nice, but quite big. F had a hot dog and then we both had ice cream. The flavour de jour was Marron or chestnut. It was quite nice and not as sweet as I was expecting.
After some time eating and drinking, it was time to leave. We got back in the car and drove back to Tsuruoka. We stopped in at Sagae again to have a quick break. We listened to music on my iPod and that was nice.
We got to Tsuruoka and decided to go grocery shopping. I bought food for the next couple of days. F and K need breakfast tomorrow and on Friday, I needed stuff for my lunches as well. We paid and came back to the house.
We brought our shopping into the house and K was up in the living room. I ended up heating up her bento and giving it to her, plus some drink. I separated the bagels I had bought and put them in the freezer. While I was in there I saw something odd. Last week I bought a bag of frozen French fries but didn’t use them. They were now open and closed with an elastic tie. What the heck? I checked with F to see if he’d maybe opened the bag to give K some but he hadn’t. It turns out that K was looking in the freezer as she often does and decided to try eating one of the fries. One. She didn’t like them while they were frozen and not cooked. My mind was blown! I was planning to use the fries tomorrow and that is what I’m going to do, but honestly…F wrote her a note and told her that the only thing she can eat directly out of the freezer is ice cream. I’m sure she’ll forget again, but I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
F and I left the house and went over to Gusto. We had their select-a-meal again. It includes drink bar and the soup of the day plus we got to pick three dishes. I had spicy chicken, pepperoncino pasta and bacon, and a chicken and kale salad. It was really nice. F had a burger, curry and rice and some fried chicken.
We left the restaurant and came back to the house. At the house, I went upstairs and changed out of my nicer clothes and put on some house clothes. I did up the garbage in the bedroom first, leaving the bag for F to use too. I headed down to the kitchen to work there.
I did the usual garbage there and then discovered that there were some boxes of really old food. I just threw most of it out. It was either really disgusting or the foods were years out of date. I hope the gomi pick up will take the bags tomorrow.
F took the bags out to the station (Shh! Don’t tell anyone). I went upstairs and got ready to take a shower. I went downstairs again and showered and then came back to the room. I didn’t watch any TV tonight, but did watch quite a lot of YouTube. I haven’t watched much recently!
And that’s about it. It was quite a day and I never expected it to go the way it did. Hopefully the next couple of days won’t be too exciting. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….
