September 29, 2021

Wednesday - Hot and sunny

The first thing I remember from this morning is my alarm going off and my husband jumping out of bed and saying, “Oh, it’s eight o’clock! I’m late!” Yup, he usually gets up for work before I do. He said he made it just in time to work. He usually goes in a bit early!

I got up too, did a bit of news watching and tried to decide if I wanted to go on with my plans today. I wasn’t feeling great. I checked my temperature several times, it was normal, but I felt like I had a cold. In the end, I decided to go.

I got dressed and around 10 went downstairs, said goodbye to K who was watching TV in the living room and walked to the bus stop. As I’d left a little early, I was on time. I had to wait about ten minutes, but I prefer that to being forced to rush and worry about missing the bus. As usual, the bus was nearly empty and I got a seat in the back. 

Made it to the mall, I got off, checked my temperature at the store and it was still fine. I went over to the restaurant section and went to the pasta place for lunch. I had a soup carbonara for lunch and it was pretty good. After lunch, I went and did a little shopping throughout the mall. I got a new top at Aeon and then I checked out the craft store. I didn’t buy anything there. I was a tad tired, so I decided to wait for my friend. I sat on a bench and finished the book I was reading on my phone. 

She surprised me by finding me before I saw her!  We went for ice cream and then went for a drink in Doutor. Sadly for me, she had to leave to go back to her family after a while.

F sent me a text around 5 pm to say that he’d be late. I was a bit peckish, so I decided that I’d go to McDonald's and have a burger. I ended up having a burger set. It was fine, nothing too spectacular. Of course, ten minutes later I got a text from F saying that he had finished work and was on his way to the mall!

When F arrived, we grabbed my pants and shoes out of the car and went to the tailor in the mall. I got my new pants measured. Yay. After that, F wanted to eat something so we went to the food court and then F had dinner at an udon restaurant. I didn’t eat as I wasn’t hungry.

We picked up a bento at the grocery store and a few other things and then went back to the car. I should have bought a bunch of groceries, but I was tired and not feeling all that great in the mall.

We came back to the house and F and I put the food away. I headed upstairs and went to bed. I slept for three hours! I got up around 11:00 pm and just planned to write a short blog entry but I ended up writing the whole thing.

I’m hoping to take tomorrow easy, and just relax. I told F that we might have to get bentos for dinner and he seemed okay with that. That way of course he could get his fish if he likes. 

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

September 21, 2021

Tuesday - Cloudy but warm.

I got up this morning when my alarm went off. It was the earliest I had got up in almost a week! I watched the news and dozed a little too. There were some movies on that I wanted to watch, but I kept sleeping through them! Oh, dear. 

Finally, I roused myself and got dressed. I had decided not to have breakfast today, so I just had some tea instead. I went downstairs for lunch around 12 and brought it upstairs. I ate and then took my dishes back downstairs and washed them. 

I got dressed in my work clothes after I set up my computer and table. I went downstairs and while I was there decided that I really needed to change one of my clothing items. I had about 10 minutes before my class, so I was a little pressed for time, but I did make it. Whew.

Classes were fine today and all my students were there. And that’s all I’m going to say about that. After class, I did my paperwork and then F called to say he was on the way.

I went downstairs and got started on dinner. Tonight was simple, just fried mushrooms, salad and scrambled eggs. I added on a couple of cans of tuna and made some cucumber pickle. Most things got eaten, so that was good. 

After dinner, I did the dishes and cleaned up the stove a bit. It was pretty bad before I got there. I listened to a couple of podcasts while I was doing the dishes. 

I went upstairs when I finished, F came up later. We had a nice quiet night. I tried to help him with his computer. After a while, I went downstairs and took a shower and when I came back, F was fast asleep! He didn’t hear me come back in the room. I turned off the lights for him and watched Shameless. It is really getting close to the end I think. 

Anyway, I have to get to bed soon, I may have a long day tomorrow. I won’t be updating for a few days as I am going out of town and I’m not bringing my computer. Don’t miss me too much. I hope to be back on Sunday. 

Come back later if you like and hear all about my trip. Until next time….

September 20, 2021

Monday - Hot and Sunny

I got up around 10 this morning. F was already up and he’d made his mother something to eat. He’s a good son!

I relaxed upstairs this morning and then around 1 pm, I got F to take me out for brunch. I went to S-Mall again and had pasta at Pizza Hut Express. They were busy today, but I really had to wait a long time to be served and then they took so long to make my pasta that F went to find out what was happening. When it arrived, it was fairly good though, so that it was worth waiting for.

F and I went off to send my suitcase to the hotel. We did that and it didn’t cost quite as much as I thought it would. Yay!

F and I went to Komeda Coffee for coffee and a bit of downtime. I had the cake set and it was a new type of cake. It was chocolate and very nice. F just had decaf coffee, iced coffee that is. I had that too by the way. 

After we were relaxed enough, we went to the grocery store and I bought a few things for dinner and my lunch tomorrow and dinner tonight. F got a nice bento for himself and K and I put a few things together for myself. To be honest, I’m quite off bentos at the moment, so I didn’t have one. I bought some gratin and some fried chicken and stuck it in the fridge for later when we got back to the house. 

F and I came upstairs and after a while, he went off and discovered that his mother had taken her half of the food and eaten it! He had planned to eat with her. I was having a thing where I wasn’t ready to eat yet. 

I ate my dinner around 9 pm and then a bit after 10 I went downstairs and took a shower. At 11:00 I came upstairs and watched The Good Wife and checked my recordings for tomorrow morning. 

After that, the TV went off and I started to do things to get ready for the end of my day. I’ve charged up my earphones so I can go cordless on the train.

And that’s about it for me. Tomorrow I have to teach, pack my backpack and then cook dinner. I have to make F book my taxi for Wednesday too. I hope I haven’t forgotten anything major!

Come back later if you like and hear all about how my Tuesday goes. Until tomorrow….

September 19, 2021

Sunday - Sunny and warm

I slept in today as I was late going to bed again. It’s been really hard to get myself to bed at a reasonable time. Then again, I started a movie at 12:30 or so, so it was my own fault. 

I finally dragged myself out of bed around 11 and then stayed up. F made brunch for his mother and himself, to be fair, he did offer me some, but I turned him down. It was nice, but not what I wanted. 

I did a load of laundry in the morning. I don’t usually do laundry on weekends, but I need my clothes clean so that I can wear them on my trip! I hung them up in our room to dry.

I asked F to take me to Cocos for lunch and he obliged. However, when we got there, he realized that he didn’t have his wallet with him, so he made us go back. I suggested that I go in and get a table but he didn’t want me to do that. I could have paid, as I thought he wasn’t going to eat, but….

We went back to the restaurant and ordered. I had a mustard-cream sauce pork burger. It had some vegetables with it and a baked potato. It was really nice. F had a burger too, which surprised me as I thought he wouldn’t eat. I had the drink bar, which I made good use of. I liked it a lot. 

We did some shopping at a drugstore after lunch, then I asked F to take me to the station so that I could get his help with my ticket for Wednesday. Well, it turned out that I could do it all in English and managed to do it by myself! However, dear F paid for my ticket! He didn’t have to, but it was very sweet of him to do that!

We were heading back to the house when I suggested that we pick up a bento or something for K. F wanted to try a new-to-us place so we went there. He got K a bento. Happily, for me, there was a bagel shop in the same tiny complex. We went in and I was in heaven! They had bagels of all sorts and flavours, sweet ones and savoury ones and all looked gorgeous. F bought two for me, I got a Herbs de Provence one and a double berry macadamia nut one. 

We came back to the house and F gave K her bento. I put my bagels in the fridge for later. 

I came upstairs and after a bit, I got stuck in with packing. I’m hoping to send my suitcase on ahead because I don’t want to carry it on the trains. I packed quite a few changes of clothes as I’m going away for 4 days and I don’t know what I’ll need. I had dinner after that. I had my bagels with some of my usual lunch stuff. The bagels were amazing! I wish I had bought more. 

When I sat down at my computer again, I watched some Apple TV. I watched an episode of Trying, Ted Lasso and then I put on Come From Away. I couldn’t watch all of it tonight, but I watched the first hour and it was amazing. I was laughing and crying, and remembering my time in Newfoundland. I could never understand some of the people there, but the play managed to show the kindness of the people there. I hope I’ll have time to watch the rest tomorrow. I did some crochet and worked on darning in the ends of the scarf. 

That’s about it for me. Tomorrow is a national holiday so F is off work again. He’s still not well, but he is beginning to eat a little more. I’m not sure if he’s being smart about it though.

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

September 18, 2021

Saturday - Rainy and cloudy

I went to bed a bit late last night, woke up quite early. The next time I woke up F was gone. I got up, dressed and then watched a bit of YouTube. F called to say he was finished at the doctor's and would come back soon. 

When he came back, we talked about going for lunch. He wanted one of his fish restaurants, which I was fine with. Then I suggested our favourite Arpeggio and F decided it was fine. We went out to the restaurant. I had the bacon-donburi and F had the gindara set meal. He got a huge piece of fish that looked nice. We enjoyed our meal, but F wasn’t feeling great at the end so we came back to the house.

At the house, he went to bed and I was on my computer for a while before taking a two-hour nap. When I got up a friend started texting me about a trip we’ve been planning for a while. Over the next few hours, we planned our meetup and booked our hotel. Woot! 

F woke up around 7:30 and I reminded him that we needed to get something to eat for his mother (and me!) We drove over to MaxValu and picked up a few things to eat. We got some things for F that he might be able to eat if he feels like it tomorrow. He’s really not feeling like eating food at the moment. When we came back to the house, F gave his mother her food and I heated up mine and took it upstairs to eat. I booked my hotel then and took a shower.

I watched a little TV and then a movie. After that, it was time for blogging. And, here we are!

So, I really am not sure what I’ll get up to on Sunday. F is still very under the weather. I hope the medicine that the doctor gave him will kick in soon. Sadly, a lot of this week has been me hanging around the house waiting to see how F is. I feel bad for him, but I’m going to have to get ready for my trip soon, whether he’s feeling well or not. 

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

September 17, 2021

Friday - Cloudy and warm

I woke up at my usual time this morning, but went back to sleep for a couple more hours! When I did get up, I did a load of laundry and hung it up, and had breakfast too. 

I had tried to persuade F to go to the doctor but he wouldn’t go. He still isn’t feeling well. He spent a lot of time in bed today and didn’t really eat very much. I think he had some noodles before bed last night, not too much today either.

Around 2:30 I asked that we go somewhere so that I could have some lunch. We ended up at S-Mall so I went to Pizza Hut Express and had some pasta and a mini pizza with a drink. It was a reasonable set and I enjoyed it. When I finished it, I had an ice cream too! That was nice.

We went back to the house after I ate. F wasn’t up to any shopping. We spent a couple of hours at the house, then F went to get his mother a bento. While he did that, I got dressed. 

Tonight I wore a pair of grey leggings plus a dark grey dress. I took along the shawl that I made myself a couple of years ago again, I think it looked good. 

F got dressed and called us a taxi. We got to the restaurant right on time and were shown to our table. They had it set up with barriers between us, but when they realized that we were together, they took it down.

As we were first seated, we got a couple of visitors. The restaurant is part of a big company of restaurants and ceremony halls in Tsuruoka, specifically, the company that did our wedding. Two of the people that helped us with our wedding came to say hello and to thank us for visiting one of their restaurants for our special celebration. They comped us a small bottle of sparkling wine and wished us a good evening. It was lovely to see them, the woman, in particular, was very helpful with wedding things for me. 

We had a lovely meal, we had a lot of fish, some vegetables and finally a little bit of roast beef. Our sparkling wine was nice and when we finished it up, F had a beer and I had an umeshu. We had dessert, a very nice matcha pudding. I’m not a matcha fan, but this was good.  Then, the server brought out another tray. This one had two extra desserts on it for us! It was fruit and ice cream, and there was a congratulatory message around the plate too. It was so nice!

Some grilled fish, tempura, and soba.

Sashimi

Grilled Gindara with veggies

Tempura and deep-fried fish bones

Roast beef with rice, miso soup and pickles

Matcha pudding with roasted green tea

Our extra dessert-fruit and ice cream. Very nice!

We came back to the house by taxi and had a quiet evening in. F probably would have gone elsewhere if I’d wanted, but I’m too worried about him to want to add to his problems. 

It was a decent day. I did tell F in the morning that I found our anniversary rather underwhelming. I know he didn’t ask to be sick, but every time I suggest that he go to the doctor he comes up with a reason why he won’t. I think I’ll have to insist that he goes if he’s still feeling unwell tomorrow. 

There’s a new movie in the cinema, the reviews aren’t great, but it’s a new movie! It all depends if F is feeling any better. I’m hoping that tomorrow will be a good day and that we do get to go out and about a bit. It basically depends on how F feels. 

So that’s it. Come back later if you like and hear about Saturday. Until tomorrow…. 

September 16, 2021

Thursday - Warm and sunny

Well, today was supposed to be a great day. It was the second of our anniversary days and 20 years together doesn’t come along every day. It was supposed to be.

Last night before a very late bed, F started saying he was cold. He put on a blanket, I gave him mine as well. He put a quilt on himself too. It was 27 degrees in the room and I was sitting around in a tank top. He was also just feeling bad.

In the morning he went to the clinic and had a test. It was negative happily, but he’s been sick all day with one thing and another. All day.

I had breakfast here and then around 3 pm, we went out for sushi for a late lunch. Unfortunately, F couldn’t eat his and then I had to eat it. Luckily it was stuff that I liked too, but it was annoying. 

We came back to the house and relaxed again. I did stuff on my computer, F tried to rest. 

Later in the day, we went out to the drugstore and then the supermarket. I needed to get something for my dinner since F was in no state to go out for dinner. I know that he wasn’t trying to get sick and he didn’t want to, but it’s been such a depressing day. It hasn’t been a very good anniversary for us!

Around 9:30 I ate my bento which was okay, and then I took a shower around 11. I’m trying to be sage about the day, but it is really hard. I just wanted this anniversary to be special because it is quite a big number. And, it’s basically sucked. F will likely have to take tomorrow off work as he still isn’t feeling well. We’re not sure if the big dinner tomorrow night will go ahead or not. 

That’s it for me. Not sure what will happen tomorrow. I really should try and do some laundry. Oh, I haven’t had too many side effects today from my vaccination. I have a small bruise where I was injected, my arm ached a bit earlier in the day, but is pretty good now. It hasn’t been as bad as I was expecting, at least so far!

Come back later if you will and hear all about my day. If by chance we do go for dinner tomorrow night, I may not be able to update, so don’t miss me too much. Until tomorrow….

September 15, 2021

Wednesday - Hot and sunny

Today had an early start. I had to be at the doctor’s clinic at 8:30 so I dragged myself out of bed around 7:45 or so. I got dressed and then F and I left the house.

Things at the doctor’s office went fairly swimmingly and I was able to get my vaccination. I also got some medicine from the doctor in case I had pain or a fever later on in the day. We had to pick up the prescription and then we were free. 

We had breakfast at Gusto and it was quite nice. I enjoyed it and I think F did too. At breakfast, I noticed that my watch had stopped and wondered where I could get a replacement battery. Our usual place has sadly gone under and closed. F found a place on the net but when we went there it was closed on Wednesdays. We found another on Ginza-dori and got a new battery for my watch. I’m glad, but the woman that worked there wasn’t masked and I find that to be rather careless. F and I were masked so we’re probably okay, but still. 

F wanted to go to the beach but I pointed out that I didn’t bring a hat, parasol or my sandals with me. It was getting on for the hottest part of the day. He switched gears and suggested going to the Kamo Aquarium instead. Since I had been thinking of doing that too, I agreed. We drove out to the aquarium and went in. It was lovely and quiet for a change, but people still weren’t social distancing. Annoying. Usually, I love looking at the octopuses, but today they were sleeping. The coolest thing was watching a crab trying to get into a seashell to eat the creature inside. It was amazing the patience it had. 

After the aquarium, we ended up going to the Aeon Mall in Mikawa. We got tickets to see Free Guy again and then had our lunch. We both had bibinba and it was nice. Mine was really good as the bowl was very hot and made the rice nice and crisp.

Seeing Free Guy again was fun. I saw things in the film that I didn’t see the first time and I think I enjoyed it just as much. 

After the movie, we did a little shopping over in Aeon. We got some new socks and I looked at yarn but didn’t buy any. 

We came back to Tsuruoka and bought some groceries in a place we rarely go to. We bought bentos for all of us. I told F that I didn’t want to eat right away, I would like to take a nap and then I’d probably have my bento later.

When we got back to the house, I went upstairs and F gave his mother her bento. I spent a few minutes at my computer and then took a nap. I woke up about 3 hours later!

I did the garbage up for the room upstairs and then went downstairs and did the same down there. I threw out some of the food that K didn’t eat over the last couple of days and got the kitchen garbage sorted out. 

I heated up my bento and then came upstairs and watched Grey’s Anatomy while I ate. It’s been interesting watching how the staff are coping with the pandemic. I did take some of the medicine from the doctor as my shoulder was quite painful. It seemed to help. 

Later on, I watched some of the news from the day and then Hellboy came on so I watched that too. F went to bed but isn’t feeling well now. He was complaining about being cold and now his stomach is acting up, so he isn’t sleeping. I feel sorry for him. These are his days off too. I wanted him to enjoy himself. 

I’m not sure what we’ll get up to on Thursday as we haven’t made any plans but it is the second of our anniversaries so I hope we are able to spend it together and enjoyably. 

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

September 14, 2021

Tuesday - Warm and Sunny

I woke up early this morning, around 6 am. F and I played Toilet Tag for a minute or two and then we both went back to bed. I didn’t wake up when F left for work and woke up a little later than I wanted.

However, I woke up and then watched some of the news. I channel surfed and discovered that Primal Fear was on. I quite like the film, it has Edward Norton, Richard Gere and my birthday twin Laura Linney in it, so I watched and snoozed through it. 

I got moving finally and decided rather than having a whole breakfast and then eating again in an hour, I would just have half of a breakfast. My latest yogurt has an extra 50 grammes of yogurt in it, so I decided to make that my breakfast. I had it with a bit of cereal and it was just the right amount to have.

I watched Elementary and checked out the internet, then I grabbed my lunch. It was quite small today so no big deal. I ate lunch and watched the early in the morning news. After 1 I started to get ready for my classes. I set up the table and my computer, I moved the books over, I brushed my teeth, I did all the kinds of things that one should to get ready for work. For a couple of hours, I was busy teaching. Yay me.

After my class, I did up my paperwork and checked that I have enough stuff prepared for next week too. I do. 

F called me around 5:30 and said he was on his way back. I reminded him that we needed kerosene and he should take some fruit to his sister’s house. He called me back a few minutes later and he said that he had bought some asparagus from a coworker today. Yum.  

I went down to the kitchen and got started on dinner. It took a while, mostly because I didn’t want to cook too much until F was back at the house, and he didn’t get back until nearly 7pm. Today we had cucumber salad/pickle, sautéed mushrooms, salad, sautéed pork, and stir-fried asparagus. Everything turned out quite well and F and K also had some rice with their meal. 

I did the dishes which sadly took forever tonight as there were a lot of dishes that needed doing. Still, they got done. When F asked if I wanted to go out tonight I told him I did. I suggested going for a coffee since we haven’t done that in a while at night. 

We went to Komeda Coffee and had the dessert set. F had his with decaf coffee and I had mine with tea. I normally have decaf coffee, but wanted to be different for a change!

We came back to the house and K was up again. She had lights on in the living room. F spent some time with her but didn’t say what was going on. 

I watched tonight’s Shameless. It must be very close to the end of the series as people are starting to move. It was a good episode, however. I also gave F the tiny present I gave him. I got it at Daiso, so it wasn’t an expensive one. I think he was surprised as he hadn’t got me anything. Then again, I did look at more expensive things for him but didn’t buy them as we were still half-fighting on Saturday. 

And that brings me back to where I am now. It’s late and I have to be up early tomorrow to get my second vaccination. I will be quite happy to get this shot. I hope my side effects won’t be too bad, fingers crossed. It’s a bit sad having my shot in between our anniversaries, but that is how the timing worked out.

Today was the day that F and I actually did the paperwork at City Hall twenty years ago, so it’s our anniversary! Wahoo!

I’ll hopefully write tomorrow and fill you in on the details, but if I’m having major side effects, I might just go to bed. Don’t wait up for me! Until tomorrow….

September 13, 2021

Monday - Warm and sunny

Today was an odd day! It was good, but started and ended with unplanned things!

I got up when my alarm rang, or a few minutes later. I was tired as I had gone to bed later than usual last night. I came back to the room to do my habitual news watching. I watched until it finished and then tried to watch the earlier news that I had recorded. After the BBC news finished, they put on German news or something so I fast forwarded the DVR. Unfortunately, I fell asleep again around then and woke up when the DVR reset itself and baseball blared out of the TV. I napped a bit longer and turned off my alarms when they rang. I was quite asleep when I started hearing voices. It seems that I somehow managed to start a video chat with a friend in Canada! I hadn’t talked to her in ages, and she had guests so it was more of a “Hi, Bye, and sorry to have interrupted you!” kind of thing. I had to wake up properly then!

I dressed and went downstairs to grab breakfast. I got my food and then came back upstairs to eat. I basically had a quiet day. I watched The Running Man in the morning, had lunch in the afternoon and watched my weekend kid’s programmes that I record. I watched the news and did some of my online stuff. I also had a quick review of my classes for tomorrow. I hope they got well. 

I went down to begin dinner when F called. Tonight I did garlic shrimp with some cucumber pickle stuff, salad, and some spinach. That was from the store, frozen, I just had to microwave it!  F and K had rice with theirs, I skipped that.

After dinner I did the dishes. It wasn’t a very complicated dinner, so it wasn’t too bad. I made up some more tea for tomorrow’s dinner and then listened to a couple of podcasts, so the time went by easily. 

I went upstairs after I finished and relaxed a bit. I wrote some email and caught up on Facebook. A little after 10 I went downstairs to take a shower. I undressed, got in the shower and…there was no hot water! Yikes. I tried to phone F but he didn’t hear the phone, so I went upstairs in my robe and asked him if he’d put kerosene in the water heater’s tank lately. He hadn’t. Unfortunately we didn’t have very much kerosene on hand, but there was enough so that I could take my shower. Yay! No cold showers for me.

I came upstairs and watched The Good Wife and did a few rows of crochet during it. It was odd to see Jeffrey Dean Morgan in it as a probably good guy! I’m so used to seeing him as the bad guy Neegan on The Walking Dead that it gives me shivers!

So that’s it for my day. Tomorrow I hope to have two good classes and I have to cook dinner. And…it’s our twentieth anniversary! We have two days we celebrate, tomorrow is the first. 

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

September 12, 2021

 Sunday - Hot and Sunny, gorgeous day

I went to bed quite late last night and so getting up this morning was quite difficult. F tried to wake me up before my alarm, but I’m afraid I wasn’t having any of it! When my alarm did go off, I got up and got dressed. We left the house somewhere around 10:30 and first off went to F’s sister’s house. We dropped off some veggies from his aunt and then went off to Yuza.  We drove past the place that sells nashi and went to a cafe that a friend had told me about. 

The cafe was lovely. It was in an old house. We had to pay first and then were able to choose a couple of O-Yaki. As we had the lunch special, we had a great salad, the O-Yaki and a drink.  We sat on the engawa, which is rather like a porch or veranda, under a tarp so we were out of the sun. There was a lovely breeze so it was cool. The food was great and we were able to relax and enjoy ourselves and our lunch.

I had hoji-cha, salad and a curry and an old chicken O-Yaki. (Old Chicken just means that it wasn't 
tender chicken, it was a little tough.)

After we finished lunch, we went to the nashi farm that we had passed earlier. Sadly, they had sold out (and it was barely 2 pm.) Fortunately, we drove a little further down the road and another place had some on sale.

After a quick stop in a drugstore, we drove to Asahi Village. Just to let you know, Asahi is in the complete opposite direction to Yuza! We drove there as F wanted to check out some places he needs to drive to for work. We found this very cool clock tower in one place. Sadly, the clock wasn't working, but maybe we were just there at the wrong time!

We ended up at a temple, Dainichibou Ryusui-Ji. We went in, I thought we’d just do a quick tour of the temple and F would ask if anyone knew where his place was. Well, that’s not what happened!  It was a beautiful temple. We were invited to sit down and a that a priest would be with us soon. He came and prayed over us for 10 minutes or so. He shook some kind of duster on a stick over us and then we were allowed to sit on stools and the priest talked at us for a few minutes.  Then, another priest took over and took us to another room.

In the other room, there was a mummy. Yamagata-ken has quite a few mummies: priests that have chosen to become living buddhas to help other people reach Nirvana. That priest allowed us to sit on stools but spent about 20 minutes or more talking at us again. My butt was getting really sore from the stool and I was more than a little bored! F bought a couple of things from the priest, one of which was an omamori which he gave to me. I didn’t want it! I found out later that inside the omamori there is a piece from the mummy’s clothing. Apparently, they change his clothing every 6 years and the piece of clothing is going to protect me. I just hope Customs doesn’t ask me what it is!

We took a few pictures outside the temple and then went back to the car. I was really glad to get off the stools! 

A fountain, normally for hand washing and mouth rinsing, but not these days.

The view looking down at the Temple Gate.

The view from the temple gate looking up at the temple.

Looking up at the roof of the gate. It was thatched and I believe it was made without nails, at least, I couldn't see any.

We stopped at a road stop after a while. We had an ice cream cone each which was very delicious. We walked over behind the buildings to see the waterfall and just to stretch our legs. It was gorgeous there and we were mostly by ourselves!

We came back to Tsuruoka and bought a bento and some groceries for the next couple of days. The bento was for K’s dinner. F suggested going for yakiniku buffet. I was okay with it, but it is expensive and the place isn’t always that good. It is also really easy for the two of us to overeat there. F’s tolerance for meat isn’t that great so not a good idea. 

We bought our groceries and then came back to the house. We gave K her bento, I put the groceries away and put some stuff away upstairs. Then F and I had a little chat about where to go for dinner. He decided not to have yakiniku buffet, but to go to a place near the station and Foodever. I said it was a good idea, if the yakiniku restaurant was busy or full, we could just go to Foodever.

The restaurant wasn’t terribly busy so we were able to get a seat. We had a set plate of meat and added some veggies to grill and a kimchi assortment plate, plus some oolong tea for both of us. Our final bill came to a little less than the cost of the buffet for both of us and was really good quality, so we did well I think.

We kind of wanted dessert afterwards, but didn’t want to stay where we were. I suggested going to McDonald's as we could hit up the grocery store afterwards. Yes, we already bought groceries, but we forgot to get milk! I remembered it after we went through the checkout at the other store.

We went to McDonald's and I was hoping to have a flurry but they didn’t have ice cream tonight. Boo! I had their Tsukino pie, it has anko and mochi in it, so I wasn’t a huge fan. It was okay, but not great. F and I sat there for a bit and then left. We couldn’t get the wifi to work.

We picked up some milk and some rice and a few other things at the grocery store and then came back to the house. We had a quiet but companionable evening. 

This is going to be a busy week. I have class on Tuesday, I’m getting my second vaccination on Wednesday morning and F and I will celebrate our 20th anniversary this week too. We’ll probably go out for dinner on Friday (unless he really did cancel our reservation) and I’m not planning to cook on either Wednesday or Thursday. I’m not sure what kind of reaction I’ll have to my shot. Some of my friends have had not great ones. 

Anyway, that’s it for today. Come back later if you like and hear about my Monday. Until tomorrow….

September 11, 2021

Saturday - Hot and muggy

I woke up around my usual time, or a bit later this morning. I went downstairs and then went back to sleep. F was studiously not talking to me, so didn’t see much point in getting up.

I got up a lot later and got dressed. I waited for F to offer to take me somewhere for my lunch but he didn’t. Fine. Finally, around 2 pm I asked F if he would take me somewhere for my lunch. He agreed to do that. He took so long that I didn’t want to go to my first choice (I was thinking yummy Indian food, but they closed at 3). I then decided to go to Gusto. He drove me over and gave me some money, so yay for that! I went in and had a fairly decent meal. I read a book on my phone while I was there and I had drink bar so I was quite happy. 

When I left Gusto I went across the road and went to the new Seria. It’s another hundred yen shop and they opened a gorgeous new store in an old drugstore. It was very nice. I toured the store and only bought a couple of things. 

I texted F when I finished and asked him to pick me up and take me to S-Mall. He had told me he was going to get a massage at 5:15. I told him that I would let him know before he had to leave for his appointment. He said okay and a few minutes later called me and asked me to pick up a face towel for him. 

He drove me to S-Mall and we went in. He went one way and I went another.  I spent a few minutes looking for something for F for an anniversary present, but I decided not to get anything! I’m sure that he won’t get me a present, he always forgets!

I hacked around the shops, I spent a bit of money and enjoyed myself a lot! I didn’t buy a lot of stuff and I noticed that the grocery store was having their Costco fair again AND they were selling my favourite cheese there. The favourite cheese that I am running out of, so I marked it for later.

I went to the coffee shop (Doutor) and had a glass of rooibos tea. After a bit, a much more cheerful F called me. He joined me at the coffee shop and we both had a glass of decaf iced coffee. F was actually rather nice at this stage. We went to the grocery shop together to get my cheese and to see if there was anything else we wanted. We hoped there would be a bento for K but they were sold out. 

We bought the stuff we had picked up and took it to the car. F decided that we’d all get bentos and he ordered them in the car. We then drove over to the bento shop and picked them up. 

We came back to the house and ate. I had picked a pork cutlet with curry and it was okay. F had a tempura bento and he said it was good. K was eating when we arrived so she only ate part of her bento and then it got put in the fridge for tomorrow.

I did the dishes because no one else moved to do them and then went upstairs. F came up a little later and we had a quiet evening. I took a shower and we even used the air conditioner to dry the room out. It is quite hot and humid today. 

I’ve been doing the YouTube thing too, I watched a lot of different stuff and I’ve enjoyed it all.

Tomorrow, F wants to go early and pick up some nashi and maybe do some driving to other places, I’m not sure. It’s nice that he’s talking to me and not giving me the silent treatment, but he’s so mercurial. I thought it was me that was like that, but he takes it a bit far. 

It’s hard to believe that it has been 20 years since 9/11. I remember being in a soba shop in Otaru when I first saw the video. I was sitting far away from the TV and I didn’t really know what was going on. The next day I was off to Tsuruoka to see F and get married. We were due to leave for Canada on Sept 18th and we weren’t even sure if we could leave Japan as all international flights had been grounded. I am almost glad that my sister had thrown a snit fit and refused to come over, she would have been stuck in Vancouver airport most likely with my 4-year-old niece. 

Anyway, that’s it for me for tonight. Come back later if you like and hear all about my Sunday. Until tomorrow….

September 10, 2021

 Friday - Sunny and warmer 

I was upset with F last night so I got tired. I don’t know why I get tired when I’m emotional, but I do. I went to bed fairly early for me. 

This morning, F woke me up of course. He didn’t try to wake me up, he just did. He does this thing where he walks on the bed. I don’t know why. He was making all sorts of feeling sorry for himself noises before he finally left. I got up, went downstairs and then came back to bed and snoozed for a little longer. 

I watched the news and after a few minutes, I got up!  Yes, you saw that correctly. I went downstairs and did a load of laundry. While it was washing, I took down the old load and even folded it up and put it away. I was surprised at myself!

I got really tired, so I tried to take a nap, but didn’t fall asleep. I tried and I think it helped a bit.

After lunch I watched some YouTube, some Apple TV and then I put on The Walking Dead. Ooh, it was a good one today. Rick and Neegan had a huge fight, and Maggie got an interesting visitor at The Hilltop. It was quite intriguing. I now have to wait for two weeks as TWD is off this week. Sigh. 

Of course, F didn’t call me tonight, so I went downstairs and got an early start on dinner. I decided that I would make dinner for K and I. I just decided to do a simple one. We had pasta with salad and a little bit of okra. I hadn’t bought a protein to serve with the pasta last night, so I opened a can of tuna and drained that. It was really good and I may have to do that again sometime! 

F came back just as I was about to serve dinner and hid himself in the washroom. I did offer him some of the dinner but he turned me down. 

After dinner, I did the dishes and listened to a couple of podcasts. One was by an old friend from high school and this episode was about Death Doulas. It was really interesting.

I came upstairs when I finished and shut myself in my part of the room. I spent time on my computer. Somewhere after 10 pm, I decided to go out for a few minutes. I got dressed and left the room. F did ask me where I was going and I just said out. 

I walked to the local Temple in honour of my mother and father. Tomorrow was Mum’s birthday and at the end of last month was the anniversary of when my father died. I wanted to say hello! On the way back, I hit up a vending machine and bought a couple of drinks. I gave F one of them and said it was a peace offering.

And that’s about it for me. I’ve watched a lot of YouTube tonight and overall had a really quiet day. I have no idea what will happen this weekend, so stay tuned. Come back later if you like and hear all about my Saturday. Until tomorrow…. 

September 9, 2021

Thursday - Sunny and warm

I woke up early and made a trip downstairs, so I didn’t get up at my usual time today. Oh dear. I got up a bit late and then did my usual snooze and watch the news thing. I did get dressed fairly early but that was no big deal. When I got up for real, I did a load of laundry and then hung it up while I watched Elementary. I missed a lot of the last season so it is nice that I’m able to watch it again.

I had a quiet morning as usual. I watched some YouTube and some real TV, in the afternoon while I ate lunch I put on Shameless and watched it. I’ve stopped watching it on Tuesday nights as it is a show that F doesn’t get at all. I’d rather watch it by myself anyway. I followed that up with an episode of The Walking Dead. It was a good one that really moved some of the plot along. 

When F called to say he was finished work, I went downstairs and started on dinner. Tonight was an easy one, sort of. I did chicken nuggets and hash brown patties. We had a salad with it and I put some cucumber in it, as well as there being a punnet of mini tomatoes for K. She devours those, I can’t eat them because of my sensitivity to them. I also found a new recipe for okra, a baked one. I followed the recipe and after ten minutes they looked great. However, I stupidly decided to give them two more minutes in the toaster oven and they burned. Wah! I tried to take out the charcoal ones, but the others weren’t too bad. They were quite dry and non-slimy which was good. 

As usual, I did the dishes, but tonight it wasn’t a big hardship as there just weren’t that many. I got them done quickly and went upstairs.

F wanted to leave for the shop almost immediately. I asked for a few more minutes. I’d been on my feet for the last couple of hours, I just wanted a little bit of peace. But, it was not to be. 

Before dinner, I had asked F what he wanted for dinner tomorrow and he suggested using my pasta to make a type of yakisoba. I suggested just doing yakisoba, so that’s what we agreed on. 

We went to the shop and started to gather the ingredients plus the other shopping I needed to do. F got a real bee in his bonnet about having that red ginger stuff for the yakisoba. I told him it was fine for him and his mother, but I don’t like it. He told me that it was good in yakisoba (not in my opinion) and that he should make me eat it. I told him that telling me that he was going to make me do something was really bad and I wouldn’t. I pointed out that I didn’t like that ginger stuff at all. I never have. I’ve tried it of course, but I don’t like it at all. So then, he started to put all the ingredients and all of the rest of the food back. Seriously. He put back the meat, the ginger, the noodles and then started to put back the stuff that I wanted for dinner on the side. When I objected and asked him what he was doing he dropped the basket and announced that he was leaving. 

I put the few items that were in the basket for him back on the shelves. I got a couple of other things for me and kept the breakfast thing for K and went through the checkout. 

When I got to the door, the car was still there, but F was nowhere in sight. I checked to see if the car was still locked and it was. I hung around outside the store waiting to see where he was. Knowing him, he could have gone over to the coffee shop, or he could just be hiding somewhere. 

I saw him about ten minutes later going back into the store. I followed him and yelled at him that I was ready to leave and that I had put his stuff back. Okay, I didn’t yell, I was in public after all. 

I got in the car, but then he coughed a bit and went to a vending machine for a drink. He came back in the car and sneezed a few times. As we drove back to his house he announced that he was going to cancel our big dinner next week. I didn’t say anything. I was expecting him to say that. I’ve been reading my blog about all of the crap that he’s put me through in September through the years and all the dumb things he has done and it doesn’t matter. If he cancels it I’m sure he’ll feel sorry about it and if he doesn’t I’m sure we’ll have a nice time. 

I put my groceries away and then I came upstairs. After F came upstairs, I went downstairs and took a shower. Just as I was about to go upstairs, he came downstairs to the kitchen. I’m sure he made himself a second dinner. He has been doing that a lot lately. 

So, that’s it for me. I might be making dinner for my MIL and myself tomorrow, or maybe just for myself. Or, maybe I’ll run off and join the circus. I’ll most likely be here tomorrow night, although I have been pricing hotels in other cities so you just never know!

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

September 8, 2021

 Wednesday - Rainy and cold

I went to bed a bit late last night so getting up this morning was a bit of a hardship. I did manage to do it, however. I watched the news, snoozed, etc for a bit, but when I got up, I did a load of laundry. Yay me.

Elementary was on this morning, so I watched and enjoyed that. I had a very quiet morning and early afternoon too. 

I watched some YouTube and then went downstairs to get my lunch. I came back upstairs and ate. After 10 minutes, I realized I had left something in the microwave, so I had to run down and get it! I put on a movie that was on my DVR and watched it. I stopped it for the news but finished it after the news was done. 

After F called me, I went downstairs and got a start on dinner.  I made a cucumber salad and then got started cooking the sausages and making pancakes. K went to bed in the midst of me cooking and F was hiding upstairs. I asked him to come and help me but he took about 10 minutes to come down. I had done all the jobs before he arrived. I had also made coffee as I thought it would balance the sweetness of the pancakes and syrup. I think it was a good idea. I cooked all of the pancake mix, but there are probably half of the pancakes left. I’m sure that K will sneak a few in the morning and that’s just fine! I might do that myself!

I did the dishes and finished listening to The Scarlet Pimpernel. I loved it, but for the last three or four chapters, there was a character that they spoke about in a very derogatory way. I know it is an old book, but it quite threw me when I first heard it. I’m not sure that I noticed it when I first read the story, I was a lot younger and we weren’t as politically correct in those days. 

I came upstairs and had a little chat with F. He was deep in YouTube. I watched some for a bit and then put on Grey’s Anatomy. It was good.

And basically, that was my day. It has been quite cold today. I’m actually wearing a sweater at the moment as the room is cold. It’s 19 degrees outside and not much warmer inside. 

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