October 5, 2022

 Wednesday - Cold, rainy and dark

I finally slept until my alarm this morning. Yay for that! I woke up, got up and then came back to the room. I watched the news and then took a bit of a nap. I woke up quite late for a change. Oh, dear.

I was planning to do laundry but discovered that dear F had done a load of laundry this morning. He hadn’t taken it out obviously as he was at work. I took it up and brought it upstairs and hung it up for him. I is nice! I found 2 pens and two mechanical pencils in the bottom of the washing machine. He also washed his eyedrops. Eye roll. Why doesn’t he just empty his pockets before he puts his clothes in the washing machine?

I had a quiet day. I didn’t see too much of K today. I had breakfast and later lunch. Of course, I put on another episode of Bake-Off while I ate.

I watched the news and today I did a little bit of packing. I found my shoes and put them in the suitcase, along with my makeup and a couple of dresses. Obviously, I have to put some more practical things in my suitcase!  I need to take it to Takyubin on Monday, so I had better hurry up and get it packed.

F called at 5:30 and I went downstairs to start dinner. Tonight I did air-fried chicken, salad, bibinba rice, and mini-tomatoes. We also had potato soup too. Dinner was pretty good and most of it got eaten. I did manage to put aside a little for K’s lunch though.

I did the dishes and listened to more of the podcast from yesterday. I liked it, just don’t know if I’ll listen to it regularly.

When I finished the dishes I did up the garbage to go out tomorrow. It took a bit of time and I did a little cleaning of the drain as well. So much fun.

I went upstairs and relaxed for a bit. I did let F know that I was going upstairs tonight. Around 10:30 I went downstairs again and took a shower. I needed it!

I came back upstairs again and I was cold!  It’s under 20 degrees in our room at the moment. That’s cold, especially after this summer. I added an extra blanket to my bed for tonight.  

I watched the end of the season Grey’s Anatomy and then I turned off the TV. Next week, The Walking Dead is back. Yay?!

F is in bed, he’s tired and not feeling too great. The bad weather isn’t good for his back or knees.

Tomorrow I’m cooking again and I have to do more packing and hopefully, I can get some laundry done. I really need to have some clean clothes with me!

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

September 30, 2022

Friday - Hot and sunny

I got up this morning when my alarm went off. I was a bit surprised that I woke up. I went downstairs, then watched the news. I tried taking a nap afterwards but woke up a little early. I went downstairs and did a couple of loads of laundry. I washed a dress of mine that I will probably take to the convention in a couple of weeks. 

I had a reasonably quiet day. When I grabbed my breakfast, I put most of the leftover stew in a small bowl for K and put her chopsticks on it so she knew it was for her. I also put some rice on the table for her to have a decent meal.

I had a late lunch today. I was trying to print something out and I needed to refill some of the ink on my printer. It ended up taking longer than I expected.

Lunch was fine. I finished up my couscous from yesterday and had the last little bit of the stew with some sriracha. That made it better.  Of course, I watched another episode of Bake-Off during lunch before the news came on. 

F called a little late tonight, but since I was planning to do pasta I knew it wouldn’t take long. I went downstairs and got started on dinner. F came back and I told him that dinner would be soon. I had already sliced up a duck breast, put the plates on the table and set a few things out on the table.  After I boiled the pasta I called F down and he came fairly soon. Hurray. 

Dinner was quite good. We had pasta, salad and duck breast. There were leftovers though. Oh well.

I did the dishes and listened to a few podcasts at the same time. When I finished I went upstairs and relaxed. F came upstairs after 10 pm and I went downstairs and took a shower. It is really hard to remember that I only need a little shampoo at the moment!

I came back upstairs and watched something off the DVR and then turned off the TV. I didn’t want to be noisy this late in case it bothers F. He’s in bed and was sleeping for a while, but has woken up.

I have no idea what we’re going to get up to tomorrow. F hasn’t made any plans at all for the weekends. I found that there is a craft fair out at Matsugaoka, so we might go there, but I’m not really sure if I’m honest. Walking around can be difficult for F and I’m not really sure if I want to spend money just now!

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

September 29, 2022

Thursday - Sunny and warm

I woke up this morning when my phone rang. I was sound asleep….I had forgotten to set my alarms last night and I overslept by an hour! Yikes. I got up and dressed, F was coming to the house for a bit. He brought me some goodies so it was nice to see him.  I made him some coffee and a little later he had to leave.

I grabbed my breakfast and ate, I watched the news from early-early on.  I watched a bit off the Fire Stick and soon enough it was time for lunch! I grabbed my lunch and then came upstairs and watched some Bake-Off and The Tick. I enjoyed them both. 

I watched the news at 4 pm and then when it was over I crocheted a little. I watched a video and crocheted a little yellow maple leaf. It was quite cute. I should try and make a few more. 

F called to say that he was on the way back to the house. I went downstairs and got started on dinner. Dinner wasn’t too difficult tonight. I was just reheating last night’s stew. I put out a new salad and a bowl of potato salad too. I cut up some nashi as well for dessert. Dinner was pretty good actually. I served the stew with some sauces so that we could add some flavour to the stew. I liked Harissa, that was good. 

After dinner, I did the dishes and then went upstairs and changed my clothes. F got ready to go out too and we drove over to Mina. We did some grocery shopping and then I checked out the drugstore. Unfortunately, the one near the grocery store didn’t have what I wanted. I asked F if we could go to the other one, just up the street and he obliged me. We picked up a few things there and then came back to the house. I put the groceries away and then came upstairs.

I watched some more stuff off the Fire Stick, primarily an episode of The Boys. It was as brutal as ever but quite funny in places!

And that’s about it for the day. It turned out okay. I have already set my alarms for tomorrow so I hopefully won’t oversleep again. I’m doing pasta for dinner, and I need to do a lot of laundry too. Come back later if you like and read about my day. Until tomorrow….

September 28, 2022

Wednesday - Sunny and warm

I woke up this morning a few minutes before my alarm went off. I went downstairs and then came back up to watch the news. I got dressed and watched from the bed. 

I went downstairs around 10 am. I did a load of laundry, I did towels, so that was good. Towels are a necessity after all. 

I hung up the towels and watched an episode of The Tick. I wanted something funny and light. I watched the next one too, but I was watching from the bed and I ended up falling asleep on it! I got up later and rewatched the episode!

I got my lunch, ate and watched the first episode of Bake Off season 4. I’ve actually seen the fourth season, that was when I started watching Bake-off. I’m still going to watch it again.

After the news and talking to F on the phone, I went downstairs and got started on dinner. I was making a pork stew tonight, I bought the ingredients last night. I was a bit surprised in the shop last night. I bought a stew roux box and they asked you to add two onions…no prob….then some buna shimeji mushrooms...yum…and some cabbage. Huh?  I’ve never put cabbage in a stew. I don’t think it is wrong, but I was thinking of other things to put in it…no carrots or potatoes. For me, that was a tad strange. The box even shows broccoli in the stew, but not in the recipe!

Anyway, it took a little while to make the stew, so dinner was a few minutes late, but honestly, not too late. I called F down and as usual, he took ages and didn’t pay attention. TikTok is where he spends most of his free time these days. 

I didn’t like the stew that much. I didn’t think that it had a lot of flavour. I had a small second helping of just stew and added a bit of Worcestershire sauce and it was much better. Tomorrow I’m thinking I might have mine on pasta. The rice was a bit yucky in my opinion. K and F seemed to like it though.

After dinner, I cleaned up and did the dishes. It wasn’t too bad as I’d done a few before dinner and it was a one-pot dinner. I put the extra stew in the fridge and then when I was done the dishes, I did the garbage up to send out. 

I put it in the genkan and went to say I was going upstairs to relax to F. K had already gone to bed.

I took a shower around 10:30, just after F came up with some cut nashi. That was sweet of him! I ate a piece and told him I’d eat the rest later. I went down and showered. No big deal really, just I had to be careful not to use too much shampoo as my hair is so short now, I don’t need the same amount I did before Tuesday!

I came back to the room and watched Grey’s Anatomy. I moved the towels from the middle of the room where I hung them to my clothes rack. They are mostly dry. F went to bed so I turned off the light for him on his side of the room.

And that’s about it for my day. I wrote a couple of emails tonight and already got one back. 

Not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. I’ll probably look out more clothes for the trip coming up and I’ll have to think about dinner and how to reserve the stew. 

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

September 27, 2022

Tuesday - Cloudy and a bit rainy

I went to bed about an hour earlier than usual last night. It was a good thing as I woke up an hour earlier than usual. I woke up, got up and woke F up. He was quite fast asleep and didn’t move for ages.

When I came back upstairs I started getting dressed. F didn’t move, but finally got himself up and started moving around.  We left the house around 8 am.  We got to the hospital with about 2 minutes to spare.  Then, of course, we did the sit around and wait thing.

F was getting a consultation to see about his knees. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but we didn’t leave the hospital until 1pm.  

We went for lunch to Okazaki, F’s favourite fish place. Today their lunch was sashimi and shoga-yaki (ginger pork). We both had that. It was fine, but I thought the pieces of meat were too big. They also had a lot of green pepper on the plates so F nicely took it off my plate. 

We finished up and then came back to the area around S-Mall. F dropped me off at my hairdresser’s salon. I had a 2pm appointment.  I haven’t gone to the hairdresser since April (she checked!). My hair was so long and now it is so short, but I love it. She did her usual great cut and wash. It was fun for me.  F was a little late picking me up, so I texted him. He showed up a few minutes later.

We went to McDonald’s to have a drink. I had a cafe latte, and F had a sweet potato milkshake. He said it was too filling.

After our drinks, I went to the grocery store and picked up a couple of things for K’s dinner.  I got a few other things, including a couple of rice balls for breakfast for both K and F. Then, we came back to the house. F was tired and after giving his mother some food, we went upstairs. F had a noisy nap, I watched the news and relaxed with my computer. 

A couple of hours later, I suggested going out for dinner. I gave F a few options and he picked Gusto for us. On the way out, we checked the kitchen. The onigiri we had bought for K’s breakfast were gone. Sigh. I had told F not to put them out yet. She often eats things at the wrong time. 

We went to Gusto and had an okay meal. I had a hamburger patty and chicken, F had a Japanese meal and didn’t like it. We shared some fries and had drink bar too. I was the bringer of drinks again. 

When we finished our meal we went over to MaxValu and I went shopping for food. I bought groceries for the next couple of days. I’m going to make a pork stew tomorrow so I got the ingredients for that. It was a bit expensive. 

I was also lucky enough to find onigiri in the store. Usually, they are sold out by the time I get there. I picked up a couple of extra ones for K. 

We came back to the house and I put away the groceries. K was up again watching the funeral for former Prime Minister Abe on the news. F stayed downstairs and watched it with her too. 

When he came up we noticed that F had a lot of onigiri lying around. He had told me he had taken K’s onigiri down for her, but he hadn’t! She hadn’t eaten the onigiri at all!  Now both K and F can have 3 onigiri for breakfast tomorrow!

We had a quiet evening in. I watched a little TV and then turned off the TV. I got stuck into my blogging and doing some internet stuff. 

I’m not sure what I’ll get up to tomorrow. I’m hoping that I’ll get a bit of laundry done and maybe start trying on clothes for my trip next month.

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

September 26, 2022

Monday - Warm and Sunny

I woke up at my usual time this morning but didn’t get up right away. I did get up a few minutes later, went downstairs and then came back upstairs. I did my usual watching the news and then snoozing thing. When I woke up and decided to go downstairs I heard a lot of banging and crashing. What on earth? K had decided to clean the toilet room. I really needed to use the washroom so it was quite a struggle to wait until she was done. She was making so much noise that it sounded like she was angry and I didn’t want to get in her way then.

I went downstairs and used the washroom. K had vanished, happily for me. I grabbed my breakfast and then came back upstairs and ate.  After breakfast, I did something fairly unusual for me, I laid down on the bed and read a book on my phone. It was a lot of fun. 

I went downstairs and grabbed my lunch when it was time and brought it back upstairs. I ate it and watched Mr & Mrs Smith.  I had noticed it was on last night when I checked the settings on the DVR.  I watched it and enjoyed it. I didn’t pay much attention at first, but later on, I really got into it again. Violent, but a lot of fun.

I watched the news and then went downstairs around 5:30. I was going to do some potatoes for dinner and I was worried that they’d take a little longer. 

I went downstairs and got started on dinner. I washed the dishes and then got stuck in on the potatoes. I roasted some potatoes in my air fryer, baked some chicken in my toaster oven and fried some mushrooms on the stove. F came back in the midst of my cooking and we hugged hello. He went upstairs.

I called him down around 7 pm and finished putting food on the table. K didn’t say anything to me, she was her usual smiley self. 

Dinner was quite successful. Most of the food disappeared. I had put some chicken aside for K’s lunch before dinner, and I was hoping to give her some potatoes too. Umm, she ate them all. Seriously! There were a few left in the bowl. She grabbed them and ate them all. Oh, dear. 

I did the dishes, cleaned out the corner garbage in the sink and prepared the garbage for us to take out tomorrow morning. 

I took a shower and then started blogging around 11:30.  So, actually, tomorrow something different is happening. F has a consultation with a doctor at the hospital and I have to go with him.  The consultation is at 8:30 am, so I have to get to bed early tonight. I’m hoping that I can stay awake during it.  I have also booked a haircut for myself in the afternoon so I hope that F’s appointment is finished by then!

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

September 25, 2022

Sunday - Hot and sunny

I woke up at my usual time this morning, went downstairs and then went back to bed for a while.  I finally dragged myself out of bed around 11. Dear dear. I got dressed and waited for F to come and talk about what he wanted to do today.

We decided that we’d try a new place for lunch. We got a new magazine this month with some new places listed, so I picked one, F said it was okay, and off we went. 

This place was in a newer area of the city. There’s been a lot of growth in the area, with a new hospital and a bunch of new buildings going up.  The cafe itself was nice. We were the only customers for a while. Their menu is mostly Japanese curry, but they also have smoothies and popcorn! I enjoyed my meal, F thought it was a little expensive. 

After lunch, we headed over to the Chido Museum and did a little tour of the place. We didn’t go to all of the buildings, just the main exhibit hall. They had a bit of a mishmash of different things. They had swords, armour, maps and a really trippy painting of a battle with headless corpses and heads on sticks. It was quite brutal. 

I needed a drink after the museum, so F suggested going to Aomoriya. I was okay with that. We had to wait for a while as it was busy.  I had iced tea, F had iced coffee and we each had a lovely fruit tart. I had one with figs and grapes that was nice, but not quite as good as I hoped. 

When we were rested and feeling a bit more like ourselves, we left the cafe and then did our grocery shopping. I went into the grocery store by myself. That was good. I got something for dinner for tomorrow night and then some stuff for lunch and for F and K’s breakfast tomorrow. 

I came out to the car and then we drove over to Gyomu Super. I bought a few things there, but not a lot. We came back to the house.  On the way, F and I talked a little about dinner. He had wanted to order bentos from his favourite fish place, but when we checked them out, they were closed. It seems that they’ll be closed for a bit. Oh, dear.

I suggested going to Misono. It’s a Japanese place, run by a family, and they have ramen and other food too.  F agreed with my idea and we took K out with us. Of course, I put away the groceries first!

Misono was quiet when we went in and we got a table. K and F had a type of ramen and I had pork piccata. It was good but not great.

We came back to the house after dinner. I wished K goodnight and went upstairs. I watched a bit of TV. I watched another episode of The Essex Serpent and then an episode of Bake-Off where they checked in on the bakers. That was cool.  When that finished, I watched the Project Runway finale. I enjoyed it a lot.

And that’s about it. F is asleep and to be honest, I’d like to have an early night for a change. 

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

September 24, 2022

Saturday - Rainy and then clearing and sunny

I woke up this morning at 8:00 am. I didn’t want to you understand, it’s just that F had set his alarm and then got up and didn’t turn it off. Then, he had the audacity to leave the room!

I woke up and had to go downstairs. It was rather a busy place, the washroom at 8:00am. 

I went back to bed and when I woke up about two hours later, F was out at his car appointment. I got up and got dressed. F’s next appointment was at 11:20 and I had asked for a ride to the mall. F was a little late getting back, and when he did, he made his mother something to eat. We left and as it was raining, he very nicely dropped me off at the mall’s door. He might have been a couple of minutes late for his appointment too. Oh, dear.

I went into the mall and hacked around. I bought myself a pastry and a tea at the bakery as a light breakfast, then checked out the grocery store and upstairs, the hundred yen shop. I got a lot of stuff at the hundred yen shop. I bought myself a new steamer basket as K has stolen mine. I think she thinks I stole hers, but I didn’t. F and I bought it for me. I got a new one and I’m going to hide it. 

Downstairs at a kitchen goods shop, I was able to find something I’d been looking for, a pasta fork. My current pasta fork was bought at a hundred yen shop and has had a lot of use. I’m a tad worried it will quit on me one night.

It was around the time when F should have been finished, so I waited for him near the door. Eventually, I saw the car drive up to the parking lot entrance and I waved. F picked me up and we drove off. 

We talked about where to go for lunch and decided that we’d go for yakiniku today. We drove out to Shonai-machi and were able to get into the yakiniku place right away. On the way, we saw lots of herons, some of them were really close to the road too. It was cool. 

Lunch was great. F surprised me by making his yakiniku 50% larger. I didn’t do that with mine, I figured that F would end up sharing his with me and I was right! Lunch was good. 

We had a quick run around the farmer’s market store but didn’t buy anything. I’m not cooking today or tomorrow so….

F suggested going to the salmon breeding area and I was up for a drive. We drove there but when we got there, the staff was cleaning the tanks and we couldn’t see any of the salmon. The water was murky and full of branches and stuff. F asked if I’d like to walk to the nearby pond/power spot. I would have, but F is still on crutches and he’s spent the last couple of days complaining about his knees. It had rained this morning so the trail would be a little muddy. I just thought it was a recipe for disaster. Hopefully, nothing would happen, but if F fell, I wouldn’t be able to help him very much. He saw the sense in not going, so we didn’t go. 

We did take rather a lot of photos of dragonflies though. That was fun! I love dragonflies.

 

F suggested going to a little cafe we had found via a friend of mine in Yuza. They sell something called Oyaki. They are sort of balls of dough filled with nice stuff. We drove off and found it. We got seated right away. I had an oyaki with cream cheese and fig, and F had a miso and eggplant one. It was a nice place to go. I drank some ume soda and F had some amazaki. 

We came back to Tsuruoka and got K a bento at a grocery store. We came back to the house and I went upstairs. F gave his mother her food and then came upstairs too. 

We relaxed for a while and then F suggested going to Gusto for dinner. I was fine with that, so off we went. When we finished dinner, F wanted to go to the grocery store so we did that. 

We came back to the house and relaxed. I took a shower and then watched a little bit of TV. F took a shower too. After that, I watched some YouTube and started blogging.

And there you are. I’m up to date. I’m not really sure what we’ll do tomorrow, it depends on the weather and how F feels I think. 

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

 

 

September 23, 2022

Friday - Rainy and cloudy all-day

Today was a national holiday, so F didn’t have to work today. He got up early as he does, but the odd thing is I did too. I woke up at my usual time without an alarm, went downstairs and then came back upstairs and went back to sleep.

I woke up with my alarm. F was there for a bit too. I didn’t really wake up, I ended up falling asleep again and only woke up at 12:30, aka, the afternoon. Sigh. I got up and stayed up.

F made lunch for his mother and I stayed upstairs and got dressed. Surprisingly for me, he didn’t come back up for a while. We talked about going for lunch. F suggested going for yakiniku but the place he wanted to go was closed. It was too late for most of the other places that serve it too. 

I suggested going over to the tonkatsu place at the Bussenkan (aka tourist trap place). We went over there and were able to get in right away. We decided to have the pair set which was some miso tonjiro or pork soup and a bowl of rice with some smoky-tasting pork slices. We got a salad too.  The food was great and I really enjoyed it. If all Japanese food tasted like that I’d be so much happier!

We popped into the electric shop across the way afterward to use the ‘loo, and then did a quick survey of the Macs at the store. They’ve just started selling actual Mac computers there. I drooled a little, but my present Mac is still going strong so it’ll be a while yet. 

We went to Seria, which is one of the hundred yen shops. I wanted to get a little bag for the new battery I bought. It came with a cord so I wanted to keep the two together. F and I managed to only spend 300 yen in the whole store. After our little shopping spree, we went back to the house. 

We stayed there for a long time. Around 7 pm I suggested that K might like to eat something. F went downstairs and made something for her. He also had something to eat too I think.

When he came back upstairs after 8pm I asked if we could go and eat too. F said yes. He wanted a place that I really don’t like. I said I’d go, but I didn’t know if it was open or not. He said he wouldn’t go. We ended up going to Cocos instead.

It was nice. We were seated right away in a booth. However, the booth was really, really small. It was difficult to get in and out for us! Of course, I had to get the drinks so I was in and out a lot!

After a nice meal, we left and came back to the house. I looked up some clothing on the internet, and I found a dress that I might like, but I’m just not sure of the sizes. The stuff on the Japanese websites was hideous. Well, not hideous, but so prissy there is no way that I would want to wear them. All lace and pastels and high necks and long sleeves and just too much. Not my sort of thing at all. 

I gave up after a while and watched an episode of The Essex Serpent on Apple TV+. The plot is thickening and I’m quite enjoying it.  

I turned off the TV after that. F went to bed and I closed my door so he’s not in major light. I can’t sleep with lights on, he can! 

That’s about it for me for today. It was an okay, low-key day. I was hoping for more to be honest, but the weather seems to be making F feel worse so he didn’t want to do much today. Sigh. 

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

September 22, 2022

Thursday - Cool and cloudy

F didn’t wake me up today. Yay. However, I did wake up a touch before my alarm. I went downstairs and then came back upstairs and watched the news from the bed. I did get dressed first though as it was quite cold this morning. 

I went down a little early to get breakfast. I didn’t do laundry today as K was doing some and I just didn’t feel like it. 

I watched some stuff off the Fire Stick today and I enjoyed it. I watched another episode of Jean-Claude Van Johnson and The Boys. In the latter, I watched the first episode of the third season. 

After the news, I didn’t hear from F like usual. He had said that he’d be late today, and he was. He did call me a little after 6 pm.  He didn’t get here until 7:00 though.  Tonight I did burgers from the store, a side dish of pasta and mushrooms, salad, cucumber and mini-tomatoes. It was fairly good, but the pasta dried out a bit and F complained about that. He would!

When we finished the main course, I cleared the table and gave the others some more nashi. I didn’t have any. I got to work. As usual, I did the clean-up and then I went upstairs. I did say goodnight to K, I didn’t want to be rude!

I went upstairs and relaxed and then I went down to take a shower. F and I both had the same idea. He had some of his clothes in the bathroom just as I got there. I took the shower first! In all fairness, I did take a quick shower as I didn’t want F to have to wait too long. I was as quick as possible. 

I came upstairs and watched a couple of shows on Apple TV+, Physical and Loot. Loot has really grown on me over the episodes. I turned off the TV when it was over. 

F went to bed. I’m not sure what we’re going to do tomorrow. It’s a national holiday and we haven’t made any plans, as usual. I hope we aren’t going to just sit at the house all day. I “get” to do that all week and I hate it.

Come back later if you like and hear what happens! Until tomorrow…

 

September 21, 2022

Wednesday - Sunny and cool

Before I went to bed last night, I put a blanket over my towelket. I thought about putting one over F too, but he seemed really deeply asleep.

F woke me up again this morning. Today he was looking for his phone and I asked him if he wanted me to call his phone. I did. I managed to go back to sleep after that, but I was so tired when my alarm went off. I didn’t get up for a while. 

I had a quiet morning. I didn’t do laundry, I did watch the news and at one point I even read a little bit of a book. I enjoyed that a lot. 

I had breakfast a little late but before yesterday. I watched quite a bit of YouTube and tried to watch some TV. I watched Grey’s Anatomy from last week off the DVR. It was okay. 

I had lunch, I checked and K had eaten her lunch, so that was good. I left her some leftovers from last night’s dinner. I came upstairs, ate and watched another episode of Bake Off. This was Paul and Mary talking about Easter Food. It looked so good.

F called around 5:30, and I went downstairs right away and got started on dinner. Tonight I did a few things. I prepared some okra, made a pizza, seasoned some chicken and then baked it and made some fries in the air fryer. We had a salad with it all too. Dinner got pretty good raves tonight so that was good. The pizza turned out really well, which pleased me a lot.

After I did the dishes and then the garbage on the first floor, I went upstairs. I did up my garbage in the room and changed for going out. I really had to wait for F tonight. He was in a bit of pain tonight and I told him that he could wait in the car if he wanted. He didn’t want. 

We went to MaxValu and I bought a few groceries. I decided I was going simple for dinner tomorrow night. F said he might be late, so I wanted something that I could prepare for K and me and then for F later if necessary. I got pre-made burgers. I’ll serve them with rice or pilaf I think and a salad. Not sure about veggies though. 

We came back to the house, I unpacked the groceries and then came upstairs eventually. I watched tonight’s Grey’s Anatomy which was quite a sad episode.  There was a patient who had been attacked and was Asian. They had many of the Asian cast members treat her and talk about the racism they (as characters) had received. It fair upset me, to be honest. 

I turned off the TV and then watched a bit of YouTube again.  I also got started on this blog entry.

That’s it for me. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

September 20, 2022

Tuesday - Cold and grey - Typhoon passing by

I woke up this morning when F was getting ready for work. He said he wasn’t feeling too good. I was sorry to hear it. He left, and I went back to sleep.

The room was 26 degrees when I woke up today, much more reasonable than yesterday. Those 3 degrees make a big difference. I got up a bit late but did my usual snoozing on the bed. I got dressed after a bit and snoozed more.

I roused myself before 11, went downstairs and then sorted my laundry. I did three loads of laundry over the day and thought that was a good thing. There are still clothes all over the room though.  Somewhere along the way, I cleaned the bathroom sink which mysteriously got horribly stained last night. It looked disgusting. I’m not sure what happened there. 

I had a bit of a late lunch as my breakfast was late too. I realized that I had forgotten to buy myself some salad yesterday. Oh, dear. I had a small lunch.

F called me after 5:30 so I went down to get started on dinner. He phoned back a bit later to say that he was caught in a traffic jam and would be late. He was a bit.

In the meantime, I cleaned the kitchen sink a bit and discovered that some idiot had taken the garbage out of the garbage can and hadn’t put a new garbage bag in. One of my pet peeves that.  They also hadn’t bothered to throw out the garbage in the sink or drain. I asked F later and he said it wasn’t him. 

Of course, I had to wipe down the stove too as it was filthy. Not sure why other people who used the stove over the last few days couldn’t have done it…It’s a mystery.

I got started on my cooking. I basically did a veggie/sausage bake today. I cut up an onion, broke up some mushrooms and added to all of that a bag of frozen eggplant. I spiced it with some smoked paprika and a little garlic and onion then threw it in my air fryer for 20 minutes. At that point, I added some cut-up sausages and gave it a bit more time. 

Dinner was nice and got good reviews when it happened a bit later. We had the veggie sausage bake and it was nice. I had some potato salad in the fridge, some stick broccoli, and salad, and I even cut up a couple of nashi for dessert. I did the dishes and it didn’t seem to take so long. It was quite chilly in the kitchen so I wasn’t sweating like usual. I almost enjoyed myself!

I came upstairs when I finished and after about an hour of relaxing, went downstairs and took a shower. I did some cleaning in the bath too. I’ve done more cleaning today than I usually do in a month!

I came back upstairs and watched the FBI: International. It was okay tonight.  I turned off the TV afterwards and got stuck into YouTube and my computer world.

F fell asleep, but obviously, I’m still up. I’m not sure what I’m going to get up to tomorrow. Hopefully, I can take things a little bit easier!

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

September 19, 2022

Monday - Hot, humid and windy

There’s a typhoon coming in a day or two and we are feeling the effects already. It was so hot and humid today.  When my alarm went off this morning I was bathed in sweat. No wonder, our room was sitting at a sweltering 29.5°C.  I was not a happy camper. 

I got up and turned on the AC, changed and got mostly ready for going out. A little while later, F came upstairs and we decided to go out for lunch. I suggested the Grand El Sun, our wedding venue since we have a running joke about going there. He was okay with that!

We went to the Grand El Sun and had a lovely lunch. They had a drink bar open and I was the bringer of drinks for F and me.  We both had the roast pork and it was delicious. 

After lunch, we went over to Marica and parked the car. We walked over to the station and bought my last train ticket. Woot! I guess that I’m going to Toyama next month. Woot Woot!

We bought groceries for the next two days and then came back to the house to put them away. I thought that we were going to go out again for a drink, but F didn’t want to go anymore. We stayed at the house. I was rather annoyed, to be honest. I wanted to be here in the evening so I could watch Queen Elizabeth’s funeral.  It was horribly hot up here at first, but I got F to adjust the air conditioner so it cooled down. 

I watched the funeral both on YouTube and NHK. I got a little annoyed with NHK when they’d leave the BBC broadcast and babble in Japanese for a while. If it looked like it was important I might not have minded.

Around 8:30 pm I turned off the TV and suggested to F that we go out for dinner. Although he asked for udon or soba, I suggested sushi.  He went along with my idea.  We went to Kappa Sushi. It was okay but not great.  We did have some good fries though. 

We came back to the house and came upstairs. F took a shower and I watched an episode of Bake Off. It was the Christmas show where Paul and Mary talk about how to make Christmas food. It looked so good! I’m glad it isn’t that close to Christmas yet or I’d be weepy about the show.

And, that was my day. It was a bit too laidback for me to be honest. I am glad that I watched the funeral, but it seemed a bit too formal. Of course, she was the queen and I shouldn’t have expected anything else.

F is back to work tomorrow and I have to cook dinner again. I may have to clean up the kitchen first though. Ack. I’ve been doing the odd thing during the last few days, but K and F leave the kitchen in an unholy mess. I am rather upset about that!

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

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 17, 2022

 Saturday - Sunny yet a bit overcast

I slept in a bit this morning and it was wonderful. I finally got up and a little while later F suggested going for lunch. He wanted one place, but I didn’t really want to go there, so suggested a couple of other places. We went to the Japanese place in Foodever and had their special Autumn meal. It was really good. It cost more than the time we went there and F threw a snit-fit about the price. He was fine with it today. 

After lunch, we headed to S-Mall to go to the Travel Agency to get my train tickets. However, when we got there, they said that their ticket machine was broken so we’d have to go to the station. Sigh. We went to Doutors instead and had a drink!  Then, we went to the station.

I had told F that the station ticket office was closed. I thought it was. However, they still had a small one that only sold train tickets. Before, they used to do holidays too. We got all of my tickets except one…I’m coming back on October 18 so I couldn’t buy that ticket yet. It’s so silly! We’ll have to go back tomorrow or another day to get the ticket.

We decided to go and have another drink and tried to think of a cool place to have it. We ended up at a place called Tack which is an old-style coffee shop. We both had kakigori there, I had a coffee-flavoured one, and F had an azuki-bean one. We were both pleased.

Our Kakigori.  Lovely and soft, not too sweet.

We hit up a drugstore after our rest break and then went back to the house. I came upstairs and caught up with the internet, F was downstairs for a bit.

Around 7:30 I suggested getting his mother dinner or us going out together. It was getting late and the list of places that stay open late is quite short. Finally, nearer 8 pm, F agreed to go out with his mother.

We tried to go to F’s suggested lunch place, but they were closing when we got there. I suggested a few places, but F came up with China House. It’s a Chinese-style restaurant with good food. I was fine with that so off we drove. When we got there, we ordered quickly. I had yurinchi which is a kind of fried chicken dish, F had his starchy noodles and F ordered mabo-dofu on rice for K. We got our meals and did a little bit of swapping. F gave each of us much too much of K’s food and I gave the others a small piece of chicken. I refused F’s starchy noodles. I just don’t like them. 

We ate, paid, and then left. We came back to the house. K went to bed soon afterwards and I came upstairs. I watched a bit of Bake-off and then the Saturday night programme I watch. One good thing is that I finally saw a preview for The Walking Dead. It’s going to come back next month. Right before my trip!!

At midnight, I watched Atomic Blonde with Charlize Theron. Man, what a movie. She is so kick-ass in that film. The good thing about it is you can tell that she’s hurting, hopefully, it is just the character and not the actress too. If she doesn’t fight like there’s no tomorrow, for her, there won’t be. It’s violent and twisty-turny, but also good. 

And that’s about it for my day. I discovered tonight that there’s going to be a double feature at the cinema of Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick tomorrow and F is interested in going. I might have to get up early so I really should end this soonish!

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

September 16, 2022

Friday - Cloudy and cooler

I’m back! Did you miss me?  We had a lovely time over in Sendai and even the getting there and back was good too.

We left Tsuruoka on Wednesday around 11:00. It didn’t have the greatest start.  F forgot that I hadn't eaten yet and drove in the wrong direction from the restaurant we had agreed on. Our next choice was closed, so we ended up at a roadside farmer's market/restaurant. Surprisingly, they had really good food and we enjoyed our meal.  

We arrived at our hotel and we checked in. They suggested upgrading our room and F went along with it. We did end up with a nice room, it overlooked the garden and had a small balcony, so that was nice. For some reason, we had two beds in the room so we each got our own. 

We went over to the shopping area nearby and did a little window shopping. We also got some snacks too.  We checked out the restaurants for later as well. 

We went back to the hotel for a bit. Around 6 we walked back to the mall and had dinner at a gyutan restaurant. Sendai is known for gyutan or cow tongue and they have restaurants everywhere. We went.  F had some very good gyutan and I had the regular one which we shared. The rest of the meals were exactly the same, so by sharing the meat we could both enjoy the same thing.  F had a beer with dinner as well. I did a little shopping later on at the import store. Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel and relaxed. I tried to get the TV to connect to my phone so I could mirror something on my phone, but I couldn’t get it to work.

F went to bed fairly early on Wednesday, and I did for me too! I think I was in bed by 1:30.  I slept till 9:00am as well. We had some coffee in the room and discussed what to do. I had thought that we’d go out of the hotel, but F didn’t want to take the car anywhere.  

We went looking for a jacket for F, but first, we went for lunch.  Yay.  We had pasta and it was nice. We both had a combo, I had pasta and pizza, and F had pasta and a doria. It was rather nice.  After our lunch, we went back to the outlet mall and went looking for a jacket for F. He’s bigger than most Japanese men seem to be, so most of the outlet stores didn’t have his size. However, the biggest problem with that was that he really just wanted to buy the same jacket he had when I met him. The one that would be at least 25 years old, with burn marks from when he smoked and ripped seams. Not surprisingly, none of the stores had it! He gave up after a while, but I got a new wok and a potato masher! Oh, and some chocolate. I bought us drinks for a bit and then we ended up going back to the import store for my friend. 

Then, it was back to the hotel. It was only 2 or 3 pm, so I was surprised that F wanted to go back, but of course, he’s on crutches and he probably needed a break.  We went back to the hotel and just relaxed. That was lovely, surprisingly. I thought I’d be bored, but I wasn’t! I updated my phone and read a bit and just enjoyed sitting in a real armchair again.

We talked about dinner ideas. F sort of wanted to go back to the mall but I suggested checking out the meal at the hotel to see if it was interesting or affordable. We went down and had a look. It sounded very nice. We’ve eaten at the hotel before, it is expensive but very nice. 

They had a fairly reasonable course dinner so we went in and ordered that. We had a lovely meal and really enjoyed ourselves. I paid for F as he has trouble with wallets and crutches juggling and I used my hotel card and we got a discount. Yay!

We took a short walk around the garden and then checked out the guest lounge on the ground floor. They set it up for guests to go in and have coffee, or tea, and biscuits. We had a drink or two and looked out at the garden.  

After an hour or so we went upstairs and just relaxed some more. I tried connecting my phone to the TV in the room and this time I got it to work. I gave F a choice of two movies and we ended up watching Last Night in Soho. We really liked it. It was quite violent in parts and a bit spooky, but overall it was a good watch.  

One movie was enough, so I took my phone back and spent the rest of the night watching YouTube or reading and relaxing. Both F and I went to bed quite late. I think we both had baths. There was a gorgeous bath in the room so we both took one at different times. I didn’t want to get out!

This morning, F and I woke up. F took an early shower and I took one later.  We finally did something that I’d been hoping to do all the time we were away. We went outside and had some pain au chocolate on the balcony with our coffee.  We had to buy the pastries the day before, but they were still amazing.  It was really nice and just something that I had wanted to do for ages!

We had to check out by 11 today. We were a couple of minutes late, but no worries. We had thought about going to Costco but stopped into a Japanese clothing store for F to see if he could get a jacket. Nope. He’s too picky. However, I did get some socks. Yay me.

We went to a mall and F got some money from an ATM, then we bought souvenirs for K and F’s sister. We got back in the car and decided to finally go for dinner. There was an Italian buffet place 

nearby, so we went there. It was quite good, but of course, we both ate too much. It was a little stressful for me because F can’t carry his own tray at the moment, so I had to do it. It was fine, but he kept taking the food himself. I was wearing gloves so he really should have left it to me. 

Anyway, after we finished eating, we discussed going to Costco and we realized that we didn’t need to really. We decided to just drive back to Tsuruoka.

I slept most of the way back but mostly stayed awake after Sagae. We came back to the house, unpacked the car and came up to our room.

A few hours later F went out to get a bento for his mother and we relaxed. Around 8 pm I suggested that we go out for dinner. F agreed to go to Cocos, so that’s where we went. We had a reasonably good meal. I got F’s drinks for him and we shared an order of fries that I got for free with my app. 

We came back to the house after dinner. F went to bed fairly soon after, I’m still up of course. I watched some TV and something off the Fire Stick. That’s about it for my anniversary. It was a lovely few days away. 

It’s a long weekend here so F is off until Tuesday. I hope we have a good few days! Come back later if you like and hear all about my days. Until tomorrow….