September 7, 2026

Monday - Cloudy and warm, humid

I woke up early this morning. F wasn’t in the room and I was probably cold. I went downstairs and then came back to the room. F came back to bed too, but his alarm went off at 7am and he had to get up. I did not!

I woke up later when my alarm went off, but I went back to sleep for a bit. I finally dragged myself out of bed a bit before 10am. I got dressed right away and had a little breakfast. I packed up my backpack and headed downstairs. I used the washroom quickly and then headed out of the house. Last week I left at the same time the bus was due, today, I left a few minutes earlier. I got there and a few minutes later the bus came back and picked me up. 

I took the bus “the long way” to the mall, but it got me there about 30 minutes before the next bus would have, so no worries. I went up to Daiso and did a little shopping, then downstairs to the grocery store. I did look at Pizza Hut Express for lunch, but sadly they don’t have the lunch special that I used to order, the one with very little tomato sauce. Instead, I went back to the bakery and had a few bready things. They were nice and I enjoyed them. When I finished, I left the mall proper and went to the bus station. I waited a few minutes for the bus to take me to Sanno Machi. 

I got off across from the main post office and crossed the street. I went into the post office and bought myself some stamps. The ladies working today were very nice and they seemed to understand me well enough. When I put my stamps away in my backpack, I decided to get my hat out as I still had to walk to the cinema. It was hidden in my backpack, so I yanked on it and the elastic cord on the hat snapped out of the bag and caught me on my finger. Oh my gosh, that was painful! It bruised immediately and over the rest of the day the bruise spread a bit. 

Just after it happened.

Later today

I walked over to the cinema and went in. I had a free movie coupon so I used that, and was able to see Obsession today. I really liked it. It was a horror movie, but a good one and it wasn’t as gross as I thought it could be. It just showed with some creativity and a good story, you don’t need to spend a fortune on a film. 

After the movie, I left the cinema and went back to the bus stop. I caught the bus back to the closest bus stop and then walked back to the bus. I was the last person on the bus so I hope it picked up more passengers later on.

At the house I came upstairs and relaxed. I had some tea and watched the news. F called at 5:30 and around 6 pm I went downstairs and started on dinner. 

Tonight I made hamburgers from scratch, cucumber pickle and steamed garlic okra. We also had salad and French Fries. It was a good dinner I think. I did the dishes after dinner and asked F to make rice for tomorrow. He refused and tried to get me to make it instead. I said no. I don’t like rice so _I_ don’t care if there is rice or not. Him and his mother might. 

I finished the dishes and then went upstairs and relaxed for a bit. I watched a lot of YouTube. Around 10:30 I went downstairs to take my shower. 

I came back upstairs to the room and decided to watch something from Apple TV. I ended up choosing Widow’s Bay. It was a spooky one and I quite enjoyed it. It actually seemed connected to the movie I saw today. 

Since midnight I’ve been back on YouTube and I’ve been getting my end of days thing done. I’ll be going to bed soon.

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

July 4, 2026

Saturday - Hot and Sunny

I woke up a little early this morning, but went back to sleep. Then, my alarm went off at 9 am but F and K hadn’t left yet! I got up and went downstairs then came back to the room and sorted out my clothes. I started to get dressed and then F came back into the room. I was getting ready to go and finished. A little while later, F and I left the house and drove over to Cocos. 

We had a lovely (mine) and grudgingly okay (his) breakfast at Cocos. It was good. I had waffles, scrambled eggs, salad, bacon and a sausage and hash browns for breakfast. It was very nice.

 

We left and then started driving out towards Mt. Chokai.  On the way there, F started saying that his shoes were broken and he should get a new pair. Hmm. I suggested going back to the house and changing them out, but instead we ended up at the Mall in Mikawa. F got himself a pair of summer sandals/shoes and after I bought us something to drink, we were on our way again. 

We stopped at a Michi-no-Eki to have a washroom break and to buy a treat at a bakery, then we went further on our way. We ended up most of the way up Mt. Chokai. We stopped to take pictures in a couple of places. I was getting a bit nervous about the time. We’d taken a while to drive out to the mountain and we had to be back at the house by 4:30. F said we could do it. 

We drove back and part of the way used the highway. We stopped into the udon chain restaurant in Tsuruoka so we could get something for our very late lunch. We got take-out and ate it back at the house. 

I headed upstairs to relax and F stayed downstairs to wait for his mother to return. After she came back, he came upstairs and took a nap. 

Around 6 F made dinner for his mother and then we left to have ours. We went to Misono, it was F’s idea and it was fine with me. We ate and I liked mine, F well...same as usual!

We drove over to Machi-ne Kinema but since we were early, went to the drugstore for a while first. I got a drink there, and picked up some pasta sauce and pasta. It’s cheaper at the drugstore. 

Then, we went back to the cinema and went to see The Life of Chuck. We both liked it a lot. I know that not everyone does like it, but I thought it was cool. The cast was amazing, lots of great people like Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mark Hamill and Karen Gillan.  Mia Sara was in it too and I haven’t seen her in anything in yonks. 

We were on our way back to the house when I asked F if he needed anything for K’s breakfast tomorrow. He decided to go to the big grocery store to get something for her. We drove there, went in and F bought her some fish and a few other things. 

We came back to the house. We came upstairs and F went to bed and fell asleep almost immediately. He’s very tired. He drove a long way today. I’m tired too. I got up earlier than usual, but it was a nice way to spend the day, so I didn’t mind. I’ve always told F that if he makes plans I will get up! I did today. 

I’m not sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow, but if you want to find out too, come back a bit later. Until tomorrow….

June 20, 2026

Saturday - Hot and sunny, muggy

I went to bed very late this morning. Honestly, after F’s sleep-kicking thing I was a bit weirded out about going to bed beside him. It was fine of course. He got it out of his system. 

F woke me up this morning trying to get some paper from my side of the room. My alarm went off two minutes later so he could have waited in my opinion. However, I went downstairs and his sister was there. I guess that she took her mother to the Day Service thing today. 

I went back to bed and snoozed a bit longer. F came in for a cuddle and to talk about “lunch”. I hadn’t had breakfast yet so I was a bit sad. I got up around 11 and went downstairs and took a shower. I really prefer daytime showers, but I never get to have them except when K is away. 

I suggested a couple of places for lunch and then F suggested another one, a fish restaurant near S-Mall. I wasn’t too excited about it, but I didn’t hate it either. However, when we finally got there, they tried to give us a seat on the tatami floor. Neither of us wanted that, so we were able to sit at the counter. 

We both had the same thing today, the filet katsu set meal. Now, I liked it a lot, F wasn’t too impressed. He thought the coating came off too easily. I dunno, he is so picky!

After lunch, we went over to Musashi and bought more masks, we also got a walnut cracker. F bought walnuts a few week ago but we couldn’t find our cracker. A new one was over ¥2000. Yikes. We ended up in the pet section too as F wanted to get some food for his fishes. I don’t like the pet section as they sell dogs, cats, rabbits and other little animals there. 

We paid and left. We decided to go for a drink and then I suggested an old-style coffee shop where we could get some kaki-gori. F was up for that, so off we went. We were able to park the car and went in. It was surprisingly busy today. I had the coffee-milk kakigori and F had the red bean and milk kakigori. Mine was great, his was too sweet. Sigh. He ordered it….

Our Kakigori...mine is Coffee and condensed milk, F's is Adzuki and condensed milk. 

We made a quick run to the grocery store for food for K and then we came back to the house. I went upstairs and turned on the AC as it was 30 degrees in our room. Ack.

After a couple of hours, F had made dinner for K and he wanted to know what we should do for dinner. I gave him a few ideas, but we ended up going to the newish Taiwan restaurant that I like (and F doesn’t.) We got a table (after the waitress asked a couple of guys to move to a table on the tatami for us). Of course, F wanted to order ramen, but I reminded him that he doesn’t like this restaurant’s ramen and he listened for a change. We both had the same meal, yurinchi chicken set meal(twice in one day! Weird.) F actually admitted that the food was good, so yay for me.

After dinner, I just didn’t want to go back to the house yet. We didn’t really have a plan to do anything so we went driving. F wanted to see the view of Tsuruoka from the hills outside the city. We went driving out in the boonies…ended up going past the ski hill. It was a bit scary but he finally decided to turn around. On the way back to Tsuruoka we did see the lights of the city. F wanted to get out of the car, but I refused. There are still bears out there and I don’t want to be dinner!

We came back to the house and came in. We went upstairs and F went to bed almost immediately. I watched some YouTube and then watched tonight’s FBI. It was a good one. I watched the end of a movie on the movie channel and then the start of another one, but decided not to watch it. I need to get to bed sometime tonight!

Since midnight I’ve been watching YouTube and working on end of day things. I’m not really sure what we’re going to get up to. We’ll have to do the usual grocery shopping and we might go and see if there are fireflies, but we might not!

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

June 13, 2026

Saturday - Hot and sunny, muggy

Today was a really nice day which surprised me, but I’m happy that it turned out that way!

I woke up around 7:30 this morning and went downstairs. I went back upstairs, and went back to bed. I tried to sleep and did fall asleep finally. F came back upstairs around 10 am and wouldn’t let me sleep anymore! I got up and went downstairs and took a shower, then came back to the room. I finished getting dressed and then we went out.

F had asked me this morning to try a new restaurant with him. I didn’t know anything about it and honestly, neither did he! We went and we were the only customers at first. The place was very small and they had very small stools up at the bar. F wasn’t sure if I would sit on them but it was okay. I had fried rice with pork, he had ginger pork on rice. Mine was really good, but F complained that his was too salty. He gave me a piece of his pork and it really was salty. 

After our meal, we visited a drugstore for a drink each and the washroom, then we went for a drive. We went quite far and ended up out at Gassan, at the old Bungy-Jumping place. They don’t do bungy jumping now as there was a fatal accident a few years ago. There was a coffee shop and we had an ice cream cone each and then did a little exploring. 

The view from the coffee shop where we were eating our ice cream. Those are grape leaves around the window.

We came back to our area. F wanted to visit a noodle factory so we went there but it was closed. We came back to Tsuruoka and decided to go and have a drink at our local cafe, B-Flat. 

We were in B-Flat for about an hour. I had an iced cafe latte and F had a hot cafe latte. They were nice drinks.

We then came back to the house and relaxed. F waited downstairs for his mother, I came upstairs and chilled with my computer and some YouTube. 

F relaxed and took a bit of a snoozed. He made dinner for his mother sometime after seven pm. Then, it was our turn. We didn’t really think about where to go until after 8 pm. That meant that many of our favourite places would be closed or closing. I did a Google Map search and came up with a few ideas. One idea was Hana, a fish and tonkatsu restaurant. They stayed open until ten according to the app.

We drove over there and we were able to go in and have dinner. F had a keisen-don, or raw fish on rice and I had the tonkatsu. Mine was really good and I enjoyed it a lot. F said his was okay, but not great. 

After our dinner we made a stop at the grocery store and then came back to the house. We came upstairs and relaxed for a bit. F ended up going to sleep, I stayed awake and watched
which was pretty good!

After midnight I’ve started watching YouTube and doing my end of day things. It was a good day today.

Oh, and what K was trying to tell me that she didn’t want to go to Day Service today. F told her that she needs to tell him earlier if she wants a weekend off. There’s a charge for food if she doesn’t go, so we’d be wasting a bit of money. 

Anyway, that’s it for me for today. Tomorrow we have a meeting with K’s social worker and then we’ll have to do the usual grocery shopping. I hope things work out with that.

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

June 7, 2026

 Sunday - Warm and Sunny, a bit muggy at night

Today was another good day. Woot. I woke up around 9:30 and made a trip downstairs. I came back to the room and had a bit of a snooze. Before I woke up, I had the oddest dream that I was out with F somewhere and I ended up sitting next to Ethan Hawke. He was eating fries with maple bacon in them and I asked him how they were. He passed them over to me and invited me to grab a couple! Then, I introduced him to F and a couple of minutes later I woke up!

F and I talked about where to have lunch and then I suggested going to have yakiniku in Tsuruoka. F liked that idea, so few minutes later we left the house and went to the restaurant. It wasn’t too busy so we got in right away. We both ordered the same meal and a few minutes later we were grilling our meat and eating the rest of the included food. It was nice.

After lunch, F suggested going out of the city to the Aquarium. I wasn’t sure it was a good idea as weekends are busy there, but we could park fairly close today and went in. 

Assorted Jellyfish!

As always it was lovely seeing the beasties in the aquarium. We had a nice walk around. It was crowded today, but the people were mostly moving around and everyone was in a good mood. At the end, we just bought ourselves drinks at a vending machine and then headed back into Tsuruoka.

I asked F if he was interested in getting a kakigori and he said he was. We talked about where to go and came up with some ideas. One of the places didn’t sell them, another place was closed, so we ended up at Komeda and I had a kakigori. I tried the Acai-mix one and it was amazing. F had soft ice cream and it was huge, and looked good. 

Acai Mix Kakigori at Komeda Coffee

We left after a while and came back to the house so that F could make dinner for his mother. I came upstairs to rest for a while. When F finished, he came upstairs and we talked about where to eat or what to eat. I suggested a few places and F liked Coco Ichibanya, the curry place. We decided to go there.

We went to the curry place and got the last parking space in the main area. We went in and ordered. F got a seafood curry and I got the handmade chicken cutlet curry with vegetables. It was really nice. 

After our dinner, we headed to the grocery store and bought food for the next couple of days. F came in the store with me but he wasn’t annoying tonight! Maybe it was because I knew what I needed and picked it up. 

F paid and we drove back to the house. I put away the groceries and F made some rice for tomorrow I think. I went upstairs and relaxed for a while. I put on an episode of The Boys, I think the second last one, and then an episode of Eugene Levy’s The Reluctant Traveller on AppleTV. It was a bit meh but I wanted something chill for the end of the day.

I spent some time doing my end of day things and then started to write this. I’ll probably post this and get to bed really soon. Come back later if you like and hear all about my day. Until tomorrow….

May 16, 2026

Saturday - Hot and sunny

I woke up early when F woke up…It was 6 something am. I went back to sleep. I did get up and make a washroom trip around 8:30. F and K were still in the house.

I went back to sleep for a bit. F came back in the room around 10:15 and suggested going for breakfast but I said no! I wanted to take a shower this morning. I got up a bit later, did take my shower and then got dressed. F and I decided to do something a little different today. We went to Blackbird Market for lunch. It’s a nice restaurant in Tsuruoka. I’ve been a few times. It’s a little expensive compared to the places we usually go, but very nice. 

For our lunches, F chose the starters lunch. We got a small salad and a few hors d’oeuvres, including an omelette, a crispy rice ball, some chicken and some mushrooms. There were other things too and they were all delicious. For our mains, F had a paella with  kinkaton pork and I had garlic rice with kinkaton pork. F liked his, I liked mine, but did find it a bit too salty. I think they had salted the meat before cooking or something. I would have it again, but might ask for less salt!

After lunch, F suggested driving to Fujishima to see the wisteria. I was fine with that. In Fujishima, we first up found a post office so that I could mail off my postcards. I wrote two up yesterday so that was good. 

We finally found Hisu Park and went for a walk through the wisteria. It was beautiful there. We could hear the bees buzzing. They were hard at work and not bothering the people walking underneath the flowers. There were quite a few colours of wisteria and the scent was gorgeous too.

After the park, we made a quick stop to get some Japanese sweets for K (and us!) and then headed back to Tsuruoka proper. F took us over to Komeda for coffee and that was nice. I had an iced decaf and F had his usual blend coffee. 

We went back to the house after this and waited for K to return. F stayed downstairs, I came upstairs to chill out. After a bit, F came up for a rest, but went back downstairs around 7 pm to make his mother’s dinner. 

We didn’t go out until 8:30. I had suggested going to Gusto as I wanted some fries and no rice for my dinner. F didn’t like my suggestion but couldn’t come up with one of his own! 

Finally we drove over to Gusto and found a table. F had a kara-age set meal and I had a mixed grill. We shared an order of fries and we both had the drink bar too. My dinner was nice and I enjoyed it. When we left, I used my senior discount to reduce the cost and then cashed in a bunch of my points to reduce the price of dinner. Yay for me.

We made a fairly long trek through the nearby grocery store to get food for K’s breakfast. We paid and then came back to the house. I headed upstairs and then a few minutes later F came up. I checked the bottom of my chair up here and noticed that it was bolted together rather than just glued. I asked F if he could tighten the bolts sometime. Well, of course he decided to do it tonight! It took a while, but to be fair, it is much better and I really do appreciate it. I watched FBI which was quite an involved one about a Prison riot. It was good.

And that’s about it. F went to bed around midnight or a bit later and I’m still up, but I’m quite tired. I’m not exactly sure what we’ll get up to tomorrow. We’ll have to do the usual shopping and getting ready for the week ahead. I hope that we’re also able to enjoy the day together. 

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