Sunny with a few scattered rain showers.
A great day. We woke up in Niigata this morning and had breakfast at our hotel. It was okay. We checked out and then went shopping. Sadly, the Daiei in Niigata is going to close. I'm really sad about that as it was always a place I could go to find neat stuff for not too much money. I wanted Fumihiko to buy himself some new socks (actually, I had planned to buy them for his birthday, but I couldn't shake my tail, so he ended up buying them for himself.) I started to wander around the floor and found some cute children's clothes for my niece and nephew, so I bought some. Christmas _is_ coming after all. We had a last cup of Starbucks coffee and then left town.
We drove out to Shibata and tried to find a mall that I'd seen signs for a few times before. We failed! But, we found a couple of second hand shops and I trawled the dvd section. Sigh. I spent too much money again. BUT I got the Battlestar Galactica box set on dvd. No, not the new one. The old one. Yay. I'm looking forward to watching it!
We had lunch at the Evil Place's clone (much nicer, but we still ate too much) then drove home. I had a whale of a time singing along to my iPod. I had changed it to my 5 Star song playlist, so I knew and loved all of the songs. It was fun for me. Fumihiko, I'm not sure about!
We came home, dumped our stuff and then went to buy groceries. We tried the new supermarket in town. It was nice, but it was hard to find things. We discussed going out for dinner versus making it at home and Fumihiko volunteered to make nabe. The store sold nabe kits, so he really didn't have to do too much work.
We came home, spent a little time together and then made dinner and watched ER. Fumihiko is in bed sleeping now, and I'm writing my report for you!
Saturday was a good day at work. Classes went well and I was quite busy for the first few hours. Fumihiko picked me up just after 9, we ate dinner and then headed out on the road. We were listening to my iPod. I made a playlist called iPod Shuffle after the, well, the iPod Shuffle, but I didn't like it. So, I changed to the 5 Star Playlist and it was much much better.
We spent the evening at location that won't be disclosed. ;-)
On Sunday, we got up, I took a shower and we headed towards Niigata again. We had actual breakfast in a Gusto. The one in Murakami actually serves breakfast. Wa hoo! After breakfast we drove slowly to Niigata, but were too early for check-in at our hotel. I suggested a couple of times that we stop and go shopping when we passed through the downtown area. Fumihiko kept driving, but finally I think he realized that I REALLY meant, "let's stop and shop!" We did.
We parked near LaForet and I tried to find the HMV store. Fumihiko was not in a helpful mode and told me there wasn't one. Hah! Considering that I'd been there 3 months (or so) ago and had also just seen the sign outside I didn't believe him. Finally we found a store map that listed everything including the HMV on the 5th floor. Told you. We went shopping at HMV and I spent a blooming fortune. A little of it was Fumihiko's. I have a point card so I wanted his points. I got "Friends" season one, "Frasier" season one, and a few other movies. It cost a lot. In fact, so much that we got two comp tickets for parking! We also went downstairs and had coffee at Starbucks.
It was now after check-in time, so we went back to the hotel and checked in. Then, we went shopping. I hit the Virgin Megastore and got The Crow, Labyrinth and Fumihiko's birthday present. (Secret!) I got a couple of cds too. We had a hamburger at Freshness Burger (love that place) then blew through Isetan (didn't buy anything) and stopped at Kinokunia Books. (Bought a lot.) I got some magazines and a couple of Jennifer Weiner books. I just finished one of hers a few days ago,"Good in Bed." I didn't know it, but she's the author that wrote the book that the upcoming movie "In Her Shoes" is based on. I bought that and another one of hers too. (Note to Hollywood....when will you make a movie based on a Marian Keyes novel???? I mean, come on already!) Fumihiko came over and we were discussing books when I suggested that I go to pay for the ones I had. He didn't really notice how many books I was carrying until I got to the counter.
We went back to the hotel and discussed our dinner options. We tried the hotel first, but the buffet downstairs didn't sound too appealing and the poncy lounge was full, so we went out. At first I suggested heading to the station for the Royal Host, but on the way remembered there's an izakaya on the way that we could try instead. We went there and had a great meal. Lots of fish, veggies and chicken. We passed a steak restaurant that is just across from the izakaya and decided to go there next time. They have a one pound steak on the menu. Fumihiko thought it sounded good. It's a mere 3200 yen. (Later he talked about having a ten pound steak until I reminded him it would likely cost 10 times as much!)
From the izakaya we walked to the theatre. The only movie that was playing and was halfway interesting was The Brothers Grimm. It was okay. Not as bad as the critics said, not as good as I'd hoped. After the movie we walked back to the hotel via a convenience store.
I went off to sleep somewhere around 2 in the morning. And that was my weekend. Sort of a Quentin Tarantinoesque way of telling my story (minus the swearing and bloodshed). A good weekend. We had a good time together.
Night night!
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