Hot and sunny.
I'm back! Did you miss me? I had a great weekend which honestly surprised me! I didn't expect to at all. On Sunday I was woken when someone crashed and banged a lot in the kitchen, so I got up and closed the door. I was planning to get up soon after that, but I wanted it to be my decision! I did manage to get up soon after, showered and then we went out.
We had a nice brunch and then headed off to Niigata. The traffic wasn't too bad and I had my iPod so I sang most of the way there (poor Fumihiko!) We made a couple of pit stops, and had a nice trip into the city.
We parked the car in Billboard place and as it was a little late in the day, around 4, decided to go to the bookstore right away. At the bookstore we looked around, bought a couple of books and magazines, and then discussed what to do. We didn't have a hotel room yet and we were going to walk over to the one we usually stay at to ask if they had a room when I realized we were IN a hotel! The building that the bookstore is in has a hotel on the third and higher floors. We'd eaten in one of the restaurants once, but never stayed there. We took a chance, went up to the front desk and they had one double non-smoking room left! Yahoo! It would have been cheaper I'm sure if we'd reserved on the net, but it was still nice to get a room like that.
We dumped our books and then went and did a spot more shopping. Of course I hit the Virgin Megastore and no I'm not going to tell you what cd I bought (Barry Manilow) but I did get the dvd of Sin City. Yay. We went up to the tea store too and had omelettes and tea. I drank choco-menthe tea again, but I bought a new kind- rose champagne. I'll let you know how I like it. The tea leaves smelt wonderful. Very strawberry. I also hit the Muji store and the gemstone store. We took our travel stuff out of the car then, leaving some of the shopping in the car.
Fumihiko wanted to have dinner at the hotel as they gave us a discount coupon, so we did that. We had a lovely steak dinner, with soup, salad, and coffee. I had a great time eavesdropping! The couple on the next table were from Australia but lived in London. They had taken the Tran-Siberian train across Russia to Vladivostock (my Mum used to tell me to say that word when I was angry instead of swearing! If you're angry it really does feel good to say!) and then flown from there to Niigata.The next day; today, they were going to Tokyo. It was so cool. I think Fumihiko was listening in too! I told Fumihiko that I want him to retire rich so that we can do something like that. After dinner we went for a walk, looking for a convenience store and then went to Starbucks for late frappuchino. YUM.
We went back to the hotel (just across the street from Starbucks - hows that for convenient?- and spent a lovely evening in the hotel. Just as I was going to bed I found a tv channel that had classical music and beautiful scenery on it. They showed Prince Edward Island, then Banff, and Jasper just as I was going to sleep. Man, did it make me homesick! This year, I haven't gone home yet and I'm starting to tear up at anything remotely Canadian. Except Celine Dion.
This morning we had breakfast in the hotel, and it was nice. We went back to the room for a bit of a rest after breakfast, then checked out. It was an okay hotel. A little older, but still very nice and we probably would stay there again! It's convenient to where we want to be.
We were taking our stuff to the car when we passed another tea shop. This is one that everytime I go past it with hubby I say,"I want to go there someday." Fumihiko said, "Well, why don't we go?" We took our stuff to the car and then went back. I had some Earl Grey tea and Fumihiko had some aged or matured coffee. He didn't really know how to explain what it was. Anyway, it was very nice! I'm glad I've finally been there now. On our way back to the car again, we popped into Virgin. I'm not sure if Fumihiko got anything, but I picked up a free magazine.
We drove downtown and went to LeForet building. There's an HMV there. Oh dear. I went a little crazy. I bought 6 dvds. In my defense I will say that they were all cheap ones, and Fumihiko paid for half of them (and chose one) so I wasn't that crazy. Then, we hit the Starbucks there for more frappucinos!
We left the downtown area after that and tried to find a good place to go fishing on the docks. We drove around but didn't find anything. Husbando finally asked at a fishing shop and it turns out that the docks have been under construction lately so there aren't a lot of places anymore. However, we did find a place where we threw a line in the water. He didn't like that place much, so we moved to another. That was a bit better, and we could actually see fish in the water. Fumihiko caught a tiny tai (sea bream) but I didn't catch anything. I did get one big bite though, but at the same time, a guy yelled to us that the gate was going to be shut and we had to move our car or it would be locked in for the night! Yikes. At first Fumihiko was just going to move the car, but then he decided that I'd have some trouble getting out through the fence so decided to chuck it in for the night! (I think he doesn't realize how wiggly I am, so I'm pretty sure I'd have been able to get out, but on the other hand, it was nice and I needed a washroom by then anyway!
We found a shopping mall kind of thing (more like a strip mall) and had dinner there. We had yakiniku and it was quite nice. Then we picked up some drinks for the road and came home. Most of the trip was fine, but there were a few idiot drivers who annoyed my hubby. I of course was singing most of the way! I love my iPod, did I ever mention that?
We got home and unloaded the car, then went out for groceries. We came home, watched last week's episode of ER and then Fumihiko went to bed. He did a lot of driving today so I think he's tired. I know I am, and I didn't drive at all.
We had a great weekend. Yeah! Tomorrow, I'm back to work! Hey, how cool is it to say that?? Very cool! Night night.
