March 10, 2008 - Monday

Cloudy and grey in Sendai, a few drops of rain.

Today turned out rather well, although it didn't start all that well. When I first got up I didn't feel that well. I decided to just take it easy in my hotel room for a while and drink my oolong tea and eat a little bit of a bun I'd bought myself for breakfast. It seemed to do the trick and by the time I had to check out, I felt much better.

I walked with my bag to the station then on to the Aer building. I was hoping to leave my suitcase in one of the lockers there. Only problem, the big ones were already taken. My stuff wouldn't fit in a smaller one. Sigh. I tried the bus station, but as it's a temporary building there weren't many lockers and they were all taken anyway. Sigh. I decided to take my suitcase back to the train station. I finally found available lockers on the third floor. Whew.

I went over to The Loft and hacked around for a while. I had lunch in that building and also got Fumihiko something for White Day. (Although White Day in Japan is for men to give to women, we usually exchange gifts then too. Just little ones anyway!)

I wandered around the Station area for quite a while today. I really didn't buy anything. I think I got shopped out last month when I was in the city. I thought about getting Fumihiko a souvenir from the gyutan shop I ate at on Sunday, but another customer pushed into line ahead of me and the waitress seemed to be pointedly ignoring me, so I went elsewhere! I bought some at another stall where the lady was extremely friendly and even gave me a free sample!

As I was down to an hour more or less before my bus I decided to take my suitcase out and take it to the Aer Building. I still hadn't visited Maruzen books and I knew I'd be buying something there. I got my case and at the Aer Building I found an empty big locker. Hurray! It was only 100yen, but worth every penny. Without carrying my bag around I was able to look at books and magazines. I got a couple of magazines and also the second and third books in The Golden Compass series. (Some people would say it's the His Dark Materials series).

After I paid, I took my suitcase out and went over to the bus station. I was quite early, but it wasn't too early I thought. I waited for a while, and sent Fumihiko a text to say I was catching my bus soon. Just then, the bus drew up. I took my ticket and my suitcase over to the bus, the driver put the case in under the bus and I got on the bus. I sat down, and then started thinking that I was one bag short. Oh no! When I'd texted Fumihiko I'd put the bag of books down on the ground, but I hadn't picked it back up when the bus came. In fact, I could even see it there, sitting all alone on the sidewalk. ACK! I got off the bus...I made a comment to the driver about my shopping bag....grabbed it and got back on the bus. Whew! My bag of books was worth more than my bus ticket, so I'm glad I remembered in time!

I slept/dozed and listened to podcasts on the way back to Tsuruoka. Fumihiko met me at the bus station and we got my bag. It had gone to the far side of the bus again, so the driver climbed into the compartment and then banged his head on the hatch getting out. Sorry!

We had dinner at Cocos. They've changed their menu and they now have chicken. I'm glad. I never understood why they didn't have chicken on their menu. We came home via the grocery store. We're both going to cook a bit tomorrow night.

I caught up on my email and did a bit of blog reading. One of my "blog-buddies" has decided to stop blogging. It makes me sad as I usually learned a lot from her blog. I didn't always agree with her, but that can be a good thing too.

And that's it. It's so late now that I'm not even going to post this tonight. I'll do it in the morning. So, in the immortal words of Bob or Doug, "Good day, eh?"

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