Coloring And Japanese Number Puzzles

 I thought that having a lot to read would keep me occupied while I waited for Mikey, but there is only so much I can read in one sitting.  I love reading and can easily get through one or two books a week, but I felt I needed something different to do. 

I thought about knitting or crocheting, but wool is difficult to find; there's a knitting boom at the moment!

So what else can I do as I sit and wait while Mikey teaches?  No wi-fi at the community center, so I can't do anything online. I thought about downloading videos from YouTube, but my headphones are broken. 

A stroll through Diaso, the 100 yen shop, gave me a couple of ideas! 

One is coloring. There are these lovely books for adult coloring. I chose one that seemed easy to do, just pictures of flowers. I was amazed at how absorbing it is. I haven't really colored since I was in elementary school and thought the idea of coloring rather childish.  But making the pictures come to life is a lot harder and requires more concentration than I thought it would.  I only do a few minutes at a time because my back starts to hurt but I'm really enjoying it.

The other book I found was a Japanese number puzzle book. Actually, this was Christopher's idea!  You have to figure out where the numbers go to complete a grid. The catch is not repeating the numbers in the small grid and not repeating them horizontally or vertically on the page. Rather challenging but fun, I was rather surprised the other day, I got so into it that 45 minutes passed without me realizing!

My coloring and puzzle book

Also, I try to walk around the gym if it isn't being used, I can do up to 3000 steps, it takes two or three times to get that many. It helps with my knee and hip, if I'm just sitting for the whole 3 or 4 hours I get very stiff!

I'm on the look out for more portable hobbies, but am very happy with what I'm doing now!