Japan Diaries 4: Weekend 33


Weekend 33: June 18-19, 2022

Day 229: June 18, 2022

Saturday - Grocery Day

We were planning to go to the town of Mashike today but the weather was not on our side. According to the weather forecast, it would rain the whole day starting at noon. True enough it did. 

Calm before the storm

Grocery time in COOP Rumoi

We also went to Daiso Rumoi to buy baking needs

We saw these cute Father's Day cakes in COOP Rumoi

We bought our fave shu cream and tried this delicious-looking bread

We went to COOP Rumoi to buy groceries before noon and were lucky enough to get back home before the heavy rains fell.

The Third Murder

That afternoon, after resting, we watched the 2017 Japanese drama/mystery film, The Third Murder. We had mixed feelings about the film. My wife wasn't that impressed with the slow pace of the story while I, on the other hand, enjoyed the good old mystery courtroom drama. 

Here's some trivia about the film; some parts of the film were shot in Rumoi City and Mashike. 

Keep Sweet! Pray and Obey

After the film, we watched a few episodes of the Netflix docuseries Keep Sweet! Pray and Obey. It got us hooked that we almost finished the whole series in one day. We had to pause our binge-watching because my wife would make baked sushi and I want to help her too. 


Perfectly made baked sushi

The baked sushi turned out well. As a matter of fact, it was the best way to wrap up the day. 


Day 230: June 19, 2022

Sunday - Father's Day / Chichi no Hi

Happy Father's Day or Chichi no Hi to all the dads out there! It's a beautiful day today. My wife wanted to celebrate the day so we headed out to buy ingredients for the Father's Day party here at our house later in the afternoon.

We bought fresh octopus from Kishihata Fish Shop

We first went to Kishihata Fish Shop (岸畑魚店) near Rumoi JR Station to buy octopus tentacles for our takoyaki. 

We went to COOP Rumoi again. This time to buy ingredients for the takoyaki and jap chae

We also bought more shu cream and some other sweets

From there, we went to COOP Rumoi to buy other ingredients for the takoyaki and jap chae dishes that my wife is planning to make. We also bought some cake as we enjoyed the ones that we bought yesterday. 

Time to make authentic takoyaki

Takoyaki feast in 3...2...1...

Finished product: takoyaki

Time to prepare the ingredients for jap chae

Team Nicerio dishes
Finished product: jap chae

Team Nicerio
Bonus: dumpling


We spent the remainder of the morning cleaning the house and cooking as we will have some guests in the afternoon. 

Teacher Kanda


Teacher Kanda and Joshua arrived a little past 4PM to join us for this celebration. We had a great time with them and Teacher Kanda even invited us to her place for the upcoming town festival and also for the tea ceremony class. It was something that we are now looking forward to doing.

Overall, it was another fulfilling weekend. We got to enjoy Father's Day as a family and also with friends.

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Location: Rumoi, Hokkaido, Japan

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