Day 495: March 11, 2023
Saturday – Rumoi x Chippubetsu
It’s my 71st weekend here in Rumoi City (留萌市). While most places in southern Japan are experiencing the beauty of spring, Rumoi City is still mostly blanketed by snow. Regardless, according to the weather forecast today is a partially cloudy day. This means that the sun will show itself once in a while making today a good day to travel.
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| Kawakami Internal Medicine Clinic |
However, before thinking about where we would go today our priority is my COVID-19 vaccination at Kawakami Internal Medicine Clinic located in Rumoi City. I’ll be having my 3rd shot of Pfizer. After my vaccination, we were thinking of resting at home in case there were side effects. Thankfully, the vaccine does not have any adverse effects, unlike my first Pfizer shot where I felt drowsy and a bit feverish. Since it was still early and I feel well we decided to push with our mini-road trip plan.Team Nicerio visits Hamanakaundo Park
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| Hamanakaundo Park |
We drove to Hamanakaundo Park on the southwestern side of Rumoi City. Sadly, a large part of the park was still closed to the public so to kill time, we did some stretching activities in one of the open areas instead.
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| Driving through Fukagawa - Rumoi Expressway |
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| Next destination for today: Chippunbetsu |
After that, we didn’t want to waste a perfectly beautiful day so we decided to drive somewhere else. We weren’t able to decide where immediately so while thinking about where to go, we first went home to get some food and drinks. We ultimately decided to revisit the town of Chippubetsu (秩父別町) which is a 40-minute drive from our place.
Our first destination in Chippubetsu was the Chippu Shrine / Chichibu Shrine. Although we already visited Chippubetsu twice in the past, it was our first time visiting the shrine. My daughter and I did our “father and daughter pilgrimage” by paying respects and offering prayers in the shrine. After which, we made a wish before heading out.  |
| Chippubetsu Bell Arch |
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| This exhibit about how life in Chippubetsu was years ago is one of my favorites. |
From there were driven to the Chippubetsu Folk Museum. It was closed when we arrived but there was a note saying that we should inform the museum staff in the library if we wanted to explore the museum and I did. We were able to enter the museum and learn a lot about the rich history of Chippubetsu. As a history buff, I now appreciate the town more.
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| I'm happy that my wife joined the fun |
After our museum experience, we walked to the nearby Kid's Square Chikkuru to have our “Ella Time”. My wife and I played with Ella and enjoyed the day in the indoor playground with her.  |
| Quick grocery shopping at the COOP in Rumoi City |
We left Chippubetsu at around 4 PM. When we got to Rumoi City, we went straight to COOP to do a quick grocery shopping before heading back home. We got home a little before 6 PM. Before calling it a day, we watched the Netflix documentary MH370 The Plane That Disappeared. We only managed to watch the first episode. I wanted to binge-watch it, but was already sleepy after the first one.Overall, we are resuming our #Hokkaido179 road trips but since most of the towns are still covered in snow, we only drive to those that are nearby to visit places that we missed or revisit those that we enjoyed the most. Today, we just did a half-day trip to Chippubetsu. Hopefully, we can do the multi-town trips again.Read more:
Japan Diaries 4: Weekend 71
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