On Saturday, I made more plum wine with a friend who couldn't come to the Umeshu event the other day. I made two different kinds of Umeshu with 750ml size bottles (the big one on the photo is my friend's bottle). One contains 280g ume plums, 336ml barley shouchu and 140g cane sugar (a little bit sweeter than the other day). The other one was made with 280g ume plums, 336ml barley shouchu and 112g pure honey. There were lots of choices of honey at the local supermarket. I chose a pricey Japanese honey at ¥848/250g, but I wonder if I would be able to tell the difference.

This year's season for making Umeshu (ume plum liqueur) has arrived quickly. My friends and I gathered at my place to make Umeshu together, just like last year. As the organiser of this event, I ordered special ume plums this year. The Umeshu will be amazing (hopefully).

The BIALETTI "Moka Express" is the most well known aluminum stovetop espresso maker in the world. But the classic beautiful shape has been changed recently. I was sad about the new design, so I bought three "original" Moka Express in 3, 6 and 9 cup sizes. We already had 1 cup and 9 cup sizes, so now we have five coffee makers. But I feel like I need one more in the 3 cup size because we use that all the time and we might burn the handle or something.

It seems like many Japanese can't really get into watching the World Cup anymore (already!) because of our bad match on Monday. But I'm going to enjoy this event with German beer. I wanted to buy more German beer to taste, but lots of them were sold out. I guess I'm not the only one doing this. Even though Japan is not doing well, I want my second and third homes England and Germany to win their matches!

I don't usually read manga, but I used to read Oishinbo, the gourmet comic (the cover looks like this). I felt like reading Oishinbo again, so I went to a library. The librarian told me it is available only in a set of fifteen, and it came with a special library bag! When C saw the bag, he was really amazed (or amused) about Japanese manga culture. And I guess sixty volumes were too many to borrow at once...

It seems like floury potatoes are too popular in my neighbourhood. I hardly see waxy Mayqueen potatoes anywhere. I had to cycle to a greengrocer at the next station when I really needed some, and they had to go to the back of the store to get me some Mayqueen potatoes. They told me that they didn't display Mayqueen because nobody buys them. I wonder what kind of potatoes people use to make Japanese curry or Niku-jaga without Mayqueen! The other day, I found a new kind of potato called Cynthia (in Japanese) at our local supermarket. It's from France (grown in Japan) and it was quite good! It has a waxy texture and a slightly sweet flavour. I think Cynthia will be our new friend! We can finally make the German potato salad.