Barbecue!

Yeah...I haven't posted anything for a while as of late, just because....I haven't. Oops. But anyway! Back to posting, and redeeming myself. ;D

Yesterday afternoon Takeshi and I went over to the Ishii's house for a "Welcome to Japan (for me)" and a "Welcome Back!" (for Takeshi) barbecue party/get-together. The Ishii's have been very good friends of Takeshi's family since he was little, he told me. They have two sons, the younger of which, Junpei, is currently dating Takeshi's sister. Takeshi's best friend is the older son, Ryosuke. Mrs. Ishii had been wanting to pick a day to do it and decided last weekend that yesterday would be the day, rain or shine, since she said we shouldn't put it off anymore. Takeshi and I left the house at around 6pm. Baasan had already been over there - I guess for some mingling with the other ladies and such. Takeshi said that she would be coming back to the house, though, and returning again later with Tousan when he got home from work. Saori would be coming later on at around 7pm, after she returned from school. The Ishii house is about a 5 minute walk down the street from our house, if you walk really slow. The Ishii's own a lot of land, for being in Japan. On their "home turf" they have 3 building all together, situated in the shape of a "U". When you walk into the front yard/parking area, to the left you have the Ishii's old house, where they used to live. As of now, the residents of this house are the Ishii grandparents (who's mother and father, I don't know). To your right is a large shed-like building which hold various yard tools, storage space, and chopped pieces of wood. And at the back, to your front is the new house that the Ishii's had built. This house is a very western-looking house. It is built totally out of wood (which I've been told they had imported out-of-country = expensive). This house looks like it was taken right out of mountain country, in the States. I always think "log cabin" when I see it.

When we arrived, we were led around to the back of the house to the back deck, where they had set up a table with chairs and various other barbecue items. At the back of the deck, Mr, Ishii was already starting to grill groups of sliced onions, slices of beef, eggplant, and sausages. At the front gate we stopped to say hello to Nana, the family's dog of 3 years, who is a Bernese Mountain Dog. Nana is very friendly with everyone she meets so Takeshi and I always make sure to spoil her and give her lots of belly rubs and pets when we come over. :) Mr Ishii was grilling all of the food in a certain way that I've seen other Japanese family's do it - he takes a small, thick pot filled with active coals, places a sheet of metal over it, and then places the meat on top of that. They had about three of these little "grilling stations" on the deck behind the table. I had never really officially met Mr. Ishii before then, since (like every other Japanese father) he had always still been at work when I had visited the house. So I took this chance to say hi to him and to properly say "Hajimemashite onegaishimasu" ("Nice to meet you.") to him. He seemed like a very nice, laid-back guy. The whole Ishii family is very down-to-earth, friendly, and easy going - even more so than my in-laws, I think. Mrs. Ishii has got to be one of the most energetic women I've ever met. One time when we arrived at the house to visit, she came down from the front porch and leaped right up to me to utter a big "KONNICHIWA LORA!" Other people would think she's a bit weird, but I actually really like it, since she's able to not be so shy around a foreigner and say hi to me.


Mr. Ishii grilling on the back deck.

Ryosuke in the green, Takeshi in white right behind him, and Mrs. Ishii's friend on the right. Mrs. Ishii in the black shirt at the center of the photo.

Mrs. Ishii's friend was there as well with us. I've met her before a couple of times, but Takeshi and I still don't know her first name. Later on, Mrs. Ishii and her went to get her husband from work, and he helped Mr. Ishii grill for a while, near the end of the barbecue. Only after about an hour of being there, we could start to feel tiny raindrops hitting us, so we decided to pick up everything and take it inside the house for the rest of the night. Mr Ishii would stay outside to grill food, and we would bring it in inside. I felt bad for him, but fortunately it actually did not rain for the rest of the night. And also, as the night went on, they moved all the "grill stations" to the side of the house (since they had a wrap-around porch), and then the grilling was going on right outside of the sliding storm door, which was conveniently located next to the dining table.



Takeshi enjoying his favorite - a Guinness.

Cow intestines! Not my favorite. It's like chewing meat flavored bubble gum.

The Ishii's house was FILLED with stuff. This is usual of many (maybe all...) Japanese homes. I thought OUR house had a lot of stuff until I saw their house. I can definitely see the Japanese custom of surrendering to materialism. Half of the dining room table was being swallowed up by a pile of "nothing-stuffs". I call it stuff because there's no way to categorize all of it. It's all of the things you see in a store of kind and say "Wow, that has almost no use to it." I could sense that somewhere in the mountains of items, the Ishii's were trying to organize it. It wasn't working very well.


The rest of the family arrives.

Mrs. Ishii and Tousan sitting at the table.
The two husbands grilling away.
Takeshi and Saori share a conversation with Mrs. Ishii's friend's husband.

Takeshi and Saori with the cluttered house behind them.

By about 8:30pm, everyone had arrived and assembled at the house, and everyone was talking, eating, or playing with Nana (*AHEM* Takeshi *cough*) For the first time since arriving here in Japan, I felt a small sense of "family" and "friends", there with the Ishii's and my in-laws. And at the same time I felt very alone, since my own family and friends were not there to celebrate and visit with me on my recent, and various accomplishments and life-changes.


The Ishii's friend and Nana.

Nana doing a trick. Waiting....

At several times during the night I would surprise the people there by how much Japanese I knew. At one point, I sat inside with Tousan, Mr. and Mrs. Ishii, and her friend, and talked about what I liked to eat. They wanted to know if I liked sashimi, or was ok with it. Little did they know, that I've liked sushi and sashimi for a long time before that. :) When Mrs. Ishii and her friend came back from picking up her friend's husband, they presented us "kids" with a small pack of fireworks.

After a while he took them outside in front of the old Ishii house and waved them about, drew with them in the air, and stared at them until they expired. Emerald greens, fiery reds, and white sparks in the night. Overall, a very good night.


Fireworks!

Saori and Junpei lighting fireworks.

Ie

As requested, here is a look at the house in which I live with my husband's family.


A view from the street.


A view of the neighborhood street past the house.


A view of the dining room from first walking into it from the hallway.


A view of the kitchen from the dining room. Takeshi and Kaasan were looking for something. :D


The backyard/garden.


Our bedroom!


The veerrryy steep stairs that go downstairs from our bedroom.


The tiled area infront of the door, where everyone puts their shoes before entering the house.


This is the room that you're in before the bathing room - washer, sink, and mirror.


The bathing room, with the tub, hose, floor mat, and shampoos, soaps, etc.

Arcade-O-Rama

Ok, I've decided to use some different terminology from now on in my posts, because I'm a little tired of typing "my father-in-law" and "my grandmother-in-law." And besides, that's no where close to what I, and the rest of the family for that matter, actually call them from day to day. So here is a list so you shall know who I'm talking about:

- "Otousan" or "Tousan" = father/dad (my father-in-law)
- "Okaasan" or "Kaasan" = mother/mom (my mother-in-law)
- "Obaasan" or "Baasan" = grandmother/grandma (my grandmother-in-law)
- and Saori is my sister-in-law, Takeshi's sister. :) easy enough.

The first three terms above have the option of being more polite with the adding of the "O" at the beginning, such as "O-kasan" instead of just "Kasan". Just makes it more polite.

Anyway! Takeshi and I went to the mall again the other day, for some reason which I cannot recall now (oops). Whenever we're at the mall Takeshi and I almost always make a visit to this one store who sells a lot of San-X merchandise, specifically Rilakkuma items. Rilakkuma is a combination of the Japanese pronunciation for relax and the Japanese word for bear, which is "kuma" - so Rilakkuma is also commonly known as Relaxation Bear. He is also shown with two other characters "Korilakkuma" a white baby bear, and "Kiiroitori" a small yellow bird. Takeshi and I think that these characters are pretty cute, and have been trying to pick one of the plushies in the store to buy.



Right next to that store in the mall, is a huge arcade. Lo and behold one day, we both walk in to the arcade to just look around and we find that several of the arcade machines have Rilakkumas in them. Takeshi has stated that he's always been good at the "claw" arcade games so he wanted to try to nab one of the bears. And why not? It was only 200 yen per try. Of course we both forgot that the sole purpose of arcade games is to rob you of your money and leave you sniffling with anger and shame.

Needless to say, we did not manage to rescue any cute plushies from any of the machines. And it didn't help that in the middle of all of these machines that there was a HUGE Rilakkuma plushie just sitting there, looking cuter than ever. We got out before the addiction of arcade games took complete control. So we sobered up and went right next door again, to BUY a Rilakkuma plush. We don't know why we didn't just do that from the beginning.

Conveyer Belt Dinner

A few weeks ago, the family decided to go out for dinner. I can probably recall that it was on a weekend, since my father-in-law was there (=not a work day). Also, my grandmother-in-law was absent, which is very rare, because a friend of hers had recently died. About a day earlier, she had left for a couple of days, to go to the presumed funeral and to visit that family. I though that her absence was a rare and unique thing, since I get the feeling that when she is at home for dinner (which is always, always, always), then that means the family is eating at home, and not out somewhere. So the parents, me, Takeshi, and Saori went to a sushi restaurant near the "BelCity" mall.

But this was not your average sushi restaurant. This particular restaurant was a "kaitenzushi" - in short, "conveyer belt sushi". When you walk into the place, there is a small waiting area at the front of the restaurant. On one side of the restuarant are rows of booths going back, and on the other side there are rows of single bar-type seats. When you sit down at the either of these seats, there is a conveyer belt that runs along side it, within arms reach from where you are sitting. This converyer belt winds and curves throughout the groups of booths and bar seats, so that people can eagerly wait for what they fancy and grab it off of the belt as it comes their way. Miniature signs are placed on the conveyer belt as well, to section off certain sushi, and tells you what it is. Also circulating around the belt may be certain desert dishes, fruit, and juice.

And this place was PACKED that night. When we walked up to it, there were dozens and dozens of people just standing outside, never mind all of the people packed inside the waiting area. It was very easy for the small plates to start to stack up on your table after eating for a while. I think the meal's total price for the four of us was come to by the waitress counting out how many plates we had eaten. I even think that the different colors of the plates (yellow, and white) had something to do with it as well. I had an excellent opportunity to try a lot of different sushi, and I had a slice of watermelon too. It was very fun, except when you had to wait forever for something you had decided you liked.