BBQ: Nagoya Style

On Sunday I decided to join a BBQ hosted by my volleyball club.  We haven't been playing vball too much lately since it's been so hot, but we still need an excuse to get together and see each other.

First off, the obligatory weather check... the temperature was 96, and the heat index was a blistering 109!! 

I seriously considered not leaving the safety of my air conditioned apartment, but after a week in China I really missed speaking English!

BBQs are a big production in Japan.  If you want to do any type of grilling, you have to go to a public area.  Generally, you have to pay and reserve these areas.  We found a park with fire pits that did not require a reservation, so we decided to give it a try!

After a 10-minute walk to the station, 20-minute train ride, and another 10-minute walk, we arrived at the park. 

Here is our grilling station.

I volunteered to keep an eye on the smoldering charcoal and our belongings while everyone else trekked to the grocery store. 

It wasn't a gracious thing to do.  I just thought I might die of exhaustion if I had to walk anymore and especially while carrying heavy bags of food!

I made the right decision.  The store was further away than they expected, and they were gone over 1 hour. 

No worries though.  I had the cute baseball boys playing soccer on the hill to keep me entertained.  In addition, our Japanese grilling neighbors gave me some of their freshly cooked food (yaki soba) probably because I looked so sad sitting all by myself!

Our classy seating area consists of "leisure seats" (aka lawn tarps). 

Notice there are more empty picnic tables over yonder, but most people in Japan don't mind sitting on the ground!

Here's a few gals eating their kabobs. 

(Where do you think I got the ubiquitous peace signs from in all my pics?!)

The roasted marshmallows on skewers were a real hit!  Obviously, they don't have chocolate bars or graham crackers in Japan for s'mores, but someone thought to buy cookies with a chocolate center.  Twist them off and put a gooey marshmallows inside... Pure Genius!!

I will admit that I had a few marshmallows, but every time I got close to the fire pit, I felt like my skin was going to melt off!

Someone even brought their miniature pug with them!  Although she's tied to the tree, she never moved an inch.  (Probably because she was overheating)

We stayed until the sun went down... you know, 6 o'clock!!   Then the mosquitoes came out with a vengeance and drove us all away.

Here's our crazy group of BBQ/volleyball enthusiasts!!