Summer BBQs - Japanese Style

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Hello everyone,

The count down continues - 6 days until my 2 week summer vacation begins! Last weekend I head to Awajii island a huge island - I´ve been told its the same physical size as Bali or Singapore but significantly less populated, with a population of 150,000, not far from the main Honshu island where Kobe is located. I travel to Awajii once a month to teach a private lesson and have dinner with some Japanese friends who live there. This past weekend I was invited to a special bbq on the island for some highschool and college students from the area who are headed to the U.S. to do a homestay for the week. We practiced some English conversation - some students seemed pleased to try their English out on me and others looked absolutely terrified and clearly wanted nothing to do with me!!! It seems to go either way here. I met only lovely young girl who told me in quite good English that she had 2 dreams in life - to be an English teacher and to be like Mother Teresa - I wished her well on both counts and then we head off to a Japanese style bbq! It was outstanding! They do bbqs a little different thean we do back in Canada, gone our the mounds of hotdogs, hamburgers and potato salad I´m accustom to at home , instead thin slices of beef are grilled along with corn on the cob, big chunks of onion and asparagus, mushrooms and cabbage - all quite tasty!
The set up is also a little different - everyone sits around a picnic table with a built-in grill in the center and everyone grills what they would like to eat for themselves. It was a wonderful time and I met a lot of wonderful people who welcomed me into their community with open arms !

Other than that not too much new to report - the hot weather has returned to Kobe so my days before work are spent enjoy the AC at my friendly neighbourhood Starbucks ! I am particularly enjoying the Mango or Green Tea frappacinos that are popular here!

We had this week off from kids classes - but I had to demo one for some potential new students and their parents - both were babies around 1 year old! They couldn´t really speak Japanese let alone English but they were super cute! One kid´s whole family turned out for the lesson- mom, dad, aunt, uncle and grandma! They take education very seriously here!!!

Hope you are well- please drop me a line its always great to get news from home!
love, Melissa

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Photos

Japanese BBQ
THE GRILL

Ikebana
My latest ikebana creation and my teacher, Chuma

Comments

[Katie]

Sounds like fun
Hey Mel, Your BBQ sounded like it was fun..way different from here. One question though, what is with everybody giving the peace sign in the pictures? When we were in Hawaii I noticed a lot of Japanese tourists were doing it in their pictures. Must be a new trend : ) I hope you are able to enjoy your 2 week break. I am looking forward to seeing you at home in the fall...I am going to try and trek up to Ottawa : )

[ang]

perhaps you should ship one of those grilling tables home for connie and neil?

[Cathy]

Have a great vacation
Hi Mel, hope you're well. I love reading your blogs. Take lots of pics when you're in Tokyo, OK? Must get myself one of those ice pillows -- we really needed something like that here last week, I'm sure you heard -- VERY hot and humid. Hope your weather has been a little better than that. Talk to you soon. -- Cathy