BARBEQUE WITH FRIENDS

Last Sunday we went to Nojimakoen after church and had a barbeque luncheon with some of Ruther’s officemates and friends. It was a pre-planned event so we know about this days before. We haven't been to the place yet and this will be my first Japanese barbeque-ing experience so I was quite excited. The place was a huge park but the barbeque-ing area was in a place where a small fishing pond was located. There were lots of people young and old alike who fished for fun. Ethan had a wonderful time looking at the worms on the hooks. Of course, after they caught the fish (they were around 5 inches in length or so) they unhooked them and threw them back into the man-made lake. The boys had fun playing with the frisbee and bubbles we brought with us. There were other kids there too (children of a couple of Ruther's officemates) but it took a while for them to play together because Nikki and Ethan didn’t speak Nihongo and the kids didn’t speak English. But kids will be kids and eventually they played together and chased each other and played ball. We also had fun sitting by the pond and looking at the crawling hermit crabs, the tiny fry and the sleek silver fish that jumped out of the water to get away from fishermen’s hooks. And I could never understand why but the boys enjoyed throwing pebbles into the pond so much. I had to sternly tell them to leave the poor fish alone. The boys had their nap at around 3pm (which surprised some of our Japanese friends and we explained siesta to them) while the other kids kept on playing. It was fun seeing the people Ruther worked with and it was nice seeing their families. I always wondered about Ruther's friends and co-workers and it was great to finally meet them and to put faces to the names so often mentioned in conversation. Anyway, the food was delicious but there was just too much I felt like I had just been eating the entire afternoon. Of course, I also noticed that their barbeque is different from ours. We usually have most of the food on barbeque sticks and I remember that we also barbeque seafood whenever we would go to the beach. Then again, it was a fun experience and I really enjoyed it. We didn't think we would be leaving the park so late but the long day was worth it. I hope that there will be more days like last Sunday.