A Barbecue at Home

This evening we had some of the Takeuchi family's friends and extended family over for a barbecue.  There were many different foods including sausages, octopus, squid, yakisoba, and a variety of vegetables.  Even with all those choices, my favorite food tonight was definitely the nagashi soumen.  There was a large bamboo slide with water running down it and a strainer at the bottom end.  Someone put soumen in at the top of the slide and everyone would lineup along the side and try to catch some soumen with chopsticks.  It was really fun.  Catching soumen wasn't very difficult, but then we tried using grapes.  Even though the grapes were very large (about twice the size of our grapes in America) they were very difficult to catch.  I was only able to catch one, but that is still a pretty good accomplishment.

everyone lined up for nagashi soumen

nagashi soumen

me being proud about the first large bunch of soumen I had caught

After the meal we opened a bag of marshmallows and sent mochi down the nagashi soumen slide.  The mochi were clear and the sun had set, so it was difficult to see the mochi  Even when I could see the pieces, they were very slippery and hard to catch.  I caught maybe five or so.  All the kids (including me) roasted marshmallows over the barbecue coals.  After making a few rounds of normal roasted marshmallows, I decided to put sugar on some and roast them that way.  Caramelized sugar would go really well with marshmallows.  When I started to cook my sugar-coated marshmallows, one of them soon fell into the coals.  I tried to retrieve it, but it was impossible.  I watched my remaining marshmallow very closely and when I saw it start to droop off the skewer I quickly pulled it away from the heat.  The marshmallow continued to melt then fell off the skewer, so I instinctively tried to catch it (with my bare hand).  That was not a very good idea.  I caught the marshmallow (with melted sugar on the outside) and now I have a partial second-degree burn.  I didn't even get to try to marshmallow since I had to drop it as fast as I could.

some perfectly cooked marshmallows

my burn (a few hours later)

After we had finished the barbecue (and taking care of my burn), we all went inside.  Since the farewell party is tomorrow evening and the next day I leave in the afternoon, this was my last evening with just the Takeuchi family.  As a mini farewell party, we had a cake.  The cake was really special not only because it was part of a celebration my family had prepared for me, but also because it had my face on it!  And it wasn't just photo paper; my face had been painted on the cake.  It looked really good and it tasted good too.  The cake was actually for both me and Yura since I am leaving Japan and it was her birthday earlier this week.

my family and me with the cake

Yura and me with the cake

the cake (it says "Happy birthday Yura" on the lower left