Japanese summer barbecue

Back in September I was invited to a summer barbecue by the river. One of my magician colleagues organizes a barbecue with his old friends from school every year. I was invited last year too, and it is quite nice.

This year I had received some corn the day before when I volunteered at a hospital, so I brought that along and we grilled that too. It was great. Other than that, there was lots of meat and vegetables and some fish.

People also tried to make cheese filled meat patties and some to make hamburgers. That went so-so, since the equipment available was not really appropriate...

My corn was treated in different ways. One was wrapped in some foil and shoved into the coal and one was put on the barbecue like the other vegetables. Both ways gave good results, though parts were burnt beyond the point of edible.

My friend had brought his dog, which spent large amounts of time chasing all the crows that gathered and tried to steal food from the grill.

The place these barbecues are held at is pretty nice. There is a river nearby, and it is pretty quiet.

Some of the participants decided to try some "who can jump from this rock to that rock without falling into the river" challenges. That, predictably, did not end that well.

Towards the end, people started setting marshmallows on fire and eating them. Marshmallows on fire turn out to be quite hot.

In Japan you also traditionally bring a watermelon and hit that with a stick while blindfolded. Last year they split the watermelon by hitting it karate style, and this year a different guy had to do that. It went surprisingly well, but of course after hitting it with his hand and splitting the melon, parts of the melon rolled away in the dirt and became less appetizing. This was solved to some extend by washing it in water. The edible parts were very good.

After the barbecue, everyone except me were very tired and immediately fell asleep in the car.

Swedish barbecue

Two of my friends from Sweden were in Sapporo for three or four weeks. In Sweden, having three or four weeks of vacation in the summer is very common, but in Japan it is of course unheard of. My Japanese friends that travel abroad either go on very intensive three day trips or they quite their job and go on a trip for a few weeks and then go looking for another job when they come back.

Anyway, since there were so many of us from Sweden here at the same time (three Swedes!) we were invited to a barbecue out near Sweden Hills. Actually, there is another girl from Sweden living out there, but she was not available. The food was great, of course. My friends who invited us have a big garden and just pull up potatoes, cut some edamame or whatnot when they want to eat vegetables, so the food is always very very fresh.

I also got a bear shaped cookie

Midsummer barbecue

After the Swedish style midsummer dance finished, I was invited to the home of some friends who live around there. They have fields that they rent out to someone else who grows wheat there, and they have what is either a really large garden or a pretty small field for growing things themselves too. They picked a bunch of strawberries in the garden, which made the day feel much more like midsummer than the previous dancing and somewhat Swedish food. The strawberries where excellent.

Rice balls

Garlic

We then had more food, because the only things I seem to do in Japan is either work or eat. We had a barbecue in their garden. We put things that are normal in Japan on the grill, like rice balls and fish. It was great, of course. It is also nice to have a barbecue at their place because if you want to have vegetables, they just go and dig up potatoes in the garden or cut off some asparagus etc. So you get really fresh vegetables. Their asparagus was "already too late in the season", they said, but it turned out to be great.

In Japan, everything is slightly different. Like not having any actual fire for the barbecue...

Magic bar Twister hanami: weird food, weird people, weird coincidences, no hana

If you climbed up the hill towards the temple, there were a few flowers left.

The last day of the Golden Week holidays, our magic bar had a "hanami". This word means "flower watching", but this year there were no flowers left at the end of Golden Week. In Hokkaido, hanami also means barbecue, and there were lots and lots of people having barbecues in the park this day. The guy from our team who was assigned to go and get a good spot was in the park at 6 a.m. and by then it was already difficult to get a good spot, he said. People where there as early as 4 a.m.! And the actual barbecue does not usually start until noon...

Japanese food, very healthy.

I have not seen people put noodles on the nets before (they usually use small aluminum plates).

Sausage fest

There was quite a bit of food to eat. Sausages, fish, vegetables, and endless amounts of lamb. And of course various types of guts. There was also a huge amount of alcohol. All kinds of alcohol. Some people then went up to the temple near the park and bought more alcohol, because apparently they make some at the temple.

There was another guy also wearing sunglasses, and also looking like a mafia member, so we took a photo together.

My friends sweatshirt turned very dirty very quickly.

There were quite a few interesting people coming to our barbecue. There were also people in the park for barbecue with other groups that came up to me and asked if I was from the magic bar. I said that we were all from the magic bar and pointed to the other five magicians there, but most people seemed to only remember me, for some reason.

Selfie and background photo bomb

Party hard, sleep after lunch

One guy I know from our magic bar was there partying with another group, but since he knows us too he came to our place every time he had to go to the toilet (we were in the same general direction). He then dragged me over to his other group and introduced me to them as his "zombie teacher", since I taught him how to paint his face to look like a zombie and where to get the paints etc. He looked pretty good when he did it himself.

Someone I know, not looking like a zombie.

In that group, which I was told was a random collection of people that were friends of friends etc. all starting with one guy who works as an announcer on TV, there was also a young girl I know. We visit the same weddings. And I had once run into the TV announcer too, and he vaguely remembered talking to me. Small world. They did not really know my zombie student who dragged me over to their group, though, so they wondered why I was there.

Surrounded by lots of people I don't know.

Someone I do know!

Booze made at the temple.

A final flower shot

One man hanami in Maruyama Koen

I took my bicycle to Maruyama Koen, a park where people do hanami (cherry blossom viewing) like crazy in Sapporo. The park was full of people having barbecues. This is, I am told, a local Hokkaido custom. In the rest of the country people just sit under the flowers and drink alcohol (and eat food they brought with them already cooked). In Sapporo you always have a barbecue under the cherry trees. In fact, in Hokkaido people also take "Do you want to go to the beach?" to mean "Do you want to have a barbecue, at the beach?". Which, again, I am told is weird to people from the rest of Japan too.

Most of the cherry blossoms were long gone when I got to the park, but the ume (plum trees) were looking nice. Some sakura (cherry blossoms) were still left too. Mainly in places with little sunlight.

I met one of my university friends in the park. He was there with his girlfriend. He asked me if I was there alone, and when I said "Yes" he said "Oh..." with a pitying look... I need to get some friends that can move around during the days (my friends work, so you can pretty much only meet them if you to their place of work).

A woman came up to me and said: "You are the guy with the "tettereeee!" magic trick, right?" Apparently she has been in our magic bar. And people tend to remember a trick where I keep saying "tettereee" (which is really annoying to Japanese people).

There were some festival style tents selling food on the temple grounds right next to the park, so I bought some "croissant tai-waffles". They were good.

There was a guy speeding around on something that looked like a cross between a Segway and a skateboard.

Japanese barbecue and fireworks

Barbecue

Homegrown potato, homegrown dill ("because you are from Sweden"), and chicken

Hotate (scallop?) brought over by a neighbor

Desserts

I was invited by some friends out in Sweden Hills to come over for some barbecue. They have their own fields, so the vegetables are always extremely good at their place. For instance, they dug up potatoes right before starting the barbecue.

Huge tomatoes

Blackberries

Unknown plant

They also had some Japanese fireworks. And lanterns from IKEA.

Japanese fireworks

IKEA lantern