Thunderstorm

There's a CRAZY storm moving through right now-almost constant rumbling thunder for the last 45 minutes! Amazing!

HURRAY! BBQ!

After searching off and on for about two years, I finally found one: a mini Weber BBQ grill (well, OK, it's actually from Coleman company, but close enough). I wanted a small grill to put on the veranda (or balcony or deck or patio depending on your local dialect; in Japan, "beranda" seems to be the most common word). I had the usual color from America in mind: black. However, Japan is the culture of "kawaii", which basically means "cute". That's a long, complicated story, so click the link if you want to know more. So, there were no black BBQs. The choice was light blue, or . . . pink. No, I am NOT joking. Obviously, I chose blue. I will be BBQing hamburgers soon. They will NOT be cute.

Another storm in "Thundertown"

I've probably mentioned this before, but some people here have told me that Utsunomiya's nickname is "Thundertown" because of the frequent lightning storms during the summer. Well, it's that season, so here's a short video. From our balcony on the sixth floor, we get a pretty good view of the area. The storm was far enough away that no thunder could be heard, but we definitely heard some earlier in the day! Very low quality video, but you get the idea (cell phone camera, bad lighting, etc. etc...) I'm looking forward to this evening, because there's a firework show not far away, and we may be able to see it from here!

(Video is offline right now...)

America 2011 Pictures 7 (conclusion)

We spent a lot of time just relaxing with family, and enjoying my parents' hospitality, which included a delicious Thanksgiving in April--thanks, Mom! And thanks, Gayle, for your always delicious lemon meringue pie! (There's a picture of one of our meals together that's very blurry, but I liked everyone's smiling faces, so I'm including it anyway...)
My father is an excellent woodworker and craftsman; you can see the amazing detail of his handmade deer figures and ship model. It's a model of the USS Constellation, which has a special connection to my father. That ship is the oldest surviving vessel in the United States Navy, and is now a floating museum. In the late 1980s, my father was part of the team that cut the huge pieces of wood that they needed to restore the ship.
On this trip, I sorted more boxes at my parents' house, and brought back about half of my musical instrument collection. In the picture, my sister is holding one of the more unique pieces that's now in the "Utsunomiya Branch" of my museum.

I think that's all the America pictures for this year, so on to other adventures next...

Fish Head Soup

The next-door neighbor gave us some delicious fish. He included the head, which is frequently considered inedible in America, but is the source of fish head soup in many other places in the world, including here. Nozomi made some wonderful sushi, some great fish and chips, and fish head soup. We're just about to have it for lunch. This topic, of course, made me think of a famous (infamous?) song from many years ago....
Click this link if you want to have a strange song stuck in your head.
(Or click THIS link if you want to watch the whole, bizarre video.)