saturday in japan

saturday casey took us to the beach so laurie could put her feet in the sea of japan. there were not many shells at this beach. the sand is very fine and there were lots of crab holes. casey had fun poking a stick in them until one finally ran out. we needed to be sure there really were crabs in them. it was another hot day and it was a nice walk along the water. there were no sunbathers or swimmers, different from a hot sunny day on the cape for sure...

casey and chieko had planned a cook out for the neighbors and some of their coworkers, so from the beach we went grocery shopping. we got lots of meat. i told casey i would make potato salad so we got the makings for that too and of course i had to get some things to bring home with me. $$$.

we got back with little time to spare before people started coming over. chieko made yummy pizza and everyone brought something to add to the meal. i had brought a couple of boxes of brownie mix with me so we popped those in the oven in some cake pans i found in the kitchen. casey and chieko don't have a traditional oven like we do in the u.s they have a microwave/convection oven and it has 2 shelves, so we made 2 pans and popped them in, intending to switch them around 1/2 way through... well it turns out i grabbed PLASTIC pans (they looked like foil to me)... they don't bake so well. when chieko checked them, the pans were misshapen and on the verge of melting.we scooped most of the batter into one glass pan and put them back in the oven, thinking they wouldn't be pretty, but would still taste fine.... that's when laurie noticed that there were bits of one of the plastic pans missing.... hmmm was it melted into the batter, were there whole bits baking into the brownies?... we didnt serve them. we have been eating them, watching for pieces of red or silver, laurie won when she found the first piece of plastic in her brownie. it makes me feel better to know that we are not eating melted baked in plastic, but that the bits are removable. (we would still eat them, they are brownies after all!!)

the barbecue was great... the weather was perfect, the food delicious, every thing got eaten and the company couldn't have been better. we were stuffed.

laurie and i had come inside for a bit and we heard the neighbors calling at the front door, "casey mama, casey mama" so we went to the door and they had gifts for us. casey mama and friend. we all do a lot of nodding and gesturing when casey or chieko are not around, haha... anyway they gave us each a japanese fan, some hashi (chopsticks) that are well known for the way in which they are made. we each got a hello kitty phone charm from the a different region of japan. mine is making a clay pot, representing a region (i think it is from where one neighbor is from originally) famous for their pottery and lauries has a theater mask representing the prefecture known, obviously, for theater. the neighbors said it is "noh", which i believe is a dance. i could be confused and none of what i just said is true, but i think i got it almost right, haha. the gift that they were most delighted to give us was a specially made fan. one neighbor made it where he works, it's an original, hah. it is an inexpensive flat paddle fan with custom made stickers on each side. one side says, "welcome to hakusan city" in japanese, the other side says, "welcome to hentai city" in english. hentai means pervert. they got a big kick out of telling us that. the fans work great, i must say... it has been HOT... it is raining like mad right now though.