BBQ at Mieko's

Sunday morning I woke up earlier than I wanted to - as usual, it was because I had to pee. but once I'm up, I'm up, so I lazed around doing nothing until 10. At 10, I realized that I had to be at Michel's at 10:45 so I could bike with him and Yoshiko over to Isao and Tomoko's place. At 10:43 (according to Vodafone cellphone time) I arrived at Michel's apartment. As I turned the corner they were smiling because they could hear the squeal of my breaks while I was still blocks away (note: the back break on most bikes here is basically a metal on metal set up, so the sound is, to say the least, annoying). We biked over to Isao and Tomoko's and hopped in their car to head over to Mieko and Hirofumi's house. The first thing Michel and I noticed was the fact that their house had a yard - something pretty rare over here where space is a major commodity. More than just having a yard, they had a lawn. I felt at home instantly:
The tables were filled with all sorts of meats, vegetables, and drinks - everything we needed for the perfect Japanese style BBQ:
I loved these little mushrooms wrapped in bacon. The only problem is that the bacon here is quite a bit different from the bacon we get in the States - this stuff was probably more along the lines of what we call Canadian bacon (sorry, Michel). Nevertheless, they were tasty.
Here's all the wonderful food grilling away - the chicken, the peppers, the mushrooms, the squid, the cartilage kebobs - wait! CARTILAGE? Yes, you heard right. They call it soft bone here and they love it - even my sister-in-law talked about how much she enjoyed it. I tried one and it was exactly how you'd imagine it would be - slightly rubbery, softly crunchy and lacking in any degree of flavor.
The squid, however, was wonderful. I think they just covered it in soy before grilling - it was wonderful:
Here is the happy couple who are going to be even happier in around two weeks - congrats, you guys:

I love this picture because of the difference between all three. They are all looking at Rin, the daughter of one of Mieko's friends. Yoshiko is delighted, Michel wants to capture the moment as I did, and Mieko is completely gleeful. Mieko and her husband are avid snowboarders and Mieko was a snowboarding instructor for a time. Maybe I will go out with them some time this winter after I master skiing with Michel and Yoshiko:
And here's what Yoshiko, Michel, and Mieko were looking at - young Rin trying to take a picture:
And here she is with her mum:
by mid afternoon it began to sprinkle, so we folded up the tables and chairs and brought the party indoors. Tomoko had brought a great dessert with fruit and cubes of a really delicous milk pudding (and you know how I LOVE pudding). Here's the gang at the table going left to right: Hirofumi, Michel, Yoshiko, Mieko, Tomoko, and Isao:
Here's the gang again with me - Hirofumi took this one:
There was a vitamin bottle-style bottle that actually held gum in it. Built into the side of the bottle is a place where there is a pack of post-it notes. The purpose for this is so that you have a small square of paper to deposit your gum in when finished with it. Tomoko and I used the paper to make a couple of paper cranes:

On Monday, Michel and I got together, made Indian food (potatoes braised in yogurt sauce, gujarati dal, and rice) and watched Equalibrium and Alien Resurrection, but I didn't take any pictures. Michel did tho'.