Let's eat!

Sunday was a great day, one of the best in Japan so far.
Fumi had invited us to a barbeque. A schoolfriend of her dad has a barbeque each year at his farm and she though we might enjoy it. She was right! It is a fruit farm, growing mandarin oranges, full-size oranges and persimmon. It is a strange location up in the mountains about 45 minutes outside of Hamamatsu. The area was entirely rural until about 20 years ago when the first large company decided to build there. Probably the biggest presence in the area is Roland (manufacturers of keyboards) and a couple of people at the barbecue worked there.
We rolled up at the barbecue and Fumi brought out gifts for the hosts. She showed us around the farm (pictures should appear on this page..). It was really beautiful and a stark contrast to the ugly company buildings only 5 minutes away. After we had been wandering for a while we headed back to the bbq and found ourselves a comfortable crate to perch on. Then the food started coming... and coming... and coming... Forget sausages and burgers. We had four different types of fish (freshly caught from Hamana Lake), steamed rice with red beans, marinated pork and chicken, tonjiru (a pork/vegetable stew), yaki soba (a type of noodle), ice cream and cake all washed down with nice cold beer. Yum!
We then went on a 10 minute walk to a nearby stream. There were plenty of kids at the bbq and this was a bit of a ritual for the group. We arrived at the stream and then people started pulling plastic bags out of their pockets. Everyone then began overturning the larger stones. Freshwater crabs tried running for cover but were quickly popped into the bags. After almost losing my finger a couple of times I figured out the knack of picking them up and helped to deplete the local crustacean population. We carried them back to the barbecue and after saying thankyous and goodbyes, we headed home (with a carrier bag full of oranges). I am not completely sure of the fate of the crabs but I did hear some of the children saying, "Oishiso!" or "Looks delicious!" so I don't think that the crabs will be seeing the stream again...
D