BBQ Time in Japan

Posted by Kyle Yates in Kansai Leisure, Kansai Living

Golden Week is a great time to have family and friends over. And for those of you who are choosing to stay put and stay home away from the heavy traffic that many roads will carry this Golden Week, a great way to spend Golden Week is to have a BBQ!

The weather right now in the Kansai area is cool to warm. Lately, there has been a little rain off and on, but that shouldn’t be the case during Golden Week. The forecast for Golden Week 2009 is sunny and warm weather.

Go to your local Japan store – yes, that’s the name of the store, not the country – and purchase some charcoal, a grill (if you don’t already have one), some pink starter gel and a lighter. Japan is a good store to buy snacks and drinks also. So you may want to get everything for the BBQ from the Japan store and the vegetables and meats from a market.

A typical BBQ in Japan consists of green peppers, onions, kabocha (pumpkin), shiitake mushrooms, carrots (sometimes), shishito peppers (small long sweet green peppers), sausages, beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, octopus, rice balls dipped in soy sauce and grilled and eggplant.

Don’t forget the yakiniku sauce, beer and bread rolls!

To top off a Japanese BBQ, after you’ve polished off all the food, head over to an onsen somewhere near your house and wash away all the smoke from the BBQ! After a hot soak, you’ll be well relaxed and ready for a nice long sleep to prepare yourself for another two days of Golden Week fun.

Other options for Golden Week that don’t involve lots of travel time include: going to a park near your house, hike somewhere you’ve never been before, take a bicycle ride somewhere you’ve never been before, rent a bunch of videos from Tsutaya, play card games with friends, or if all else doesn’t look like what you want to do, relax around the house and enjoy time off from work!