Culture Day, What a Waste

I woke up to clear sunny skies this morning and felt so bitter. I had to spend my entire day inside when I could have been out driving around in the glorious weather. I'll get over it soon enough. It was only a waste because I couldn't get out and enjoy fall. Otherwise I don't necessarily think school activities were a waste. I'm sure nobody at school would have done much anyway but stay at home or go shopping.

I'll share some pictures of the culture day later this week probably. I don't feel like sorting through them all right now. I was thinking of going to work tomorrow even though we get a day off in exchange for today. The weather forecast looks promising so I will just skip that consideration and hit the road in the morning.

The real reason of this short post was to speak of my most recent acquisition that was delivered today. I ordered this Friday night I think and it already came today. Amazon shipping in Japan is lightning fast. I still don't have a credit card so I do cash on delivery which is about 260 yen extra. If I did a bank transfer I would have to pay that amount anyway. It's much easier to get merchandise at home this way. Here is the charcoal chimney in all its wonderful glory.



I saw a fancier version for about 4 times the price of this one at a sporting goods store. However, that is the only one I've seen in the wild. It served the exact same purpose as this one, just really expensive for some reason. Most people use fire starter bricks, gels, and blow torches to get coals lit. I have been using tissues coated in oil but it's a little messy and doesn't always work so well. As I have embarked upon some more technically challenging grill escapades, I need to be able to start extra charcoal easily. As you can see from the picture I had raging coals in a few minutes. I didn't even have anything to cook. I was just eager to try it out so I lit it up. 12 pounds of charcoal is cheap so I don't mind at all. I sat outside and warmed myself by it for awhile and stared deeply into the gleaming coals. I'm looking forward to a pleasant partnership with the grill. Hopefully some others can partake as well.