Sidewalks, curbs, gutters and BBQs

This is a typical well traveled road hereabouts. Note the long, narrow chunks of concrete with vertical ends sticking up. Those hateful demon street sentinels are Japan's idea of a curb. Sometimes people hit them. It's never pretty. The narrow path on the other side of those is the sidewalk, which is made up of concrete slabs and heavy steel grates atop U shaped concrete troughs set end to end down in the ground. That's the rain gutter.

Here it is without the hit one and die curbs in front of our house.

The U shaped concrete troughs come in various sizes; the most common being about 2' long x 15" wide x 15" deep, like this one at a nearby mom and pop hardware/construction supply shop. 

I'm not sure what they're called in Japanese so snapped the above photo before walking in and asking them how much one that size costs. It was only 1,500 yen! (about $13) . The day before I saw the same exact size for nearly twice that much at a big home store.  High praise for buying local!

So that's the skinny on curbs (deadly), sidewalks (narrow) and gutters (big and buried) around here.  

Now about BBQs in Japan.

They suck!

They're flimsy cheap metal boxes on wobbly legs that, after getting loaded with hot coals a few times, end up looking like a compact car that hit a Japanese curb.  I did find a fairly decent one once. Some beachgoers abandoned it at the beach near my in-laws' house. It sat there forever, used but much better than the one we had so finally I decided to take it. We still had to buy the cheap all but disposable fold one in half with one had if ya wanted grills for it, but the BBQ itself was beefier than ones for sale in the home stores. It lasted a good eight years or so before finally holes started forming in the sides and bottom. After paying our last respects I decided to order one from the States but it never came and it's not like we can live without a BBQ so I broke down and bought the best one I could find at the nearby big home center and Ugh! 

I hated it from day one.  

My options for a real BBQ were either try again to get a good one shipped here from the States or figure out a way to get a good solid BBQ without having to hock a kid because good gosh the shipping alone is crazy expensive. Thus the DIY BBQ gears that'd been turning in my head for years kicked into overdrive and I took action.

First I bought that U shaped rain gutter outside the mom and pop hardware shop and drilled holes inside the ends for concrete screws to anchor wire and miscellaneous strong steel pieces (broken drill bits, a sold steel shaft salvaged from a printer, etc.) to reinforce the concrete ends.  I made simple forms, one end was all concrete and I used a couple bricks I had for the other end. A salvaged heat resistant steel sleeve that went around the wick of an old kerosene heater worked great for the vents--one down low on one end that could also be used for cleaning and one up higher on the other end. I had to use a big stone to reinforce the form after pouring concrete in one end and realizing the piece of plywood I used for a form was definitely too thin. Oops! Then after that side set I did the other end.

And here it was on its maiden voyage for a rainy BBQ under a tarp in our backyard with some Canadian, Italian and Japanese friends. It worked like a champ. 

I did have to redesign the cart it sits on though. I only have to move it a few meters from its place agains the wall of our house to the center of the yard but it's one heavy sombich. Homemade wood wheels and strider bike tires on the short side design just wasn't cutting it. 

So take two! I invested another 1,000 into it for two heavy duty castor wheels that pivot and put the strider bike tires on the end so I can pull it long ways. Save for those two wheels the entire cart is made of scrap wood and salvaged materials. e.g. the main frame is part of Yuki's old DIY industrial strength cage frame (Yuki has no use for it now in guinea pig heaven) the steel cross pieces are part of an old kitchen stand, and the handles on the ends were parts of a folding floor chair that was a Father's Day present. I still have the chair--am sitting on it right now actually. It's just had a wood frame inside ever since one of the tubular hinges broke. 

And here it is again. Another reason for wanting an industrial strength able to hold Dante's inferno BBQ is I use it for more than just cooking dead animal flesh. Bamboo for example! A couple years ago a friend down in Kyoto informed me that heating bamboo till the oils bubble to the surface then wiping it down hardens it, makes it bug resistant and oh so very shiny. Bamboo is plentiful (i.e. free) around here so I use it as a building material quite a bit.

I also like having something that I can easily burn scrap wood in (usually with a foil wrapped sweet potato in there cooking ;) or  here it is this morning being used to speed dry concrete around an old countertop dish drying rack that I cut down and put concrete around for weight and support. I needed it to dry completely so I could put it down in the fish pond, thus using fire to harden it up quicker. 

The fish hotel stand I'd made out of a tree branch and scrap wood turned out to be a speed breeding grounds for moss and muck so Hey! Stainless steel dish rack that my wife wants to throw away. That'll work! This wasn't going to be part of this tale but what the heck, most of it is submerged and hidden with stones but here it is with the fish hotel on it. 

Heat dried concrete thanks to new BBQ and 100% Fish approved

As for the BBQ now it's easy shmeasy Japanese to pull out and use then tuck back away in its storage place against the house. It's super easy to clean too. 

So Finally! There's a BBQ in Japan with a lifetime guarantee. 

Especially if/when ever I get one of those sidewalk grates for a grill!  

I will contentedly cook on it for the rest of my days.