bbq at masa's

so sunday masa had invited us over for a bbq at his place. i knew he lived in asahi mura but i didn't really know anything beyond that. he met us at the jusco in murakami (me, jon, kazuya, miho, minako, kat, kate, anna) and we followed him into and through asahi mura. we drove through the tall cedars until we got to a suspension bridge over a big river/gorge. across the bridge was his house - a log house built by his father! it was amazing! and behind the house were rice fields and mountains and tall cedar trees. it was sooo beautiful and the coolest house i've seen in japan! his parents were wonderful and had all this food for us to grill on the fire out back. his friend nori even came with fresh oysters he had caught that morning from sasagawa nara (sp?) beach. after we sat around eating for a few hours, his dad brought us around to the other side of the river and showed us how to chop firewood (jon was a star..). you should have seen the looks we got from the people driving past as a large group of gaigins were chopping wood in asahi mura! after we went down to the river and had stone-skimming competitions - and kaz went for a "swim".