Kyodai

It's actually quite funny how I arrived here. In a club of Japanese culture were three varying Chinese students. Mainland China, Taiwan, and an American born generation. XD

I merely watched from across the fire watching the three of them speak. One with a thicker broken English accent, the other with a Cantonese but clearer English accent and one fully fluent in English with it as his first language.

I found the situation quite amusing seeing as the rest of the club members had more Japanese ancestry. However the thing that the other members had that I didn't was they all had some proficiency in Japanese.

My only exposure was snippets of anime and google translate. Hence how I could vaguely recognize the various languages of Southeast Asian countries, "vaguely"...

At first they were all silent, some others and I sat on sand waiting for the sun to set. A small fire was lit. It wasn't until the food started cooking that people's appetites were aroused and the conversation started to flow.

Towels were placed on the ground, bags unzipped, and the food materials prepared. I merely brought a bottle of water, phone and wallet. The beach was my chair and bed, as I lay down on the surface of the sand, my jacket protecting the sand from clinging to my clothes.

After some time I got up to look around, brushing the sand off my clothes and back. Some of the group leaders started to prepare the food, snacks, and drinks.

While I stood there quietly observing, I made an interesting observation. Although in age we'd probably add up to be maybe 150-200 years old, in my eyes I just saw a bunch of slightly mature young kids playing around enjoying youth.

Some of us sitting on the beach glancing at our phones, others were snacking on the food that was brought. At school, they're all busy resolving math problems, creating presentations and writing reports. However strangely at this moment, I felt like I was just seeing some elementary and middle school kids in front of me having fun.

Before long we sat around the fire roasting hot dogs. It was like camping, but on the beach.

And while honestly I enjoy a decent hot dog, but they're not really a gourmet food. But food isn't just about the quality of taste, but the environment and people you consume it with.

As I stared into the fire watching the wieners burn, a number of black skewers with hot dogs on them were also cooking at the same time. Red, long, hot dog wieners on sticks roasting over the fire all at once. Various collisions and tin foiled wrappers emerged as well.

The fire was small and most the wieners were only partially cooked through. There were buns and condiments on the side. By now the activity of cooking preceded all other beach and photo-taking activities.

The group had all gathered around the open-air kitchen that was the firepit.

At times the thin wispy smoke entered a few of the hot dog chefs' eyes, the acrid burning sensation causing tears to come out. After coughing a few times, the cooks plunged their hot dogs once again into the fire to continue cooking their dinner meal.

I honestly wasn't hungry so I wasn't to focused at the task at hand, although my previous experiences with hot dog roasting coming in handy. I soon had myself a nice and evenly cooked hot dog in a bun. Getting just a little bit of sand on it, it was quickly consumed.

Soon as pink clouds emerged, the sand started to cool. The fire was the only source of heat we had access to. As we all surrounded the fire pit keeping us warm, club activity questions emerged.

"What was your most vivid dreams?", one of the girls asked.

there were some unique responses breaking up the ice

"Would you rather drown to death or burn to death?", a guy piped up.

"what a unique group", I remarked in my head. I listened as the group entertained the question with everyone offering their different responses.

"If this was a zombie apocalypse what character would you be?", a particularly charismatic conversation leader asked

various responses and roles emerged,

"I'd be the scientist", said one member

"they'd probably be a courier or a loner", referring to the president

"I think I'd be a zombie", joked another.

"Who'd be the protagonist?"

The conversation continued on. Slowly everyone started coming up with answers or they had their answers chosen by other members. Various discussions about tv shows and superpowers were talked about.

All the while the fire continued to burn. The college youths gathered together for the club bonfire.

- 2.19.2022