BBQ on the rooftop balcony

It’s cold, but we want to go out and have fun!

The other day, on my day off, the weather was nice, and my wife, my eldest daughter, and I were talking about going out to have some fun. However, since we have twin daughters who are a year and a half old, we tend to hesitate if it’s even a little cold or windy… Even if you don’t have twins, having small children can make you feel a bit reluctant to go out, right? (^^;

Talking It Over with My Eldest Daughter

So, after talking it over with my oldest daughter, we decided to have a BBQ on our rooftop balcony!That way, whether she needed to use the bathroom, we needed to change a diaper, or we needed to clean up, all we had to do was go down the stairs—and we’d be right back home. How wonderful ( ；∀；) I think it’s rare for a rental property, but we’re in a really lucky situation: the first through third floors are commercial spaces, and there’s only one rental unit on the fourth floor.However, since there’s no elevator, moving and grocery shopping are a nightmare, lol. It seems the landlord used to live here, but put it up for rent because of his advanced age. Up

the

loft stairs and off to the rooftop balcony!!

It’s cold…
and windy, too… I

hesitated, but my oldest daughter was already raring to go. There’s no turning

back now. There’s an event up there that I

absolutely can’t lose.

Let’s set up the tent

For now, I’ll set up the tent I bought on Rakuten for about 3,500 yen.

It looks like evening, but that’s just the lighting. Haha. However, clouds are starting to roll in, and it’s getting pretty cold… Once
inside the tent, it blocks the wind a bit and isn’t cold at all!
Then, even though it’s probably not allowed, I lit a tabletop charcoal grill inside—and it’s warm… I thought it might be suicide, so I searched online, and sure enough, it’s a bad idea…But then I discovered a Snowbeak tent that’s actually designed for cooking inside!!

“Ah, I see… so ventilation really is key!” I thought. So I opened the three windows on the side of the tent and, without putting the rain cover on top, tried the charcoal again. This time, the smoke didn’t fill the tent, so it seemed safe.Well, with three windows open, the wind was blowing right through, but it was at least a little warm… Still, if anything happened to my daughters, I’d regret it forever, so I decided to call it quits after all, and ended up doing the BBQ outside myself. Haha. My daughters, of course, were waiting for dinner inside the tent!

The twins and my oldest daughter were eating even more than usual. I guess food just tastes better when you’re eating outdoors. My oldest daughter said, “We’re like cavemen, aren’t we? ^^” and seemed to be having a blast. Ahh… so cute. It’s okay to be a doting parent—if I didn’t think my daughter was cute, life would surely be too hard to bear. Haha

Chatting until the fire went out

After dinner, I fed the twins their milk, took them back to their room, and put them to bed. Thank you, landlord, for making it so easy—just a quick trip down the stairs. (´；ω；｀)

After the twins fell asleep, the three of us—my wife, my oldest daughter, and I—sat together, keeping warm and chatting until the charcoal burned out.

As I felt how happy I was, I was also grateful to my wife and daughters for joining me in enjoying this kind of time together. The thought that they might stop playing with Dad once they grow up fills me with nothing but sadness, but I want to play with them as much as possible, take them out and about, and make them laugh while I still can. This is a

clumsy piece of writing, but thank you for reading all the way to the end.