Halloween
I know it is the middle of November, and the Jack-o-Lanterns have long ago been collected by the trash man, but I've wanted to share my Halloween experiences living in Japan. (warning - blackmail material below...)
Teaching children has its perks. It allows the child in me to come to the surface not only without fear of misunderstanding or ridicule, but wholly embraced by the audience. So with that in mind, I was pretty ambitious with my costume this year, and put a lot of time and effort putting together the following:
After a week of constant (and by constant I mean several times a day, everyday) pestering, I was able to get my coworkers to dress up as well. Unfortunately, I have only a couple blackmail pictures of them.
That's Tomoe and Yumiko as witches, and my fellow expat Patrick as General Zod, Superman's nemesis in the second Superman movie with Christopher Reeve.
Back to the kids. Some of them had advance warning of the holiday, and had their own costumes including witches, Chip and Dale (brothers, one 3 years old and one 4), a pirate, Doraemon (a Japanese cartoon character), Winnie the Pooh. Even a teacher at one of the schools I taught up dressed up as Krillen from DragonBall.
As cute as they may seem, I would like to point out their height - right at crotch level. As they normally love to say hello by poking, slapping, punching, or (as recently) headbutting my special area, they were even more interested in doing so to Superman. My defenses have gotten pretty tight, but even so, when attacked by a swarm of them at the end of each class, even Superman writhes in pain. Headbutts to the groin are most certainly my kryptonite.
In the afternoon, I was in charge of the after-school program held at our school for 9 girls, aged 5-9. I put together a "haunted" room complete with "spooky" music such as The Monster Mash, the theme from Ghostbusters, and Thriller. Blindfolded, they put their hands in bowls of eyeballs (peeled grapes), hearts (peeled kiwis), and brains (spaghetti with tomato sauce). Their shrieks were very satisfying. When the blindfolds were finally removed and the lights turned on, they wanted to eat the food. Sure, knock yourselves out.
We carved pumpkins too. Funny, but Japan only seems to have small, green pumpkins. No large orange ones. But nevertheless, they had a great time, and most of the parents had never seen a Jack-o-Lantern in real life before, so fun was had by all.
On a final note, about an hour ago I got internet at my apartment. So updates should be coming more regularly to the Buroggu. I have posts in the works about food, the Japanese language, and blood types. Stay tuned...
Teaching children has its perks. It allows the child in me to come to the surface not only without fear of misunderstanding or ridicule, but wholly embraced by the audience. So with that in mind, I was pretty ambitious with my costume this year, and put a lot of time and effort putting together the following:
After a week of constant (and by constant I mean several times a day, everyday) pestering, I was able to get my coworkers to dress up as well. Unfortunately, I have only a couple blackmail pictures of them.
That's Tomoe and Yumiko as witches, and my fellow expat Patrick as General Zod, Superman's nemesis in the second Superman movie with Christopher Reeve.
Back to the kids. Some of them had advance warning of the holiday, and had their own costumes including witches, Chip and Dale (brothers, one 3 years old and one 4), a pirate, Doraemon (a Japanese cartoon character), Winnie the Pooh. Even a teacher at one of the schools I taught up dressed up as Krillen from DragonBall.
As cute as they may seem, I would like to point out their height - right at crotch level. As they normally love to say hello by poking, slapping, punching, or (as recently) headbutting my special area, they were even more interested in doing so to Superman. My defenses have gotten pretty tight, but even so, when attacked by a swarm of them at the end of each class, even Superman writhes in pain. Headbutts to the groin are most certainly my kryptonite.
In the afternoon, I was in charge of the after-school program held at our school for 9 girls, aged 5-9. I put together a "haunted" room complete with "spooky" music such as The Monster Mash, the theme from Ghostbusters, and Thriller. Blindfolded, they put their hands in bowls of eyeballs (peeled grapes), hearts (peeled kiwis), and brains (spaghetti with tomato sauce). Their shrieks were very satisfying. When the blindfolds were finally removed and the lights turned on, they wanted to eat the food. Sure, knock yourselves out.
We carved pumpkins too. Funny, but Japan only seems to have small, green pumpkins. No large orange ones. But nevertheless, they had a great time, and most of the parents had never seen a Jack-o-Lantern in real life before, so fun was had by all.
On a final note, about an hour ago I got internet at my apartment. So updates should be coming more regularly to the Buroggu. I have posts in the works about food, the Japanese language, and blood types. Stay tuned...
posted by David at 9:30 PM
3 Comments:
Looks like you won the costume contest over there - if the other guy had shaved and painted dots on his head though, it would have been his. Also, I believe the character's name is "Kulilin".
I am laughing out loud right now....
you are soooo hott
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