How the Gaijin Stole Halloween

Let's face it. I love Halloween. I love Halloween an unnatural amount. I love Halloween so much that I... well, pretend I did something extravagant and over-the-top. That's how much I love Halloween. Needless to say, I was heartbroken when I learned that Japan doesn't come close to the great lengths the USA does in celebrating it. No matter! There was Halloween fun to be had by all!

The sannensei teacher ALSO loves Halloween. She talked about this a month or so ago and said she wanted to have some Halloween themed lessons. The other teachers mentioned this, too, but sadly, they didn't follow through. Now I think I mentioned all of this in recent posts, so I'll just cut to the chase and let you know how everything went.

Before my Japanese lesson last week, there was time to go shopping around, and we stumbled into this store called Don Quixote. Time assured me that they had everything, and that this "everything" included HALLOWEEN COSTUMES! Great, I thought. I'd already decided to be a zombie (since I tore some slacks on my bike a few weeks ago (Sweet! Free costume!!)), so maybe I would be able to find some accessories like make-up, masks, or whatever. Hanging from the rack, I found (cue trumpet fanfare) a pair of skeleton gloves! Ok, so I wasn't going as a skeleton. Whatever. Leave me alone, they looked cool. :(

I of course bought the gloves (and also some Halloween candy... woo!). The next day, we would be starting our sannensei Halloween lessons, but I didn't know if it was okay to wear the gloves. The sannensei teacher assured me that she'd be dressed as a witch on Friday, and that was all the persuasion I needed. The lessons that day went well, I think. I gave a brief listening quiz on the history and traditions of Halloween, and then we went into a Halloween mad-lib. Yes, I know. Mad-libs aren't funny. And if you think they weren't funny before, imagine how well they'd go over with a group that doesn't understand the language. As far as they knew, they'd just be inserting tab A into slot B and completeing the assignment, not really getting the joke. I was pretty nervous about it going in. It didn't help, also, that the mad-lib was written by a former ALT and pretty much sucked in terms of "bringin' teh lulz." ("it wasn't funny," for all you un-hip, non-internet nerds.)

I took it upon myself to write another one, at the request of the teacher, and it was... a little better. At least by contrast, maybe it would help the kids "get" a mad lib. ("Oh, you mean 'ugly Johnny singing into the creaky car noisily' is funny?? hahaha! Okay!" ...sigh... such is the mad-lib) Luckily, though, the mad lib went over GREAT!!! I read their creations line by line while the teacher translated. The bulk of the class laughed at the translations, while a handful chuckled at it when I read it in english (Good students!! Yay!!). I underestimated the power of Mad-libs + Japanese humor. In a society where a "comedian" equals some guy dressed in a tux and bowler tinking wine glasses and saying, "Yaaay, rennaissaaaance!" why WOULDN'T this be funny?? Anyway, the lessons worked.

And Friday, I got to wear my skeleton gloves... and scared the crap out of them. I walked into class, hands hidden behind my back, like I was naturally waiting for class to begin. They do the entire isatsu ("Good afternoon, Mr. Sandall...") and bow and all that, and finally, it was my turn. After having been in the class for 4 or 5 minutes, I finally fling my hands out while proclaiming, "I LOVE Halloween!!" Pause to enjoy the gasps, shrieks, and "Sugoi!"s. It was fun. :)

Friday night found me Make-up shopping... shut up. Shut up shut up shut up. All I could find was some eyeliner and white eye shadow, soooo... cool. Pale and dead looking. I used some red poster paint and chopped up my slacks a bit more and went as "Recently-turned-zombie-bitten-in-the-leg-by-a-crawling-zombie."

By "went as," I mean I went to the ALT Halloween Party in Tamana. People have been talking about this party for months, and since everyone loves Halloween, but no one in Japan celebrates, it's up to the ALTs to host their own fun. And fun it was. I saw a ton of old friends I'd met at other gatherings and met a few new people as well. People came from ALL OVER... like from all the way to the south of Kumamoto-ken ('sup, Cindy? Now that I know you read/stalk this... ;) ). Basically, the party was a blasty-blast (Yes, I quoted Dane Cook right there) and my costume actually turned out alright. Of course, there were a ton of other, WAY COOLER costumes (Giant Onigiri?? That's AMAZING!!). (It sucks because you can't see my mutilated pants on the picture... Oh, and I'm standing next to a Pocahontas and... any anime fans out there recognize the far right? :D )

That's all my Halloween rantings for now. but... just one last thing, before I wrap this up and head to Eikaiwa...

Monday, we had a day off. It was Bunka no hi (Or basically "Culture Day"), so no school. Tim had to make a run to Hikarinomori to grab some clothes and asked if I wanted to go along. I said sure, and made a quick shopping list. We headed out around 3:30 and wandered around the mall for a few hours, picking up random bits and pieces. I actually found shoes that fit!! (and-a... eyes that burrrn like... cigarettes...) I also picked up some workout clothes for the winter... since Tennis is probably going to go well into the colder months. :D I mentioned the prospect of dinner, and Tim said that there was this cool italian restaurant downstairs, but first he had to grab some coffee grounds.

So we wandered back over to Starbucks (In Japan... I know... their global domination is nigh) and he began sifting through the bags to find a good flavor. As we were standing there, we're all ofa sudden approached by Maki, a friend from Ozu. She's just there shopping, so we talk with her for a bit. Suddenly, Kana shows up also, just randomly shopping. This isn't terribly odd, since Hikarinomori is the hip, cool place to be (or something like that) and we were standing in a pretty high traffic area. To further compound this coincidence, about 5 minutes later, Miyuki and her friend Shingo show up, also out shopping. So we all stand and chat for a few minutes, and finally Tim says, "Hey, we were just headed to grab dinner, you guys wannna come?" "Hey, sure!" was the general response from the crowd.

We walked down a few floors to find the "fancier" restaurants and the 6 of us get a table. Oddly, they gave us 8 chairs... I thought nothing of this. They then brought out 8 waters. I think, "Meh. Must have miscounted." And about 5 minutes later, Nick and Mari (The Mifune gang) show up. "Oh, sorry we're late," says Nick. This is my first sign to go, "Wait, what?" and I start to put things together. Through the course of the meal, Nick and Mari start making jokes about birthday spankings since Tim "mentioned" my birthday was in a couple days, Kana and Miyuki mysteriously disappeared for about 10 minutes, and there's a lot of winks and short comments in Japanese... none of which I understand. Basically, I have a hunch. A BIG hunch.

Kana and Miyuki come back looking all suspiscious, and not a moment later, I notice the servers standing a little ways away all huddled around something. I hear a few flicks of a lighter and my eyes widen. They turn around and bring over this pie with candles sticking out spelling, "Happy Birthday!!" Everyone breaks out into song, and I just sit there with my jaw on the floor. Complete and utter surprise. My friends rock. :D

Yes, I should have noticed the string of strange coincidences sooner... but whatever. I loved it. Kana went through the awesome trouble of making a "cake" (pie) that was AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS (It wasn't "bimyo," Kana... I was joking. :D).

After dinner, there were talks of going to a late movie, but we thought better of it... and went and did purikura instead. "Puri-kura" = "Purinto Kurabu" = "Print Club" = "photo booths where you can add designs and print ouf stickers." 8 of us crammed inside one of the larger ones, took some random shots, and then went outside and drew all over them with the image editing stuff. I'll let the images speak for themselves. :D (And yes, I know my name is spelled wrong in that one... whoever did it, I WILL FIND YOU!!!!)