I Remember Halloween

(Bonus points to any true fiends out there who catch the reference)

Halloween has long been my favorite holiday although this has posed a problem for some time now. You see, once one is past the age at which it is acceptable to go door to door trick-or-treating, it's difficult to find the appropriate venue in which to exercise the desire to dress up in a costume and conduct one's self in a manner befitting the manner of dress adopted. Well, this year I was in luck as there were no shortage of events for those of us in the Hachinohe area.

On Saturday, the Hachinohe International Relations Association put on a haunted house for over 400 local children with the help of area JETs. I'm not quite sure who was responsible for the decor of the "house" itself (located in the spooky basement of a department store) but I must say, it was quite well done. Unfortunately, I was too busy scaring children to get any good photos but with any luck, the world's laziest blogger Matt will eventually stop resting on his laurels and post video footage of the house. At any rate, we scared children nonstop for almost three hours and although it was rather draining, it was ultimately a good time. I spent most of my time scaring in the room immediately adjacent to the entranceway and I can personally attest to the fact that a good number of kids entered the house only to run right back out the entrance, oftentimes in tears. We scare because we care, guys.

Afterward, AJET organized an after-party of sorts at "Jammin," a reggae bar. And were they ever serious about reggae there. Not only did they play exclusively reggae music and serve Red Stripe, they also created a faux beach, replete with sand, in the back of the bar. By far the most interesting touch, however, was the speaker cabinet pictured below, which appeared to be constructed entirely from car speakers. I think I mentioned to someone that there was no way that they could all be hooked up but after testing this hypothesis by holding my hand up to each one I was able to determine that they were actually all operational. Of course, it sounded like shit.

Anyway, I've probably lost your interest already with all of these boring words, so it's time to show off some of the best costumes I encountered over the course of the night:

Matt Cosnett as a terrifying, homemade scarecrow:

Random Japanese guy as some sort of ghastly samurai:

J.P. as the four-armed, three-legged mad scientist (this gets my vote for best in show):

And who could forget the Misawa twins as American G.I. and American G.I.'s pregnant Asian girlfriend? Not me. Especially since (as you can see in the photo) Ryan very nearly burned down his house by attempting to quickly dry his shirt by placing it directly on his heater. Nice one, Ryan.

Anyhow, with my partying appetite fully satiated, I was able to spend Halloween day teaching Halloween lessons at two of my schools. At the elementary school where I teach most often, they had all the first graders prepare costumes out of household items prior to my arrival. I must say, I was quite impressed (and really regretted not bringing my camera). After the introduction of some Halloween lore and vocabulary, we had a fake trick-or-treating session in the gymnasium.

My second lesson of the day was at the kindergarten. Well, actually, it was at what the vice-principal kept referring to as "the old man's house," which I eventually figured out was a retirement home across the street. I guess they figured that the residents of the home (who were described to me as "old mans") would be entertained by watching a tall, dark foreigner speak English in front of a bunch of screaming three and four year olds. At the very least, the children were entertaining, if for no other reason than the fact that they too were all wearing great costumes. Even the vice-principal went all out and sported an awesome home-made Jack Skellington costume!

While at the home, one of the workers approached me and asked me something. I didn't understand what she said, so I asked her to repeat it. "Where are you from?" she asked in perfect English. "Oh, I came from America" I responded, in Japanese. She shot me a frustrated I-already-knew-that glance and asked "Where in America?" "Chicago," I replied. "Oh," she said, "I studied in Colorado for two years." I didn't really know how to respond to this. Probably because what I really wanted to say was "I'm sorry."