October 31, 2008: Do Japanese people celebrate Halloween?

The answer is....not really! I mean, they acknowledge that it exists, but most kids don't go 'trick or treating' and at school, most teachers don't mention Halloween. However, there was one exception. One of the English teachers wanted me to teach a special Halloween lesson with her and had a blast doing it! We played talked about the history of the Jack O'lantern & we played Halloween Bingo. We even accessorized to make it more fun! I brought some American candy to share (Air Heads, Pixie Sticks & bubble gum) and the kids loved it.
After school, Mrs. Sato organized a trick-or-treating event at our apartment building (Her and her husband live below us and they have two kids. They also lived in Michigan for awhile, so they know English very well). She told a bunch of other parents and we ended up having about 30 kids come to our door.

This is "She" and "You" Sato (Mr & Mrs. Sato's kids...that's how you pronounce their names, but I don't know about the spelling) Pretty easy to remember, huh?! and they are really sweet kids too :)

The flood of 'trick or treaters' only lasted an hour or and I don't know who had more fun.....Brandon or the kids??! haha, it was cute...he got pretty excited when the kids were at the door. It lasted for an hour and then our friends, JD & Cara came over for dinner. Chicken Spaghetti, salad, garlic biscuits and brownies--a true American feast!

Then, a group of us thought it would be fun to head to a local bowling alley...in costume! And yes, we were the only ones dressed up! Some people went all out on their costumes too....(Brandon and I opted for some dollar store favorites....I had a princess crown, wand & necklace and Brandon wore a duck mask. He actually didn't wear it in public..mostly at our apartment, until he realized it was scaring kids!)

Ira is sporting a typical school outfit for a Japanese kid in kindergarten.

Darryl got some stares with his get-up. He was supposed to be an old Japanese lady. This is what one might be wearing out in the field. It was funny because every once in awhile he would show us break dancing moves and he would get a ton of confused looks from Japanese people (like....how can that old lady be doing those kind of moves??!). I'm pretty sure that's what they were thinking, at least!

I think he's supposed to be a ghetto bandit? I don't really know....he just put on the bandanna, after his "duck mask" idea didn't seem to work out.

Cara, JD, Brandon, Me, Ira, Darryl, Amanda, Caitlyn, Deji

Ok, these next pictures may seem random, but when we got our shoes at the bowling alley, they came out of a machine. You had to know your shoe size (in centimeters) and then put your money in the machine and out come your shoes! They like to use machines over here (which means less work for the clerk--at least when it comes to counting money--the machine does all the work!). I wonder if bowling alleys at home would switch to this method?!

Pretty stylish, huh?!

The night was still young once we finished bowling, so we all headed back to our apartment for CARAMEL APPLES! I had wanted to make these for weeks, so this was the perfect opportunity! I found soft caramel candy at the grocery store, so I just melted those with a little bit of milk. We just dipped all the apples in that, sprinkled some chopped nuts and let them dry. They were absolutely delicious! One of our friends even tried doing it with a pear and that was even better (however, it was a Japanese pear, which is bigger, juicier and more flavorful than the pears we're used to). Are ya hungry yet?