Best night ever...in Japan

10.28.05
As promised, here are the details of my best night in Japan.
This was the night of our Halloween party. The plan was for the kids to come Trick or Treat, then go on a parade in their costumes. After the parade, they were coming back to our courtyard to play games and hang out.
Lauren and I went to get costumes after our Japanese lessons. We bought some goofy socks and I found some wings to wear. The Japanese don’t really do anything for Halloween, so we were just glad to find anything.
After we shopped, we went back home to decorate the courtyard. We couldn’t have asked for nicer weather. It was perfect. Liz popped popcorn for later and Megan helped get the snacks together, while Lauren and I hung the lights. We strung skeletons in the entrance of the courtyard, and then spread some carpet out for the kids to sit on while making their treats. We also put the numbers down for the cake walk. Everything was set. We got dressed, and then waited for the kids to come knock on our doors. They came around 5 and we gave all the kids candy. They were so adorable.



These boys were so cute.


Checking out the candy selection...


After they trick or treated, they went on a parade around the neighborhood. We stayed at our place and got ready for them to return. (And took pictures…of course)

Kenichi and I sword fighting


Oh, we also went down to 7-11 and gave them candy. We love those people!


When they got back, we helped them make tootsie pop ghost, which we re-named “Lolli-lolli popu” so that it would sound more Japanese. After that they made ‘witch hands’.
(This was a plastic glove with candy corn for fingernails, then stuffed with popcorn. The kids loved it.)
After they made treats, half of the group came to do the cake walk with me while the others had hot chocolate and snacks.



The kids had a blast. All the parents were thanking us for all we did, but really I think we had just as much fun.



After all the kids left, we cleaned up the disaster area a.k.a. our courtyard. It really didn’t take much time at all because Lillian, Nick, Satoru, and Kenichi were helping us. Everyone slowly left, and it was only Lauren, Kenichi, Megan, and I. We decided to bring the couch and laptop outside and watch a movie in the courtyard.



Kenichi also brought us ribs and fries from Tony Roma's. He works there...that's actually how we met him. We were so excited...but Lauren and I always get excited about American food.



About 45 minutes into the movie, Liz got back home so she joined us for the movie; however, we ended up stopping it and taking a break for hot chocolate. While we were getting hot chocolate ready, we could hear a basketball being bounced on the street behind our apartments. Liz and I went over to investigate and we found 4 of my 8th grade students. One of them is the one we all think is cute—haha. (yes, I know-it’s probably bad to have crushes on junior high kids.) We decided to go give them some candy we had left from the evening. We started talking to them, with Kenichi’s help, but I soon realized that one of the boys understood English. Now, this kid NEVER speaks in class. He never answers questions…nothing. I was like, “Why don’t you answer questions in class?” He said, “No, no.” Of course he is ‘too cool’ for that. We ended up asking the boys if they wanted to come watch a movie with us.

From left to right: Hiroaki, Toshiaki, Masato, and Kodai


It was funny because Kodai’s mom called and he told her he was with his teacher. Can you imagine telling your parent’s that you’re hanging out with your teacher? Ha…
Anyway, we ended up not watching a movie since we didn’t have any with Japanese subtitles and they wouldn’t have understood. The boys had fun just talking and eating popcorn though.
Liz fell asleep at one point, so we took that opportunity and snapped a picture with her.



Eventually the boys had to go home. Hiroaki did tell us about his soccer game the next day, so we told him we might come. Liz, Lauren, Kenichi, and I just sat outside and talked after that. Here are some goofy pictures…

I fell backwards in my chair. (Don’t you love the fashion statement I’m making with my socks?)


It was cold outside...oh, and I had to throw my gang signs, you know.


I had wings.


It was really so much fun. Now, I know what you’re thinking—Jenn, you really hung out with your students and you call this one of the best nights of your life? Well, I guess maybe you can’t understand, but I just really enjoyed myself. The evening started off great with the Halloween party and then I just hung out with fun people.
Overall, I think what made it so great was being surrounded by so many great people and kids.