Halloween

October 22, 2014

                This past Saturday, we were invited to attend a Halloween party at a preschool in Tarui.  We were asked to dress up.  Adam decided to go as Super Bear (AKA Super Kuma) and I went as a princess (AKA a woman in a green dress). 

                We were picked up by the school bus and driven out to the preschool.  It actually was quite far so I was glad we had a ride.  When we arrived we were greeted by the head teacher (or at least the teacher in charge of the day).  All the kids and teachers were dressed up, but none of the parents were.  I’m pretty sure Adam should have won a prize for the best adult costume.  Maybe even the best costume.  We had a few minutes before the activities began and in that time Adam had all these little preschoolers around him poking at him and feeling his costume.  They are told to sit down which actually involves them squatting.  Adam and I are given seats of honour (hot pink chairs) in front.  No one else has chairs except the head teacher.  All the kids around us are more interested in Adam than all the activities that are going on.  

              

Can you spot the hot pink chairs?

             Adam is first introduced and then interviewed by the Kita Junior High students who are volunteering as helpers for the day.  After some songs, a magic show, some stories (all of this done in English and fairly impressively), came the main highlight: Adam demonstrating how to carve a pumpkin.  The pumpkins that normally grow in Japan are little green ones (I had bought one earlier in the week to make a pumpkin loaf for our company Saturday night) so part of the cultural learning for the children was to see a large orange pumpkin and how to carve it.  I guess every year this preschool grows orange pumpkins for their party, but it’s hard to grow them because the summers are so hot.  From what I gathered, this year their crop didn’t do so well, so some farmers donated theirs.  Nonetheless, a couple of these pumpkins were huge! 

                Back to the main highlight, after Adam had asked what shape to make the eyes, nose, mouth, and drawn them on the pumpkin, he offered the knife to the junior high students.  All of them backed away.  So there’s Adam with a huge mincing knife carving this pumpkin.  The preschoolers are very interested, they’re all standing now peering over each other to get a look at the carving action.  The junior high students do step in and help take out the insides of the pumpkin while Adam explains how you can cook and eat the seeds.  I thought it was funny that the students had a plastic glove on to take out the insides of the pumpkin.  At last, the pumpkin was carved and the kids sang a song as Adam showed off his handy work. 

                After the main highlight, the children had the option to make a pumpkin craft with seeds, carve a pumpkin, or make pumpkin chiffon cakes (all of this with their parents of course).  During this time we wandered around checking it all out.  We ran into the English speaking family that we know here and chatted with them, admiring the children’s costumes. 

                As the activity time was coming to a close, the kids were arranged into partners to go trick or treating to fourteen haunted houses  These kids held hands with their partner the entire time (or at least it seemed so) which often resulted in one kid running ahead and pulling his/her partner behind to the next haunted house.  As you can see from the pictures, they’re really impressive and from the sounds of things they make them new every year.  That’s a lot of hard work!  Now, I’m getting ahead of myself.  So Super Kuma and Princess Janelle were also given trick or treating bags.  They gave us a map with the fourteen haunted houses on it and each time we visited a house they stamped that house on our map (this is multi-purposed as it helps kids see which ones they've missed and also make sure they don’t keep going back to the same house).  We both got bag fulls of candy and felt like little kids again.  Once the trick or treating was wrapping up, we were escorted to our table for lunch.  We were served a delicious lunch!  The party was over after lunch.  We were given a huge fruit basket and Belgian chocolates as a thank you for coming/ nice to meet you.  We also got to take the pumpkin that Adam carved home. I’d say that we got a lot of food just for demonstrating how to carve a pumpkin. 

Trick-or-treating
I think I look a little old for this :)

We were given a very warm send off as we were accompanied to the school bus/van.  The teachers and junior high students stood around the van and waived for quite a while as we drove off into the midday sun.  We really were given the royal treatment.  It will be strange going back to Calgary and losing our “celebrity” status.  It was a really enjoyable day and really great seeing all these cute kids dressed up for Halloween. 

                In conclusion, it seems like the Japanese, while not celebrating Halloween like we do in Canada, make a bigger deal out of it than us.  Lately, all my classes at the American Language School involves some Halloween activities.  

                That evening, we had one of the girls that I work with over for dinner.  It was an enjoyable evening filled with good food and Scrabble.

                With the new influx of pumpkin in our home, I have been making pumpkin loaves this week.  My plan is to give them to different people as gifts.

                Sunday, there was a Brazillian BBQ at church that we attended.  The food was really good, although there was only one kind of barbecued meat (they also had noodles, rice, a curry-potato dish, and salads).  That being said we both ate a week’s worth of meat.  

                Today was the Kita Junior High choral festival.  It was at the cultural centre and open to everyone.  Adam and I went together.  Every home room class in the school is its own choir.  They compete against all the other classes in this festival.  Each class first sings the same song (ie. the seventh graders all sing the same first song, the eighth graders a different same song, etc.) and then a different song.  They have (a) student(s) from their class playing the piano.  They also have a fellow student conduct them.  Boy, do those kids get into the conducting too.  The entire ceremony was led by the students, with them speaking before they performed.  The students were very well behaved and respectful as the other classes performed.  They do harmonies and different parts and everything.  They all sound very good!  I guess the most impressive thing to me, is that all the students participate, it’s not just those who are more musically inclined.  I had to leave before the end to go to work, but I guess after I left the entire school sang a song together and then the awards of first, second, and third place were given.