Trick Or Treat

Halloween rocked. It was absolutely knackering and, by the end, I fell asleep exhausted but satisfied.

In the morning, I prepared the special VOICE (1½ hour presentation/discussion) and set off for work. I was told that I wasn’t allowed to decorate or wear a costume as “NOVA is a professional company”. Every other shop in Tokyo had Halloween decorations, but apparently not us. That wasn’t going to stop me. I had my cowboy hat and, many decorations later, the place was complete.


This is my Tuesday kids group. They all ran up shouting “trick or treat”. I’d brought plenty of candy* so wasn’t a problem. How cool are their costumes.

My special VOICE was fun, although only three women were there. Not a big deal since two of them are my favourite students so it was hilarious dressing them up, talking about Halloween, and playing games. I was so tempted to play apple bobbing but didn’t seem so wise with upper-class housewives. Maybe. We played a fun divination game, which I’d found on Wikipedia. You have to pick a hat and whatever is underneath is your fortune for the coming year:

candy = good luck, money = wealth, a bean = poverty, water = travel, soil = bad luck



After NOVA, I went to my Japanese lesson and dressed up as a cowboy; albeit more Indiana Jones than Brokeback. I walked in and about 30 or so Japanese women looked at me as if I was crazy. A few seconds later and, it seemed at the same time, the reason hit them. I shared out more candy, costumes, and played the divination game.



We also made terra-terra-bouzu – Japanese tissue-paper decorations for good weather. This is my teacher Aikawa-San singing the song. She’s amazingly fun and patient with us, and always has something creative and interesting to do and learn each week.



In the evening, I met everyone from work at the Izakaya (Japanese style pub). The turn-out was great and more costumes, divination**, and Halloween craziness ensued.


This random Japanese guy was wasted:

I just made the last train Keiko’s, and she was tired too, so the horror movie never happened.

A great, great day. One of those days where nothing feels like a chore, and you just have fun with everything you do. It’s got me thinking – a few more of those around the place wouldn’t hurt. So, my next mission; organising a pub quiz.

*I’m very against using American vocab in my lessons but ‘candy’ seems to have stuck. I’m not sure why. ‘Soccer’ is also digging its way into my stream of consciousness.
**I picked travelling – I guess I will be next year – whether it’s good or bad is yet to be determined…