The past month has been spent building up to the candy filled holiday of Halloween. In Japan they do not celebrate Halloween in the traditional sense. In Japan there is no trick or treating done and if you choose not to dress up, you are one of many. However, there are many signs of Halloween around the city! If you walk into a restaurant there will be a sign that says "Happy Halloween" or there will be some cobwebs set up to set the mood. Japan acknowledges Halloween, it is just not celebrated here.
Nonetheless, being from the states, I was not going to let another Halloween slip by unnoticed. In addition to all the Halloween crafts and activities we have been doing in our class all month, I had almost a full week of festivities leading up to the big day.
Saturday: We were invited to a Halloween party the Saturday before Halloween by one of my friends Japanese friends. For just 3000 yen one could enter into seven different clubs celebrating Halloween with drunken debauchery. We started out in a bar before the clubs opened. It seemed to be the first stop for everyone. It quickly filled up and we quickly left to the next venue. Each venue played different music. There was everything from techno to Korean pop. We kept our energy up until about 1:30 then we set off to find a late night Ramen shop. It may have been my exhaustion but it was the best Ramen I have ever tasted-it could have also been the fact that it was the first Ramen I have tasted in Japan.
Monday: We had a school wide pumpkin carving activity on Monday afternoon. Jonathan carved the pumpkin with the help of the different classes. Each class got to choose a part of the jack-o-lantern's face and when they were finished carving they got to feel the pumpkin guts! The six-year class named our jack-o-lantern Witch.
Tuesday: To make an exciting week even better, on Tuesday I received an amazing care package from my parents (with some of my sister's input). It was full of treats from the states and they even threw in some Halloween candy!
Wednesday: Since I am working in an international school my day on October 31 was spent celebrating Halloween. Our theme for this year's Halloween was bringing music to life. The children (and teachers) were to choose a costume based on a song. I dressed up as a bumble bee from "I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee" and Miho chose to dress up as a duck from "Five Little Ducks." We wound up with a classroom full of princesses, an egg and a dinosaur. The egg was from "Humpty Dumpty" and the dinosaur was from "Dinosaur Roar" but the princesses were song-less, so we came up with one on our own. This is how it goes:
One of the girls decided to change her costume to a fairy last minute. Luckily the word princess in our song can easily be taken out and replaced with fairy.
And now it is November. Time is flying in Japan! Halloween 2012 proved to be one I will never forget. Until next year...
Nonetheless, being from the states, I was not going to let another Halloween slip by unnoticed. In addition to all the Halloween crafts and activities we have been doing in our class all month, I had almost a full week of festivities leading up to the big day.
Monday: We had a school wide pumpkin carving activity on Monday afternoon. Jonathan carved the pumpkin with the help of the different classes. Each class got to choose a part of the jack-o-lantern's face and when they were finished carving they got to feel the pumpkin guts! The six-year class named our jack-o-lantern Witch.
Tuesday: To make an exciting week even better, on Tuesday I received an amazing care package from my parents (with some of my sister's input). It was full of treats from the states and they even threw in some Halloween candy!
Wednesday: Since I am working in an international school my day on October 31 was spent celebrating Halloween. Our theme for this year's Halloween was bringing music to life. The children (and teachers) were to choose a costume based on a song. I dressed up as a bumble bee from "I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee" and Miho chose to dress up as a duck from "Five Little Ducks." We wound up with a classroom full of princesses, an egg and a dinosaur. The egg was from "Humpty Dumpty" and the dinosaur was from "Dinosaur Roar" but the princesses were song-less, so we came up with one on our own. This is how it goes:
loosely sung to the tune of I'm a little teapot:
I'm a little princess, princess, princess.
I'm a little princess this is what I do.
I twirl, I twirl, I twirl I twirl I twirl.
I put on make up, make up, make up.
I put on make up that is what I do.
One of the girls decided to change her costume to a fairy last minute. Luckily the word princess in our song can easily be taken out and replaced with fairy.
We had a costume parade in the morning where the kids showed off their costumes and told everyone what song they were dressed as. The princesses just answered with "The Princess Song." Looks like we didn't need to make up a song after all!
After our parade we took the kids trick-or-treating! That's right, trick-or-treating in Japan! The school had arranged with six different businesses around our school to have candy and some decorations ready for the kids. The kids loved it and they came back with a bag full of treats.
In the afternoon, the whole school gathered into the four-year classroom and had one last Halloween circle time. We sang our Halloween songs one last time and read one last Halloween story to the light of our newly carved jack-o-lantern.
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