Halloween Day Adventures

So on Halloween day, a handful of JETs went to an orphanage here in Yamaguchi Prefecture. It was one of the most awesome experiences ever. Monica, a JET in Shimonoseki organized the visit. Hopefully it will be a monthly thing, and I'll always be able to make it, because the kids were great, the atmosphere was great, and I just felt so at home there. There were about 10 of us JETs and about 20 kids.

The kids aren't all orphans...there are different circumstances for each child. They ranged from about 5 to about 12. These are all guess-timates. We carved pumpkins, played, and played some more.

Pumpkin carving is so much more difficult than I ever remember it! I started carving the face before de-seeding though. Sigh, sometimes I'm not very smart. But I think someone should invent some kind of machine that just cleans out the center in like 5 min. I think me and the 2 kids assigned to that pumpkin spent an hour trying to get those darn seeds out.

Sorry, can't post pics of the kids or anything, but trust me, if you were there, you'd wanna adopt them all...although apparently adoption in Japan is near impossible. Anyways. ..

Now to totally switch gears...Halloween night. Beware that these pics are not of jolly pumpkins.

Anna and I hopped on a bus to go to Fukuoka. We stayed with our friend Tim again, and didn't really plan on going out, because we were headed out to Korea by ferry early the next morning. Tim and Morita, his friend who we also know from hanging out with them last time we were in Fukuoka, demanded that we get dressed up and go out.

He supplied us with costumes, knowing that we probably wouldn't bring any. Thanks Tim! It was a fun fun night! We were up bright and early the next day to go to Korea, but more on that in another post.

Left-random picture. Even Jason needs a drink now and again.

I'm glad we were in Fukuoka for Halloween. I'm sure no on in Hofu got dressed up. Japanese don't have halloween. There were plenty of Japanese people at the Halloween party we went to..but they were likely there because they love American culture, or wanted to pick up a Gaijin lova'.

To my right--NObama. Gotta love it. The spelling, the gun, the face. So funny.

I was dressed up as "Akuyaku" which just means "bad guy"...like a ubiquitous term for bad guy, in kind of a funny way. Anna was Akuyaku Mikii (Mickey). Bad guy Mickey Mouse.

My friend there with the glasses was really funny. Ask him what he was, and he'd ask you your name, touch his finger to his earpiece and speak into his watch, getting a background check on the 'asker'. Tim is of course Wolverine. Morita is something or another. In the last picture of this post you will see something written on his head. It is "Kill" or "Die" or something...written with MY EYELINER. Anyways, some kind of manga character or something. :)

Smoking baby was a bartender there. He made his rounds to pass out candy to all the partygoers.

The picture is cut off, but he is wearing a diaper. Japan man, Japan. :)

We had a fun time, all in all! Anna and I went back early(ish) since we had to head out early, and the boys probably stayed out all night.

Next Halloween, I vow to really be something for halloween. Its like my favorite holiday, but I never put any effort into it!

Bye bye!