Japan Is Doomed

Matt took all the photos in this update. I forgot my camera for the party and I still haven’t forgiven myself.

As teachers in the English Language Centre at Junten, it fell to us to organize the annual Halloween party. The problem was that English volunteers have been doing it for years, and it’s generally seen as the event that sets the trend for the rest of the year. Good Halloween Party means a good set of volunteers. So it was definitely on.

The first thing to worry about was costumes. I have no problem here in admitting that Matt well and truly outdid me here. I simply lopped the bottom off a Futon cover, drew a stupid face on it and proudly exclaimed “I’m a ghost!“ to anyone who would listen. Matt however constructed what can only be described as a masterpiece of cardboard and women’s stockings.

It may not look that terrifying here, but when the lights were down and 12 orange eyes are moving towards you it’s pretty scary. Anyway, we decided on a few activities for the students. Apple bobbing was a new concept to them, and to start with there were complaints that it wasn’t hygenic and so forth but eventually quite a lot of the kids were having a go, which was a huge suprise. I really was expecting kids shuffling awkwardly around whilst Matt and I underlined their theory that England is full of lunatics, but the kids seemed pretty happy to have a go at all the games. Furthermore, after the game was finished the kids asked us if they could eat the apples. Because fresh fruit is obscenely expensive here (aside from bananas), apples are actually a real treat for Japanese kids. Giving them apples was like giving them a British child 500g of sickeningly sweet chocolate. I guess we just can’t help but be the nicest people in the world ever.

The next game was a competition for pairs of students to wrap each other entirely in toilet paper.

Needless to say this game was incredibly popular. Afterwards we had about 3 rolls of toilet roll left, so the students tried to wrap as many people as they could together with it, including Matt, myself and Barney, the American teacher. Eventually there were about 20 students wrapped together. Nakahara-Sensei took a few photos so I will try to get them posted up here when I can get them off his camera. Needless to say if and when I get married, whoever my best man is will proudly show the photos of me wrapped to two 16 year old Japanese girls. (It is important to note that for some reason Japanese toilet roll is stronger than most metals, and in one roll of the stuff you get about sixy miles of paper.)

The next game was the spider’s web. Take some wool, wrap it around a part of yourself, then throw it to someone else, who does the same. Again, the majority of people in the room at some point got drawn into the game.

Again, for some reason Japanese wool is designed to survive nuclear strikes, so getting out afterwards took some doing.

We also did some trick or treating (read; Japanese kids shout “Trick or Treato!” and we throw sweets at them) and a good old singalong to The Timewarp, The Monster Mash and other veritable classics.

The most important quote of the day came from one of the top year students Yuki, who lived in Hawaii for a long time and thus has fantastic English.

Mike: So is this better than last year’s party?

Yuki: I’d say it’s about five times better.

Mike: Only five?

Yuki: Well OK, more like six times better.

That’s right. Six times better. If any of the old Junten volunteers are reading this our Halloween party was six times better. Better luck next time!

Gap Year, Teaching in Japan