Halloween

Halloween is not celebrated in Japan, but because we live in Misawa a lot of children have an opportunity to celebrate it with us! On October 30th I hosted a Halloween party for the children at Tohoku Academy. It was a lot of fun. We ate hot dogs, played “trick or treat”, Twister, had an eyeball relay and watched The Nightmare Before Christmas. Most of the children were dressed up. Unfortunately, the amount of costumes available in Japan are slim to none so we had a lot of witches. I dressed up as Dorothy but everyone thought I was Alice from Alice in Wonderland. (She is really popular here!)



After the party I went to the Halloween Ball. It was pretty fun. A lot of neat costumes. I didn’t take many pictures because well… it was really dark.

On Halloween I worked the Haunted House on base from 3-9. Haunted house is kind  of a misnomer since it was more of a slaughter house than anything. I was an escort so I brought people through the last half of the house. (This house is getting ready for demolition so they decorated however they wanted…mostly with “blood”) There was a PG show and a rated R show. I didn’t see too much difference between the two but a lot of people brought small children to the rated R show! I was shocked!
Edit: As promised, here are pictures of me with my makeup for the haunted house!BOO!

Baskin Robbins

Now, you are probably wondering why I am bothering  to blog about Baskin Robbins while there are hundreds of stores in the United States. Let me tell you, Baskin Robbins in Japan are simply awesome! I particularly wanted to blog about going today because of the very cute Halloween decorations. (I really love Halloween!)
Also, I’m talking about the Baskin Robbins at the Shimoda (Jusco) mall, not the one on base! When you enter, you are invited by bright fluorescent lights, the shrill childish voices of Japanese women shouting “Irrashaimase!” and pink. My God, so much pink! But it really is awesome and they have the best seasonal flavors!

One other thing they have at this Baskin Robbins that they don’t on base is crepes! They are wonderful! You can even get a “crepe card” and get a free one after so many stamps!

Right now when you buy anything from BR, you can pick a scratch ticket. If you are lucky, you get a prize like a pen, bookmark etc. And they are really cute! So, next time you are going to the mall, make sure to stop by Baskin Robbins before you leave!

Halloween Festa

I heard there was going to be a Halloween Festival at American Park on October 16th. We decided to go check it out. Though it was primarily for children, I still had a lot of fun! We went twice, once in the morning and once later in the afternoon. In the morning we noticed some birds perched on stumps. At first I thought they were statues, until they started  moving! They were really interesting to look at. Their legs were tied down so they couldn’t fly away. They had two owls and some hawks and other birds.  
Supposedly, there was also a parade but I guess we missed it. There was also a costume contest which we only got to hear about the results by the time we came back. Yes, I came back dressed up. I love Halloween! I dressed up as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. We saw this lady sitting on a bench drinking beer. Her costume was so awesome, I had to have a picture with her! There were very few food vendors around. After the contest, children lined up in front of stores on the street saying “Trick or Treat” and getting candy. Many of the costumes were witches, girl anime superheroes, or just regular clothes with a cape. The streets were a sea of black and orange.