Prepping for a party

Our big Halloween party is this afternoon and the kids can't wait.

It's not an easy task to prepare for a party in a country where the holiday is not really celebrated. John asked his students this week if they did anything for Halloween, or recognized the day in any way, or understood why there are a few orange and black decorations at the grocery store and mall. They had no clue except for recognizing jack-o-lanterns and such from their middle school English textbooks. I think the kids coming to the party are curious as well. We will do our best to share the joy of candy and costumes with them and probably not spend as much time, this time, talking about the undead and pagan holidays and all of that (maybe next time we're in Japan we can tackle that!).

We will have orange food (carrots, satsumas, orange juice and orange Doritos) and play Ghost in the Graveyard (I will ask Tomoko and John to translate). I couldn't find construction paper for decorations anywhere, and Hiromi volunteered to look for some for me, but instead went to the hospital last night to have her baby (Ayumu's dad, whom we haven't met, will drop him at the party, as it's all Ayumu has been talking about for a week). So we made little ghosts out of kleenix balls and dress-up crowns out of our cardboard recycling and tinfoil (they actually turned out pretty well!). I found some felt at the 100 yen store (like a dollar store) and made some felt pumpkins and different shapes the kids can put on it, and I found orange bandanas there, too, so kids can dress up as cowboys or pirates or anything else. I had wanted to make a cake or cookies, but we only have a broiler and my one attempt at making cookies was a quickly burnt disaster.

We'll take lots of pictures, of course, and let you know how it goes.

In other news -- I made the startling discovery yesterday that the bag of what I thought was white sugar (which I had just put on my plain yogurt, fruit, and granola), was actually salt. Yeah... not a good taste (especially as generously as I had "sugared" my yogurt.) I could have sworn I had picked up the same bag as I had last time at the store.

And good news for Katie -- she reported that she didn't spit on ANYONE at school this week. Now that's something every parent loves to hear. The school is preparing for some kind of performance which is, we now understand, a BIG DEAL. For one thing, they are practicing songs and dances all the time at school. Costumes are filling up the classrooms. And we were sent with a list of more things to buy for the kids (white tights, including for Jack, a white long sleeved t-shirt, and camisoles for the girls... Maiko from HGU had first translated the last item as singlets, which confused us... so John brought in the girls' leotards to learn they are NOT singlets... so she looked up more words and decided on camisoles.) Of course, all of these items will need to be marked with their names.

Anyway, this list took us for the first time to the underwear section of our favorite (affordable) children's department store and I have to say -- Japanese kids' underwear is AWESOME. So unbelievably soft -- like a different kind of cotton all together. And very clever. It is clear that it will get cold and snowy here and I found so many great footless tight, long underwear, tops, etc, and all of this amazingly soft cotton. I will need to head back (and check out the adult section, too). It did make me want to buy underwear for all of the kids we know in the world, which John said is just a little weird. Maybe... but it was SO soft!

OK. Off to shop for the party. Hope to be back with a good report later tonight. Happy Halloween!