Jack-o-Lanterns and 1 Creepy Clown

Kari Writes:

As promised - Ian did indeed get dressed up for the safety festival!

Once we got to the community center they informed us that Ian was going to be the "piero" which means clown (borrowed from French).  They really went all out with it too:

Mr Piero himself!

Pretty excellent right?  Also a tad creepy!  The kids didn't really know what to think of him!

Clown, Skeleton, and a stylish Mummy

Our trusty float!

So the basic gist of this festival is that each neighborhood in Akasaki creates a huge float on a cart and walks around for hours and hours (4 - 5 hours total for us!).   This is all organized by the parents of elementary students.  The dads all get dressed up crazy - ours were all classic Halloween goons (aka: Frankenstein, werewolf, mummy, and my personal favorite: zombie nurse)

So the moms, dads, and kids all pull the cart along down the road.  Chanting as we go (in Japanese so i'm not sure what exactly we were saying I think it was something to the effect of "hey look at us!").  We made many many stops along to way.  Because the purpose of this festival is to grant safety to homes and businesses in our neighborhood (for a donation of course).  So we stop and one guy sings something - then all of us sing something else.  And then we're on our way to the next place.

I had it easy - they just handed me a wizard hat and cape!

Thankfully we got to stop and have some drink/snack breaks along the way!  Once we made our way back to the community center the guys got to change out of their costumes and wipe off their faces!  Then it was time for more food and drink and general merriment.  We met a lot of great people in our neighborhood (hopefully we'll still recognize them without their costumes on :p hehe).     

                                                                       

a little collage of the day

Other than the safety festival we haven't done anything else "picture worthy" this month.  We've gone to a couple more Japanese lessons, had dinner with our future eikaiwa ladies, and had our first pottery class.  Which is a pretty neat way to learn something new and make our own souvenirs at the same time!   So far we aren't so great at it and the instructor had to help us a TON.  But I'm hopeful we'll improve over the next couple months!

This weekend we have not one but TWO Halloween parties.  Somehow I don't think Ian will be reprising his role as creepy clown though!

That's all for now!

-Kari