Halloween, Photobooths, and Birds - Oh My!

Kari writes:

Hello!  It's strange how from day to day it doesn't feel like much has happened since my last post.  But then I sit and think and realize we've actually been quite busy!  Depending on the week we are booked anywhere from 2 to 4 weeknights between all the various commitments we've made since we got here!  We've also had quite a few eventful weekends lately so that's what I'll be sharing!

First up was Halloween.  On Saturday night we road tripped to Yonago for the annual JET Haloween soiree.

Cowgirl and Cow!

We got there in time to see a truly impressive Michael Jackson impersonator!  He had the hair, clothes, and attitude all down to a T!  My favorite part of Halloween is seeing everyone's creative costumes! Silly, sweet, scary, you name it!  I almost enjoy it more when I have no idea what someone is but they clearly put a TON of effort into it.

That crazy thing in the background was our friend
the Angler Fish.  He had a light dangling from the mask

The party was almost an hour away from our house so needless to say it was a very late night!  However, sleeping in on Sunday was not in the cards for us.  We were up and at 'em to setup a Halloween party for some of the elementary kids in the area.  Japan knows that Halloween exists . . . but it's not really something that the general public participates in.  So it's our job as Americans to teach them some culture and pump them full of candy!  All in all the event was a success and the children exceeded all our "bobbing for apples" expectations.

On Halloween Ian, Ellen, and I took a trip to Aeon Mall just for fun.  Ellen and I got to look at cute puppies and we all partook in Purikura. Purikura are Japanese photobooths but you get to edit your photos afterward and they are just generally awesome!  See for yourself:

 

Japanese schools in general host annual Bunkasai (culture days) in November.  This consists of showcasing various art projects, tag board presentations, speeches, plays, and the big choir competition.  Everyone works super duper hard in preparation for this day (even the PTA split into groups and performed songs!).  When it's all said and done the teachers go out to celebrate.  We went to a great restaurant where almost every course we had was chicken!!  And at one point there was even pizza and french fries. I was quite pleased :)  And these after parties are a great way to a.) get to know Ian's co-workers better and b.) stretch our Japanese conversation skills.

This last weekend a friend took Ian, Ellen, and I out for an amazing day trip!  We started out by driving to Shimane prefecture (my first time out of Tottori since I've been here!).  Our area doesn't have much for fall foliage yet but as we drove we saw color to rival Autumn in Wisconsin!

Our first stop was Vogel Park.  This place was lovely and chock full of beautiful flowers and amazing birds!  They  had an owl show with an owl that they had fly right over the audience's heads!  But he was an ornery guy and flew up into the rafters when he got tired of performing.  When we left a couple hours later he was still up there!

We then explored the rest of the park.  We got to feed a flock of pink birds

And I had a Toucan on my arm!  Unfortunately, Ellen's bird got bored and decided to start a bird fight on me!




These guys have really big beaks!  I'd be lying if I didn't admit I was more than a bit worried for my personal safety!

After getting our fill of birds and flowers we made another stop at Matsue Castle.  This is one of the very few castles left in Japan that is all original (vs. reconstructed).  It is also a black castle which is another rarity.  We climbed up some pretty narrow steps to get to the top! But it sure was neato!

On our way to supper we took the scenic route and wound our way up and down Mount Daisen (Daisen literally translates to "Big Mountain").  It was crazy cool and also pretty cold - we were literally up in the clouds!

Supper was quite the treat.  We got to enjoy some of the very first crab of the season!  Tottori is known for their crab and this stuff was very fresh!  We cooked it ourselves nabe style.  Nabe is basically when you have a big pot of broth on a small gas grill at your table and you fill it with veggies and meat.  Then you eat it!  Yumm.

Congrats if you made it all the way to to bottom!  As I said we have been surprisingly busy lately!  

'Till next time,

-Kari