Every day last week I went to an ECC Junior classroom to participate in Halloween parties meant to assist in teaching English to elementary school students. ECC Junior is a special chain of English classes that are taught in the teacher's home. Tuna had been an ECC Junior student when she was younger, and thus knowing that the local teacher wanted a native English speaker for the week of Halloween parties, connected the two of us. Not having a phone here to use for calling Japanese numbers, it was decided that the teacher would just meet me at the AEON Mall bus stop. So I went on Monday to the bus stop, not sure who to expect and hoping that it would be easy to find one another. Eventually a car pulled around the loop and came to a stop in front of me, with three little Japanese girls excitedly waving, leaning out the window as they called out, "Hello!" "Hello!" It was a pretty adorable way to be greeted. I enjoyed going to the classes all week, and even received compensation from ECC Junior.
"Fright Night" an on-campus Halloween event took place on Friday evening. This school event was full of performances (mostly dance performances), and also hosted a costume contest. Some of my friends who dressed up as the Avengers in costumes they made themselves, along with another who joined them as a bystander won the first place prize - a giant bag of popcorn to share. My costume literally came together at the last minute. For the longest time, I wasn't sure if I would actually dress up or not, but on Friday - since my classes were over at 10:15, I went to the mall to hang out before getting picked up for the last ECC Junior Halloween party. During this time, I bought a couple of sweaters just for regular use. I also came across some face crayons that I decided to purchase, unsure of what I'd draw on my face, but figuring it would make for an easy costume that night. Then, waiting for the teacher to pick me up for the Halloween party, I was searching on Google for Halloween face paint ideas, and saw some simple scarecrow costumes. At this point I decided I would ask to borrow a plaid shirt from Ashley and do the scarecrow face make-up. Later that night though, as I began getting ready, I realized that one of the sweaters I bought was just about perfect for the scarecrow costume, because of it's different fabric textures and colors. Wishing I had straw to tie around my wrists and my belt loops, I found a straw-colored plastic bag in my room that I cut into straw-like strips. Meant to be.
After the party, a group of students watched The Nightmare Before Christmas in the Komachi lobby. Ashley and I joined, but first we were on a quest for food. Our original plan was to go across the street to A-Bar, hoping that they wouldn't be too slammed to serve food. Before making it to A-Bar though, we came across the ramen truck. My fellow Americans - you all know what an ice cream truck is, right? Well the ramen truck is exactly the same: it drives around playing music to let customers know it's there. The only difference of course, is that it sells bowls of ramen instead of ice cream and popsicles. This was my first time buying from the ramen truck, and Ashley took some pictures. I think I scared the ramen guy with my face make-up.
"Fright Night" an on-campus Halloween event took place on Friday evening. This school event was full of performances (mostly dance performances), and also hosted a costume contest. Some of my friends who dressed up as the Avengers in costumes they made themselves, along with another who joined them as a bystander won the first place prize - a giant bag of popcorn to share. My costume literally came together at the last minute. For the longest time, I wasn't sure if I would actually dress up or not, but on Friday - since my classes were over at 10:15, I went to the mall to hang out before getting picked up for the last ECC Junior Halloween party. During this time, I bought a couple of sweaters just for regular use. I also came across some face crayons that I decided to purchase, unsure of what I'd draw on my face, but figuring it would make for an easy costume that night. Then, waiting for the teacher to pick me up for the Halloween party, I was searching on Google for Halloween face paint ideas, and saw some simple scarecrow costumes. At this point I decided I would ask to borrow a plaid shirt from Ashley and do the scarecrow face make-up. Later that night though, as I began getting ready, I realized that one of the sweaters I bought was just about perfect for the scarecrow costume, because of it's different fabric textures and colors. Wishing I had straw to tie around my wrists and my belt loops, I found a straw-colored plastic bag in my room that I cut into straw-like strips. Meant to be.
After the party, a group of students watched The Nightmare Before Christmas in the Komachi lobby. Ashley and I joined, but first we were on a quest for food. Our original plan was to go across the street to A-Bar, hoping that they wouldn't be too slammed to serve food. Before making it to A-Bar though, we came across the ramen truck. My fellow Americans - you all know what an ice cream truck is, right? Well the ramen truck is exactly the same: it drives around playing music to let customers know it's there. The only difference of course, is that it sells bowls of ramen instead of ice cream and popsicles. This was my first time buying from the ramen truck, and Ashley took some pictures. I think I scared the ramen guy with my face make-up.