If you don't give me candy, I'll play a trick on you!

Okashi wo kurenai to itazura suru yo!

(updated in response to a request for pictures)

Some English conversation schools for kids have full-on Halloween parties, large affairs with the participants in elaborate costumes. Me, I run a fake English school in which half the student population of two shares a good deal of DNA sequence with me. So it seemed fitting to have a half-assed Halloween party (but not until we went through the 18 alphabet flashcards and 30 vocabulary flashcards first). I bought some individually wrapped candy and cookies at the local supermarket, and witches' hats and Halloween decorations at the 100 yen store.

Then the Pumpkin Mommy, Daddy, Princess, Prince, and the neighbor girl took turns being the trick-or-treaters and the neighbor.

The Pumpkin Daddy was assigned the role of the neighbor who didn't celebrate Halloween, and got TP'd. When planning this "party," I'd considered having them TP the house for about 0.02 seconds before deciding against it. I mean, how are you supposed to explain the concept of TPing to a neighborhood of Japanese folks in their 60's and 70's?

When the Pumpkin Princess and the neighbor girl started turning Daddy into a Mummy, the Pumpkin Prince started crying "don't hurt Daddy!" so we had to stop.

I want a Power Rangers Samurai lunch!

Boku, Shinkenjaa bentou ga ii!

Ask and you shall receive...

Rice flavored with ketchup (Red Samurai Ranger) or curry powder, salt and sugar (Gold Samurai Ranger) and decorated with sliced cheese (the kind that's wrapped in plastic that you have to remember to take off when making grilled cheese sandwiches) and nori. I used a craft knife that I bought at the 100 yen-shop to cut the nori this time. The empty spaces were filled with leftover chicken nuggets, leftover broccoli, baby tomatoes, and frozen chicken patties. It's interesting that the Pumpkin Prince asked for this lunch because "Shinkenger" was something like three seasons ago and he probably has no memory of watching the show. But he does like to check YouTube videos on my iPad, and apparently there are a lot of Shinkenger clips because "Power Rangers Samurai" ("Shinkenger" action sequences spliced into original material filmed with English speaking actors) is being aired in the US right now. What I want to know is if they're going with the original Shinkenger ending because Power Rangers Samurai has gone far away from the original story to make that kind of hard to do.

Summer has past...

Natsu ha sugi... So we survived the first summer vacation with a shogakusei (elementary school student) with only minor trauma. Gakudoh (after school day care) was open every weekday, and they had a system where a local company took orders for boxed lunches. The Pumpkin Princess said she wanted me to make her lunch every so often, and I think I ended up sending her with lunch something like 6 or seven times, but I only took one picture.

Cousins came to visit Grandma, so we met them there. Brother-in-law brought his nagashi-somen kit.

As the name implies, what you're supposed to do is run water and somen over the bamboo and catch the some as it comes in front of you, and we did this, but then things got wild and b-i-l stared letting candy through it, and then...

grape juice.

Snail's Pace English School is still open for class. I think we're about halfway through the alphabet. It's too soon to tell if we're going anywhere at this, well, snail's pace.