Oct 12, 2009

Halloween Festival Fun

Here's what went down at Halloween Festival 2009. Very importantly, there was sunshine...whew! But more importantly, there many happy, costume-wearing, fired-up little festival-goers!

We're all set-up and ready to go..."Yay!!!" we cheered for sunshine, "Yay!" for candy, "Yay!" for games...for hamburgers, for pumkins and perhaps other things I could think of on the spot. "1..2..Yay!"
In our first game corner, my friend Chako got S ready for Ghost Bowling.
Yuka and his big sister, got J ready for the Monster Ring Toss.
Y kept his eyes closed for the ENTIRE round of "Pumpkin Face"
and opened them up nicely for the photo op afterwards...well, sortof. Don't you just love those smile dimples!

Challengers lined up at the Coin Drop Station, without realizing that the nun helping them out was really one of their teachers.
Meanwhile, our tireless volunteers got ready for the hamburger line. N's mom was amazing! She volunteered to help despite bringing three kids with her on her own - one, you can see, she has in her arms while still helping set up. You rock!! Thank you!
The burgers were ready, thanks to our grill master dads who also worked non-stop from morning to evening. And the crowds were ready. Let's eat!
We ended the festival with some jack-o-lantern carving. C's mom got an eye out...of the pumpkin that is.
I even got a chance to carve and enjoyed the memories of my own backyard pumpkin carving days with my family. We always had great holiday times including trick-or-treat nights every year in our neighborhood back home, long, long ago.
We ran out of time and volunteers and had to cut the smores from the schedule, but all in all, I think it was a fun day for our little English Square. Thanks for coming, everyone!

Some Posed Pics from Prize Winners to Pumpkins

Announcing the results of the English Square Halloween Festival Costume Contest:

For the 2nd year in a row, the "Family Costume Prize" went to the "K-Clan", only half of whom are pictured here because Dad was busy grilling burgers for everyone, their daughter playing festival games. Three cheers to you for always getting decked-out and always bringing such life to our party! The Brother and Sister Prize went to the "M-siblings" who have come to our party every year, are always so well-behaved, join in every activity, and manage to stay smiling!
"N-chan" got the girl"s prize in a costume her grandmother made for her. Incidentally, the grandmother also made her cousin's costume, pictured here. Nice! and so cute!
And our youngest student, "R-kun", got the boy's prize as this adorable, young Peter Pan. (I wanted to give a beauty prize to his mom who is always impeccably gorgeous, but I think she was happy enough for her son.)
Here are a few other shots I touched up...from some kinder kids,
to some elementary students,
to our oldest group of "kid" students so cute as cats,
up to some parents who made it through a long day of fun in the sun (two of them surviving morning sickness). Moms are tough for sure! Thanks for coming everyone!
We have our biggest event done for the year and are already conjuring up schemes for next year's festival, believe it or not. Grrrr....
Happy Halloween!

Oct 2, 2009

Our Annual Camping Trip


Every year either in the heat of August or, more recently as the weather cools down a bit, in mid-September, we find ourselves heading to the mountain side for a camping weekend with friends. What started out as a large group adventure several years ago:


has dwindled down to just us "die hards":

Luckily we had a nice, long four-day weekend and spent two leisurely days and nights by this river in Shiga Prefecture. The plan was to go and just sit around in our camp chairs, enjoy a casual read, take quiet walks along the river, etc. And although we actually did these things, it seems most of our time was spent setting up our campsite, getting ready for meals, reorganizing our campsite, going shopping for firewood and outdoorsing-it necessities, cleaning up after meals, covering our belongings in case of rain, complaining about the "noisy" campers who had the nerve to want to enjoy the outdoors the same time we did, then packing up our unbelievably full car loads of gear, etc. "Leisure" is sure a lot of work, I'd decided.

But we did have a wonderfully cozy campfire thanks to Mashi's continuous and meticulous care, nice chats with our good friends, and....our favorite barbequed delights:

lots of veggies, including my favorite..."yamaimo with shiso" (mountain potato with perilla leaves) all dolled up in butter and salt - simple and oh so good!

We also had a new-comer to our feast....mini potatoes skewered on rosemary stalks. Delish!
(We did have other members in our feasting not belonging to the potato clan, but they just didn't make the photo opps.)


Another summer over, another fall in the works. Our Halloween decorations are up and we're ready for our annual Halloween Festival on the 11th! Photos coming soon, we hope, as we keep our fingers crossed for nice weather.