Perimmon harvest and Halloween parties

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I'm feeling totally Halloweened out today. I taught several Halloween themed lessons at Junior High school in a rare opportunity to take classes on my own. I managed to integrate a game of "Tower of terror" into the lesson (basically Jenga in which they have to say something in English before having a go) which went down well! I even got a round of applause from one class at the end.

On Friday I turned up at both my elementary schools dressed as a witch (much to the surprise of both the kids and the staff room) and did a further five Halloween themed lessons. And then finally today I helped out Kimi and Michiko at Kan Kan for their Halloween party, dressed as a mummy....(an outfit which in retrospect seemed a good idea, but then the toilet roll I'd used had pretty much disintegrated by the end of the party). On the way home I needed to stop off at a 7-Eleven to grab some lunch and gave the shop girls a surprise to see not only a foreigner (which is rare enough in these parts) but also one dressed as a ragged looking mummy, dropping toilet paper in her wake.

I dashed home and changed out of my wrappings, ready to help my friend Mr Hagiwara on his fruit farm. It is peak season for his persimmon harvest and he needs all the help he can get. He mentioned at our Eikawa (adult language group) that he couldn't make it this week because of the harvest, so I rang him in the week to offer my fruit picking services. It was back breaking work, but I really enjoyed the visit to his beautiful home and also the chance to meet his wife, who is lovely. The elderly staff they have hired were much amused by me being there and at tea break expressed surprise about my long nose, neck and good white skin and that I didn't look 35 (an odd mix of insults and compliments all meant in a light hearted way!). The 75 year old fruit picker I met wanted to shake my hand as he doesn't get to meet many gaijins and being old enough to remember the war, never learnt any English. A gajin, incidentally if I haven't mentione dit before, is a Japanese word meaning "non-Japanese", or "alien", which literally means "person (or people) from outside of the country. It is sometimes used in a bit of an insulting way, but most of the time it is just used when Japanese people are surprised to see westerners.

Mr Hagiwara dropped me home at 5pm and I went for an onsen to ease my aching legs. I've been roped into running in a village sports day relay team tomorrow morning, so I hope I don't let the team down. I'm the last in a team of seven to run, so I hope I'm not to slow to finish.

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