The kids dressed up for Halloween in 2009
Every year in October, there is a great children’s Halloween Party in Kamiyamada Onsen, the hot spring section of town. Though Halloween is still tow weeks away, this years party was on the 18th, and we took all three kids to the party for some pumpkin carving, trick-or-treating and apple bobbing.
Anri came up with the idea of dressing Noah up as Mater, the character from the Disney/Pixar film Cars
Our good friend Tyler — an American originally from Seattle who runs a Japanese inn in Kamiyamada — was the coodinator, and has done a great job running this event for several years now. Nobody here knows trick-or-treating, so Tyler went around the main road in Kamiyamada and got a whole bunch of businesses to agree to hand out candy and snacks to visiting kids in costumes. with a map in hand, we marched the kids up and down the street, stopping at every listed place to fill their bags with candy. It was then that I realized that despite the time I took to make Noah’s Mater costume, he didn’t want to wear it. I had to wait until he fell asleep in his stroller before I was finally able to put it on him.
Pupkin Carving in Kamiyamada, 2009
Later, we did pumpkin carving. Anri traced the face she wanted and I cut it out. She and I (with a tiny bit of help from Sara) cleaned out the pumpkin and when it was finally done, it looked pretty good!
We also did some apple bobbing, which was thankfully very clean, since the apples all had long stems to grab onto with your teeth. And there were other special things going on, such as taiko drumming, dancing by local geisha and a horse-drawn wagon ride. There was also a costume contest. There was no win for the Greys today, but they had a great time.
Bobbing for apples in Kamiyamada, 2009
Photos of the Halloween Party and others taken in October are on The Kodak Gallery Website here.
Anri and Sara had a great time playing with Grandma, Grampie Bob and Duffy (although Duffy’s antics occasionally freaked out Anri!) The kids also loved playing with their cousins. It was our first time seeing Nicholas and Matthew, and we were very happy to finally meet them. Anri had a blast with her cousin Emily. The two were inseparable during their time together and Anri’s English ability was noticeably improving by the hour. Isaac was great to see too, and I sat there marvelling at just how much he looks like his Daddy. During our stay, we did a ton of shopping for supplies we can’t readily get in Japan. We went to the States with two suitcases and returned just within the baggage limit with 6. Anri had her first experience skating and took a ski lesson for the first time. We all had a great time and now that we’re back, we’ve been busy unpacking and getting back into our usual routine. We have over four-hundred photos from our trip, whcih can be viewed 
Baa-chan and Uncle Kenichi came over for dinner, a big meal with food prepared by Tomomi and her mother, and Anri and Sara had a great time playing with Uncle Kenichi. After dinner and the opening of presents — all clothes for Sara, and one little pop-up book — we finally brought out the Baskin-Robbins ice cream cake and sang Happy Birthday.
Weblog Top Page
