The Last Halloween

Well, we had our final To- O Gijuku English Club Halloween party, and at least we can say we went out with a bang! We "bribed" the students into wearing costumes with a bag full of candy-goodies for 1st and 2nd place and a $5 gift card to McDonalds and $5 gift card to Baskin Robbins for the 1st place winner! They must have really wanted those gift cards because everyone turned up in a costume, with many of them being homemade (including a wolf and Disney Halloween Mickey)!! One of our students even made her Halloween costume the night before while listening to Christmas music- now that's the spirit :D




And, we had the traditional game of "Bobbing for Apples" with a twist. Each apple had a challenge on it, and the teams fought for candies!

Of course a Halloween party wouldn't be complete without some scarecrows, so we did a scarecrow relay race with a student from each team as the scarecrow! We have to admit that they were some rather stylish scarecrows!

And, this year we decided to add in a boot stomp contest, as this was one of Angie's favorite activities that she remembers from her childhood days. It was rather chaotic and wild, but definitely a blast! After the boot stomp we had a scary-treasure hunt, in which the students could only use flashlights (the party was at night so most of the lights in the school were off) to find the clues to the final treasure of candy! Our students absolutely hate going through the school at night in fear of the ghost that haunts the school, so of course we made sure to put some of the hints in dark, secluded places! One of the teams had to sing a song to keep their spirits up as they went down the dark stairs to the kendo room for one of their clues.

Finally, to top off the night we did the traditional "pumpkin" carving or as close as you can get to pumpkin carving in Japan. We were very happy to finish our third and final Halloween party with all of our fingers and no loss of blood! We must admit that, although we had a great time at the party, we were rather sad at the same time as we realized this was the last Halloween party we'd get to have with our students. We're on the verge of 150 days (TOMORROW!) and are starting to feel the sadness set in as we come closer to saying goodbye to our students. And actually the day after our Halloween party, we had a speech contest at our school (we've been helping 2 of our students prepare for it over the last 2 weeks), and one of our student's speeches was about how we and his homeroom teacher have influenced his life since he's been at To- O Gijuku, which only made us even sadder to leave. We know we need to make the most of our last 150 days with our students and are looking forward to it!

Annual First and Last Ever English Club Olympics

Today we had the Annual First and Last Ever English Club Olympics!! It was an hour of frenzied battling of English questions, trivia and spelling for Gold and Silver "medals." The day was full of spoils and splendor as the two nations (teams, that is), Japan and America, dueled for the championship of the Annual First and Last Ever English Club Olympics.




Here's a member from the Japan team as he humbly accepts the Gold "medal" in the Basketball Trivia Competition winning the medal with a last minute two-point shot into the trash can. The Basketball Trivia Competition was followed by the Spelling Bee which was then followed by the Baseball Questionaire Competition.




Team USA couldn't hold up to the fierce combat issued out from Team Japan. Here is the US Team in their defeat as they eye the Japanese Team and the championship prize!

So, the Gold "medal" champion was Team Japan pulling out a stunning and overwhelming victory over Team USA. These "Big Leaguers" know how to fight to the finish.

A special Gold "medal" and an "honorary" American one dollar bill was given to the MVP of the Annual First and Last Ever English Club Olympics who managed to sweep the boards earning a total of three "medals": two gold and one silver.

A round of applause for all who fought valiantly in todays Annual First and Last Ever English Club Olympics!!!

Fabulous Fall!

Last Saturday we ventured to the top of the Hakkoda Mountains for the last time. Last weekend was the peak for the fall colors so we decided to make our last trek in Japan a memorable one. And it was quite a sight to see. We both agreed it was refreshing to be out of man's creation and into God's creation. We ascended the slopes with the sound of the wind rustling in the multi-colored trees and the smell of the crisp and cool fall, mountain air. This is opposed to the sound of cars zooming, smell of garbage and gas, and the sight of claustrophobic concrete.

Words don't do justice for how great it was to be in the Creation that the Lord breathed into life...

World Wonders

Since the beginning of time, our time in Japan that is, we have witnessed an incredible sight. Every morning for about a year on our walk to the train station, we saw a true rarity--

SHOVEL TRUCK!

This is a jeep with a detachable shovel of various shapes and sizes instead of a spare tire. The uses of this special tool are entirely innumerable. A regular truck is just a worthless pile of metal next to the magnificience of SHOVEL TRUCK. ("it can't be helped" but to write the name in capital letters it is so powerful!) What would a regular truck do if a difficult situation arose? How would a regular truck move a pile of rocks blocking its path? Or how about an avalanche of snow? How would it dig a hole if the need came?

But a time came when we saw SHOVEL TRUCK no more...and many days passed without a sighting...until one day, last Saturday, while riding bikes....





There it was, in all its greatness!! Not the original, but SHOVEL TRUCK nonetheless!! Tucked deep within the gravel side-streets of Hirosaki, it lay waiting...waiting for the time of action...waiting to dig a hole!


But wait, the story is not finished!!

Last night, Tuesday that is, just three short days after our long absences without SHOVEL TRUCK, there upon our walk home from singing our hearts out at karaoke for 4 hours, the beauty, the amazingness, was before us again...this time with twice the greatness. Check it out for yourselves, although the video doesn't do justice, viewers beware, this might knock your socks off.......






We thought this was also a nice picture.