Monday, October 31, 2005

Halloween

October 31st, 2005.

Halloween.

The night before All Saints Day. (I know this because Tyler knows...umm...because I teach at a Catholic high school.)

The one day during the school year that I might possibly be able to get away with wearing something besides a nice shirt and tie. (Dustin Info #62: I am not all that fond of wearing shirts and ties.)

So I asked my principal.

"Can I dress up for Halloween?"

"Sure."

Ahhh, yesssss. The word has come down from on high. Hallelujah!

So, today I went to school in my kung fu outfit.

Back in May of 2001, I had to go to Kobe for a re-contractors conference. I was just finishing up my first year on the JET Program. (I refuse to spell it with the extra "me" because it looks stupid. C'mon, U.K.! Loosen up a bit!) Kobe has a Chinatown which is known as Nanking Town. I went there for dinner the first night I was there, and found a shop that sold Chinese clothing.

There it was.

A kung fu outfit for $40!

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

Naturally, I snapped it up, and I have made use of it on every Halloween since then.

Including this year.

The students seemed fairly entertained by my outfit, as did most of the teachers. Some people, both teachers and students, had no idea why I was dressed the way I was. This struck me as sad, although unavoidable.

Halloween doesn't have the same popularity in Japan as it does in the States. In recent years, there have been Halloween parades held in Tokyo, but there's no general practice of Trick-or-Treating and Jack O'Lantern carving.

But, hey, I got to dress up in my kung fu outfit and teach English today.

I even had my "The Raven" class today.

Needless to say, I was in a pretty good mood all day long.

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