Halloween

Kinda sucks that I had to work today, it woulda been fun to go looking for some remotely Halloweenish activities. But I guess most people work on Tuesdays....

Anywho, the holiday isn't really big over here, not yet anyway. The foreigner community makes strides in presenting it the unwary Japanese masses. There's a party on the Osaka loop train line where a bunch of people get dressed up and ride the loop for a few ours in BYOB style. I was thinking of going this year, but I'm dead tired and, as the Aussies say, "can't be fucked." The theme parks have watered-down kiddy festivities, which I steer well clear of too.

It does give me pause to reflect on Halloween and what it means to me. Personally it's my favorite holiday. The only other one that comes close is Christmas, but that loses some of its appeal after childhood. Halloween only gets better the older you get. Most foreigners here seem to agree, Halloween is usually their favorite as well. I even had some of my kids try saying their favorite holidays, and there were a few Halloweens there too (although that might be due to misunderstanding the question). I think the core appeal of the holiday is community. It's all about going out and meeting people, socializing. Be it trick-or-treating with the kids and parents, getting into egg and shaving cream fights with roving neighborhood gangs, or dressing up crazy and drinking with your friends, everyone has some social activity on Halloween.

So when I walked home from work today through a middle class suburb at 6pm, and saw no kids or revelers, I realized how much I missed them. And then the zombie werewolves attacked.

All Quiet on the Eastern Front

Been pretty slow around here the last few weeks. The weather is certainly taking a dive for winter, and it's been rather rainy. I'm just whiling away the days at work, the gym, sleeping, and gaming. Still in the planning phases of the new school, but it's coming along. I've talked to a lot of friends about their experiences with small schools and have a good idea of what I want to do. Did some shopping around of other similar places for comparison, and literal shopping for supplies and what-not. We're shooting for February now, I think that it'll come together pretty nicely by then.

The batizado went well, got my blue cord. I sang a bit, but I'm really terrible at it. Got tapped in the face by a well-placed foot, but nothing noticable. The after-party was fun, lots of great food. I'm thinking of taking a little trip to Taiwan in a few months to visit one of our guests too and take up the free lodging. I hear it's a nice place.

Back to the Grind

Summer is over, and my vacations ran out a few weeks ago. I'm working again, much to my dismay. It was a good vacation; did a lot, spent too much. Time to start making up for lost revenues.

The weather seemed to change on a dime. One night, I'm kicking off my sheets in a sweat, next night, I'm bundled under my blankets. It's been raining a lot too, hell on the laundry.

It's batizado time again. This is the workshop week, the big event is Sunday. Our school went independant a few months ago and our old group pretty much black-listed us. It sucks that we won't be having many guests, but it feels good to be able to run things on our own.

The future looks interesting, I'll certainly be busy. I'm in the works to start up an English school. Having no experience in said field, I'm nervous as hell and changing my mind on it daily. Even if it fails, it's still a great opportunity and I think I'll be a better person for trying. Besides that venture, I've got a string of job changes and openings coming up. Hopefully I'll be able to level everything out come January.

Until then, I'll just keep grinding these lovely autumn days away.