I remember when I was kid and going out trick-or-treating, trying to compete with my brothers to see who could get the most pillow case full of candy in one night. Some years we'd have a good haul and have to drop a full pillow case back home to grab an empty one, and other times my mom would drive us in the van with the side-door open so we wouldn't need to walk from house to house. Those were the good days. I wasn't so much into Halloween for the costumes or spookiness of the occasion. At that age, it was aaall about the candy. I remember one time when I was 12 and didn't have a costume so I cut two wholes out of a bed sheet and voila! Instant ghost costume. It kept slipping and wasn't very easy to wear, so taking my laziness to new heights I took off the bed sheet, bundled it in my arms and said "I'm a ghost but it won't stay on," when I was asked what I was, which was still good enough to receive the candy! I had fooled the system.

Nowadays, I can't quite go out trick-or-treating anymore but since being in Japan where Halloween is still a novelty, I can bring trick-or-treating and Halloween to Japanese children. Last year I was a mummy, but this year I decided to go with something a little different - a green Care Bear costume (which will double as a snowboarding outfit in the Winter ;). I've worn it a few times driving around in my car after I'd bought it, at the bar in Obihiro, and to teach some Halloween lessons at my schools. I also wore it yesterday for the Tokoro Kid's Halloween Party.

This year we had a small group of 20 kindergarten and elementary kids attend. For some of them, it was the first time they'd ever experienced anything as strange as Halloween. They came dressed up in their costumes, some looking like they were unsure what everything was about (like a little boy in a suit jacket and knee-socks), but was balanced out by all the other little witches, frogs, fairies, and the grim reaper with his inflatable scythe. There were events such as Halloween Twister, Halloween Bingo, a Halloween relay and... Halloween donuts-on-a-string (to substitute for Bobbin' for Apples). If the sugary donuts weren't enough to get the kids into hyper-mode, the night was topped off with a ghost pinata full of candy that they had to bust open with a baseball bat. I'm just glad we didn't have to deal with the kids after that.

After spending a few weeks teaching about Halloween, showing pictures of Halloween costumes from back home, and doing endless Halloween activities, the exposure has made me start to really enjoy this holiday. Back in Canada, I'd become indifferent to it after wearing costumes for Halloween since I learned to walk. But being in Japan and seeing it again through the eyes of an adult has shown me that it's not so much about the candy, but about dressing up and just having fun. Now I think it's fun to dress up for Halloween, and fun seeing the little kids enjoying themselves, and even funner running around in a green Care Bear costume handing out candy to random Japanese strangers on the streets! Ah, who knows, maybe I am still a kid.

Just when I thought my hiking was done for the season, I got an invite to hike another mountain with my friend Georgie a few days ago. This time of year, mid-Autumn, has already seen us with a light dusting of snow on the lofty mountain peaks so we decided to tackle a mountain slightly closer to the sea, Mt.Nikoro, at a breezy 829 meters. It was a short, brisk hike taking us three hours to reach the peak and back. Georgie's 50-year old Japanese friend, Kazumi-san, led our little group of multi-national ALT's directly up the mountain on the steepest path he could find, making it feel more like a military exercise than a relaxed hike through the forest.

The charm of Mt.Nikoro wasn't the beautiful, winding path that hugged the mountain or the gorgeous Autumn-colored trees, but the old Japanese man named Kisaku-san who has rightfully claimed the mountain as his own. His story, as told by Kazumi-san, is that he's a 75-year old man who lives near the mountain and climbs it every single day of the year, rain or shine. He also likes to take pictures of other hikers he meets on the trail and puts them on his self-made website. Kazumi-san knew of him from previously hiking the mountain so we timed our descent to run into him as he was on his way up.

When we met him, he was overjoyed at seeing such a mixed group of people. We had an Irish, an American, a British, and a Canadian.. not quite what he was expecting, I imagine. He took our picture, jotted down our names and info, thanked us profusely and then gave us his business card, told us about his website, and continued to tell us how happy he was. We definitely made his day! Check out what he had to say about us on his website (in Japanese): http://8805.teacup.com/nikoroyama2/bbs/1619.

If you ever come to humble Mt.Nikoro near Kitami in Eastern Hokkaido, look for Kisaku-san - the Old Man of Nikoroyama.

I'll be honest, I don't like zoos. They're depressing. A couple of weekends ago I paid a visit to the Asahiyama Zoo in Asahikawa. A few friends from Takikawa wanted to visit the zoo so I met them there with my friend Nikki. We walked around on an emotional low (I wasn't the only one to dislike zoos) to see the animals on exhibit in their cages, like glass displays of exotic pets. The most saddest polar bear I've ever seen was in a walled enclosure made of fiberglass rocks, like you'd see on a movie set, with a regurgitating waterfall for ambiance. To add to insult, they planted two separate trees to give a fake impression that somehow this was nature! I watched the polar bear, yellowed with age, walk back-and-forth from wall to wall with its head tilted to the left, probably waiting until next feeding time, and imagined myself living there for 15 years. A virtual jail! I'm not gonna go out and join PETA or anything, but how can you enjoy looking at owls and hawks that can't fly, or gorillas surrounded by concrete and steel, or a lone snow leopard in a giant bird cage?! I'd rather watch them on TV than see them at the zoo, thank you very much.

Sadly, by going there, I was helping to prop up this animal Guantanamo Bay. Not only did I pay to get in, but I bought a lifetime membership :P Seriously though, how do they get away with charging 800 yen for a single entrance fee and 1000 yen for a lifetime membership? Well anyways, I bought a lifetime membership... probably because I'll go back there in the winter when they let the penguins walk around, heehee, but then that's it! I'm throwing my membership in the fire.. or using it to pick the locks on the animal cages. I did like the Red Panda though, I want one (=^.^=)

In my little corner of Eastern Hokkaido, my town is being turned upside-down in a once-in-a-lifetime historical event. Gappei 2009! Today, my town has officially merged with the next town over to become the new Town of Yubetsu, complete with speeches, ribbon-cutting, and a flag-raising ceremony. With two towns of less than 6,000 people adjacent to each other, it made financial and demographical sense to become a unified town. With it, though, comes the upheaval of transferring town halls, re-electing mayors, assigning public employees to different departments, reallocating duties, changing addresses, designing a new flag and logo, and moving desks around. It's a bureaucratic fireworks show! With all the chaos going on, there are a lot of unknowns about how the two towns will deal with being one and I'm just a poor little ALT all caught up in the mix. The upside is that I currently have an awesome new desk.. but no supervisor. Luckily, my job and the schools I teach at are the same for now but come April Madness next year, that could change too.

Sayonara, Kamiyubetsu :(