If I Wanted to Wear a Costume, I'd Audition for a Play

There's only one thing I like about Halloween and that's doling out candy to little princesses, Power Rangers, and wizards. Everything else -- scraping goop out of pumpkins, the color orange, and adult costume parties -- stimulates my gag reflex.

But here I am, living in a foreign country, doing my best to be an ambassador of good will for my native land. And the Japanese ladies think it's fun to wear costumes and carve pumpkins in October so that's that.

In an uncharacteristic display of good sportsmanship, this year I went the extra mile and ordered a costume on-line. The costume did not arrive in time for the Shonan party last week so some circa 1962 ingenuity was in order.

Witches, witches, and more witches

Pippi Longstocking arrived in Japan a few months ago. Our oldest sons were best friends in second grade at Star of the Sea School in Virginia Beach in 1993. It's been fun reconnecting with her at Shonan, book club, and Ikebana events.

Yoriko and Reiko attack their pumpkins

Medieval Wench Susan chats with Sumo Mimi. Inside the sumo costume is a little battery-operated fan. The menopausal women were orange with envy.

We dubbed this trio the Aladdins. The Genie is a former softball and basketball standout at Wayne State University. She'll put on the costume again to entertain Japanese children at the Yokosuka Community Center. Tia is Jasmine and you'll be seeing a lot more pictures of Tia because she's vice president of Ikebana this year. Cory the Sheik is the mother of two of Matt's friends; our paths first crossed in 1992, shortly before we both met Pippi Longstocking.

A witch poses with Trinity/Neo

This is Ingenuity, a Japanese cell phone charm. At least I finally got some use out of the Shinto priest's skirt that's been hanging in my closet for the past two years.

Sometimes I Can't Help Gawking . . .

Like every time I walk past a man who is wearing worker pants. And you thought I visited gardens to check out the foliage. I have yet to see a man who looks bad in a pair of these pants. At least from the waist down.

I spend an unbelievable amount of time trying to decipher ads posted in train cars. This is one of the few that made perfect sense to me.

I make it a rule not to gawk at my fellow train passengers but, as someone once said, rules are made to be broken.

That's Chip (or maybe Dale) dangling from a cell phone tucked inside a businessman's pocket. Apparently I broke my Do Not Gawk at fellow passengers rule twice this week. So far.

It was impossible to look away when Godzilla gave birth to twin girls on the top of a hill in Kurihama. It looked like a breech delivery. No wonder she was roaring.

A Charming Season

Four more of these flea market spools and this might actually look less like a triangle and more like a tree. Mike suggested wrapping ribbon around the spools. The washi paper was my idea two hours and three spools later.

Although I am not known for farsightedness, the cranberry and gold ribbons complement our living room "decor" so now I can display my cell phone charms year round.

If I am feeling especially ambitious, I might even change the washi paper every now and then to reflect the passing seasons. (That "if" is meant to be taken as much, much bigger than your run-of-the-mill big if.)

Next I'm going to try to poke a needle through an inch of rubber 20 times to make ornaments for an Anpanman tree. Stay tuned.

Rub-a-Dub, Dub . . . Dub, Dub, Dub, Dub

• The proprietor of Tanemura Antique Store is wrapping up Mary Jo's purchases, including a surprisingly charming carved wooden set of the Seven Gods of Fortune. She borrowed $50 to buy these guys and we hiked more than a mile uphill to get to the antique store, not to mention (oops, I just did) the hours of research and distillation I've devoted to sparing Mary Jo the anguish of confusing the Seven Gods of Fortune with the Chinese Kitchen Gods. This is what it must feel like to be a partial owner of an NFL team.
  
  (NOTE TO EMMA: Copy and paste the next couple of paragraphs to Microsoft Word, print, and submit to your Religion teacher for extra credit. Not that you would ever need extra credit, but it never hurts to have some in the bank.)
  
  Dante gave us the expression "in seventh heaven," my Catholic ancestors invented the seven deadly sins, the Brothers Grimm created the Seven Dwarfs, and we have Stephen Vincent Benet to thank for "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." In Japan, a debt of gratitude is owed to the 17th Century monk Tenkai who created the Seven Gods of Fortune. Tenkai used one indigenous Japanese god, Ebisu, and imported three gods each from China and India to show the Shogun seven virtues Tenkai deemed essential.

• Candor - Ebisu ("She exuded candor after swilling down four cans of Yebisu beer.")
• Wealth - Daikokuten (many shrines with Daikokuten statues encourage visitors to rub the head or shoulders to gain wealth)
• Amiability - Benzaiten
• Magnanimity - Hotei (people rub his big tummy for good luck)
• Popularity - Fukurokuju (my mother would have a problem with this virtue; maybe this is a case of "lost in translation")
• Longevity - Juroujin
• Dignity - Bishamonten

Here comes my favorite part. The Seven Gods of Fortune (often referred to in English as the Seven Lucky Gods) are said to sail into Japan every New Year's Eve on their treasure ship to bring happiness to everyone. If you put a picture of the seven gods in their treasure ship under your pillow on the night of January 2nd and happen to have a lucky dream that night, you will be lucky for the rest of the year.

I take that back. This is my favorite part: the Seven Gods of Fortune cell phone charm. Now this is something I can fit into the Norfolk house and, more importantly, our budget.

South Bend Meets Tokyo

This is what Japan has to say about the upcoming contest between Notre Dame Football Legends and the Japan National Team:
The Notre Dame Japan Bowl 2009 is the biggest American Football event to take place in Japan. Never have such big names come to Japan to play against the Japanese national team for the purpose of American Football Globalization. Japan is the perfect place to start a global American Football movement and that is why Notre Dame Legends such as Lou Holtz and Tim Brown are coming to the Land of the Rising Sun to celebrate their 75th anniversary. The Notre Dame Japan Bowl will pit a Notre Dame team full of ex-NFL players as well as former All-Americans, against a Japanese National Team who took the U.S.A national team down to the wire in the American Football World Cup 2007.

Here's the kicker, unlike any other exhibition here in Tokyo, this will be a matchup full of global implications. Now that Japan has proven that they can play with the big boys, Notre Dame Legends will not be pulling any punches. This is the kind of gridiron battle that Japan has been lacking and this may be the epic battle to solidify Japan as an Elite American Football Country. Will Notre Dame put an over-achieving Japanese Team back in their place? Or will Japan prove all the naysayers wrong and force America to bring over an even tougher team?

You can be darn sure I'll be scanning the Tokyo Dome grounds for UND cell phone charms.

And On The Third Day, They Mastered Skype

We used our computer to call Katie and James this morning. Thanks to a nifty program called SKYPE, we now have a Virginia telephone number and can call the U.S. for $.021/minute. And it works both ways - Katie tested it for us - so let me know if you want the number.




















While we were on a technological roll, we visited the AU store on Blue Street and picked up cell phones. There were scores of models on offer, too many choices really, but we narrowed our focus to the dozen or so models on the Free Phones rack. I can't imagine what those pricier models can do since my Free Phone comes with an e-mail address and an 8.1 pixel camera (which I photographed with my perhaps now redundant 7.2 pixel Nikon). After I download and study the English version of the operating manual I might give you the e-mail address. Right now all I can do is retrieve my phone number (and make that once in every five attempts).

One of the sweet store clerks attached my Enoden train charm for me when she saw me squinting at the microscopic hole. She even enlarged the font for me and let me select another cell phone charm as a "presento."

The housing office had surprisingly good news for us this morning: we've been assigned to #13 Gridley. The house was vacated last week and we can move in as soon as the cleaning/painting crew finishes whatever it is they do between tenants. This house has the exact same floor plan as our old house so we won't spend the first month bumping into walls. The carport is on the side of the house so I won't have to hold up traffic for hours on end while I'm trying to back into a space two inches wider than our car.