Happy Hamburger Halloween Party

Over the weekend I threw a huge Halloween party at the house! Everyone there, with the exception of Curtis, had never before celebrated Halloween so being able to bring this experience to life for them was really fantastic.We dressed up in costumes, cut pumpkins, and even grilled hamburgers. Because buns for the burgers aren’t sold in the Nagashima supermarket I special ordered them from the town bakery and they were delicious. To complement the burgers I made monster eyes using green food coloring, potato salad, and olives and monster fingers which were really sausage links and ketchup. The kids loved the blood juice and everyone at the party enjoyed the spooky marshmallow squares and Akari Sensei’s spider-web jello. For the background music I put on a Halloween CD containing 75 minutes of howls, growls, shrieks, creeks, screams and other scary sounds just right for the occasion. Soon it was time for the pumpkins and after everyone did some brainstorming the consensus for the designs were a clown and Anpan Man, a Japanese superhero made of bread. Leave it to the Japanese to make two really cute Halloween pumpkins! Just as the party began to wind down I passed out the BINGO cards and everyone competed for the newly carved pumpkins. As everyone was leaving the party there were already talks about what we should do for next years Halloween. Our party really was a success!

There isn’t a day that passes where someone isn’t teaching me more about Japanese customs and culture. I am always grateful when I have the opportunity to reciprocate and share with my friends a little piece of what I know from back home.
see other photos