Omotemachi Elementary School Halloween

5th and 6th graders in their trash bag costumes

November 29, 2002 was Halloween at Omotemachi Shoogakko in Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. They really didn't seem to mind or even notice that they were a month late... or that their costumes were composed mainly of trash bags and construction paper (I just kept telling Iwata-sensei that in the US, no school could ever tell their kids to put trash bags over their heads the way these kids were doing... somebody would have definitely suffocated... a definite lawsuit situation.)

Anyway, so the kids made their "costumes" in class and we taught the kids 1. what Halloween is (since they don't have Halloween in Japan) and 2. how to Trick or Treat in English:

"Knock, Knock" (on the invisible door)
(gesture to open the invisible door)
"Hello!"
"Trick or Treat!"
"Thank you!"
"Happy Halloween!"
A nice, easy to understand dialogue that they could practice and probably never use in their lives... but was fun while it lasted.

So after trick or treating with every single student in the entire elementary school grades 1-6, I finished my school lunch and was attempting to make a potty stop on the way to play chase in the gym for lunch recess... attempting, of course, since there are typically around 5 to 10 small children permanently attached to my arms and legs as I am walking down the hallways at Omotemachi Elementary.

I managed to talk them into letting go of my appendages long enough to jump into the bathroom stall. Outside, I could hear all the kids telling the other kids who were walking by to the gym, "Guess what!! Jennifer-sensei is in the bathroom! Hey EVERYBODY!!!! JI NI FA SENSEI IS IN THE TOILET!!!!" [My toilet habits are regularly publicized on national TV in Japan].

Then I heard a big mess 'uh shuffling little feet approaching my stall door: "Ji ni faa-sensei??? ARE YOU IN THERE?? Ji ni fa-sensei??"

"Chotto Matte! [Wait just a minute!]"

And then, just as I am getting ready to open the stall door, I heard a quiet, "SAY NO" -- the cue for a group to all speak in unison...

Then, I hear an overpowering, practically knock-the-door-down yell of:

"KNOCK KNOCK!!!!!!!!!..........................."TRICK OR TREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

It was one of those moments that was just so stinkin' cute that I really was kickin' myself for not thinking to take Halloween candy with me to the bathroom.