Happy Halloween!

Many things happened since my last post:

Katie went to the Jidai Matsuri (pictures up on Flickr) and had a lot of fun while I did a whole lot of nothing at school. At least I had a class on Friday!

I went to Katie's school on Saturday and had a Halloween party with the childrens, and my definition of "cute" has been forever changed by what I witnessed there.

On Sunday we went to Kobe and did a bit of shopping.

This week, Katie didn't have to work on Monday, Tuesday, or today, so she was able to go and get some administrative things done related to her work visa. Every gaijin (foreigner) in Japan has to get an Alien Registration Card. Sometimes cops will stop you randomly, and you have to be able to produce either a passport or an ARC (aka "Gaijin Card") on the spot, or you get in big trouble. I feel like being a foreigner in Japan is probably a lot like being black in most places: a lot of people are afraid of you and police stop you for no reason. I do get a little paranoid around cops, I've found, even if I haven't done anything wrong and I have all the appropriate documentation on me. My friend Adam, who's teaching in Busan, South Korea, said he felt pretty much the same way.

This weekend Katie and I will be headed to Hikone, in nearby Shiga Prefecture, which is the city where Katie did her semester abroad a year and a half ago. She's going to show me literally EVERYTHING there is to see and do there ("It'll take a whole day," Katie said). So that should give you some idea of how big the place is.

Oh, one more thing of note: today I taught my kids how to play King's Cup, which, if you've never heard of it before, is a drinking game you can play with a deck of cards. Here's how it works:

Players sit in a circle. In the middle of the circle is an empty cup. Around the empty cup is spread a deck of cards - all cards face down. Each player, in turn, picks a card up from the pile and displays it to the group. Depending on the value of the card, you or the other players have to perform a certain activity.

If you draw a...

2 - You. The person who drew the card selects a player to take a drink.
3 - Me. The person who drew the card takes a drink.
4 - Floor. Last player to touch the floor when this card is drawn takes a drink.
5 - Guys. All the male players drink.
6 - Chicks. All the female players drink.
7 - Heaven. Last player to point to the ceiling when this card is drawn takes a drink.
8 - Pick a mate. The person who drew the card picks another player. Both drink.
9 - Bust a rhyme. Going around in the direction of play, the person who draws a card says a sentence. The next player has to come up with a sentence that rhymes with the first one (it doesn't have to logically follow the first sentence in terms of content). The players continue this until one of the players is unable to come up with a rhyme. That person drinks.
10 - Categories. The person who drew a card announces a category of items, for example, "car manufacturers". Going around in the direction of play, the players have to name items in that category. So the next player in turn might say, "Toyota", and the player after that might say "Honda", for example. The first person to repeat an item or fail to come up with one has to take a drink.
J - "Never Have I Ever". The player who drew the card says a sentence with the following format: "Never have I ever _________". Any activity can fill the blank, such as "Never have I ever stayed awake for 24 hours straight." Anyone in the group who HAS done that activity (in this example, anyone who HAS remained awake for 24 hours) takes a drink. In the direction of play, the players each take turns thinking of a new "Never Have I Ever" until all the players have had a turn.
Q - Questions. The player who drew the card asks another player a question. The person to whom the question was asked may not answer the question, but must instead ask a DIFFERENT question to a DIFFERENT player. The game keeps going like this until someone makes a mistake. The first person to mess up takes a drink.
K - King's Cup. The player who drew the King must pour some of whatever they're drinking into the cup in the middle of the circle. The player who draws the 4th and final king must drink the contents of the cup (which now contains a mixture of potentially 3 different kinds of drinks). The drawing of the fourth king also ends the game.
A - Make a rule. The player who drew the Ace must create a rule that will apply for the duration of the entire game. The player may choose to cancel a rule previously created by another player. Some commonly used rules are "Little Green Man" (before taking a drink, every player must make the gesture of taking a little man off the lid of your can/bottle, placing him gently on the table, and then gently placing him back on the can/bottle after you've finished. Any player who fails to do this must drink again) or "Chin on the Table" - if you say a word (determined by the creator of the rule), you have to put your chin on the table and keep it there until another player says the word.

There are other variants of this game, of course. Because it's a school environment, though, I couldn't very well give each of the students a beer, so wherever it says "take a drink", I would give them a point instead. The object of the game, then, is to finish the game with the least number of points. It's actually good practice, since it's all in English. Certain activities, like questions, are good practice for forming questions in English, and Categories is excellent for practicing vocabulary. And "Never Have I Ever" is ALWAYS a good way to get to know your other players.

-Bob