Melloween

After last year's costumed antics there were some robust discussions about what we would do this Halloween; because of all the American influence it seems to be a massive thing here and there's no shortage of events going on. We could have dressed up as Power Rangers and run around Himeji, for example, or done the Harry Potter thing again and club-hopped in Osaka while shrieking women chased us around camera-first. The enthusiasm was fairly short-lived though - going out to get radioactively drunk didn't particularly appeal and neither did the idea of having to pack up yet more costume stuff. So we kind of just sat around and ate instead and Lord help me I think we made the right decision.

Friday capped off a super productive week where I single handedly managed to finish all my prep for the seminar and slam the door on the blog wolf for another fortnight; it was one of those rare occasions where I feel I've completely earned my 5 o'clock beer. I met Lisa at a little bar called the "Rokko Beer Diner" - which we had completely to ourselves - and we ordered up some drinks. Like most places here, "happy hour" lasts for most of the evening, which netted us a couple of free buckets of fried chicken and chips. These were washed down with a beer called "Crystal Amber" which really has no right to be as good as it is - as much as I enjoy the more typical Japanese beers I reckon the homecoming is going to kick off a torrid love affair with just about any beer that isn't lager. After watching the world scurry by outside the window and untangling our weekend a bit, we headed for home and cooked up some pizzas in one final flourish of Fridayness.

We did start Saturday morning with a brief spell of Halloween guilt, wondering if we should put in some kind of appearance in Osaka, but then we remembered the flyers advertising THE HOTTEST DJS and SPOOKTACULAR FUN and considered the whole thing well left. Instead we spent the day being cripplingly married and had a wholesome walk down into Mikage proper. There's a festival called the "sweets road" happening at the moment where you can get on a "sweets bus" and do laps of all the confectioners in the area, in celebration of the fact that Mikage has more cake shops than houses. We went with one little spot next to the station, a tiny little faux-European cafe with pale wooden chairs and fridges full of unpronounceable French desserts. Lisa had a moussey cake with lots of Rs in it and I had a banana tart which, while both delicious, left us wondering how anyone could do more than one stop on the bus without their pancreas shutting down.

On Sunday we celebrated our lack of spooktacular hangovers and headed into Sannomiya to have an initial thrust at the Christmas shopping. Lisa had been craving pork cutlets so on the way we stopped in at a greasy spoon and ordered up a couple of "lunches". I use the word loosely, because we ate at 1 o'clock and had absolutely no desire to eat again until about 8:30, and even then a cup of tea probably would have been plenty. Mine looked like they'd just tipped the fridge into the deep fryer - a whole pork cutlet, a chicken cordon bleu thing and a gigantic hamburger patty with rice, soup and salad. I'm quite genuinely convinced that Japan would be colossally fat if they didn't do so much walking; they actually laugh when I say Japanese food's considered light and delicate back home. Having transcended our need to ever eat again, we went to the shops and our initial thrust at the Christmas shopping turned into an afternoon-spanning chain reaction that knocked it off completely. Christmas dealt with before Halloween's out - this I like. To celebrate I went to the gym and burned off approximately 10% of my lunch.

This week's going to be a musical one - we're off to the Takarazuka Revue on the public holiday Thursday to see a big show and then on Sunday there's a taiko percussion thing in Kobe that Lisa assures me will be amazing. After that we only got a month or so left which quite frankly terrifies me - before I know it we're going to be making farewell speeches, locking the door and leaving the keys in the mailbox. I can't imagine having everything done in time, but I think I felt the same way about the Christmas shopping.