22 mookie

Yesterday was my birthday, and I've entered my 22nd year of life. I suppose the numbers don't make a huge difference, but I think 22 does have a more adultish ring to it than 21 yah? Scary... But despite being away from the people and world that I really know, I had a fun birthday and halloween. First, this past Saturday the group that arranges social events for the people in my program and similarly situated foreigners hosted a halloween party. This is the manyth Halloween party I've been to, but it was funny to hear non-Americans tell that they've never been to one before...
It was a party, not so different from any other party, but fun nonetheless. I don't know what I dressed as, some kind of cross between Bruce Springsteen and Axel Rose maybe...

God Bless America...

English boy named Simon went as famous Japanese cartoon character Anpan-Man. He donned it well.
In case you ever wanted to see a panda and Anpan-man hug...

So my actual birthday and the actual day of Halloween was yesterday, Tuesday Oct 31. Mostly just work as usual, but the school nurse, who is incredibly kind and speaks a touch of english, left a bag with a few presents on my desk. This included a small hanging scroll with picture of cat that is supposed to indicate good fortune, a nice pen, and a handwritten and pretty note that in simple Japanese said happy birthday and that I should watch her son do karate (shes REALLY proud that hes some kind of local champion). She emphasized the brown color of the pen, saying it reflected my personality (as well as my clothing). Something about thoughtfullness and patience, and a number of other nice compliments that the language barrier prevented me from really understanding. I'm not exactly sure what motivated the nurse to do all this for me, and to go into detail about my personal color, but it was much appreciated first thing in the morning on my first birthday in Japan.
Today I received another present, and this one nearly did me in. I teach a "special" class once a week, with four girls in it. Two of them are in fact quite special, though the other two seem to be there only because they're Filipino (but I could be mistaken...). Anyway, the two Filipino girls are incredibly cute and always happy. One of them today came up to me in the hallway and presented me the following sewn and embroidered square:

As she gave it to me she said "otanjoubiomedetou" or Happy Birthday, and squeaked out the words "twenty two," my new age, and "mookie," the name of my pet rabbit whose pictures were a hit when I did my self introduction almost two months ago. Her teacher then said something about having a mookie in Japan as well. It was all I could do to not tear up, and I had to hold myself back a bit... The overwhelming kindness and cuteness from the kids and their teacher mixed with the reminder of home really hit me. I think they were surprised how happy it made me, and I profusely thanked them in English, though I know they didn't understand a word.
If that's still not enough to warm your heart... wait, there's more. My host family, whom I stayed with for about a week in early to mid-August stopped by my house while I wasn't home and dropped of a small little package with a cute note and a bunch of pictures that they had taken while I was staying with them. I had only talked to them once or maybe twice briefly since leaving their house, but they still remembered my birthday! And came all the way to my house to deliver a present! I've since called them and we've already exchanged a bunch of emails and i look forward to seeing them again sometime. Taking a digital photo of a hard copy photo is a little ridiculous, but i felt compelled so here's the best i could do:

Me and Katsutoshi doin some grillin

The other highlight of the week has been teaching the kids "trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat, if you don't, i don't care, i'll pull down your underwear." Hearing a roomfull of Japanese early teens sing this is about as satisfying an experience as I've had in my short tenure as a teacher. I hope its not the last of its kind.