From the Mouths of Babes.

The last time I worked in a Junior High setting during Octoween was 2 years ago .  Back then I showcased a few pictures that the students had drawn expressing their impressions of Halloween interspersed with a book of Yokai. It appears that history shall repeat itself.

Yesterday and today, I gave my patented Halloween lesson. First I have them match up the English & Japanese translations of some Halloween icons. Then I explain the History of Halloween and put on a little costume parade. Following that is my rendition of the tale of Stingy Jack and the development of the Jack o' Lantern. They have a Word Search puzzle of the vocab and then are instructed to draw a picture of their image of Halloween and tell me what their desired costume would be. Here is the first wave of pics and some are cute, some are artistic and some are gory. (Please ignore any spelling mistakes.)

The above were my Second Year JHS class's efforts and the following is my favourite. Not only did he cram a lot into the little box, on the reverse of the paper he took notes throughout my entire lesson and I copied his rendition of my Jack o' Lantern spiel.

I was kept really busy today so I didn't have time to research my Yokai, yet you've already seen some of these at the beginning of the month. First is ウストック (Ustaq?) from Iraq. He's a wizard of the dead who rides the winds on his ethereal horse.

ラクシャーサ Rakshasa from India appears to enjoy the taste of human meat. Yummy.

Until I research the next few pictures, I don't feel right in presenting them. So more kid pics and Yokai tomorrow!