Trick or Treat

Halloween on the base in Yokosuka is absolute chaos, but in a completely fun way. For about two weeks before the 31st, every time I would go to the Commissary, I would buy a bag or two of candy. I finally stopped at 15 bags. I thought for sure that was enough. Well, Brian didn't think so, because on Halloween, he came home with six more bags of candy (now these weren't small bags- they were big bags of candy). I thought he was nuts- how could we possibly go through this much candy?

Our Halloween started off low key, with the kids having school off. For some reason, it seems as if the Dodds schools (Dept of Def schools) don't think it is necessary to send kids to school on Fridays. I think we have been off the past three Fridays. There is only one week in November where the kids will go to school the full week. Anyway, we spent the whole morning at the hospital, almost positive that Matthew had Pneumonia. After a chest x-ray and an exam, we were on our way. The Doc said his chest was clear. He came home and slept the majority of the day, and at 5:00, he decided he really didn't care about going trick or treating. I don't think he felt well at all. However, Patrick was set to go. I did convince Matthew to put on his costume and come with us to a few houses. He gave in- the word CANDY always seems to help

Our first stop was at a neighbors townhome for yummy grilled hotdogs- the perfect thing on a nice fall night. We have a neighbor that is a professional chef. He teaches classes at the Community Center, and we are lucky because he always seems to have goodies for us when we are out on the playground in the afternoon. He has brought us homemade beef jerky, coffee ice cream, homemade choc chip cookies, and even some margarita ice cream. Believe me, we need it on our playground!
Chef Clement decided he was going to set up a table outside and grill 200 hot dogs for his trick or treaters. We made that our first stop because I knew it would be popular, and I didn't want him to run out. With dinner done, we began the hunt for candy.

Let me start by saying, this base is crazy for Halloween. They open up the gates, and it is an open base event for the Japanese people. The Japanese kids and adults seem to love this holiday. They come in huge masses and know enough to say, "Trick or treat", "Happy Halloween" and "Thank you." Matthew lasted about 10 houses, and then he was ready to go in. Patrick, 8 years old, wanted to go to every single house on Gridley. Patrick's goal was to get as much candy as possible. He wanted to bring his pillow case, but I told him that no one needs to fill a pillow case with candy.





Brian and Patrick went on their way, and Matthew and I headed back home and set up some chairs outside the door. We didn't have time to even go to the bathroom- there were trick or treaters lining up at our door. We must have continuously handed out candy for a straight two hours. All in all, we went through 20 bags of candy and all of the snacks in our snack basket. We even started passing out some Halloween stickers. It was obvious that they didn't care what they were getting, as long as we put something in their bags. When Patrick and Brian returned, Patrick ended up giving away a lot of his candy that he got- good thing because in this house the candy mysteriously disappears after about two weeks. (I go through the bags and send stuff in to work with Brian)

We had a great time this year, which will be our last year in Yokosuka for Halloween.