Weekend before last, Natsuko and I went to Ikeda City for Zack and Helen's Halloween Party, where we made jack-o-lanterns.  Though you can't tell from the pictures, the pumpkins are small green Japanese ones, not the North American oranges, which will run you at least $20 a piece here. 

In the close up shot, the pumpkin on the left is Natsuko's, and the one on the right is mine.  This was her first-ever attempt at a jack-o-lantern!  Hers was voted "Cutest" of the group, while I won for "Most Handicapped."

  I was just happy mine came out better than the jack-o-lantern Art and I made back in 2003, when we hosted a pumpkin carving in Kami-cho.  Poor Jack had a painfully extreme cleft palate!

Some post-event plastic surgery fixed him right up though!  You never did see a pumpkin with a bigger smile.

Wednesday, Arthur and Eriko are moving to Ottawa, where Art's family lives.  To review for all the folks back in the states, since I never post anymore, Eriko was my supervisor when I first arrived in Kami-cho on JET.  Eriko had just married Art, a former JET, just a few weeks before.  Art was the senpai (senior/mentor) for me and all the other area JETs when I lived in Hyogo Prefecture.  I have missed our political discussions (right-wing Canadians are really hard to come by in Japan), lifting time at the Nishiwaki gym, and Art's...boisterous cultural insensitivity since I moved to Osaka, and it is sad to think that he won't be around when I visit Kami-cho this weekend.

Art and Eriko, you will be missed, and I wish the both of you and little Ray (not pictured) the best of luck in Canada. 

Supposedly, they won't be back to visit for two years.  Will I still be here then?!?