Halloween!

the day was quite busy! i cooked a lot the day before and held a class. here are some of my students decorating paper mache pumpkins after some gumbo lunch and a lot of snacky foods . . .


Yokies made an apple crumble pie! here it is pre-oven:


and baked golden goodness after! i love my new tart pan:


the "candy bar":


and the dessert bar at night:


yep, that's a tower of fudgey pumpkin brownies:


the bevy/wine bar:


veggie plate:


and my gumbo. i think it turned out very good this year:


chris AKA astro boy (i think he just likes to be naked):


scary movies and lots of food:


pikachu dusty:



neil shows us his freaky finger trick over dessert:

dusty taps into his inner pikachu:



good times!

BOO!

Halloween is upon us again!


yes, it's my favorite holiday (this and thanksgiving -- we pagans like a good time!). Unfortunatly, my little city doesn't have much in the way of halloween decorations. they have frilly cute stuff but i don't like that shit. and finding a pumpkin big enough to carve is way too expensive. so i tapped into my inner martha and created all these myself!

here are my shrunken severed zombie heads (flesh tone inspired by Dawn of the Dead which was on TV last week):




i try to give them each their own individual look. the blood took forever to dry. here they are hanging in front of the livingroom balcony doors:


now off to Yoko's homemade pumpkn patch!


these (like the heads) are paper mache molded on balloons. after it all dries, you just pop the balloon. stems were fashioned with floral tape, wire, and a little cotton and tissue. cut the bottoms so i can stick a glow stick in it to give it that glow at night. will post night pix from my halloween dinner.


spooky tenugui (from a great japanese hand towel shop in kyoto):


and my styrofoam giant spider:


will be making a big pot of gumbo along with some other goodies. menu and photos to follow!

Big Buddha Time

went out to Chiba with D and Mary to see the big Buddha. none of us really knew where we were going (D had a goodish vague idea which was enough for me). All i know is that it took two trains, a bus ride, and a ride on the ferry to get there. Great weather! here we are enjoying the boat:




there were these hawks that were trailing our boat and hovering over us. they snatched up cheetos and other snacks thrown to them. we prayed desperately not to get shat upon:


ah, the openish sea!


the water was sooooo clear!


we took a moment to admire the ocean:



time for lunch! we went to the market to pick up some food for the journey:




and headed out towards the ropeway up Nokogiriyama (yes, mary walks slow):


up, up, and away!



and more up! there were so many damn stairs. steep ones too. these were nice and new but some of them were really dangerous to walk on:


the view from the top!


D's afro blocks some of the view:


a really big buddha carved in the stone wall:



me pulling a Bolt on the edge of the cliff:


yes, that's me leaning waaaaay over the barrier:


and more steps:


there were THOUSANDS of buddhas here. they came in all shapes and sizes with different expressions on their faces in different states of wear and tear. a lot of them had been decapitated which gave them an air of eerieness:






the rock formations were truly amazing. this was one of my favorite shots on the trip:


hey, that turtle looks familiar . . . .



and on to the main show! here he is, the biggest sitting buddha in Japan (31 meters high):



D reads up on the boddi tree donated from india:


ah, the little pond on the way out:


we opted to go down the mountain towards Hota station rather than go back up the mountain to ride the ropeway down. there were so many steps, my legs were ready to fall off on the ride home so down was definitely preferable to going up. it was quite a walk to the station but it gave us an opportunity to enjoy the beautiful scenery at dusk:




feeling nice and spiritual after that day. and also very out of shape . . . .