To My Dearest Moka,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am perfectly fine. I love living and working with you and occasionally with your neighbor, Motegi. Though I love to travel, in my honest opinion, there is no better way to spend a weekend than staying here at home with you. I love shopping at Fukudaya on Sundays in the early morning saying ‘おはようございます’ to your residents. I enjoy being with the elderly women and men who I love competing with to buy discounted groceries! I also enjoy the unexpected meetings with students from Moka Girls High, Moka High, Night, Technical and even Motegi High School at Eon when I am wondering the aisles, trying to understand the unique Japanese products. I thank your citizens for being so warm to me Moka. Though I understand some people are still too afraid or too shy to approach me I am forever grateful and touched by even the simplest smile or friendly greeting your people have given me.

I am from Canada, so I love witnessing the changing of the seasons. Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring… I embrace all four seasons and I am glad that Japan also has all four. The hot and humid days of Summer are not coming back until next year and I am finally beginning to feel the cool and crisp Autumn season in your air. Although I enjoy all four seasons, Autumn is my favourite of them all. In America, Autumn is usually called Fall, and in Britain, Fall is usually called Autumn. But in Canada, we use both names to describe this season; both words have the same meaning.

Fall has also begun in Toronto, and the leaves are changing from their lively green to more surreal tones of bright red, orange, and yellow. Here are some pictures from Toronto where you can start to see the changing of the colours:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=65897651&postcount=6472

and

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=65924997&postcount=3005

Sadly, you won’t be able to see the photos if you’re viewing them from a computer at school, so please try to look at them from home! J

Anyways, I am distracted. Forgive me. Oh Moka, I wish I could show you Toronto like you have shown yourself to me. Two of your students came to show me your beautifully fragrant fall flowers and I was so impressed. Another day, the Vice Principal came to one of my classes to take photos of me teaching. She said that she would write a letter and send some photos to my Mother. I was so touched by this I wanted to cry. Thank you all so much! One day I hope some of your students and your teachers or other people come to Toronto so I can repay my gratitude to you all. You’ve all been very friendly and warm to me and it is this warmth that keeps me warm when I am alone in my apartment when it gets cold. Thank you once again Moka, I love you!

Yours truly,

Matthew

When I was growing up in a small town named Preeceville (its name sounds like ‘peaceful’ and indeed it was very peaceful and very small) in rural Saskatchewan, Canada, the signs of Fall would always be connected to the coming of Halloween. The changing colours of the leaves from lively greens to antique shades of red, orange and yellow and the sudden shifting of the weather’s mood from a warm embrace to a cool handshake told me that the season of costumes, candy, and Jack-O-Lanterns would soon be upon us lucky children.

Before the big day of October 31st, people prepared for Halloween by decorating their houses with signs of the season. Big orange pumpkins (kabocha) are carved with scary and sometimes silly faces and their almond-shaped seeds and gooey innards are scooped out and replaced with glowing candles so that at night their faces come alive! People also string fake spider cobwebs along their doorways and put figurines of ghosts, witches, monsters, and black cats up to make their houses look scary. For my house, all the decorations were with Snoopy dressed up as witches, ghosts, and monsters because I love Snoopy.

On the day of Halloween, October 31^st, my entire school would hold a Costume Contest, so after lunch all classes would be cancelled so we could all change into our scary costumes and celebrate Halloween. Sometimes each class would also have a Halloween party where we’d play Halloween games like bobbing for apples, eat Halloween cake, and candy given to us by the teacher, and drink pop or juice from a witch’s caldron. When we decorated the classroom for our party, it was usually coloured orange, purple and black… because those are the colours of Halloween. After our classroom Halloween party, we would all gather in the gymnasium for the Costume Contest. We would all have a chance to go up on the stage with our class and parade around in our costumes. It was so much fun to see everyone dressed up, even the teachers! Everyone would have lots of fun and in the end winners for best costume would be chosen. One year I dressed up like a Japanese ninja, another year a vampire, and another even a scary old lady! I never won, but just spending time with my classmates and teachers in costume gave me so many happy memories.

After the celebrations at the school were done, my friends and I would go ‘Trick-or-treating’, that is, going door-to-door asking for candy from everyone in the town! On the day of Halloween, every house in my town made sure there was one adult at home who would be responsible for handing out candy. I have done it a few years in Toronto when I was older and it is always so much fun handing out chocolates, potato chips, and candy to children (and even sometimes adults) that would come to ring my door bell and say ‘Trick-or-Treat’! In return for dressing up and showing it off to everyone in the town, the people in costume would get candy from us who stayed at home to give it to them. I always made sure my Mom bought the best kind of candy for the people dressed up like witches, ghosts, fairies, Frankenstein, vampires, even anime characters, Harry Potter, and all other sorts of monsters and creatures. People would go asking for candy until late at night and amidst the glow of Jack-O-Lanterns and the scary decorations, Halloween always seemed like a magical night where the town transformed into something out of my imagination.

Halloween is a very important holiday in Canada and America, and it is one that I wish would happen in Japan as well. Halloween brings us closer to our neighbours and makes our communities stronger because we are all visiting each other and giving each other things. Halloween also creates such good memories for us as children that stay with us even when we are adults. Writing this diary entry now has brought a smile to my face. I hope you can all experience Halloween one day! Until then, Happy Halloween!