A Cry for Help

Yesterday evening, there took place what I am prepared to call the greatest meeting of minds the small town of Masuda has seen in several years. It was the first time all of the ALTs have gotten together since school started, and it will likely be talked about by the people of Masuda for weeks to come. Even a single foreigner is highly noticeable in Masuda. When a whole group of us gets together, I imagine people start to worry.

We met at a place called Gusto, a restaurant which tries so hard to serve authentic foreign dishes, bless its heart. Sometimes it succeeds; I mean, for the most part a cheeseburger is a cheeseburger is a cheeseburger, right? The real failures are in the little things. For instance, no American establishment would serve a cheeseburger with exactly six french fries on the side. I have also never before seen a meal consisting of steak, rice, and miso soup before. I dunno, maybe I just never went to the right steakhouses. All the same, Gusto is quickly becoming my favorite restaurant in Masuda by virtue of the fact that it has free drink refills, unlike every other restaurant in town, including McDonalds.

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss plans for a Halloween party we'll be putting together for some elementary school students later this month. The place is going to be split up into four different activity areas: costume construction, trick-or-treating, games, and a haunted house. Now, the first three areas are pretty straightforward, and we essentially know how we'll be operating those.

Plans for the haunted house, however, have not yet been finalized. Jake and I have been put in charge of this task. Being a huge, scary dude myself, I naturally was immediately chosen to be some kind of monster. We have other ideas, too, but I want to do this thing up right. I want to put together a haunted house that will have these kids waking up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night - years later.

So I thought I would turn to you for help. Not just you, though. Other people, too. People who may in fact be reading the same blog at this very moment. The thought that more than one person reads what I throw up here is pretty scary in itself, but I'm looking for more ideas from you. What would you do if it was your job to scare children? Leave me some ideas in comments or shoot me an e-mail. Remember: I may be pretty scary on my own, but together, we can make a haunted house these kids will never forget; even with the aid of therapy.