halloweeeeen!

(the pumpkins are supposed to be, from left to right:

• Mika (Wendy & Matt's dog),
• Stitch from Lilo and Stitch fame,
• a japanese ghost (Takeshi's very impressive first pumpkin carving attempt!),
• and my evil Totoro.

Since this was Takeshi's first Halloween in America, I wanted to do it right. But we didn't have any parties to go to, and it was on a Wednesday, so I wasn't sure what we should do. Luckily, there were signs on the entrances to the subway mentioning different routes to a 'Greenwich Village Halloween Parade.'
Halloween parade? I thought to myself. Hm. I wonder if it's anything like the West Hollywood street party...

"So I'm thinking of going to the Greenwich Village Halloween parade" I casually mentioned to my coworkers, trying to get a feel for what I was getting us into.
"Oh, I heard it's a lot of fun" said the new guy. "Yeah, just as long as it's not too warm. The trannies come out wearing practically nothing" smirked the cynic.

Yep, that sounds just like the west hollywood street party.

So anyways, Wednesday night found us at the corner of 3rd Ave and Spring street. We were supposed to get to 6th, but at that area of town the street names stopped being numbers.
"I think that way is North. That means that way is 6th" said Takeshi authoratively.
We started walking, and it was not long before we noticed we were surrounded. "Don't look now, but there's a very frightening and realistic Dracula behind you" I wispered. But he was too distracted. "Hey it's Mr and Mrs PacMan!" he said, pointing to two yellow half-crescents walking across the street.

But three blocks later, the people were getting fewer and fewer. Takeshi's coworker (our mountain climbing expedition leader Shue) scratched his head. "I don't think this is the right way..."
In the end, we ended up asking a Rollerblading Pirate directions. Good ol' Rollerblading Pirates. Is there anything they don't know?

Thanks to our good friend R.P., we were able to find the parade. Or rather, the human wall surrounding the parade. After about 15 minutes of standing on benches, jumping, trying to squeeze our way in, and at one point being me being carried on Takeshi's shoulders, we gave up and went to get drinks. But we while we were there, we were able to see some pretty neat floats, and the specators wandering around were hillarious. One girl was wearing an inflatable giant penis costume, and needless to say, she was very popular. ;)

"If we're here next year, we should definitely come in costume!" I enthused.
You know me, any excuse I can get. Even Takeshi grinned sheepishly.
"I might go as Tsurikichi sanpei. I'd have to get a big straw hat though." Hee! (I know what I wanna be for my costume. No stealing!)

Between the parade and the scary movies (Rosemary's Baby and The Ring) and pumpkin carving, we had a great time. The only dissapointment I suppose was the lack of candy. ^_^