the winds ablowin

i have no idea how it happened overnight, but it suddenly got a little cold. went out last night and had to wear jeans, shoes, long sleeve shirt. even had to dust off my leather jacket and put it on...it hadnt seen action since the beginning of may. not that cold yet (despite japanese coworkers claims to the contrary) but the wind chill isnt anything to joke about and i think itll dip another 10 to 15 degrees once winter hits. now it finally feels like fall, only 1 week before halloween.

and on a halloween related sidenote, the lack of jack-o-lanterns, halloween candy, pumpkin pie, or any stuff included in halloween lore has been noticeably absent from nagoya. the ecc schools are decked out in the stereotypical halloween garb for theme week next week, and im sure some costumes will come out next weekend, but halloween is definately a western holiday thats been only semi embraced by the public here, and mostly only by the commerical retailers. my students dont even know about the concept of trick-or-treating.