Costume Shopping with the OYRangers

In the Wadaiko club, there is a small group of us gaijin (mostly OYRs – One Year Regular students) who have bonded rather well this term. We had to learn everything and experienced “firsts” together: buying our own drumsticks (the Harry Potter adventure), wearing pacchi pants, performing, and eating different treats. We even had a captain named Koji, so we felt like quite the little team of amigos.

To celebrate our great spirit of wa, we decided to have a group costume for Halloween, since we’d be going out with the Wadaiko kids that night anyway and they would really appreciate it. Our shopping venture brought us to Don Quixote, the Japanese version of Marcs; a cheap store where you can find anything and everything, you just need to look in the right place. There were not a lot of choices for costumes, unless we all wanted to be pumpkins or Japanese Pop stars. Which, are both totally fine, but let’s be serious. Luckily, we were able to find something cheap and befitting of our team: Color Ranger masks!! How is this not perfect?!

The Rangers are a totally Japanese idea, represent the power of teamwork, while recognizing personal contribution and differences, and would allow us the chance to do obnoxious poses in the middle of the train station! And that, as we all know, is the true meaning of Halloween. The Color Ranger masks came in 5 colors and were one-size fits all. Sure, one of us would have to double up on color, but that was fine. We ended up deciding to buy track suits in the same color as the masks, and as for special weapons (which couldn’t really be weapons because of Japanese law, fear of deportation, and the scare factor on public transportation) we all grabbed household items to accessorize our outfits.

Getting into our outfits was a bit of a hassle, we needed to maneuver around the freshmen, who were working on presents for the upperclassmen in the main floor of the building we were changing in, then we needed to get to Kichijoji and make sure out costumes were hidden until we made our grand debut as a group. While I rode my bike to the train station, the others took the bus and ended up almost an hour late! But when we all came out in mask and all, we got roars of applause from the other members and there was much picture taking.

Now, allow me to introduce the Rangers.

Derek from California: Yellow Ranger with the golden shoe scoop

Alice from France: Red Ranger with fearsome batsu fan

Jorren from the Netherlands: Pink Ranger with fluffy feather-duster of justice

Liane from California: (also) Pink Ranger with fluffy feather-duster of truth

Sara from North Carolina: Green Ranger with emerald shoe scoop

Alexandra from Ohio: Blue Ranger with dual laundry pins of furry

“OYRangers, ikou~~!” (OYRangers, let’s go~~!)