Trick or treat
Just a fun photo you should see. It's Halloween week in Japan. Yesterday we saw the same two Halloween-themed TV commercials a couple of dozen times.
Halloween's popularity seems to be surging this year. I hope so. Out of all the fun holidays I imagine Japan would do better than any other country, Halloween is the main one. Much more so than Arbor Day or Take Your Kids to Work Day. Japanese horror has a dream-like quality I find superior to that of my home country, and this is the place where some genius or group of geniuses invented cosplay. Add in some of the frenetic qualities of Japan's homegrown local festivals and you're going to end up with something truly insane. Halloween as it was meant to be. A graveyard revel. Death made kawaii.
Showing posts with label Kawasaki. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kawasaki. Show all posts
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Monday, October 28, 2013
October is Spookey Month: A frightful day out in Kawasaki | The Japan Times
A frightful day out in Kawasaki | The Japan Times
This event was so cool even an idiot like me has heard of some of its DJs. Too bad we missed it. Actually, considering the weather last weekend, I'd be surprised if this parade happened this year. I hope it did.
Your day-to-day life here in Japan can be pretty boring. The Internet phenomenon of "Meanwhile, in Japan..." with some outrageous photo that purports to show that Japan is some kind of hallucinatory maelstrom of the strange and unusual is only so much bullshit. Exaggeration, cherry-picking, confirmation bias and all that. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu isn't popping through everyone's windows at night with her back-up dancers, there are no nationwide lotteries for students in junior high classes to kill each other off and most kids are too exhausted from school, club activities and cram schools to do much giant robot piloting or sword-fighting against demons from another universe. Trust me, most of the time you're not missing a whole lot.
But when things do happen here, you find that in Japan the fun is unlike what you'll find anywhere else. The live shows I've been to here have been by and large better than the ones I went to back home (although we tore it up on the dance floor every New Year's Eve in Athens, Georgia, and I miss that a lot every December). And there are these Halloween parades that, if these photos are to be trusted, look like a pure delight. So if you have a chance to take part in one of these events, you really should. There's Halloween done in your home country's style, and then there's Japanese Halloween, which must be the coolest of the Halloweens.
The rest of the time it's work and dinner with family and watching TV and going to the supermarket.
This event was so cool even an idiot like me has heard of some of its DJs. Too bad we missed it. Actually, considering the weather last weekend, I'd be surprised if this parade happened this year. I hope it did.
Your day-to-day life here in Japan can be pretty boring. The Internet phenomenon of "Meanwhile, in Japan..." with some outrageous photo that purports to show that Japan is some kind of hallucinatory maelstrom of the strange and unusual is only so much bullshit. Exaggeration, cherry-picking, confirmation bias and all that. Kyary Pamyu Pamyu isn't popping through everyone's windows at night with her back-up dancers, there are no nationwide lotteries for students in junior high classes to kill each other off and most kids are too exhausted from school, club activities and cram schools to do much giant robot piloting or sword-fighting against demons from another universe. Trust me, most of the time you're not missing a whole lot.
But when things do happen here, you find that in Japan the fun is unlike what you'll find anywhere else. The live shows I've been to here have been by and large better than the ones I went to back home (although we tore it up on the dance floor every New Year's Eve in Athens, Georgia, and I miss that a lot every December). And there are these Halloween parades that, if these photos are to be trusted, look like a pure delight. So if you have a chance to take part in one of these events, you really should. There's Halloween done in your home country's style, and then there's Japanese Halloween, which must be the coolest of the Halloweens.
The rest of the time it's work and dinner with family and watching TV and going to the supermarket.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)