Thousands of Halloween revelers descend on Shibuya

Thousands of Halloween revelers descend on Shibuya

Some fantastic photos accompanying this article.  Looks like a lot of fun had by everyone but the 200 riot cops.  But they might have secretly enjoyed it, too.  I'd like to think that.  "We're here in case anyone gets out of hand, but we also get to see a lot of party people in crazy costumes, so there's that."

I didn't read any alarmist stories about foreigners running wild on the Yamanote Line this year.  Maybe some Japanese-language newspapers ran them or I just overlooked the ones in the English-language news sites I visit.  Whatever the reason, it's been a refreshing change.  I'm in favor of any excuse for wearing costumes and dancing and I don't want a few bad candy apples spoiling the fun for the rest of us.  Even if I didn't participate.  I enjoy the potential for participation.  Next year, right?  Next year I'm going to go all out.  In a safe way everyone can enjoy.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at USJ...

Halloween is over here in Japan.  It's a rainy November 1st.  For me, November 1st has traditionally been one of those let-down days.  I remember waking up after the Halloween revelry if it took place on a school night and trudging up the street to the bus stop.  Festive decorations in creepy black, orange, green and purple still hung from doors and sometimes there would be crumpled candy wrappers in the gutters along the curbs mixed in with the dead brown leaves.  You anticipate, participate, then have to get on with your life with all the sounds and sights of that one magical night of the year playing on an imaginary loop inside your mind.

Between the pure fun of Halloween and the familial warmth of Thanksgiving and the Christmas season is just blah November nothingness.  Maybe you get to watch the Peanuts Thanksgiving special if you're not studying for a test, but Peppermint Patty bawling out Charlie Brown for serving popcorn and toast on a ping pong table in the backyard doesn't have the same mystic hold on the imagination as the Linus' Great Pumpkin evangelizing and "I got a rock."

Anyway, don't let my post-holiday depression get you down.  After all, we had a fantastic Halloween month and I'm not through sharing some of the photographic memories of what we did.  Yes, it's the long-awaited flood of Wizarding World of Harry Potter photos on my Let's Look at Japan blog.  I took them with my iPhone, which handles low-light conditions better than my Fuji digital camera, but they're still not great.  In the immortal words of Dr. Egon Spengler, "I blame myself."

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a fun place to spend a few hours and I hope at least a little of that comes through in my lousy photographs.

Take a look at some Halloween treats...

Over on Let's Look at Japan I posted a few photos of some Halloween candy you can buy in Japan this year.  Fujiya's ever-popular Country Ma'am chocolate chip cookies and the like.  Strangely, these appeared in September and vanished from our local stores (at least the ones we shop at the most) before October.  Also enjoy a spooky scientific skeleton, fall colors and Ray Parker, Jr.  Check them out!

Halloween twilight at USJ...

I added 10 more USJ photos to my Let's Look at Japan Tumblr.  You can see some sedate late afternoon shots of people having a relaxing fun time, a stupid photo of me trying to get into Doc Brown's famous Delorean time machine from Back to the Future (the Osaka park Delorean is a reproduction, I believe, but with a few movie-used parts for authenticity) and then the start of one of the Street Zombie attacks.  Since the lighting was disorienting and I'm somewhat thick, I missed photographing the actual simulated violence.  I like the colors in what is otherwise one very lousy photograph, though.

Next up:  The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

Universal Studios Japan's Horror Nights...

Over at my new Let's Look at Japan! Tumbr blog, I've been flood-posting photos from our trip to Universal Studios Japan where we experienced this year's Horror Nights.  Or, as their website also calls it, "Universal Surprise Halloween."  It's a blast.  They decorate the park with Halloween banners, send their costumed characters around for trick-or-treat/photo opportunities with the kids, pipe in a nonstop stream of spooky songs (well, spooky and goofy) and at 6pm, turn most of the park into a haunted attraction with zombie attacks based on the popular Biohazard film series.  USJ dubbed it Biohazard-- the Real 2.  It runs weekends and Mondays until November 9th, so if you're in the Osaka area, looking for something to do for Halloween night and money is no object (it's not outrageously expensive but this kind of fun doesn't come cheap, either) get thee to USJ.

The Biohazard event starts promptly at 6pm with a bright flash and a loud bang from somewhere either near or within the New York City zone, setting the perfect ominous tone for the cannibalistic disaster to come.  If you've downloaded USJ's smartphone app, you get a message warning you some sort of virus has escaped the park's laboratories via an explosive accident.  There are street signs scattered around with flashing lights to let you know the areas of major zombie activity.  If this is your taste, hover nearby and enjoy the performances.  Some of the character actors are incredibly skilled at miming their undead state.  The makeup and costumes will freak you out, too, along with some disorienting lighting.  You can view the antics from 2013 on YouTube.  Apparently, the park projects strange new facades onto the buildings with spooky animated effects, too.  We didn't go too deep into that area, so I can't vouch for this year's event, but it's probably the same.

To experience the "Street Zombies" to the fullest, you should buy one of the blinking light eyeball necklaces available in gift shops and sidewalk stands.  Signs at the park assure us eyeballs are a zombie's favorite snack.  Otherwise, stick to the sidewalks after 6 o'clock and you should be (fairly) safe.  If you're squeamish, the kiddie fare Wonderland area is a zombie-free zone.  You can also get into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and ride out the living dead infestation there while drinking butterbeer and enjoying the soothing serenading of the Hogwarts Frog Choir, a cheerful group of magical students and their chirruping, deep-throated frog accompaniment. 

One word of advice-- to enter the Wizard World you need a special ticket you can only get inside the park.  I believe one or both express passes allow you to get in, too, but double check to make sure.  We weren't able to get express passes because they were sold out at the park.  The Wizarding World kiosks are near Mel's Drive-In on a semi-hidden path next to the central lagoon.  Look for the park staff members and the long line that seems to be going nowhere behind some shrubs or small trees.  Your park entry ticket has a mark each member of your party scans at the kiosk and you'll receive tickets with entrance times.  English language is a kiosk option.

It's best to do this as soon as you get into the park before people snap up all the times.  We arrived around noon the first day and the next available entrance time to Wizarding World were at 6:30pm.  Not a disaster since there's more than enough to do all day.  It is an amusement park, after all.  The next day we arrived around 10am and the earliest entrance time was at 6:00.  The Wizarding World is best enjoyed after dark, so again, no problem.  We did see a number of very disappointed people turned away at the Wizarding World entrance because they didn't have tickets.  On the other hand, the staff allowed us in a little early both nights.  But get those tickets!

On my Tumblr, I call it Mel's Diner instead of Mel's Drive-In.  I guess I have Alice on the brain.  Well kiss mah grits, anyone could make that mistake.  Like the other restaurants we visited, Mel's has three lunch sets (helpfully labeled A, B and C.  Just say, for example, "B setto, kudasai.  Cola onegaishimasu!" or something similar, or simply "B setto to Cola" will do.) but we only tried the ones with the cheeseburgers.  The burgers are large (about Whopper-size) and come with a side of fries and a drink.  This was my favorite meal at USJ.  All the restaurants are expensive, as you might imagine.  The food at the Jurassic Park's Discovery and Amity Landing restaurants was edible but not especially memorable, while the Mel's cheeseburgers were delightfully delicious.  One fun thing about Amity Landing is its atmosphere recreates one of those old school fast food fish restaurants, like a 1970s Cap'n D's or Long John Silvers, although the menu features only chicken.  The cashiers cheerfully call out, "Next captain, please!"  We got a chuckle out of that. 

Ah, service.  In all the restaurants we went to, the staff enjoyed greeting me in English and shouting, "Happy Halloween!" and "Have a nice time!"  Discovery Restaurant added a little Spanish to the mix.  The cashier asked me (in English) to say, "Hola!" to the person handing my food, so I did.  I really enjoy this kind of stuff, so I laughed and played along and had a grand time.  I wish we had tried pizza in the park or the fish and chips courtesy Harry Potter's world, but I have no complaints about what we ate.  Well, the price maybe.  Still, you don't go to USJ if you're going to experience sticker shock for paying as much for a single cheeseburger set as we pay for two meals at a local MosBurger.  Plan for it instead.

More food related tips-- the Boardwalk Restaurant in Amity Village is based on a set from the movie Mystic Pizza, not Jaws.  The sign boards offer slushes, but I didn't see them on the menu.  I ended up getting a vanilla shake.  It was fine.  The different ice cream restaurants seem to be all Baskin-Robbins 31 outlets, but we didn't go into any of them because the lines were almost as long as for some of the attractions.  And yes, you can enjoy alcoholic beverages at a number of places throughout USJ.  Crazed drunks must not be too much of a problem there, but this being Japan you will find people napping on benches and even along curbs despite the noise and bustle of costumed families.  Have fun spotting them!  Expect lines for any place that sells churros because eating churros is just what you do at an amusement park in Japan.  And if you want, you can fill up on cheaper food at one of the places just outside the park in the Universal Walk shopping area before you go in, then hit them up after you finish your day and night of fun on your way out.  There's a MosBurger, a McDonald's and a TGI Fridays, among other choices.  I couldn't do that because I like to eat all day when I'm running around.

Finally, our boy, Harry Potter.  If you're a fan, this is where you want to go.  You queue up inside a circle of standing stones with Harry Potter theme music playing and you're primed for an immersive experience.  Once you get in, you pass along a lighted path through fir trees.  Music and the sounds of strange forest creatures drift through the air.  There's a large stone strangely balanced on a smaller one.  There's a staff member lugging a plastic bag of garbage for a less-than-atmospheric moment.  And then you find the entrance to the town of Hogsmeade and all at once, you're transported directly from Japan into a Potter book or movie. 

The town is as J.K. Rowling describes it in her books.  Snow-peaked rooftops, quaint little shops, the Hogwarts Express awaiting its next run.  I'm not even much of a Potter fan and it enchanted me.  For the most part.  The shops are packed and difficult to search through for that perfect Potter souvenir and the waiting times for the attractions can stretch past the 2 hour mark.  Even just to walk through Hogwarts promises a 45-minute wait that stretched into over an hour for us.  We still had a lot of fun there, though.  The Hogwarts interior lavishly recreates what you've seen in the movies so there's no disappointment once you're inside.  Especially when the paintings begin to move and speak.

The cast members dressed as Hogwarts students greet guests very cheerfully if you run into them on their way to the outdoor stage, especially the young woman playing the lead role.  I can still hear her voice, especially during the post-show guest photo opps where she tirelessly worked the crowd while consistently maintaining her character.  "3... 2... 1... GRYFFINDOR!" or "3... 2... 1... HOGSMEADE!"

Kids loved her.  How these performers keep up that energy remains a magical mystery to me.  I couldn't do it.  But imagine how fun it must be to do a stint as a performer at USJ if you're a talented young person with a hunger for experience.  Which reminds me-- the guy who played our tour boat guide on the Jaws ride was also a real trouper.  We got a massive kick out of his performance, and also out of the hard-working Harry Potter cast.

Butterbeer.  What does it taste like?  How do they get that foam on top that makes it look like real beer?  It tastes a bit like a cream soda or a mild rootbeer and the foam adds a butterscotch undertone to it.  Kind of what I expected.  We did not buy the souvenir mugs.  For one thing, they're plastic and we couldn't see much use for them around the house later.  And for another, we just didn't feel like carrying them around.  You may feel differently.  You should try butterbeer.  Be warned-- there are two beer wagons on the streets outside the shops.  The one you see just inside the Hogsmeade gates has the longer lines.  There's another past the stage closer to Hogwarts that has shorter ones.  I read on a blog somewhere you can get your butterbeer even faster inside one of the restaurants or bars or whatever it Hogsmeade has.  Wizarding halls?  We didn't go in, so I have no clue.  Do some reading online.  Wish we had first.

Oh yeah.  I almost forgot.  If you're truly tired and your feet are screaming bloody murder at your back that's whining about missing your nice, firm mattress back home plus your mind is on the verge of boiling over from crowd overstimulation and you just can't seem to find anyplace to sit with your churro and your vanilla milk shake, make your way into the fake Central Park underneath the overhead roller coaster.  There probably won't be as many people around and you're very likely to find a quiet bench to recoup your energy (and let your mind turn it down a notch or two) and have a little picnic while talking about all the fun things you've done so far.  And all the people dressed like Hogwarts students, of which there were hundreds (speaking of costumes-- you can outfit yourself Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw style inside the Wizarding World, but sometimes the prime Gryffindor and Slytherin costume goods sell out, and there was a more conventional Halloween costume shop set up in Hollywood for zombie stuff and sexy police officer dresses if those are your thing).

Central Park also makes a handy shortcut or at least crowd-avoidance route to take between NYC/San Francisco and Amity Village/Jurassic Park.

So that's Halloween at USJ.  Check my Let's Look at Japan! Tumblr for more photos and information.

Let's Look at Japan this Halloween (and forever after)!

I take some of the world's worst photographs and now I'm going to share them with you.  Japan is a wonderful place to look at and everyone interested should do so.  To help make this possible, I've started a terrible new photo blog on Tumblr and I call it "Let's Look at Japan!" 

The first few entries will celebrate Halloween in Japan with a lot of shots from our recent visit to USJ in Osaka (if you've never been, I highly recommend you go during October), but after that I'll be posting whatever catches my eye.  And I'll share some of it here instead of just commenting on Japan Today stories the way I've been doing lately.  Although I'll do that, too.

Here's a sample of the kind of visual torture you can expect (I don't mean what's in the image... these three characters are adorable and I love their Halloween costumes... I mean my crappy photog skills):

Sunday's Halloween parade in Kawasaki: Trick or treat

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.

This looks fun (and more suggestions): Roppongi Hills Halloween parade

Roppongi Hills Halloween parade

I've never been to the Roppongi Hills Halloween parade, but I'm in favor of most Halloween-related events, especially ones that call for participants to dress in costumes (this year it's "famous movie characters," certainly a fun choice).  There's another Halloween parade in Kawasaki, as well.  Universal Studios Japan in Osaka has "Halloween Horror Nights," which started back in September and runs until November 9th this year.  With the addition of "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter," this would be a fun Halloween destination.  Tokyo Disneyland's Halloween celebration actually ends on October 31st, but you can still enjoy the Haunted Mansion's "Holiday Nightmare" until January 4th, 2015.  These are not free like the two parades, though, so watch out!

Last year, we visited Hamamatsu Flower Park's Halloween display.  Seasonal pumpkins and scarecrows and a fun photo opportunity complete with costume elements provided some gentle afternoon fun on a very sunny, cool day.  That's always an option if you're in the area and in need of some budget-friendly Halloween entertainment.  Assuming they do it again this year.  And why wouldn't they?

If you want an even cheaper alternative, you can always eat Halloween candy and chill out with some spooky Japanese horror flicks.  Many candy companies have seasonal bags to get you in the mood.  Here are some recommendations:

1) Battle Royale.  The all-time coolest Japanese cult flick.  A junior high class find themselves trapped on an island with no way off for anyone... except for the lone survivor.  Turns out the government has chosen them to participate in the yearly "Battle Royale" event where armed kids kill each other off until only one remains.  Gross-out violence, a hard-working cast and some knock-out sequences make up for some of the plot holes and the central premise's ridiculousness.

2) Uzumaki.  Director Higuchinsky adapts Junji Ito's disgustingly fun, Lovecraftian manga into a silly romp.  The story involves a coastal town plagued by spirals.  Enjoy a dish of escargot while you watch for maximum impact!

3) The Happiness of the Katakuris.  Takashi Miike is at it again, this time with a sickly hilarious flick about a luckless family trying to run a bed and breakfast.  Their guests have the bad habit of dying on them, which leads to complications and singing and dancing.

4) Ju-On.  The original TV drama version, with several inter-connected segments.  Chiaki Kuriyama of Battle Royale appears in the third one.  This is part of the Ju-on franchise, which gave the world Sadako.  You know Sadako, right?  Long black hair in her face, white dress, tendency to climb out of televisions?

5) Tomie:  Unlimited.  The most recent in the nine-film (so far) Tomie series, adapted from Junji Ito's manga about a girl who is so beautiful she drives her lovers to madness and murder.  But every bit of Tomie can grow into a complete Tomie.  The Tomie stories share a loose continuity, with the tale of Tsukiko, an unscrupulous member of a high school photography club, as the protagonist of the most cohesive narrative.  As with the first  theatrical Tomie, that story serves as a starting point for the movie's plot.  I haven't seen it yet, but I'm planning to.

I'm for it: Halloween season kicks off at theme parks, stores

Halloween season kicks off at theme parks, stores

I noticed down in the comments attached to this story a few people have a problem with starting Halloween before October.  They echo the constant complaint in the US of Christmas seemingly coming earlier and earlier each year.  I remember one Halloween evening when I was on my way to a party and didn't have a costume.  I stopped at Target to check what they had left, hoping for a simple skeleton mask or something at a hefty discount and all they had were ballerina tutus and a new Christmas display.  I agree Christmas season needs to be confined to the post-Thanksgiving weeks, but I understand the 4Q reasoning retailers and their brand suppliers use to justify lengthening the holiday spending period.

On the other hand, give me more Halloween.  While Christmas has its religious and spiritual meaning and over-commercialization corrupts that, our modern Halloween is pure fun.  Yes, I know it once had religious significance as well.  For me, Halloween is a Ray Bradburyian dance in the cemetery.  We all know we're going to die, at least those of us not surnamed Kardashian do.  Mortal thoughts can terrify.  Halloween with its tombs, mummies, vampires, ghosts, its yowling black cats and dead leaves, its dry fields and dryer bones stalking the night, takes this finality and celebrates it.  It's a graveyard fling with our harvest plenty as the world dies around us.

This past weekend I bought our first holiday-packaged goodies-- which I meant to photograph and show you, but someone couldn't keep her hands off and shredded the bag-- and we saw stores decorated with paper pumpkins and the like.  Baskin-Robbins didn't have its new Halloween flavors yet (although the line length made me assume so before I checked the menu board), but the article promises some good ones this year.  A mixed apple and grape sherbet?  Yes, please, regular double in a cup.  I might be convinced to challenge the triple.  Freshness Burger will probably dress up for Halloween, too, with creepy cobwebs and lurid wall-hangers, cartoon cats and witches. Krispy Kreme has some seasonal goodies I can't wait to try.  Conversation schools will have Halloween parties and force their foreign teachers to dress up.  I will watch Halloween and read horror novels and short story collections starting...

Well, now.

I'm all for it.  I can't get enough Halloween.  I'm no cynic.

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.

October is Spookey Month: Some neat Japanese beliefs: You may find mei mystifying | The Japan Times

You may find mei mystifying | The Japan Times

This is a timely Halloween-related article by Mark Schreiber in that it covers the language of some Japanese beliefs, or superstitions.  I tend to favor the former term because of a folklore class I took years ago where my instructor taught the word "superstition" is a bit loaded.  Or has negative connotations.  I can't remember which aspect she stressed the most, but the point she made while discussing nomenclature-- that as a folklorist, your job is not to judge belief but simply to catalog it and research to understand its origins and meanings-- has stuck with me.  Schreiber's linguistic explanation of the Japanese word meishin just makes me long for that classroom again.  I'd love to discuss some of Schreiber's examples with that professor. She was very cool and open to turning the class into a forum for sharing because she absolutely loved what she was doing.

She made us read some fascinating books, too, all of which I kept after the semester instead of selling them back for beer money the way I did with almost every other required text.

My starting point for studying folklore was my lifelong fascination with "friend of a friend" tales.  You know, urban legends.  My friends and I grew up absolutely believing in Halloween apples with razor blades in them and hippie babysitters cooking infants in the oven.  Sometimes I think I really screwed up my life by not pursuing this interest on a professional level, rather than as just a hobby.  I'm not saying I'd have contributed much to the field, but I would have at least satisfied my curiosity and gotten paid to do so.

My favorite Japanese urban legend is Hanako and her haunted toilet, but just about any belief interests me.  Number-related ones.  Good luck finding an examination room labeled #4 at a Japanese clinic.  But other numbers have significance, too, and whenever I meet a new one, I try to find out as much as I can about it.

For example, just yesterday my wife and I were discussing the lousy weather and how it had her down.  She's working her butt off at three jobs and she's just plain tired.  Some of this she ascribed to this being her unlucky 33rd year.  The year you turn 33 is one of those ill-omened years.  Why is your 33rd year considered unlucky?  Is it any 365-day period before and after the birthday itself, or is it only the year in which you actually turn 33?

I'm disappointed we didn't have a chance to go into all that because we had other, more pressing things to discuss, but this belief is ingrained enough in her family her mom asked her to delay our wedding for one year to avoid the 33rd year misfortune.  That was news to me.  I knew, though, we chose our anniversary date to avoid inauspicious ones, which you can read about more in Schreiber's article.

In the meantime, make sure you have a full tank of gas if you and your partner park out at Lover's Lane, and if you have a Doberman as your animal companion, check its mouth in case of choking.  If you're in Japan, you should probably just stay out of school restrooms altogether.

Fourth Annual October is Spookey Month: a video by the band that inspired my annual Halloween holiday tradition

This band is from right here in Hamamatsu.  They seem to be on the inactive list of late, but here's hoping they'll re-emerge soon with some new music.

Fourth Annual October is Spookey Month: Does Halloween exist in Japan?

"Does Halloween exist in Japan?" or "Do people in Japan celebrate Halloween?"  People ask me variations on this question occasionally.  And by "people," I mean friends and relatives back home.  I'm not expert; I just live here.  The answer is, "Yes."

My first year living here, the local Toys-R-Us put a photo display in their front window of kids in Halloween costumes.  They also sold plastic or foam pumpkins and costumes for kids and adults.  The following fall, the teachers and some students of the conversation school where I worked had a Halloween costume party at a restaurant.  Later, I learned from some newspaper articles of police worries about costumed trouble-makers in Tokyo, but I don't think these people caused much mayhem that year. 

The next place I work always put a plastic jack-o-lantern out filled with cookies and candy on Halloween, and I passed out candy in my kid and adult classes.  If the students in a particular lesson had a high enough English level, we'd engage in a little season-appropriate discussion, usually about Halloween traditions and what costumes they'd wear if they went trick-or-treating.  One college student on her way to a semester in Canada really hoped she'd get to attend a Halloween party.

Another conversation school I briefly worked after that holds an annual Halloween party for its kid students and the instructors are all required to attend and wear costumes as well as supervise fun events.  I don't have any objections to that kind of thing although I changed jobs months before having to take part.  I think this is pretty common for conversation schools that like to include some exposure to foreign culture along with language studies.  A friend and his wife run their own school here and I think they either allow or encourage the kids to wear costumes on October 31st. 

Last year, a few students at the school where I currently work begged us to introduce a Halloween theme to our lessons the last week of the month, but it was already too late for us to do anything.  I did give out candy in our English Club, though, and we discussed the best way to kill various monsters. 

This year, there's apparently an event called "Sexy Halloween" in Nagoya.  And I've heard Tokyo Disneyland, which is also celebrating its 30th anniversary, has Halloween decorations.  I'm going to go ahead and assume Universal Studios Japan is doing the same thing, too.

Supermarkets have Halloween candy available, too.  Some even have special displays.  Seiyu, which recently sold Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, also sells costumes and decorations.  And, of course, Freshness Burger and Baskin-Robbins decorate.  Well, Freshness Burger did as recently as four years ago-- fake cobwebs and colorful jack-o-lantern posters.  Baskin-Robbins sells Halloween ice cream flavors, which we've already talked about.

So it seems Halloween is making inroads.  And why not?  I don't think I'm telling you anything too controversial when I declare Japan the top cosplay country in the world.  Haunted house attractions like the one that used to be in the basement of Zaza City here in Hamamatsu have a perennial appeal, and most of the kids I've taught know who Jason is and all about his hockey mask.  I've never seen any trick-or-treating here, though.

Fourth Annual October is Spookey Month: Baskin-Robbins' Halloween flavors hit Japan again!

I grew up eating "ice milk," which is the pre-1980s name for what we now call low-fat ice cream.  That's why any trip to my hometown's Baskin-Robbins was a major treat.  Fatty ice cream is more delicious than any other kind.

Hamamatsu has at least 4 Baskin-Robbins stores, or, as they're known here in Japan, just "Thirty-One."  One not far from my old apartment in Sanaru-dai, one each in the two major malls in the suburbs and a central location right downtown in Zaza City, where it is now officially Halloween.

I can't read very many Japanese characters, so I'm not sure what those flavors are, but they're creepy and they're kooky, mysterious and spooky.  They're all together ooky.  An ice cream Halloween!

October Is Still Spookey Month: Happy Halloween!

Here are a few more of those delightful Tales of Terror videos. First up: a spooky sleep-over!



Looks like another of those ubiquitous school trips. Japanese students go on these excursions each year. Some stay within Japan, like these unfortunate girls, and others go abroad. Do you think this experience will cure Yuki of her school trip insomnia?

Here's yet another school trip.



Most school trips are meant to be educational experiences. From this one, I learned that if I leave my lip cream in the bathroom, I should just wait until morning to retrieve it.

Of course, terror doesn't confine itself to creepy old ryokan in the middle of the night. Sometimes it sneaks up on you around lunchtime in ordinary city apartments.



That was a lovely little flat. Didn't the sister decorate it nicely? Love the dot motif, but it's too bad about the visitor problem.

Well, there are dozens of those Tales of Terror on YouTube. But there are very few Spookey ones. Here's a favorite of mine:



Happy Halloween!

October Is Still Spookey Month: Halloween cosplay in Ikebukuro!

I didn't get to go to this, but Sakura Cafe (part of the hotel) in Ikebukuro held a Halloween cosplay party and it looks like everyone had a lot of fun.  Black cats, witches, zombies... characters whose identities I couldn't discern...  I always enjoyed my stays at the Ikebukuro branch of this hotel chain.  It's not that far from the station, features both hostel and "business hotel" accommodations, and -- like all the Sakura Hotels-- has a young, energetic staff that really go all out to make you feel welcome.

When I decided I was too boring to stay in Kabuki-cho in Shinjuku (and too cheap), I switched to the Sakura Hotels and made them my home-away-from home for my annual New Year's junket to Tokyo and the various Melt-Banana shows I attended.  I spent my last 5 nights in Japan at the Hatagaya branch, just a quick subway ride from Shinjuku Station and watched a really lousy American League baseball game in the cafe there waiting for my departure time.  Lousy in that the last couple of innings were interminable, one of those games where one team looks as though it's playing in slow motion and the other team just keeps hitting away.

Not a fun game.  Not a fun day.  But Halloween parties can be a blast.  I always handed out candy on Halloween at my old school, and we talked about the holiday's history and popular costume choices.  The classics proved popular, just like you'll see if you check out the photos in the link above.  You know what else is fun?

Spookey doing "The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana)" from the old The Banana Splits Adventure Hour TV show!

October Is Still Spookey Month: If you're in Tokyo, go to prison for Halloween!

The Sakura Hotel Asakusa staff blog features a short article on an Alcatraz-themed restaurant that looks like the perfect Halloween destination.  Alcatraz by way of the Hannibal Lecter films.  I hope it's still there next Halloween because I will definitely go there and sample some of their liver with fava beans.  I'll have to pass on the Chianti no matter how nice it is; I no longer drink alcohol.



EEP! What we need after that is a palate cleanser of the musical sort:

October Is Still Spookey Month: Everyone seems to love Kuchisake-onna!

Why? I'm not not sure. All I know is, this blog gets a lot of Google hits for "slit mouth woman" or "kuchisake-onna," and Youtube features a surprisingly large number of videos describing her legend. As it turns out, she's not only freaky, she's also incredibly popular.



I also find her very tragic, but that's not saying I particularly want to meet her.  One of the most disturbing and therefore effective aspects of a lot of these Japanese horror tales is the arbitrary victim selection.  Few of these people deserve their fates, unlike in most Western horror stories.  You know-- the philandering lover, the know-it-all jerk, the greedy relatives, the kids who willfully ignore societal mores and go skinnydipping in Crystal Lake all receive their comeuppance.



But what about the kid who's just hanging out at home when a ghost comes to call?  Or the young woman who finds herself running a little late and gets stuck in an elevator?  Or the poor woman with the coughing fit in the park, and her child?  When Kuchisake-onna catches up to you, it doesn't matter if you're a nice person or not. And speaking of nice, here's another performance by Toy Missile, outside Shinjuku Station. This is where I saw them way back in August, 2007. Their official website seems to have gone dark, so it may be they live now only in my memories. And on Youtube.

October Is Still Spookey Month: "Three People Are Coming" and a couple more Japanese horror shorts...

That's a pretty lousy elevator. I don't think I'd enjoy riding that one, either. I rode some creepy elevators during my time in Japan, but I was lucky in that I never had that poor girl's experience. Nice job with those English subtitles by "montecristo73returns," though. What else can we find? How about this one?




Lesson learned? Cram school sucks! Again, great job on the subtitles. But if you stay out of elevators and cram schools, you're completely safe, right?



Yikes! That looks a lot like my old apartment! Nice job, KuljeetChauhan. I have no idea where these short films come from. Shown on television? From a DVD? They're pretty cool and there seem to be dozens of them. Now... here's a movie I made. You may have seen it before!

October Is Still Spookey Month: At last-- Tsukiko versus Tomie in the new movie!

While we're on the subject of Japanese horror, the Tomie film series is apparently as unkillable as their eponymous villain. Tomie Unlimited is the newest offering from Toei Company, LTD. and it seems to be at least loosely based on the "Tsukiko" stories from Junji Ito's manga. This makes me happy, because I'm a big fan of those particular Tomie stories and of the character Tsukiko, the cheerfully amoral purveyor of candid photos of cute guys she sells to the girls who have crushes on them.

While the movie Tsukiko eschews her comic book counterpart's pixie cut and happy-go-lucky capitalist demeanor, Miu Nakamura makes quite a convincing Tomie.  Several of the scenes from the trailer look astoundingly like panels from Ito's stories.  It would be too much to ask for a completely faithful adaptation-- here, Tsukiko is Tomie's little sister rather than simply a classmate.  However, the publicity materials promising a Tomie who "reveals her true face only when she is with Tsukiko" make this the most intriguing series entry in quite some time.

In the comic, Tsukiko makes a fun and vivacious enemy for Tomie, and Tomie's position as the head of her school's Public Morality Committee provides a bit of ironic counterpoint to Tsukiko's scheme.  Just as Tsukiko abuses the privileges that come with being a member of the photography club-- access to a dark room and materials to make her illicit yet lucrative prints-- Tomie soon has her own club lackeys pursuing her unfortunate enemy.  And it becomes apparent that Tsukiko's crimes pale in the face of Tomie's monstrous true self and the bloody murders she causes during their personal war.

The stories also benefit from a unity of setting, unlike the other Tomie tales which are only loosely connected.  The idea of a beautiful yet thoroughly evil young woman who drives her lovers to madness and murder-- and yet cannot be killed herself, no matter how hard everyone tries-- is good for a few chills here and there, and benefit from Ito's trademark gross out scenes.  But by grounding her in a specific locale and taking some time to develop her victims Ito creates a cycle of stories that have no problem standing alone.  If character development is Ito's weak point as a writer, with the introduction of Tsukiko he solves this problem, and it helps bring Tomie herself into focus.

Even if you probably won't want to see what develops as a result.  Isn't that right, Tsukiko?  Tsukiko?  Oh yeah, the school officials suspended her.  Oh well.  That gives her plenty of time to get to know her new best friend, Tomie.  Here's Toy Missile, one of my favorite Japanese bands!