Saturday, October 30, 2010

Halloween EVE

It's a dreary rainy October 30th. Today I was hoping it'd be at least clear. There were some pick up shots I wanted to take for an episode I'm currently working on. But the weather is getting the best of me. I'm also a little uninspired so that makes everything more difficult. There were days like this in summer. Need a shot of caffeine, that always help.

What I'd like to write about is how halloween is celebrated in Japan. Surprisingly it is but not to the magnitude as in America. In the States, people spend outrageous amounts of money on costumes and decorations. There are activities leading up beforehand like pumpkin hunting, carving, corn mazes, haunted houses, ghost hunts, etc... Halloween in America might be on October 31st but it occupies the whole month of October.

In Japan, it's present but it seems to be a holiday more for adults. My only guess for this is Japanese who have spent time abroad in the US or Canada. There are costume parties and everything in between but you have to be in a larger city to get the full effect.

Door to door 'trick or treating' isn't found. Kind of sad.

2 comments:

  1. I have heard some stories of (alleged) gaijin running rampant in the subways on Halloween. I wonder if those kinds of stories have contributed to or detracted from the Japanese view of the holiday.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good question! I have seen it only on Youtube. It's usually the only super oldschool Japanese that freak out about it.

    ReplyDelete