Halloween in Japan

Happy Halloween!

Both Caroline and I were in a bit of culture shock today. Halloween is much different here in Japan. We're used to the busy streets with all the kids and defending our house by bribing the little ones. Our neighborhood was pretty quiet.

The base puts on quite a haunt, though. They open up the gates for the Japanese to come onto base and trick-or-treat throughout the housing areas. Captains' row gets hit pretty hard. I saw an article where Captain Weed (base commander) said that last year he stopped counting after 850 kids!


William's costume this year was Classic Batman. (Note: William's Bag has POW BAM To be Continued... I found the fabric to match the Batman jammies we were given. I had the black sweat suit to go under, but William chose a different one for the day. He was given the shirt last year, and it has October 31 on it, and he insisted on that one!!! The Batman hood was interesting, as I barely had enough fabric. Fabric is EXPENSIVE in Japan. I modified my pattern, and made it work. Then I added the face with fabric paint. I couldn't do eye holes (not enough fabric) and it's a good thing. It is easier to see out of this way! He was a very cute Batman. Tim said a 'LONE Batman.' He wouldn't go to a door with other kids. It had to be just him.)

Last week, William did a base school Halloween party and then the base Halloween carnival with haunted houses, jump houses and a trick-or-treat walk.

We carved the Commissary pumpkins the other day and we were lucky they survived the two days until Halloween. They were shipped from the States and were a bit dry and old by the time they got here. William did the scary face, Caroline did the happy face, and well, the engineer in the family was only mildly creative...


For Halloween day, we went on to base for the Mayhem. We wandered around quite a bit before we kind of got a clue of where best to go. We ended up working our way backwards through the throng to work over some of the residences before heading back home to light our pumpkins and wait to see if anyone knocked at our house. We'd heard rumor that there might be a few, but we didn't get any. Thank goodness for the base putting on such a big Halloween event or we would have really felt in a foreign land. We just wish we had a better idea of where to go and what to do on base. (Note: For anyone learning from this blog... we were told to be on base by 4:30. We left our house at 4:30 and were trick-or-treating by 4:50. We were told (very nicely, I wasn't offended, just embarrassed) at our first house that it started at 6, but they were ready to give out candy already. When relating this story at the commissary to a friend, one of the Captains on base overheard and stopped to say that that information was incorrect... it is 4:30, and the candy is usually gone by 6. It made more sense, as it is dark by 5:00 here. But, on Halloween night, it made me feel like I was 'out of line' and we really do try to do what is correct and proper here. We weren't going to any houses that didn't have lit pumpkins out front. Isn't that the universal code that 'we have candy?' I think part of the problem is that we don't get the American school information, as William goes off-base. Schools are a great source for common information, and we aren't plugged in. William was unphased by his parents tentativeness (at this point) and soldiered on to more houses. And even though we called it quits after about 10 houses, William had enough candy to spread it out on the carpet at home, and be excited about how many skittles and starbursts he had. That's what Halloween is for... to experience the many pleasures of the American sweet tooth, and to find out the candy you like most!


Next year, we'll be a bit smarter on the whole thing and will better know what to do and hopefully won't be so culture shocked over the whole thing.