ハロウィーン

My mom was worried that I would miss out on Halloween, so she sent me a care package including some decorations for my dorm.

Although Halloween isn’t celebrated in Japan the same way it is in the United States, with trick-or-treaters and the like, many businesses take advantage of the holiday for marketing reasons and offer seasonal treats and decorate their storefronts to match. (For example, one of the many crêpe stands in Harajuku had a crème brûlée flavored Halloween special today.) Even more exciting is that some young people go shopping around Harajuku in costume - but that happens every weekend. Since Halloween and Harajuku are both all about dressing up, a few of us decided to go today to see if there were any cosplayers and to shop around ourselves.

Before heading to Harajuku, we went to Ikebukuro for Saiyuki Festa ‘09. It was a small gallery showing of work-in-progress, hand drawn art and practice sketches by the artist of the manga and anime series Gensoumaden Saiyuki. On the back of one of the flyers we got is an advertisement for a gallery showing at the place where I have my field placement. Chances are, I’ll be helping to set up that display, come December!

While a few of us went out to Harajuku and Ikebukuro today, others went to an event to teach young Japanese children about American culture, and still others went to Disneyland Tokyo’s special Halloween event, since our school is only a few stops away.

Halloween might not be celebrated here the same way it is at home, but it was still fun to dress up and have a good time.

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