Happy Halloween

Heh. Halloween seems to becoming more and more popular in Japan, and less popular in Britain. Further proof that I'm living in the wrong country.

Yeah, it is getting a bit much here.

Europe has the Carnival season from 11th/Nov 11:11am till end of February, full of costume parties, balls, etc.

I love how the Japanese are now going all out for Halloween. As the picture shows above, when they put their hearts into it, they can come up with costumes that would rival hollywood's makeup artists. I just only wish there was more emphasis on learning a bit more about the history of halloween.

It's not a Halloween festival anymore. It's just a cos-play festival in Japan and has no correlation with Halloween at all!

Halloween parties and children trick or treating been going on now for 1 week plus.

Went shopping earlier and 3 creches had groups of kids in costume visiting some shops for sweets. Just commercial and denuded of all meaning.

Halloween is supposed to be one day event only for trick or treat...

I wish I had that much time on my hands..

I think, for good or bad, Japanese are very good at deceiving themselves into thinking that they can enjoy foreign cultures and customs, like Halloween and Christmas, in their own fashion.

Monozuki, sort off agree, but you don't need a set date to hold a Horror costume party or trick or treating (common but often held at different times, Nov 11th is ours).

popular in Japan, and less popular in Britain.

Britain doesn't do the Irish festival of Halloween, Much the same as Ireland doesn't do the festival of Guy Fawkes

As long as ya can trick-or-treat for candies with your friends and everyone out-and-about on the streets!

So.. much.. whining.. it's just fun day, geez!!

Not in Japan, see top of article for yesterday's event.

Looks like my 9am class.

Kids are happily cosplaying and doing trick or treat with their parents. Adults get a chance to do some cosplaying. Businesses are making money out of it. Everyone is kinda happy. Don't be the "Grinch". Go and have some fun, mate.

Halloween is its own thing here, same as every other imported holiday. You can go along with it or ignore it. The fact that the big halloween events are focused on a few areas and otherwise private parties means it's easy to avoid seeing people having fun in a way you don't approve of.

Anyway, I have some good news. The Kawasaki Parade was actually cancelled yesterday due to the rain. The cancellation wasn't decided until around 1:30pm though, so a lot of people got dressed up and were already in the area when the announcement was made. I think a lot of people just went home disappointed (that's the good news for some of you).

Britain doesn't do the Irish festival of Halloween,

Maybe where you lived, but as a young kid in Glasgow, we certainly did Halloween. Robert Burns wrote a poem about it:

http://www.robertburns.org/works/74.shtml

In some ways, Japan's way of celebrating Halloween seems close to Burns' depiction:

Nice photos. This Halloween I celebrated with my friends in LA. We booked an escape room the "Clinic", https://thequestfactory.com/escape-rooms/clinic . The atmosphere was really spooky. But we all loved it. Friendly staff and awesome decorations.