Halloween 2013

Wow! I can't believe this is already our third Halloween in Japan and that Rosie is about the same age that William was when we first arrived. How things change and time flies!

As I wrote about last year, Halloween is definitely not celebrated the same way in Japan as it is in North America, but we do have a few friends close by that help us make it special for our kids. Tonight we went off trick or treating with a few of our friends and their children. I actually like that we only have four stops that we can make. This means way less candy to ration out to the kids, way less temptation for me to "help" them eat their candy, and we are finished a back home in time for their 8 o'clock bed time.  Since the kids have never experienced the kind of large scale trick or treating that goes on back home, there is absolutely no disappointment.

I decided to take a few spooky shots with Rosie and William before the jack o'lantern became old and mushy. Poor Theo was at yochien, so he didn't get to join in on the photographic fun until he came home.

Rosie's costume was something I whipped up in 30 minutes with some pieces of felt, a bit of stuffing, and a hand towel.

In case you are confused about what she is supposed to be, she is baby maguro nigiri. Yummy!

The boys' costumes were much more traditional Halloween material: Batman™ and Superman™

and I was the Black Rabbit of Inle.

Off to get some candy!

At one point, I thought an old man was about to crash his bike because of the long, over the shoulder double take he was doing of Theo's costume. I can only imagine what he was thinking of this tiny little Batman, roaming the dark streets of Fukuyama.

Then back home to dump out the candy buckets and survey the stash.

Fun times and candy were had by all!

Fall Fun

Theo loves dressing up and as Halloween draws near, every day is a chance to try out a new look. That is why we get to spend our afternoons with clown boy

and eating supper with Batman.

Last year I was happy to discover that the fruit farm where we went apple picking grew large carving pumpkins. This year they allowed us to take one home as well. Theo was overjoyed and spent a deal of time talking to the pumpkin and protecting it from William.

Last year, I carved the pumpkin about a week and a half before Halloween. In Canada, this was perfectly fine since the outdoor temperature is cool enough by mid-October that it still looks fresh by the time the end of the month rolls around. Not so in Japan. Ours was kind of warped, moldy, and shrunken from sitting out in the sun and warmth. This year I made sure to wait until just before Halloween to crack the pumpkin open.

Theo insisted that the pumpkin told him what face he wanted carved on himself (yes, I know how creepy that is) and proceeded to draw me a couple of diagrams of how I should carve it. I let the boys help me scoop out the innards but I did all the carving. This is only partially because I don't want them to cut themselves and almost entirely because I love carving pumpkins and don't want to give up my one chance a year to my children. It is pretty selfish, but when they are older maybe, maybe I will relinquish my supreme carving rights. I thought I was being pretty generous this year to allow Theo to completely decide what the carving should be.

Here is the finished jack-o-lantern:

Theo seems to be pretty pleased with the result.

Theo has officially named it the King of Darkness, which I think is a pretty apt name for a jack-o-lantern.

All ready for Halloween! 

Halloween 2012

November has come and gone and I still have not posted our Halloween photos. I swear I have a valid reason for slacking off in my postings, but that will have to wait for another day. So without further ado, here is how we celebrated Halloween this year:

Arguably, Halloween is purely a marketing ploy no matter what country you live in, but in Japan it seems to be all consumerism and no activities to attempt to balance it out. Candy and snack companies wholeheartedly endorse Halloween in Japan.  All sorts of orange and black, spooky themed decorations and food wrappers can be found during the month of October, but actual festivities, like carving jack-o-lanterns, children dressing up, or trick or treating, have yet to be adopted. There is a month of chintzy consumer items available but the 31st goes by quiet and unremarked year after year. Except by us.

In mid-October while picking apples at a local farm, I spied some huge carving pumpkins. They were scattered around the orchard marking the rows. When it came time to pay for our apples, I enquired about how much it would cost to buy a pumpkin too. They were pretty amused that I would want one of the massive pumpkins and let me pick one out for free. Dustin and I  absolutely love carving jack-o-lanterns and of course had a lot of fun with this one.

True to tradition, Theo's costume was homemade and consisted of a painted box. This year however, he was a robot instead of a Rubik's cube. When the time came to trick or treat, William outright refused to wear the doomsday prophet signs that I made for him, so he ended up dressed as a young James Herriot.

Theo dressing in his robot costume

I am pretty sure that William wouldn't have pulled it off as well as this guy

This year we also had the addition of two little friends. Recently, we met a Japanese family that returned to Fukuyama from living in the U.S. for two years. There children were really bummed when they found out they would not be trick or treating this year, so we invited them along to our rounds of the few foreigners in our neighbourhood.

All in all, we visited 5 of our neighbours and the children soon had a brimming bag of treats. Everyone had a fun evening and once again Halloween was a success!

Halloween

Theo has had pretty strange experiences with Halloween. Last year, we lived in an extremely small conservative town in southern Manitoba. When Halloween rolled around, I took Theo out trick-or-treating, just to find that there was not one child in sight and almost every house had its lights completely off. We finally did spy a house that had its porch lights blazing, so Theo, who was proudly wearing his ladybug outfit, and I went up and knocked. An elderly gentleman opened the door and stood there confusedly looking back and forth between Theo and me for a few seconds and finally asked what we wanted. I couldn't believe it. Theo blurted out "trick or treat!" and held out his completely empty treat bag to the man. The man declared that they didn't celebrate Halloween and shut his door in our faces. 

How could you resist the boy lady bug?

I am sorry to say that I cried a few angry tears at this point and tried my best to convince Theo that Halloween was usually a lot more fun than wandering deserted streets and having doors slammed in your face. I finally decided to take him to a neighbouring French town where their lack of morals allows them to actually be neighbourly, friendly to children, and give out candy.

Theo as one of his favourite toys: a Rubik's cube

Once again Halloween has come and this time we live in a country that does not celebrate Halloween. It seems like Japan wants to adopt the holiday, if all of the Halloween related stickers, candy, and knickknacks in stores means anything, but it certainly has not gone mainstream enough for trick or treating. I certainly wouldn't feel any animosity towards my neighbours this time for looking at me blankly if I showed up on their doorstep with a child in costume. Instead, we organized with the English teachers in our area for Theo to come by in the evening to trick or treat. He got to knock on a few doors, proudly show off his costume, collect a treasure trove of candy, and head home. He had a great time. Thanks to all that made it a great evening!

William the teddy bear and Theo the Rubik's cube