Halloween in Japan!!

It is that time of year where we all pay homage to the gods of Nestle and Hershey by trying to induce sugar comas on the kids that bother us in our neighborhoods the other 364 days of the year. Here in Japan, familiar candies are hard to come by. WE can find full candy bars like Snickers and Kit Kats, but they each cost about a dollar and ten cents (for a normal-sized bar... there is no concept of King Size here). We love the fact that there are around thirteen flavors of Kit Kats here. Here are two that I like (Amy could go either way with these):



Yes, That is a Caramel Kit Kat. Me likey.



Now before you grimmace and shriek at the god-slaying concept of combining life-giving chocolate with one of THE MOST bitter fruits on the planet, take a moment to remember that I do not finish things that I put in my mouth if they make me want to gag. I ate this whole bar as if it were going to run away if I loosened my grip on it.

And what would Halloween be if there was not a gaggle of kids dressed up in all sorts of costumes. Now Halloween has not really caught on here in Japan the way it has in America. The people here would certainly NEVER allow their kids to knock on their neighbor's door and ask for food, regardless of the junkfoodiness-to-holidayiness ratio involved in the act. But, they love (read: "show up in hordes that act without restraint or compassion for the poor schmoe trying to MC the thing") parties. I was impressed with how many people showed up to the Halloween party that we had at our church last night. Most of the people that came were students at our school, so it turned out to be part Branch party and part MIA party. The kids loved dressing up and really went all out for it. Observe:


Kako (left) came dressed as a character from an anime that I didn't recognize. Wika (center) was a princess. Note the expression of sheer joy on Kako's face that is a result of having more sugar than blood in your blood.


Chinatsu put a lot of effort into her witch costume, so much in fact that she did not want to be touched out of fear that someone might disrupt the perfection of her costume.

And what blog about Halloween would be complete without a gaggle of shots of the most important man in Japan... CASH?!?!?!?


Cash was a Dinosaur for Halloween


A darn-cute Dinosaur!

We'll try to get some more pictures of him up soon. He is worth seeing at this stage of his development from pupa to larvae.
~Fox