Halloween in Japan

I remember the last time I studied in Japan, five years ago, few people knew what Halloween was, and it was always a fun cultural exchange conversation topic along the lines of "do you know about this crazy holiday we have in the US?"

So, when I arrived in Japan at the end of August and I saw Halloween decorations for sale at convenience stores and department stores all over Kansai, I was a bit puzzled.  My neighbor has had cutesy ceramic jack'o'lanterns and a doll dressed up in some kind of costume in her window for almost as long as I've lived in the neighborhood.

Since when did Halloween exist in Japan?

A Japanese friend of mine explained that this was just one part of "Abenomics," the aggressive economic revival strategy of the current Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.  I guess the idea is to create more consumer goods and more demand for those consumer goods, thus stimulating the economy.

Today on campus, I saw a few students dressed up in cheap, though conspicuous costumes: a US army soldier, a wolf, and a Pikachu, plus a girl wearing less conspicuous demon horns.  The other students mostly just seemed amused by it.  I couldn't decide if I was weirded out or if I really wished I had my Princess Leia buns on this side of the world to join in on the fun.

Another friend of mine said she went to Osaka with some friends in search of Halloween parties, of which there were many, in bars, clubs, and then costumed people drifting and congregating in a park.

There was also a Halloween party on campus over lunch where you could pay $10 for all-you-can eat cakes, cookies, and other baked goods for one hour.  I think I saw a bakery advertising Halloween cakes too.  They seem to be sort of on the right track with stuffing yourself full of sugar, but this whole holiday has been decidedly lacking in candy.  There's no trick-or-treating here.

Though, funnily enough, I have not seen a single child in costume today or any time during this season.  Nor have I seen children's costumes for sale.  It seems as if Halloween in Japan is an adult (or young adult?) holiday for dressing up as if you were still a kid and partying.  It's like the only people participating in Halloween are those people that, in the US, would be considered too old for Halloween.  (Though, I'll be honestly, I will still dress up in a costume at any excuse I get, but that's just me...)

I can't say I did anything special to celebrate Halloween myself, other than just puzzle at what the day has come to mean in Japan. This is not America, so I am interested to see how the day will evolve over time, if it isn't just a fad for the year, into a uniquely Japanese take on Halloween.

A Soggy Surprise Matsuri

This Sunday, while I was sitting at home with a cold, I heard one of the loud-speaker cars go by my window announcing that there would be a matsuri (festival, usually related to a temple or a shrine), in Taishogun (my neighborhood).  I looked at a neighborhood map, trying to remember where in my tiny neighborhood, there was any kind of temple to be having a matsuri.  It turns out, Taishogun has a teeny tiny Shinto shrine, Taishogun Hachi Jinja, near the public park.  I walk by it ever day, but forgot about it because the only notable feature is a concrete torii gate.  The actual shrine is sheltered inside a nondescript shed.

Later that afternoon, I was doing some work, and I heard the announcement car go by again, this time saying, "Please get out of the way, the matsuri procession is coming."  Not long after it, I heard the sound of a single taiko drum and chanting.  By the time I had reached a good stopping point in my work, the procession was right outside of my house.  Dressed in traditional shrine and matsuri attire, sometimes with rain ponchos over the top, a small procession made it's noisy way past my house.  All of the shrine relics were equally wrapped in plastic to keep from getting wet.

First came the drum and a procession of priests with a tree in a box.  After that was the women's float, then the men's float, a dragon, priest on a horse, and then a black car with, presumably, someone important in it.

As the priests with their tree and then women came by, I snapped a few photos from my apartment window.  Then in the gap between the women and the men, I threw on my shoes, a jacket, and grabbed an umbrella to watch them pass with some of my neighbors on the street.

Unfortunately, I was not fast enough to get a good photo of the men's float.  I did manage to snap a photo of the priest on a horse, however.  It's not ever day you see a man on a horse in Kyoto.

With this past and the progression winding it's way, chanting, through the neighborhood, I followed my neighbors to the park and the little shrine where the procession would stop.

When I got there, the two-man dragon had just arrived, and it went around biting little kids gently on the head.  Their parents would then politely thank the dragon, so I suspect it was some kind of blessing.

Finally, the men's float arrived.  They put it on some kind of elevated cart to rest their shoulders, but then after a rest, painstakingly carried it under the shrine's sheltered area.  This was amid lots of chanting and cheers from on-lookers, as now they heavy wooden shrine couldn't be carried on the men's shoulders, instead they had to carry it with their arms, so it wouldn't hit the roof of the shelter.  Safely under the overhang, everyone cheered.

I asked one of the other people there, and they said that the procession had come from another bigger temple farther away and was going someplace else, but this is where it would rest, I assume, for a lunch break.  I admit I still don't know what the matsuri was celebrating, but it seems like a really fun way to get out and celebrate your neighborhood, even in the rain.