Happy Halloween!

Halloween is being enveloped by Japanese pop culture. "The Nightmare Before Christmas" may be the reason--the movie is much more popular here than in the USA. Dolls, shirts, purses, pencil holders, etc. of Jack Skellington & crew are available 365 days of the year. But there might be another reason, too...

There is a region of Tokyo known for it's spunky fashion and teeming hordes of high school girls: Harajuku. And on any given Sunday, there are the various clans of costume people--normal people who dress up in zany costumes to be special for a little while. For example, a school girl who stops by after a study session, changes into an (expensive) black, gothic-style costume for a few hours, then changes back to normal clothes for the train ride home when it turns dark.


Harajuku Fun

This quirky aspect of Tokyo is a popular thing to write about, and it's even the topic of a Gwen Stefani song. Maybe there's a little part in everyone that's curious about living another life.. and when you combine that with the intense pressure to "be Japanese," in other words be just like everyone else, it makes Harajuku more understandable. It's a chance to escape!

Anyway.. there weren't quite as many people there as I thought there might be--I took this photo yesterday, one day before Halloween--and a Sunday to boot! Maybe dusk is too late, or too early? Is the offical day Saturday? Where's the official Costume Person Tokyo Calendar? And there weren't any Anime people, like I saw one time at the Tokyo Dome.

I'm a clueless foreigner, but I wouldn't be surprised if the "costume community" wants to distance themselves from Halloween, which seems to be becoming a popular kid's holiday. (I saw a few 4 year olds in cute costumes, and maybe I'll see more tonight.) After all, CozuPlay (costume play) is an adult thing. I kind of wish I knew a cozuplay person, to ask them. It's my impression they're 100% normal people, just anime/manga fans with too much free time. (NOTE, I'm making a big distinction here between the "wearing costumes in public" and whatever people do behind closed doors.)

I'm still trying to figure out what's the deal with the guys wearing bandages over their noses. (zoom in, lower right corner, blonde-haired guys wearing white.) Must be an manga comic book character. Anyone know?

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PS I don't know how to fix the comment problem. ?? Uh.. so, for security reasons, maybe you should use Firefox instead of IE. (It's better anyway. Until IE 7 is out.)