In the past fifteen years or so, Halloween has gradually grown into a recognized festival in Japan. But like with many holidays that get imported into this country, the way it is celebrated here is different from the way I grew up celebrating it as a child, which, for full disclosure, is a few layers removed from the Halloween homeland of the U.S.A. On Halloween, I would go to my American School in my costume and then would go trick-or-treating in a neighborhood with a high percentage of international families, in Taipei, Taiwan.

Despite the foreign location, my Halloween still carried many of the traditional elements probably because the hands of commercialism did not touch it. The Taiwanese back then were busy cranking out export items more than having the luxury of creating frivolous consumerables for the local market; there were no Halloween knickknacks being sold. Halloween of my childhood was put together solely by the parents and also teachers of our community. The parents made our costumes, iced those cupcakes with jack o' lantern faces, carved those pumpkins, and somehow got their hands on candy corn, Twizzlers, and mini Reeses peanut butter cups. I am still not sure how they got their supply of this candy loot (military PX?) as so few stores sold imported items then and mailing things from abroad took forever.

Halloween's infiltration into the general public of Japan over the past decade or so has the aiding fingerprints of commercialism. My pet theory of the celebration successfully making its way into the hearts and minds of the Japanese has a lot to do with 100 yen shops making a plethora of pumpkin and black cat decorations easily affordable on the wallet and therefore the holiday spirit an accessible touch to many homes, schools, and offices. That and also Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios in Osaka with their Halloween parade and peddling of themed goods. Because of commercialism as the local entry point, the Halloween festivities here do not have the historical roots to All Hallows' Day of remembering the dead (we have our own Obon festival in the summer for that.) Halloween seems to have taken off more as a popular culture event for people in their teens and twenties, enjoying the costume-playing and excuse to come together to party.

This year with Halloween falling on Friday, the day of the weekly ELSI Izakaya, we couldn't let the opportunity pass to have a party. Christine Houser, our party planner, ordered multiple pizzas of various toppings, and decorated the central table which is ELSI's watering hole (we gather here for tea-time and for drinks on Friday) with beverages and festive snacks. We had a nice turnout (pizza and beer seem to always work), with little groups convening in convivial conversations. We are all busy during the day so it is a pleasure to see everyone from the director to the administrative staff enjoy the chance to hang out together.

What was particularly sweet was the presence of Julien Foriel's daughter Camille and John and Christine's daughter Camilla enjoying the big ELSI communication room and playing together. For these two-ish year olds, it could have been any other day (Camilla eyed her own costume so suspiciously that I don't think her parents managed to get one photo of her wearing it!) Christine had talked about wanting Camilla to experience trick-or-treating but with that tradition not yet really taking root in the neighborhoods here, we improvised and had the little girls to come around and trick-or-treat to individual adults.

Because Halloween fell on a Friday, it also meant that some of the younger children of other ELSI members who lived further away could not make it. I am eyeing next year's Halloween as it falls on a Saturday; it might be a little unorthodox but maybe we can pass out candy to the little members of the extended ELSI families from our offices and labs? Now THAT is beginning to sound creepy, maybe creepy enough for Halloween...!

p.s. If any one has photos from Halloween Izakaya, please share so I can put it up.