Howdy folks, time to get this show on the road!
Let’s first start out with a “Merry Christmas!” now that Spooky Season is no longer upon us
This one will brief — I just wanted to talk about my trip to Saitama and Halloween.
SO, Halloween in Japan is really intense. As a country, Japan celebrates many holidays, and most of them are spent with family or if you ask college students, spent sleeping or working. Halloween and Christmas are the only two holidays that have been adapted into Japan and both aren’t usually family holidays, more so something that you spend with your friends. I haven’t experienced Christmas here yet, but I heard it’s when you go to karaoke with your friends all night for the entire break (wowza) or go clubbing (also a big “yikes”).
Halloween on the other hand is an entirely different beast. During the week up to Halloween, the night streets of Tokyo are flooded with people in costume and already busy parts of the city become unbearable. This year, drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco on the streets (something that’s usually legal) were banned in Shibuya. This was due to the danger that occurs when several million people come to Shibuya to celebrate Halloween. A few residents of Shibuya told me that the city of Tokyo spent over $250,000 on police reinforcements to prevent the rioting that usually occurs during the holiday.
When I first heard this I made up my mind to go and see the chaos for myself, but it was so busy the weekend before and I could barely move anywhere, so I didn’t see the point in going, and I was also deterred by the knowledge that last year people got really drunk and flipped a truck over and started vandalizing shops. A truck. a T R U C K. Overall, I stayed at my dorm during Halloween, watched a movie, and went to bed early (it was an overwhelmingly positive decision in my book).
There were a few Halloween parties that I went to, the one in my dorm was for a cupcake decorating competition, and all the kids in the neighborhood came to trick or treat with all of us. It was really fun, they auctioned off prizes and we played a massive game of infection (if you haven’t played before you’re missing out). That evening we had a Halloween gathering, where we had unlimited food and karaoke. It was really fun and I lost my voice but what else is new :))
NOW LET’S TALK ABOUT SAITAMA
My trip to Saitama was really fun, I went with a group of Aoyama students — it was sort of a field trip which was really fun for me (like I was back in elementary school). Saitama is a smaller town up towards the mountains. There I got to make my own stamp (carved it myself – yes I did – that was me), after which I picked some grapes. These grapes are extremely expensive and cost about three dollars for just a single one, so a bushel, (a bunch? a gaggle?) costs anywhere from thirty-five to fifty dollars. Since they were so expensive we all got the larger bushels thinking that we would get them for free — which is true, we did — we just didn’t know that we had to finish all of the grapes right then. So, we proceeded to each eat about 20-30 grapes in one sitting under 15 minutes (I know it doesn’t sound too bad but these grapes are huge).
Note – ***fun fact*** we played chubby bunny with the grapes and I can fit nine in my mouth before I can’t breathe fully. Hehe – (in positive news I won so yay!)
Anyway, we all thought we were going to die of grapes and many of the people there have sworn off grapes for the next several months haha!
It was a very long day (and a very fun one) and I hit my head on every door of every bathroom I went into so if you’re above average in height make sure you duck 🙂
Okay, that is it! I love you and have a love life with my beautiful people!
Isis