Trick or Treat Tokyo

Nozomi rocking her Tiger Costume.

I'm still giddy with excitement from the fabulous night we had.  Tonight was Nozomi's first time trick or treating.

Halloween in Japan continues to grow in popularity each year.  In every train car this Halloween night you could see young men and women dressed up in costume. People love to dress up here and they love holidays. The Hyaku Yen (Dollar Store) has a bigger Halloween display each year and our okashi shop (candy/snack store) had big bags of candy for sale.  Many people make a special trip to Tokyo Disney for Disney Halloween and Halloween parties and parades are can be found in many different regions.

Trick or treating is spreading to more neighborhoods.  We chose to go to the Hiroo neighborhood. There are many foreigners that live there in very nice houses and apartments.  It was also well organized with a circulated list of participants.  Each house put out a pumpkin to show that you could trick or treat there, but most people just stood outside their gate or in the entryway and handed out candy.  Apartments pooled their candy together and there were huge bins of candy!

There were so many kids! They were dressed as Anna, Elsa, Batman, witches, pumpkins, and princess and on and on.  It would had been impossible to ring doorbells.  I couldn't believe how many people came out.  Most of the adults were in costume, too.  I thought it would just be foreigners, but there were many Japanese kids and their parents.  I heard French, Australian, Japanese, American accents and more!!

Oh, and Nozomi totally rocked her first real Halloween.  She fussed a little bit in her costume and was timid at the first house, but once she realized she was surrounded by other kids and got candy, she put her game face on.  She patiently waited outside each house, carefully selected her candy, said "thank you" and bowed.  I've never seen her take something so serious or behave so well.  I was so proud and overjoyed.  Tonight I feel truly blessed to live in a safe city, to have a supporting community, and to have such a wonderful little family.

Kids lining up outside a complex waiting for candy.
We had perfect weather.

Nozomi patiently waits for her turn to pick out a candy.
She takes Trick or Treating very serious.

Trick or Treating on the streets of Tokyo.

Nozomi's goodies.  The perfect amount for a slow toddler.
Other kids had much more, and we ate some on the train.