We didn't really know what Japanese Halloweens were about. We knew that Japan had recently adopted the holiday (sounds like the Disney parks' Halloween-themed celebrations leaked into popular culture five to ten years ago) but we didn't know to what extent.
As you'd imagine, it's pretty hard to go trick-or-treating in a big city that doesn't contain rows and rows of traditional residential housing. So instead, the shops and restaurants hand out candy to little ones during the daytime hours. This is similar to many metropolitan areas back home so it wasn't too surprising. There were tons of cute kids in costume but I felt like a creep snapping photos outright so I took this stealth shot (still very creepy).
We stopped into Omotesando's Magnolia Bakery so that I could pick up a couple of their highly anticipated Halloween cupcakes. Tasted just OK but looked adorable!
Roppongi is known to be ex-pat central and one of the big night life spots, so we weren't surprised to find The Ultimate Party Bus parked here, with tons of costumed girls hanging around (notice the cute Halloween pumpkin lanterns decorating the streets).
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We made a point to head to what was supposed to be one of the city's most happening Halloween spots, Shibuya. When we stepped out of the station we were awe-struck.
Costumed people were completely swarming the sidewalks. We were swept into the streets by the giant flow and literally had to jump out of the sea of bodies and against a wall in order to stand by and watch the action.
Police controlled the flow of the crowds, blocking off side streets when they got too crowded and ushering everyone down the main strip.
We finally found a relatively quiet side street to get a better look at the costumes. We noticed a lot of gore, especially on the girls, which was interesting. I know Japanese love their scary movies, so I guess that makes sense.
It seemed like the main purpose here was simply to walk around showing off your costume, posing, taking photos with strangers wearing similar costumes, and people-watching. We will never forget Tokyo's crazy Halloween!
