10 Trick-or-Treaters per Minute

We didn’t bring our Halloween decorations to Tokyo, thinking we wouldn’t need them. That was a mistake. But not as big a mistake as thinking 400 pieces of candy would last the evening.
I heard about Halloween as soon as I hooked up with the neighborhood expat ladies, way back in August. Halloween has become a popular event in Tokyo, they explained. Over the years, Japanese families have learned that our tiny corner of the metropolis, Yoyogi-Uehara, is one of only a few places they can bring their children for trick-or-treating – America’s great cultural contribution to Japan. Buy a lot of candy, they advised. So we did – 7 big bags of it. Give each child one piece of candy, they emphasized. So we did – 10 times per minute for 40 awesome minutes.

In preparation we strung Halloween lights ordered from Amazon around the entranceway, and taped a Happy Halloween sign and some creepy spiders purchased locally to our front door. Mark carved the small $15 pumpkin we bought at Costco, and put some candle lanterns on the wall in front of our house. Overall, we created a decent Halloween mood with limited resources.
Foreigners who are receiving trick-or-treaters sit outside their houses or apartment buildings with bowls of candy at the ready. We set up a small table and some stools on the front steps. Promptly at 6 p.m., the onslaught began. Adorable children dressed like pumpkins, witches, skeletons, ladybugs, princesses, clowns, and pirates came up our front steps in a steady stream. To the delight of the trick-or-treaters and their mothers, Mark was wearing his excellent Captain Jack Sparrow costume. Talk about 15 minutes of fame, well Mark had 40. Until the candy ran out, he was a movie star. Mothers urgently directed their children to stand with him for photos. Bulbs and smiles flashed all around.

I’ll always remember the sincere little faces of these young Japanese children. Looking up at me, they’d recite a succession of key English phrases: tricko treato, happy Halloween, and thank you. Proud mothers stood behind, prompting their children as necessary and smiling more broadly with each successful utterance. If the next wave of trick-or-treaters wasn’t immediately upon me, I’d wave and say “bye-bye” as children left. The Japanese use “bye-bye” much the same way we do, so this made their eyes light up, as though for a moment they saw me as more familiar than foreign – someone who understood at least one small ritual of their daily lives. Many turned back several times to repeat “bye-bye” and give another small wave, pleased to find they could communicate with me on their own terms, without memorizing strange phrases full of difficult to pronounce sounds.