Halloween at Hirome Ichiba

Last night was the big Halloween party at Hirome Ichiba. I spent a good chunk of the day preparing and waiting for it. I had gathered the final pieces of my costume on Thursday, but decided yesterday to buy a curling iron so I could style my hair for it. I got ready for the party much earlier than necessary because I couldn't stand to wait. I spent a lot of time screwing around with my makeup. I struggled with liquid eyeliner and false eyelashes for quite a while before giving up on the eyelashes. They're damn hard to apply. Here are some pictures of my costume, including a shot of my clothespin hair clip. I had spray painted a futon clip to use, but then discovered that they sold replicas at the Ghibli store in Obiyamachi.

Before the party, there were plans to meet at Josei Park around 9:00. I interpreted this rather literally and showed up around 9:05 only to discover that there were no other ALTs there. I wandered around in the dark with my bicycle and stumbled across a group of Japanese people, as well as one man sitting alone in a corner of the park, blowing up balloons. I'm not sure what that was about.

Just as I had completed my circuit of the park and was thinking of going home, Philip showed up. Soon after, Mitch and Michelle arrived, and the party more or less began. Mitch turned on some music and other ALTs started showing up. In the end, there were a group of maybe 20 of us in the park, hanging around and talking.

A bit before opening time at Hirome, I went with Hollie and Ashley to pick up Hollie's friend from work. She worked at a hotel on Obiyamachi and didn't want to walk by herself. I don't think it was a concern for personal safety so much as not wanting to walk around alone in her cat costume. Which was understandable; it was fairly revealing, and she likely would've had some guys harassing her. On the walk to Hirome, we ran across a number of other people in costumes. I was excited to see a group of three people dressed as the main characters from the anime Code Geass. Their costumes were fairly involved, and looked high quality. We took a picture with them before continuing on to the party.

At Hirome, we met up with the rest of the group and went in to the party. There was a live band playing, and all the members were dressed as Santa Claus. Most of the people at the party were in costume, including the Japanese people. It also turns out that the tendency of young women to wear skimpy costumes on Halloween is not uniquely American. There were quite a few girls dressed as sexy cats, sexy nurses, sexy witches, and so on. The sexy schoolgirl look was fairly popular, but it's a little unsettling to see 20-somethings wearing their old school uniforms as costumes.

From 11:00 to 2:00, we all hung around at Hirome, drinking and chatting. There was also some dancing, but I mostly enjoyed talking with everyone and checking out costumes. I took some pictures, but not nearly enough. I'm hoping the others will post theirs on Facebook for me to steal. My favorite costumes may have been Lisa as Nami (from One Piece, an anime) and Kemper as Anpanman (a famous cartoon character created by a Kochi native). Kemper even did a few Anpanman imitations.

My costume was fairly popular among the people who recognized it. A good number of random Japanese people (mostly women) asked to take their picture with me. I had to explain my costume to a lot of the other ALTs, but it seemed to be more recognizable to the Japanese. It was pretty fun hearing people exclaim, "Look! Arrietty!" Besides the fact that it was fun to be Arrietty for a night, my costume was very comfortable and convenient to wear. I was very happy with it. Thanks, Mom, for sending me the dress! I'll be using it as normal clothing, as well.

At closing time, they played Auld Lang Syne, which is the signal to clear out. Some of the ALTs opted to go home at that time, but a good number of us wanted to stay out. We went to Van Burger (a minivan that a guy sells burgers out of) and then on to a club for dancing. It wasn't too crowded, which was good, but the music wasn't great. Still, we danced for a while and had a few more drinks. Elizabeth and I danced with a few Japanese guys, which doesn't usually happen. They generally don't approach us. It was entertaining; one of them pretty much only "danced" with me by bumping into my shoulder repeatedly. After dancing, we sat around for a while and watched a few of the male ALTs trying to pick up Japanese women. Elizabeth and I left around 4:00 to go home.

Overall, I had a very good Halloween. I enjoyed all the costumes, and seeing JETs from out of town. The weather turned out to be perfect; it was milder than most nights have been lately, and there was no rain. We had been expecting a typhoon. The day after a big party is always a little sad, though, because you no longer have it to look forward to. But there's always next year.