Halloween at Hirome 2013

Last Saturday, foreigners and Japanese alike celebrated Halloween in Kochi. There were two main Halloween parties: one at Hirome Ichiba, a sort of food court/market, and another at a club called Dahlia. There was also an informal pre-party at a park near the castle. I went to all three. I met up with many of the ALTs at the park for a little while before going to Dahlia to see a friend sing with his band. After Dahlia, we went to Hirome and stayed there until just before it closed at 2 am. Then we went back to Dahlia for a while. I went home around 3:00 or maybe 3:30, but some of my friends stayed out later.

Both of the main parties were very crowded; a ton of people came out to celebrate, and most were in costumes of some sort. Zombie nurses have been a popular theme this year and last, it seems. The winners of the Hirome costume contest were dressed as Jack and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas, and though I don't have any pictures, their costumes were great. Several of my friends dressed as characters from the animated movies by Studio Ghibli, which I think is comparable to Disney in its popularity and number of classic films produced. There was also a group of ALTs who dressed as characters from Adventure Time, an American cartoon that became popular recently.

Adventure Time group

Natasha as Nausicaa with a monster of some sort. Look closely; her face is covered in black feathers.

Kanye West with Snoopy, Charlie Brown and Woodstock in front of a pimped out car.

My costume turned out pretty well, I thought, although my shoulder pads started falling apart after being jostled in the crowds. I suppose there's only so much you can expect of paper plates and hot glue. Still, it was pretty fun to wear. A lot of Japanese people recognized it as Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, and even some of the ALTs knew who I was dressed as. I made one ALT's night as he is apparently a huge fan of hers. And even people who didn't know what I was dressed as seemed to enjoy the costume. I had a lot of people reaching out to squeeze the candy bags glued onto my skirt, mostly out of curiosity as to whether there was actually candy inside. I had emptied them of candy and filled them with paper for volume, so they looked like they were full. It's probably a good thing they didn't have any candy in them, or I might've had drunk people trying to steal parts of my costume.

Me as Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and Mary as Lady Rainicorn (from Adventure Time). Yes, those are meant to be false eyelashes on my chest.

With Guy as an elementary school student in P.E. uniform.

All in all, it was a pretty fun Saturday night. Although Halloween isn't a big holiday here, the party at Hirome is always something to look forward to. Even when I'm back in America and Halloween parties are plentiful again, I think I'll miss Halloween at Hirome.