Trick or treat. Or firework?

So over the past week, I've managed to celebrate, albeit inadvertently, two 'holidays' that I do not celebrate normally in NZ, and that are not traditionally celebrated in Japan, Halloween and Guy Fawkes.
Halloween is celebrated over here in the commercial sense, when I was here two years ago Disneyland got all decked out in Halloween stuff, and all the shops this year had blakc and orange facades, plenty of pumpkins, spiders and witches.

Noone was having a Halloween party to my knowledge, and so for me, Monday the 31st of October began as any other. I had been sent a package of Danish candy from my AFS friend, Hermione, as part of our 'candy swap', where we would send each other a package of various sweets from our respective countries. Among the Danish gummies, chocolates and liquorice bits and pieces, I was sent a rather imposing bag, the contents of which Hermione called 'lethal'.

Having given one to Claire the day before, and getting a suitable 'these candies are lethal' response, I decided to bring them to school, as no way would I be able to eat them all myself. So, with these little killers in my bag, I turned up at school on the 31st, not thinking what day it was, and upon arriving in class, several classmates offered me various pumpkin flavoured goodies.

"Oh, today's Halloween, isn't it?", thought I, and looking at the packaging, I realised I had inadvertently brought to school with me the most appropriate Halloween themed treat (though trick would be the more appropriate noun)

With them in hand, I would recieve a candy from a class mate before saying (in Japanese),
"Hey, these are Halloween themed candies, I got them from my Danish friend, they're very popular over there. Quite a strange smell, but the flavour is quite good. Try one?"

Sadly, my Japanese classmates are too trusting (or naiive) to not question why I also had a camera in my hand. In the end, the Japanese desire for new and apparently delicious candy overcame any hint of common sense or caution, and in popped the candy. Here are some of the results.

 I almost felt bad for poor Yuki, as the expression of happiness at candy in his eyes wilted away into the look of sadness when one goes to lick their icecream, only for it to fall off the cone and land in the dirt.

 My homeroom teacher now things I'm a sick in the head bastard after laughing manically at her suffering.

 My Society teacher is a bit of a sickly looking fellow at the best of times, and this very nearly killed him I suspect.

 I offered Ayano and her two friends a Dracula, and they settled who would be the 'lucky' one who got to try one of these Society-Teacher-Killing candies. Sadly for Ayano, she went 'rock' when the other two went 'paper'/

 Sadly this photo cannot produce the moan that Yuri gave a second after it touched her tongue.

 Arei very nearly vomited into her face mask. That would have been funny.

 Nasa, the strongest boy in my class, was knocked to his knees by a candy no larger than a 10cent coin. Goliath felled by a candy, how embarrassing.

 Miko, the class ditz, ran aimlessly through the classroom and the corridor, Dracula lying on her tongue, a high pitched squeal, not unlike a balloon. Could well have killed off some of her brain cells, oh but wait....

 Foru very elegantly passed this test of strength, almost boring to watch.

 Gave her one, to no real response, then turned around in disgust at the lack of grimace at least, and then heard a loud noise. She fell on the piano keys, weeping. Ooops.

 Before, oh yes, I want to try your delicious sounding candy, Troy, I do I do!

 Vomiting in the rubbish bin. Not a good look for anyone.

 "Wanna candy, boy who I've never met before?"  "Oh boy do I ever!"

Wrong on two counts, boy. NEVER take candy from strangers. Especially foreigners. Foreigners holding cameras. With peculiar smiles on their faces. It may just well be a terrible tasting candy from Denmark. Or Heroin. Or both.


As to the taste, I cannot quite describe it. The ingredients list ammonia or something similar (tis Danish), and salt, I think it's aking to liquorice, but honestly the taste is impossible to compare to anything. Suffice to say, one is more than enough. If you like them, you either have lost your sense of taste, have no empathy, or are a compulsive liar.

I was, I must say, surprised at the number of Japanese who said it was delicious. This was to not offend me, as it would be highly rude to say that a gift was 'mazui' disgusting. Of course I knew that the candies were terrible tasting, if they were delicious no way would I have shared them. But what was funny was the sense of relief on their faces when I exclaimed 'uso' (lies) at them if they said the Draculas were 'oishii' (delicious). They could then gasp, weep, spit, or in one sad case, vomit, to their heart's content, knowing I would not be offended. In fact, this provided much better photos, with them trying to hide their expressions with their lies.

So with Halloween's trick or treating over (I think trick is the most appropriate here), along came the 5th of November. The Japanese use fireworks alot, in fact from age 12 you can buy them in throughout summer from convenience stores (!), but from late October they begin to be phased out.

Every year in Atsugi, the city North West of Ebina, there is a fireworks festival in August. However this year, due to the earthquake/tsunami, the festival was postponed. How that affected the festival I do not know, but it was moved to November 5, coincidentally Guy Fawkes day. 350,000 people went to Atsugi to watch them, so we (wisely in the end) decided to watch them from an Ebina park, still had a good view, slightly marred by a transmission tower, but fireworks are all the same really. Unfortunately due to the lack of wind by the time we arrived, the smoke from the previous 2 hours worth of fireworks (that's quite a lot) wasn't blowing away, and therefore visibility was reduced. However, I did get to see some fireworks on Guy Fawkes day, so I feel I celebrated that in a suitable fashion.

Apologies for the bad photos, a combination of darkness, rain clouds, smoke, and a not so good night time mode. But there are fireworks for ya.

And then a decidedly average quality video of the fireworks, but this is further evidence of them being fireworks. Plus a little bit of Japanese commentary from myself and Midori.

On the topic of holidays, I noticed when I went to the bakery in Vina Walk (the shopping plaza) yesterday, that the shops are starting to get set up for CHRISTMAS. Cripes! In a country that actually does Christmas for what it is, start of November might be alright, though still a bit early, but in Japan, that's completely bonkers. Apparently there aren't any holidays in Japan where all the shops have to close, so that means on Christmas Day I should be able to go shopping, if I so desired.

Hope your Halloween and/or Guy Fawkes went well, and hope all is well in your part of the world!

Sayonara from Under the Kanagawan Sun!

Toroi :)