I’ve written posts before about the numerous unique flavors that Pepsi Japan has offered.
(Click here to see them.)
Starting on October 6th, for a limited time, Pepsi Japan will offer 「ペプシゴースト」 (“Pepsi Ghost“) for Halloween.
「ペプシゴースト」 (“Pepsi Ghost”)
They will be sold in a bottles with various original monsters on the labels. And, most interestingly, the bottles say that they’re 「ミステリーフレーバー」 (“Mystery flavor”)!
Would you (will you) try these once they go on sale?
Today there was an event at the Tokyo Tower to promote the U.S. TV series “The Walking Dead”.
About 1,200 celebrities and locals were made-up as zombies!
Kit-Kat Japan is famous for their numerous unique flavors.
(Click here to see a post I wrote about some of the many different flavors.)
Right now, Kit-Kat Japan is offering 「パンプキンプリン味」 (“Pumpkin Pudding Flavor”) Kit-Kits for Halloween.
In Japan, Baskin-Robbins is popular.
It has been popular in Japan for at least as long as I’ve lived in Japan (which is since 1990).
Halloween, though, wasn’t very well-known or popular in Japan when I first came here…but it has become increasingly popular over the years.
Japanese children don’t knock on their neighbors’ doors asking for “Trick ‘R Treat” candies like they do in America. But Halloween events at Tokyo Disneyland and other places are popular.
Also, in Japan nowadays, many famous brands, such as Kit-Kat, Starbucks, etc. offer special Halloween treats.
So of course, the aforementioned popular American ice-cream chain Baskin-Robbins has been offering a limited-time Halloween menu of treats every year.
When I first came to Japan, there was no Halloween here.
But it’s become more and more popular in Japan over the years.
It’s different from Halloween in America though. Japanese kids don’t knock on their neighbors doors to “trick ‘r treat” for candy.
There are Halloween parades and some shopping malls let kids “trick ‘r treat” from store to store.
One of the most popular Halloween event in Tokyo is Tokyo Disneyland’s Halloween theme.
It starts in September and goes til October 31st (Tokyo Disney’s X-mas theme starts right after).
Today is 2010 October 17.
I came to Japan on 1990 October 17. Twenty years ago.
I was 20 years old when I came to Tokyo…so I’ve now lived half of my life here. Starting tomorrow, I will have been in Japan for “most of my life”.
Time goes by so fast.
In 2008 on this date I wrote a post that compared some of the differences between Japan in 1990 and Japan today.
Click here to read it.
Today is also the anniversary of the day that Yoshihiro Hattori was shot to death in America because he went to the wrong house by mistake on his way to a Halloween party.
Last year I wrote a post on the seventeenth anniversary of his death.
Click here to read a bit about his story in the post I wrote last year.
I can’t believe I’ve already been in Japan for twenty years. October 1990 doesn’t seem that long ago.
Unless that is, you look at I list of the music and movies that were released in 1990!
I checked on Wikipedia…and twenty years seems much longer now that I realized that in 1990 Macaulay Culkin was a cute kid and “Home Alone” was a new movie!
The top-ten movies of 1990 were:
1. “Ghost“…This movie was pretty good, I think.
2. “Home Alone“…This was one funny…but all the sequels (some with different actors in the lead role) were ridiculous.
3. “Pretty Woman”
4. “Dances With Wolves”
5. “Total Recall“…I like action and suspense movies, but this one was mediocre.
6. “Back To The Future Part III“…This is an excellent trilogy. Of course the first one was the best, but the two sequels were good too.
7. “Die Hard 2: Die Harder“…The four “Die Hard” movies are among my all-time favorites—and I recently heard that they’ll will be making “Part 5” soon. I hope so!
8. “Presumed Innocent“…Harrison Ford is a great actor who has starred in many excellent films!
9. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles“…I knew about this comic book because in the liner notes of the excellent 1986 “Master Of Puppets” album by the heavy metal band Metallica it has in the “Thank you” list, among other things, “sushi, Absolut Vodka, Alka Seltzer, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles“.
Metallica is cool, this movie isn’t.
As a sidenote, there’s a similar story with the metal band Anthrax. On their 1987 “Among The Living” album there is a song titled “I Am The Law“. In the album’s liner notes it says that the song is inspired by the “Judge Dredd” comics. In 1995, Sylvester Stallone starred in a terrible movie adaptation of this comic series.
But I digress. Back to the list.
10. “Kindergarten Cop”
I was going to include a list of the music albums that were released in October 1990, too. But I’ve either never heard of most of the bands on that list or they’re albums by bands that I can’t tolerate.
There were a couple good albums released the time I came to Japan in October 1990:
“No Prayer For The Dying” by Iron Maiden
And the “Led Zeppelin box set“.
Today we went to a shopping center and stopped for a coffee break at the McDonalds and I noticed the display at the 「サーティワン・アイスクリーム」 (Baskin-Robbins) next to the McDonalds.
The display was for Baskin-Robbins‘ Halloween campaign. So I took a photo of it:
We didn’t buy any of the Baskin-Robbins Halloween desserts.
But we do enjoy Baskin-Robbins ice cream once in a while.
Baskin-Robbins is an American ice cream franchise that is very popular in Japan.
In Japan, it’s not called “Baskin-Robbins” though. It’s called 「サーティワン・アイスクリーム」 (“Thirty-one Ice Cream“) or simply 「サーティワン」 (“Thirty-one“).
I haven’t been to a Baskin-Robbins in America in many years. I guess it’s been about twenty-five years since I’ve seen an American Baskin-Robbins.
But I was thinking that if Baskin-Robbins in America has Halloween themed desserts they’re probably quite different from the ones that Baskin-Robbins sells here in Japan.
So I checked their websites and sure enough Baskin-Robbins U.S. Halloween treats are completely different from Baskin-Robbins Japan‘s.
Maybe it’s because I’ve been in Japan so long…but I think that food in Japan (including junk-food) is much better than the food in America.
The last time we visited America (in 2004), my family and I all enjoyed our holiday there…but we missed the food in Japan!
Compare for yourself Baskin-Robbins Japan and Baskin-Robbins U.S. Halloween desserts and tell if you don’t agree that the Japanese ones look much more appetizing.
The ad for Baskin-Robbins Japan:
"Baskin-Robbins Japan" Halloween sweets
And here’s the ad for Baskin-Robbins U.S.:
"Baskin-Robbins U.S. Halloween cakes
I came to Japan on 1990 October 17.
Nineteen years ago today.
Last year on this date I wrote a post about some of changes I’ve seen in Japan since I first arrived (Click here to read it).
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Also, seventeen years ago today, 服部剛丈 (Yoshihiro Hattori) died.
Do you know about his story? It’s quite tragic.
And it was big news when he was shot and killed in America in 1992…at least here in Japan.
He was a sixteen year old Japanese exchange student in Louisiana, America and on the evening of (1992) October 17 he and a friend went to a Halloween party that they were invited to.
They mistakenly went to the wrong address and when they rang the doorbell he was fatally shot by the homeowner who claimed in court that he thought Yoshihiro was a criminal trespasser.
The home-owner, Rodney Peairs, pointed his gun at Yoshihiro and said “Freeze!”.
Obviously, not familiar with that command in English, Yoshihiro walked towards Mr. Peairs and said “We’re here for the party”, at which point Mr. Peairs panicked and shot the teen.
This case became big news in Japan at the time. I remember it was on the news constantly.
What made it even more shocking to the Japanese people was that the U.S. courts ruled that Rodney Peairs was within his rights to shoot Yoshihiro Hattori under Louisiana’s law and they acquitted him of all charges.
Also shocking to Japanese was shortly after this case there were two more cases of Japanese exchange students being shot in America.
A TV reporter at that time said that if Japanese must travel to America they should be sure to understand the phrase “Freeze!” lest they become the next victim of America’s “sick gun-obsessed society”.
It’s now 十月 (October), and ハロウィーン (Halloween) is at the end of this month.
Do you celebrate ハロウィーン (Halloween)? What do you do?
When I was a kid in America, I used to enjoy doing what most American kids do at ハロウィーン (Halloween)…dressing up in a costume and walking around the neighborhood knocking on people’s doors to get candy.
Of course I’ve long outgrown any interest in ハロウィーン (Halloween) for myself…but I have three kids and once they were old enough, I wanted to take them Trick ‘R Treating. But knocking on your neighbors’ doors and asking to be given candy (or anything else, for that matter) is not something people in Japan would feel comfortable doing.
In fact, when my kids were little there was no ハロウィーン (Halloween) in Japan at all to speak of. So, a couple times, my wife made ハロウィーン (Halloween) costumes for our kids by hand and we invited some of their friends over for a “Halloween Party” at our house. We painted rabbit or mouse faces on the kids and gave them candy and played some games with them.
That was back when they were in 保育園 (Nursery School). But we still buy some candy and small bags now and let our kids give some ハロウィーン (Halloween) presents to their friends.
The only difference now is that many stores in Japan sells ハロウィーン (Halloween) merchandise and candy and costumes! So we can buy ハロウィーン (Halloween) candy and ハロウィーン (Halloween) bags with pictures of “Jack ‘O Lanterns” and black cats.
ハロウィーン (Halloween) is still pretty new to Japan though, so many people see the ハロウィーン (Halloween) stuff being sold in the stores and think it looks fun and interesting…but relatively few people actually purchase any of it because they wouldn’t have any use for a ハロウィーン (Halloween) costume (even if they have kids) or imported American candy (which is usually too sweet for Japanese tastes).
But some people do buy the ハロウィーン (Halloween) decorations and ハロウィーン (Halloween) costumes because there’s beginning to be more and more to do to celebrate ハロウィーン (Halloween) in Japan (even if the average Japanese person isn’t 100% sure exactly what date in October the holiday falls on…or how the holiday is celebrated in other countries).
Here are a couple pictures of ハロウィーン (Halloween) pumpkins, candy, and other goods that a store was recently selling. I didn’t have my camera with me…so I took these two photos with the camera on my 携帯電話 (cell-phone):
So, if you’re in the Tokyo area at ハロウィーン (Halloween) time and you want to celebrate it “Japanese style, here are some of the places you can go:
The Tokyo Disneyland Halloween 2008 website page is here.
Their website’s in 日本語 (Japanese only) here.
…on the last Saturday in October.
Their website is here.
When my daughters were under 12, we went to this event. A couple pictures that I took of people in the Halloween parade can be seen on this post.
The Kawasaki Halloween 2008 website (in 日本語 (Japanese only)) is here.
Their website is here.
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