Hidemi's Rambling No.363

Basically, there’s no custom in Japan to celebrate Halloween. But as a retail scheme, it has become a popular event. More and more stores and restaurants have had Halloween decorations in recent years. I had thought it happened only in urban areas and I wouldn’t see them in a rural area I newly moved in. On the contrary, people here celebrate Halloween zealously, with much more passion than in the city. Although there are only a small number of stores on the main street, they started the decorations in early September, which was as early as in Tokyo Disneyland. In some shops, they have more decorations than their merchandise. I wonder why they like Halloween so much. Come to think of it, I find too many spider webs across the town. Because the town is small and sparsely populated, it’s sometimes spooky and looks like a ghost town. Also, it has so many graves for its population. Maybe it was easy for people living here to adapt themselves to an event like Halloween. Walking around the town, I feel as if I was in a Halloween town with natural decorations…