Halloween in the news

Halloween has come and gone and in this slightly rural bit of Japan, if I ignored all the cute packaging in the grocery stores it is almost as if it never happened. However, there were a few nods to Halloween, including with my mothering education group. They had a sort of party, but it was basically a performance by the senior members in costume. Great fun but not quite what I expect from Halloween. So I explained this to them and told them about what Halloween is at home for me. They were shocked. Come to find out they expected something more along the lines of what goes on in Tokyo, a giant romp through the streets full of costumes, drinking and debauchery. That's how the news makes it seem anyway. Personally, I've never spent Halloween in Tokyo since it's become a big thing. However, there was a news segment about what to do about Tokyo's Halloween. There were several arrests over the night and serious rowdiness including a clip of someone doing donuts in their car in a very crowded intersection. People refused to head home until the early hours and the whole thing was a disturbance for the whole city disrupting traffic and just general mayhem. They figure everything keeps getting so out of hand because it isn't an official event with a clear end time. No boundaries of for where to party. They talked about making it like new years eve in times square, clear borders to the party section and a climactic finish to signal the end of the party. They will probably finish it off with japan’s official end of event music, that tune you hear in stores and at the end of festivals. Japan really knows how to do crowd control. Halloween may one day come close to what I experienced in America for my children, with mostly kid-friendly events, but until then I'll spend my Halloween and the days after trying to negate the negative image given by places like Shibuya and Yoyogi.