As a family, we are known for always attending various events in our community. This keeps us pretty busy and entertained. My husband saw an advertisement for this event on social media. Since we didn't have other plans, and it has been down pouring for a few days now, we decided to go. Luckily, I had packed one of my son's favorite costumes in our bags (not in our shipment). A couple years ago he was invited to a superhero birthday party. I made him a mask and cape. It didn't take up much room and he enjoys playing superheroes whenever he gets the chance. I'm so glad I decided to carry it with us because he has played with it several times. Frankly, I don't think there has been anything that we brought that he hasn't played with at least once.
We walked through the pouring rain to the shopping center. We needed to buy at ¥1000 ($9) worth of merchandise from any store in the shopping center to participate. We bought some tofu and bentos for lunch, which more than covered the "fee." Once we bought our stuff, we were able to get my son's face painted, guess the weight of large orange pumpkins, and participate in the parade. The face painting was a hit, as it usually is. The weight guessing game was interesting, as it was multiple choice. You had a 1 in 3 chance of being correct. Losers walked away with a Halloween sticker and winners got a little bag with three pieces of candy.
When it was time for the parade, the kids gathered in one area. The kids were all dressed up in costumes, including Elsa (from Frozen), Where's Waldo, Pumpkins, and a really cute Gnome. There was one kid in a Scream ghost costume. I haven't seen one of those in years. They were all given a bag with a couple Halloween hard candies inside. Then, they were told that the candies were not for them. They needed to give away the candies to other children during the parade. A marching band arrived, complete with two trumpets, a trombone, two drums, and a xylophone. The shopping center mascot, a blue cat, also arrived and joined in the celebrations. The band played lively music and led the children and parents through the shopping center. As we followed along, our son handed out the provided candy to children watching the procession. After all his candy was gone, he walked with the cat, holding it's hand. We completed the parade route and the kids turned in their bag in exchange for a large bag of goodies. It had five different treats inside.
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Carmel corn (similar to extremely sweet Pirate Booty), pizza flavored puffed snacks,
mini doughnuts, and corn snack stick. Not pictured is grape flavored gummies.
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Overall, it was fun to go. My son had a good time. We did some Halloween type activities, which made him very happy. But it was just... different. Not bad, just different.
The tofu we purchased in order to participate in the Halloween festivities was made from edamame - green soybeans. We ate it with our dinner. In the US, I find tofu to be tasteless and bland. No wonder it has such a bad name for so many people. In Japan, the tofu is delicious. This particular tofu was smooth and soft. We ate it plain, not even adding soy sauce or ponzu to it. It didn't need anything else because it had plenty of flavor on it's own. My son, who's always enjoyed tofu, described it so eloquently "Mmmmmm! Sooo good!"
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