Trick or Treating (I hope)

32 comments

1. Do you have a 町内会？Our neighborhood organizes events and usually once a month event info is sent out to the neighborhood. If you have one, they might be very helpful! We haven’t done Halloween bc there aren’t many kids here but we have organized block parties and hanami.

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3. Just put up flyers advertising free Halloween English lessons and I guarantee people will bring their kids.

4. I’ve seen it work where it started with a festival and then organized into trick or treating, but I think some of it was from shops and not an entire neighborhood, unfortunately.

5. I think you’d have more success if you plan this earlier next time. Less than two weeks notice is really short for something like this in Japan. I’d do it months in advance.

6. I haven’t organized something like this but I’ve often thought about it.

   We carve pumpkins every year and put them out. A few of the neighborhood kids have started coming by on Halloween in costumes and asking for candy.

7. We did it in our apartment building (36 units) among the families that had young kids. What made it work was that most of the kids knew each other through school, and each family also talked with friendly neighbors. The ones participating decorated their doors and the kids trick or treated at the scheduled time in their costumes.

   YMMV. This was 25 years ago, back when a lot of kids were taking 英会話 lessons and sometimes their school would do some kind of foreign cultural activity (Easter egg hunts using plastic eggs, Santa photos with presents, etc).

8. Kitakami, I’m guessing Iwate?

   I’m a neighbor to Kitakami and I regularly put on a Halloween event. It started out with Trick-or-Treating but pressure from the parents joining have made it into more of a party. Drivers are not always aware that trick-or-treating may be under way and can be dangerous especially at night. For safety we had to cut the trick-or-treating out.

   ​

   We usually get around 60~80 children to participate. This year is looking to be our first year doing more events like halloween themed relays, dancing, and English challenges like a scavenger hunt.

   Sometimes it goes off without a hitch and we budget everything correctly. But last year we had some participants register to join but a COVID breakout pretty much cut the numbers in half. We had so much leftover candy we had no idea what to do with so we included them in a Christmas event by making a Christmas piñata! The kids laughed when they saw some Halloween designed wrappers.

9. My parents used to organize it as a part of our English school event, but it was usually going around to the students homes, so not random people.
   Maybe if they have kids you can them participate, and organize a route.

10. I think it is a wonderful idea—and I wished I lived in the neighborhood (although my children are grown) so that I could participate! Whatever happens, use it to make next year’s event better. As an aside, there are two places in the greater Sapporo area that go all out with outdoor Christmas decorations on their houses—and I mean just like back home in the US. It all started with one family having lived in the US wanting to decorate their house, and after a couple of years, the neighbors started doing the same. The street gets a little crowded at Xmas, but it’s all in good fun and the neighbors and passersby love it! Don’t let the Halloween grinches stop you.

11. absolutely 迷惑, if you want to practice your american customs, go to america

12. If your neighborhood is like mine this is something you should organize directly with the neighbors yourself in advance and then only go to houses that agree to participate. If you just put up flyers and then go out with a group of kids without having organized your neighbors ahead of time most of them will likely just be confused and unprepared.

13. I’ve done this with the kids in our street but only because we see each other and play together out the front every day. It was easy to organize with the parents.

    I wouldn’t try to organize anything with neighbors that I didn’t talk to weekly because it because a hassle for them.

14. Not sure what your neigbourhood is like but the way to do it is to get the parents of the kids participating to pitch in for assorted candy and distribute them beforehand to the houses and shops that you can convince to participate, again beforehand. Then you plan a safe route that’s well-lighted with light traffic and visit the participating house/shop with enough chaperones to make sure the kids stay safe and together. The parents are happy to see their children happy, and the shops get to take a group picture of the kids in their costumes to put up in their shop for community good will.

    Even better is to have a small party for the kids beforehand and make the trick-or-treating the finale to the evening. Just make sure no one goes home alone afterwards and that the kids are picked up wherever the party started or were dropped off.

15. I’m doing something very similar but on a much smaller scale as my youngest (6) REALLY wants to do it.

    I’m dropping off snacks at two of my daughters friends houses. It’s a 3 house trick or treat event.

    I come from a place that doesn’t do trick or treating. I think it’s a little strange. But this way her and her friends can get dressed up, and the other parents don’t need to really do anything.

    I know some of the English schools in my area do trick or treat Halloween events in collaboration with some local shops. I wonder if there’s anything like that near you? If you work at a school, maybe you could try to organise something like that. Good publicity for the school and the local shops.

16. I do a treasure hunt every year for some of the kids in my section of town that in my daughters year at school. There is usually about 10 kids, no real dressing up, they get candy at the end, and we just have fun for a few hours in the dark on Halloween.

17. My friend does this in her neighborhood every year and it is well-received. The first year there were only a few houses, but she keeps expanding every year as people find out about it and want to participate. She bought all the treats the first year and asked her neighbors to hand them out. After that people started really getting into it and buying treats, decorating, getting dressed up themselves. If you don’t get a lot of interest this year, I would start planning earlier for next year. I would also suggest talking to people in person rather than putting letters in their mailboxes.

18. My neighborhood does this, but it’s planned way in advance due to the fact that not all neighbors want to do it and they need a head count for the kids that will attend.(this is so they only buy enough snack bags for the kids attending ) Then we follow the map that the event coordinator has to the participating houses.

    Its fun, definitely different from the way I’m used to. but still the kids enjoy it.

19. I did the same when my kids were young. Most of the neighbors who had kids were interested, and they just stood outside their homes during the 15 minutes the kids were running around to give out candy. Then all the kids came to my house to eat some snacks and play bingo.

    The 2nd year some of their friends asked to join, so they stood along the street between houses as well.

    This went on, getting bigger every year, until the kids were in JHS. The last few years we rented the local community center for after trick-or-treating.

    Your idea of pumpkins out front to mark participating families is a good one.

    Check if your area has a wholesale center 卸売市場 where you can get snacks at lower prices for events, festivals, etc.

20. I did this exact same thing right down to posting a letter with a pumpkin to put on the door of participating families. I included my email address in case they had any additional questions as well. It worked out. About 12ish kids participated. For the most part, the families with kids were the only households that gave out candy, save for a pair of sisters living in the apartment below. Everyone had fun. It was successful. If your neighborhood has a 回覧板, that might be another way to remind people of the event.

21. Wayyyy more luck just putting together something with other foreign mixed families in your greater area. We always get 15 to 20 families at a big park and do a tiny version of trick or treat where the kids run to all the parents with candy standing in a big circle, and once that’s out of the way all the parents mingle and chat while the kids play. Perfect way to get a slice of Halloween here!

22. While it isn’t part of the local culture as mentioned by someone else, some neighborhoods do have trick or treating events.

    My neighborhood has had something like this since we moved here 5 years ago, but it is a newer neighborhood that was only partailly built when we moved in, it’s on a road that loops on the side of a hill, so there is only one entrance/exit on top. Since it is newer most families are younger with kids.

    Previously us on top did this with just our upper side houses and the lower loop did their own event, this year the lower loop asked the houses on the upper side if we wanted to join with them for a bigger event. Guess there will be a lot of kids wondering around.

    The plan is Sunday afternoon from 3-5pm, so kids are done before dinner and not late with school the next day.

    BTW, I had nothing to do with the organization here, but my kids do join.

    Hope it works out for you.

23. Is the ultra-national immigrant party here already losing their shit?! Lol Imagine a world with immigrants having community festivals where the locals are invited and some are more than happy to participate. Something like The Day of the Dead or the Brazilian Day in the US or even here in Japan? Maybe Undokai and Tanabata Matsuri outside Japan? Or any other festival, small or big, in any other country?

    Calm down samurai, your Japan ain’t being destroyed by OP’s Halloween party.
    OP, go for it and I hope y’all over there have fun!

24. I don’t have any advice that hasn’t already been given, but just adding that I hope this works out well for you. I’ve thought about trying to organize something similar in my area (a lot of danchi with small kids, so it would probably be popular), I’m just not organized enough to get it done.

25. Man, some of the people in this sub are so negative and jaded. This sounds like fun and I’m sure other families with children would enjoy it.

    I’m from a somewhat rural area in the US and have many fond memories trick or treating. I imagine my hometown is similar to your town here, many families and relatively safe. We used a system where trick or treat was on a Friday evening from around 6-8pm, and participating houses had their porch light on. We did not approach houses without a porch light. That way people could choose to not participate if they didn’t want to. Something like this would work well.

26. When I was an ALT in a smaller city, all the ALTs (maybe ten of us) worked with one of the schools/PTA to put on a Halloween event. One of the schools let us use the classrooms, half of us would do Halloween themed activities in some of the classrooms, the other half would be in classrooms where the kids could come and knock on the class door and trick or treat. The PTA would pitch in to cover the costs and usually treat us to dinner after.

27. We’re finally getting back to trick-or-treating in my neighborhood since COVID! I’m excited because we’ve each (each household, that is) been offered a refundable 3000円 to buy a bunch of candy for like…oh, maybe 30 kids or so. Our shrine matsuri was a bit of a bust this year, so I guess this is where the dues are going! Scary Gaijin House has somehow become the main attraction because I decorated the genkan and dressed up the first year they decided to do it, with basically the Exorcist subliminal face x Undead Robert Smith look. Scared the piss out of most of the kids and the parents – it was a blast! Not going quite as extreme this year, just making a cartoony witchy dress with the big pointy hat to go with it, so it should be a bit more relaxed and less scary for the really little ones.

    Anyone who’s got a neighborhood that is up for Halloween shenanigans – I hope you have fun with it!

28. So some of the negativity here may come from bad experiences with trick or treat as an institution.

    I come from the UK, and for me (and many friends) it was an extremely unpleasant event. The idea that children / young people are going to be coming around demanding small gifts without prior arrangement and will in some way or other be nasty to you if you don’t deliver is hardly a positive thing to do. So there’s the stress of getting in things in case anyone does come and then if they don’t (sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t) you have lots of chocolates etc you don’t want.

    Americans I’ve talked to this about don’t understand. But then they grew up with it, whereas I didn’t. In some neighbourhoods it may be properly planned, and there may be rules (such as putting out a pumpkin) to indicate you participate – but there’s no true agreement on what and how it works. That’s the trouble with transplanting an alien practice.

    Also: why the hell should I entertain other people’s children once a year when they never give me the time of day? I love children. I wish I had some of my own. The chances of life have meant that it never happened. That’s sad. So it is a particularly mean-minded kind of event.

    But, Japan has had a way of taking foreign awful ideas and making them fun or positive. Valentine’s day here is much nicer than in the UK (you may not like it here, but it is vastly worse back home). So, maybe something can be done with Halloween and children having fun.

    OP: So I’d urge you to think how to make this fit with local culture and community. It might be fun.

    To answer your original question, here (small village) on 3rd November I think there’s an event where the local children go around to houses and are given sweets. It has been advertised by posters on the gomi-basho, but the community is small and everyone knows everyone else. I will make it clear – perhaps at taneoroshi – that we will be participating in case anyone doesn’t know.

    So this clearly is a thing that small inaka communities do in Japan. I am sure it will be fun.

29. I highly doubt they will do this…it’s so far out of their comfort zone, even within their neighborhood, that I can’t see more than a few going through the trouble. However, good luck.

30. I did a neighborhood trick or treat for years when my son was small. Most of the neighborhood kids have out grown it now, but I still get around 100 kids trick or treating at my house every year.

31. “Hello I am the unknown gaijin. Please let your dressed up kids come at night to my house so I can give them candy. LETS HALLOWEEN”

32. ” A lot of me neighbors have seen me, but they don’t know me. Just that I’ve got 2 kids and a dog. ”

    Aw, man, I’d expect Japanese neighbors to be skittish about this **if they knew you well**, but not knowing you at all? Meh…

    Best of luck, but I wouldn’t hold out hope this year. You gotta have a meeting explaining the whole thing. While giving everyone a handout that has the same explanation on it. If you **really** want to sell it, you have a PowerPoint presentation reviewing the same shit they’re talking about and reading about.

    All snark about Japanese and meetings aside, you should try and get this information out as early as possible. Something happening at the end of October still in the information phase in the middle of October sounds really rushed for Japan. Do you have the community newsletter that gets handed around the local households? Try and get information about it in the April issue and set up a meeting for those interested at a community center, again, assuming one exists in your area.

    I think with the proper notice and planning, you’ll get this in the future. Just make sure that there are people in charge of making sure nothing can happen and “be the fault of” trick-or-treating or it will be short-lived. Think of rules ahead of time, or get a Japanese person to do it.

    Bloody rules. Anyhow, if you do manage to swing it this year, let us know!