Happy Halloween

I've always loved Halloween. Maybe it's partially due to it's close proximity to another fav Holiday, namely my birthday, but I've always looked forward to the later half of the month of October when I could see that Halloween spirit coming out. The wonderful joy of letting yourself enjoy the darker side of our ego's for a season, where ghosts and ghouls, and my personal favorite, vampires, can come to life in our imaginations.

So the traditional way to celebrate Halloween I suppose would be to go trick or treating. Yet, this generally doesn't last into adulthood, and I despite being an avid fan of the Holiday, never really cared much for trick or treating. Yes I went a few times as a child, but I didn't care too much for candy and probably around 8th grade I found a much better way to celebrate the Holiday. I volunteered to scare the crap out of people in the annual Haunted Labyrinth.

For years since I looked forward to hiding in the shadows of that dark maze and pop out at the expecting yet unsuspecting victims (guests) who stumbled their way into my room. I was often able to scare the same group of people five times, popping out or dropping down and finally playing the dummy, before they moved on to the next room.

Yes those were good times. I hope one day I'll be in Chicago again for Halloween and I'll be able to volunteer again.



But now in Japan I've had to come up with new ways to celebrate my beloved All Hollow's Even. Last year I had a party at my apartment and also went out to eat at Lock Up, a restaurant where they put you in a cell and have monsters break lose in the middle of your dinner, with a few friends.



I dressed up and went to Harajuku last year too, thinking that maybe there would be some Japanese dressed up for Halloween, but all I saw were a few foreigners dressed up in Shibuya. Oh keep in mind when I say that I "dressed up" I don't mean I wore a costume. I just downed my Goth clothes and breathed in a little night air.
Even though they don't seem to do anything special for Halloween the atmosphere in Harajuku is always welcoming to interesting clothing styles and it feels good to go down there from time to time decked out in clothes a little less like what you casually wear. Although now that I am becoming a student again and won't have the binds of having to wear suits to work everyday I imagine those lines of what I usually wear and what I wear when I feel a bit expressive may become a bit blurred.

Anyway I digress...

I have another tradition I have taken up for the Halloween season, and that is the Halloween movie. I think two years ago I watched my favorite Disney movie, A Nightmare Before Christmas with the church youth group and then last year I bought a copy of Queen of the Damned which I watched for the second time as I had seen it before, and this year I have watched it again.

I projected it in my apartment for the last time as tomorrow I'll be moving. I began the movie with my two other roommates but one disappeared halfway through and the other watched to the end but was kinda squimish about some of the scenes. I didn't see what the big deal was. I mean it's not a horror movie or anything. Just a little blood sucking here and there, oh and then that part with the ripping out of the heart and biting it (my roommate hurried out of the room at that scene).



But yeah I enjoyed the film. Although compared to the book the story is really simplified, so of course I recommend the book over the film, but it was nice seeing the scenes I imagined in my head performed in the flesh. Aliyah did a really good job and I like this Lestat better than Tom Cruise from "Interview with a Vampire".
Plus I love the music from the film.

If you don't know about Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles or any of these movies I may be boring you right now, but I would recommend you look into them if you get the chance. Lestat is such an intriguing character. And the sort of dark mythology Anne Rice builds around him is simply enthralling.

So Halloween is actually tomorrow, but I may not be able to go out at all since I'm moving. But we'll see. At least I got my movie in and I did go to Lock Up again the other day for my Birthday.

Next year I'll probably watch the Underworld Movies, and if possible I think I'd like to go to a Visual Kei Concert or something. I just need to find someone to go with me, cause it sucks going out alone and my current friends seem a bit to squimish to join me.

So anyway no real point to this post, accept maybe to encourage people to enjoy the Holiday.

So to all I'll just say...

"Happy Halloween"