"Halloween is almost here," he tells me — "he" being a friend with a passion for holidays — "and I need a costume! Something that shouts 'Japan!' Any ideas?"

What he wants is something he hasn't worn before. The old standbys — a samurai with a rubber topknot, a black-masked ninja with a plastic sword, and a geisha girl with a twirling parasol — are distant ghosts of his Halloween past.

As are Anpanman, Doraemon, Kamen Rider and more. Personally, I find nothing spookier than Hello Kitty edging out from a graveyard mist, but he has been there, done that.