Since when was Halloween such a big thing in Japan? Admittedly, you could see it coming these past few years. But this autumn it is simply everywhere.
Those violently orange pumpkin faces with black grins spring out at you in the most incongruous settings, be it on real estate agents' doorsteps or under pachinko parlor canopies.
"Trick or treat" may not slip quite that easily off Japanese children's tongues, but it's getting there. And they are certainly well advanced in the costume department. They go about in ghostly white sheets and admirably Gothic witches' cloaks with great aplomb.