Halloween weekend in Japan!

This has been a really busy week (as usual). It is the Halloween weekend after all, and on Friday there was a Halloween party at Ritsumeikan University. From what I´ve heard Japanese people doesn´t really celebrate Halloween usually, but apparently for the sake of the exchange students there still is quite a lot of Halloween related stuff happening here. I dressed up as a witch. I bought the costume two weeks ago in a shop downtown called Loft, but even though it seems a lot of people bought their costume there it seems I was the only one with this particular dress.

I mean, being a witch at a Halloween-party isn´t really that original so I was lucky.. Haha:)

Me in my Halloween outfit. Thanks to Silke for the makeup! xD

But there were a lot of others who showed up in quite... interesting costumes! One could see everything from aliens, cats and rabbits to guys dressed up as girls. Some were really creative too, and showed up in unexpected costumes they had made themselves. The party itself only lasted for a couple of hours, so after the party most of us went to the Kamogawa river to spend the rest of the evening there.

Group picture taken at the Halloween party.

On Saturday it was time for another party, and this time it was a so-called ○○放題 (xxx houdai) party, which means that you pay a settled amount and then you can either drink or eat as much as you want for a certain period of time. Usually you go to Nomihoudai (飲み放題) if you want to drink alcohol or to a Tabehoudai (食べ放題) if you want to eat. The -houdai we went to on Saturday included both though..!

We weren´t that many exchange students going there, so it was a really interesting experience! The food was really good, and it was a great opportunity to meet new Japanese friends too:)

Group picture of the few of us who was left when the party ended. For some reason the number of exchange students had almost surpassed the number of locals at this point.

Today has been great too. My friend Eki invited me to come with her and her host mother, Fumyo-san, on another type of Tabehoudai on the country side right outside of Kyoto. My dorm neighbor Ra, a friend of Fumyo-san and another Chinese exchange student came along too, and we had a really nice day together.

We went there quite early in the morning (considering me getting home a bit late yesterday), and at that time the weather was really nice. We got to walk around in the big orchard and eat as much persimmon and satsuma as we wanted.

I must say that I´m particularly unfamiliar with persimmon since we don´t have it in Norway.. But it was really good:) Satsuma on the other hand is quite similar to other citrus fruits like mandarin, which we have in Norway as well.

We had a really good time just relaxing and eating fruit..!

The orchard..! Even though it was Sunday there was not that many other people visiting the place while we were there. And as it suddenly started to rain I guess most people left earlier than planned.

Amazingly the flowers in Kyoto are still in blossom even though it´s soon November..!

These flowers are known as Cosmos (コスモス)

Me and Eki with our baskets filled with persimmon!

Other posts about Ritsumeikan

About Anette
Anette came to Japan as an exchange student in 2010, met the love of her life and got stuck. From her base in Tokyo she writes about her experiences as a full-time worker in Tokyo and about her travels in Japan and abroad. She's a free-spirited adventurer who enjoys both the great outdoors and her urban lifestyle.