Halloween, much like Christmas, is mostly only celebrated in Japan within the walls of department stores. There are no Halloween parties, no trick or treating and no pumpkins to be seen in front of homes. That's why it was such a wonderful surprise for Kate and I when we stumbled upon a "kabocha matsuri" (or pumpkin festival) while driving around in Iwate last weekend. I'm actually not sure if this festival is related to Halloween or not. Perhaps it's the invention of lobbyists from the pumpkin farming industry, who knows? Whatever the reason, it was yet another serendipitous discovery that Kate and I were very glad to have made. Where us gaijin think of pumpkins as something to carve, gut, smash and chuck, these townsfolk saw them instead as something to decorate and admire. The pumpkins had the faces of old men and women, cute cartoon characters or mighty warriors painted onto them. They were then decorated with all kinds of household items and proudly displayed on old spare tires and pots by the side of the road. A cuter pumpkin festival I couldn't imagine if I tried.

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