What do you get when you combine ghosts, pirates, vampires, samurai's, street fighter characters, Jack Skellington, Bat woman, cross-dressing maids and Care Bears blended together for a few hours of all-you-can-drink at an izakaya topped with karaoke? The best Halloween ever! This year, I spent an awesome 4-day weekend with good friends under the neon lights of the Susukino district in Sapporo.

The Saturday night Halloween started out at an izakaya with a good mix of foreigners and Japanese, some experiencing their first Halloween celebrations ever. Of the 35 people there, I only knew five or six costumed faces and the rest being friends of friends with someone there, making it the perfect chance to mix, match, and meet new people. With the drinks and food flowing freely, our three-hour izakaya swiftly ended before it was time to head to the nijikai at a local bar. The night air was chilly on the way but I was comfortably padded from the cold in my Care Bear costume/pajamas, making a perfect heater for those who didn't dress in one-piece costumes (namely.. everyone). After making an obligatory showing and staying long enough to socialize, a few of us made our escape and headed for the nearest purikura booth for mandatory Halloween photos and costume-themed crane games. I didn't have any luck getting a Care Bear keychain :( We finished off the night with an hour of karaoke at a Halloween-themed karaoke bar (year-round, not just because it was Halloween) named "Thriller" and sang the spookiest songs we could think of.. like "Time Warp", "Monster Mash", and the song no Japanese Halloween karaoke is complete without... "Thriller"! There aren't that many Halloween songs, are there? It was past 3:00am when we finished, our costumes were coming half-off, and we were all tired so we said our goodbyes, went home to crash, and slept late into the afternoon.

The rest of the weekend was spent with Eliza and Saul playing in playgrounds that would never have passed safety inspections back home, going to my first maid cafe (which was surprisingly a letdown and just full of cigarette smoke and overpriced drinks) and cat cafe (which is a place you pay to go pet cats... weird, no?), the Shiroi Koibito Park (which was not unlike Willy Wonka's Chocolate factory with it's quirky miniature houses, bubble fountains, and random displays and statues), and a few hours at Leisure Sport where you pay for all-you-can-have-fun (!) playing arcade games, riding mechanical bulls, doing American Gladiators-type courses, shooting hoops, and jamming on a drum kit in the music studio. What made the weekend so great was just being able to spend time with awesome friends and hanging out in the big city for a change. It'll be a tough Halloween to top next year!