Greetings from the far east!

**Haunting Japan** · 03-08-2010,03:39 PM

Hi, folks! I've been checking out the prop threads here for a few days and finally decided to take the plunge. This place is incredible!

I'm a transplanted New Englander heading into my twentieth year living in Japan. Like a lot of North American expats, I've been thrust into the role of "Johnny Pumpkinseed" over the years, trying to share with the locals the Halloweeny spookiness. Back in the 1990's, everyone was like, "Halloween? What's that?" Twenty years later, it's more like, "Halloween--I've heard of that! What is it again, though?" I don't know why Japanese companies have been so slow to capitalize on Halloween, but it seems to be getting better little by little. Luckily, the expats in my city started doing a big Halloween event a couple of years ago, and the city next to us has been doing it for over a decade--making their downtown event with thousands of trick-or-treaters the largest Halloween event in the country.

At any rate, since I translate a few horror novels a year for a famous Japanese author, I pretty much have spooky stuff on the brain every single day. So this definitely looks like the place for me!