The Amu Plaza department store had their "Halloween Carnival" on Saturday and Sunday. The Saturday entertainment started at 4 PM and ran until 10 PM. I had classes at 1-2 PM and 6-9 PM, and there was another typhoon coming up to Kyushu that weekend, so there was some rain and heavy winds all day. During my break, I walked the mile from the school to Amu Plaza, arriving before things had officially gotten started yet.
At 2:30 PM, the event area was roped off, and a few people were standing behind the barriers and watching the dancers on stage. There were about 20 people right in front of the stand, and three women dancing. I assume this was either a rehearsal, or a special event for contest winners or something. The schedule board showed that the first couple stage events were going to be put on by the local dance schools, then there'd be a couple DJ's doing dance mixes, and some promo announcements to sell foods from the event booths. I'm guessing that the women here are from one of the dance schools.
I had to go back to the apartment for the rest of my break, so I missed the idol dancing, which I was happy to do because it's usually not very good, consisting mainly of posing and hand voguing, then I returned to the school for the 6 PM class. At that point the wind had gotten really strong and I expected the weekend events to be cancelled again. In part because of the weather, my 8 PM class got cancelled, so I took the streetcar back to Amu Plaza, arriving in time for one of the DJ sets. There were about 30 people in the audience, but only 2-3 willing to get up by the stage to dance or talk. The most extroverted ones were related to Mu FM radio, one of the event sponsors. I was still wearing my white work shirt, and didn't have any kind of costume, so I felt really out of place in with everyone else. I hung around long enough to tell that there wasn't anyone there that I recognized, took a few photos, then went back home. The music was ok, but it was all copyrighted stuff that youtube would block if I recorded it for uploading for the blog.
There was one American that I talked to for a couple minutes, in a Rambo get-up. His girlfriend took more of a "day of the dead" approach that was really impressive.
Sunday was reserved as kid's day. No music, no dancing. Mainly just the MCs (Party, and one of the Mu FM show hosts) talking and trying to amuse the children. There were a couple scheduled times for handing out candy and snacks, and that was about it.
Japanese manzai comedy teams are duos pairing up a straight man with a doofus, where the doofus engages in slapstick shtick. The doofus half of Party is the one on the left, wearing his signature yellow body suit. The straight man is an elf, and the Mu FM show host is attempting to channel Donald Duck.
Overall, this year's Amu Plaza Halloween event was a disappointment compared to the one 2 years ago, and not all of it was because of the impact of the typhoon. Maybe next year.
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