Halloween has exploded here

The past couple Halloweens I wasn't much in the mood for doing anything on the eve, so I've been a little out of touch with how big it's gotten in Tokyo.  I started to get an inkling last week Saturday (Oct 25) when I strolled through Ikebukuro Sunshine Street（池袋サンシャイン通り）and found red carpets lined in the middle of the road.  At first I thought it was for a promotional event of some sort--for a movie, an anime, or something--but it seemed that cosplay people were generally welcome to pose while observers and passersby took pictures.

 It was almost a week before Halloween, and here we were already, Ikebukuro packed  with costume delight.  I started to wonder if this area would replace Shibuya as the location of choice for Halloweeners.  Boy, was I wrong.  Below are pictures from last night's festivities in Shibuya Sentā-gai 渋谷センター街.  It was insane.  Like a hanabi festival （花火、 or はなびたいかい), like Meiji-jingu on New Year's Eve, you could hardly move in some areas.  It was pretty great though.  People were coming out of their shells for this night of disguising and pretending.  I only walked around for an hour or two, but it seemed like a playful, sensible friendliness; strangers were talking to one another, but I didn't see anything get out of hand.  Hopefully, this festive thing can keep on going peacefully and safely; this city can benefit from such great communal events.

This is one minute out of a very nice walk~

           

And these are videos posted by other people: