It started as you might expect...a few families or groups then a quiet period...then a few more families. Each child got a lollipop and a bat ring. Here the children usually say 'Happy Halloween' or they might manage 'Trick or Treat', then they hold out their hand. You do not put the candy directly into their bag, you hand it to them. Then they say thank you.
The bat rings were a huge hit. The kids did not know what they were at first but once they figured them out, they were so thrilled. Even the parents thought they were very cool. There is nothing like them here in Japan so they had a much bigger impact than I thought they would. Parents even wanted me to give them to the babies in strollers, despite the potential choking hazard. But, by far, the most excited recipients were the teenage girls. They screamed and squealed then made sure everyone in their group had a bat ring.
Very quickly, the waves of groups turned into mobs...wall to wall people from our driveway to the far side of the street, coming from both directions. A fist full of lollipops and 3-4 bats rings on every finger and I could not keep up with the crowds. My daughter had a full time job just keeping the candy cauldron full. My neighbor and I were handing out the lollipops non-stop. If we had time, we would also give out the rings but they were slightly tangled so took more time to distribute. Sometimes we only had time to give out the lollipops.
Parents wanted to take pictures...of the display, with Margaret, and with my daughter holding their children. People asked if they could come behind the table to look at the apothecary close up.
One gaijin Dad asked if the theme was Harry Potter. When I told him that it was based on MacBeth, he said that seemed a little 'high brow'. I told him we chose it because Shakespeare had used some really cool names for the ingredients.
One phenomenon that did not surprise me was the kids being scared of us gaijin. Even crouched down, arm out-stretched proffering a lollipop many little kids just backed away from me until they collided with their parent's legs and were pushed back toward me. One little guy, too young to even speak, had eyes as big as saucers as he crept toward me as if approaching a venomous snake. He snatched the lollipop then quickly back up, never taking his eyes off me, until he crashed into his parents. They told him to say 'thank you' and, instead, he gave me a lovely bow. But he never smiled.
To my surprise, the lollipops were more popular than chocolates. We ran out of the 900 lollipops and had to reload the cauldron with other candy. We had Hersheys chocolates, Mike and Ike candies and a motley assortment of other things. We never did run out of candy, but we sure did hand out a lot. Most kids just got one thing. A few grabbed a handful from the cauldron which we quickly put a stop to. And some families doubled back and came to our house twice. It was a dead give away if the little hand begging for candy already had a bat ring on it!
By 8:30 the streets were empty. The last few groups got extra candy and rings.
But the story doesn't end there. Earlier in the evening two girls dressed as preschoolers brought tables around to our side of the office building across the street. The set up the tables and handed out a few candies until they ran out. Then they and 6 of their friends dressed as Pingu, cow (or dog maybe) and several other costumes came and trick or treated at our place. Then they came again. When they came back a third time, I finally called them on it.
Once we were all done with the trick or treaters, the pack (swarm?) of girls from the office came back out and posed in front of our spider webs for a group photo. This involves them holding the pose while one pajamaed person took a photo with each person's camera and cell phone. Once they were done, I invited them to pose in front of the apothecary. Pajama girl had to repeat the process with all the phones and cameras. It was really funny.