I See! Halloween

Because I am unable to think flexibly, I get hung up on trivial things.

When I see festivals from other regions being held, I feel a sense of discomfort.
Part of me thinks it's fine since people are enjoying themselves, but another part of me wonders why they are holding an unrelated festival in an unrelated place.
I don't intend to oppose it, nor do I want them to stop, but I just can't shake that feeling of discomfort.
To express it in a word from Tohoku that is hard to translate, it feels 'izui' (uncomfortable/awkward).
I guess I'm just a small-minded person.

So, about Halloween.
Are you Westerners?!
Go do a Bon Odori dance instead!
I used to want to make snide remarks like that.
I would look on with a cold feeling, wondering what on earth they were doing, just imitating the surface in Japan, a place with no connection, history, or background to it at all.
（After all, I'm small-minded...）

However, one day

While traveling in Iwate with my family, we visited a small memorial museum.
On a monitor there was old footage of Iwate. It showed what cherry blossom viewing was like a long time ago, in the Showa era.

！！！！！ー！
That was it! A scene came back to my memory.

On the monitor, people were enjoying cherry blossom viewing while wearing costumes.
They were wearing masks, wigs, or cross-dressing; the quality was low, but they were definitely in costume.
That's right, my grandparents' generation used to enjoy doing things like this whenever there was an event! It was faint, but it remained in my memory.

And then, I realized.
Japanese people love cosplay.
When you think about it, festivals all over Japan are full of cosplay.
At the festival in my hometown, my father wore a kamishimo, and I feel like there were also the Seven Lucky Gods and Tengu in the parade.

Aren't the Fujiwara Festival in Hiraizumi, where tourists flock in droves, and the Jidai Matsuri in Kyoto just large-scale cosplay parades?
I see, it's not strange to celebrate Halloween in Reiwa-era Japan.
I reconsidered and thought that perhaps it might be an event that suits Japanese people even better than Christmas or Valentine's Day.

Whether I would do cosplay if I were young now, without prejudice and without being cynical, is another story.
I probably wouldn't.
I have lived my whole life with a dark and deep-seated complex about my appearance, so I'm not good at fashion, let alone cosplay (I just casually made a dark confession... well, whatever).

But, what if I had a look like Kanna Hashimoto?
I'd do it!
Whether it's a pumpkin or whatever, I'd wear it!
Gothic Lolita is also on the table (strictly assuming I'm Kanna Hashimoto).
If I were Nanao, I'd strut through the streets as a sharp-looking bunny girl. I'd even show off a Y-balance for no reason.

Through this impossible delusion, it was revealed that if my mentality were just a little different, I might have become a fan of cosplay too.

From this day on, my prejudice against Halloween completely disappeared.

Everyone, please enjoy Halloween without bothering others.

Wait, isn't a Jack-o'-lantern a costume piece...