Pumpkin story
To get a Halloween pumpkin in Tokyo - an orange, American carving pumpkin - I have to go to a flower store, not a supermarket. American military personnel can easily get Halloween, or Christmas, or Easter things at their military commissaries, and I'm confident that the two Costco stores in metropolitan Tokyo have Halloween stuff, too. But what do I have to do with Costco? Nothing.
I saw this pumpkin here on Wednesday, September 25th at a flower shop near the south exit of JR Nakano Station. It costs about $18 and is the size of a medium party balloon. Prices have got so cheap in recent years. I remember twenty years ago a full-size (Canadian dimensions) pumpkin cost $300 - and I paid it, too!
I still buy a pumpkin and carve a Jack-o-lantern just for fun, for old time's sake, for my own nostalgic pleasure. But not yet.