Halloween 2020
This year I carved my Halloween Jack-o-Lantern before work on the morning of Friday, October 30th, because that's when I had time to do it. In Japan, supermarkets sell only small, green gourds called “kabocha,” which is also the word North Americans use for “pumpkin.” But it's not the same. To get a large, orange, American carving pumpkin I always have to go to a flower store. This small one cost me 2,400-yen, or about $30 CND. This year, for the first time I tried growing my own pumpkins in a vacant piece of land outside my apartment building by saving seeds from last year’s Jack-o-Lantern. I failed. Maybe the site I chose did not get enough sunlight, or enough water. Or, maybe there was insufficient space. Or, maybe the soil wasn’t right. I saved many seeds from this year’s pumpkin and I will try again next June.