(no subject)
With the weekend over, my Halloween is winding down for this year. I guess that's bound to happen when it falls in the middle of the week, as it does this year.
I went to a party on Saturday night that turned out to be a bit smaller than I'd expected, but was still ok. Perhaps almost as much fun was getting to and from the party in full costume. The party had a movie theme, and I'd been asked to don the Darth Maul costume again. As there was nowhere to put on the makeup at the party location, I did it at home. I took my time while doing it, and interspersed it with other things, fiddling around on Facebook a bit and taking photos (as of yet not posted) at different stages of the preparation; stages of shaving the head, adding horns, contacts, eyebrow blocking, and makeup. I'll load them up soon and post them. Once I was in full costume, I took the dog out for a short walk so she could do her business before I was gone the rest of the night, getting a few strange looks while doing so- I wish I had some photos of that. Then it was off to the train station for an hour+ ride in to Shinjuku, where I stopped by the store where I buy most of my makeup supplies. After a few minutes there, I hopped on the subway to Roppongi, where the party was. Got quite a few looks and a couple of sniper photos taken on the train.
For Sunday, I had not yet decided it I was going to go to Kawasaki's Halloween events this year as the weather forecast was predicting rain and once again I was too late to sign up to participate in the parade, but the people I went to Saturday's party with said they had an extra entry and let me join their group, so I got up early and Darth Mauled myself again, taking the train in to Kawasaki. A few other people who were going to Kawasaki in costume were also on the train, so I wasn't the only one this time. The parade itself was fun, got to play around with all the other people in costume. Saw several groups of people in "Where's Waldo" costumes, for some reason. There were a few other Star Wars characters outside of our group, too. I saw a couple of other Darth Maul costumes that paled in comparison to mine (a black robe and a rubber mask just don't hold a candle to a full makeup job and costume). It did rain a bit, but my makeup didn't run.
At several points during the parade, they paused the marching to let traffic and pedestrians cross the parade route. The Japanese crossing guards use these little flashlight wand thingies to direct traffic that look like mini-lightsaber toys. A couple of times, I was close enough to the crossing areas that I ran over, stood in one of the gaps between the crossing guards, and held my lightsaber out the same way they do, which got a pretty good reaction from most of the people crossing.
After getting home, I took off the horns and took out the contacts, then stepped in the shower and stood under the shower head for a minute or so, then checked the mirror, and the makeup still hadn't run. This is good makeup, with the addition of powder and fixative spray. I've had problems in the past with it rubbing off at the neckline of the costume, but I bought some new powder recently (recommended at the shop in Shinjuku) that works much, much better and the neckline was still pretty good at the end of the day.
Now that the weekend's over, though... it's back to business as usual. I've got a small plastic pumpkin on my computer with candy in it to hand out to my co-workers, I've got a couple of decorations up. I haven't heard of anything going on tomorrow night, maybe I'll go buy a bit more candy, and then watch Nightmare Before Christmas when I get home. I would watch Young Frankenstein, but it somehow hasn't made it into my collection yet. I find Young Frankenstein is actually a pretty good Halloween movie; they nailed the look and atmosphere of the old Universal monster movies, it's got the odd and creepy, the spooky atmosphere, and yet it's got the fun side of Halloween as well. That, and Putting on the Ritz came on the sound system at work yesterday, so it's on my mind anyway. Or, I could go home, throw on a very quick zombie makeup, and head out somewhere, though again it's the middle of the week and there's not much going on in this area.
Notes for next year: Get signed up for the Kawasaki events earlier, take the day after off, and get a small hotel room in Kawasaki. It looked like there was still quite a bit more going on when I had to head back.
Also, I really need to put some hidden pockets in the Darth Maul costume, for my wallet at the very least.
I went to a party on Saturday night that turned out to be a bit smaller than I'd expected, but was still ok. Perhaps almost as much fun was getting to and from the party in full costume. The party had a movie theme, and I'd been asked to don the Darth Maul costume again. As there was nowhere to put on the makeup at the party location, I did it at home. I took my time while doing it, and interspersed it with other things, fiddling around on Facebook a bit and taking photos (as of yet not posted) at different stages of the preparation; stages of shaving the head, adding horns, contacts, eyebrow blocking, and makeup. I'll load them up soon and post them. Once I was in full costume, I took the dog out for a short walk so she could do her business before I was gone the rest of the night, getting a few strange looks while doing so- I wish I had some photos of that. Then it was off to the train station for an hour+ ride in to Shinjuku, where I stopped by the store where I buy most of my makeup supplies. After a few minutes there, I hopped on the subway to Roppongi, where the party was. Got quite a few looks and a couple of sniper photos taken on the train.
For Sunday, I had not yet decided it I was going to go to Kawasaki's Halloween events this year as the weather forecast was predicting rain and once again I was too late to sign up to participate in the parade, but the people I went to Saturday's party with said they had an extra entry and let me join their group, so I got up early and Darth Mauled myself again, taking the train in to Kawasaki. A few other people who were going to Kawasaki in costume were also on the train, so I wasn't the only one this time. The parade itself was fun, got to play around with all the other people in costume. Saw several groups of people in "Where's Waldo" costumes, for some reason. There were a few other Star Wars characters outside of our group, too. I saw a couple of other Darth Maul costumes that paled in comparison to mine (a black robe and a rubber mask just don't hold a candle to a full makeup job and costume). It did rain a bit, but my makeup didn't run.
At several points during the parade, they paused the marching to let traffic and pedestrians cross the parade route. The Japanese crossing guards use these little flashlight wand thingies to direct traffic that look like mini-lightsaber toys. A couple of times, I was close enough to the crossing areas that I ran over, stood in one of the gaps between the crossing guards, and held my lightsaber out the same way they do, which got a pretty good reaction from most of the people crossing.
After getting home, I took off the horns and took out the contacts, then stepped in the shower and stood under the shower head for a minute or so, then checked the mirror, and the makeup still hadn't run. This is good makeup, with the addition of powder and fixative spray. I've had problems in the past with it rubbing off at the neckline of the costume, but I bought some new powder recently (recommended at the shop in Shinjuku) that works much, much better and the neckline was still pretty good at the end of the day.
Now that the weekend's over, though... it's back to business as usual. I've got a small plastic pumpkin on my computer with candy in it to hand out to my co-workers, I've got a couple of decorations up. I haven't heard of anything going on tomorrow night, maybe I'll go buy a bit more candy, and then watch Nightmare Before Christmas when I get home. I would watch Young Frankenstein, but it somehow hasn't made it into my collection yet. I find Young Frankenstein is actually a pretty good Halloween movie; they nailed the look and atmosphere of the old Universal monster movies, it's got the odd and creepy, the spooky atmosphere, and yet it's got the fun side of Halloween as well. That, and Putting on the Ritz came on the sound system at work yesterday, so it's on my mind anyway. Or, I could go home, throw on a very quick zombie makeup, and head out somewhere, though again it's the middle of the week and there's not much going on in this area.
Notes for next year: Get signed up for the Kawasaki events earlier, take the day after off, and get a small hotel room in Kawasaki. It looked like there was still quite a bit more going on when I had to head back.
Also, I really need to put some hidden pockets in the Darth Maul costume, for my wallet at the very least.