What is it these days with kids and trick-or-treating? Why do kids think that wearing their normal street clothes and having a 3 dollar pair of horns on their head qualifies as a costume? These are the same kids that are rude when they come to the door and trick-or-treat, most times not even saying thanks...they are just out for some free candy with minimal effort. My wife and I saw this more in the older kids. Comparing last year's trick or treaters and this years we definately saw a decline in manners and creativeness.

Thankfully, not all kids were like that. I saw some really good costumes, both store bought and home made while I walked around with my daughter. I was also happy to see some of the other parents dressed up. I don't think its a requirement (of course) but its nice to see parents get into the spirit of halloween.

I was also surprised at how many signs of "no candy" or "don't knock" were up in one of the towers. I believe there were about 10 apartments that we were able to trick-or-treat at. Also a lot of unused apartments (which is odd because when I come home late at night there is no parking in the bottom level of the garage).

-brian

Brian,

I know what you mean about the costumes not being like they were last year and years before.. I have seen many Halloween's here in Yokosuka over the years. This year I decided to go to Ikego rather than the main base of Yokosuka. Last year I went to Yokosuka and there were kids EVERYWHERE! It was ridiculous! It was ridiculous because most peope ran out of candy by 6 or 7pm... This year I took a friends child around Ikego base. I thought that less children would be on this base, but the real answer was LESS CANDY.. All around the housing area, you had lights off - or signs on the door stating, "No Candy" or "Out of Candy." I even saw a sign stating "We do not Trick or treat" - Whats funny on that door, is they had a BOO sign up also.. So they dont trick or treat, but they do decorate their door with Halloween decorations.. hmmmm... Strange..







I dont think I will ever bring children to the Ikego base again, and next year will probably just go to the main base of Yokosuka. Yes there are more children, but I think its a lot more thrilling and exciting to see a lot of people in groups, and all the dressed up children..

I am interested to hear how Yokosuka was this year since I was not there...

Here are some pictures I took from Ikego:

If anyone has any pictures from Yokosuka or Negishi, please upload them to the Halloween Albums..

http://www.yokosukabase.com/pics/al...3-760.aspx

I, too, was baffled by how many kids were walking around with no costume what-so-ever...not even a single button for Halloween. Just jeans & tee-shirts... Thankfully I don't live on base or else I would be out there handing out candy and I think I would turn those kids around...If we were in the states then we can sometimes assume a parent doesn't have the funds for a costume for their children so there my heart would be in a different place, but here?!?! Funds are not a problem for any of our base personnel. Every one of them get a steady pay check. So, no excuse...

I saw a lot of good set-ups last night. There was even one family grilling hot dogs to give to the children (FOR FREE). They ran out of Hot Dogs and instead of putting a sign up...they ran to the Commissary (I mean they RAN -- no car). When they used up all the hot dog buns they started putting sticks through them. We asked and the lady's response was "We didn't want to give out candy"... I could have hugged that woman! There was one Captain's house that was setup with a coffin, ghouls everywhere, a smoke machine... I gave that guy & his wife a BZ on the spot and wish more would go that far out!

It was an excellent Halloween...I didn't enjoy it, but I went for my kids and they had a blast!

This Post Below Was Received From My Facebook Wall: http://www.facebook.com/yokosukabase

I was shocked at the amount of candy wrappers outside our houses this morning on Ikego! To be honest if this is what we get the day after then it's kind of unfair on the residents who work so hard on their yards!! I mean the kids could have at least taken it home and put it in the trash or used the trash cans provided in the play area rather than our front gardens!

What's even more shocking is...WHAT KIND OF PARENT LET'S THEIR CHILDREN EAT CANDY FROM STRANGERS WITHOUT FIRST CHECKING IT!!!!!!

Sorry...had to yell. If there were wrappers on the this lady's lawn then that means a parent, if not multiple parents are IDIOTS! I know it is a military base and we "should" feel quite safe, but there are weirdo's everywhere!! Rank doesn't matter either...just look at the Ex-CMC down in Sasebo that murdered his son, put his wife in ICU & his daughter through the ER and shortly after took his own life. This should show that weirdo's are everywhere!

I went through my kids candy's thoroughly...if it looked like a needle could be in it...it went to the file 13!

I was by Himawari Tower on Yokosuka Base around 7 p.m. last night and noticed some big groups of kids escorted by adults walking around trick-or-treating. I was in my car driving and don't live on the base, so I don't know about the "out of candy" situation. It was perfect weather - a cool, cloudy, moonlit night.

I did notice that there were Base Security personnel at the major crosswalks keeping the kids safe, so a Bravo Zulu goes out to them.

To the facebook poster:

It's no real surprise. Last year there was a complain out against the kids on the buses being rude, loud, and leaving trash around. If it wasn't bad enough dealing with my fellow sailors when I was in the Navy being drunk and seeing one puke on the walking bridge to all the noise they would make out in town....we've got kids doing similar things.

To Wilson:

Very much agree. My daughter is coming up on 4 and had picked out a hershey kiss from her small booty this year. My wife noticed the tag was coming out of the bottom which we thought was odd and perhaps just a defect but to be safe we tossed it and had her choose something else.

-brian

A big issue this year was the amount of ships gone. Its is difficult to hand out candy and take your own kids out when you are a temporary single parent. I won't leave candy out by itself because I don't trust the kids to only take 1 piece. Another issue is the amount of Japanese guests that come on. I ran out fast my first year because there would be mobs of 20 or 30 kids that would come by. I learned my lesson, and have better prepared the following years. I have no problem with the guest coming on, and even brought my own "mob" this year. I wanted to take them out, and then go to my house afterwards for a party where they could partake in handing out candy as well. The only problem was that barely anyone was there to give out candy, so we had to go out longer than normal just to get 20 pieces of candy for my students.

By the time we got back to my house (way back in the boonies where we don't get a lot of foot traffic anyways), I had the only house in my building with candy. We only got 5 trick or treaters after 6:30, which was really disappointing.

To be fair to those who ran out of candy, you shouldn't expect someone to have to spend $30.00 on candy just to meet the needs of the whole housing community, + hundreds of off base guests. I spent over $50.00 this year, and was disappointed at the lack of not only the selection of candy the Commissary had, but the prices! Usually you'll find some good sales, but it was horribly expensive this year.

As far as costumes go, I too like to see kids get dressed up nicely. However the selection is dismal both on and off base. You have to act quick if you want to get something ordered online, and many people lack the creativeness, time, and supplies to make something homemade.

I love the hotdog idea! That's great.

Adam-Did the sign say "Boo", or we've been Boo'd? There is a common thing that goes around this base where you leave a secret present on someone's door. You are then supposed to do this to someone else. You leave a note on your door that says something to the effect of "We've been boo'd" so that one of your friends or neighbors knows not to leave you another present.

For all those that dont want to buy candy this year, you might as well get your OUT OF CANDY signs made.

I know there are a lot of cheap people out there, that only like to buy 1 or 2 bags... j/k

Wow, I just read this whole thread wondering why Yokosuka celebrated Halloween on a different day.... then I read the last post and realized the dates on the others. I think I should go have my morning coffee now

We arrive a few weeks before Halloween- I hope to see some great costumes this year!

I like to give out candy but I get no trick-or-treaters really!!! I've spent a small fortune the past couple years to have it just passed out to friends later... So I'll probably go to some adult activities out in town instead.

And to mothers with babies. NO, you don't get to ring my doorbell with a baby, no costume, and a nex plastic bag looking for candy!!! We know who it's going to!!! GRRRR.

lol where do you live and Ill bring my kids by!! LOL Yeah I also agree about trick or treating with the baby!! We did not go with my first till she knew what it was and that was maybe two or three before that she like to pass out the candy!! LOL that was before she knew it was better to keep it!! LOL

I do believe I will be the mean lady on my floor this year, no costume no candy )
And I can't stand it when a kid just stands there with their bag open, they need to at least say Trick or Treat to get candy from me.
We bought about 50 dollars worth of candy last year as I was pregnant and not in the mood to go house to house so I stayed at home while hubby took the kids out, and I had fun giving out the candy but this year I'm taking the trio out trick or treating :o)

I do believe I will be the mean lady on my floor this year, no costume no candy )

With the economy the way it is, I doubt world wide, that a lot of people can afford to give out a $100-$200 worth of candy..

Especially not at CFAY, since they have a gazillion kids that come on base, with empty candy bags....

Its a great thing that we do, dont get me wrong, but a lot of people cannot afford to stay open all night long passing out candy.

Even if you do attempt it, and your at a high visibility town-house, that gets a lot of people, you will be empty in about 20 minutes, if you spent only $50..

we didnt run out last year, we live in a tower, but we stopped giving out candy at 9pm too. This time I'm going to leave the candy duty to hubby. Would love it if the base had a Halloween Carnival, where we are from does it every year and its tons of fun, i dearly miss the cake walk and the candy apples.