Candy Corn in Japan

Its almost Halloween, so i decided to have Russell bring a Halloween treat from the U.S. for my students - Candy Corn!

It had come up in discussion at school that there is no candy corn in Japan. We verified this by showing pictures to a selection of Japanese co-workers. Sure enough, it was an unknown entity. Most of the Halloween candy that you can get in the U.S. is available in Japan. The only other candy I hadn't been able to find (even at import stores) was Reeses Peanut Butter Cups. It just seemed wrong to celebrate Halloween without Candy Corn, so I called Russell (who was luckily in the U.S. at the time).

Yesterday he arrived home safe and sound and bearing sugar. Large quantities of sugar. And toothpaste. (Seriously - we can't get Tom's of Maine here, but the combination of gift was exceptional).

Today I had all of the teachers announce that if the students came to the English office and said Trick or Treat, they could have some honest-to-goodness American Halloween candy. As soon as class was over, the trick or treating began. I had a bag of candy corn and a bag of those candy corn-ish pumpkins.

The reaction? Most students took a nibble, gave me a betrayed look and couldn't finish. A few bravely swallowed the whole candy corn with a disgusted look on their face. A few people thought they were good, and a couple people were turned back by the smell alone. I even had one student happily bite in only to have his face contort and say, "Ah! It burns!"

Apparently there is a reason candy corn never took off in Japan. I do find it interesting that this was an even worse reaction than when Michelle passed around Durian candy from Singapore - and those had the potent bouquet of banana and gasoline.

Oh well.