Yamanote Halloween Train 2006 (Video)

Every year around Halloween, a huge group of people (most of them foreigners) gather in costume and take advantage of the lax enforcement of rules on Japanese trains by having a rowdy Halloween party on a single train of Tokyo’s Yamanote loop. This year the event started around 9PM on October 28, and as this video posted on YouTube shows, it was a wild event:

I wouldn’t be surprised if the gaijin Halloween train hasn’t shocked more than a few Japanese people into hating foreigners for the rest of their lives. There are also unconfirmed reports that police attempts to break up the party may have caused delays along the Yamanote Line.

You can read more about the event here (wikipedia nazis removed the article, but it is still available in cache).

Also, keep an eye on Drunk Nampa for possible updates about the party, since the Drunk Nampa dude was very active in organizing and spreading info about the party.

Update: Chopstick Sensei has posted an account of a racist police crackdown on the 2006 Osaka Halloween Train party.

Update for 2channel visitors (October 29 2007): My opinions on this event are in the comment section below.

20 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - October 30, 2006 at 5:04 pm

Categories: Discrimination, Foreigners in Japan Tags:

http://www.kyushu-honyaku.com Joel

I hate to sound Uncle Tom, but send those gaijin home please
http://whatjapanthinks.com Ken Y-N

Joel, me too! It was on the news this evening. I hope there was a gaijin card checkpoint too!
http://www.transpacificradio.com ken

Thanks for the video! I’ve never been able to make it, but good to finally see it.
http://neosamurai.blogspot.com kaishin

It looks like the future of Japan in a smaller scale!
wes

sounds kind of like http://www.improveverywhere.com/mission_view.php?mission_id=36
http://www.japanprobe.com James (admin)

Mobs of rowdy costumed foreigners taking over trains and holding drinking parties is the future of Japan?
creesto

Um, so everyone is up in arms about this kind of behavior??? Ever been to a European soccer match? Oktoberfest in Germany? Times Square any day of the year? Despite the apparently constant and definitely annoying HOOTING going on, it seemed pretty tame. Loud, but tame. Unless there was barfing and peeing in the corners of the train cars, sex under the straps or drunken brawling. If those things went on, then YES, they are Stupid Round Eyes. Otherwise, I just see people having some outright communal fun in public.

Probably some sort of stress display due to the unusually restrictive cultural behavior mores displayed by most “adult” Japanese in public.

Me, I’m an uptight White Guy who would have cowered quietly in the corner, smiling but not participating.
priscilla

i wonder if some of these foreigners are from new york city where this sort of thing has happened not infrequently.
FJ Torres

Great! They should try it in NYC next. The MTA cops just LOVE parties.
tim

This kind of crap gives foreigners living in Japan a bad name. Yeah, it sounds like fun but it isn’t something cool enough to go there and do it. I also have seen better Halloween parties than this. This is clearly a bunch of retards just acting stupid in front of a camera to try to get attention and is clearly done to piss people off (mainly Japanese people). It’s hard enough to deal with the freaking drunks in the trains that are always making a scene and picking on other people, but now we have to deal with these gaijin (or outsiders that don’t know how to conform to society).
http://www.japanprobe.com James (admin)

creesto,

Things like this might go on all the time at European soccer matches, the Oktoberfest or Times Square, but this is Japan, not Europe or the USA. Also, the 3 places you listed are established places of partying and celebration. The Japanese public transportation is not an acceptable place for drinking parties to be held.

You might think that such a thing is ok in other countries, but I’d like to see a group of foreigners try to hold a drinking party on the New York Subway or the Washington DC metro: I can assure you that a good portion of them would be in jail by the end of the night.
tim

yeah so true! if this was held at the NYC they would probably arrest all the people they can get with public misconduct or in an extreme case as a terrorist threat or something like that (hey it’s NYC after all!) They do it because they want to feel superior to the Japanese and because they feel they can do it and get away with it since they are gajin.
nanpa boy

i cant tell if most of you guys are really this uptight or just pissed cause you missed the party. No shit you couldnt have a party like this on a newyork train, thats why its in JAPAN. and its not just all gaijin, there was a fair number of japanese too. tim, you dont need to be ashamed of being a gaijin, its ok. cant wait untill next years party
Luis

I live in NYC, if there is something along these lines I’ll take pics tonight!
creesto

James, you wrote “The Japanese public transportation is not an acceptable place for drinking parties to be held.”

I ask, Acceptable to whom? You? Middle aged middle class families? Otaku? Or just unacceptable to those whose greatest desire is to be accepted by the Japanese on THEIR terms?

I am not a public party person. I just have always managed to find mental space for all types of people to exhibit all kinds of behavior in many places. Japanese mass transit is NOT a holy shrine.

And is drinking illegal on their trains like it is on US trains? Again, I found the people on the video really obnoxious, but to criticize them with some sort of reverse xenophobic stance seems extreme, even elitist.

JMHO. BTW, I am a big Japanophile, but it is because of the pressure cooker that restrictive societal mores creates that I find its culture interesting. The Italians and Irish, eh, not so much.
http://whatjapanthinks.com Ken Y-N

creesto: First, there are social mores (and posters in trains too) that suggest people should not make too much noise on the train. Second, drinking on the train is legal, and often seen, with salarymen downing a cheap beer on their way home.

I’ve not watched the video, but if I (boring middle aged middle class, I suppose) encountered this as I was trying to get home I’d be rather annoyed, especially if it resulted in train delays.

Finally, I wonder how many of the party-goers at any other time of the year would find a rowdy drunk salaryman, or cackling obachans, or youths sitting on the floor a fearful interruption of his or her train-wa?
WujouMao

so 90% of these gaijins are american then? i see from the posts here they are. i wouldnt want a japanese person to suspect i’m american just cos i’m white and in Japan. i get enough of that in the Philippines.

to be honest, iv never celebrated halloween. i guess its not British culture, athough kids now begin to practise it.

i think i would rather hop in a next carridge 5 doors up, or just skip it altogether
http://www.japanprobe.com James (admin)

WujouMao:

90% of gaijins in Japan are not American, but most Japanese people will automatically assume that any white person is from America.
Chris

Hi, I was just wondering if any contributors from Japan have any Japanese T.V. coverage of this event saved on a recording device they could somehow upload to youTube. I need to acquire additional sources to get this article restored from its deleted status on Wikipedia. Thank you.

~ Chris
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamanote_Halloween_Train Masked Train

The 2007 event is scheduled for Saturday, October 27, 2007. Festival-goers board the JR Yamanote Line at JR Shinjuku station, platform 13 (Yamanote bound for Ikebukuro). Japanese citizens as well as foreigners meet where car 10 stops, in front of the escalator from South exit. Everyone boards the 21:08 northbound train and loops around clockwise. Frequently everyone brings their own alcoholic beverages.

Yamanote Halloween Train 2006 (Video)

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