Posts Tagged ‘yamanote’

Yamanote Halloween Train 2009 [ハロウィン山の手線ジャック]

October is here again, which means that certain foreigners in Japan are once again planning to board trains on Tokyo’s Yamanote Line and hold a loud drunken party.

This message recently appeared on Gaijinpot forums:

Its time we got this started. Its a Saturday this time around so almost nothing to discuss, but nonetheless:

Date/Time: Sat. October 31, 2009 from 21-ish
Meetup Place: Shinjuku Station, Yamanote platform #15 (towards Ikebukuro)
Train to board: 21:06 soto-mawari (North-bound)

Gather towards the back of the train, by the stairs that come down from the South exit. Train car 9 sounds like a good one to board.

See you all there. And, of course, BYOB.

In previous years, the Yamanote Halloween party has resulted in halted trains, vandalism, and general harassment of Japanese passengers unlucky enough to find themselves in train cars targeted by the party-goers.

According to one Gaijinpot user who has attended past parties in the 1990′s, many participants see the event as a way to “get back” at Japanese people:

I went on the Yamanote line party way back when and while it was a lot of fun, it did get out of control and stopped being a fun event and started being a “pick on unsuspecting Japanese” event. I remember seeing a poor lady trying to get off at her stop unable to get past the large drunken guys who weren`t letting her through. Seeing her face, it really stopped being a “Happy Halloween” for me.

I got off at the next stop, thankfully missing the Japanese police who were waiting at Ikebukuro station for most party goers to get off.

The Halloween train seemed to die out not long after that – only to be revived some years later by people who had probably never been on any of the original trains.

I have ridden the train in costume many times (including face painting) and will be doing so this year too – on my way to other Halloween events. No problems, and a really fun atmosphere.

The Halloween train itself – no way, not any more. What spoiled it for me was the overtly stated attitude of a lot of people that it was a chance to “get back” at Japanese people.

Maybe the “new Halloween train” is different and only fun and lighthearted and not in any way threatening to those just riding the train. If so I wish you luck and hope you have a lot of fun.

As for the argument that drunk salarymen do it and worse…….do you really want to emulate that shit?

Last year’s Halloween Train was a tiny affair. Costumed participants were outnumbered by Japanese police and angry users of 2-channel who had come out to prevent the party from occurring. 2-channelers have already taken notice of the Gainpot announcement, so it is likely police have been warned and will be ready to prevent things from becoming wild.

Death threats have also been posted:

17 ：名無しさん：2009/10/11(日) 17:54:14 ID:6RV62LbS
Gaijin haloweeners:
Now we ceclare we form assassination squad..to kill unscruplous costumed gaijins
who disdainfully ride on our crowded trains and do some absurdity

If you’d like to warn the police in Tokyo about the party or the death threats, please use one of the following numbers:

General Police Contact Number 警視庁　03-3581-4321（代）

Shinjuku Police Station 新宿警察署　03-3346-0110

Shibuya Police Station 渋谷警察署　03-3498-0110（代表）

Shinjuku Station Railway Police 新宿駅お客様相談室(鉄道警察) 03-3356-7505

A disclaimer for readers from 2-channel: 尚、ジャパン・プローブがこの企画の主催者及び後援者とは一切関係がない上、この企画に賛同するような発言も述べていない。この企画の存在をそのまま記載したにすぎないので、ご了承ください

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Crazy guy blocks train at Shinagawa station

A Japanese man blocks a Yamanote Line train at Shinagawa station, screaming and throwing rocks until JR workers take him down (the video clip is from a year ago, but its still making its way through the Japanese blogosphere):

[via Zaeega]

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Yamanote Halloween Train 2008?

With Halloween approaching, some of you are no doubt wondering about the Yamanote Halloween Train, an annual drinking party held on trains looping around downtown Tokyo. Last year’s explosion of 2-channel anger over the sight of drunk and rowdy foreigners in costume causing mayhem seems to have had an effect, since regular sources of information about the party no longer contain public postings about its time and date.

One Japanese blog has speculated that it will follow last year’s pattern, taking place on the Saturday night of the weekend before Halloween. If that is the case, costumed foreigners and their Japanese friends will meet at platform 13 inside Shinjuku station between 8 and 9 PM on October 25th (this Saturday). That seems like a reasonable prediction, since all the salarymen taking trains home on a Friday night would make it difficult to hold the party on the 31st.

Anyone out there got additional information?

Updates: Judging from a sudden increase in attempted submissions of hateful comments in Japanese and broken English, I can only assume that some Japanese blogs and possibly 2-channel have discovered this post. Not being able to read English or follow the links in this post, they seem to be assuming that Japan Probe is a participant/organizer of the Halloween party. Time to paste in the disclaimers from last year:

尚、ジャパン・プローブがこの企画の主催者及び後援者とは一切関係がない上、この企画に賛同するような発言も述べていない。この企画の存在をそのまま記載したにすぎないので、ご了承ください

And if you have information on when the party will happen and want to notify police about it, contact:

警視庁　03-3581-4321（代）

新宿警察署　03-3346-0110

渋谷警察署　03-3498-0110（代表）

新宿駅お客様相談室(鉄道警察) 03-3356-7505

More Updates:

Somebody claiming to be the official organizer of the party has posted information on it.

This Saturday
Oct. 25
9pm train
Shinjuku station
Yamanote line
Show up a few minutes early to make sure you get on the right train.
If you get confused at the station, just look for the hundreds of people in costume and follow the herd.

The Halloween ride on the Yamanote line is possibly the most enjoyable part of the Halloween experience in Japan, and anyone looking to have some fun THIS Saturday, Oct. 25, join us at Shinjuku station for a ride on the 9pm train.

This is an event for both foreigners and Japanese people who are looking to have some Halloween fun. To add a little holiday spirit, most people wear some sort of a costume. This is a tradition that has been going on for years!

After the train ride, we will be attending a party at a club in Ikebukuro. Yes, there will be various parties at many different clubs in the Tokyo area this Saturday. You are free to join any of them you prefer. The Yamanote line is a circle, and we will be riding it from Shinjuku to Ikebukuro (the long way). If you would like to get off at any stop along the way, it is your choice.

We do not yet have the details for the party in Ikebukuro, this will likely be something that we hand out flyers for on the train.

I hope this clears up any of the confusion. See you on Saturday!

Video: 8-Bit Yamanote Line

YouTuber VodkaYNVGw has uploaded this very cool NES-style video of Tokyo’s Yamanote Line (cool 8-bit musical representations of each station’s melody are included):

If you liked this video, you might also like VodkaYNVGw’s “Yamanote Line Outer Tracks” video.

Yamanote Light Vandalism Video

[edit: thought the light vandalism was reported this year, word is this video is actually from last year's revelries.]
Just thought I would put this up while the controversy is still fresh. This is a video that includes footage of when the lights were taken out on the Halloween train invasion.

BTW, my take on the whole thing: Have fun, while not being an ass. In fact, that is just common sense really.

Video Report by Yamanote Halloween Train Supporter

David “Samurai Dave” Weber, who has participated in the Yamanote Halloween Train since 2005, has posted this video report to Japunit:

The video seems to be made up of clips from the 2006 party:

I have more commentary from myself and from participants including one who confirms the existence of the Halloween Train event going back to 1990. It also contains a brief message to a pair of Tokyo-living Wikipedia users who last year did everything they could to get an article on the event deleted because they never heard of it.Also for some of the critics who decry the event as just crazy gaijin taking over the train, you’ll note that nearly half the people in this video are Japanese.

At around the 6-minute mark of the video, we are shown how Japanese passengers reacted to the party. I believe the word “terrified” was used.