Its a gaijin thing.
The Japanese do not have a tradition of Halloween per se. It is, like so many things here, just a marketing gimmick for the department stores. After all in a country that is at best only 10% Christian, how can there be an All Saints Day-which would require a hallows eve?
However for loads of foreigners here-Halloween is a cause to go out and celebrate. An excuse to get drunk -as if one needs a reason for that.
There is here in Tokyo, a tradition of sorts that once again for the 7th year in a row I will miss. (This weekend is the S.O.’s birthday…….even if it were not, I’m not so sure I would make it up to where the action is..).
That tradition is dressing up in costume, getting more than slightly liquored up, and then riding the Yamanote line around its whole circuit of Tokyo. According to the S.O. it did not used to be that way but during the 1990’s it became a tradition of sorts- and now its a rite of passage for young and not so young Gaijin and Nihonjin who are unattached or oblivious to it, to do on Halloween. Following which, one returns to Roppongi to get laid have some more fun.
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.
For those who have never been here-the Yamanote Line completely circles Tokyo.
Roppongi is not on the line!
D-oa ga shimaimasu! Go chui kudasi!
It normally does not happen on Halloween anymore. Mainly because all the bars in Roppongi have sought to maximize their weekend revenue by having their Halloween parties on the Saturday before Halloween. When I first came here and was S.O.-less they did it on the day-the way you are supposed to. That said-that year I did not make it to Roppongi-I was in Guam getting hammered in Tumon Bay. Trying to play “Trick or Treat” in a strip bar there just does not cut it. All the rest of the years I was either on travel, or trapped by the S.O.
And many of the traveling public are less than amused:
To some the Yamanote Halloween Train is a fantastic good time. Others view it as a shamefully rude display of public intoxication and a major annoyance to the Japanese passengers who unexpectedly encounter it.
Nonetheless whole hordes of Gaijin and their followers ride the train around the whole circuit. Courtesy of Japan Probe you can see some of the carnage here:
And here!
Ought to be more than few folks out this year. Some English teachers have a good reason to get drunk right about now! Many will be on the “last train in, first train out” program for the night.
Sure wish I could be there! Sigh……………..
I’m told the first train out of Roppongi leaves at 5:08 am. Not that I would know from personal experience, but I’ve been told that is when it leaves. 🙂