I mentioned this foreigner Halloween party on the Yamanote subway line in Tokyo yesterday on the ROK Drop Weekly Linkets. The party happened yesterday despite an anti-foreigner backlash that included threats of violence:
As mentioned earlier this week on Japan Probe, the Yamanote Halloween Train party was planned to be held last night in Tokyo. However, sometime yesterday morning, the Japanese megaforum 2ch.net discovered that post about the event and translated the information about it into Japanese, igniting a raging storm of anti-foreign hatred and sending over 10,000 visitors to this site.
Numerous threads over at 2channel and some Japanese blogs began to fill up with anonymous comments calling for outraged Japanese to contact the police and demand that they round up and arrest all the foreigners that joined in on the party [words like “rioters” and “terrorists” were used to refer to the foreigners]. Others boldly proclaimed that they would show up at Shinjuku station with knives and stab foreigners to death, and one even posted a comment on Japan Probe claiming that he would “blast” trains on the Yamanote Line. [Japan Probe]
The Japan Probe link includes pictures and YouTube video of the party including some idiot that is naked on the subway. I understand this is all in good fun, but does it have to be done in the public subway? I’m sure there are people in the subway that do not want anything to do with this party and were probably greatly offended by getting unexpectedly wrapped up in it, especially when people started taking their clothes off. Then some people broke the lights in the train causing the train to have to stop. Considering behavior like this is it any wonder the lights were broken?:
Fortunately it appears nothing turned violent, but I really hope no one ever gets the bright idea to try this in Seoul because if the Korean netizens ever found out about it I think things would turn violent with a bunch of "concerned citizens" showing up to crash the party. If you want to know what happens to you when Korean "concerned citizens" show up to crash your party look no further than here.
You can read more blog reactions to this party here and here.
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10:41 pm on October 31st, 2007 1
I saw that posting and was almost tempted to go.
I’m very glad I didn’t go after all!
9:44 am on November 1st, 2007 2
The event sounds good on paper but of course with something like this that involves alcohol the usual idiots will act stupid which is what happened with this event.
An event like this should be held in a club or a reserved banquet hall at a hotel something similar not in a subway car with other commuters.
10:39 am on November 1st, 2007 3
This train has been going on since at least 1992, when I was a student in Tokyo. Although it’s always been a bit wacky and caused a bit of anxiety among the locals (who usually just wait for the next train rather than climb aboard), it’s usually good clean fun, and half the people are Japanese anyway. In the days before cell phones, you’d just wait on the platform at the end until it came around (every hour or so).
It sounds like someone got out of hand with the lights, which broke Cardinal Rule #1 in Japan: Thou Shalt Not Delay Any Train for Even One Second.
6:53 pm on November 11th, 2007 4
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