No Halloween for “stupid foreigners”
For some years now expats and travellers in Tokyo have been piling into metro carriages on October 31 to celebrate Halloween. This year however, the masked partygoers were stopped in their tracks by groups of exasperated locals.
As has become the tradition, the event was advertised on an online forum, GaijinPot (gaijin means foreigner in Japanese). The open invitation asked participants to board the 21:06 train on the Yamanote line at Shinjuku station. The instructions are simple: "Wear a costume, sing, share booze, talk to strangers, dance and take photos".
When they arrived on Saturday night however, a group of nationalist activists were waiting to greet the "gaijin". Their message was clear. One board reads "Get out stupid foreigners". Others were even less polite and even more politically incorrect (see photos below). Their efforts seem to have worked. According to Japan Probe, no more than 15 dressed-up foreigners got on the train.
Warnings from the party-poopers
Posted on Flickr by "Crashacat".
Posted on Flickr by Peter Bellars .
Police officers monitored the protestors.“Commuters suddenly found themselves deluged with a motley horde of vampires, power rangers, masked wrestlers…”
Samurai Dave is an American expat currently teaching English in Tokyo. He recounted his first "Yamanote Halloween Party" in 2006 on his blog.
The legend of the Yamanote Halloween Train goes that sometime in the 90s a group of gaijins and Japanese literally took over a Yamanote Train - at least a car or two - and partied on it as it looped around Tokyo. The tradition continued through the years as it spread by word of mouth to become an urban legend. Some people thought it only a myth or just a one-time occurrence. (...)
Commuters suddenly found themselves deluged with a motley horde of vampires, power rangers, masked wrestlers, pirates, playboy bunnies, ninjas, one bloody grim reaper and Darth Vader. Many of the commuters must have thought we were a large group heading to a Halloween party. What they soon came to realise was that we were the party."
Comments
"a group of nationalist
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Sat, 07/11/2009 - 23:16."a group of nationalist activists were waiting to greet the "gaijin". Their message was clear. One board reads "Get out stupid foreigners". I though Obama fixed Americas relationship with the world lol he has certainly kissed enough hole to have, btw ole Dr Chicago is a nationalist activist
nationalist activists, Hitler was a nationalist activist aswell,he was a good one too,he formed the National Socialistic democratic associated party,now that i think about it,it sounds like something Obama would like,both were big on national health care and the "redistribution of wealth,even if it doesnt belong to him and the general destruction of freedom and throwing ppl in jail for not obeying.
Stay with the issues you
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Tue, 01/12/2009 - 16:00.Stay with the issues you ignorant retard.
You know nothing of value to yourself or human kind.
Maybe you should go back to school and finish 8th grade at least.
Alot of Racism in asia
Submitted by Mr.James (not verified) on Thu, 05/11/2009 - 04:06.I run into alot of really xenophobic racist asians. These forums sum it up pretty much. www.asiafinest.com\forum
I find Halloween annoying
Submitted by Unregistered user (not verified) on Mon, 30/11/2009 - 19:22.I find Halloween annoying and childish. But then again I am in the US, so I basically hide when they have their parties or roam around begging for stuff with their children in tow. So I do understand why the Japanese would not want this behavior in their own country. I guess to non Americans, it seems like a vacous tradition.