The story begins a few weeks ago...
Okay, to be honest, I can't remember how the story starts. I forget now how it began exactly, but, basically, one day, a few weeks ago, I read somewhere about this crazy event that happens every year, organized solely by word-of-mouth, and attended mostly by Tokyo's gaijin population. The article (or whatever it was that I read) said that every year on the Saturday before Halloween, gaijin from all over the city gather (in costume!) at a specific train station on the Yamanote line - a circle line train that literally circles the city. So I did a Google search and found this:
Saturday, October 28
JR Shinjuku station, platform 13 (Yamanote bound for Ikebukuro)
Meet where car 10 stops, in front of the escalator from South exit
Everyone boards the 21:07 northbound train and loops around clockwise
BYOB, or better yet, whisky
Several things about this caught my attention and/or occured to me:
First, this just sounds crazy!
Second, this sounds like sooooo much fun!!
Third, Tokyo/Japanese trains are unlike trains in most other countries. They're neat, clean, quiet places, where, even when the train is literally, no exaggeration, bursting at the seams, people don't really talk or do anything loud or strange other than sit quietly or sleep (I'm talking totally zonked out, so that's kind of strange, but still quiet) until they arrive at their station and de-train. Now, imagine boarding the train in a pirate costume, complete with hook and beard.
Fourth, at any given time, the most gaijin you'd probably see in any one train car, costumed or otherwise, is maybe 5-10, even from stations in the most gaijin of gaijin areas in Tokyo. So, basically, even one gaijin (wearing regular clothes) stands out in a train car. Now imagine tens of gaijin not only together in one car, but wearing costumes!! I couldn't imagine how many people would be showing up for this, but I figured there'd at least be a good group going if we were all agreeing to meet up at a particular car.
So, I did my part and started to spread the word to pretty much everyone I met. I've managed to find a couple of friends since I've been here, so I told everyone I know (about 5 people) and told them to tell their friends, so on and so on. Ultimately three of my friends and one of the girl's friends and one of his friends (on holiday from England!) ended up coming with me - a very "word-of-mouth" group! We all did our best to wrangle up costumes at the last minute and agreed to meet for the 9:07pm train.
Saturday the 28th finally arrived. My friend Yuko and I met up with my friend Kazumi and her friend Mac and his friend Tim for dinner before the fateful voyage and made our way to Platform 13, Car 10 from there. We didn't see anyone else in costume in the station "lobby" - a huge, completely chaotic place - and, regardless, we were pretty much all in regular clothes at that point - though Mac had worn his "Batman" shirt all day in honor of the holiday. As we climbed to the top of the stairs for Platform 13, there was no noticeable commotion or party-noise coming from above . I worried: Would we be the only ones who'd shown up?!?!
Hardly!! When we reached the top of the stairs, there were lots of small, quiet groups of costumed gaijin all over the platform. It was about 8:55 at this point, so still more than 10 minutes until the train we were waiting for would depart. We put our masks/headbands on and set out to search for my friend Joanne. As we moved farther and farther down the platform, closer to the end, the more costumes we saw. Finally, the motherlode: Car 10! There were people dressed in costume everywhere!!
We found my friend Joanne and prepared our cameras. The energy was definitely rising, but people were still being fairly quiet. Next train: 9:02. The suspense! I asked one bewildered looking gaijin, "What are you supposed to be?" He said, "I don't know. I just left my office." "So, you're an Office Worker then," I suggested. Just a couple more minutes. I snapped pics while we were waiting and just generally gawked at people.
Finally, 9:07!!! The train we had all been waiting for pulled up. As soon as the doors opened and passengers started to exit the train, costumed (and probably slightly tipsy) gaijin stormed the train, "Woo-ing" and cheering as frightened and unsuspecting commuters attempted to disembark - hopefully with their sanity in tact. The energy and the fun didn't stop the whole way around. In fact, as you may have noticed in one of the videos, at one point as the train got closer to finishing its circle, people started calling out and repeating back the names of station. As in: "When I say 'Hara,' you say, 'Juku!' 'Hara!' 'Juku!'" In between stops, we would run from car to car, door to door, mixing the party up and seeing all the costumes - there was even someone with an eggplant costume!! We even had a visit from the train cops - twice. Once, they were verifying that a camera crew was permitted to film (they weren't, I think, because they didn't last much longer after that). The second time, the cops were actually persuaded to pose for pictures with two of the revelers!
When the circle ended, we disembarked with all the other costumed people. The platform was buzzing for maybe a minute, but by the 2-minute mark, it was completely back to normal! It was surreal. Like nothing had happened! We were the only costumes left! We had waited around to see if the party continued somewhere, but everyone just kind of faded into the chaotic mass that is Shinjuku station.
We decided to head to Kabukicho, the bar/late night area around the station. But, when a couple of us tried to exit the turnstiles, we were blocked - our tickets didn't work. Uh-oh... what if we got in trouble for participating in the party?! So, still masked (I know, dumb), we proceeded to the ticket attendant, showed him our tickets (he'd seen us get blocked), he took a quick look, and then gave us our money back!!
Yes, you read that right: Not only had we just had an hour and ten minutes of some of the most unique fun to be had in Tokyo, but it had been FREE! FREE!!
So, there's my story and I'm stickin' to it. I hope you've enjoyed this little taste of Halloween Tokyo Gaijin Style (way better than Halloween Paris Etranger Style, by the way). I'm sure there are things I'm leaving out, but if I gave you every last detail of what I do here and all the fun there is to be had in Tokyo-land, what motivation would you ever have to come visit me ?
See ya... on the other side! (Remember my planned catch phrase? Well, I've decided to start actually using it.)
p.s. Here's the link for the pics again, if you want to check them out.
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