Yamanote Halloween Party 2009
Since the early 90s there has been something of an unofficial tradition for (predominantly) foreign revellers to gather on a pre-arranged Yamanote Line train and hold a Halloween party involving much drunken singing and dancing.
The merry-making, however, has gained a certain amount of notoriety for the disruption to the service and general behaviour of those involved.
The planning for this year’s party is already underway…This message recently appeared on the Gaijinpot forum:
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.
Thing is, as one Gaijinpot user notes, for some people the party has become a way of ‘getting back’ at Japanese commuters:
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.
A rival group of Japanese at 2channel also appear to have taken a somewhat militant stance against the party:
Gaijin haloweeners:
Now we ceclare we form assassination squad..to kill unscrupulous costumed gaijins
who disdainfully ride on our crowded trains and do some absurdity
Support for the party from other foreigners living in Japan is certainly not universal, as can be seen from the number of concern and/or non-supportive comments on the Gaijinpot and Samurai Dave blog. Many of the posters seem concerned about the negative image of foreigners that the Yamanote party gives to Japanese.
Here a drunken party goer decides to run half-naked down the platform. Harmless fun or drunken stupidity carried out by people who are guests in a foreign country?:
A few more comments and opinions can be read at Japansoc.
18/10/2009 09:45 
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