Halloween revelry around Tokyo’s iconic Shibuya crossing has grown too scary for its own good, but can “saying ‘Don’t come here’” keep a lid on it?
I found Waldo.
Not like he’s hiding like normal. Probably a Waldo lookalike that was meant to throw us off the real one. Delay your shot unit 4.
I’m just saying, you can tell people “this isn’t an event venue” all you want, but if enough people show up deciding it is, there’s not much you can do to stop then without resorting to violence.
Japan has the ability to slow down crowds. The streets are narrow and easy to block. Tokyo has a large police force. Plus recently the crowds have dispersed to other hip areas to have impromptu street parties which may be a good solution for crowd control in the future.
The large police presence cracking down on people who are drinking and smoking in public could certainly deter some people.
Yea, that’s what they talked about in the article
That makes sense, considering we’re not even a year out from the Seoul stampede. Personally, I don’t get the appeal of massive, crowded events anyhow. Particularly these days, it just seems like a bad time.
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Yeah I know for some people it’s not their thing but there were few holidays in Japan that people seemed to relax and let down their guards at and this was one of them. That night you could walk up to anyone and party with them like old friends. Streets were full of happiness and laughter. Then the next day the suits were back on and life returned to normal.
Conbini is life
mmm chuuhai
Preach
It grew into an absolute, spoiled shitshow the last time I was in town for it (pre-covid).
I thought it was cool when it was smaller too but now it is impeding traffic, causing harassment and the kind of public drunkenness that actually is a nuisance, and leaving a ton of cleanup for the hard-working laborers who keep the trains orderly. Another Eternal September situation.
But catching the inaka line with a few friends fresh off the conbini, that was still a good time last I checked.
edit: My mistake, for some reason I got it into my head that this was in relation to the Yamanote line party. I’m very surprised by this, although I did expect something to happen eventually because it seems like the physical harassment just kept getting worse every year. But anyway, my comment is irrelevant.
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I think I had a crossed wire and I apologize because I was initially upset by your response. I even read the article last night; I’m embarrassed.
I was speaking of the Yamanote line party, not the crossing. There’s problems with Shibuya but the traffic is hardly one of them.
I know this is late, but I wanted to give you a response.
99% of the year every Tokyoite is clean and respectful of the city and the personal space of others. They don’t get much approved days where they can let loose on the streets. Maybe some summer festivals and impromptu gatherings at Yoyogi park but that’s it. What I’ve noticed after all these events, Halloween in Shibuya included, there are participants and neighborhood people that go out and help clean the mess. I helped clean after one, i think it was 2017. I asked someone else why they were doing it and their response was basically “I do it so everyone else can continue having fun.” They weren’t complaining about picking up other people’s garbage and they didnt want the event to be cancelled in the future either.
The pressure at the bottom is great in their society and cancelling halloween in Shibuya was the wrong decision, they should have just expanded it to other areas to help control crowds and block off more streets for pedestrians that night only. I’m sorry you didnt enjoy it, I dont like parties usually but I always had a blast at them. I think my first one was 2009 and if I was in China for work I would always take a vacation to visit my friends at that time.
Thanks for the response - I had similar experiences with Shibuya over the years.
I did enjoy Shibuya on Halloween, quite a lot, but again it was late and I got confused with thinking this was about the Yamanote-sen party because that had hit a boiling point last I checked. Two very different parties, sorry for getting them mixed up.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“This year we’re making it clear to the world that Shibuya is not a venue for Halloween events,” Ken Hasebe, the mayor of one of the city’s most well-known and bustling wards, told reporters this month at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan.
A former advertising executive who later started a street-cleaning nonprofit before winning office as an independent, Hasebe described how Shibuya’s once-spontaneous, al fresco celebration of elaborate homemade costumes had degenerated into something closer to a giant outdoor frat party.
Katsuhiro Nishinara, a Tokyo University expert on crowd surges who has been advising Shibuya ward, called preparations “perfect,” and said authorities would focus on routing pedestrians through one-way corridors on shopping streets and subway stair exits.
Visitors patiently line up just to snap pictures in front of the famous but otherwise unremarkable Hachiko dog statue and to stroll through what may be the world’s busiest pedestrian street crossing, the Shibuya Scramble.
The iconic junction’s intersecting crosswalks fill up with as many as 3,000 pairs of feet every time the light changes, and it’s even featured as a backdrop in Hollywood movies, including “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,” and the horror film “Resident Evil: Afterlife.”
In fact, to many observers, Japan’s version of Halloween bears a closer resemblance to the original free-spirited, come-one-come-all, ancient community harvest festival it’s based on — albeit updated by urban youth.
The original article contains 865 words, the summary contains 229 words. Saved 74%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
It didn’t really work during the height of corona and I don’t suspect it shall work now. Trains and stations are going to be a nightmare next weekend for all those going into the area, I imagine and my wife will have to deal with it commuting to and from work.
Sounds like the jujutsu kaizen anime plot
haha yea it does, love that show
Let’s do it in shimokitazawa
lets see how they feel it about after thriller starts playing.
On that Kamala grindset
