Quote:
Originally Posted by MMM
I know on the Tokyo and Osaka loop lines there were Halloween parties by foreigners who would ride the loops and get off at certain exits at certain times...reassemble and ride the trains. I know a guy who participated in the Osaka ride for at least 10 years, but it sounds like it is now over as of last year or so. to be honest it isn't anything i would ever participate in, but as I understand it, it was never about blocking anyone from riding a train. It was supposed to be a good natured fun. If it wasn't, then maybe the protesters have a point. (I do know as many japanese participated in the Osaka ride as foreigners.)
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I don`t know anything about the Osaka one, but there were a LOT of issues with the Tokyo one. Was it started as and intended to block people from riding on the trains? No - but that is what it ended up doing. Eikaiwa teachers who wanted to get dead drunk and party apparently ruined the whole thing.
I wish I could find the Japanese thread that I read elsewhere about it back right after it happened, but there were quite a few stories of people being flat out accosted and shoved out of the cars. That big drunk guys would let the cute girls on, and shove the businessmen away from the doors, etc. There were also a lot of talk about groping getting way out of hand, and just general misbehaving and tearing up of the trains by people who thought it was hilarious that they had "gaijin power" and that the train operators couldn`t really do much to them.
The following year there were protests. This did not surprise me.