SoraNews24 —Japan News—

Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.

TOP

» Japan
» Exasperated Tokyoite can’t escape Halloween, discovers Halloween personified in his taxi driver

Featured

Weird
Studio Ghibli
Jobs

Exasperated Tokyoite can’t escape Halloween, discovers Halloween personified in his taxi driver

Krista Rogers Nov 6, 2017
Tweet

It’s been almost one week since Halloween has come and gone, but one holiday story is still making Japanese internet users smile.

While trick-or-treating has yet to catch on in Japan, the Shibuya district of Tokyo has become THE gathering place in recent years for Halloween revelers to show off their painstakingly crafted costumes (or half-assed disguises, in Mr. Sato’s case). In fact, the famous scramble intersection area right outside of Shibuya Station is so happening on Halloween nowadays that it’s actually causing headaches for some who just want to go about their regular business as usual.

Take Twitter user @kaepon1219, for instance. After a long day at the office last week, he could barely fight his way outside of the craziness of Shibuya to catch a cab…and then only to discover that he couldn’t escape Halloween, no matter what.

疲れて帰ろうとしたら、渋谷ハロウィン大変なことなってて、バス動かないし歩いても前進まないし、泣きそうになりながらやっと渋谷抜け出してタクシー拾ったら運転手さん一番ハロウィンだった。 pic.twitter.com/CmlEnHZpwC

— 楓博光@未来の "技" 術者を "育" てる (@kaepon1219) October 31, 2017

“When I was exhausted and trying to go home, the Shibuya area was jam-packed with people. The buses weren’t running and you couldn’t make any progress walking. I was ready to cry in despair but finally made my way out of Shibuya and grabbed a taxi, only to find that my driver was more into the Halloween spirit than anyone else.”

His tweet and pictures of the taxi-driver-turned-Gene Simmons (of KISS) went viral overnight, prompting him to post an amusing follow-up message the next day:

昨日のハロウィンタクシーツイートが1万RT超えてる・・・！！こういうの初めてで普通に焦る。
ちなみにあのタクシー、上司からは頼むからやめてくれって言われてるらしい。
でも単なるメイクですで押し通してるらしい。
ただ、さすがに気遣って渋谷六本木界隈以外は回送にしてるらしいww

— 楓博光@未来の "技" 術者を "育" てる (@kaepon1219) November 1, 2017

“Yesterday’s Halloween taxi tweet has been retweeted over 10,000 times…! This is the first time this has happened for me and I’m overwhelmed.

By the way, about that taxi driver–it seems that his boss has been pleading with him to stop dressing up, but he keeps doing it because it’s just simple makeup. However, he is careful to only send him pickup requests from people in Shibuya or Roppongi [another youth district], LOL.”

In other words, if you’re tired of Halloween messing up your daily commute, be sure to avoid Shibuya near the end of October…but why not get some free candy from the biggest yakuza organization in Japan instead?

Source, featured image: Twitter/@kaepon1219