100 Police Officers and over 80 JR Staff Members Join Annual JR Loop Line Halloween Party
They tried to shut down the annual Loop Line Halloween Party this year. Apparently, all the English language school were warned against having their employees participate, and some employees were told that they would be automatically fired if they did. The US Embassy discouraged citizens from joining in the fun with this announcement. "NOTICE: Don't Let Halloween Get Out of Hand October 24, 2006. For the last few years, Japanese commuters have seen certain cars of loop-line trains in Osaka crammed with costumed partiers just before Halloween, using the train as a traveling party. We are not against innocent fun, but these revelers have led to increasing unhappiness by the public, and damage to the train cars. The Railway Police have notified us that they will take action against these types of activities, and that could lead to arrests.
We strongly recommend against participating in these types of events. Have fun, but not at the expense of others. An arrest can have serious repercussions, and we do not want to see anyone arrested over behavior and activities that got out of hand."
Turnout was significantly less than years past, probably about 100 costumed people taking up a small amount of space while 100 railway police officers (this actual number confirmed by a JR employee) as well as about another 80 JR staff members took up the majority of space on the Osaka platform. Here again this year are the numbers.
Departure: Saturday October 28, 2006 at 9.15 pm from JR Osaka.
Direction: Clockwise, towards Temma
Participants: 100 costumed people, 100 railway police and 20 or so Japanese police, as well as at least 5 staff members/police per each of the 19 stations on the Loop Line.
At 8.45 JR staff tried to hoard costumed passengers onto the stairs and away off the platform. Not a particularly well thought out plan as costumed passengers simply assended the stairs again.
At 9.06 JR staff were overheard trying to decide which train to get the costumed passengers on.
After leaving Sakuranomiya, there was a delay with the train which seemed to be caused by a passenger, unrelated to the traditional Loop Line Party, getting on the tracks in Kyobashi. The ensuing 10 minute delay caused a large group to make a non-traditional stop in Kyobashi for a potty break. (The traditional 30 minute stop is in Tennoji so participants can use the bathroom and stock up on beer for the trip back to Umeda).
By the time the train got to Tennoji, the group had splitered, and never really got back together. One group was apparently lead astray from Kyobashi directly back to Osaka and then to a bar by an enterprising young lady.
JR prepared special yellow warning cards, which a JR employee called "Yellow Cards" like in soccer, shown below.
JR recorded a new announcement this year. In years past the annoucement said, basically, "We know it is Halloween, but please try to not get in the way of the regular passengers". In 2006 the message was slightly stronger. Right click and save here to hear it. (3 MB Large file)
Eight pictures follow.
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