‘Twas the night before Halloween 2017

Halloween 2017  was great.  Actually, it kind of gets two days of celebrations in Shibuya.  The event has a prequel, if I may call it that.  So on October 30, I dropped in to see what I could find.  I wasn’t disappointed, there were lots of people in some fantastic outfits.  The Pope was with some of his bishops.  Does anyone remember the Miniskirt Police?  They used to be big on Japanese TV.  It was a lot of serious fun, except for one thing I’ll talk about later.

There was a veritable army of undead nurses, a couple of Cinderellas, and mad scientists.  There were also a few characters there that I didn’t know, of course.  It was a fantastic night, as everyone was out for a good time.  And I can’t recall getting one refusal for a photograph.  Everyone had a fun night! 

It was good to see the debut of several Marios and Luigis driving their go-karts.  A group of Minions was there on bikes, something new for me.  There was also a group of Killer Ronald McDonalds?  I wasn’t quite sure, but they seemed to have an evil touch about them.

The only thing I could say about the night that wasn’t that great was the police presence.  I wouldn’t say Shibuya Crossing was swarming with them, but there were a lot.  In hindsight, it wasn’t a bad idea.  The area does get crowded, and some of the public get carried away.  Still, I wish they could have kept the public announcements to a minimum.

Over their loudspeakers, the police bombarded the crowd with announcements.  It seemed everything was dangerous.  Don’t run, don’t stop suddenly, and take pictures.  Being in a place with so many people was dangerous.  The worst part was that most of the announcements were in English.  To be honest, most people at the event seemed to be Japanese.

Still, the crowd seemed to have enjoyed itself.  There were so many smiling faces.  And don’t forget that it was only a prequel to the big night, October 31!  And that was far bigger!  I’ll post those photos one day.

If you want to see pictures from other years, please follow these links:

• 2016
• 2017 main event
• 2018 prequel

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please leave them below.  And if you were at Shibuya Crossing for this event, let us know what you thought of it.