It runs a “zombie Shinkansen” train ahead of Halloween in Japan. It is said to have been inspired by the Korean movie Train to Busan, which was released in 2016.
According to foreign media such as AFP and the Taipei Times on the 19th, Japan’s high-speed train “Shinkansen” will be transformed into a zombie train for Halloween.
The event’s organizer, group Kawagarasetai (horror unit), set up a zombie compartment in Nozomi 435, a high-speed train that departed from Tokyo Station at 5:18 p.m. on the 19th to Shin-Osaka.
About 40 passengers on the train had to stay with 20 zombie troops for about two and a half hours.
When the Shinkansen departed from Tokyo Station, the bloody zombies, who played the role of the flight attendant and the victim, trembled in pain during their first terrible transformation and soon approached passengers by walking through the passage between seats. In addition to “zombie acting,” they performed various shows, including dancing, magic, and playing musical instruments. Joshua Payne, a 31-year-old American who sat next to the zombies, told the Taipei Times, “It was cool and groundbreaking to be able to see all these performances from Tokyo to Osaka at the same time.”
The price of the zombie compartment is 33,000 yen per person for 36 regular seats and 50,000 yen for 24 premium seats, including photos taken separately from zombies.
Kenta Iwana, an event manager, said, “I usually wanted to describe the safe and peaceful Shinkansen collapsing in the blink of an eye.”
Meanwhile, as demand for long-distance travel plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic, rail operators began renting some of their high-speed train compartments to hold special events.
Earlier, JR Central hosted sushi restaurants, bars, and even wrestling matches on its high-speed train. It even rented them out in the form of a private party room.
SOPHIA KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL