TOKYO (TR) – Authorities geared up for the Halloween weekend this year by setting up pedestrian zones and pumpkin-themed trash bags, but the expected horde of vampires and zombies were nowhere to be found in the face of cold weather and rain throughout Friday.
Police officers stood by as bored-looking television crew fruitlessly searched for cosplayers in front of JR Shibuya Station, a far cry from last year’s Halloween which saw the same area packed shoulder-to-shoulder with zombies, nurses, characters from Mario Bros. and everything in between, news site J-Cast reports (Oct. 29).
Aside from one or two groups of cosplay enthusiasts, Shibuya was like any other day on Friday night. Volunteers hired to collect trash over the weekend were seen standing idle, with bright pumpkin-themed bags sitting practically empty.
The cold weather also led women to ditch revealing outfits for warm layers — resulting in few opportunistic men looking to cat-call scantily clad women unlike a year ago.
An NHK television crew was spotted with their arms crossed, gazing out at the normally dressed crowd past 10 p.m.