There I am, sitting back with spacious legroom on a smooth 2½-hour ride on one of Japan’s famous bullet trains — when the passenger in the seat next to me begins convulsing violently. The carriage door opens, and a salaryman stumbles through before collapsing to the floor, the woman — no, the zombie on his back having made quick work of his neck.
This is how the new Zombie Shinkansen event begins.
On Oct. 19, there was an official takeover of one car on a regularly scheduled train from Tokyo to Shin-Osaka Station, put on by event planning organization Kowagara Setai and which about 40 horror fans paid up to ¥50,000 to attend. You may have seen “Train to Busan,” the hit South Korean movie the event draws its inspiration from, but watching it unfold before you is another thing entirely. That it’s happening on the world’s safest form of transport, in a country renowned for its order and cleanliness — during a month the shinkansen celebrated its 60th anniversary, no less — compounds its unsettling outlandishness.
A stocky man comes running through the door before turning around and shouting, “Katte-koi!” (“Come get some!”) a sportswear-clad zombie takes the bait and hurtles after him, resulting in a battle for survival in the aisle of the shinkansen car. Fortunately well-positioned for this, I capture photos of them wrestling back and forth along the length of the car, including an attempted double-legged kick with the zombie eventually being fireman-carried away to spare everyone else.
Musical cues clue passengers in to incoming acts, but evidently, knowing something is coming doesn’t detract much from the surprise of it all. Among mostly smiles and some laughs, screams are heard — especially when the lights go out.
Along the Tokaido Shinkansen Line, passengers are tricked and treated to a variety of different zombie-themed performances ranging from your typical aggressive zombie fare to a dance troupe in maid uniforms performing a rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” which was a highlight for Shivansh Saini, 25, who said it was “creepy, but also funny at the same time.”
The horror is balanced by amusing acts and intermissions, and it would seem that while many came for the scares, the lighter fare was the real crowd-pleaser. Joshua Payne, 31, told me the high school cheerleaders were the most fun and unexpected for him. Fan service came in the form of zombie hosts hitting on women and handing out bottles of Champagne, along with zombie idol fan girls sitting down and taking selfies with the passengers.
At one point during the journey, a couple of men dressed in all black and donning gas masks hand out toy guns to several passengers in the cabin. Fake weapons and camera phones at the ready, we passengers wait in hushed excitement. I note how unfathomable it is to see these toy weapons on public transport here in 2024, but undoubtedly the thrill is exactly that — the permission to not only watch, but also interact in an experience that feels antisocial, even borderline illegal.
As the shinkansen approaches its terminus, group photos are taken and everyone prepares to depart to more peaceful destinations. While making sure no personal effects are left behind, I notice some damage I’ve sustained on this train to Osaka: a scratch from the hood of one of my camera lenses. Not bad for my first zombie encounter.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.