Tourism Horror trip before Halloween on Japan's famous Shinkansen

Normally, the journey from Tokyo to Osaka is an uneventful two-and-a-half-hour ride on Japan's famous Shinkansen bullet train. But this time it quickly mutates into a zombie apocalypse, with passengers screaming in fear and panic.

According to the organizers, the "world's first haunted house experience on a moving Shinkansen" will give horror fans their money's worth just before Halloween. The organizers have rented a carriage of the Shinkansen - the Japanese word for high-speed train - for the spooky ride. Their idea was inspired by the successful South Korean action horror film "Train to Busan" from 2016, in which a father and his daughter are trapped on a moving train and have to fight zombies that are hungry for human flesh.

Around 40 adventure-seekers board the train in Tokyo, hoping for plenty of horror. At first everything seems normal, the high-speed train departs peacefully. But it is not long before the first bloody attack takes place. The victims - actors scattered around the carriage by the organizers - writhe in pain before undergoing a horrific transformation and then going on a rampage against their fellow passengers themselves.

Deceptively real chainsaws and fake weapons

According to organizer Kenta Iwana, the horror is intended to show "how the normally safe, peaceful Shinkansen world - something we take for granted - can collapse in the blink of an eye". Among other things, deceptively real-looking chainsaw and weapon dummies are used.

At the same time, however, depictions of extreme violence or pools of blood are avoided so as not to damage the squeaky-clean reputation of the Shinkansen. And to balance out the horror, there are also light-hearted performances by zombie cheerleaders and a dance to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" during the two-and-a-half-hour tour.

"It was very captivating," says Naohiko Nozawa after the trip. The 30-year-old and her fellow passengers paid up to 50,000 yen (around 300 euros) for the ride, which is also attended by many foreign tourists. One of them is Joshua Payne from the USA, who is very enthusiastic: "I literally felt like I was in the middle of the movie, just sitting here and watching it play out before my eyes."

Special occasions on the high-speed train

The horror trip was not the first experiment by Japan Railway (JR) in its Shinkansen trains, which are famous for their punctuality and cleanliness and have been running for 60 years now. After demand collapsed during the coronavirus pandemic, the rail operator began renting out compartments for special occasions.

The high-speed train now has a special sushi restaurant and a bar. Even a wrestling match was organized.

However, the idea of a zombie night before Halloween took her by surprise, says Marie Izumi from JR's tourism subsidiary. She had originally thought it would be "almost impossible to pull it off". But the event convinced her of "new possibilities" for the high-speed train, said Izumi. Perhaps there could also be concerts and comedy shows in the future.

SDA