🪰 Japan Celebrates American Halloween With a Freaking WEIRD Twist

I love Halloween, but Japan took one look at our witches, zombies, superheroes, and questionable sexy getups and decided the holiday could use one more costume category: Boring.

Something like, “guy whose headphones got caught while trying to get off the train.”

Now that is commitment to a bit, right?

I love that Japan has embraced the American Halloween tradition in its own way, with fun, absurd costumes and big public celebrations. But inside all that fun, is this completely different Halloween tradition that popped up around 2014.

It’s called Jimi Halloween, or Mundane Halloween, and the entire idea is to show up dressed as something so painfully ordinary and boring that people may need an explanation before they even realize you’re wearing a costume.

So yeah, no vampire teeth are required for the Japan Halloween party.

Instead, somebody might arrive as the person who just discovered a cockroach right before bed, a kid whose mother bought his school uniform three sizes too big, or the guy who politely turns his entire body away while you type your PIN number.

And then there’s this guy, blissfully scrolling through his phone while accidentally blasting everyone nearby with the flashlight he has absolutely no idea is on. It’s such a tiny public nuisance, which is exactly why turning it into a Halloween costume is so funny.

Or that deeply uncomfortable moment when you’re halfway through getting bangs, the stylist disappears, and you’re left sitting there looking like that chick from The Ring movies.

And then there’s this poor guy who apparently left for work during a tornado. Tie flying, papers fighting for their lives, and his dignity blowing in the wind.

These aren’t really costumes in the traditional sense. They’re observations… and that’s what makes the whole thing ridiculously funny.

HALLOWEEN FOR PEOPLE WHO DON’T WANT TO BE DRACULA

The whole tradition started with people who liked the idea of Halloween but weren’t exactly dying to march through town dressed as zombies or Count Dracula.

Their solution was actually pretty freaking brilliant: dress up anyway, but make the costume so low-key and oddly specific that figuring it out becomes part of the fun.

This explanation sums up the whole wonderfully weird thing.

Pop Inquirer:

Jimi Halloween was conceptualized in 2014 on a Japanese site called the Daily Portal Z. Site users wanted to join in on the Halloween fun but were a bit embarrassed to go all out in spooky costumes. In the end, they decided to do a “Jimi” Halloween which roughly translates to “mundane”. Their costume theme became mundane or everyday situations. It may sound a bit bleak, but since 2014, the trend has swept outside of Japan and people around the world are dressing up as incredibly specific and relatable everyday situations.

These Halloween costumes are so specific that they need to come with an explanation, but they become even more priceless once you hear them. Jimi Halloween has produced some of the most well thought out, original, and hilarious costumes out there.

The phrase that made this whole thing click for me is “required explanation.”

That’s the costume… because let’s face it, anybody can recognize Batman, right? Jimi Halloween wants you to stare at somebody carrying twelve bags, a houseplant, and an umbrella until you finally figure that they’re an “elementary school kid who waited until the last day to bring everything home from school.”

I mean, it’s totally ridiculous, and that’s what makes it so much fun. The more specific things get, the better the joke is.

THIS IS HALLOWEEN FOR PEOPLE WHO NOTICE EVERYTHING

This video ranks some of the best costumes people have come up with over the years.

There’s a guy who just found a cockroach before going to sleep, a panda nanny, some poor guy who cut himself shaving… and the list goes on.

Some costumes are instantly recognizable. Others depend on Japanese television, transportation, internet culture, or little everyday experiences that need a quick explanation before the joke lands.

By the end, traditional Halloween costumes start feeling too easy.

A witch costume tells you exactly what it is, but Jimi Halloween makes you work for it.

The costume might be a slightly oversized jacket, an oddly positioned shopping bag or a person standing at exactly the wrong angle. Once you hear the explanation, though, there’s a little flash of recognition: Oh my God, I’ve seen that person.

Or worse: I am that person.

THE COSTUME ISN’T THE OUTFIT. IT’S THE SITUATION.

That’s the smartest part of Jimi Halloween.

The clothing is usually incidental.

What people are really dressing up as are little moments of human behavior.

The person who pretends not to watch while you type a password. The commuter whose belongings betray them at the worst possible second. The employee who dressed only the part of their body visible on Zoom, yada, yada.

These are jokes built out of recognition for humans, and I love that part of it.

Japan didn’t need to recreate an American front porch with jack-o’-lanterns and a bowl of mini Snickers. They paid homage to it, with their own really creative spin… what if I just dress as a guy having a mildly inconvenient Tuesday?

Yes, sir, please do, because it’s awesome!

THIS MAY BE THE MOST INTROVERT-FRIENDLY HALLOWEEN EVER INVENTED

There’s also something really cool about a Halloween tradition built for people who don’t really want to be the center of attention. You still get to join in without showing up dressed as a ten-foot demon… although, to be fair, that would be pretty freaking awesome.

But at Jimi Halloween, that kind of entrance would completely ruin the joke.

Unless, of course, your costume was “American who takes Halloween way too seriously.” 💡