A man who sits at his computer and makes a MetaFilter post.

October 28, 2019 8:25 AM

Japan's Best Boring Halloween Costumes [Kotaku] “...at this annual event in Japan, participants are trying to do something far simpler—boring, even. This event is called “Jimi Halloween” (地味ハロウィン), with jimi (地味) meaning “mundane,” “plain,” or “subdued.” [...] Here are some of the best mundane costumes: Someone who cannot get a seat at the food court in the mall. The costume of a person wearing black clothing that has played with a cat. This woman is dressed as a person who is taking a photo of a meal. The person who cleans the escalator’s handrail. Someone about to win Old Maid. This man is dressed as a right-handed person. A person who is drinking a hot beverage. This is a costume of a person who would get mistaken as store staff at an eyeglasses shop. A person who has just purchased an umbrella the moment it stops raining. A guy who can’t find where his seat is at the baseball stadium.”
posted by Fizz (69 comments total)

That is so cool. I'm in!

This October 31st will see me dressed as a man waiting for roving gangs of children demanding treats with menaces to get tired and go home.
posted by flabdablet at 8:30 AM on October 28, 2019 [19 favorites]

This is so good, I love it. I think what I love most about this is the specificity of each costume, like the guy who just bought an umbrella - and his hair and shirt are all wet like he's been rained on. Or the guy who could be mistaken for staff wearing a smart black button-up shirt. It's like, "He really could be mistaken for staff! I'd make that mistake!" I don't know why but that really makes me smile.
posted by arcticwoman at 8:31 AM on October 28, 2019 [40 favorites]

The person in the "drinking a hot beverage" costume is really struggling with the subdued part.
posted by skewed at 8:39 AM on October 28, 2019 [7 favorites]

This is fantastic.
posted by jquinby at 8:42 AM on October 28, 2019

Three-hole punched Jim.
posted by freshwater at 8:43 AM on October 28, 2019 [5 favorites]

God, this is delightful. I want to throw one of these now.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:48 AM on October 28, 2019 [5 favorites]

Love it! I used to go for “elaborate” homemade costumes when I was a kid, but I haven’t found my place in the costume world as an adult. Store-bought doesn’t feel right, putting a lot of effort into sewing something doesn’t feel right. But these cerebral costumes do!
posted by mantecol at 8:48 AM on October 28, 2019 [4 favorites]

The face-swapping one is about three extra levels of heightened media awareness. Bravo.
posted by migurski at 8:55 AM on October 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

If you recognize yourself in many of these, does that make you jimi asking for a friend
posted by Think_Long at 8:57 AM on October 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

This makes me so happy!
posted by brilliantine at 9:00 AM on October 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

I have a surprising number of adult friends who like to play dress-up even on a random weekend, and for whom Halloween is their national holiday. NOW I feel prepared to accept their party invitations...
posted by PhineasGage at 9:12 AM on October 28, 2019 [9 favorites]

I feel like my lazy last-minute idgaf costumes of years pasts have suddenly been legitimized.
posted by GoblinHoney at 9:13 AM on October 28, 2019 [10 favorites]

I love this so much.
posted by Gadarene at 9:18 AM on October 28, 2019

I’m going as a formerly gifted child... [twitter]
posted by Mchelly at 9:27 AM on October 28, 2019 [28 favorites]

The costume of a person wearing black clothing that has played with a cat.

I've been a cosplayer for years, apparently.
posted by bonehead at 9:30 AM on October 28, 2019 [27 favorites]

The person dressed as a white tourist who bought dog food from a vending machine thinking it was a packaged snack is absolutely magnificent.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:32 AM on October 28, 2019 [11 favorites]

Haha, these are delightful! How fun and clever.
posted by aka burlap at 9:43 AM on October 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

I need a "Person who just remembered they got invited to a Halloween party and threw together a costume at the last minute" costume.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 9:49 AM on October 28, 2019 [2 favorites]

The costume of a person wearing black clothing that has played with a cat.

And this is why witches prefer black cats. There's nothing particularly magical about a black cat, it just saves on lint rollers and clothes-brushes.
posted by loquacious at 9:55 AM on October 28, 2019 [27 favorites]

Oh man, I could go into the closet and come out dressed as Guy Frequently Mistaken for Best Buy Employee right now.
posted by ardgedee at 9:55 AM on October 28, 2019 [14 favorites]

event is called “Jimi Halloween” (地味ハロウィン), with jimi (地味) meaning “mundane,” “plain,” or “subdued.”

Jimi Jimi Hendrix: his guitar is most definitely not on fire, and he plays it using a guitar pick rather than his teeth.
posted by exogenous at 10:01 AM on October 28, 2019 [7 favorites]

More costume ideas:

A person unsure which key on their keyring is for this lock.

Someone exiting a public restroom right after someone else who didn't wash their hands.

A person some chocolate on their lip.

Someone with a slightly painful hangnail.
posted by biogeo at 10:12 AM on October 28, 2019 [6 favorites]

"This isn't a bad off-the-shelf pirate outfit from Spirit, I'm dressed as 'someone who procrastinated choosing a Halloween costume until the last minute and wound up in a bad off-the-shelf pirate outfit from Spirit.'"
posted by skymt at 10:22 AM on October 28, 2019 [5 favorites]

I think this this costume idea from Twitter user @leahtriss would be a serious contender...

Going as Former Gifted Child for Halloween and the whole costume is just gonna be people asking “What are you supposed to be?” And me saying “I was supposed to be a lot of things.”

posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 10:26 AM on October 28, 2019 [24 favorites]

"Bored man sitting and looking at social media despite his giant stack of unread books" would be my masterpiece
posted by rifflesby at 10:27 AM on October 28, 2019 [26 favorites]

The person who face-swapped with their Starbucks is genius.

Today I was the person who tried to bus their tray in the cafe at IKEA but had a bottle of apple juice that was too tall to fit in the slot so they went to lay the bottle down horizontal and the apple juice left in the bottle went all up their sleeve.
posted by Balthamos at 10:32 AM on October 28, 2019 [12 favorites]

Person who didn't realize she could have brought her dog.
posted by theora55 at 10:34 AM on October 28, 2019 [11 favorites]

Oh man, I could go into the closet and come out dressed as Guy Frequently Mistaken for Best Buy Employee right now.

I am careful where I wear a red shirt and khakis for similar reasons.
posted by pianoblack at 11:03 AM on October 28, 2019 [7 favorites]

One time I forgot the office costume contest was taking place. It took me 15 minutes from panicked scramble to finished costume. I won the contest.

These people are way better than me, I really admire low-effort high return costumes. I have been adequately inspired for Friday's office party.


I won the contest by printing a recently departed employee's headshot slightly larger than life size, taping it to my face, and walking around saying things like 'So if I can negotiate 26 hour days with the CEO, can you promise to deliver by Friday?' and 'Don't waste time writing tests, we'll let the users do the QA, win win all around!'. I called it 'meet the new PM with a fresh MBA'.
posted by Dr. Curare at 11:16 AM on October 28, 2019 [5 favorites]

I liked “ Someone about to win Old Maid,” It’s the expression of “the smallest possible amount of excitement and satisfaction” that really sells it.
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:18 AM on October 28, 2019 [28 favorites]

I kinda hate dressing up for Halloween or costume parties, so I used to come up with costumes like this. They drive people at regular costume parties *nuts.* A lot of grilling about "what are you supposed to be?" which made me uncomfortable, so I'm happy to know my people are out there.
posted by See you tomorrow, saguaro at 11:28 AM on October 28, 2019 [5 favorites]

I liked “ Someone about to win Old Maid,” It’s the expression of “the smallest possible amount of excitement and satisfaction” that really sells it.

You could amp this up with "Someone who's about to win Uno and is holding a Wild card."
posted by jquinby at 11:31 AM on October 28, 2019 [16 favorites]

honestly one of my favourite events of the year, perhaps second only to the deluge of stupid memes every e3.
posted by poffin boffin at 12:06 PM on October 28, 2019

Person who, 15 minutes ago, couldn't remember if they turned the stove off. Really, you could get into some real demands on costume artistry if you just run with it.
posted by Pembquist at 12:08 PM on October 28, 2019 [2 favorites]

This inspires me. My plan was maaaaybe to go as a TC Tuggers model, but now I'm all in.
posted by Imperfect at 12:08 PM on October 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

I’d go as “person who, having spent 20 minutes revising a response in a contentious MetaFilter thread, is torn between hitting ‘post comment’ or just deleting the thing,” but i’m afraid my face might freeze like that.
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:35 PM on October 28, 2019 [22 favorites]

Makes my plan of going as “my Pokémon Go trainer avatar wearing their actual outfit” with the Celebi shirt I bought off the Internet seem rly over the top now.
posted by toodleydoodley at 12:59 PM on October 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

I got a Sims plumbob headband at a conference a few years ago and have used it as my "costume" ever since (dress normally, wear headband), but these are even easier and more clever!
posted by valeries at 1:01 PM on October 28, 2019 [4 favorites]

OK I thought of one, I would make a printout of the flashlight/utility screen that people used to pull up to end their online videos because there was apparently no other way to end that kind of video before they fixed it, and then quickly raise it in front of my face.
posted by bleep at 1:02 PM on October 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

The costume of a person wearing black clothing that has played with a cat.


Seriously? No.
Needs more cat hair and wrinkles, obviously.
posted by BlueHorse at 1:03 PM on October 28, 2019

I've been a cosplayer for years, apparently.

We're all cosplaying, but only some of us know it.
posted by mhoye at 1:26 PM on October 28, 2019 [10 favorites]

Can't wait till yandy hears about this...


Sexy person who cannot get a seat at the food court in the mall.
Sexy person wearing black clothing that has played with a cat.
Sexy person who is taking a photo of a meal.
Sexy person who cleans the escalator’s handrail.
Sexy person about to win Old Maid.
Sexy man dressed as a right-handed person.
Sexy person who is drinking a hot beverage.
Sexy person who would get mistaken as store staff at an eyeglasses shop.
Sexy person who has just purchased an umbrella the moment it stops raining.
Sexy guy who can’t find where his seat is at the baseball stadium.

Also, Frog.
posted by jenkinsEar at 1:28 PM on October 28, 2019 [12 favorites]

I love these and this concept. I love the odd specificity of many of these. They're more about dressing up as a moment rather than a character or person. That's so much fun.

I like elaborate costumes but this is a good idea.
posted by darksong at 1:45 PM on October 28, 2019 [5 favorites]

Person who always brings a book to a party.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 2:21 PM on October 28, 2019 [5 favorites]

"Person who has just posted something questionable on social media, and isn't sure if that was a good idea, but has decided to leave it up and see what happens."
posted by Faint of Butt at 2:21 PM on October 28, 2019 [2 favorites]

A lot of grilling about "what are you supposed to be?"

I guess that's why they started wearing the sign on a lanyard. Which makes me wonder if anyone gets really meta with it and goes as "someone who started writing their sign with very large letters and changed to small letters when they realized they were running out of space."
posted by RobotHero at 2:22 PM on October 28, 2019 [12 favorites]

Guy who tried to convince his daughter to go with a meta costume instead of a dragon costume and failed.
posted by clawsoon at 2:31 PM on October 28, 2019 [4 favorites]

Here are a bunch more: Understated costumes celebrated at “Jimi Halloween” event in Tokyo 【Photos】

The titles are centered above the embedded tweets. Also, many of the images are cropped on the page, so you have to click through to see the whole thing.
posted by danielparks at 3:00 PM on October 28, 2019 [7 favorites]

That is some funny shit.
posted by bongo_x at 3:00 PM on October 28, 2019

The person dressed as a white tourist who bought dog food from a vending machine thinking it was a packaged snack is absolutely magnificent.

I couldn't see this one in the post, do you have a link?
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:17 PM on October 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

Just realized Askme "What should I wear to [location or event]" questions are a potential goldmine of ideas.
posted by ardgedee at 3:31 PM on October 28, 2019

"Person who has just posted something questionable on social media, and isn't sure if that was a good idea, but has decided to leave it up and see what happens."

I see you found my twitter feed.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 3:48 PM on October 28, 2019 [4 favorites]

Needs more cat hair and wrinkles, obviously.

No, because then you’re playing up the comedic concept of Crazy Cat Lady. This one is just a woman who played with a cat while wearing black.
posted by argybarg at 3:51 PM on October 28, 2019 [4 favorites]

I just switched my watch to my right wrist and am now dressed as a left handed person. Typing left handed. Everything feels wrong. This is the most viscerally unsettling costume I've worn in years.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 6:05 PM on October 28, 2019 [11 favorites]

Shibuya on Halloween has escalated to the point where it's started looking less like a party and more like a March Madness post-game riot at times. They're amping up security and trying to enforce no public drinking this year, while still trying to be somewhat tolerant and accommodating by adding porta-potties, etc.

I like the jimi costumes party idea as it's at least a more structured and creative way to celebrate. I hope the Shibuya scene in general starts to naturally move in these more creative directions as the novelty of spectacle gets older.
posted by p3t3 at 6:30 PM on October 28, 2019

This has inspired my costume for this year: man who has finished a hot dog and has mustard on his face.
posted by Metacircular at 6:49 PM on October 28, 2019 [4 favorites]

These are hilarious, and I'm so here for the post title.
posted by riverlife at 10:15 PM on October 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

So a little bit of cultural clarification may help here. Halloween in Japan has only even started really being a thing in the past decade or so, and it’s almost exclusively been adults importing grown millennials’ nostalgia for Halloween, which we have done the same thing to as Boomers did to Christmas. Even today, trick-or-treating is absolutely not a thing among the children of Japan. It’s been buck-wild watching over the past ten or eleven years as Japan somehow skipped straight to adult nostalgia without ever having lived through it as kids.

Incidentally, jimi is kind of a weird word to translate. The nuance is something like “not particularly exciting” or maybe “no big deal,” but without an inherently negative nuance to it.

Mostly though I’m disappointed that I found out about these parties last year and they did some out here in western Japan, but I was too busy to go (or, uh, make a costume).
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:54 AM on October 29, 2019 [6 favorites]

I probably would have dressed as “guy who actually takes the ETC card out of his car when he parks, like the in-car announcement says to”
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:55 AM on October 29, 2019 [1 favorite]

These are great, though I'm surprised there weren't any more...um...meta-ish entries. Like "Woman who can't decide what to be for the Jimi Halloween event" or "Man who accidentally wandered in off the street into the Jimi Halloween event"
posted by Thorzdad at 6:35 AM on October 29, 2019 [3 favorites]

Jimi Jimi Hendrix

'scuse me while I make noncommittal-but-affectionate gestures in the direction of the sky.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 8:09 AM on October 29, 2019 [4 favorites]

Procrastinator pretends his boring costume was intentional.
posted by ShakeyJake at 9:51 AM on October 29, 2019 [2 favorites]

I am not into this concept whatsoever, but I saw a remark on Alexandra Petri's chat on Washington Post that sounded relevant:

Q: Halloween costume

You could go as Brexit. It doesn't matter how you dress up, the only thing is not to arrive at anyone's house.
A: Alexandra Petri

And if you do arrive, don’t leave!
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:22 AM on October 29, 2019 [4 favorites]

anyway my forever costume is Lady Laughing At Own Sent Text Messages in Public
posted by poffin boffin at 11:46 AM on October 29, 2019 [2 favorites]

FWIW, I am currently dressed as Me From The Mirror Universe, i.e., exactly the same as always but with a goatee.
posted by Devoidoid at 12:33 PM on October 29, 2019

My best all-time costume was from my early microcomputer days, as a Computer Pirate. I wore a white dress shirt with a very thin tie, black pants, and an eye patch while carrying around a Commodore64 (because I was too cheap for an Apple][). Instead of a hook, I had a typing glove (remember those?) on one hand. I worked hard to think of what to substitute for a pirate's parrot on his shoulder and finally decided on a small stuffed penguin (and that was umpteen years before Linux existed! I wonder to this day is Torvalds himself saw my picture and was inspired).
posted by oneswellfoop at 2:08 PM on October 29, 2019 [1 favorite]

It cannot be emphasized enough that these costumes are not intended to engage in wordplay or any such similar notions of wit. They are intended to be based on very specific, fairly mundane everyday phenomena in an observational comedy sort of way, like the lady dressed as the "Something-or-Other Goodwill Ambassador" (complete with accurately labeled sash) or the guy dressed as a UNIQLO mannequin or the guy dressed as "had curry udon for lunch" (white Oxford shirt with little brown spots on the chest) or the guy dressed as a key (just… a key. Silver body suit, big round flat bit at the top).

Maybe the closest I've ever seen to the spirit of this sort of thing, outside of Japan, is people dressing as the people from the Tapatío and Cholula hot sauce bottles.
posted by DoctorFedora at 4:39 PM on October 29, 2019 [3 favorites]

I once dressed up as the disturbingly belt-less Trivago guy one year. No one knew what I was. I have also dressed up as a Fisherman's friend. No one was impressed.
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:24 PM on October 30, 2019 [2 favorites]

This was excellent; I dressed up as guy who would get mistaken for store staff at an eyeglasses shop today, but so far no one has either commented on my costume or mistaken me for staff.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 8:56 AM on October 31, 2019