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As we’ve seen, Japanese people are enamoured with the idea of Halloween. From limited edition sweets to pumpkin-orange accessories, the holiday in Japan is centred around all things cute, and very occasionally creepy. So what do you do if you’re a foreigner in Japan who wants to give the locals a taste of the prankster spirit that usually lurks around the corner on a traditional Halloween night?

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You could make like this man, who chose to cover his face and hands in black material and use his two-metre stature to pose as a mannequin next to a shop window.

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The prankster put a few photos of his antics up on the social news and entertainment site Reddit, under the title, “I am a 2m tall American living in Japan – I was a mannequin for halloween. I waited in front of a clothing store and scared Japanese people all night”.

The comments starting rolling in, but in true Reddit fashion the topic of conversation went off track pretty much immediately, ignoring the vagaries of the act itself and instead focusing on the authenticity of the poster’s nationality, given that it would be odd for an American to use the metric system to describe his height.  

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With more than 600 replies and over a million views of his images, it seems that metric system proponents and fierce imperial system supporters were on the case, working to solve the puzzle of the “American” who dared to use the word “metre” (or perhaps “meter”?) when discussing measurements.

Some clever sleuths finally came to the rescue, picking up on the case and uncovering a video of a similar prank in the United States, with audio of the pranksters revealing an American accent.

The story has been picked up by a large number of news sites in Japan, a country dedicated to the metric system. They all agree that, be it 2 metres or 6.56167979 feet, having a mannequin jump out at you has got to be scary, no matter what country you’re from.

Oh, and yes, we do use the metric system here in Japan. Because it’s awesome, simple, and makes sense.

Source: LabQ