The last time we tried wearing this outside the office, things didn’t go too well.

Some of you may remember, or simply be unable to forget, the tale of when two of our Japanese-language reporters, Yoshio and P.K., were nearly arrested for walking around downtown Tokyo wearing mankinis and covering their faces with panties. They had a perfectly good reason for doing so, of course; they were cosplaying as the hero of manga and live-action movie series Hentai Kamen.

Still, local law enforcement didn’t take kindly to their revealing attire, and took them into custody for questioning. Following the incident, Yoshio and P.K. vowed to never again engage in public displays of Hentai Kamen cosplay.

And then they decided to break that vow since it was Halloween!

Yes, not to be outdone by Mr. Sato’s half-assed Where’s Waldo? Halloween costume, P.K. and Sanjun slipped into outfits that showed off considerably more than 50 percent of their posteriors.

However, the last time they ventured out like this, they got detained by the officers at the very first police box they walked by. So this time they decided to wear their Hentai Kamen outfits underneath modest street clothes, and strip down to their costumes only after arriving in Shibuya, site of the biggest Halloween street party not just in Tokyo, but all of Japan.

Halloween is rapidly becoming more and more popular in Japan, and as soon as P.K. and Yoshio exited Shibuya Station, they stepped into a sea of revelers. The walk from the station to the McDonald’s on the Center Gai shopping street, the neighborhood’s main pedestrian artery took them 20 minutes, several times longer than on a normal night.

Still fully clothed, they also noticed an increased police presence keeping a watchful eye on the crowds.

But having come this far, there was no turning back now! At this point, though, came the biggest challenge of the evening. To change into their costumes, they were going to have to take their clothes off in public, and during that transitionary phase before they pulled on their panty masks and completed the costume, they were going to look like just a pair of streakers or exhibitionists.

They ducked into a side street to change, which made things a little less awkward. Still, they won’t forget the startled looks on the faces of passersby as our reporters unzipped their pants; this isn’t something they’ll be forgetting anytime soon.

But being the troopers they are, they soldiered on and completed the transformation. And while they didn’t gain the superhuman fighting prowess that Hentai Kamen has in the manga, they did acquire a mysterious new power. Up until then, they’d been literally bumping shoulders with the other partiers on the crowded streets. But now that they’d become Hentai Kamen, it was like there was a two-meter (6.6-foot) radius force field surrounding them.

But this superpower proved temporary, as soon enough they were swamped with photo requests.

So what did Johnny Law have to say about all this? Actually, nothing. Granted, that might be partially thanks to the fact that it was so crowded that Yoshio’s and P.K.’s largely exposed bodies were largely concealed by the masses of humanity around them.

But at one point P.K.’s gaze met that of a police officer, who’s eyes then took in our reporter’s costume. Anxious as to whether the officer would respond with rueful laughter or fierce anger, in the end he did neither. Instead, all traces of emotion vanished from his face, as though his mind refused to process what he was seeing.

So in the end, we’d say that if you’re going to walk around Tokyo dressed in a mankini, Halloween is probably the best time to do it. Still, we can’t guarantee the cops won’t give you a hard time for skirting public nuisance or indecency laws, so please be aware that the risk of legal trouble is entirely yours…

…as is the risk of severe chafing.

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