It is a seemingly uneventful sunny afternoon in the park filled with the usual kinds of people who come out to enjoy themselves.  Suddenly there is a street performance before your eyes which looks utterly spontaneous as more and more people join in. That’s right! Flashmobs have finally come to Japan!

These flashmob performances were put together by Japanese cable TV company WOWOW and take place in Tokyo Dome’s City Plaza. As people are hanging out and enjoying the outdoors, a salary man in a suit suddenly appears in center “stage”, skillfully juggling a little red ball with his feet. 

People start gathering around and just when you start thinking, “this guy is really quite good!”, all kinds of people with little red balls join him from out of the blue and begin performing with him in sync.  This is definitely some kind of performance, but it all looks so very effortless, making you believe that you could grab a ball and join in!

A drummer keeps a beat and before long students with instruments ,who were just passing by, are playing a marching band, while uniformed school girls and work men in coveralls put down their ladder to join in for more fancy lifting, leading to the grand finale of what is now a whole lifting troop!

When it is all over you want to yell “bravo!” and chant for an encore, except that everything is getting back to the way it was before the performance, people moving on back into their afternoon in the park.  The performers blend back into the uneventful afternoon as if they had not even been there, only now there is a joyous excitement in the air, people are smiling, and the world seems like a more promising, brighter place.

These flashmob performances are sure to give anyone a lift.  The reactions of the audience are priceless, with smiles abounding, but those smiles are extensions of the performers themselves who were shinning with the ability to spread good cheer.  A wonderful magic takes place with flashmob.

Take a look at these flashmob performances: WOWOW Flashmob
[ Read in Japanese ]