On the evening of 19 September, JR Osaka Station became the scene of unseasonable weirdness as dozens of photographs of an unknown teenage boy seen sitting on the train fell from the sky like giant snowflakes of randomness.

Upon investigating the incident, Osaka Prefectural Police found this to have been an act of revenge by what is fast becoming Japan’s most oddball sub-culture: train otaku.

As the photos fluttered to the ground, commuters and pedestrians alike were left bemused, with some taking to Twitter to in the pursuit of possible explanations.

Tweet: “At Osaka Station I found photos from a whole bunch that fell from the sky. I went for it because I thought it was money, but it was just photos.”

Image: Twitter

While some headed straight for their Twitter account, others dialed for the police and reported that it was a-raining men in Osaka Station, but minus the hallelujah. This was neither the time nor the place for that. Police rushed to the scene, because how often do you see something like that? Thanks to eyewitnesses, they traced the photos up to the 10th floor of the nearby North Gate Building where they found two suspects.

When questioned by police, the boys, aged 16 and 17, are said to have admitted to the random littering. When asked what on Earth could possibly possess them to want to drop 400 pictures of some boy all over the fourth-busiest train station in the world, they explained:

“We took pictures of this bad guy who was always interfering with our photo shoots. We scattered the pictures half as a joke and half because we hate him.”

The boys also explained their hobby of taking photos of trains, which the police could assume from one of the hundreds of photos of him lying about, was also a hobby of their nemesis.

NOTE: In accordance with national laws regarding minors, we digitally altered the boy’s face to look like our beloved Mr. Sato.

Image: Twitter

We can assume the young rail fans will be facing a hefty littering fine, but an official set of charges is still pending as police investigate how the boys obtained the paper to print out all those pictures, since a nearby electronics store also happens to be accusing them of shoplifting it.

Although the littering is bad, it’s probably not a huge issue for such a busy transportation hub. The real damage here has been done to the normalcy of the train otaku community. Sure, the majority are probably peace-loving and productive members of society, but this whole convoluted photo ordeal was just plain weird and ended up accomplishing far less than a good old fashioned shove or punch would have any day of the week.

Source: MSN Sankei News West, via Hamusuta Sokuhou 1, 2 (Japanese)