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Last Sunday, I shared with you folks on the Evangelion Tokyo-3 Lawson convenience store that was opened in Hakone. Thanks to reader kiddai for pointing out that the conbini was forced to shut down only a few days after it opened. I did a little search online and found this piece of news article on Yahoo! JP that explains why the campaign was ended so fast.

Apparently, there were too many Evangelion fans and they jamed up both the streets and the parking lots. All these led to illegal parking and the otaku mob just created too much trouble for the local residents. In the end Lawsons had to temporarily shut down the convenience store.

ローソンによると、当初の想定以上の自家用車での来店、来場者があり、事前に準備をしていた安全体制では安全の確保ができないと判断。駐車場の不足から道路渋滞や深夜の騒音の発生、ＧＷ連休で更に多くの来店者が増えると予想し、混乱を回避するため中止となった。

Its amazing how much damage otakus can cause within a short period. Somehow I picture the store to now look like it has gone through an attack by the Angel.