Is Tokyo's "Monster Pool" fact or fiction?

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers


Summertime in Hot Hot Hot Tokyo, Japan

Japan has a lot of funny and strange things, but one of the funniest is how news is reported completely out of context as the gospel truth.

One such oft-cited example I recall is how, in the late 1980's CNN would report that melons in Tokyo - that the average Japanese housewife would buy for home - cost $200 each... That wasn't just a gross exaggeration, it was just plain incorrect.

Tokyo is expensive. It's not that expensive.

Sure there were $200 melons... But there were also $5 dollar melons too. The housewives bought the $5 dollar melons for home... The $200 dollar melons were sold at stores that are usually near hospitals, and those melons were brought as presents for the well-to-do and their friends convalescing in bed in those hospitals.

People in the west, especially, the well-to-do think nothing of spending $100 or $200 dollars or much more on flowers for someone in the hospital right?

You can't eat roses. At least one can eat a melon.

Now there's a buzz about a a video that was uploaded onto YouTube a few years ago about a swimming pool in Tokyo that is so crowded that you cannot see the water! What a zoo of people!

This has caused an Internet sensation...

So much of a sensation that some Tokyoites and even the Japanese Media have claimed that this is not Tokyo, Japan, it is actually China! Japan? China? Which is it?

This has become so much of a controversy that I even had a friend from Germany call me up to try to confirm the story!

Gee, how do I confirm this? Well, I checked the story and the links and I stumbled upon the original link. The original link is at a site called JapanTrends.

Well, lucky me! I just so happens that I am a very good friend with Mr. Michael Keferl, one of the good folks who runs Japan Trends. I called Michael up and was so lucky to catch him as he was at Narita Airport waiting for a flight.

Get this! Michael confirms that this is indeed a video taken in Tokyo. He was there when it was taken. In fact, he took the video! He was proud to say that this is the most viewed video on YouTube that he has ever made. He also said that he has been called a liar and a fraud but he just laughs it off...

"I was there. I saw it. I took the video. I think the Japanese just don't like to admit that Japan can be as crowded as China!" Michael added.

Well, so there we have it. Direct from the horses mouth. Video shot in Tokyo at Summerland, as a matter of fact.

China is that crowded though most of the time (in my limited experience!) Oh yes. China is scary crowded. I've been to Chinese New Year's before and there was an estimated 4 million people at the festivities packed into one and one half square miles to watch the fireworks on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong harbor that we were lucky enough to watch from our hotel window... Now that was crowded! It was a ocean of people like I've never seen before.

I watched from the 3rd floor balcony of our hotel and saw waves of people, at least 400 yards wide in both directions, packed like cattle, marching as far as the eye could see... It was indeed frightening to witness such a mass of humanity; almost enough to cause a panic reaction in me. It was frightening to say the least....

So, Mr. Keferl, my friend, who I've drank with and enjoyed good times with before confirms it. That is  proof positive that this is Tokyo! So this should end this silly rumor once and for all! End of questioning!... Until, of course, at least, next summer when this makes the rounds again!

So thanks to my good friend, Michael Keferl and Japan Trends.

Japan Trends is a great place to go see information about Japan stuff and gadgets!

See the original article from 2007 here.

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Keywords:


China, Summertime in Hot Tokyo, Japan Trends, CNN, Japan, Marketing Japan, Mike Rogers, Japan, Summertime, Tokyo, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, Lew Rockwell