Toshiden: Exploring Japanese Urban Legends: Volume One

by Tara A. Devlin

  The market price of sugar, a vital ingredient in caramels, is known to fluctuate wildly. There are cases where it rises steeply without warning. When this happens, each single piece of caramel becomes more expensive to make. Yet if the makers raise the price of their product, people will stop buying it. So what they do instead is make the grooves on the top of the caramel deeper, using less product and saving them more money. That is the secret knowledge of how caramel makers can continue to stay in business.

  That is also the reason why you see “OO pieces” rather than “OO grams” on the packets of caramels.

  ABOUT

  This one is not too difficult to believe, especially in this cynical day and age. Caramels are extremely popular in Japan and the individually wrapped pieces come with little grooves carved into the top like a chessboard. This gives them an uneven surface that makes it difficult for them to get stuck to the wrapping paper. It’s an ingenious design, but unlike the legend would have you believe, it’s not done to save on ingredients and thus money.

  The grooves are merely a by-product of the manufacturing process. The machines that produce them are unable to handle smooth caramel, so in order to keep the caramel from sliding and falling off, the machines mark grooves into the candy to keep it steady. Think of it as like the tread on your tyre. Once that tread is gone and your tyre is smooth as a baby’s bottom, you’ll be sliding all over the place.

  On a side note, caramels are so popular in Japan that if you can think of a flavour, it probably exists there. One store near my house in the countryside had flavours ranging from melon, chocolate and vanilla, to more experimental flavours such as tomato sauce, takoyaki (octopus balls) and pizza. I sent my mother some takoyaki flavoured caramels without warning her what they were and she hasn’t forgiven me since…

  How to make curry rice

  If you’re a university student, there’s just one thing you need to remember. This will come in handy if you are ever stuck on a test, or if you have a report and you don’t know what to write.

  To put it simply, you should write down the recipe for making curry rice and all your troubles will be blown away.

  Because there are so many students at university, most professors don’t check every single report that comes across their desk. So long as something is actually written there, you’ll still get points.

  ABOUT

  Supposedly the oldest existence of this legend comes from 1975. A person going by the name of Y-san, who was 10-years-old at the time, wrote about their father, who was a university professor. One day the father was at home marking tests when he started laughing. Y-san asked why and he said, “This one has the recipe for delicious curry rice written on the answer sheet.” Apparently the student didn’t know the answer, but rather than leaving the space blank, they went ahead and wrote down the recipe for curry rice. The father warned Y-san not to become such a student, but he ended up giving said student a passing grade anyway because of his efforts.

  Whether this particular story is true or not, the manga Doubutsu no Oisha-san (The Animal Doctor), published in the late 80s and early 90s, featured an episode of this very same legend. This is likely how it became so widespread in the pre-internet era.

  These days the story has become a popular university legend. “I heard someone did it a few years back.” “One of my friends told me about someone who did it.” “There was a guy who passed by writing the recipe on his answer sheet.” There’s even a joke about the legend that goes as follows:

  During his final exam for university, a student was unsure of what to write for his answer. In desperation he wrote down the recipe for curry rice on the answer sheet and somehow scored an excellent grade.

  The next year one of his juniors had a test with the same professor, but when he wrote down the curry rice recipe on the answer sheet he failed. Not understanding why he failed when his friend passed, the junior went to complain to the professor about it when he said, “Your curry recipe doesn’t have potatoes in it!”

  So there you have it. If you’re ever in a pinch and need to pass a test you don’t have the answers for, make sure you include potatoes in the recipe! Or just study. That’s probably the better option.

  Military-use highway

  Did you know that the Kanetsu Highway, connecting Tokyo to Niigata Prefecture on the Sea of Japan side, has a certain secret behind its construction?

  The bland scenery of highways tends to make drivers sleepy, so in order to prevent drivers from falling asleep at the wheel they are purposely built with gentle curves. But there is an area of the Kanetsu Highway as you approach Niigata that is perfectly straight. There is a reason for this, even keeping in mind the risk of drivers falling asleep on the road.

  During the Cold War, Japan sided with the United States, and day and night felt the threat of the Soviet Union. After much discussion with the United States government, the Japanese government decided to add a military-use temporary runway to the Kanetsu Highway, which was under construction at the time. In an emergency, the American army would be able to approach from the Sea of Japan and use it as a vital landing and take-off point.

  ABOUT

  This one is similar to the “Why there are so many bridges leading to Shikoku?” legend. Japan is physically very close to Russia and relations have not always been great. During the Cold War, Japan sided with the United States, and being much closer geographically and without an army of their own to defend themselves, the threat of war was ever present and very real.

  There is a straight stretch of road on the Kanetsu Highway that lasts for 10 kilometres. However, this was not built on purpose so that military airplanes could land or take-off. It was designed this way for the future Kanetsu Tunnel, which wasn’t yet built at the time but was in future construction plans. So there’s no great war conspiracy here either. Just construction plans the public was unaware of at the time.

  Medical

  White ear string

  A young girl decided to get her ear pierced to celebrate her high school graduation. In order to save money she decided to do it by herself, rather than going to the hospital, and she pierced her ears with no problems.

  A few days later, the girl noticed her ear was feeling itchy. She thought it had to be inflammation from the piercing and went to the mirror to have a look. When she did, she noticed a white piece of string hanging from the hole in her ear. Thinking the string was the cause of the irritation, the girl pulled on it with all her might.

  “Hmm? A blackout?”

  Suddenly the world went dark. It turned out the white piece of string the girl pulled out was her optic nerve, and ever since that day the girl has never seen light again.

  ABOUT

  This legend first became popular in Japan during the 1980s, right around the time ear piercing became popular with the youth of Japan. There are also slight variations on the story, claiming there are pressure points for your optic nerve in your earlobe, so if you pierce your ears too many times you’ll lose your eyesight.

  Both stories serve the same purpose, however, acting as a warning of the dangers of piercing, especially doing it by yourself. It also serves as a reminder not to harm the body your parents gave you, an important ideal in Japanese culture.

  It’s thought this urban legend was spread by parents and even teachers who wanted to keep their children away from ear piercings. Until recently, piercings were not very common in Japan, and the majority of the population doesn’t have any at all, not even in their ears. Piercings are also forbidden in schools, so in order to make sure children conform and not act out, rumours like this are easy to spread and keep the kids in line.

  Of course, there is no optic nerve in your ear, and you won’t go blind even if you pierce 20 holes in it. Your optic nerve is nowhere close to it, so pierce away. The “white thread” the legend refers to may be referencing the pus and waste build-up that occasionally accompanies piercings, and that is, of course, totally fine to wipe away.


  Piercing still isn’t as common or accepted in Japan as it is in the West, and that’s perhaps due, at least in some small part, to persistent stories like this one.

  Knee barnacles

  A young man was swimming with his friend at the beach. He was walking across a rocky area when he slipped and fell, landing on a rock covered in barnacles. He cut himself on a few, but considering how the injury was so light he was barely even bleeding, he received some simple treatment and went home.

  A few weeks later the young man started to feel some pain in his knee. At first it was a throbbing pain, but as time went on, it became so painful that he couldn’t stand it anymore. Realising something might be terribly wrong, he quickly went to the hospital to have it looked at.

  When the doctor x-rayed the young man’s knee, he noticed small white shadows on the back of it. They decided to operate right away, and the doctor cut his knee open. When he did, the doctor discovered a large amount of barnacles growing on the underside of his kneecap.

  ABOUT

  The legend of barnacles growing within the human body is considered a top class medical urban legend. Everyone’s heard this one at some point or another. But can barnacles really grow inside a person’s body without them knowing? In general, no. The osmotic pressure in the ocean (3.5%) is largely different to that of the human body (0.9%), not to mention the salt content in a human body is much lower than that of the ocean, making it difficult for a barnacle to survive.

  However, on an episode of Monsters Inside Me on Animal Planet, a man named Chris Johnson discovered that the debilitating pain in his hand was caused by barnacles growing inside it. They attached themselves to the sheath around his tendon, planting themselves there with a cement-like paste that is so strong it takes an incredible amount of effort to remove.

  It’s thought this legend came about because of the sight of barnacles attached to whales, although in this case the creatures aren’t parasites so much as they’re simply attached to the surface of the whale. In any case, barnacles are no laughing matter and can cause injury regardless of whether one is growing in your hand or not, so best to take care around them!

  The dreadful convenience store bentos

  A university student who worked part time at a convenience store was found dead in his home. The autopsy determined it was a heart attack, but there was just one part on the report that was strange. Despite the fact the body had been dead for three months, the flesh hadn’t rotted at all.

  It seemed that the young man was receiving the leftover bentos (boxed meals) from his work and eating them every single day. The incredible amount of preservatives in the bentos had managed to stop his flesh from rotting after death.

  ABOUT

  This is a fairly common legend, not just in Japan, although this one is localised by making the food full of preservatives convenience store bentos. Go into any convenience store in Japan and you’ll see them all lined up, 24 hours a day. As such, it’s true that they’re loaded with preservatives and not really the healthiest thing to eat day in, day out (not to mention the calories…). Just like fast food in the West, common sense should tell you not to eat food like this constantly, because there’s no way it can be good for your health, but the part of the legend where it claims those preservatives will keep your body from rotting are just that; a legend. There’s no truth to the claims, although people still like to tell stories about it!

  There were reports in 2002 of a pig farm in Fukuoka prefecture where, in an attempt to save money on pig feed, the mother pig was fed leftover convenience store bentos. However, when she gave birth her piglets were born deformed, and the amniotic fluid was a brownish colour, rather than clear. This report likely helped strengthen the legend in recent times, and while a bento every once in a while won’t kill you (or preserve your dead body), it’s still probably not the best idea to eat them every day.

  Loach hell nabe

  Have you ever heard of “loach hell nabe”? It’s also called “loach tofu,” and as the name suggests, it’s a traditional nabe pot that uses loach and tofu.

  You begin by putting cold water into a pot with live loaches and a piece of tofu. Then close the lid and set it to simmer. When you open the lid to check on it, strangely the loaches will be gone, and all you can see is the boiled tofu. For you see, in an attempt to escape the heat, the loaches will bury their way into the cold tofu and end up being cooked inside it. This hotpot dish must truly seem like hell to the loaches.

  At a glance, it would seem that someone eating the loach hell nabe would just be eating tofu, so it was said that the monks of China, who were forbidden from eating meat, would often partake of this meal as a way of eating meat away from prying eyes.

  ABOUT

  The story of this dish is fairly popular in Japan (I even heard about it myself while I was there!), but in reality it’s a phantom dish that can’t really be made. If you try to replicate the recipe and put live loaches with tofu in a pot of water, when you take the lid off you’ll just find boiled tofu surrounded by boiled loaches. Several experiments were done on TV in the past to try to replicate this recipe of legend, such as changing the time when the loaches were put in and the method of food preparation, but in the end nothing worked. The loaches never buried themselves in the tofu. Only one attempt was ever successful, and that was by boring holes into the tofu with straws first, which allowed the loaches to slide into the prepared tofu-tunnels.

  There’s said to be a tofu shop in the outskirts of Seoul that sells “loach hell nabe,” however the loaches are prepared inside the tofu beforehand, so it’s not really like the above legend suggests.

  OITA PREFECTURE FOLKLORE

  There’s a story from Oita prefecture folklore that is very similar to this legend. It goes as follows:

  Long ago in the town of Notsu in Oita prefecture there was a smart-witted man by the name of Kicchomu. One day he overheard the locals of a tenement talking about how they were going to make loach nabe, and he began to wonder if there wasn’t a way in which he could eat his fill. After thinking on it for a while, Kicchomu went out and bought a block of tofu. He approached the youths making the loach nabe with an innocent look on his face and said, “I was thinking of having boiled tofu, but I would be most grateful if you would allow me to boil it in your loach soup stock there. Would that be okay?”

  “Ah, if you’re just boiling it, sure, go ahead.”

  And so Kicchomu put the tofu in the pot with the loaches swimming around. When he did, the loaches all buried themselves in the tofu at once, unable to stand the heat of the boiling water. After making sure that not one loach was left, and that they had all buried into the tofu he said, “Oh! I just remembered I have a pressing matter to attend to. If you’ll excuse me.” He took the tofu and hurried back home.

  Perhaps it was this old fairy tale that transformed into the modern urban legend of the loach hell nabe.

  Welding practice

  This is the terrible story about what happened to a student who was practising for an upcoming exam at a technical high school.

  When heating metal to use for welding, it gives off a blinding light and thousands of degrees of heat. While working, one male student took off his mask to wipe the sweat from his face. When he did, the student next to him started work on welding something and the boy accidentally glanced at the light.

  That night the boy went to take out his contact lenses, as usual, to go to bed. But unlike usual, he was unable to take them out. Impatient, the boy put more strength into the movement, and the lens finally popped out into the palm of his hand. But at that very same moment, his eye went dark.

  The boy was taken to the hospital in a panic, and the doctor told him, “Your contact lens has completely fused to your cornea. It would appear it fused to your eye when you looked directly at the welding light. I’m sorry, but at this point your other eye will also…”

  A short while later, the boy lost his vision completely.

  ABOUT

/>   There’s a good chance you’ve already heard of this legend, because it originally started in America. This story about contact lenses fusing to eyes after looking at a bright light first started back in 1967. It’s said a welder in Baltimore looked upon an arc flash whilst wearing contact lenses. He reported vision problems the next day, but the doctor who examined him concluded the damage to his eye was from wearing hard contact lenses for 17 to 18 hours after being hit by the light flash. His eyes healed, and the man suffered no loss of sight, but the story spread and eventually changed to include not just welding but BBQs or anything else with intense heat and light.

  Research also supports the fact that it’s impossible for contact lenses to fuse with an eye. Your hair and skin would burn long before the plastic lenses would melt, so you’d have plenty of things to worry about before then.

  Nobody is quite sure when this legend made its way to Japan, but just like in other places of the world, there has never been a single report of this type of injury occurring, either on the job or off. It’s very much just that; a legend.

  Chocolate and nosebleeds

  When you were a child, were you ever told “If you eat too much chocolate, your nose will bleed, so don’t eat too much!”?

  In reality, chocolate is full of nutritional value, and if you eat a lot at once your body will absorb an excess of energy. With no outlet for that energy, it will result in a nosebleed. Because of that, you must take care not to eat too much chocolate at once.