Toshiden: Exploring Japanese Urban Legends: Volume Two

by Tara A. Devlin

  ABOUT

  Skylark was a popular family restaurant chain in Japan. The first store opened on July 7, 1970, and was supposedly named because the hill near where it operated was home to numerous skylarks. The chain experienced massive growth over the years, but in October 2009, it was announced that all remaining Skylark restaurants would be rebranding to Gusto, another chain owned by the same company.

  It’s unknown when this rumour about the male and female skylarks first started, but it’s likely that it sprang to life in 1975, not too long after Skylark billboards around the country were updated with a (slightly) newer logo design. The original Skylark logo is what people now call the female. This design had no bellybutton, just like the legend states. However, in 1975, two small lines were added to the bird’s stomach, giving it the appearance of a bellybutton. Not all billboards across the country were updated with this new design, which meant some birds had bellybuttons and some didn’t. It’s not too hard to see why people might take this to mean that some birds were male, and some birds were female. If that were the case, what was the meaning behind it?

  THE TRUTH

  Of course, there was no meaning. It’s expensive to update billboards, especially over something so small, and thus many stores continued to run the old ones. Then, why even add a bellybutton to a bird in the first place? According to management at the time, customers adored the Skylark logo, and the company wished for their restaurants to be seen as the heart of the communities they resided in. For this reason, the logo was given a bellybutton, a visible sign of the connection between mother and child; a visible sign of “family.”

  So, if there was no male or female Skylark, was it possible to receive free coffee if you pointed this out? Sadly, no. This too was just a rumour, and if you happened to notice a different billboard outside a restaurant and pointed this out to the staff, you wouldn’t get anything free. What about the eggs? If you spotted the rarest of all billboards, the Skylark looking after her eggs, could you at least get some free cake?

  According to the Skylark public relations department at the time, “We’ve heard rumours about the male and female characters, but this is the first time we’ve heard about eggs.” The eggs themselves were just a rumour, and nobody has ever given proof that such a billboard existed.

  This urban legend appears to have come about thanks to a simple design change, growing to take on a life of its own and even creating a mythical billboard that never existed in the first place. No free coffee or cakes were ever given out for pointing out billboard differences, and now, all the billboards are gone for good. Skylark, the happy little bird with a bellybutton, is now but a memory and a legend that continues to live on long after all its stores closed down.

  Cell Phone Abuse

  We’ve all had a cell phone we’ve finished using. Do you by any chance take those phones to a trader or phone shop? If so, you might be in for a dangerous surprise…

  The reason for that is because there are small phone stores and traders who collect old phones in order to extract the information left within them. Your personal details, the people you know, the people you’ve called; there are companies that collect it all.

  If you do happen to leave your old phone with one of these companies, chances are they’ve already leaked your associations, as well as any work secrets you may have left on your phone.

  ABOUT

  According to statistics, 107.1 million people in Japan owned a cell phone in 2018. Considering the population is roughly 126.8 million, that’s a lot of people with cell phones, and a lot of people getting rid of their old ones to upgrade to the newest and fanciest models. But what happens to those old phones once you take them to the store to trade in or dispose of?

  It might seem common sense to clear all of your information from a phone before you hand it over for good, but this urban legend is yet another reminder that there are people out there who would happily take your personal information and use it for their own gain. This legend seems to target small shops and traders in particular, with the reasoning being small shops struggle to compete with large companies and they can only stay afloat by illegally selling information. It’s not a terribly large leap to wonder why a small corner store can sell its phones so cheap and offer great rates on trade ins if they’re making their real money from selling your personal info.

  Is there any truth to the matter? It is, of course, impossible to make sweeping generalisations such as “all stores sell personal information” or “no stores sell personal information.” There’s a good chance that someone, somewhere, is extracting whatever information they can from old phones that have been traded in and using it for their own financial gain.

  It’s both good practice and common sense to delete any personal information from a phone before you hand it over to someone else for good, even if that someone is a professional business. This urban legend is yet another reminder of that, and a stern warning of what might happen if you don’t.

  Interview Photos

  Job hunting season has a huge influence over the direction one’s life takes, but there is one legend that numerous big city dwellers believe in. That is, if you take a photo for your interview card at the department store Isetan, you will be guaranteed the job of your dreams.

  Announcers such as Kisa Ayako and Uozumi Rie were also blessed with their dream jobs after having their photos taken at the studio inside Isetan. So many people believe in this legend that every year when job hunting season rolls around, the photo studio becomes incredibly busy.

  ABOUT

  Job hunting season for new graduates in Japan usually begins around October, with the aim of a full-time job when the new business year starts in April. Part of this process involves an interview card, which is basically a survey of who you are, your work and education history, why you want the job, and where specifically you’d like to work. Basically a resume, but in a more rigid format. This interview card is accompanied by a head shot—hopefully professionally taken—so interviewers know who they’re dealing with. There are a lot of superstitions when it comes to job hunting season, but this is one of the more widely known ones.

  Isetan Photo Studio can be found in Shinjuku, and they come highly recommended for a reason: they take damn good photos. So good that people are willing to spend up to ten times the amount of having a photo taken in a regular passport booth. They also do slight editing upon request, meaning they can smooth out wrinkles, fix tiny flaws, and make you look better than ever. The morals of editing a photo meant to help secure you a job aside, Isetan Photo Studio gets results, and that keeps people coming back.

  Isetan sees over 10,000 customers a year. During job hunting season, they often deal with over 300 customers in a single day. Their powers aren’t just limited to new recruits, however. Those who are changing jobs and need to spruce up their resume with a new head shot also praise their results, and some have even visited them to get head shots taken for junior and high school entrance exams.

  One father posted on his blog about how his wife made their son take photos at Isetan Photo Studio for his junior high exam applications. His son was accepted to every school he applied to… except for one. The only school they didn’t use an Isetan photo for. Coincidence? Possibly, but there is no denying that first impressions are very important in Japan, and when it comes to something like an application, a professionally taken photo stands out amongst the masses.

  Is Isetan Photo Studio doing divine work and securing all of their job seekers the careers of their dreams? Of course not. But, thanks to their highly professional photos they do have an incredible track record, and when your future is on the line, what’s a few extra thousand yen for something that stands out amongst the crowd? That’s how legends like this continue to thrive, after all…

  Arm Wrestling Machine

  You can find arm wrestling machines in large arcades all across the country. If you visit with a large group of people and try to beat the computer, everyone can
have a great time.

  However, the strength of old arm wrestling machines used to be set too high, and numerous people broke their arms while challenging the computer. Adjusting the power of the machines was difficult, and people who went to arcades with their partners or friends didn’t want to appear weak in front of them, causing them to go too far.

  Of course, all these old machines were rounded up and the difficulty settings changed. Now, people complain that they are too weak, causing their owners even more troubles.

  ABOUT

  Arcades, or game centres, are still a massive business in Japan. My tiny little town in the middle of nowhere had a game centre that took up a large part of the shopping centre’s top floor, and it was by far not the only one in town (and was, perhaps ironically, one of the smallest). In bigger cities you can find game centres that take up almost entire buildings, their games split by levels; UFO catchers and physical games like Dance Dance Revolution or Taiko no Tatsujin on the bottom floor to draw people in, and then other games like fighting, retro, simulators, etc on higher levels.

  Arcades show no sign of slowing down in Japan. According to a survey by Jamma, arcades in Japan made 433.8 billion yen in 2016 from 14,862 stores nationwide. They’re big business, and things like arm wrestling machines are front door material. They draw customers in; they create crowds; they get people excited and spending money. But do they also break arms?

  In this case, the answer is yes. You may have seen footage of people breaking their arms while arm wrestling a real opponent, but if you were wondering whether a machine could do the same, ask three men who challenged the machines over a two-week period in August 2007. The men, one from France, one from Korea, and the other Japanese, attempted to beat arm wrestling machines in Osaka, Kyoto, and Fukuoka, but all ended up breaking their arms instead.

  According to Atlus, the company that owned the machines, they were previously owned by another company where they had numerous faults and problems. When Atlus bought them, they changed the name of the games and lowered the strength setting to disassociate them from their previous dangerous image. The company recalled all their machines after the incidents to investigate the cause of the problem once more, but the damage was done. News quickly spread of people breaking bones while using these machines in arcades and as a result, very few arm wrestling machines made it back to the field. Like other games that involve punching, kicking, or testing your strength, these days the arm wrestling machines are near impossible to find.

  Meaning Behind the Kanji for “Road”

  The kanji for “road” is used in many words: street, oesophagus, tool, etc. People write it every day without thinking about the meaning behind its make up.

  On the left, you have the radical for “advance,” meaning to proceed or go forward. Next to that you have the kanji for “head.” It turns out there is an old, terrifying reason for why these two elements are used together to mean “road.”

  In Ancient China, it was common for people to cut off the heads of outsiders and proceed down a path with the head in their hands. This head would cleanse the path and protect the bearer from evil, and that is how the kanji for “road” came to be.

  ABOUT

  Chinese characters, or kanji as they’re called in Japan, are often made up of various elements that signify the character’s meaning at first glance. For example, the characters for “sun” and “moon” placed together makes a character meaning “bright.”

  Chinese characters have been around for 1000s of years, and it’s believed they made their way to Japanese shores on Chinese gold seals in 57 AD. It wasn’t until much later that Chinese literacy would increase amongst Japanese nobles, who had no written alphabet of their own, and it wasn’t until the Heian Period (794-1185) that Japanese speakers began to arrange Chinese characters in a way that fit the Japanese language structure. They then derived their own writing style from these characters called manyogana, which later evolved into what we now know as hiragana and katakana.

  These kanji all have a meaning, and that meaning is often represented in how the different parts of the character are put together. The kanji for “road” uses the radical “to proceed” alongside the character for “head.” Most modern kanji users don’t think deeply about the meaning of the character when they see it, however. It means “road.” That’s it. But if you stop to look at it and really think about what it means, suddenly it becomes a lot scarier. Proceeding with a head creates a road? How is that possible? What does it even mean?

  THE TRUTH

  As it turns out, this legend is true. In Ancient China, it was believed that carrying the head of your foe would cleanse an area of evil. Therefore, proceeding with a head in hand meant one was going down a path, or walking down a road. According to some legends, these heads would actually be buried by the side of the road leading into one’s territory because it was thought this would stop the enemy from coming in to attack. According to others, the heads were carried like lanterns to dispel evil from a path. Makes that lantern yokai Chouchin Obake just a little more terrifying, doesn’t it?

  Either way, heads proceeding down a path came to mean “road,” and it’s not the only kanji with a horrifying origin story. For example, the kanji for “take” is made up of two elements: on the left, an ear, and on the right, a hand. In Ancient China, cutting off the ears of one’s enemies was a way of counting how many were defeated in battle. A hand taking an ear. Take. Perhaps the meaning behind this character was easier to imagine when ear cutting was a more common practice than it is today…

  Many modern kanji have little resemblance to their original meanings or how they came to be. Depending on your point of view, perhaps it’s sometimes better not to know.

  Lake Shikotsu

  In the past, Lake Shikotsu was spelt using the kanji for “death” and “bones.” The reason for this was because if somebody died in the lake, their body would get tangled in the trees and weeds at the bottom and never again rise to the surface. The lake has a strong association with death, and that’s why they call it Shikotsu.

  ABOUT

  Lake Shikotsu is a large lake in Chitose City, Hokkaido, just south of Sapporo City. With a circumference of roughly 40 kilometres, an average depth of 265 metres, and a maximum depth of 363 metres, Shikotsu is the second deepest lake in Japan, and measures about three quarters the volume of Lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan.

  The native people of Hokkaido, the Ainu, called the lake “shikot.” When the Japanese arrived in Hokkaido, it sounded to them a lot like “shikotsu.” Shi meaning death and kotsu meaning bones. No doubt the initial Japanese were terrified of this giant death lake full of bones, but to the Ainu “shikot” only meant a deep hollow.

  In 1805, the Shikotsu River, which flows out of Lake Shikotsu, was renamed to Chitose River. To the Japanese who had moved in to claim the land, the name “shikotsu” sounded too much like a bad omen, so it was changed to the much nicer Chitose, meaning “a crane lives for a thousand years, a turtle for ten thousand.” The area was full of cranes, so it seemed fitting and less grim. Later, the area itself was also renamed to Chitose, but for some unknown reason, the lake remains known as Shikotsu, even today.

  But no, Lake Shikotsu is not full of the bones of the dead. This legend came about thanks to a simple linguistic misunderstanding.

  Earthquakes and Akihabara

  If a large-scale earthquake were ever to strike Tokyo, it’s said that Akihabara would be the worst place to be.

  These days, idol events take place in Akihabara on an almost daily basis. The idols sing and dance while their passionate fans (called “otaku”) join them in a dance they call otagei. The fans jump up and dance in rhythm to the beat, creating quite the racket.

  For that reason, it’s said that the buildings around Akihabara are slowly losing their earthquake resistance thanks to the constant jumping and beating from idol fans. If a large earthquake were to strike Tokyo, the abused buildings of Akihabara would no
t be able to withstand it.

  ABOUT

  Idol fans in Japan are known for a particular dance they do called otagei or wotagei (the “w” is silent). This involves a lot of jumping high on the spot, furious arm thrusting, twirling, clapping, and chanting. Akihabara, being the idol hub of Japan in modern times, is the area you’re most likely to see this type of dance being performed. The first time I saw it for myself was in Shibuya, not Akihabara, but thanks to the dominance of AKB48 and the idol culture that has built up in Akihabara in recent years, these days it’s mostly associated with that area. A little searching on the internet will drop you into a strange rabbit hole if you are unaware of what the spectacle looks like. Watch a video or two and you’ll soon get the idea.

  Needless to say, buildings in Japan, and especially in Tokyo, are specially designed to withstand earthquakes. Roughly 1,500 earthquakes strike Japan each year, and often those earthquakes can be devastating. All buildings in Japan are required to be earthquake-resistant and must meet strict standards as set by the law. As of 2018, the Tokyo Metropolis area had a population of more than 13 million, while the Tokyo Metro area had a population of more than 38 million. That’s a lot of potential deaths for a city constantly shaken by earthquakes.

  Japan is constantly at the forefront of new technologies to prevent disasters like those in the past ever occurring again, and the government has spent billions of dollars to put systems in place to protect its people. A few guys jumping up and down every day in rhythm with their favourite idols? Yeah, it doesn’t take a genius to realise that that’s not going to weaken the structural integrity of some of the most powerful buildings in the world literally designed to withstand constant shaking.