What a week, eh? Hayao Miyazaki’s retirement was announced, the creator of Attack on Titan has annoyed fans with his “poor” drawings, a massive boulder nearly smashed a car, and, worst of all, a freaking tornado ripped up a chunk of Japan! We sure could use some good, light-hearted news.
Well, how about this story of a man who donated 100,000 yen (US$1,000) to one of the elementary schools ravaged by the tornado…in one of the most unusual ways ever!
The weather in Japan has been pretty intense this week with high temperatures, heavy rains, typhoons, and even freaking tornadoes. While all of them are problematic, the tornadoes were the worst, causing extensive damage to many buildings. One of the worst hit was an elementary school in Chiba Prefecture, as you can see in the screenshot below.
That’s an incredible amount of damage, isn’t it? Really makes you go, “Whoa.” It also leaves you wondering what will happen to the poor children whose school has been trounced by a vicious twister.
While most of us might feel sad for a bit, click “Like,” and then move on to the next story, one man had other plans.
Dressed as Tiger Mask, the legendary professional wrestling character, an anonymous gentleman rode up to the school on a bicycle and handed over a book for saving 500 yen coins – 200 of the coins to be exact! Which, by our mental math is 100,000 yen (roughly US$1,000), or a heck of a lot of money to be carrying around in a book. The masked man said, “This is 100,000 yen. Use it for the school,” before riding off without even pausing to give his name.
It’s okay if you need to get that dust out of your eyes now. We understand.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with mid-20th century anime, Tiger Mask was originally a professional wrestling character in a manga from the late ’60s and early ’70s who has managed to stay popular through the years. The opening for the anime can be seen below. To describe it as “insane and fantastic” would probably be accurate.
A new, live-action Tiger Mask movie is even set to be released this November, so if your curiosity is piqued, be sure to keep an eye out for it!
Japenese Internet commenters had a lot to say about the news!
I bet this is just stealth marketing for the new movie.
Oh, it was me! It was so me!
This is too cool!
100,000 yen…hey, Nintendo! You’re supposed to care about kids! Where’s your donation?
Maybe he’s just too handsome, so he wears the mask?
You know what, that sounds reasonable to us!
So, there you have it, a man donned a Tiger Mask costume, pedaled over to a school damaged by a tornado, and selflessly gave away $1,000. If that doesn’t put a smile on your face, I just don’t know what to tell you!
Sources: Hachima Kikou, NHK
Images: YouTube, Wikipedia (bicycle, gladiator, yen, tiger), some assembly by RocketNews24
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