You may have heard the name Takeshi Natsuno before. A Keio University professor, former Senior Vice President at NTT Docomo, Sega Sammy big-wig, and creator of i-mode, he is by all accounts an intelligent, not to mention extremely tech-savvy, dude. So you can imagine the surprise the good residents of the city of Sendai felt when he took to his Twitter account earlier this week to publicly disparage their home town as being “too lame for words”.
Just what prompted this sudden outpouring of ire? Well, it seems Mr Natsuno felt rather short-changed when he attempted to use his prepaid Suica IC Card to ride the Sendai subway. Suica is a Tokyo-based IC card system. Sendai is not in Tokyo. You can probably see where this is going.
Mr Natsuno’s original tweet is as follows:
仙台地下鉄ってSuica使えない。ダサすぎる、仙台市。 pic.twitter.com/TA4r5pzXWr
— 夏野 剛 Takeshi Natsuno (@tnatsu) October 20, 2014
▲”Can’t use Suica on the Sendai subway. City of Sendai is too lame for words.”
Unfortunately, he then threw oil on the fire with this baiting follow-up:
仙台市営地下鉄ディスったので、これから、仙台市交通局擁護のアホが絡んで来るだろうが、市民の利便性や外来客の利便性考えられないのは公共交通機関失格だよね。
— 夏野 剛 Takeshi Natsuno (@tnatsu) October 20, 2014
▲”Since I just dissed (yes, he used the English term!) Sendai’s subway system, I bet a lot of Sendai subway-loving idiots are gonna come at me, but it’s the public transport agency’s job to consider visitors from outside Sendai as well as locals.”
But, ouch, he’s not done!
それを擁護するヤツはツイートの資格なし。よってリプライしません。
— 夏野 剛 Takeshi Natsuno (@tnatsu) October 20, 2014
▲”Though those kind of idiots probably aren’t capable of utilising Twitter so they won’t even reply to this tweet.”
Some of Sendai’s residents (who do indeed have the capability to utilise Twitter) were understandably miffed, and responded to Mr Natsuno’s tweets with some salty ire of their own.
実際仙台も2~3年後にはSuicaは導入されるみたいだし、震災もあってそれが遅れているのは仕方ないよね。いきなりヨソからやってきて「なんで使えない!ダサい!」ってわめくのが「市民の利便性や外来客の利便性考えている」ことになるとでも?
— 旧コ口吉 (@0icco) October 20, 2014
▲”Actually, Sendai is planning to introduce the Suica in the next couple of years. But it might be taking a little longer because of the [2011 Tohoku] earthquake and all. So it’s inconsiderate for this non-resident to come to town and squawk that Sendai is lame just because you can’t use Suica.”
「すでにICカードが導入されている」と思い込んで、Suicaが使えないことに発狂して、いつものようにツイッターで悪態をついて、「そうじゃないよ」という指摘には一切耳を貸さず、自論を展開するだけの困ったちゃんでしかない。それが夏野剛クオリティ。
— sis_sis (@sis_sis) October 20, 2014
▲”All I see is a whiny baby who was under the misguided impression that you can use a Suica card in Sendai, made a typically mean tweet about it, and won’t even listen when others explain why we don’t have it yet because he only cares about his own opinion. That’s Natsuno quality right there.”
@tnatsu 使えなくて悪かったな
— おーあーる (@anpanpanme) October 20, 2014
感じ方は自由だと思いますが、地下鉄でSuicaが使えないだけで仙台市がダサいというのは違うと思います。訂正してください。
▲”Soooo sorry you can’t use your Suica here. You’re entitled to your own opinion but calling all of Sendai lame just for that reason is completely wrong. I think you should check yourself.”
https://twitter.com/i10ug/status/524071581874544640▲”Everyone, let’s cut him some slack. It’s not his fault he’s just an old fogey who thinks the world revolves around him and doesn’t even realise that Sendai has plans to introduce Suica in the next few years.”
Yikes!
To be fair, Mr Natsuno’s confusion probably stemmed from the fact that it is possible to use the Japan Rail-backed Suica card at a number of stations outside of Tokyo so long as you’re trying to ride a JR train. It’s also possible to use Suica to ride the non-JR operated subway within Tokyo, so Mr Natsuno was no doubt extremely irked to find that the same isn’t true up north and he’d have to go and buy an old-school ticket with cash.
But is it really fair to diss the lovely city of Sendai just for that? Or question the technical capabilities of its residents? Good luck with that one, Mr Natsuno!
Source: Jin115
Feature image: You In Japan, edited by RocketNews24
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