Japanese Twitter user’s methods work just as well (or not) with Hi-Chew as with any other kind of recalcitrant sweet or candy.

It can sometimes be all too easy to imagine that we human beings are masters of all that we survey. With a few unfortunate exceptions, we have little to fear from natural predators, and having mastered flame and tool, we are all too susceptible to hubris. Fortunately, or unfortunately, there are little things that remind us that for all our physical prowess and mental ingenuity, we can still be powerless, and one such example is the last sweet or candy in a tube or packet, lurking there unwilling to be prised from its cocoon. “Ha!” it seems to scream, “what good are your opposable thumbs now?” until you resort to ripping the packaging away, the sugary goodness clouded, tainted, by the bitter taste of defeat and humiliation.

▼ Haichu is an example of one such offending article, here in the new limited-edition pineapple flavour.


Luckily, one Japanese Twitter with even more free time than the person who wrote the paragraph above, may have the solution for those wanting to get their hands on that elusive last sweet. The confectionery in question is Haichuu, to give it its Japanese name, also sold and made in the United States as Hi-Chew. The pieces of the Morinaga-produced, chewy, usually fruit-flavoured goodness are each individually wrapped, and sealed up in a decidedly snug tubular packet. While the first few pieces gladly come tumbling out, the final piece is as hard to retrieve as the last cough sweet in a packet that’s been in your pocket for too long. Twitter user @wakegi9315, however, believes they have the way to lure it out, and have produced an illustrated guide to help humanity overcome this latest hurdle.

▼ Click on the embed for an enlarged image of the handy guide.

https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/1000323677009805313

@wakegi9315 writes how it’s always a pain in the proverbial to get that last piece of Haichuu out of the packet but that they have kindly prepared a lecture introducing a three-step method that might be able to help to avoid tearing everything to shreds:

‘Method 1: First, gently ask it some questions and wait for it to come out of its own volition. The last piece is always very shy but saying things like, “it’s all right, don’t be scared” will calm the poor thing down and ease its anxiety. The most important thing is to respect its independence.

Method 2: Tempt the Haichuu out with a Haichuu of the opposite sex [presumably with a generous application of lipstick and a dress, a la Warner Bros. cartoons]. As the last of its kind, the Haichuu has a particularly strong survival instinct so as cruel as it is, we have to carefully tempt it out of hiding.

Method 3: If, for some reason, neither of the methods should work, just tear it open [presumably with a stream of profanity].’

▼ Twitter user @usyanbal123 demonstrates the usual way to get to that last piece: ripping and tearing and generally making a mess.

You might wonder why someone would go to the trouble of drawing a guide to try and help people with this problem, but clearly it’s hit a nerve with the original tweet having been retweeted more than 96,000 times and liked more than 250,000 times at the time of writing. Clearly, there are plenty of those out there who aren’t prepared to give up on a wondrous range of chewy flavours just yet.

We, on the other hand, like to pick our battles, and with so many tasty snacks out there, we follow the path of least (packet) resistance. Our Japanese language writers went a different way though, creating what is probably the world’s largest Haichuu. We’d like to see the packet that thinks it can hold on to that beast.

Source: Twitter/wakegi9315 via Hachimakiko
Featured image: Twitter/@wakegi9315
Insert image: Morinaga