Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, including this team of workers who used their own local brand of heroism to prank visitors at night. 

At 129 meters (423 feet) in height, Shimokubo Dam (straddling the border of Gunma and Saitama Prefectures) is pretty ‘dam’ tall, and it attracts plenty of attention from visitors seeking a good photo-op for the surrounding natural scenery. In addition, there are even rumors of paranormal activity on a particular section of a red bridge that’s part of the structure, which causes many teenagers to dare each other to head on over at night when the environmental conditions might be dangerous.

Twitter user @mogi_8810, who enjoys posting information about local items of interest throughout Gunma Prefecture, recently shared a viral post about the clever manner in which the dam management team decided to combat this surplus of thrill-seekers:

“The famous Shimokubo Dam is believed to be a haunted spot. Every single night people come to challenge themselves in tests of courage. The dam management office was finally fed up and came up with an ingenious idea to spoil the spooky atmosphere–they blare the local ‘Dam Saver’ heroes’ music on giant speakers. Now people don’t come for the haunted aspect–they come for the quirky B-grade thrill of it all.”

In lieu of eerie silence, nighttime visitors are now blasted with the theme song of the local ‘Dam Saver’ heroes who serve as the dam’s very own personal protectors. The upbeat music and lyrics certainly kill the spooky vibe and make it hard to believe that there are scary ghosts hanging around…

▼ The local Dam Saver heroes for reference

▼ The full theme song “Water Fantasia” by Kenichi Murakami is quite catchy!

The solution garnered enough attention to even be featured in a short news piece. The following clip introduces the Dam Saver heroes in person, interviews a few anonymous nighttime visitors about their deflated sense of excitement after hearing the music, and interviews a worker who has never seen any ghosts in his 50 years of working there:

https://twitter.com/reflesh_time/status/1195994621005811713

General net reactions leaned on the side of amusement, with many praising the simple but effective tactic:

“I love stupid hijinks like this.”
“Seems like it will scare the deer away, too.”
“Ghosts: ‘Oh no! We’re going to be exterminated by those guys!'”
“I wonder if this plan will backfire and make more people want to go.”
“On the contrary, the music playing at night is scarier to me…”
“If the music stopped suddenly I think I’d be terrified!”

It turns out that the blaring music was actually implemented over a year ago, but thanks to @mogi_8810’s post the story is just now trending on the net. It sounds like the Dam Saver heroes might have a lot of protecting to do in the coming weeks if more visitors start showing up, so might we suggest something else to do instead?

Source: Twitter/@mogi_8810 via My Game News Flash
Featured image: Pakutaso
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