Will our butts survive the crushing blows of victory?

Mr. Cherry Yoshitake, otherwise known simply as Mr. Cherry, is a Japanese comedian who holds 26 Guinness World Records as of September 2022. These records include such admirable feats as the following:

● Most dried peas moved using a straw in 30 seconds (29 peas, July 2014)
● Longest duration to spin a fidget spinner on the nose (8 minutes, 49 seconds, December 2017)
● Longest time to dunk a biscuit (5 minutes, 17 seconds, November 2018)
● Most drink coasters flipped and caught with chopsticks in one minute (51 coasters, February 2022)

While all of them are on the unconventional side, one record in particular stands above the rest to our team of writers at SoraNews24: Most walnuts crushed by sitting down in 30 seconds (78 nuts), which was achieved in Milan, Italy in February 2022. Curious to learn more, our ace and more-than-a-little-nutty ace reporter Mr. Sato recently sat down with Mr. Cherry for an interview. While he has a variety of talents in his own arsenal from pole dancing on Tokyo rooftops to cosplaying as the Beijing Olympics mascot, Mr. Sato was lacking in this particular skill and wanted some pointers.

▼ Mr. Cherry Yoshitake posing with one of his Guinness World Records

Mr. Sato: Mr. Cherry, thank you for being here today. First, we’d love to hear a little more about you including your Guinness World Records.

Mr. Cherry: “Please don’t hesitate to ask me anything.”

Mr. Sato: First, could you please tell us how your “most walnuts crushed by sitting down in 30 seconds” Guinness World Record came to be? Was it one of your original talents?

Mr. Cherry: “Nope, it wasn’t in my repertoire. I first did it on a TV program in the U.K.”

Mr. Sato: You were on a TV show over there?

Mr. Cherry: “I need to backtrack a bit in order to explain why I appeared on that show. 17-18 years ago, I used to belong to theatrical company and talent agency Wahaha-Hompo as part of a three-member comedy group called Razzy Queen. As a member of that, I would dress up as a drag queen and perform stunts with my butt, stuff like removing the cork from a bottle of champagne or breaking cooking chopsticks.”

Mr. Sato: So you could say that your specialty was performing with your butt.

Mr. Cherry: “Yup. Then, at the end of 2012, U.K. broadcasting corporation BBC contacted me with an offer. They had been searching for the Japanese celebrity who could do stuff with his butt.”

Mr. Sato: Those kinds of offers exist, huh!

Mr. Cherry: “The program was called Officially Amazing and featured contestants from Japan, the U.S., and the U.K. who were challenging Guinness World Records. The very first challenge was ‘Most walnuts crushed by sitting down in 30 seconds.'”

Mr. Sato: It was fate.

Mr. Cherry: “It seems like it now, but at the time I had never crushed walnuts with my butt. In mid-January of the following year a filming crew came to Japan from the U.K. and I started intensive training. The 30-second record at that time was 38 walnuts, but all I could do was one.”

Mr. Sato: 38 walnuts seems like a high hurdle to overcome.

Mr. Cherry: “It was a tough wall to scale, but through trial and error I devised a technique that I call ‘the shrimp move.’ The record holder at the time would use ‘crab style’ to lower their butt straight down and then just to the side to break the walnuts, but I come at them from the side of my butt while sliding to break them. The sliding movement resembles a shrimp so that’s how it got its name.”

Mr. Sato: Whoa, it’s like you have your own fighting game-style super move! So how many walnuts did you end up crushing with the shrimp style?

Mr. Cherry: “48 on that TV show.”

Mr. Sato: Wow. So that became your first Guinness World Record, which hasn’t been broken yet…

Mr. Cherry: “Nope, I actually broke my own record. In February of this year I smashed that record with 78. That’s this record (gesturing to the certificate pictured below).”

Mr. Sato: You completely improved upon yourself. You’re evolving…!

Mr. Sato: And so, after appearing on the show, your history with the Guinness World Records began.

Mr. Cherry: “That’s right. After appearing on that show, I began receiving offers on an annual basis to take on new challenges.”

Mr. Sato: I’d love to hear more about those challenges, but are all of the challenges on the show arranged for you? Or do you decide which ones to attempt on your own?

Mr. Cherry: “Normally the show arranges them. Since Officially Amazing typically features Guinness World Records, the challenges are already prepared. The details, rules, and request procedures are already in place so it goes smoothly.

As for other countries, sometimes the details and rules are different from what they tell you ahead of time. For instance, in Italy they might decide what you’ll do in the rehearsal stage. They just tell you what record you’re going for without giving you any chance to plan things out ahead of time.”

Mr. Sato: They really make you challenge a Guinness World Record in that way, huh…

Mr. Cherry: “It’s a lot of pressure, having someone basically say ‘OK, just go out there and break this world record or that one.'”

Mr. Sato: What kinds of things does the Guinness organization allow you to try to set records for?

Mr. Cherry: “As long as you get it cleared by the judges, you can request to set a Guinness World Record for anything.”

Mr. Sato: Say, something like running while carrying a giant stuffed panda?

Mr. Cherry: “That sounds interesting. They’d probably allow it.”

Mr. Sato: That’s almost hard to believe!

Mr. Cherry: “Yeah, just about anything is possible as long as anyone is able to challenge it. The details can be found on the official website, so please take a peek.”

Mr. Sato: I’ll check it out. Since you’re here today, I’d love to learn the basics of your butt walnut-crushing technique.

Mr. Cherry: “Of course! I’d be happy to teach you.”

Mr. Sato: Yeeeees!! Yoshio, did you hear that?

At this point, slightly unhinged SoraNews24 boss Yoshio, who had been taking pictures up until now, entered the chat.

Yoshio: Can you really do it so easily? I think cracking even one walnut is difficult. Mr. Cherry, walnuts are really hard, right? I eat them at home on a regular basis and crack them open with a screwdriver. I’ve hurt my hand before doing this. There’s got to be walnuts that are just really hard to crack, right?

▼ He better not be scheming new shenanigans for his team of writers…

Mr. Cherry: “It does depend somewhat on the nut. Manchurian walnuts are really hard, for instance, but usually you’re safe with regular store-bought ones. I usually use ones imported from California in the U.S. I think domestic varieties you can find at [Japanese] supermarkets or departments stores should be fine as well. The ones you brought today look great!”

And with that, it was finally time to get this demonstration on the road.

▼ Mr. Cherry shows us the basics in a short video

Mr. Cherry laid out a red mat that he had brought and placed eight walnuts at regular intervals on top of it.

He then leaned down and propped himself up with one arm, yelling out, “THREE, TWO, ONE, CHERRY GO!”

CRUNCH, CRUNCH, CRUNCH echoed the walnut shells in rapid succession as he scuttled along.

Finish! It only took the master three seconds to crush all eight of them.

A closer inspection of the nuts revealed that he had indeed pulverized them all.

▼ Care for some butt-crushed walnuts, anyone?

Next up was Mr. Sato. They decided to start him off by practicing the technique for crushing one walnut.

Mr. Sato: Mr. Cherry, which area of your butt do you use to crush them?

Mr. Cherry: “I think it’s the gluteous maximus area? I use the soft fleshy part.”

▼ View the full video of Mr. Sato and Yoshio’s attempts below and then scroll down for a summary.

Mr. Cherry: “Please go all out and use some force. If you only half-ass (pun intended) it, they won’t break and your butt will really hurt.”

Mr. Sato: I’m ready!!!

With a shout of excitement, he then rolled over the mat. 

Mr. Sato: All right! It broke!

Yoshio: You don’t earn any points for looking cool, but yeah, it’s definitely broken.

Mr. Sato had thought that his butt would be in agony afterwards, but it wasn’t bad actually. Doing it forcefully was the key point.

Then it was finally Yoshio’s turn. Would he be able to do it as well as Mr. Sato?

Mr. Cherry: “Do you want to try crushing five walnuts?”

Yoshio: Really, five of them right off the bat?

Mr. Cherry: “On your mark!”

Yoshio: It’s a little scary but I’ll give it a try…!

Yoshio bravely scuttled down the mat.

He successfully cracked all five of them on his first try.

Yoshio: My butt!! My butt…!

▼ Yes, Yoshio got a big bruise on his butt afterwards.

The boss had demonstrated his prowess, but at what cost to his butt?

And with that, Mr. Cherry’s Guinness World Record tutorial came to an end. Who knows–you might see someone from SoraNews24 challenging a record in the near future. Consuming obscene amounts of food seems like a likely and realistic target for our team.

Reference: Mr. Cherry Blog, Twitter/@cherryyoshitake, 
All images © SoraNews24
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[ Read in Japanese ]