When the brutal humidity of a sultry Japanese summer starts to pack a punch and you struggle to endure the sweltering heat trapped in your energy-conserving office or crammed on a crowded peak hour train, it’s time to unwind pool side at Tokyo Summerland where you can have a relaxing splash in the peaceful tranquility of their abandoned wave pool. Hurry now whilst there is still space in the pool in the upper left corner.
Don’t forget to check out the Mexican wave pool action in the embedded video below.
Image source: JapanTrends
Fist bump to Loco in Yokohama for shining the bat-signal from the rooftop of his blog in his call for submissions to the Summer 2011 edition of Hot Fun in the Summertime! He rocked the house with the Summer 2010 edition with a groove so funktagious that he is here to do it all again. Check out my submission from last year: Beers, beaches and bikinis.
Tokyo Rockabilly Club
Weird Japanese Pepsi Flavours
Australia at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics
Nuts Bang!!!
Protesting Raccoons in Tokyo
scott j
C Ohara
Chris
Japan Australia
Jay Dee
emuu
lina
freedomwv
Fidel
Haikugirl
hahaha…you made this video up with some video editing software…it’s not real !
I’m hearin’ ya Ben. It is completely surreal!
lol, Yeah, I think it is real. I have to ride the crowded train into Tokyo every morning, but what I cannot understand is why someone would *choose* to put themselves in such an overcrowded environment like that.
I blame ther parents
Are they trying to set a world record for “most humans in a pool?”
I think they won!! Holy shit!! Standing room only…if a kid got lost…….wtf are ya gonna do?
Man, I’m thinking a chikan remix to Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise”:
♪ Been spending all our lives swimming in the chikan’s paradise ♪
Why bother when all you can enjoy seems to be the smell of the next person armpit?
It reminds me of Where’s Wally? (or “Where’s Waldo?” depending on where you are from). Better find him quick because he’s drowning.
Or `Where`s the snickers bar`!!! lol
A snickers bar? You talking about a turd floating in the pool? Imagine the panic if someone spotted a floater.
I was trying to be more subtle…but yes, a floater lol
I`d love to just swin along and drop some actual snickers chocolate bars in there and sit back and watch the panic. What a sight that would be!!
This one is for you Scotty:
Chaos ensues as a “Baby Ruth” bar is discovered in the swimming pool and is mistaken for a “doodie”!
Scott,
That would be so GROSS!!! @.@
It’s where’s Wally here. Used to enjoy it. XD
It is “Where’s Wally?” here in Oz too. Some interesting odds and ends:
In Japan the book title “Where’s Wally?” actually translates as “Finding Wally” 「ウォーリーをさがせ!」(sounds a bit like “Finding Nemo”).
Wally in katakana is ウォーリー which converts back into romaji to something like wōrī. ウォーリー (or wōrī) is also the same name/spelling for Wall-E. Where’s Waaaaaaaall-E?
Don`t knock it til you try it Lena! lol
How is that relaxing? Shoulder-to-shoulder with a thousand people. Not to mention that I doubt someone in the middle would bother to leave the pool to pee! Ewwwww
Curious as to how many people drown there every year. Must be easy to get stuck under someone in the Mexican Wave?
That’s not what you said at last year’s Gay Mardi Gras when you were shoulder-to-shoulder with a thousand naked men.
Dude, i run a hotdog stand,…i sell to anyone and everyone
Isn’t this how you served your hot dogs that night?
Only for the ladiesssssssssssssssssssssss ;o)
looks like a wet version of a mexican wave
here are some amigos waving, couldn’t find a wet version of them though.
Snickers bar gag is a classic from Bill Murray in ‘Caddyshack’. Yes, I know most of you were not yet born when it came out.
I once went to a ‘flowing pool’ in the summer. Just as crowded, but you float along a concrete river and keep coming back where you started. There is a Japanese expression, which includes the word ‘imo’, but I have otherwise forgotten, that means something like washing potatoes in a pot, that refers to these pools in summer. Wicked dangerous for kids, but so are the trains at rush hour. Clearly there is no enforcement of the fire-code against crowding. Amazing there are not more mass trampling deaths here.
Thanks for dropping by Mr. S. I think the term you are looking for is “imo-arai”「イモ洗い」— like washing potatoes in a sink. And thanks for the point towards the classic scene from Caddyshack. Here it is here:
Just looking at the pictures makes me have trouble breathing. Just could not do it. Too many people. Can’t see anyone really being able to relax. (Afraid to press “play” and actually watch the video)
I’m hearin’ ya Will. I can’t see how it would be enjoyable either. Although, I feel more claustrophobic thinking about being crammed onto a train like in this video.
Looks like a lot of fun if you have kids.
Imagine trying to find your kids when it was time to go home.
Great re-post… and what a fantastic way to spend the summer. Nothing like the peace and quiet of a summer’s swim. Floaters or not. Just another indicator of just how immune the Japanese are to the slings and arrows (let alone pain and annoyance) of a packed wave pool.
Kinda sad… but right now I’m stuck in a cold, dreary Adelaide saturday. Hmmm… where would I rather be?
Thanks AB. I’m suffering the bitter coldness of the wintry southern hemisphere as well, which made it difficult to think about “Hot Fun in the Summertime”. This post is actually a re-write, more than a re-post. My first attempt entitled “Chikan Paradise” was fairly lame in retrospect. Loco’s carnival gave me the opportunity to dust it off and spruce it up a little.
Very surreal and hard to believe it could be that crowded!!
Japan Australia
I am not sure how enjoyable it would be squashed into a pool crowded with people and big inflatable pool rings. It must have been a hot day that day!
Reesan…you once talked about a naked pool party you and your all-male netball team went to after you guys had all been to get special rings inserted on parts of your body from the tattoo parlour. But you seemed pretty comfortable then??
scotty, where’s this coming from? did you have one of your erotic dreams again?
No, just repeating the netball pool party you told me. Do you regret it all now? Just be who you are dude, don’t worry what people think
You sure this is not just another one of your fantasies? I won’t judge you if it is.
‘Dis shit ain’t fo’real. It’s all ‘dat photoshop bullshit!
it looks legit to me bro. otherwise the embedded video would have to be photoshopped as well. unlikely.
Word bro! Fo` shizzle. I love your mix of African-American slang with super-correct English punctuation. You`re like an academic Tupac! I could just see Tupac teaching at Harvard, “Word! Your thesis is da bomb ma` nigga! Buts if ju plagarize one more times i`m a gonna pop a cap in your ass foo!”
To pimp, or not to pimp, that is the question.