Samの英語チャンネル

Hokkaido’s capital city gets a whole day’s worth of craziness in before noon.

Hokkaido often has an image as Japan’s untamed northern wilderness, but the prefectural capital of Sapporo is a city of nearly two million people. So when a bear made its way into a residential/commercial neighborhood in the city’s Higashi Ward on the morning of June 18, residents were spooked, and with good reason.

18日朝早く、札幌市東区の市街地にクマが出没し、警察によりますと、これまでに4人が襲われるなどしてけがをし手当てを受けているということです。https://t.co/Ke9blYLQZQ pic.twitter.com/VRZ4ZgP9V6

— NHKニュース (@nhk_news) June 18, 2021

The first reported sighting was made around 3:30 a.m., and at approximately 6 o’clock the bear attacked a man in his 70s while he was putting out his trash, slashing his back with its claws. Within the next two hours, three other people, an 80-something woman and two men in their 40s, also sustained injuries in separate attacks by the same bear.

札幌市東区のクマ、これは怖い！普通にグラウンド歩いてる！！（7時頃栄南中グラウンドにて）熊 pic.twitter.com/J9M4VjWwrJ

— ま (@ujegTL13YlnTvpv) June 17, 2021

子どもの保育園のまん前に出た子どもは車から見てギャン泣き東区とは聞いてたけど…死ぬかとおもた#札幌市東区　#熊出没　#熊 pic.twitter.com/Dwis8KcNT7

— かな(^ω^) (@xv3vx) June 17, 2021

Sapporo’s morning weirdness for the day was just getting started, though. At the same time that the bear, a male estimated at between 1.5 and two meters (4.9 to 6.6 feet) in length was running around Higashi Ward, a naked man, of indeterminate length, was seen walking around the city’s Minami Ward.

▼ Though we suppose you could argue that wearing a mask means he wasn’t completely naked.

え、全裸？
え？？？？ pic.twitter.com/VojsSutXrX

— ゆーとぅー@FD2 (@Taka__iVTEC_FD2) June 17, 2021

Going for a stroll without your clothes is always a risky move, but doubly so when there’s a bear going around mauling people. And don’t let the different wards fool you, because the part of Higashi Ward where the bear was on the loose and the part of Minami Ward where the man was hanging loose aren’t all that far apart.

It’s not clear whether the man heard about the bear and then decided it was the perfect time for a naked walk (perhaps thinking that the added rush from the danger or the authorities’ attention being elsewhere meant he’d be more likely to get caught), or if this was just a crazy coincidence of two extremely good reasons for Sapporo’s residents to stay off the sidewalks occurring at the same time.

Eventually, though, a stop was put to both forays, as a local hunting organization that was called in shot and killed the bear, and the man was taken into custody by the police.

【速報2】全裸男性さんも、逝く pic.twitter.com/bEQWaHfhTE

— 滝沢ガレソ (@takigare3) June 18, 2021

Sadly, we have no advice for any bears that may be reading this, but as for the human part of Sapporo’s strange morning, all we can say is that if you’re going out, make sure to put on your clothes first. It’s mosquito season out there, and there are definitely places you don’t want to get bitten, plus getting picked up by the cops for indecent exposure is never a fun time (as we know from experience).

Source: NHK News Web, Yahoo! Japan News/Hokkaido UHB, Asahi Shimbun Digital, Hachima Kiko (1, 2)
Top image: Pakutaso
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Source: SORA NEWS24