Visitors take a ride on a rollercoaster at the Toshimaen amusement park in Tokyo on July 13, 2020. (Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP)
TOKYO鈥揑t might be the unlikeliest instructional video ever, but footage of two Japanese amusement park executives demonstrating how to 鈥渟cream inside your heart鈥� to avoid spreading COVID-19 while on a rollercoaster has been a roaring success.
鈥淣ow our customers stay silent while riding on rollercoasters,鈥� a spokeswoman for amusement park operator Fujikyuko told AFP, after the video on riding etiquette for the coronavirus era went viral.
The video features the executives, one in a full suit and tie, the other in a shirt and bowtie, sitting stiffbacked and straightfaced in silence, with only the only sounds coming from the whipping of the wind and the grinding of the rollercoaster.
As they plunge downwards, one executive serenely readjusts his hair, and his facemask, but both otherwise remain stoically silent, even as they sway violently in the coaster car.
At the end of the ride, one man lifts his hands off the seat handles, visibly trembling. A black screen follows featuring advice that some social media users have dubbed a slogan for 2020: 鈥渟cream inside your heart.鈥�
The video was first posted last month, as coronavirus restrictions eased and reopening theme parks asked visitors to avoid screaming and keep social distance.
鈥淓ven though the amusement park association鈥檚 guidelines ask you to 鈥榬efrain from speaking loudly鈥� we have received complaints it is 鈥榙ifficult鈥� or 鈥榠mpossible鈥�, so Fujikyu Highland offers a good example,鈥� the operator said on its website with the video.
It promised customers who could keep their screams silent would get a discount on photos taken of them on the park鈥檚 signature Fujiyama coaster, which plunges riders from a height of more than 71 meters.
On Twitter, the footage delighted viewers in Japan and around the world.
鈥淭his video is great fun,鈥� one Japanese user wrote. Others lauded the theme park for inadvertently summarising the way many have felt after months of the coronavirus pandemic.
鈥淟iterally the best description of 2020 I鈥檝e ever read: please scream inside your heart,鈥� one Twitter user wrote.