Japanese amusement park urges riders to ‘scream inside your heart’

TOKYO — The Fuji-Q Highland amusement park near Tokyo is asking its roller coaster riders to keep their mouths shut.

As NPR and other national and international news sources have reported, the park is asking its visitors to not scream out loud but instead, “Please scream inside your heart.”

The request is all about reducing the spread of the coronavirus. And to show park goers they can indeed stifle screams, Fuji-Q released a YouTube video of two straight-faced executives, both wearing masks, remaining silent while they riding the park’s main attraction, the Fujiyama roller coaster.

According to Agence France-Presse, the no-screaming rule was one of several recommendations Japanese amusement park operators released in late May as the country was beginning to reopen after shutting down due to the coronavirus. The guidelines even urge thrill-seekers to “refrain from vocalizing loudly” to avoid spreading droplets of the virus.

Several park-goers, however, have called the request unrealistic, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. One visitor at Tokyo Disneyland told the Journal he thought it was “too strict.”

“If a scream comes out, it comes out,” he said.

Japan has had a little more than 20,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 982 deaths due to the virus.

The video of the roller coaster demonstration is available on YouTube. Just search for “Scream inside your heart.”

Agence France-Presse reported one Twitter user who saw the video made this comment: “Literally the best description of 2020 I’ve ever read: please scream inside your heart.”

But Iceland says scream your heart out

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — Need to relieve some stress? Iceland does not want you to stifle your screams but instead wants to hear them.

The public-private partnership Promote Iceland, which encourages tourism to the Nordic country, is encouraging people to scream to relieve pent up frustration, according to CBS News. And you don’t even have to travel to Iceland to participate.

“Looks like you’ve been through a lot,” according to an ad for the campaign. “It looks like you need to let it out. It looks like you need Iceland. Record your scream from anywhere in the world at http://lookslikeyouneediceland.com and we’ll release it in Iceland. You’ll feel better, we promise!

According to a news release, the speakers are at seven locations across Iceland, and participants even receive a video of their scream as it blares from one of the locations.

Exploding whale gets mascot and a park

FLORENCE — The city of Florence’s November 1970 exploding whale fiasco — when the local powers that be blew up an 8-ton decaying whale on the beach to get rid of it — never seems to go quietly into that good night.

Any time some poor whale washes up somewhere, people envision chunks of decomposing blubber flying through the air, pelting cars and fleeing bystanders. To quote KATU anchor Paul Linnman, “The blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds.”

The anniversary of the debacle makes the news every year, and there’s even a website, theexplodingwhale.com, celebrating the event, featuring the original KATU video of the explosion.

Now, a park near the beach where the 1970 whale washed up has recently been officially named Exploding Whale Memorial Park, according to LiveScience.com.

The park has a spiffy new sign, and even a mascot, Flo the Whale, which a local resident created to commemorate the upcoming 50th anniversary of the “blasted blubber” event.

And the whale’s explosive legacy lives on. With benches.