Japanese man pops ‘candy’ into his mouth; to his shock, it expands to become a towel
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Mr Kappon posted a photo of a compressed towel along with 3 candies on social media.
PHOTO: KAPPON/TWITTER
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The weather was hot when a Japanese man visited his friend at his home earlier in August.
As a token of appreciation for the visit, the friend gave the man, identified as Mr Kappon by Japanese media, five “salt candies”, which are meant to prevent heatstroke.
When Mr Kappon got home later, he took one of the “candies”, which were packaged like sweets, and put it in his mouth.
“I thought it was strange because the tablet got bigger and bigger as my saliva was absorbed, so I took it out of my mouth and found that it was a paper towel,” said Mr Kappon, in a report by Japanese news outlet Netorabo on Tuesday.
He later realised that two of the “candies” were compressed towels – compact paper towels bought from the Daiso lifestyle goods chain in Japan – which will expand after coming into contact with liquid.
“I thought it was a prank by my friend,” Mr Kappon was quoted as saying in the report. But his friend denied pulling a fast one on Mr Kappon, and said that the candies and compressed towels must have been accidentally mixed together.
On Aug 17, Mr Kappon posted a photo of salt candies given by his friend along with one compressed towel, which is hardly distinguishable from the candies. The post now has over 5.8 million views, over 58,200 likes and 532 quotes.
Many netizens who commented on the post said that they could not tell the compressed towel apart from the candies because it was packaged like candy.
One netizen said that such a design is “bad” and “dangerous” as not everyone will realise that the “candy” is a compressed towel. Another netizen said the compressed towel is “so small” and is “likely to be mistaken for a tablet”.
Mr Kappon took the comments light-heartedly and replied in jest.
“I didn’t know because it’s packaged like Ramune (a soda-flavoured candy in Japan)... I got goosebumps the moment I put it in my mouth,” he said.
Nonetheless, Mr Kappon cautioned netizens to be careful of what they eat.
“Even as an adult, I put it (the compressed towel) in my mouth without hesitation, so it’s better not to bring it into a house where there are infants or the elderly,” he added.
