Foreigner Skinny-Dips at the Imperial Palace: Why?

Have you heard about the crazy gaijin-related incident that happened today? I wouldn’t be surprised if you have; it’s getting a ton of media coverage at the moment. Rightly so, too, as this level of crazy deserves talking about. If you haven’t, here’s a quick run-down of the events that took place:

Apparently, a British man was visinging the Japanese Imperial Palace (皇居 or kouyo) with a Spanish tour group this morning when he decided to take a brisk swim in the palace’s moat, possibly to retrieve someone’s bag that had fallen in. When workers tried to approach the man (via rowboat) to tell him to knock it off, instead of complying, he threw largish rocks at them and swam off. Eventually he became such a nuisance that 50 law enforcers were called in to apprehend him with a motley collection of ballistic shields, safety barriers, and whatever other stick-like things were handy. And, if that’s not ridiculous enough for you, palace officials felt it necessary to report that “the Emperor was in the palace, but it was unlikely he saw the nude swimmer”.

So my question to you guys is: Why do you think he did it? Is he just crazy, confused, and foreign, or is there another possible explanation for his behavior? Share your theories with us!

  • Nelore

    Oh yeah, I've heard about this.

    “Why do you think he did it? Is he just crazy, confused, and foreign, or is there another possible explanation for his behavior? Share your theories with us!”

    Err…Erin…I really don't know if there's an explanation for this… >_<

  • moshi_moshi

    OMG?! What the hell? I feel so guilty for being a foreigner…:(

    Thanks anyway, Erin! xo

  • http://www.vietamins.com Viet

    In the US the guy would have been tasered and it would have only taken one law enforcer to do it.

  • ghindo

    Holy shit, this is hilarious. Both stills are priceless.

  • Joe

    Oh he had to be british!

    you sure about that, because everywhere else said spanish?

    but really it was f'in hilairious how the police all ran away from him, he's fat and naked, tackle him!

  • mmnessa

    he's hawt. that's why lol

    look at his baldness, poor chap, I'm sure he just got carried away….
    or he's completely insane.

  • entherie

    This is one of those “What was he thinking?!” moments that no one can really explain. Although, I thought it was fairly amusing when I was watching the video.

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    Haha, that must be why.

    He was just overflowing with hotness!

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    He is a British guy who lives in Spain, I think.

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    They're big on teamwork and non-violence in Japan, I guess.

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin
  • Caro

    seeing this man like that has made me nauseous.And makes me embarrassed for being a foreigner

  • Mrwindupbird

    Hmm, I'm sure this isn't helping the image of foreigners in Japan. Creepy looking guy too o.0

  • emiko

    umm . . . i feel sorry for that guy

    maybe he was just having a moment?

  • WOTDsctoo

    That…..was some of the wierdest crap I've seen ever.
    Like seriously…..what in the world???

    Yea…so as for an explanation…:
    Alien abduction. Mmmm.

  • http://omareduardo.com/blog/ omareduardo

    wooo… that was just wrong… and weird. no one deserves to see such a thing walking around naked. seriousssllyyy.

    きれいじゃないねえ!その外人は怖いだと思います。

  • Tonio

    wow…. no matter what he was thinking, i still don't see how he could arrive to thinking that was a good idea.

  • http://www.thegue.com Captain_Ron

    Uncle Fester???

  • http://www.tofugu.com koichi

    hahahaha. So true. So accurate. Poor guy.

  • http://youtube.com/thenoel TheNoel

    Both the videos you linked to are down.
    Is FNN no longer reporting this story?

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin
  • http://youtube.com/thenoel TheNoel

    Thanks. :D

  • Livvi_Spatula

    I think I can honestly say the quality of my life was significantly better before I saw that. Thanks so much. I'm gonna go sterilize my eyes now.

    He obviously did it for the media coverage, because dating websites just weren't getting him the results he wanted.

  • Jomann

    damn it, these guys are gonna make it so that on one can goto japan anymore, and i havent even gone yet!!

  • http://www.luiyuming.com astrorainfall

    LOL! He was outta his mind! I laughed out loud at 50 law enforcement officers needed to apprehend this Brit guy.

  • Lemmy Caution

    In either the US or the UK, if he were near the Royal Palace or the White House or 10 Downing Street and then took a swing at the cops like that, he'd either be badly beaten or shot dead.

  • http://x-aichaku.blogspot.com Mai

    LOL! Thats silly.

  • Chimiko

    Weird.. O_O

  • Satsami

    oh. my. goodness.
    ah, the luxury life of the Brits…

  • http://youtube.com/ch1ka ch1ka

    Ye us brits do this on a regular basis 8)
    if u enjoyed this video come check out hyde park ;)

    oh and doesnt he just look like a hairless hamster
    http://www.hamsterific.com/HamsterUniversity/im

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    He's definitely not as cute as a hairless hamster.

    I like naked guinea pigs better, though.

  • http://www.kathyskids.org Ms. Kathy

    The guy is obviously metally ill and quite delusional–which has nothing to do with where he came from as assuming THAT is a form of prejudice. Mental delusions can come from anywhere—from biological abnormalities to drug induced mania. Those of you claiming to be ashamed to be “foreign” because of the actions of another have your own codependency issues. You should only be embarrassed by your own actions. With that said, although it is hilarious seeing the police run from a naked man–it is sad that he is mentally ill.

  • Jennifer

    Ugh *buries face in hands*. This makes me sooooo embarrassed to be a gaijin in Japan right now.

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    Just to clarify, this article wasn't meant to be prejudiced against foreigners. I discussed it because a) it's obvious that he is a foreigner from the pictures, and I was sure people would want to know where he was from and b) because if he wasn't mentally unsound (which it has subsequently been found that he is) his being foreign might account for him not knowing just how bad of an idea it is to swim naked in front of the emperor's house. I agree with your point completely.

  • http://itchysoles.blogspot.com micah

    that's the funniest thing I have seen all week, the police backing away from a fat naked gaijin. I would love to buy him a drink.

  • Alexis olson

    Well to start, being an amerikajin who is about to travel to Japan for 5 months of foreign exchange, I would just like to thank this man for making the impression that some Japanese people have of gaijin being troublesome even stronger than it already was. There is the possibility that he was doing this for a TV show. I know Jackass filmed an episode in Japan, just to see what the reactions of their crazy stunts would be like from Japanese people who had never heard of them. But even if this was for the sake of television, he definitely took it way too far. Or who knows, he could just be plain crazy,

  • mistawang

    Hey I was wondering if any one of you guys (on the Tofugu staff) could take a look at this video I found of Shoko Nakagawa eating her cats' faces…I found it kind of disturbing, but I guess she had no problem with it. Is there a term for this practice, and is it exclusive to Shoko, or does everyone do it in Japan? Please and thank you :].
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75y2hp_ohK8

  • Jessica

    hahaha!!! thank God for tasers! ……maybe the police force thought going old-school with shields would be better on camera!!!…lol….and the cellulite was killer for the ladies to see!!!

  • http://spacejay4000.livejournal.com/profile spacejay4000

    i wonder if he had always wanted to swim in the moat, pond or whatever in front of the buckingham palace (if it had one) and the one in front of the emperor's palace was close enough to fulfill his dreams! maybe he also thought he could get away with it while he was in japan than in his home country.

    bakana eikokumin!

  • Digijere

    I love the photo. All the Japanese are completely shocked, and there is one foreigner laughing in the background.

  • http://kristomerta.blogspot.com/ Kristofer

    Hi, umm… the confusion English/Spanish is because although he is English, he actually works in Spain (and I think he has Spanish family somewhere, so he could be half Spanish).
    I know this because he happens (or happened) to work in Mallorca (where I live), along with a friend of mine. As far as I've heard, the guy is on some sort of medication, so isn't too right to begin with, and at the moment that happened, HIS luggage was the one that ended up in the water, so it must have been… somewhat shocking for him. Apparently he suffered from depression, but after seeing the videos, I suppose something else was going wrong too…

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    Thanks for sharing that with us!

  • altonet

    Strangely enough he reminds me of Golem in, Lord of the rings 0.0

  • Nujabes

    lol wow thats some crazy stuff there. I feel somewhat bad for the lad, but still why did he have to go commando (go out nude)when he could have worn his under garments? I suppose that his luggage was very important that he just immediately went into action without having it thought out thorougly.

    Well thanks for posting up this interesting story, Erin =)

  • Zuzu

    um….the answer is who WOULDN'T do this.
    I mean a bath in the imperial palace. I'm in.

    (joke)

  • LovelyMystery

    wow….thats just sooo wrong! and disgusting …ugh! I would run away from that too! Nobody wants to see a naked fat man ! But I dont know whythat would take so many people ? IN US…the would have just got him and BAM! done…..
    But I wanna go to Japan so much better than America, Im getting bored here and Japan is so modern and advanceedd in technology ! ITs a country of entertainment XD

  • Anonymous

    haha

  • http://safebathroom.info Bathroom Grab Bars

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  • acjama

    Looking all that cellulite the one US law enforcer might have had to use 50 tazers to do he job.

    Perhaps the 50 japanese colleagues were there to carry him off the site.

  • ihaXsakito

    well look at the bright side at least he wasn't American