シーズン22-11「ごいざガニ」

Pole Vaulting Looks Like a Completely Different Sport

The "Is it just me?" corner opened with a sharp observation: pole vaulting demands movements that you would never perform anywhere outside of pole vaulting itself. Running, throwing, lifting—the physical actions behind every other track event connect naturally to daily life and to other sports. Pole vaulting's technique is entirely self-contained, a closed world of its own.

Historically, the event is believed to have grown out of practical methods for crossing rivers and fences—a movement skill and, later, a military tactic. Early iterations in the 1800s used hard woods such as hickory and fir to clear roughly two to three meters. By the 1900s competitors had switched to bamboo, and today's fiberglass and carbon poles have pushed the world record to around six meters. The duo floated the idea that the scene in Kingdom where soldiers plant ladders against castle walls might be the closest ancestor. At combined athletics meets, where pole vault runs alongside track events, the bar juts so far above everything else that both hosts agreed it looks exactly like "a giraffe at the zoo."

The conversation drifted toward celebrities with pole vault backgrounds, naming Yamama no Kim-san (山間のキムさん), Ryudai-san from Prism Quiz Channel (プリズムクイズチャンネルのりゅうだいさん), and Hira-san from Azure 24 (アズール24のひらがさん)—all one school year senior to the pair.

The Rabbit After-Party That Went Until Morning

The episode moved into a story about an after-party for a show connected to Rabbit. It started around 7 p.m. Matsui left around midnight, but certain members kept going until 6 or 7 a.m. Kawashima was among them, occupying himself for the entire stretch by talking about udon. Ishida Akira (Double Akira), meanwhile, talked about nothing but Donbei instant noodles from start to finish.

The group also got into a genuine argument about Karl (カール) snacks. Karl is sold only in the Kansai region, and while people there know it primarily in its usu-aji (dashi-flavored) variety, people elsewhere picture the cheese flavor first—a gap in perception that produced real heat. At some point, Shimasa from New York simply could not bear the atmosphere any longer, shouted "Sorry!" and bolted from the room.

At a separate gathering, the group ran a gift exchange with a ¥20,000 ceiling. Sone-san (ギャルソネ) broke the rules immediately by bringing AirPods worth roughly ¥30,000. The caviar drawn by Sone-san that day became a problem because she cannot eat raw food, so she and Ishida settled the matter with a best-of-three janken match. Ishida offered to swap his large portable battery for it, making the contest genuinely close, but Sone ultimately won 3–1.

The Shocking Kanji Behind Maizuru's Premium Brand Crab

With Kawashima and Sonosama (そのさま) both Kyoto natives, the subject turned to a crab whose name sounds nothing like how it is written. "Taizagani" (タイザガニ)—the kanji is 対座, which no one reading those characters cold would ever pronounce as "taiza." The two were visibly stumped. Matsui worked through a string of guesses—"the tai from taida? The za from Zamami?"—and missed every time. It turned out that 対座ガニ is the brand name for the snow crab and matsuba crab landed at Daiza (大座) fishing port. A food expert had reportedly praised it in the highest terms, and both hosts agreed expectations were now very high.

"Okawari-kun": The Etymology Nobody Could Find

The duo had put a call out to listeners to trace the origin of the word "okawari" (food refill), because the nickname "Okawari-kun" only makes sense if you follow the chain: food refill → a dog offering first one paw then the other → "okawari-kun." Two theories came in. The first was a folktale: a powerfully built boy split a hill (oka / 丘) with an axe (massakari) to rescue a bear trapped inside and was celebrated by villagers as "oka-wari," with his swing later said to have driven the evolution of professional baseball. The second: a boy born the morning after a village shrine mysteriously vanished was named "Okawari-sama" by the villagers, eventually became Japan's foremost home-run hitter, and may or may not be connected to "Murakamisama"—the theory left that question open. Neither got anywhere near the actual etymology of food refills, and the duo lamented that not a single listener had sent in a serious response.

Movie Buzz and the "Don't Be Fooled" Corner

The film Wareware wa Uchuujin (Nothing New) (我々は宇宙人（ナッシングニュー）), which both hosts appeared in, has been receiving strong responses and generating messages from many directions. The story follows two high-school students named Tsubasa and Gyotaro. The film is connected to Hayashi Gentaro (林源太郎), who came from the same film circle as Shimoda-san (下田さん), a colleague of Kemuri-sensei (ケムリ先生).

The "Don't Be Fooled" (騙されないぞ) corner caught both hosts off guard with the information that Sakana-kun (魚君) is 51 and Sato Shiori (佐藤しおり) is 36—the 36 drawing an audible exclamation of disbelief. They also turned their skepticism on the label of the canned chu-hai "Minus 196 Degrees" (マイナス196度): at exactly what point in the manufacturing process does the liquid actually reach minus 196 degrees? A question, they concluded, that was hard to let go of once it had been raised.