‘Sibuyas’ Crossing: Onion in Tokyo amuses netizens, goes viral (yes, you read that right)

While some will spend their whole lives scrambling to get their 15 minutes of fame, one man proved that to go absolutely viral, all you need to do is commit in extraordinary fashion to a modestly amusing pun — in this case, holding up an onion (“sibuyas” in Filipino) while walking through Tokyo’s famed Shibuya Crossing.

(Get it? Sibuyas… Shibuya… Credit where credit’s due, it’s a pretty decent pun.)

Entrepreneur Reece Hugo, who was visiting Japan for the first time, posted his video titled “Shibuyas Crossing” on Friday, and since then, it has been shared almost 3,200 times and has attracted nearly 185,000 views.

Shibuya Crossing, for those who aren’t familiar, is a sprawling, Times Square-esque Tokyo landmark located next to Shibuya station, and is said to be the busiest pedestrian crossing in the world.

To fully appreciate the joke, here’s the video, which many netizens thought was hilarious.

Hugo, 31, told Coconuts Manila in an interview on Facebook Messenger that he found the whole idea funny.

“Shibuya and sibuyas sounded the same. Then crossing is literally the onion crossing,” he said.

He added that, for the most part, the people walking around him ignored his bizarre behavior (there’s that famed Japanese politeness for you), but “some people were avoiding me.”

Hugo said this wasn’t the first time that one of his posts has gone viral. “Actually, I’ve had a couple of viral posts before. So I was quite hoping that this video would go viral too, haha.”

Well, congratulations, Hugo. You nailed it.

Judging by the comments, people were in hysterics over the video, with one so overcome with amusement, he pronounced himself “DEAD.” One user, however, a Paul Teope, lamented that Hugo had beaten him to the punch(line).

“[A]pparently, someone has already thought of my plan,” he said. “I should think of something else.”

Image: Reece Hugo/FB
Image: Reece Hugo/FB

Have you seen other hilarious videos? Tell us by leaving a comment below or tweet to @CoconutsManila.

Read more Coconuts Manila articles here.



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