What's going on
This is another case file from the long-running Japanese investigative show where ordinary people bring in their strangest, smallest, most personal problems and a team tries to actually solve them. This time the request comes from a woman in her fifties in Hyogo Prefecture. Until she was in high school, she could run down a flight of stairs without a second thought. Sometime in her twenties, that stopped being possible. By now, she can't get down a staircase at all unless she's gripping a handrail with both hands, and even then her knees shake and she has to go one slow step at a time. Some staircases she simply can't do — she just freezes in place.
It's the kind of thing that sounds almost too small to be a real problem: everyone else just walks down stairs. But for her it affects daily life constantly, especially when her hands are full and there's no rail to grab. Her stated dream is embarrassingly modest — to walk down a staircase holding a bag of snacks in each hand, like anyone else does without thinking. The show brings in movement specialists to work with her, and the comment section fills up fast with people recognizing themselves in her exact situation.
Comments
sometimes when you’re going down stairs, you suddenly just… lose it, your rhythm breaks and it gets scary
たまに階段降りてると、 急に訳分からなくてなってリズム崩れて怖くなる時あるよね
with this she’s basically ready to get booked on Mステ now (a long-running live Japanese music show)
これでMステ呼ばれても大丈夫だね
I fell on some stairs once too and ended up with a mild case of stair yips
自分も階段でコケてから軽い階段イップスなった事がある。
the casual talk here isn’t just casual, it’s like family-close casual, and that’s what makes it funny
タメ口の中でも家族みたいな距離の近さのタメ口でおもろい
Shimofuri Seiya listening to her like a son hearing out his mom lol
霜降りせいやが母親の話を聞く息子みたいで草
whether it’s mild or severe, the fear in a phobia is baseless and only the person feeling it really understands it. big applause to Ms. Kimura for pushing through that fear
軽度でも重度でも恐怖症の怖さは本人にしかわからない根拠のない恐怖です。恐怖の中で頑張られた木村さんに拍手を送りたいです。
yeah that’s the yips. it’s really rough
イップスだよなぁ。 結構、つらい
same thing happened to me with driving, completely out of nowhere. my leg started cramping up and I haven’t driven since. it was so sudden. even thinking about it now scares me. I got checked out but they couldn’t find a reason. it’s sad, but I figure it beats causing an accident, so I’ve made peace with it
私も急に運転できなくなってしまいました。 足が痙攣してしまい、それ以来は車に乗っていません 突然です。 思い出しても恐ろしいです。 検査もしましたが理由はわからないです 悲しいですが事故を起こすより、仕方ないと思って諦めています
stairs scare me too, I just want a handrail
私も階段怖いんですよ 手すりが欲しいの
this stairwell is the same filming location where they trained another requester who was ridiculously slow going UP the stairs lol
ここの階段ロケ地、階段登るのがクッソ遅くて悩んでる依頼者と訓練したところやw
the specialist turned out to be a totally different kind of specialist than I expected, I lost it
専門家が思ったのと違う方向の専門家でめちゃくちゃ笑ってしまった
I get it. right as my foot comes down, the step just disappears from view for a split second
分かる。自分の降りる足で一瞬だけ段差が見えなくなる。
with stuff like this, I feel like it’s less about the muscle training or balance drills and more about the confidence and sense of security you build from practicing together with people
こういうのって筋トレとかバランス練習とかいうより皆んなで練習して得られた自信とか安心感が大事なんだろうね
at sports festivals, going down the stairs carrying a chair at the same pace as everyone else genuinely terrified me — how does everyone else go that fast down stairs while holding a chair with both hands??
体育祭とかで椅子持ちながら周囲と同じ速度で階段を降りるのが本当に怖かったんだけど、なんでみんな両手で椅子持ちながらあんなに早く降りれるん？
I still have stair yips to this day. going down is the scary part
自分は今でも階段イップスです。降りるときが怖い。
I relate so hard… I lose track of where I even am
めちゃくちゃわかる…自分がどこにいるのかわからなくなる
thanks to this video I finally learned the word “yips” for whatever I’ve probably had for the past few months
この動画のおかげで数ヶ月前からおそらく罹ってだであろうイップスっていう言葉を知れた
I’ve got a squint so I really get this. I lose all sense of distance and the stairs basically vanish. I actually fell because of it and broke a bone
自分は斜視だから気持ちわかるなぁ 距離感わからなくなってまさに「階段が消える」 実際それでコケて骨折したもん
I was fine as a kid, but as an adult I started getting dizzy and my legs would suddenly buckle, so now I always use the handrail out of fear
こどもの頃は大丈夫だったけど、大人になってからめまいしたり足ガクッてなったり怖いから手すり持つようになった。
I get the fear
怖さは分かる
we’re laughing now but honestly this could easily be any of us once we’re old
今は笑ってるけど年寄りになったらこうなってもおかしくないと思う
not to this extent, but I get the feeling. going down stairs is scary
ここまでじゃないけど気持ち分かる。階段のくだりって怖い。
that first step onto a descending escalator is genuinely terrifying to me
エスカレーターの下りの一歩が本当に怖い。
opposite of the requester for me, going up is what scares me. it’s like a gestalt collapse where it all just stops making sense
依頼者と逆で登るのがちょっと怖い ゲシュタルト崩壊みたいな感じになって分からなくなる
literally exactly like the requester. going down without a handrail is terrifying, I get wobbly with every single step and lose track of where my foot’s supposed to land next
依頼者さんと全く同じだわ〜 下りの手すりなしの状態がめちゃくちゃ怖くて1歩1歩ふらふらになるし、次どこに足をつけばいいかわからなくなる
they said “carry your department store shopping bags” but then just handed her groceries and toilet paper lol
デパートで買い物した荷物を持って…と言っていたのに食料品とトイレットペーパー持たされたの笑ったw
look at you go, Yayoi-chan! so glad it worked out
弥生ちゃん出来るやん よかったね
temples up in the mountains have no handrails and the footing is all uneven stone, so if it’s raining, going down is legitimately terrifying
山にある寺とか行くと手すりなし、足場はガタガタな様々な石だから、雨降ってたりしたら降りる時本当に怖くなる。
I’m scared of going down stairs too. I have bad astigmatism so the edges of each step get blurry, and that fear is very relatable
私も階段降りるの怖い。酷い乱視で階段の段の境目が曖昧で怖いから気持ちわかる
not this bad for me either, but when I’m exhausted from work, I suddenly lose track of which foot goes next going down and miss a step, and it’s never really gone away since
私もここまでじゃないけど、仕事で疲れが溜まってたりしてたら、急に降りる時の足がどっちなのかわからなくなって踏み外して、そこから治らない
Fukutoku: “wait, why are you talking so casual to me” (a nod to a famous bit by the comedy duo Jarujaru)
福徳「なんでタメ口なん？」
opposite of her for me — I can’t go UP stairs, or more like partway up I suddenly get this feeling like the steps just vanish and I don’t know what to do with my feet… but weirdly, if I skip every other step, I can climb just fine. been like this for over 10 years now. so I think I get her fear
私、この方とは逆に階段が登れないというか、途中で急に段差が無くなる感覚になって、足をどうしていいのか分からなくなるんです… だけど一段飛ばしてなら上がれるという謎な状態が、もうかれこれ10年以上 だからこの方の怖いという感覚、分かる気がします
sounds like both the requester and you have the yips, huh
依頼者さんもコメ主さんもイップスですね
I’m scared of going down stairs too. mid-descent I lose my rhythm and nearly fall more times than I can count. there’s that scene early in Spirited Away where Chihiro goes down the long outdoor staircase at the bathhouse — I’ve had nightmares about falling down a long handrail-less staircase like that hundreds of times since I was a kid
私も下り階段は怖い。下りてる最中にリズムが分からなくなって落ちかけることもたびたび。千と千尋で、千尋が最初に湯屋の外階段を下りるけど、ああいう手すりのない長い階段から落ちる夢を子供のころから何百回と見てる。
kind of get it. when the steps and the edge dividers are the same color family, it triggers a total gestalt collapse for me
ちょっと分かる。段の色と仕切り？の色が同系色の階段はゲシュタルト崩壊する。
reading the comments, there are a lot of people with the same thing going on. it’s true — plenty of things most people can do without thinking, some of us just can’t, because of trauma or yips or whatever. Knight Scoop somehow has a pretty solid track record of fixing this kind of thing (even if the methods can be a bit extreme). simple thought, sorry, but I hope this video ends up helping even just one person struggling with something similar
コメント見てると同じ症状の方けっこういるんですね。 たしかに、多くの人が普通にできていることでも、トラウマやイップスなどでできないことありますよね。 ナイトスクープはこの手の矯正をなんだかんだ成功させているイメージあります。（荒療治もありますが） 単純な感想で申し訳ないですが、 この映像を参考にして苦しんでる人がひとりでも救われるといいなぁと思います。
I first got stair yips on the wide staircase at Shibuya Seibu’s B building (a major Tokyo department store), and ever since, wide staircases just look like plain stripes to me — I can’t tell where to put my foot, and on bad days even holding the handrail I can only go down super slow. really relate to how tough that is. fear is a gut feeling, so knowing logically that it’s not actually dangerous doesn’t help much. someone should really invent stair designs made specifically to help with stair yips — feels doable
私も渋谷西武のB館の広い階段で初めて階段イップスになって以来、広い階段がただのしましまにしか見えなくてどこに足を置けばいいかわからなくて酷い時は手すりにつかまってもゆっくりした降りられなかったからほんとつらさ分かる。 恐怖って感覚だから本当は危なくないとか怖くないとか頭で理解しても中々難しいよね。 階段イップス対策デザインの階段とか誰か開発してくれないかな？出来そうな気はするよ。
so psychosomatic stuff can actually be overcome with repeated practice. she was moving her body a lot during training so I was a little worried her legs would give out from fatigue, but she pulled it off beautifully!! amazing! also lol’d at the buff guy doing push-ups in the middle of it all 😂
心因性でも反復練習で克服出来ることもあるんですね。 練習で結構体を動かしていたので疲労で足が崩れないか心配して見てたけど見事克服！！素晴らしい！ 途中マッチョさんが腕立てしてて笑った😂
My take
This is what people call the "yips," I'd guess — but overcoming something that looks so simple from the outside takes real strength. I think she's genuinely tough.
Source & translation note
Comments loosely translated for tone. Reactions collected from Togetter and X threads.
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