A 6-Year-Old Got a Calpis and Decided to Savor It — With Three Straws Joined End to End

What's going on

Calpis is a Japanese soft drink that has been around for over a century — a sweet, slightly tart, milky concentrate that you dilute with water before drinking. Plenty of households keep a bottle in the fridge through the summer, and for a lot of children it lands in that small category of drinks that count as a treat rather than a default. Being handed one is an occasion.

A mother bought her six-year-old son a Calpis, and he announced that this time he intended to savor it for longer than usual. His method was to join three straws end to end into one very long straw, and then begin drinking through it. Her post is a photograph of the result and a short, weary observation about boys.

The replies arrive in two waves. The first is grown men confirming that yes, they did this, and describing precisely how it went wrong — air leaking in at the joints, sticky desks, one high schooler nearly drowning in a school cafeteria. The second is people arguing that this is not foolishness at all but the raw material of invention, and that the parent who handed over three straws without objecting deserves some credit too.

Comments

Bought my 6-year-old a Calpis and he was over the moon. He announced he was going to savor it for longer than usual, joined three straws into one giant mega-straw, and started drinking. Boys really, truly are idiots.

カルピスを買ってもらって大喜びの6歳、「いつもより長く味わって飲む」とストローを3つ繋げた超ロングストローを作って飲み出し、本当に、本当に男の子ってアホやなって思いました。

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That is not what savoring it means 🤣

長く味わうの意味🤣

Long stroke on that one.

ストローク長いな

The Japanese word for straw is sutorō. Add one more character and it becomes sutorōku — “stroke.” The joke is that the boy’s straw is one syllable away from being a very long stroke.

That’s the thing from Tom and Jerry.

トムとジェリーで見たやつだ

A straw I’ve only ever seen in Tom and Jerry (laughs)

トムとジェリーでしか見たことないストロー(笑)

There was a TV segment years ago testing whether you could suck a McDonald’s shake up to the second floor through joined straws.

昔テレビで繋げたストローで二階までマックシェイクを吸えるかって企画あったね

I wonder if he actually managed to drink it 😁

うまくのめたかな〜😁

Looks like fun.

楽しそうです。

Looks fun, that’s nice. I hope he enjoys childhood to the fullest.

楽しそうでいいねえ。子ども時代思いっきり楽しんで欲しい。

Yes, more of this please. Calpis is good stuff!

こういうのください。カルピスはいいよな！

Wow, so this is universal…. (This reply was written in Korean.)

와 이게 만국공통이었다니....

Anyone else done this 🙋‍♀️

やったことある人〜🙋‍♀️

Boy brains haven’t changed at all since 40 years ago (me) lol

男児の思考、40年前(俺)と変わってないw

Pretty sure most boys have done this. And then air gets in at the joints and you’re disappointed.

大抵の男の子はやってるんじゃないかなそして継ぎ目から空気が入ってがっかりする

I foresee a future in which it leaks at the joints and the desk ends up thoroughly sticky. Or perhaps I foresee no such thing, verily.

結合部から漏れ出して机ベッタベッタになる未来が見えたり見えなかったりするでござる

A 6-year-old so happy about getting a Calpis that he builds a mega-straw — way too cute 🥹 Reminds me that my little brother used to join a bunch of straws together because drinking his juice normally felt like a waste (laughs)

6歳でカルピス買ってもらって嬉しすぎて超ロングストロー作っちゃうとか、可愛すぎるエピソードだわ🥹 うちの弟も昔、ジュース飲むの勿体なくてストロー何本も繋げてたの思い出した（笑）

Done it, done it. My three goofy boys did this as kids too! They joined straws and tried to suck it up from the top of the stairs 😆

やりましたやりました、我が家のおバカな三兄弟も子供の頃やりましたよ！階段の上から吸い上げるとストロー繋げてやってました😆

At 6 it’s cute. In high school there was a guy who tried it (a Keio kid), got air in the line, and was basically drowning in the cafeteria. (Keio is one of Japan’s most prestigious private universities, with an attached high school.)

6歳ならかわいい高校の時これやった男子(KO生)がいて、空気入ってカフェテリアで溺れてた

Either you crack up and spray it everywhere, or the straw kinks halfway and leaks all over, or you shove the cup over with the straw. It always comes as a set with one of those three lol

笑っちゃって吹き出すか途中ストローが折れて周りに漏れるかストローでコップを押して倒してしまうのどれかがワンセットですw

Reminds me of the roller-coaster-shaped mega straws they sold ages ago. The drink tasted special through those. I’m sure it did for this kid too.

大昔、ローラーコースターみたいな超ロングストローが売ってたのを思い出した格別な味がしたこの子もきっとそう

Honestly guys still do this past 20, and past 30 they’d probably bolt an engine onto it, so it’s not boys — men are idiots forever.

何なら20歳超えてもやるし30超えればここにエンジンとか付けかねないので、男の子ではなく男はずっとアホです

One correction: men keep this mentality until the day they die. Adults just hide it in public.

一つ間違いがある男は死ぬまでずっとこのメンタルですただ大人になると人前では隠してるだけ

My 4th-grade son drinks his juice, tops the cup back up with water, and celebrates — yesss, more juice! Doesn’t care that it’s watered down, what matters is volume. Boys really are idiots.

うちの小4男子、ジュース飲んで減った分水足してやったー！増えたー！って喜んでます。薄くなっても気にしない大事なのは量。男の子って本当にアホですね。

Genius!! Please raise that talent carefully ✨

天才！！この才能を大事にお育てください✨

But I feel like this sort of thing leads to some kind of flash of insight, and the parent who lets him use that many straws is lovely too… I’m small-minded so I’d probably hand over exactly one…

でもこういうことが何かのひらめきに繋がりそう〜と思ったし、ストローいっぱい使わせてくれるお家の方も素敵だな…わたしは心が狭いので1本しか渡さないかもしれない…

It looks dumb, but the idea plus actually going through with it is impressive! Being able to stretch “drinking a Calpis” into something this fun is a really good thing.

アホっぽいけど発想と実行に移す行動力すごいよ！カルピス飲むだけの事をこれだけ楽しく広げられるのめちゃめちゃいい事だと思う

There’s learning and there are memories you can only get by pouring effort and time into stupid things — things where failing costs nothing and you can just try again. Says my inner former boy, remembering.

労力と時間をかけてバカなこと（失敗しても問題無いしリトライもできること）をすることからでしか得られない学びと思い出があるんすよねぇと元男児の思い出が蘇ります

Too cute, and I’d honestly say ideas like this are what move humanity along 😂

かわいすぎるし、こういう発想が人類の発展に繋がるとさえ思います😂

It looks silly at a glance, but this kind of imagination is where inventions and discoveries can come from, so the instinct might be an important one 😊

こういうの一見アホみたいに見えるけど、こういう発想力からいろんな発明や発見に繋がる可能性があるのでこの感性って大事かも、と思います😊

We did this as a physics experiment. Feeling for yourself how much harder you have to suck as it gets longer was fun.

これ物理の実験でやったことある長くなるほど強く吸わなきゃいけないことを体感して面白かった

So cute 😆 I think stacking up experiences like this while you’re little pays off for how you grow later. Good chance to learn that past a certain length you can’t drink at all.

かわいいな😆 小さい時にこうやって経験積むと後々の自分の成長にメリットあると思う長すぎると吸えなくなることを知るいいチャンスですね

Maybe Calpis gets treated as a slightly special drink? When I was a kid it was a luxury you only got through mid-year gift season (Chūgen is a midsummer custom of sending gifts to people you’re indebted to; boxed drinks are a classic choice). Maybe this kid is a science type — I hope he puts that flexible head to use on inventions. Hope he got to enjoy it for a long time 🤭

カルピスがちょっと特別な飲料扱いなのかな私の子供の頃はお中元とかでしか飲めない贅沢品だったからね~ この子は理系かなにか、こういうアイデアで発明とか、やわらか頭を活かして欲しいな長く楽しめたかな🤭

And then — how much further can it go? A kid who keeps extending it, fails, and then digs into why it failed and what stopped the drink from coming up is not to be underestimated, because that leads to a good university later 🙂‍↔️ Rough on the parents though 💦

そして、更にどこまで伸ばせるか？長さを増やしていって失敗して、なぜ失敗したのか？飲めなくなった理由は何？まで突き詰める子は将来高学歴に繋がるから侮れない🙂‍↔️親は大変💦

A tiny king of inventors.

小さな発明王です

Men are creatures who get romantic about stupid things.

アホなことにロマンを馳せる生き物です。

My take

If it's funny and it's fun, that's all it needs to be.

#Funny #Parenting

Source & translation note

Comments loosely translated for tone. Reactions collected from Togetter and X threads.

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