A Reporter Tried Drunk Driving at a Driving School for the News. Her Face Stole the Show.

What's going on

Okinawa has long had one of the worst drunk-driving records among Japan's prefectures, and local TV stations there regularly run campaigns against it. For one such segment, a news station in Okinawa sent a young reporter to a driving school, had her drink, and then put her behind the wheel of a training car on the school's closed course, with an instructor in the passenger seat.

The point was serious: to show, on camera, how alcohol wrecks your driving even when you feel fine. The on-screen captions were serious too. But the stills that spread online told a slightly different story. There was the amount she drank in an hour, there was her calm assurance that she was only "tipsy," and above all there was her face once she started driving.

Here is the news segment itself, followed by the reactions. The captions in the screenshots are translated inside the comments.

Comments

This is exactly the kind of thing I’m on Twitter for

(Captions. Banner on both shots: “Reporter tries drunk driving / Don’t drive after drinking. No exceptions.” Shot 1, the reporter: “I’m feeling a little tipsy right now, but I’m confident in my driving.” Shot 2, the narration: “Couldn’t even tell right from left anymore.”)

こういうのに出会うためにTwitterやってる

@kimsatoru · View on X

Wow, everyone’s buying this even though it’s obviously AI.

…is what I thought, until it turned out to be real…

AIなのにみんな信じてるんだ。って思ったら本当だった…

Not sure I’m allowed to laugh at this, but my gums came all the way out (Japanese net slang for grinning so hard your gums show.)

笑って良いのかわからんが、めちゃくちゃ歯茎でた

Seriously, watch the video. It’s turned into something genuinely funny

マジで動画観た方がいいガチでオモロいもんになってる

That face is the correct answer

表情が正解

Way too much energy in this shot

躍動感ありすぎる

I love the second pic way too much

二枚目の画像好きすぎるな

Trying to laugh without making a sound in class rn

教室で声殺して笑っている

The reporter’s charming, but the instructor in pic 2 has a great face too, it’s funny

記者さんもチャーミングだけど2枚目の教官もいい顔してておもろい

The old guy and the young lady both look like they’re having fun lol

おっちゃんもねーちゃんも楽しそうで草

Pic 2 is Kei Yasuda (a former member of the idol group Morning Musume.)

2枚目保田圭

That’s an action-movie face

アクション映画並の表情

Somebody please photoshop a Mad Max background into pic 2

2枚目にマッドマックスの背景合成してくれ

T-tipsy……???

(Caption: “Reporter Nakamura: four cans of beer and four mini cups of wine in one hour.”)

ほ、ほろ酔い……？？？

@ichika_21 · View on X

Watched it, and this woman can hold her liquor ridiculously well, I laughed

みたけどこの人アホ酒強くてわらった

Given how much she drank, there’s no way that’s just “tipsy”…

飲んでる量考えたらほろ酔いで済むわけないんだがなぁ

She got through 4 cans of beer and wine on top of that in one hour. That’s just a heavy drinker

この人一時間でビール4缶にワインまで飲んでて普通に酒豪

Four beers and four wines and she’s “tipsy”…⁉️

ビール4杯ワイン4杯でほろ酔い...⁉️

The way this young lady knocks them back is also very fine indeed, it actually stirred something in me. Bold.

このお嬢さん、飲みっぷりも非常によろしくてグッと来るものがあった。豪快。

She’s way too much of an “interesting woman” (おもしれー女, “what an interesting woman,” is a stock line from shoujo manga, where the aloof hero says it about the heroine. Online it’s used for any woman who does something delightfully unexpected.)

おもしれー女すぎる

A certified interesting woman

ガチのおもしれー女

A face like this on the news is, any way you look at it, the face of someone being reported on, not reporting 😂

ニュースでこの表情が映るの、どう考えても報道される側😂

And so the world gains yet another meme template

新たな素材がまた世界に生まれた

So even someone this cute can become a meme

こんな可愛い人でもネットミームになるんだ

Hands-on sessions and classes like this should absolutely be a thing, for cars and bikes both

こういう体験とか講習って車も自転車も絶対やった方が良い

I was thinking they should get more people to try drunk driving like this, but the instructors would be on edge the whole time

飲酒運転体験、積極的にさせるべきではと思ったけど、教官は気が気じゃないだろうしな

Absolutely never in real life, but honestly I’d like to try one of these sessions

リアルではダメ絶対だけどこういう体験会は正直やってみたい

My take

"If you drink, don't drive. If you drive, don't drink." Let's all take that to heart and put an end to drunk driving. That said, what a face.

Source & translation note

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

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