Japan Theme Park Asks Roller Coaster Riders To 'Scream Inside Your Heart'

A theme park in Japan has inadvertently given us a pandemic mantra we had no idea we needed

It’s been months since we started living the quarantine life and in recent weeks, as several states experience astronomical rises in coronavirus cases, it’s hard to imagine an end to our pandemic sorrows. Life is weird, the president is absolutely zero help, and we’re not even sure if our kids can safely return to school. That’s why the advice a theme park in Japan is giving its guests to help curb spread of the virus is now our new mantra — “please scream inside your heart.”

All day every day, yo.

So as researchers have begun to put together the pieces of the pandemic puzzle, they’re discovered that coronavirus, which is spread via respiratory droplet, spreads more easily when people are screaming, singing, or talking loudly. To that end, the Fuji-Q Highland amusement park has advised parkgoers to instead “scream inside your heart” on roller coasters instead of screaming out loud.

According to the Wall Street Journal, park executives released a video to prove that it’s actually not all that hard to do. Because of course, people were upset that they couldn’t shriek to their heart’s content. “We received complaints that the theme park association’s request to not make loud noises was impossible and too strict. That’s why we decided to release the video,” a Fuji-Q spokesman said.

The sight of these two straight-faced businessmen riding the coaster without making a peep is certainly funny, but as I think of my own life since the middle of March, I find it intensely.. relatable? I’ve been working from home, which I have done for years, but for four months now I’ve done it with two perpetually “bored” tweens buzzing around me and a husband also working from home. A husband who usually works in an office and kids who usually go to school. All home wrecking my usual sanity and silence as I go about my work day.

I’ve pretty much been screaming inside my heart ever since my husband and his giant computer monitor invaded my adorable and girly office that I just finished decorating before coronavirus hit (we bought a new home recently). So after six years of working from home from my kitchen table, I finally had an office. And now, my loud husband is in it, eating burritos while taking conference calls all day and I’m stuck out in the kitchen again watching my 11-year-old make a boxed macaroni and cheese mess while my 12-year-old cries that she misses her softball friends.

The heart-screaming is very loud these days, y’all.

So while it was intended to be good advice to keep people healthy and safe mid-pandemic, it also spoke to me in a very real way. I will now be getting “scream from inside your heart” tattooed on my forehead so everyone I encounter knows exactly what the hell they’re dealing with.