this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2025
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The first Japanese man in space was sent up by the Soviets. He was a chain smoking, heavy drinking journalist sent up as a publicity stunt, and apparently he hated space. (hexbear.net)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Akiyama was not a trained astronaut, scientist nor engineer. During his time aboard Mir, Akiyama gave live reports each day documenting life aboard the station, but his apparent discomfort led to him being described as the first "antihero in space". He described his struggles such as space sickness and craving for cigarettes:During training, he quit smoking cigarettes, having previously smoked four packs a day. Before liftoff, when asked what he looked forward to most upon his return to Earth, he said "I can't wait to have a smoke". His fellow cosmonauts later reported, in regards to his nausea, that they "hadn't ever seen a man vomit that much."

Why has nobody made an anime about this guy???

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

The rocket that launched him into space:

Sony-et Union kelly

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago (1 children)

takes a drag from cigarette

"Fuck space."

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

obama-spike see-you-space-cowboy

[–] [email protected] 80 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

Four packs a day requires serious dedication. 3.3 cigarettes per hour every hour.

[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 day ago

Nah that's actually moderation for a Japanese boomer salaryman

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This lady I worked with taught herself circular breathing so she could smoke an entire cigarette in one long inhale. The breaks were really short.

She didn't know it was called circular breathing, or that you could use it to sing or play an instrument.. Just figured it out naturally by being a dedicated smoker.

As to Mr. Akiyama's 4 pack per day, do we know for sure how many were in a pack?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That has to be the most stressed women in existence

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago

she had her problems but had a naturally sunny disposition and was obviously pretty good at solving problems

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 day ago

Google just said 20 in a pack is standard to Japan, but I'm not sure about cigarettes in the 1980s.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

5 per waking hour, I knew someone like that also alcoholic (RIP)

[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 day ago (4 children)

This guy is somehow still alive at 82. My grandfather made it into his 90s drinking back-to-back 50:50 vodka/orange juice mixes for the entire waking day. Someone I know is dying in their early 50s despite being super active and taking every supplement known to man. I don't understand biology.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

Well drinking and smoking only increases the chances of cancer, it doesnt guarantee it, its simple RNG!! My Grandpa died due to muscle atrophy in his 50s, he was a lifelong jogger. Why? Because his daily jogging route took him along a nuclear plant or thats what people said.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 day ago

The first rule of biology is error bars

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Like seriously. If I smoke half a pack in a day I feel like absolute garbage.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I used to smoke half a pack a day and that was bad enough I had to be hospitalized for high blood pressure.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Dude was smoking 80 cigarettes per day lmaooooo this guy's lungs must have been pure tar

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Still alive at 82

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

incredible, those boomer lungs are simply built different. there's gotta be lead shielding in there or something

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago

All the asbestos filters out the tar

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 day ago (1 children)

All the germs get stuck in the tar pit and die.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Why has nobody made an anime about this guy???

Or any other type of show, you know how funny this could be. Just imagine tuning in to your weekly twenty minutes of vomiting-japanese-space-journalist with his very laconic Russian crew mates who roast him the entire time. The entire production is in Russian and Japanese, available with subtitles in Russian, Japanese and English, and it's closer to a sitcom than anything else.

Edit: And with a lot of USA roasting, naturally.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Let me honest if it was made by a known studio with a decent budget it would be the americans sending him into space and the soviets would be the bad guys

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 day ago

I've seen way more sympathetic presentations of Russians in anime than in western media.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 day ago (2 children)

With a bunch of flashback to him back on earth chain smoking and drinking. And actually enjoying life not being miserable. Then cut back to him vomiting in zero-g.

I’m guessing a lot of that was withdrawals more than the space itself. 🤷

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

damn the comments here are really coming for me where i live; at my worst i smoked 6 packs a day easy

[–] [email protected] 6 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

As in 120 cigarettes a day?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Average human is awake 15-18 hours every day.

Meaning 120 cigarettes per day would equate somewhere between 1 cigarette every 7 1/2 minutes and 1 cigarette every 9 minutes from wake-up to sleep. I'm not sure how feasible that realistically is, as certain activities prevent smoking (IE: eating/having a shower) which would affect the overall count, unless caught up elsewhere via chain-smoking.

I suppose it is technically possible. If you push it to being awake 20 hours in a day, then it's a far more manageable 1 cigarette every 10 minutes from the second you're awake to the second you're asleep, and with only 4 hours sleep every night, you probably won't have to worry too much about the long term health effects either!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

chain-smoking

bingo, i was also drinking like 3ish liters of liquor a day at that point. also you can DEFINITELY smoke and eat (and shower for that matter, though i didn't bc smoking inside was not an option where i lived). i promise you this is all perfectly possible, it's just indescribably ill-advised. and wildly expensive.

and like, not that fun, if we're being honest with one another.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Depending on local prices, that is a higher cost of booze and cigs than my entire monthly income, lol

[–] [email protected] 2 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

ouch. just for fun lemme think here. it's been over a decade since i quit both (chomsky-yes-honey) but if i recall marlboro ran a 3 pack special for like...$15 i think? and a handle of liquor was arouuuund uh shit maybe $17 or so per?

not an exaggeration to say nearly 100% of my money went towards partying (i believe i was making under $10 an hour but i worked full time - thankfully doing nothing of import bc yes of course i was drunk at work at almost all times)

god typing this out makes me kind of sick now. anyway thus ends Anecdotes of a Wasted Life, tune in next week to see more needless diary-posting (but hopefully not actually)!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

You're not worse off for the passage of time, indigo looks good on you.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago

that's sweet of you to say catgirl-heart

[–] [email protected] 3 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Okay I'm a pretty heavy drinking myself but, how the fuck are you ALIVE???

[–] [email protected] 5 points 18 hours ago

lmao, fair question. i suspect the answer lies somewhere between "the lord watches over drunks and fools" and "god loves a good chew toy"

it might make more sense to know

CW: SIi was trying very hard not to be alive at the time

[–] [email protected] 3 points 19 hours ago

yup! i was a complete disaster as a teen

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago

I was about to say "Yakuza games side character type of guy" but his name is literally Akiyama michael-laugh

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago

there was a period when I was 19 where I smoked a pack a day. even as stupid as I was, I couldn't keep that up for more than a few weeks because every morning I felt completely fucked.

this dude is fucking crazy. 4 packs a day, get the fuck outta here. what an animal.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago

Why has nobody made an anime about this guy???

This is just Fee Carmichael from Planetes. She even has a Russian coworker. There is an entire episode about her risking her life to get a smoke.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 day ago (1 children)

smh yet another victim of communism

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This guy is still alive. He's in his 80s, smoking 4 packs a day.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 day ago

He seems pretty based:

Later career Akiyama returned to TBS after completing his spaceflight and became deputy director of the TBS News Division. He retired from TBS in 1995, because he disagreed with the active commercialization of television.[4][5]

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Four packs a day?!? Jesus Christ.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 day ago

Rod Serling smoked about this much and he died at 50 after three heart attacks. This guy is still alive at 82. Wtf.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I get the feeling that going to space, especially back in the 70s, is only enjoyable if you're the kind of person who likes challenging yourself and putting yourself through difficult situations for fun.

Gotta live life on hard mode.

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 day ago (1 children)

No doubt fellow gundam heads will agree this was the life of the average spacenoid in the universal century. The colonies in gundam were full of working class people while the rich elite lived on earth.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 day ago

Tfw your soul isn't weighed down by gravity but your sense of equilibrium definitely still is

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 day ago

dubois-dance in space

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 day ago (2 children)

They did make an anime about this but of course, they white washed him.

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