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 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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] 83 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 62 points 1 week ago

Nah that's actually moderation for a Japanese boomer salaryman

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 week ago (3 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] 19 points 1 week ago

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

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

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

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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

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

I think they probably put a lot more bullshit into cigarettes than they used to.

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

i mean nicotine both hardens your arteries and constricts your blood vessels so it tracks without that

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

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

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 week 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] 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days 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 week ago

The first rule of biology is error bars

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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 week 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 week ago

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

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 week 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] 36 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Four packs a day?!? Jesus Christ.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 week 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] 36 points 1 week ago (1 children)

smh yet another victim of communism

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

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

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

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

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 week ago (4 children)

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

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

Still alive at 82

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

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

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

All the asbestos filters out the tar

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

dubois-dance in space

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 week ago (1 children)

takes a drag from cigarette

"Fuck space."

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

obama-spike see-you-space-cowboy

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

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

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

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

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

Damn Miyazaki fell off.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 week 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] 19 points 1 week ago

Dudes rock

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 week 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] 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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

For some reason first thing i thought after seeing his photo was Nanba Mutta from Space Brothers but it was only vague.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The rocket that launched him into space:

Sony-et Union kelly

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 week 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.

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