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Kyoto Aquarium advises teen boy who can’t find a date to become a girl (because of ichthyology)

Casey Baseel Dec 19, 2018
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16-year-old who attends all-boys high school was feeling lovelorn, so the aquarium offered an unorthodox solution.

With all of its historic temples and gardens, it can be easy to forget that Kyoto is also a modern city with 1.4 million residents, and it’s not like the town’s leisure options are limited to performing tea ceremonies and writing poetry in ink brush calligraphy. For example, Kyoto Aquarium, which isn’t far at all from Kyoto Station, is a place where locals and travelers alike can observe and learn about aquatic life…

…and, oddly enough, get advice about their human love lives.

京都水族館の恋愛相談めっちゃいい pic.twitter.com/6X1mRAweSn

— ジャネイロ(吟遊詩人) (@Mandorio0510) December 9, 2018

As shown in the above tweet from @Mandorio0510, the Kyoto Aquarium is currently in the middle of its Love Support Project, which runs until December 25. Coinciding with the Christmas season, considered the most romantic time of the year in Japan, the project includes a drop box where visitors can write down their love-related concerns and questions, which the aquarium staff will then answer.

One aquarium response that’s getting a lot of attention involves a 16-year-old boy, who wrote:

“I go to an all-boys high school, so I have absolutely no opportunities to meet a romantic partner…”

It fell to aquarium employee Kameoka, a guy himself, to write a reply to the lad, and here’s what he came up with:

“There’s a fish called the anemonefish, and when there are no females around, the biggest male turns into a female. So how about if you try becoming a high school girl? Start a new romance!!”

Anemonefish, also known as clownfish (or just “Nemo” to Pixar/Disney fans), are indeed capable of changing their sex. Granted this is a phenomenon that occurs to ensure that the colony (which has only one breeding female) can survive by producing future generations, so it’s a little different than the case of a teenage boy wanting a date for Christmas, but other Twitter users couldn’t really argue with the aquarium’s unorthodox logic.

“If you can’t meet anyone of the opposite sex, you could just change yours…hmmm…”
“Mysteriously, I now feel a compelling imperative to change my sex.”
“Kameoka’s advice is in no way inaccurate.”

In all fairness, it seems pretty obvious that the aquarium isn’t actually advocating sex changes as a way to boost the size of your dating pool, but is simply trying to shoehorn in a bit of ichthyological trivia in a tongue-and-cheek way. When you ask an aquarium for pointers on how to meet the love of your life, odds are you’re going to get something fish-related. Had the boy asked for advice on where to go for a dinner date, there’s a good chance Kameoke would have recommended he hide out near some sea anemonies with his sweetheart and munch on any bits of food the tentacled predators fail to shove into their maws.

So probably the best thing to do is not think about the aquarium’s advice too seriously, which also goes for the revelation that Nemo’s dad should have become his mom after she passed away.

Related: Kyoto Aquarium
Source: Twitter/@Mandorio0510 via Jin
Top image: Kyoto Aquarium
Insert image: Wikipedia/Ritiks