Why the writer Sohei Wakusaka ate grass from the area, sold stones, and lived on the shore

The Identity of Anxiety I Realized by Eating Grass Thereabouts

Celeina (MC): Celeina was born in Tokyo in 1983, and is a writer whose main field of work is essays and reports. He is also involved as a producer and writer of comedy duo and male trapeze contrivances.

Takano (MC): The title of the book is bad. It’s all about your experiences. Is it basically a story about your experiences?

Wakusaka: Many of them are stories of my experiences. Experiments and adventures are my life’s work, and many of the books I write are based on them.

Takano: Did you also go to Disneyland by yourself and visit ……?

Wakusaka: It’s sort of a personal novel, but there was a time when I went to Disneyland alone all the time, and I wrote a novel about my depressive moratorium days.

Takano: I’ve also read “De De Seikatsu Ki,” and I’m trembling (laughs). Shocking, isn’t it?

Wakusaka: Certain people will really get into it (laughs).

Takano: Was the response to your book, which was released in October of 2022, strong?

Wakusaka: I have received feedback from many more people than I expected, and it seems to be spreading.

Takano: Wakusaka-san, I get the feeling that you are burning your anxiety like a kindling and turning it into energy.

Wakusaka: About six or seven years ago, I was in a bad way. I was feeling anxious about my life and a little bit stressed. When you have a lot of anxiety, things tend to get worse, don’t they? At that time, my grandmother, Etsuko-san, who lived nearby, suggested that I pick some grass and eat it.

Celeina: That’s in the beginning of the book, isn’t it?

Wakusaka: I thought, “What is she talking about?　I thought, “What are you talking about?” But when I tried eating it as tempura or something, I found that even the grass around there tasted good. I thought, “I can survive. Whenever I was in trouble, I thought, “If I pick grass and eat it, it tastes good,” and it became easier. I started to feel a little better. So I thought that anxiety is not only given to us by others, but actually comes from the curse we put on ourselves. I thought that if I could break these curses one by one, I would feel better. That’s how I started my experiments.

Takano: So it is very philosophical.

Celeina: It is both entertaining and philosophical at the same time.

Takano: It has a sense of hacking the earth, or it has the feel of a business book, which is also interesting.

Celeina: The part about selling rocks and getting tips from the lady in the next booth…you would think it was a business book.

Takano: It’s very interesting. But I think it’s quite a hurdle to actually take action even if you have an idea, like selling rocks or making mud dumplings and selling them on Mercari.

Wakusaka: I get asked this question a lot, but the answer is simple: I had a lot of free time (laughs).

Celeina: (laughs) But, when you have a lot of free time, you usually go to anxiety. Waksaka: So your vitality is based on the fact that you went from boredom to anxiety, and then took action and adventures driven by that.

Wakusaka: How about that (laughs)?

Takano: You lived on the shore for a week, didn’t you?

Wakusaka: I have always heard the story of Urashima Taro, and I envied him the Dragon’s Palace. You would be treated like a sashimi subscribe just for rescuing a turtle. I wanted to try to make that happen, so I made the assumption that if I went to the seashore, this Ryugujo-like life might be waiting for me.

Celeina: I see. When I read it, a small question came to mind…was your house near the sea?

Wakusaka: It was when I was living in Tokyo and Tottori. I stopped in Corona.

Takano: Was it easier to go to Tottori, environmentally speaking?

Wakusaka: Yes, it was. We are talking about a 5-meter radius. It’s an adventure of one tatami mat.

Takano: It’s interesting, and I can’t stop asking questions, but I want to go to one song here, and I asked Mr. Waksaka to choose a song that we would all like to listen to together on the radio at this time. What song would it be?

Wakusaka: It is a song called “Drifter” by KIRINJI. In the lyrics, there is a phrase “I won’t run away. It is okay to run away from anxiety, but in the end, you have to come back and face it. I really like the lyrics because it seems to describe how to face fears and anxieties.

How to sell an ordinary stone

Takano: I’d like to talk a little more in-depth about the contents of your book. You mentioned earlier that you sell stones, but may I ask where and how you sold them?

Wakusaka: Yes. This book, “De Seikatsu Ki,” is about specific experiments to escape from various anxieties, and there was a time when I tried selling rocks to escape from money-related anxieties. Selling rocks would be great, wouldn’t it? Since they are free, I could live for the rest of my life. So I kept a stone in my pocket and asked people I met, “By the way, would you like to buy a stone? I would say, “By the way, would you like to buy a stone?

Celeina: A stone salesman (laughs).

Wakusaka: But, as I said, that’s not good progress (laughs). It’s like you wrote about the trial and error of trying to sell stones for 100 yen each at a neighborhood flea market.

Takano: Where did you pick up the stones?

Wakusaka: I picked them up from rivers and the sea, but I tried to choose stones that felt good when I held them.

Takano: The standard for a good stone is Waksaka-san’s standard (laughs).

Wakusaka: There are good stones. They can be smooth, have interesting shapes, and so on. What is important, however, is that the stone should be plain and simple.

Takano: But the stones actually sell, don’t they? What did you do about that?

Wakusaka: When we sell the stones, people say, “Hmm? Waksaka: When we are selling stones, people are like, “Hmm? So, for example, we have dialogues and communication with them. Sometimes, we even have a bar-style setting and make them feel a little confused with alcohol. If it’s for selling rocks (laughs).

Celeina: From a business point of view. It’s smart, in a way (laughs).

Wakusaka: I don’t want to expand on that, though. It’s not just a matter of getting them to drink.

Takano: But when I read that scene, I felt that I added some new value to the scene with him, rather than just getting him drunk. Because looking at the stones while drinking whiskey is, in a way, like drinking to look at the design of the stones.

Wakusaka: Also, the fact that I chose the stone may be important. I think there is some value in inheriting a stone that someone else has chosen.

Celeina: After talking over drinks, getting to know Mr. Waksaka, and getting to know the backbone of what kind of stone he is.

Wakusaka: Where did you pick it up? So anyone can do this.

Celeina: No, I don’t know if I can do it (laughs).

Wakusaka: I’m not an expert on stones.

Takano: No, but you sell rocks and mud dumplings, and I think it changes the way I look at things that I come into contact with in my daily life.

Celeina: That’s for sure. It makes you rethink the ordinary.

Takano: I think it’s fascinating that we can see the world in a different way by learning how to see it from your point of view.

Wakusaka: I am glad to hear that.

Celeina: Lastly, Mr. Waksaka, who would you like to read “De Seikatsu Ki”?

Wakusaka: I am in a free industry, and I am often thought to be more anxious than other people, but I am sure that all people have the same kind of anxiety. So I really hope that this book will be read by all mankind.

Takano: As a representative of the human race, you have put my anxiety into language (laughs).

Wakusaka: As the one who has the most free time in the human race, I feel like I’m taking his place (laughs).

Takano: Let’s read it, everyone.

Celeina: Now, “FIST BUMP,” we are asking you to introduce your friends to us through the circle of friends connected by the Goo-Touch.

Wakusaka: This is Asako Kikukawa, who is the representative of the mama-san chorus theater “Utau ha ha gokoro”.

Celeina: What is your relationship with her?

Wakusaka: We met in Tottori when I was living in Tokyo and Tottori. She is still living in Tokyo and Tottori. She sings about her worries and joys of child-rearing in a chorus, which is a very interesting thing to do.

Celeina: By the way, how would you sum it up in one word?

Wakusaka: A bundle of vitality.

Takano: Tomorrow, we welcome Ms. Asako Kikukawa, the representative of the moms’ chorus theater “Utau Hagokoro”.

Celeina: It was Mr. Sohei Waksaka, a writer. Thank you very much.

Wakusaka: Thank you very much.