I’m Melo

Buddy daddies animation!! In this economy!!

Though thrilled that Lily has graced us with yet another adorable Buddy Daddies artwork (just look at Miri’s cute watermelon hairclip! 🥹), I was initially stumped about the context. My iPhone’s Japanese-to-English translation feature offered little clarity on what Lily wrote in the caption, but she seemed to be talking about feeling exhausted after a vigorous workout. In addition, Google Translate claimed that Miri is holding a “radio gymnastics stamp card.”

With my curiosity now thoroughly piqued, I did a little digging. While I could be mistaken, the BBC article linked here leads me to believe that Miri may have been doing rajio taiso, a form of radio calisthenics in which participants follow along with a broadcast program accompanied by music (available on both NHK radio and TV) to complete a short series of exercises. Interestingly, this form of exercise originated from a 1920’s US public health initiative spearheaded by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, which sponsored 15-minute radio segments consisting of guided exercises complemented by piano music. Although only a few radio stations in select cities were involved in this endeavor, it would go on to have an international impact when representatives from the Japanese post office’s health insurance bureau paid Metropolitan Life Insurance a visit…and subsequently decided to implement these guided exercises in their home country.

But how does this pertain to Miri? Well, according to the article:

[Text ID: Rajio taiso is instilled in school children from a young age. If you ask a Japanese adult how they spent their summer holidays as a child, many will reply that they are synonymous with the routines.

Rising early, attendance card in hand, the children would complete the routines in neighbourhood groups. The cards are stamped after a student takes part in one of the early morning routines, with prizes handed out for those children who complete a perfect card.

The cards themselves originate from another initiative also dating from the 1920s designed to get children to attend school on time, rather than sleep late. Stamps were first give out at “hayaokikai”, or “early-riser meetings”, to prove that the students had attended school in the morning. Supposedly, some children then returned to bed after collecting their stamps. Someone came up with a plan to make the children perform rajio taiso at these early morning meetings, after which they would have their cards stamped. With their blood pumping, the children were too awake to go back to bed.

According to the Japanese government, "as many as 30 million copies of the attendance cards were printed, which had a substantial impact on the spread of the exercises". End text]

Thus, Miri could be proudly showing us her first stamp on a new rajio taiso participation card! (And perhaps Rei’s lethargic appearance is due to him not being an early riser?)

i havent drawn anything serious, mb