A ramen chef in northern Japan has gone viral after surviving a bear attack, throwing the animal using a judo move, and then calmly returning to work with blood streaming down his face.
The incident unfolded at Tenya, a ramen workshop in Sannohe Town, Aomori Prefecture. The 57-year-old employee, who was prepping ingredients in the back of the shop at around 5 am, said he spotted “a black thing moving” before a one-meter bear lunged at him.
“It suddenly turned toward me and attacked my face,” he told Japanese media. “I couldn’t avoid it. I was scratched near my right eye.”
The bear struck him across the face with its claws, opening a deep cut by his eyelid. The chef swung back with his left hand, but nothing worked.
“No matter how many times I hit it, it wouldn’t budge. My hands were really hurting,” he said. So, he switched tactics.
The chef was making ramen when the bear attacked.
Japanese chef hits bear with judo throw to survive attack
The chef stepped in close, hooked the bear’s leg, and executed an o-soto-gari, a classic judo throw, sending the animal crashing backwards. The shocked bear scrambled to its feet and bolted into the nearby mountains.
Despite suffering gashes to his face and nose, the chef walked straight back inside and kept preparing ramen.
When the shop’s manager, Sasaki, arrived minutes later, he found his employee calmly making soup stock with blood dripping down his face.
“I told him, ‘You need to go to the hospital,’” Sasaki said. “He said, ‘It’s nothing. The shop must open.’”
An ambulance took him to Hachinohe Municipal Hospital, where doctors stitched a 10-centimeter wound near his right eye and discovered a fractured rib. He is now on sick leave but expected to recover.
SuppliedThe man’s fist could hardly hurt the bear at all.
The chef’s unbelievable response has turned him into a national legend. He has no martial arts background and previously worked in the medical field before joining the ramen shop.
His phone hasn’t stopped ringing.
“My daughter called me saying, ‘Dad, I saw the news. That’s you, right?’” he said. “Friends contacted me too. Even the mayor came to my house to check on me.”
“People say to play dead or crouch down, but you don’t have time. They can attack your face instantly,” he said. “I was lucky it was a cub. If it were a mother bear, I’d be dead.”
