Eringi mushrooms can be an unexpected source of otaku loneliness, Twitter learns

”Lousy eringi, making me feel miserable.”

Japan loves mushrooms. The country is blessed with a wide variety of edible fungi, and foodies love eating them raw, grilled, or as ingredients in hot pots or other dishes.

However, there’s one type of mushroom that Japanese Twitter user @mazuimoyashi can’t stand the sight of: eringi, or king trumpet mushroom.

This might seem kind of strange, since even though they’re not as highly prized as say, shiitake or matsutake, eringi are still a popular mushroom in Japan, perfectly edible and presenting no digestive difficulties. They aren’t considered to have a grotesque appearance either… but @mazuimoyashi does have an issue with the way they look, which is:

“A long time ago, I saw someone write that ‘eringi are real-ju,’ and now I can’t bear to look at them directly.”

Real-ju is a Japanese slang term, often used by otaku, to refer to someone with an active social or romantic life. That seems like an odd thing to associate with mushrooms, but as @mazuimoyashi goes on to say, “Almost all eringi packs look like parents with a kid, or a couple cuddling up to each other,” and now that he’s mentioned it, it’s a hard mental image to shake.

昔に「エリンギはリア充」って文字列を見てから、エリンギ売り場を直視出来なくなってしまった…
ほとんどのエリンギは子供連れだし2人だけのエリンギも肩を寄せあってて幸せそうで… pic.twitter.com/bdalDrNU3V

— 不審者 (@mazuimoyashi) November 20, 2021

Between the gentle curve of their stalks and the way grocers slide their caps underneath each other, they really do look like a bunch of romantic couples and happy families, so if you’re going through an extended slump in your love life, looking at those eringi might make you more acutely aware of your own loneliness. At least that seems to be the mentality of the 17,000-plus people who’ve retweeted @mazuimoyashi’s thoughts.

“Lousy eringi, making me feel so miserable,” continued @mazuimoyashi. He didn’t completely give over to despair, though, and a few days later tweeted a follow-up, encouraging fellow non-real-ju to eat some eringi and absorb their happiness. Because even if you’re eating by yourself, good food is still some great company to have.

Source: Twitter/@mazuimoyashi via Jin
Top image: Wikipedia/Poco a poco
Insert images: Wikipedia/Lemon-s~commonswiki (edited by SoraNews24), Twitter/@mazuimoyashi
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