Disneyland employee in donkey costume calming visitors amid Japan earthquake goes viral

By Duc Trung   January 5, 2024 | 03:59 pm PT
A video of a Tokyo Disneyland employee wearing an Eeyore donkey costume and trying to pacify visitors amid earthquake warning has gone viral on social media with more than 17 million views.

The video was shot by travel blogger Jason Hill who visited Disneyland’s Tokyo Park earlier this week.

He then posted the video on his Instagram account, quickly capturing wide attention from social media users.

In the video, dozens of visitors were seen crouching as an announcer urged people to prepare for a strong earthquake.

A video shared by Jason Hill on Instagram shows a Tokyo Disneyland employee wearing an Eeyore donkey costume trying to calm visitors amid an earthquake warning January 2023.

However, the employee was still dedicated to his job, tried to calm down visitors down while staying fully in character.

The employee nodded his donkey's head and raised his hands to signal "everything will be okay" to help tourists stay calm.

"This made me so sad seeing the character actor trying to relax everyone in such a scary situation! They did an excellent job. My heart goes out to Japan," an Instagram user commented.

"Okay but why did I almost cry because of how cute and considerate Eeyore was trying to keep calm! I bet it helped the kids a lot," another user wrote.

It remained unclear whether Disneyland’s performers are trained or expected to interact with guests in character during an emergency or not.

The strongest earthquake recorded on Monday measured 7.6 in magnitude, with its epicenter in the Noto peninsula of the Ishikawa prefecture, about 297 km from Tokyo Disneyland.

The death toll from the devastating earthquake in central Japan rose to 92 on Friday, regional authorities said, with the number of missing jumping to 242, AFP reported.

 
 
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