Hiroyuki Arakawa has a job as beautiful as it is unusual: every day he goes diving in the bay around the Japanese port city of Tateyama and takes care of the Shinto shrine that lies under the water there.
Through his diving trips, he first met Yoriko — a young, female sheepshead wrasse — 30 years ago. The man and the fish got along well from the very start, and Hiroyuki began to look forward to seeing his aquatic friend.
الغواص الياباني Hiroyuki Arakawa لديه صداقة حميمية جدًا مع سمكة اسمها Yoriko! وهذه الصداقة مستمرة منذ 25 سنة حيث يقوم بزيارتها باستمرار. pic.twitter.com/2M86OrRewJ
— فهد Fahad (@Fahad32445980) December 25, 2016
Then one day, Hiroyuki noticed that something was wrong with Yoriko. She seemed to be ill or injured and was too weak to hunt for her own food. Hiroyuki didn’t think twice about it. From then on, he brought her five crabs every day and gave them to her to eat. His fishy friend soon recovered, surviving her illness thanks to his help.
In Japan, a diver named Hiroyuki Arakawa and a sheepshead wrasse named Yoriko have been friends for over 25 years. pic.twitter.com/JvA5BjSPrm
— Mind Blowing Facts (@blowingfact) January 17, 2017
That was decades ago, and Hiroyuki is still diving to take care of the underwater shrine. Every time he sees Yoriko, she always immediately swims over to him, and she has even let him kiss her head.
#Video Hiroyuki Arakawa y “Yoriko”, la historia de amistad entre un hombre y una pez (VIDEO) https://t.co/MEwafBHthU pic.twitter.com/99o2rus4Zd
— Sin Embargo MX (@SinEmbargoMX) June 17, 2017
You can see the whole story here (with English subtitles):
Hiroyuki believes it’s easy to get animals’ attention by feeding them, but harder to get them to trust you enough to let you touch them. He says, proud and happy, «I have an amazing sense of accomplishment in my heart.» And so he should — he looks after a spiritual site and deserves the deep friendship of the fish who lives next to it.
