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As with many trips abroad, the purchasing of souvenirs for your friends and family and admittedly, the occasional gift for yourself is a routine common to most. The time and effort invested in making sure you have something for everyone can take its toll not only mentally, but also on the weight of your luggage upon arrival at the airport. “Just how can I get all this stuff through without being charged a fortune?” is I’m sure a fear that goes through the minds of many. When it comes to airport excess luggage costs, the excess cost itself can sometimes even exceed the actual value of the goods being brought back. Whatever is the case, nobody wants be charged excessively for something they’ve already paid for. Whether it be disposing of the gift’s packaging and then diligently placing it in your hand luggage, or if it happen to be a fashion accessory or item of clothing, wearing it as if it were your own, having some form of strategy is arguably better than being completely defenseless against the wrath that is the custom and excise department.

The other day, a man passing though China’s Kantan airport took this idea of ‘wearing your luggage’ to the extreme. Admittedly wrapping yourself in a couple of extra layers isn’t really any reason to warrant criticism and I’m sure it’s something many of us have considered at some point. What we’re talking about here is the act of piling on countless number of layers of clothing at once! Without question, such outrageousness cannot help but raise the suspicion of the airport staff.

The man guilty of pulling off such a stunt was of African descent and from appearance alone described as a ‘giant’. The trouble began when this ‘Goliath of a man’ proceeded to the hand luggage inspection gate. As he approached the metal detector, the violent ringing of the alarm signaled to staff that something was a little out of place. As other members of staff dashed to the scene, what was discovered was something of great bewilderment. The sheer sense of enormousness that was first thought to be the body muscle of a top heavy man soon became evident to be no less than the result of piling over 60 layers of clothing one upon another.

As the man was rushed to a different room for further inspection, events took an even more peculiar twist. In total, wrapped around the man’s body were 61 tops and 9 pairs of g-pants. What’s more, after being forced to remove his clothes one by one, this well proportioned man’s body quickly turned into one of skin and bones! On an ironic note, it seems that what actually triggered the metal detector were not the clothes themselves but the dry-cell batteries and USB memory crammed inside his pockets.

As to what would drive someone to do such a thing, when interviewed, the man gave the following reply: “My luggage was way over the weight allowance but paying the excess luggage charge was not something I was willing to consider”. Not wanting to pay the excess luggage charge is something that is easy to relate to but wearing 61 items of clothing? Of even more curiosity is just how the man managed to wrap so many clothes around himself. I’ll leave that thought to the readers’ imagination! Perhaps the moral here is that when it comes to excess baggage charges, unless its one or two light items, sending it via post or meekly paying the extra charge would appear to the safest option!
[ Read in Japanese ]