Sushi chain offers free food to people named "Salmon"... hundreds of people legally change their name to Salmon

I can't believe that this is an actual real story but it comes to us from Taiwan where a chain of sushi stores offered free meals to anyone who had the name Gui Yu, which I guess means "salmon" in Mandarin.

I can't really imagine the mentality of a person that would legally change their name to something absurd in order to get free food but I'll be damned, hundreds of people did exactly that.

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The chain is called Akindo Sushiro and it is a Japanese company (perhaps that is obvious) but they operate in many different countries including Taiwan and Singapore.

They announced this bizarre special via social media a few days ago and I don't think they were actually counting on many people being capable of taking advantage of the special because there can't be very many people named Salmon, right? Well as it turns out in Taiwan, just like in the USA, you can change your name to whatever the hell you want it to be. It worked for "The Ultimate Warrior" after all.

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_{Jim Hellwig wasn't known for being terribly sane and legally changed his name to "Warrior" in 1993.}

People aren't just changing their names to Salmon either, they are changing their names to something silly that has the word salmon in it. Some of my favorites include

• Explosive Good Looking Salmon
• Meteor Salmon King
• Chen Loves Taiwan, Abalone, Tuna, Salmon, Snow Crab, Sea Urchin, Scallop, Lobster and Beef, Mayfull, Palais de Chine, Regent, Hilton, Caesar Park, Hotel Royal

That last one also set a record for the longest name of anyone in the country ever on record. Taiwanese citizens are allowed to change their names for a small fee a maximum of 3 times and officials are obligated to allow people to change their names to whatever they want. However, some government officials are pleading with people to stop it because they are wasting government time. I would argue that the government wastes our time on a regular basis so I hope more people end up doing this. I certainly wouldn't. I am reminded about one of my favorite episodes of Friends

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The special also allows everyone at Salmon's table to eat for free as well and some young people have been turning this into a competition of sorts, racking up enormous tabs and getting it all for free.

Explosive Good Looking Salmon and his friends managed to consume nearly $250 dollars worth. Another person, who dumbly wished to remain anonymous stated he and his crew racked up a bill of over $400.

All this time I have been focusing so much on the idiocy of the general public in the United States that I forgot there are some pretty nuts people basically everywhere in the world.

Would you legally change your name for free food? I know that I wouldn't... but then again, I don't consider myself to be terribly....