A fun glimpse into Japan displayed in the lyrics to the Chainsaw Man opening:

Hello, almost 3 years into teaching myself Japanese, still having a blast learning new things everyday\~

Song is KICK BACK by 米津玄師(Yonezu Kenshi), lyrics available [here](https://kgasa.com/kenshi-yonezu-kick-back-lyrics/).

Take a look at this line from the song(main verse right after the first chorus)

>**4443で外れる炭酸水**
>
>ハングリー拗らせて吐きそうな人生

Which literally translations to

>**Missed the soda with 4443,**
>
>Hunger gets worse, this kind of life is making me nauseous

The first part of which does not make sense at all. Checked numerous English translations online, which varied greatly from each other,

>\- Yo, yo, yo, count to three and open the soda water
>
>\- Carbonated water that comes off in three yo-yo-yos…
>
>\- 4443 and the soda water releases
>
>\- (skips mentioning the numbers entirely)

I was not convinced. Yonezu Kenshi lyrics are decently complicated for a J-Pop song, but they usually make some kind of sense in the overall context! It wasn’t an idiom, proverb, reference to literature/any sort of media, nor a [Japanese wordplay with numbers.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_wordplay)

I asked my Japanese conversation exchange buddy and she had a simple answer for me.

The line refers to the roulette system some vending machines in Japan has, [here’s an article about it](https://dannychoo.com/archive/en/posts/japan-vending-machine-free-drinks). tl;dr you buy a certain number of drinks at a vending machine, you get a chance to spin the roulette. If the numbers line up, you win a free drink! The system differs from machine to machine but in the context of the song, 4444 = soda, 4443 = missed the soda by one number.

Bonus: the line also doubles as a pun. Word used often in the song **幸せ** means happiness, is pronounced **shiawase**. Pronunciation for **4** in Japanese can be **shi**, and **合わせ** which means line up/gather pronounced **awase.** Thus, **4合わせ** = **shiawase.** Result: Couldn’t line up the 4 = Couldn’t become happy.

Hope you found this tidbit of info interesting, happy studying!