Live Long & Prosper In JapanÂs ÂShangri La”, by Boye Lafayette De Mente
Tokyo, (PRWEB) April 20, 2005
There is a kind of ÂShangri La in Japan that is not isolated by high mountains and frigid weather. In fact, it is more tropical than temperate, and you can wear skimpy clothing and go swimming in the sea the year-around.
This land of sunshine and clear blue water is Okinawa, the largest of a string of some 60 islands stretched around 800 miles between Kyushu (JapanÂs southernmost main island) and Taiwan.
An independent kingdom for most of its history (which goes back at least 32,000 years), Okinawa was invaded and captured by the Shimazu fiefdom on southern Kyushu in 1609, but it was not formally merged into the Japanese empire until the 1870s.
In the summer of 1945 Okinawa was invaded and captured by American and Allied forces during the last days of World War II (known in Japan as the Pacific War), and has since done double duty as a site U.S. military bases.
All of the Okinawan islands were administered by the U.S. military from 1945 to 1972, when they were returned to Japan. Now, growing as a business bridge between Japan, Taiwan, China and Southeast Asia, Okinawa is also becoming a major tourist destination.
In addition to its distinctive cultureÂpart Southeast Asian and part JapaneseÂits historical artifacts, its tropical atmosphere (with the East China Sea on its east side and the Pacific Ocean on its west side), Okinawa is particularly renowned for the longevity of its people.
In fact, it is generally recognized that the older generation of Okinawan men and women live longer on average than any another other group of people on the globe. The reason for this, the experts say, is both cultural and dietary.
Most older Okinawans have clung to their traditional lifestyleÂworking outside the year around as farmers, craftsmen and fishermen, engaging in recreational activities such as folk dancing, and otherwise remaining active from sun up to sun down.
But the primary key to their extraordinary longevity is attributed to their dietÂwhich is becoming increasingly famous around the world as a result of a flood of Okinawa diet books, magazine and newspaper articles, and the preaching of television health gurus.
Not surprisingly, the incidence of cancer, heart diseases and other maladies that afflict older people is far lower in Okinawa than anywhere else in the world. Most Okinawans die of old age when they are in their 80s, 90s and 100s without ever having suffered a serious illness.
These older Okinawans do not stint on their eating. Volume-wise, they eat as much if not more than most other people. ItÂs what they eat that counts. Their diet consists mostly of vegetables and grains that have about half of the calories per gram of food as the typical American and European diets.
Says a health researcher: ÂThey eat a diet high in carbohydrates, but they are good carbsÂnot things that cause a rapid rise in blood sugar.Â
High on the list of things Okinawans eat: vegetables, sweet potatoes, whole grains, fruit, soy foods, beans, seafood, seaweed, konnyaku (a vegetable jelly) yogurt and lean meat. And they use a lot of Southeast Asian spices, resulting in their diet sometimes being referred to as ÂJapanese food with salsa.Â
Older Okinawans follow three basic principles in their eating: kuten gwa (eating small portions), hara hachi-bu (stop eating when you are 80 percent full), and nuchi gusui (eating with the idea that food has healing power). And they eat few if any processed foods.
The Okinawan diet is gradually making inroads into mainland Japan, with Okinawa restaurants springing up all over. Tokyoites and foreign visitors can now experience traditional Okinawan dishes at more than a dozen restaurants.
Among them: Miyarabi in IkebukuroÂs Ark City (building), which features cuisine based on ancient royal palace recipes and live entertainment; and Narabi to Kanado, which has two branches in Shinjuku, one in the Isetan Kaikan (next to the famous Isetan Department Store), and the other in the My City building.
Boyé Lafayette De Mente is the author of more than 30 pioneer and provocative books on Japan, ranging from Japanese Etiquette & Ethics in Business and Japanese Secrets of Graceful Living to Mistress-Keeping in Japan. See his personal website phoenixbookspublishers.com.
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