"Health" habits of the Japanese

Whoever wrote that book about Japanese women not getting old or fat was just trying to sell a book. It's BS. Let me see if I can channel the minds of any and all western people who have never been to Japan and express the things that they think apply to the Japanese healthy lifestyle.

Japanese people are some of the healthiest in the world. They don't eat fast food and they eat grilled fish, sushi, and rice everyday. Obviously, since so many of them live so long, there must not be any problems with diabetes, heart disease, liver disease, or lung cancer (meaning they must not smoke or drink too much, either, wow!). If I lived in Japan, I would be so healthy and lose so much weight.........

I would laugh derisively right now... if I hadn't thought the exact same things before I came here five years ago. Let me tell you what I've learned since August 2004.

- I don't know an actual statistic, but it sure does seem like a good bit more than 50% of the adult population smokes. Being the majority, completely non-smoking facilities are few and far between. Restaurants, cafes, and most certainly bars are usually so smoky that, even though I am not a smoker, I feel like my taste buds have been sandpapered off with tar and nicotine. Only recently have all the rapid trains in Japan become entirely non-smoking. I've been stuck in the non-reserved smoking car a few times since I've been here and those moments rank as some of the worst experiences of my life.

- Cup Noodle was invented here. You know, the stuff that is all dehydrated fat and carbohydrates soaked in salt and napalm? Several of my (male) coworkers eat it every.single.day. The Sodium content is measured in GRAMS as opposed to the usual miligrams. I have one coworker who, without fail, either turns the heat down/off in the winter or turns the fans on high and opens all the windows in any other season within 20 minutes of finishing his liquid Sodium because his blood pressure skyrockets so high that he gets really, really hot. I imagine his heart will just explode one of these days.

- McDonald's and KFC are both wildly popular here. Burger King is making a comeback. Krispy Kreme has established a presence. Starbucks is as prolific in Japan as it is in the states and most people don't have the guts to ask for customizations (not even kidding), so they all drink full fat lattes and frappuccinos with mounds of full fat whipped cream on top. Subway? It's here, but rare, and they only offer three different kinds of bread, only one of which is wheat.

- All carbohydrates you will find to eat in Japan are refined. If you want something that's even remotely brown, you're going to have to special order it and probably pay out the arse. I get whole wheat pasta at the import foods store (an hour away), I special order oatmeal, brown rice, and whole wheat flour, getting bread that looks and tastes like anything but styrofoam is but a dream - unless you pay for frozen shipping from the online hippie store.

- The working population likes to binge. There are work parties called "enkai" where you pay a flat fee (anywhere from $30 - $100+ US) for two hours of a set menu food course and all you can drink beer, shochu (a clear liquor, kind of like vodka), and sake. If you don't drink, it's a waste of money. If you are watching what you eat, it will kill your caloric intake for the day. If you don't attend, they won't like you next week. There might be a second party, where they go to a karaoke bar, pay for another all you can drink two hours, and pound back more liquor. It's "culture."

- Most Japanese drink every night. You will often get alcohol as a present and they will say, "You can have it every day after work!" And you think, but I live alone, that's unhealthy, drinking alone everyday. But then you nod, thank them, take it home and put it in the back of your cupboard with all the other bottles that you were supposed to use to become Japan's special brand of I'm-not-an-alcoholic alcoholic.


And yet, Japanese DO stay svelte, for the most part. I am horrified, almost daily, by what I see pawned off as nutrition advice or something new and fad-y that my female coworkers are trying to drop those three pounds that they put on in the last year...

Anyone who says that this battle for health and weight control is not at least partially an issue of genetics is sorely mistaken.