Fitness

Health is important but every day people are getting fatter and more unhealthy.

More and more families in Japan are too busy. Either both parents work, or it's a one-parent home. Either way, no one's able to spend all afternoon shopping and cooking proper meals. And it wouldn't matter anyway, because the kids come home later and later because of school clubs and after-school activities like tutoring and English classes. And the primary bread-winner has to stay at work later and later as jobs become more and more demanding.

I see Japan slowly starting to look like America. Japanese are getting fatter and more unhealthy. Why is this? Are they not exercising, or are they eating more unhealthy food? Maybe it's a combination of the two.

The Japanese are famously healthy. Japan is one of the healthiest nations in the world, boasting one of the highest life expectancy rates and lowest obesity rates. This is because the Japanese eat very healthy food, lots of vegetables, and small amounts of fat. They also walk alot. They walk to the train, they walk to work, they walk to school, and they walk to the store. All that walking it great exercise. For further distances, they take bikes. I'm always impressed with mothers who ride bikes with three kids: one in front, one in the back, and a baby on her back. Biking, walking, climbing stairs in their homes and apartments; the world is their gym.

But that's changing. I know the number of people driving cars in Japan goes up every year. If you add scooters, then you have alot of people not walking. Recently we've seen the introduction of the very popular power-assist bicycle. Lately many of my students are brought to and from their classes here by car, even if they only live a few blocks away. How American! After the parking lot near our school was turned into an apartment building, I saw many of those students arriving on foot. So maybe losing the parking lot was a good thing.

A few years ago, futsal became popular and I knew many students who played it. Athletics in general are popular, if you you have time. But with the struggling economy workers don't have enough time to work-out or play sports. Students also spend most of their free time seated in tutoring schools.

And the one-two punch is that American fast-food is gaining popularity. It's easier to find a hamburger than a salad.

I hope