I’m on Leg Two of my journey through Japan’s Top Ten and Bottom Three longevity prefectures, and Shizuoka keeps giving me reasons to stop. One place stands ...
Japan Solo
Small population. Big numbers. And an intriguing question: **is there a connection?** My True Longevity Index™ brought me to Kagoshima Prefecture, and then ...
I’m 71, and today I tried to keep up with three guys older than me. Hajiwa-san, Yamashita-san and Yasuda-san are all 75, already beyond Japan’s average ...
The typhoon had passed, but its tail was still blowing through Buren Bay. I’m on typhoon watch for my friend Mitsu, Wahine’s new owner, while he is in Mexico ...
I’m not in Okinawa. I’m in “Typhoon Alley” on Amami Oshima—one of Japan’s longevity hotspots and, on and off for the past three years, my longevity laboratory. ...
Back in Buren Bay, Amami Oshima — my longevity laboratory. I'm here for a few weeks, keeping an eye on Wahine during typhoon season while her new owner, ...
Meet Skye I've just completed my first 500-kilometer journey in this 22-year-old Suzuki Every Wagon Joy Pop, now minimally converted into my sleeping ...
A few days ago, I completed an exploratory journey through Shizuoka, Japan's leading prefecture for healthy life expectancy and one of the country's most ...
This week, Mitsu's 91-year-old mother, Chiharu, has joined us in Buren Bay. It's only the second time I've met her. The first was a few months ago when she ...
As I continue traveling through Japan’s longevity hotspots, I keep hearing a surprisingly common response from people who remain active, healthy, and engaged ...
In Japan’s longevity hotspots, healthy aging is not reinforced only through healthcare or individual habits. It is woven into the annual rhythm of community ...
More than a century ago, writer Lafcadio Hearn observed that Japan viewed life, family, and community differently from the modern West. Less linear. More ...
As I continue traveling through Japan’s longevity hotspots, I keep noticing recurring patterns. One of them is simple: Many of the people who age well tend ...
The goal is not to stay young. It is to remain engaged with life. Curious. Connected. Active. Participating in the world around you. A small Field Note from ...
Back in my remote island village in Japan. The more time I spend traveling through Japan’s longevity hotspots, the more I notice the same patterns repeating ...
Over the past two years traveling through Japan’s longevity hotspots, I kept noticing something unexpected: Many older people practice haiku. This week in ...
For years, Japan has fascinated the world with its long-lived population. But what if part of that story was never just diet, exercise, or healthcare? What if ...
Two women shaped how I think about aging. Both lived to 92. One was my mother in Canada. The other, my neighbor in Japan. One experienced years of ...
May 1st marks the beginning of Golden Week in Japan—a time for travel, rest, and celebration. But there’s another side to this season. After the beauty of ...
They don`t birthdays in Japan. Here is why. In my travels across Japan, I’ve noticed something striking: many older people don’t count their birthdays. In ...
I took a 91-year-old woman sailing. She came with four generations of her family—the youngest just one year old. She lives independently, plays golf and ...
After nearly two years researching and writing Longevity and the Art of Community: Lessons from Japan, I thought I’d be ready to let it go. But this book isn’t ...
Last day in Tokyo. I was invited to an event on Aging in Japan. Tonight, I head back to the island… back to the boat. To prepare for something special. In a ...
From a distance, Japan looks uniform. On the ground, it fragments. A fishing village in Okinawa doesn’t move like Osaka. A mountain town in Nagano doesn’t ...