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
This autumn I’m traveling to 13 Japanese prefectures identified by my True Longevity Index™—the Top Ten and Bottom Three. I won’t tell you which is which. ...
For the past two years I've been travelling across Japan, letting longevity data guide my journey. This time the numbers have brought me to Shizuoka ...
Chiharu has returned to Tokyo after ten unforgettable days together, and Mitsuharu and I have shared our final dinner before our next adventures begin. Wahine ...
Every few weeks, I pass through Narita. Not just the airport. The town. It has become part of my rhythm. Leaving Tokyo, I slow down before returning to my ...
A famous Japanese proverb says: "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down." Yet after years of travelling through Japan's remote communities and ...
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 ...
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 ...
I arrived in Tokyo to mark the end of one chapter—and the beginning of another. After seven years of Pacific Solo, I’m stepping into Japan Solo. But before I ...
Walking around a Japanese castle during cherry blossom season. Moats were designed to protect—keeping outsiders out, and insiders in. Years ago, a mentor ...
It`s Cherry blossom season in Japan. Each spring, people gather under the sakura with friends, family, and colleagues—celebrating their beauty while knowing it ...
I’m back on the mainland after months on a quiet island in southern Japan. Rush hour. Trains arriving. A different rhythm of life. Yet at sunset, something ...
This leg of the journey was meant to be by sea. A storm changed that. The logistics shifted — the question behind the journey didn’t. Field notes from the ...
Osaka moves fast and full of energy. In a few hours, I’ll be heading south — toward a different sense of time. Both are Japan. That difference shapes how ...
In 2025, I set out to follow the cherry blossoms the length of Japan by boat. What unfolded instead was a slower journey through Japan’s longevity hotspots, ...
Meet Mitsuharu Kume — the closest real-world equivalent I’ve ever found to Kevin Costner’s “Mariner” from Waterworld. He may not have gills (that I know of), ...
Leaving Wahine for a few days and swapping ocean waves for academic ones. I’m heading to Tokyo for another IAFOR conference — this one focused on education, ...
After visiting 14 prefectures, spending time in Japan’s longevity hotspots, and interviewing some remarkable people, I’m finally back in Amami — and heading ...
I’ve spent the last two days tucked into Osaka, racing to finish the 4th draft of my new book — and somehow, miraculously, I wrapped it early ahead of a ...
I’m back in Hyōgo, walking through Toyooka — a place I once cycled with my family and our dog. Today I’m heading to Kyotango, known as Japan’s Capital City of ...
Matsue, capital of Shimane, Japan’s #1 prefecture for centenarians per 100,000 people, continues to reveal its secret to long, healthy life. Yesterday, a ...
This morning I joined a national ritual in the grounds of a Japanese castle — Morning Taiso. It’s a gentle stretch-and-strength routine familiar to every ...
At 4:30 AM I boarded a ferry south through the Ryukyu Islands, retracing the route Wahine and I had sailed just months ago. Destination: Okinawa—once called ...