 back to fake tech. I'm Jay Fidel. This is our global connection series. Today we're going to talk about a transformative experience in Okinawa. I'm going to ask what can we learn about living to 100 years old? Whoa, what a question. I've been asking that question myself for 100 years. So far it's worked fine. And for our guests today are two people who went on a trip, you know, a great trip with a group of 18 people from Hawaii. Alan Okinawka, who is a retired GTE manager from the Big Island, and Gwen Nose, who is a retired Navy educator joining us from Manoa. Welcome to the show, Alan and Gwen. Nice to have you here. Thank you. So you went on this tour with Art and Marine Kimura and a dozen other people. And why did you go on that tour? Was there any particular reason that made you want to go? I love travel shows. Was there any particular reason that made you want to go? Gwen, you tell me first. I had heard about the Blue Zone village from Art and Marine Kimura. And so I saw it on Netflix and I was really impressed. I watched a couple other episodes on Netflix for the other locations. And I was curious, but it wasn't until Alan had said he really wants to go and to get a group together to go. And, you know, there was kind of like not enough interest and then there was interest. And so it took a while for us to get it started, but it's because of Alan that this came to pass. And I don't regret it at all. I would go again. Alan, are you a troublemaker or what? Why were you advocating for that? Well, I read a lot about Dan Buettner's study and all the different areas where people lived to a hundredth. And the funny thing is in high school and I'm not really sure why I did this, but a lot of my classmates heard me talking about living to be a 150-year-old person. It was a topic that was kind of interesting. And at that age, we have other more fun things to think about. But for some reason, I kept on saying that. And when this Blue Zone thing came up, I really latched down to it. I read all these three books. I was intrigued by his overall indicators of eating healthy, exercising, and having a purpose to live. So I really latched on to that. So that was one of my bucket list items. And the other bucket list item was to go back after leaving Okinawa 60 years ago, I wanted to meet up with my karate sensei and talk story. Yeah, so are you still doing karate? Was that again? Are you still doing karate? No, after I left Okinawa 60 years ago, I studied. We call it studying. It's just practicing for about 10 years. And I reached the level of second degree black belt, but I never did study after that. Okay, you seem like a nice person. So I wouldn't get into a fight with you anyway. Okay, so now this is part of a thing called Get Lost Tour. Gwen, what is Get Lost Tour? Oh, well, it's art and reenkumera's idea. And it was kind of like relax and go and explore. And if you get lost, actually, I kind of enjoy getting lost. But it's a little more freedom to explore. You know, you're not really tied to such a tight schedule and walk a narrow line. So I kind of a get lost kind of person anyway. So I really enjoyed the concept. And by the way, there were 20 of us, including art and reenkumera. They're the mindset. They're the geniuses behind all of this. Yeah, well, they're very, they're very active and affable. So question is this blue zone thing? Is this, does this mean like it's like a blue stone blue zone state where it's all democratic? Why do they call it a blue zone? That's Dan Buthner's labeling of an area where people live to 100 and over in great quantity, a great number. So were you guys interested, you know, in learning about how they did that and, you know, in exploring what was in Buthner's books and in, you know, living to 100? I know that when you have some family that lived over 100. So are you trying to get the tips and tricks to do it? Because we're going to explore that here on this show. So everybody will know how to do it. But is that why you went? Or was it something else in your travel aspirations? I was curious. I really didn't know what to expect upon visiting them. I had thought we would go to be like spectators, visiting the village, watching people live their lives, and then finding out from them possibly, you know, what's the secret. But then when we went, we didn't go to visit their homes. We sat in a center with six of them, eight of us. And it was kind of like we sat and everyone's so shy. And the interpreter, we introduced ourselves and interpreter translated. And so we're kind of, kind of just wondering and kind of watchful of what's happening next. And then Art and Green did some science activities, so much fun. So it kind of broke the ice. Two activities, actually. And then we had lunch together, everyone's still quiet. One woman, through the translation, said that was her first time being part of this group and a resident. And she was said, I am very shy. But I love to dance. And so that was cute. So then we went through the day eating lunch. And then we played a game, sort of like a porn hole game. But it was actually rolling a ball into holes on this board and competing against each other. And that was fun. They said they had created that game. And the next plan was for us to go outside to play a gate ball, which is their passion. And they excel in it because it's one of them said, I love the gate ball. Sure. She was ready to go. And then we had to cancel it. They had to cancel it because it was forecast and muddy. So what do you do? And I don't know why. What spirit moved me to say I can do a hula. So I told Art, I can do a hula. And he doesn't even know if I can dance. He just said, okay. And so I want to go back to my little brass shack. I said, do that. And that's kapa hale. So you know, easy to translate to the hand motions, explain all of the motions. Then I danced it with the music. I'm very rusty. It's been decades since I danced. My kuma hula was my key. I knew. And so I danced it. And then they got up to dance behind me. So, you know, they seem to really enjoy it. And the thing was they got up. Nobody holding onto chairs and struggling to get up. They got up and danced. And that was amazing. You know, I didn't see any walkers or any wheelchair. They were elderly. The people you were with were elderly. You mean our group? No, the people who got up to dance. Yeah. 102 year old man. And the other man I think, Alan, what's in you about 100 also? He was 92. He was 92. Get up, dance, the women. No problem. And they were open to do it. And then they taught us an Okinawan dance. And we all had fun because they could teach us. And then we danced another Okinawan dance that I think they do as a celebratory thing where the music's on and you do any motion. And it's so much fun. You know, everybody just making up as you go. That was a lot of fun. Was that like a bond? Is that like a bond dance? Yeah. No, not really. It was free form, free style. Anybody do anything. Yeah. Well, in a little while, we're going to ask you to at least give us the hand motions for the hula. Okay. We have hula. We have karate. We're a great shape here today. So, Alan, you know, you were ready to observe carefully what was going on, to examine the lifestyle of the people in the Blue Zone and to learn or confirm what you knew already. Can you give us a primer on how they do it and what you learned from them? Well, that's the part of, by the way, Get Lost or it was a really, really good title for our trip because I like what I call serendipitous touring. Where I go to somewhere I don't know when I just follow my nose the whole day. You run into people you've never met. You run into situations that you, some you like, some you don't. And you come back and you feel like you had a really great day. So Get Lost is very similar to serendipitous touring. But for me, I was given the privilege, I say that because I was allowed to not have to dance hula with Gwen, but observe the people interacting with us, the people from Hawaii. And it was very magical to see that. There was no Well, you know, I'm an engineer. And so whenever something happens, I try to break it down and think, okay, how did that happen? Why did it happen? How does it happen? That kind of thing. But there was not that kind of a thing. In fact, I asked the tour guide if I could ask if she could interpret for me and ask them why is the purpose of living so important? That's icky guy. And she was trying to explain to me that they don't think about why or how or what. They just live. They just live. They don't, they don't live to grow old. They live to live. And I know it doesn't, it sounds a little strange to say it that way, but they're not worried about dying or anything. They're focusing on living. I befriended a gentleman. His name is Yunoshiro Takeshi. He's 92 years old, speaks fairly good English because he got a job with our Voice of America radio station. He explained to me how they beam their radio signals into Russia and to China to get the American word out. And the first question he asked me was, did any of your relatives come to Okinawa after the war to help us? And I said, yeah, my uncle was there as an interpreter. And he thanked me for that. And so apparently they were treated quite well. And I don't mean that they were given food and stuff like that, but I think they were treated respectfully. That's what I got from the conversation I had with him. It felt really, really good. In fact, somebody came over and said, I need to take a picture of both of you because I forgot the word that the person used, but they said, we seem to really get along together. And I wanted to see that. I wanted to see how we as Westerners who try to analyze everything in the world, we often forget to enjoy what we're doing, right? If you're sitting in a car and you're going somewhere, if you're looking at your mileage to see how many miles per hour you're getting on and on and on, you forget to see the scenery outside your window to enjoy the trip. And they're enjoying the trip and we're analyzing what's on the dashboard. I looked at it that way. And I really enjoyed it. When I really appreciate their going up and sharing the hula with them, they were all up there, every one of them. You can do a hula forest also then. I mean here, you know what I said? Yeah, well maybe you can both do a hula forest later in the show. So one thing you said though is, you know, you think about what's happening now, what's happening today. Think about living life. That's one of the lessons of all this. But you also said a little while ago that you have to have a mission, you have to have a purpose. That's part of the Okinawa thing about living a long life. So did you always think about that when you were there? Did you ask yourselves what your purpose was, what kept you going? And what did they say their purpose was in keeping them going? I'm just wondering if you got down to the detail on it. No, I asked the interpreter that question and our guide, I should say. She already knew the answer. They live life. They don't really think about why I'm living long or on and on. Now in a past video that I saw on the Blue Zone, they did talk about how each person in the village has a job, a responsibility. And this is not patronizing them or anything. If they don't do their job that day, it affects the village negatively. They're responsible for some function. If you're in your 90s, what could a job be? What did you be assigned to do? The woman that they interviewed on that video, her job was to gather the food from the gardens or something like that. She had the job of making sure that everything was gathered and getting you ready for the villagers. Something like that. Alan's talking about food and that's always a central point in travel, certainly in Japan and Okinawa. How did you like the food in the Blue Zone? What was it like? Well, I'd heard before my uncle is Okinawan and he loved bitter melon. I kind of like to try different foods and I love bitter melon and that's a big part of their diet. Bitter melon with egg, tofu and there's a lot of roast pork. We ate a lot of pork as part of the meal. And then there's also this thing called sea grapes, which are not grapes. They're seaweed, which have little polyps on it. And that's an industry now that I guess it's been there a while. And we had seaweed every morning and I forgot the name of it. It's kind of been a mixture. I forgot it, but every morning I had that. And then I had sliced pig's feet every morning, pickled pig's feet. And that became my diet. So I tried to eat at our hotel, the collective, every morning to eat typical Okinawan food and enjoying it. And I did. And you know, the saying is, and I saw it on the Netflix video of Okinawa that they eat 80% to full. They don't eat 100%. They eat 80%. And it's called Hachibu something. Hachibu. So, and that's part of the secret. You eat only 80%. You don't overstuff yourself. You don't get the big gulp, you know, you eat moderately, enjoy their food. And, you know, I'm eating together, having fun is a big part of it. And I, one of them said they exercise together in the morning. And so, you know, a lot of it is contributing to the whole. Not everyone being individuals, but seeing themselves as part of a whole. I think that adds to their life, their lifestyle, their long life. But my takeaway was not so much living long. My takeaway is living well, watching them. I'm thinking, to me, it's not, it's not a number of, you know, living long. I rather live well. And you know, I know my mother-in-law self when she died at 102, all her friends were already gone. You know, and as she advanced, they were gone. And so, you know, I don't want to live long just to live long. I want to live well. Yeah. So, I want to explore the society in the village, so to speak. You know, you were in one village, you guys, you went to one village. Now, I presume you stayed at that same hotel the whole time you were there. And when you were there, you could have the run of the village, but you would also meet people and have gatherings. How did it work? And what did you learn about their society, the way they relate together as a village? We didn't get to really see that because our visit with them was, I would say, what, four hours when? About that, yeah. It was four hours. We were in Naha and we had to travel hour and a half all the way up to the modern village. Ogemi is in the northern part of Okinawa. So, we didn't really get to see their daily rituals, what they did and everything like that. It was a time to just get together, like visiting friends and family and sit around and interact with them. It was delightful. How did you, were you introduced to them? Were you brought into a social experience with them? How did that work? We were, we all introduced ourselves. In fact, it was fun to do that. I got off and introduced myself and at the end I said, I want to live to be a 150-year-old man. And Takeshi turned around, he grabbed me by the shoulders and he says, he shook me and he said, Daijoubu, Daijoubu. He said, you're all right, you're going to live. That was really nice. I enjoyed chatting with him because he had so many things to talk about. It didn't seem like I was talking to a 92-year-old man. He seemed like he was 65 or 60. You mentioned before that you had a translator there. Were you talking in English, in Japanese? What's through a translator? Yeah, we had a translator. She's the tour guide on Seiko. We did all our translation. She was a marvelous guy. She knew Ishii of Okinawa. She had a love for the history of Okinawa. She gave us perspectives of the history that made us think that maybe they shouldn't have been part of Japan because they were their own kingdom there and I'm about to see that. Sovereign to you. Sir, when did you take tours? Did you go around? Did your tour guide organize little day trips or visits to the temples or what have you? Is that part of the program too? Well, we went to a site that is no longer. It was a site of a castle. A shuri castle. Yes, and of course it was gone. It was raining and pouring. It was educational but we didn't really visit any temples and I've gone to Japan several times before and I saw a lot of temples but this was more meaningful places that we went to and I appreciate that. I wanted to say also that when we first went my expectation was more of a fact point feeling like I want to know but then after a while and in that four-hour period with them it was more like it evolved into people just having fun and associating with each other. So all of the other questions fell away and it was just having some camaraderie with people and the beautiful thing about it is when we left after we had learned the Okinawan dance and we did that hands in the air dance anything any way you want, celebration dance. We're going to the bus. Everyone's climbing on board and at that entrance there's that one shy lady who said I'm shy but I love to dance. She danced almost like her farewell. She kept dancing and we were all clapping and having such a wonderful time. She felt comfortable enough to dance and I thought that was the beauty of it. Fact-finding good to know but here it is we can human beings communicating with each other. Did you know all the people in the tour had you met them before or are they you know new acquaintances for you? Like Art and Rhine, I mean like Allen rather, I only knew Art and Rhine and one person in the group of 20 he lived across from me where I grew up and I recognized him but that's all we didn't know each other at all. When you say that you were having fun I get the feeling that the fun was not just with the people who you know were local in Okinawa but it was fun among your group too. Yeah and everybody got involved in the same way that you did. Uh-huh. I think that that is so true and that's why everything the whole package was such a worthwhile experience. You know everybody having fun exploring together and that's why it was a different kind of tour. That's a lesson for travel in general isn't it? You know relax, put the guidebook away and just see how it flows around you and enjoy the things of the people that you've run into. I've had trips like that my wife and I have gotten lost and discovered things we would never ever have discovered if we hadn't gotten lost. Yeah. So Alan I just want to make a kind of I want to punctuate the fact that we have a lot of photos from you guys and at this point in the video we'll put the photos we'll put you know put the photos in and we'll see some of your photos in the trip. And the other thing is this trip was not limited to Okinawa or that village. What was the name of the village then? Ogini village. Ogini village. But you also went to Tokyo and boy that's like coal and ice isn't it? Tokyo is all you know GUSA GUSA can I use that term? Everybody running around lots of action lots of maybe too much action and lots of shopping and money at restaurants a different experience completely from Ogini village. So Alan can you can you tell me what it was like to go from one to the other? Actually I got amazed in Tokyo by these phenomenas. You got to see this when you go there you'll get a group coming off of two different trains large group of people and they will merge without changing their velocity of walking and just merge intersect with each other and come out on the other side. It's it's an amazing thing to watch and when we went to see the statue of Hachiko the dog that was the owner and waited forever and passed away there's a little that's not a little there's an intersection there that has six streets that come together and thousands of people just merge together and come out on the other side without stop you know you know when we walk here in Hawaii we kind of hesitate and we slow down we go around people there they just flow right across amazing thing to watch and the other thing I wanted to add about Tokyo it was 36 degrees on a couple of days there and one of the most magical things was to find a tiny little hole in a wall restaurant that holds maybe 10 people and you go in there and you get this hot bowl of miso ramen and you eat it when it's cold outside it just tastes about 10 times better than you ever tasted any ramen you got to do that yeah I think Gwyn and I both had the miso ramen right and we are we're sluggering but well that's that's good and that's how the way you do noodles too yeah yeah so how would you compare the food in Gimi village and Okinawa with the food that you found in these all in the wall places in Tokyo Glenn well and at the Ogimi village we had a set bento authentic Okinawan food a multi multi course and with bento we couldn't finish it all the I guess favorite foods of Okinawa and so that's what we did there in Tokyo the food was you could have Korean you could have you know it's a wide variety in Tokyo but my main reason to go to Tokyo was to find cherry blossoms and you know if the timing is always wrong or right you know so we missed a lot of the flurry except in the Shinagawa area there was one of the hotels in the Shinagawa group of hotels that had a looming Sakura and so I went Alan when a couple of us went to see it at night with that miraculous lighting it was beautiful but during the day I was always searching for cherry blossoms and then one tiny alleyway it looked down and there was one tree with the pink blossoms and it was towards the end of the season and the leaves are just fluttering down and they were so beautiful that made my trip to Tokyo in that little garden there were 17 different kinds of Sakura and plum blossoms and they were only about four or five in bloom but it was beautiful well I think Japan itself is beautiful the culture is really fantastic the way the people conduct themselves is safe and right now giving the exchange rate it's cheap were you surprised with the prices Alan you can get that miso soup just a buck or two am I right oh yeah I would have paid twice as much as I did it was so reasonable and of course being that it was so tasty you feel like it's worth a lot more but I think it was a 36 degree temperature outside that made it okay so I think I would like to ask you this you know so you had an experience you saw both places you could make the comparison you could enjoy the group and and having fun not only along the group but with people around you in Ogimi what about other people what about say somebody in college um what's your advice to them should they do this trip should they go to Japan now should they go to Okinawa um they're not going to be so interested in living to Margaret they're not going to be so interested in you know examining the lifestyle in a in a blue zone village um but what would you advise them when would you advise them to go would you advise them to go now what would you tell them to look for what would you tell them the takeaway is uh I would say to um you know whenever you're going to trip you do a little research before you go to find out what kind of place it is and then to go with an open mind because it is very different from Tokyo and don't expect it to be like Tokyo you know it has its own beauty um culture and if you and a college student who knows if they like the light life and all of that they may they're gonna be searching and they probably can find only a few places Okinawa has its own beauty and the history of Okinawa is amazing um some sad stories too about the struggles they had um but it it was so rich with um of flavor of Okinawa and be open to them Tokyo on the other hand is totally different and yet there's so many different places in Japan that you have their own stories you know they have their own flavors culture so I would say if you're a traveler just be open always to anything and you know you always learn from any experience that good um you come away with something yeah I'm reminded that um Art and Rin Kimura have been to Japan are you ready are you sitting down 55 times 55 times wow that's gotta be one of the most important things in their relationship together over the over the course of their marriage so Alan what would you add to what Gwen said about the advice you would give to a younger person um about going and what to look for when you're there yeah I would ask everybody to go through another country without any expectations of being entertained or to have a certain amount of something for the money that paid uh when you go there with that expectation I think it totally changes the way you look at what you're doing who you're interacting with um you know you're trying to quantify and qualify you know expenditures so I would I would want people to go to another country and understand the culture to empathize with their values and their priorities you know understand why a culture is different and it's not the same as ours um I know when I went to China and I had to use a outdoor pit bathroom it was quite an experience I'll never forget how it felt to do that and how it smelled so you appreciate what you have that the other thing I want to add is that along with all the enjoyable things we did uh we did visit places that were really sad um like the peace memorial where a lot of the people in Okinawa jumped off the cliffs because they were they didn't want to be captured by the Americans we went to the girls school where a lot of the young girls were asked to provide medical services to all the soldiers that were in the field um and in Okinawa I mean in Japan green and art took us to um I'm gonna not pronounce this uh anyway that's where the 47 Ronians are buried the name just escapes me right now but anyway uh you know to be there and to understand that these 47 Ronin warriors uh with devotion loyalty and great honor uh to revenge on their lord that was unfairly treated or insulted um you know there's there's sad moments but it really tells you something about what life is all about well we're out of time I we got to go now it's been great to talk to you guys but as I promised earlier we're gonna have one final challenge so I uh I can't sing but so you will imagine music appropriate music and if you could both just give me the hand motions uh you know for the hula uh that you did it okay me just to you know you know whatever and uh can you okay ready go okay this is a fish swimming I'm glad you showed them that and I'd say the people in Okimi will never forget what you showed them I think they were very um taken with that thank you Gwen Gwynnose and Alan Okinakis thank you very much for joining us today but a great discussion we've learned a lot and I wish you well hey chair hello if you liked this show why don't you give us a like or subscribe to our channel thanks so much