Like many people, the Japanese are very health conscious, and it seems every time I watch daytime variety shows on TV, some new health boom is being discussed. One week it might be green tea with fat-busting elements called catechin, then a story on the benefits of eating onions to make your blood sara sara (smooth-flowing) instead of doro doro (thick and syrupy), or promoting the benefits of a glass of kurozu (a black rice vinegar, diluted with water) after dinner, which supposedly changes an acidic body into an alkaline one, or something. Something must be working, because the Japanese are among the longest-lived people in the world, although the terrible loss of life from last year’s tsunamis caused Japan to drop behind Hong King for women for the first time in 26 years. I happened to see that last Friday was the 100th birthday of Katsumi Tezuka, the actor who was inside the rubber Godzilla suit for the first few films in the series. I shall raise a glass of black rice vinegar to him tonight!
The guy in the Godzilla suit has turned 100 years old.
