Yuumoushin.com (勇猛心)

I celebrated my birthday this past weekend (Sunday) with my bro Ken and his girl, Yoko. It was excellent. Spent the entire day in Kamakura, which is something I haven’t done in a very long time. After my close friends Peter and Shio got married, I spent quite a few weekends in the area, but always at their house. The last time I really explored Kamakura was back when Keiko and I first started dating (Shio took us on a little “Kamakura Monogatari,” which was before we introduced Peter to her). Anyway, the weather finally cleared up this weekend so we hit the beach in the morning, did a bit of hiking in the afternoon…about a 5km hike to the famous “daibutsu,” and then finished off the night in Yokohama with some excellent Japanese food. Ken and Yoko, thanks, it was great and the Suica Green Cars ROCK!! Here are the pictures.

Here’s an article from the Seattle Times: “How much to eat?” I think it’s interesting and something I’ve seen first hand from my experiences in Japan. The menu at McDonald’s here, for example, is essentially the same as the McDonald’s in the United States (with the exception of a few regional specialties: fried shrimp burger, teriyaki burger, etc). The thing is, when you order a super-sized value meal here, you’ll get a soda and fries that are roughly the size of the U.S. medium. Same thing in Europe I’ve been told. I’ve even seen this in the states – I have a VW Jetta (’97). and I’m lucky if I can get a 12 ounce can of something to fit in the cup holders. My buddie’s Chevy – He has a cup holder that’s also designed to hold a 64 ounce big gulp.

Here’s a quote from the article regarding one of the experiments:

In one, they put a large bowl with a pound of M&Ms in the lobby of an upscale apartment building with a sign: “Eat Your Fill … please use the spoon to serve yourself.” The candy was left out through the day for 10 days, sometimes with a spoon that held a quarter-cup, and other times with a tablespoon.

Sure enough, people consistently took more M&Ms on days when the bigger scoop was provided, about two-thirds more on average than when the teaspoon was present.

The article also mentions that certain companies are going to start selling packages with smaller portions. While I guess this is okay (their prerogative, of course), there’s so much more to it than that – self control。 If you don’t want to add on extra weight, don’t eat that extra burger…don’t eat that extra handful of M&Ms…substitute simple sugars for the healthier, complex ones found in veggies.　　

The article does mention the following:

In any case, an earlier experiment of Geier’s shows that the unit bias effect has its limits.

He had one dining hall at his university provide 10-ounce glasses for soda, and a second provide 16-ounce glasses. He predicted that students at the first hall would drink less soda. In fact, they drank more.

Only later did he find out what went wrong.

“They were taking two glasses at a time,” he said. “I guess I went below what is culturally construed as a unit of soda.”

There’s a stomach surgery commercial in the U.S. that I saw shortly before coming to Japan; I think it captures just what the problem is. The tagline: “Are you serious about losing weight? If so, consult your physician today about weight loss surgery, to help you get that figure you’ve always wanted!” What?? So that’s what “serious about losing weight” means? Dude, go to the gym! For some people, it’s a matter of life and death, but to promote it as the “easy” way to lose weight…arrghh…

And here’s the final link, the tomato that looks like a human face. Human face?? What the hell are they talking about!? Thank god I don’t look like that…hah!

Oh, and one more pic…this is just TOO funny. DARTH HELLO KITTY!!! HAHAHAHA.

I figured it was time to change the tone of my post – the last couple of been a bit on the critical side.

Those of you that know me know that I love games, especially video games (shout out to my boy Sebastian! haha) – I have the Sony PSP, Nintendo DS and Nintendo Gamecube. I haven’t played the GC in a while, but I have been getting lots of use from my PSP and DS lately (especially since I’m in Japan). My favorite PSP game at the moment is Tony Hawk’s Underground Remix. It’s awesome, and waaaaay too addictive. The only downside (which may have more to do with the PSP): it’s a bit on the dark side so some of the graphics aren’t as clear as I’d like. This is especially a problem when in some of the underground levels.

On the DS, my favorite game is an RPG version of Naruto, Naruto RPG 2: Chidori vs. Rasengan. A lot of the characters are in it, and whenever you try to use a special “jutsu,” you have to either press the button really fast (not much fun), or use the touch pad to charge the characters’ chakra. If any of you read Japanese and know anything about Naruto, you’ll appreciate this game.

On another note, I’ve always been a big Nintendo fan…something about the games. Doesn’t matter how powerful the other systems are relative to the Gamecube, the play (and controllers) of the GC are (in my opinion) better. Besides, what other system has Zelda (dude, where the hell is Zelda DS)??? That being said, who the hell mods their gamecube into a portable gaming system? haha. The GC already is, in a sense, portable: it has a nice little handle on the back, compact size…all you need is a backpack and you’re ready to go. This guy took that to an entirely new level – the dude actually modded it with a small lcd, and mounted controllers to the system! The only thing he didn’t do is include a battery pack so one still needs the power cord. Hmm, can any of you imagine walking into your local coffee shop only to see someone at the table by the fireplace playing with this bad boy?

Note: I got this from Nintendo Central, and apparently it took him a month to make. The full story.

My friend Greg posted this in my comments section: a map showing the change in obesity for the U.S. over the last 20 years. It’s actually a pretty cool little progression, and to be honest, pretty close to what I expected (in terms of which states showed the highest growth, etc.). If you have a couple of seconds, worth the look.

As long as we’re on the subject, I want to bring up Japan. I first came to Japan in 1995, then again in 1999, 2000, 2004 and most recently (now) 2006. Everytime I come, I’m surprised by the number of “large people” I see relative to the last time I was here (especially when I think about my first time here in 1995). Regarding what Greg posted, I want to post some interesting results about Japan’s growing obesity (among children – not a surprise considering how ubiquitous fast food has become here…although right now, like in the U.S., there is an organic boom).

Here’s the article for those of you that want to read it. The basic results are as follows (again, keep in mind these are all using BMI measures):

“Results: The mean (age-adjusted) BMI increased by +0.32 kg/m2 per 10 years in boys and by +0.24 kg/m2 per 10 years in girls, increases that were remarkable in small towns. The prevalence of obese boys and girls increased from 6.1% and 7.1%, respectively, in the time-period 1976 to 1980, to 11.1% and 10.2% in 1996 to 2000. The increasing trend was most evident in 9- to 11-year-old children of both sexes living in small towns, whereas no changes were observed in girls in metropolitan areas.”

Table 2 and Table 3 – from the article. Both list the data related to the article’s result.

A quote from the first article I posted (above):

“There is no good excuse. Ask someone who has developed high-blood pressure, diabetes, polycystic ovarian syndrome or heart disease—all obesity- and fitness-related illnesses—if they regret not making a wee bit more effort to live healthfully. Instead, now they live with chronic disorders that cause ill health, pain or fatigue and that require expensive medications with negative side effects. These people are also more likely to meet with an early death.

Many people in their teens, 20s and 30s can often be overweight and suffer few health consequences. Young people, in general, don’t tend to be very forward looking. So it’s no surprise that this segment of the obese population tends to be extremely lackadaisical when it comes to eating right or getting in shape. It’s easier to get hooked on video games, get sucked into TV shows, hop in a car instead of on a bike and succumb to a tasty, cheap fast-food meal rather than make any concerted efforts to eat nutritious, portion-controlled foods…”

Good choices, that’s all it takes.

Someone asked me the other day where I get my coffee. I figured I’d share the link (in Japanese): ko- hi- hee mei kan (koh hee mey kahn – the phonetic reading). Although a coffee shop, they do have a small collection of teas (which is what I’ve been buying lately). Doesn’t appear to have any information on the site about their teas so you’ll probably have to visit the store. If you’re ever in the Musashikoganei area and want to try something different, check them out. The owner and her daughter are super people.

A friend of mine posted a logic puzzle game on his site and I thought it was pretty cool. Thanks Johnny! haha.

Another interesting article (Forbes), this one about the hidden costs of obesity. Note: I’m not a fan of the BMI as a way of measuring body fat (muscle is heavier than fat…I have a friend who is very short, but stocky as hell; according to his BMI he should be dead). Anyway, that aside, when people think about weight problems, they tend to only think about health specific issues – which are definitely very important. However, what about the other “costs?” This article touches on a few things regarding a heavier population. Interesting and worth the read.

In conjunction with this, here are some numbers from the slide show at the end of the article (disclaimer: I in no way promote, support or validate these numbers…just thought they were interesting, and wanted to share):

• Medical Cost Of Obesity: $93 billion
• Missed Work Cost: Up to $800 per person
• Jet Fuel Cost: $275 million
• Supersizing Cost: Up to $7.72 per meal
• Red Ink Cost Of Obesity To A 1,000 Person Firm: $285,000
• Your Pocket Tax Bill: $180 per year
• Cheap Food Total Change: -14%

I posted pictures from my trip to Nobeoka, so check them out here. Most people who visit Miyazaki probably won’t plan Nobeoka into their itinerary so I’m glad I had the opportunity to go (plus, flying business class for free is always the way to travel…hehe).

Before my trip to Nobeoka, Keiko and I met up with some of her friends from high school. We set it up as a sort of surprise for one of the women since it was to casually celebrate her birthday and reunite the four of them (they all went to the same junior high school and high school, have remained really close over the years, but haven’t had too many opportunities to get together as a group since university – someone was always missing). Anyway, Keiko and I were fortunate enough to also receive gifts, from her friend Yoko – monkeys with afros. What, is she saying I’m a monkey? Or is she just going with the whole afro thing? I’ll assume the latter. hahah.

Keiko and I (plus our afro monkeys)

On another note, I’ve been really impressed with some of the tools on the following site: portableapps.com. Gimp is surprisingly powerful and for those of you with a website, FileZilla is the way to go.