Back from Japan: Observations and Ruminations

Ryoko, myself, and our baby just returned from a month in Japan, visiting her family and such. There were some days when I didn’t have much to do and just sat around, but overall I had a really good time, as did my wife. She really needed this trip to be able to unwind a relax for a while.

This being my fifth trip to Japan, every time I go there and come back there are several differences that always catch me off guard, no matter how much I’m expecting it. There is of course the crowdedness of Japan, expecially Tokyo, that converses with the big open spaces here, and the fact that I’m a giant there while only moderately tall here. I’m pretty much used to both of those. What really catches me off guard every time is that Americans are fat. Really fat. Over half of the people I see look too fat to me, and a significant percenage of people are so freaking obese how in the world are you able to take a single step or fit into a chair or even keep your skeletal system from collapsing under the wieght!!! Maybe there is something to be said for places like southern California, where over half of the women have boob jobs and tummy tucks and are too tanned and wear too much makeup and everyone talks about how superficial they are and are way too preoccupied with appearance but at least they don’t look like a pod of whales that have re-adapted to life on land!

In Japan they just finished the summer Sumo tournament at Nagoya, where everyday they show all the matches on national TV. Sumo wrestlers are renouned for thier large size, but I regularly see people on the street here in the U.S. that would easily overweigh these giants. How is a human physically capable of being this corpulent as these Americans? It never ceases to amaze me.

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