This gets my "things not believed" tag, of course, but here's a picture my son Chris sent me this morning from Tokyo:
September 23, 2024
"Exposure to other tourists... can improve our mood and enhance cognitive function. And travel can lead to healthy eating."
So says an expert quoted in the WaPo article "Travel can slow the aging process, new study says/According to researchers in Australia, positive tourist experiences can help you live a longer life."
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I have not had the experience of travel's leading to healthy eating. I wish!
Shinjiku?
The only way travel could lead to healthy eating is from the detoxing we have to do after the vacation because of our horrible eating habits during the vacation.
Not if it's to India. I've been to India 3 times (Amritsar, Chennai and Pune), and he's not kidding that the experience will age and perplex you.
I don’t know if it qualified as healthy or not, but the last time we were in Japan, we stayed at a Ryokan and ate what the monks ate - which included both flowers and some stem-like material that translated as “bracken”.
Kabukicho, eh?
Shinjuku is an experience, but I really only ever go there for (1) the Sekaido art supply store and (2) Shinjuku Gyoen park. I used to shop at the Okadaya fabric store near the station to pick up textiles for my mother, and there's two Kinokuniya bookstores I used to go to occasionally, but that's about it.
Vertical photo
Riding on a commercial jet ages the body and the mind, and increases hearing loss.
I can believe that exposure to other tourists, locals or even animals may improve our mood and enhance cognitive function. But they lost me with, "Scientists have studied the connection between local diets and exceptional longevity in five “Blue Zones” across Costa Rica, California, Japan, Italy and Greece." California? Really?
What G.K. Chesterton wrote about Times Square:
“When I had a look at the lights of Broadway by night, I said to my American friends : "What a glorious garden of wonders this would be, to any who was lucky enough to be unable to read”
I wonder why it is that Marxist university departments don't come to the obvious Marxist conclusion that people who are healthier and have healthy habits in one area, are likely to be healthier and happier and have healthy habits in other areas because they have more money and better medical care -- or the non-Marxist conclusion that people who take care of themselves and avoid bad habits are likelier to be healthier, live longer, and have more money. If you can go to the other side of the planet for a vacation, you probably have other things in your life together and going well.
Ah - Shinjuku Gyoen Garden! I have a lovely memory of it from my very first visit to Japan in the ’80s. I was on a business trip right in the New Years holiday time frame. My high rise hotel room view looked out over the garden. At the end of the trip, I had the morning open before traveling back to the airport, so I decided to put on my coat and go visit that garden. The air was cold and particularly clear due to the holiday (air pollution so low that I could see Mt. Fuji from my hotel window). The garden was dormant for the most part due to the time of year - the grassy areas were a beautiful uniform straw color. I walked for a couple of hours in total silence - except for the occasional worker sweeping up leaves with their besom brooms, I was the only person in the entire park. I remember standing facing a small lake, where you could see the Shinjuku skyline above, but nothing except trees and water in the foreground. It was a magical experience of coming across the unexpected.
If I go to Tokyo (highly unlikely) I want a hotel room next to Godzilla.
I'm all in on the idea of travel being healthy for the mind, but it is also exhausting- for both the body and the mind. And I'm not sure that eating healthy is any more a thing in another country than it is here. You eat healthy by the choices you make. Bad food is readily available all over the globe.
Well, maybe if you're stuck in Australia...
>“Exposure to other tourists...can improve our mood<
Who the hell is saying this? The writer? These researchers? Whoever it is has never traveled. Aside from the flying, ("other") tourists are the worst part. A scourge.
Ffs of course, because healthier people travel. When you can't travel anymore you'll know it.
Masking and processed foods, never and in moderation, respectively.
How does one determine whether the idiot blithering nonsense at you is an "expert" or not?
I assume it's still true that Tokyo has more Michelin stars than any other city in the world. Tell Chris to check out Kagari in a Ginza alleyway. Their creamy chicken ramen is famous.
Yeah, India is mildly challenging (I've knocked around about a third of it) but my god, it is spectacular in so many ways.
“With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound
He pulls the spitting high tension wires down”
Doesn’t appear safe or relaxing at all to me.
+1
Article was likely commissioned by various Chambers of Commerce.
In n out burgers prolly aren’t the best thing for you but Californians get a good dose of Asian influence. In Tahoe we eat poke bowls and pad thai at the golf club, while back east everyone eats chili, deli sandwiches and cobb salad with hard boiled eggs at the golf club. These are old people- I have no idea how they stay off the pot long enough to play golf…
I did most of it in my late 20s/early 30s...it's more manageable when you're younger. Guru Granth Sahib & Langar @ The Golden Temple is definitely something worth experiencing.
The best travel experiences involve as few other tourists as possible. I forgot who said that "Hell is other people," maybe it was in a play, but when it comes to tourism, it's very true. The nice thing about getting away from high traffic areas is that the locals aren't jaded, and don't harbor as much ill will towards tourists.
Yeah, I walked through the Langar but didn't eat. Wasn't very hungry but, additionally, I have a hard and fast rule for India, Africa and such places: Do not eat the street food. I absolutely hate having to abide by that rule but it keeps me going. The Langar food is not quite street food and it was probably fine but I declined anyway. Traveled around India six weeks and never got sick. My travel buddies who had been there guaranteed me that I would. Heh.
Irregular meals, irregular sleep; add inadequate opportunity for exercise, a trifecta for "Improving mood and enhancing cognitive function."
That is a very good rule, especially in India. I've been checked for parasites several times and I'm clean. Must be lucky I guess.
Sounds like one of those "causation or correlation?" issues.
1. Overseas tourism requires free time and money.
2. People with plenty of free time and money tend to have better moods and healthier habits.
3. Overseas tourism improves your mood and health habits. ???
Going to India next month as a 67 yo with a Collette tour. Wish me luck.
Yep. For one thing, most of the world can’t spell AC or ADA.
When I was working in India, a colleague used to tell the new guys, "In India, a bathroom break is never #1 or #2--it is generally always around 1.5."
I went as a 71y/o, traveling by the seat of my pants. You'll be fine. Don't eat the street food. Carry hand san and use it frequently. Keep slippers by the door of your room and do not wear your street shoes in the room. You'll be fine. And...India will blow your mind.
I find people stuck in backwaters more interesting. I love driving while listening to local radio. In the middle of Indiana, I heard a Catholic station with two observants explaining patiently as sincere and polite evangelical callers asked them questions about where Jewish people will go in the Rapture and about the Nephilim. That was unexpected. The discussions lasted a long time, and people really wanted to understand each other. And they were all very nice. It was quite an education in many things. I met a Corvette engineer, and I learned all sorts of things about Corvettes. A desk clerk told me her dream of becoming a marketing manager. She had a lot of energy and drive: she'll do well. It's just lovely to peek into other people's lives.
Lord save us from the cult of expertise we live in now. Too many people will believe almost anything published in an article as long as it has the magic words of "Experts say...", "Studies show...", "Scientists reveal...", or something else along those lines prefacing the statement.
Precisely. Some trade group wanted a talking point, and commissioned a "study". Now it's news, not advertising.
I spent about a year in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Great experience, loved the food. But I made the mistake of eating at a real low-class place (a "military" restaurant, which means non-veg) , and as a result I returned home with shigella AND ascaris.
studies show, that 38% of all people, will believe ANY statistic placed in front of them.
Business trips across the Pacific in a DC-6 leaves you jaded without even making it to India. Motels are the same everywhere.
why not watch some youtube videos of 'mom and pop' 'family friendly' 'street food' before traveling to that area? there are plethora of!
It depends where one is traveling to. I used to work worldwide, in some not-very-nice places. Some of them, bad enough to where we had to bring our own food supply. Some of them, we'd have guys walking into camp with bush meat to sell.
My daughter goes to Europe now and again for week-long business meetings, and she tells me the food is much better there, fresher, higher quality, more flavorful. That has often been my experience too, with the occasional UK exception.
I think Althouse categorized it perfectly under "things not believed".
Spend a lot on travel, says the travel expert. It’s good for you.
Several of the best meals of my life occurred in Japan and India. And Italy, to be fair. The rest were had at home, at local restaurants, even at old BBQ joints in rural parts, and hey, I'm down 85 pounds since January, with about 100 more to go over the next year to reach my goal weight. So I can live longer and enjoy eating more good food (in sensible quantities).
Good for you, Mikee.
My brother worked for Polar Air. Once a month he would fill two huge coolers with food from McDonalds, White castle, Portillos, you get the idea, for the station manager in China across from Hong Kong. He said when it rained the airport would open the gates to the locals who would scour the runways for bugs.
I don't travel much anymore because I find air travel so tedious.
Depends upon where you travel, and how. We just returned from the Faroe Islands. That beats the nightmare of downtown Tokyo any day.
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