As we end 2010 and get ready to usher in the new year (how time flies!), I wanted to share a happy topic with readers. “We Nikkei seniors are generally 10 years younger than our counterparts in Japan,” remarked a Nikkei friend recently—a 70-something lady who’s still quite active working, doing volunteer work and traveling every year. She said it so matter-of-factly, as though everyone knew it, that it took a while to register. Then I realized that her assessment neatly summed up all the big and small things, both physical and mental, that I’ve seen and heard on differences between Nikkei/ijusha seniors {I guess I’m one too} and the elderly back in Japan.
To put it another way, seniors here in their mid-60s like myself would be as busy with both work and leisure activities as people in their mid-50s in Japan. Nikkeijin and overseas Japanese residents in their mid-70s would be as active—if not more—as seniors in their mid-60s in Japan. I read with sadness recent reports about the growing number of urban seniors, mostly retired and widowed “salary men,” who pass away alone and remain unnoticed for days and even weeks in their apartment and condominium rooms or even houses, as they can’t manage on their own. Their number is estimated at some 30,000 every year, and a large proportion are in their 60s. In some cases, family members relying on their fathers’ pension payments are involved, but that’s another story.
Before we get too depressed, let’s switch our focus back to Canada, a far less densely populated land of both independent-minded and public-spirited people. To mark the end of this year, I drew up a completely personal and random list of things I should be grateful for in my life here.
Thank goodness some paying jobs along with a bit of volunteer work and a very enjoyable and rewarding avocation (playing the guitar) still keep me fully occupied.
The list is in three parts, what we call i-shoku-ju, i.e. what we wear, what we eat and where we live.
What we wear: The way we dress is a good example of the substantive but casual lifestyle in Canada. We don’t have to worry too much about having to be dressed right for every occasion, be it formal or casual. Of course, I may just be an old goat who doesn’t pay much attention to what he wears. Nevertheless, I have the impression that there are fewer occasions in Canada than in Japan when men have to wear dark suits and women formal dresses.
One more thing I want to mention: long johns. (I did say “random list.”) The very word momohiki in Japanese might make some older readers chuckle, but I’ve had this fixation since boyhood that not wearing long johns during winter no matter how cold is “cool.” So I had slight trepidation when I moved from Singapore to Vancouver 13 years ago that I may have to wear them in the “severe cold” of Canadian winters. But the winters here in Vancouver, even with heavy snow, have turned out to be bearable without that dreaded garment. Friends tell me long johns are necessary when one spends long hours outdoors in the BC interior or up north in mid- winter, and they are probably a must in the severe sub-zero temperatures of winter on the east coast. But the climate in Greater Vancouver has so far been kind to me and my sartorial vanity.
What we eat: So much has been said and written about the wide varieties of cuisines available in Greater Vancouver and beyond from Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian and Southeast Asian to North American, Italian and Mexican at all price levels from quick take-out to posh restaurants, that I can only say we’re fortunate to have so many choices, not to forget all the ingredients we can buy. We can really pick and choose our dietary lifestyle. Those of us with palates favoring simple Japanese fare—and, dare I say, many people of Japanese ancestry tend to get that way as they enter the senior age bracket—no longer have to worry about the availability of this or that as we did, say, 30 years ago.
One thing that Chairman Mao Zedong of China once said that impressed me concerns our diet. “Eat lots of vegetables, some rice (or noodles?) and a little meat (or fish?),” he advised. I’m no expert but it sounds like a good balance. With my metabolic rate slowing down, a plate of salmon nigiri sushi is a feast for me these days, and o-chazuke (hot green tea or water poured over cold rice with bits of topping for seasoning) makes for a great snack any time. OK, I confess I’m still not that crazy about vegetables (tempura being one exception), but I do eat my share of salads and broccoli and hey, does mikan (mandarin oranges) count? I was once told by a Canadian lady—the wife of an old family friend well into her 70s— that Canadians were statistically the biggest salad eaters in the world. I can safely state that in my experience in a limited number of European, Asian and north American countries, Canada is the only place where I am asked whether I’m having “French fries or salad” with my burger.
Where we live: Whether in Canada or Japan, better-off people live in big houses and luxury apartments and the less well to do live in smaller dwellings. The big difference in the living environment between Vancouver and, say, densely-populated Asian metropolises, must be in the setting both urban and natural as well as in the “social climate,” i.e. how people generally behave toward each other.
Lots of greenery in the environment is good for mental health, experts say. And every time I go downtown for work, or step into Tim Horton’s for a snack, or go grocery shopping at the neighborhood supermarket, or have a drink in a jazz bar or just stroll around the waterfront, I find strangers to be generally considerate and easy to talk with. I don’t know exactly who I’m comparing them with, but I’m still practically awed by their pleasantness—and often—13 years after moving here. Being able to go about one’s business without feeling tension from stressful encounters might be an invisible factor, but it could well be the most important of all the things that make our living environment here extending to the i-shoku-ju of our lives conducive to longevity.
No wonder that I recently saw Canada topping a 2010 ranking of the world’s countries according to the amount of friendliness felt by new immigrants and foreign visitors. I assume that friendliness must be a big factor behind the steady number of foreigners who like Canada enough to migrate here. Some might have found the Canadian national temperament similar to their own. Thus “birds of a feather flock together” and the caring multi-cultural ethos of the country is continuously enhanced and passed down.
Foreign visitors of course include Japanese English-language students, some on working holiday visas, and tourists. In these times when the people in Japan are generally going through an introvert phase, those who take the initiative to come, those still interested in the outside world, are a precious breed. As such they should be exposed to our brand of multi-cultural environment as much as possible. As readers already involved know, there are many interfaces between them and the Nikkei/ijusha community, such as cultural and volunteer activities, home-stay programs and food and beverage and other service sector activities.
If we can only get them hooked on Canadian kindness . . . Thank you for reading my stuff this year, and I wish you all the best in the year 2011.
