No Pain, No Gain?

“It hurts so bad, yet feels soo good!” Oh baby~ that’s what you’ll say when you grind your feet into one of these handy-dandy bamboo slats. Its curved, hard surface has a way of pushing deep into those biped muscles of yours, smoothing out every tense fiber to the bone. Some call it torture, others call it a soothing massage.

I kept this ‘ashi-fumi ta-ke’ around for years among my odd collection of massage　devices. It was far more economical than the others ($10 or so), yet had the most striking effect on my body. What they say is that the foot is the map to the rest of the body. That is, each area corresponds to a particular body part. Your arch connects to the digestive system, your second and third toe to the eyes, and so on. So when part of your foot really hurts after using the bamboo it means you’d better lay off the booze and get your innards checked by the doctor.

Women especially use this device as a lazy way to　lose weight. They balance themselves on it while washing the dishes or brushing their teeth, taking in the pain as they firm up their calves. But if they’re like me, they’ll give up before anything miraculous happens. And then they’ll move on to the next fad diet like scarfing down a banana every morning.

Truthfully, I don’t really know how much healing power this wooden torture device actually has. But if it can double as a weapon of death then maybe it’s worth keeping around?

Himawari

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Supplements to Help You Live, Feel…., and Smell Better

Japan is a nation of health nuts. There is a huge market for dietary supplements; there are even some you will not find here in the United States, the birthplace of dietary supplements.

Take, for example, “Rose Sapuri” that has been selling by the millions. Rose Sapuri is “Perfume you can eat.” It will make your breath slightly scented with a hint of rose. Sounds like something out of Shojo Manga!!! Now you will breathe easily and sleep well at night without worrying about embarrassing body odors. It also claims to improve your skin.

My routine is to start my day with swag of black vinegar in the morning and to end it with “Aojiru(Green Juice)” at night. Aojiru comes in many different varieties, but my favorite is the one made from wheat barley. Just mix the green powder with water or any other liquid, and it’s ready to be consumed. It certainly rid me of irregularities and is supposed to work for many other chronic conditions. Whether it will help me live to be 100? Come back and ask me in 50 years.

Togé Togé

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Shake that Body

Last night I was chatting with some Japanese friends about recent diet fads. I told them about the colon cleanse program which included taking awful-tasting grass supplements which made me nauseous. It didn’t work miracles but at least made me appreciate my taste buds and what it has to put up with.

My friends told me about the ‘bulu-bulu’ regimen where you’re shaken by a machine in hopes that it’ll shake off that extra quarter-pound of at you had at McDonalds. I myself am a jogger so it sounded silly hat a little bit of shaking could do anything more than pain to the back.

A little bit of net research found a handful of sites that offer these machines. “Easy and fun!” “Only ten minutes a day!” “Hollywood celebrities are doing it!” Those were some of the hooks luring customers to their product. It’s a pretty simple concept. Just stand on the machine and let it do the work for you.

Common sense told me that in order to burn calories and raise your metabolism your heart needs to beat at its target rate for at least 20 minutes. That would involve actual exercise. Blood, sweat, tears and all.

Yet after talking with my friends, I started to realize their goal wasn’t just to lose weight but to lose weight without actually doing anything. A very appealing concept. Even in the U.S., some of us would rather pay thousands on liposuction than actually hit the gym.

So of course these shaking machines were a success in Japan. Over the past few months, millions of women have been moving their way into slimmer bodies. Though at what they have to pay, maybe just to a slimmer wallet. Still, Japanese people love products like these. Even just a little self-satisfaction is enough to make the purchase worthwhile. Then it’s off to the next fad product in their never-ending quest for that model-like body.

Himawari

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