JOK03.0008.xxf1 At a nursing home near Ogimi Village, most of the community turns out to honor the birthdays of three residents, including Matsu Zakimi (left), turning 97, and Sumi Matsumoto (right), turning 88. (These are traditional Japanese birthdays, not the actual birth dates—88, for example is celebrated on the eighth day of the eighth month in the lunar calendar.) Musicians, dancers, and comedians perform as well-wishers cheerfully gorge on sushi, fruits, and desserts. Hungry Planet: What the World Eats (p. 195). /// Hara hachi bu—”eat only until 80 percent full”—say older Okinawans. The island has been the focus in recent years of researchers trying to discover why a disproportionately large number of Okinawans are living to age 100 or more. Some scientists attribute this longevity to the island’s unique, unbeatable combination of healthy eating habits, exercise, and low stress, as well as a community commitment to ensuring the quality of its older citizens’ lives. Sadly, although the island is being studied for clues to the oldest generation of Okinawan’s great longevity, studies say that the younger population will not live as long because of their diets higher in saturated fats and calories. /// This image is featured alongside the Matsuda family images in Hungry Planet: What the World Eats. The Matsuda family of Yomitan Village, Okinawa, is one of the thirty families featured, with a weeks’ worth of food, in the book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats. Takeo Matsuda, 88, and his wife Keiko, 75, live together with Takeo’s mother, Kama, 100. (Please refer to Hungry Planet book p. 186-187 for a family portrait [Image number JOK03.0001.xxf1rw] including a weeks’ worth of food, and the family’s detailed food list with total cost.)