Japan’s Secret Island Where People Never Die (+100 Year)

what do the longest living humans on theplanet knowthat we don't doctor of scientists anddietitians have been looking for thesecrets of longevity for centuries andin that process we've now uncoveredhealthier ways of living cured diseasesand technology has given us virtuallyeverything we'd ever want at ourfingertips with rapid advancement intechnology over the past Century howeveryou'd think we'd have mastered Peakhuman health instead we're noticing anincrease in levels of high stress mentalhealth issues heart disease cancer anddementia this begs the question that inour pursuit of perfecting The HumanExperience what have we forgotten arethere core Universal truths and ways ofliving a healthy life that we've knownaround the world for Millennia thatwe've left behind in our Pursuit formorewell there are a few places around theworld who have unknowingly even to themsomehow preserved this magic and becauseof this many live way above the age of100. one of these places is an islandhidden in the East China Sea some callthe land of Immortals this begs theglaring question what are they doingdifferently what are the Forgottentruths core to our well-being as humansthat we've forgot and is it too late toremember them well after weeks of backand forth while we were filming ourSeries in Japan we got in contact withsome locals from this island who agreedto host us for a few days and in ourfinal story in the country of Japan wewere lucky enough to be joined by a fullteam including Amar Corey staffan Tommyand myself for the very first time thisis The Avengers huh wowto go discover the hidden secrets of theisland of Okinawawe're here this is really exciting likewe've never done a trip all togetherlike this ready to be 110. to get to thespecific Village we have to rent a carand drive higher up north to theWilderness like it says heartfulfriendship in Okinawa hey[Music]what's your first impression it's notvery pretty the southern part of Okinawafeels like it's very industrial but inmy mind I was like oh we're gonna arrivefor this like very tiny Community it'sdefinitely like the complete opposite ofwhat I landed thinking that we're gonnabe yeah but hopefully we'll see wherewe're going we're like still an houraway you know[Music]and we are rolling intookayspell that what is it no I don't want tosmell AdventureYogimusiccan we go to the you know farming rightwell we just arrived but yeah you guyswant to go farmyou're some help in the cropping the uhsome turmericans that's good forlongevity yesmy dad would be proud right now Iactually grew up working in my that'sfarm so no problem guyshow to farmwell ladies and gentlemen as we aregetting thrown straight into the actionand finding our first two core truthsspending quality time in nature andworking with our hands I'd like towelcome you to the magic little villageof oogiemi in the last few decades thisis one of only five places on Earth thathave been labeled as blue zones a regionwhere the residents for some reasonconsistently live abnormally long livesand experience much fewer healthconcerns we've already visited two ofthese five blue zones one last year inseoulosardinia in Italy where westumbled upon a village Festival it's myfirst 100 year old plaster I made in mylife and the other in Loma LindaCalifornia you're how old 78. I just rana half marathonwe're not ready to dive deeper onceagain in our third and very special BlueZone heading straight to one of theirFarms yeah we're at a farm nowyou look like the biggest city boyscoming out to the countryside likewe're so not dressed for Farming Farmingshoes yeah over there they have okayI don't know what's happeningthis makes us ready to farm just bootsit's very nice for health and it makesand the younger local people you go seethe four medicine onenot againcan you show us how to do itlike thisworking Outdoors being in motion oftenon their own Farms seems to be a patternacross the blue zones even the elderskeep their minds fresh and their bodiesactive with a gentle routine I know Idid turmeric was a root really smellthat did you know that yeahlearn things every dayhe's saying that we're doing a reallygood jobforeign[Music]there's something about touching thesoil and just seeing how abundant theland is that actually affects you in apsychological level like I feel so muchmore peaceful you really feel theconnection for the land you feelconnection to what you eat and it'ssomething that you know City living nowyou're you have none of it[Music][Music]oh the fruit of our Harvest[Music]and unbeknown to us from time to timeour translator yogisan would get boredand start to completely making uptranslations leaving us totally confusedso he said he make with wife two times aday[Music][Music]any Grandma anywhere in the world you'reright grandmas and grandpas are my newfavorite yesterday characters[Laughter]Okinawathanks so muchwhat a lovely start it couldn't haveactually began any better it sets thetone for how lovely the energy is inthese people and the sense of communityif you don't understand what she'ssaying but we just feel everything thatis just flowing through her and shefeels what's flowing through us and yeahit's the most incredible thing toexperiencemuch like in Solo Italy where peopleliterally left their keys outside oftheir doors to welcome anyone in at anytime leading to no one ever feelingalone okinawans seem to be truly livingwith an open Spirit but with thiswholesome start nothing could haveprepared us for the chaos that waswaiting for us at our Homestay where arewe going like what we keep going fromconfusing to Wholesome to confusing thisis where our home stay is[Laughter]there a chicken people in Okinawa have asense of humor that's for surewow this looks great Thomas[Laughter]wow this is a lot of bottles of suckingwe quickly realized that our host has anendless supply of humor and drinks[Music][Laughter]it's notthank youhe wants to drink all dayI thought he was saying somethingsentimental yeah[Music]so this is alcohol this is for drinkingyes wait what no no no no no no no no nono don't do it no I'm not doing that Idon't want to touch itI'm way different vitaminshow long has this been in here 20 yearsthis has been in there and he's gonnagive you a sip of that powerin my roomtwo snakes in here that have beenbrewing with this wine for 20 years andI'm about to put that into my bodyyou're a crazy man you know thatthey really understood[Music]it tastes like something's been sittingin there for a while[Music]okay how long will I live now does thatmean finish this he wants you to go themoment yeah[Applause]come onit was meant to be the most wholesomevideo out of the Japan series and it'sturning into the craziest run for yourlivesonthe strongest venom in the world youknow many people died before yeah wejust drank[Laughter]Although our Local Host was full of lifewe wanted to go a lot deeper into thecommunity and connect with the elders totruly understand what helps them livesuch long and healthy lives[Music]how old are you85 years oldthe guy working out there this is Philbehind us[Music]he's saying like that's the differencebetween just like consuming versusactually experiencing the foodsecurity[Music]that's beautiful the little thingspeople look for the big things but it'sin the small enough[Music]85 years old and you're still workingbut there's this inherent wisdom inwithin our elders I think we see becauseElders can't use an iPad we don't valuethe wisdom as much as prior Generationsused to yeahforeignERS play together here to bond andfurther their friendship is called getball we're gonna try and go join themand learn a little bit[Music]he's 97 years old wow that's like morethan three times older than we areumforeign[Music][Music]woohoowhat can I say can you ask her how doesshe feel about playing get ball and whatdoes he do with her lifeanybody I've met past 90 is always bedwritten some spoken in their bed andthese guys are all out smiling andlaughing and they're walking likenormally they're not struggling to walkreally it's really impressive it feelslike friendship relationships is likeit's such a big part of it likecommunities everything it is like in ourprevious exploration of blue zones acommon tradition that they all had incommon was maintaining a strong sense ofcommunity and this principle is also sointegral to the Okinawan people thatthey actually have a specific word forit and why do you have uhI know or somebody need help okay I helpyou like this each other give and takealways when you're five years old inthis community you get matched with amoai a group of at least five people whotake care of each other as you growolder you contribute a small Financialamount each month to your moai whichserves as some form of a bank so thatwhenever anyone needs help of any kindthe mawaii is there for you they meet atleast once a month your moai can alsochange and you can have severalthroughout your life ensuring that youalways have a sense of community evenbeyond your own familyit's very important to make a friendan attempt to nurture our community andyour ability to participate in it moredeeply we created a few years ago ouryes fam Community newsletter which ifyou're looking for community andconnection we'd highly encourage you tojoin signing up for our newsletter iscompletely free and at the top of thedescription below it includes news aboutupcoming events meetups and challengesin your areas the amazing yes famCommunity organizers are constantlyputting together exciting experiencesthat bring people togetheryou also want to like have a group gobowling or something what the hell arewe doing in your lifetime we ever gobowling okay we never go bowling Tommywas a varsity bowler in high school[Music]when I see them I feel like the problemin our world is stress is high insociety and to reduce that we drink morewe eat less good food spend more time onour phones you know we're trying toescape the stress to them they don'tfeel like they have anything figured outbut to us from the outside looking inthey definitely do right okay bye-byeone thing we noticed about the people ofogimi was their incredibly light andopen energy sense of humor and welcomeattitude anywhere we went yesterday wemet this lovely lady who owns a cafe uphere how old are youwellyou look 40 years oldand we wanted to come back and learnmore about her story and have more ofher lovely tea good morning ohhow are you good good[Music][Music]thank you[Music]one of the biggest things that I'venoticed here is that the perception ofAging is very different than the West Ifeel like in the west people fight agingbut here it just feels like peoplereally embrace it like what does shethink about agingumenjoysomething that I've been wanting to askthese Okinawan residents about which Ithought could help explain theirlongevity was the word ikigai ikigai isa concept that has swept through theWestern World in recent years and issaid to originate from Okinawa and be anall-japanese term which describes thething that gives a person a sense ofpurpose made famous using this diagramwhich describes ikigai is the overlap ofdoing something that you love somethingthat the world needs something thatyou're good at and something that youcan be paid for if you're able to findone thing that checks all of those boxesyou've achieved your purpose in life oryour ikigai but it seems that the localshave a slightly more subtle and refinedview of what ikigai truly meansforeignseems like it's not like this search forthe one thing in your life it's it'smore of like like being a tennis coachis you know yeah at least my perceptionof the concept is like oh you just spendyour whole life to try to find this onething but maybe it's actually justnomination where you feel all those arecombinedthemthat's the answer from the island simpleyou need more flowerslast question if she has a message theyoung people in the world today whatwould that be[Music]oh[Music]our honest main final lesson from boththis trip and our last one in Italy isthat longevity and happiness reallyfeels like it is meant to be way moreeffortless than we make itgoodmany of the locals didn't evenunderstand why we were asking so manyquestions it's not supposed to be thisaggressive Relentless approach tohappiness that we often believe is thepath in the Western WorldThe Pursuit of Happiness May on its ownvery well be an unhappy path to chooseand the pursuit may very well be what'sdistracting us from the very thing weseek the answer feels more harmonioushappening right nowbut asking questions is good yes butultimately at some point if we don'tsimply let go and enjoy the presentmoment how will we ever learn how toenjoy whatever we eventually get helloeverybodyokay perfectbeing thankful for the Small Thingsfinding purpose in your daily life andstaying closely connected to yourcommunity really feels like an art formthese days a rare gift yet a skill wecan all practice to master the sweet joyof slowing things down not being in theconstant quest to do more achieve moreor build more but at some point learninghow to let go look someone deeply in theeyes and smile with your full heartthese blue zones truly have rare giftsthey are holding on to although themodern world is corrupting their futurefurther and further with processed foodsand technology so we hope that storieslike this can plant seeds in your mindto think about your own life and healthto Value what you have and be moreintentional get more relaxed about yourapproach to your daily life as a genuineattempt to nurture Community which wethink is lacking everywhere around theworld our yes fam Community newsletteris a place to start we hope you willconsider joining for free at the link atthe top of the description below aharmonious future is possible but willwe do what it takes to reconnect withand remember all of these forgottentruths we once knew saying goodbye toour hostsnice guy sorry