3/ The big pivot
"I'm a big believer in winging it. I'm a big believer that you're never going to find the perfect city travel experience or the perfect meal without a constant willingness to experience a bad one” – Anthony Bourdain.
A bad one you say Anthony…
‘blue regions’ are where residents live significantly longer and healthier lives, often reaching age 100 or older (centenarians) with lower rates of chronic diseases.
A big goal of mine this year is to hit the five recognised blue regions since watching Dan Butteners documentary which talks of;
Plant forward diet.
Natural movement.
Purpose and lifestyle.
Community and connection.
Following visiting Tokyo, Hakuba, Kyoto in Japan – Okinawa (blue region) was next. Now I’ve been working on a flexible mindset for my travels, virtually nothing is booked more than two weeks out, I’ve also been a little lax on research and using the mantra the best things usually happen when you don’t plan. AND so on that….
I had wrongfully made the assumption that transport around Okinawa would be in parallel to mainland Japan – WRONG. VERY WRONG.
Landing into Naha, southern Okinawa and albeit a relatively small island, Ogimi the village of centenarians to the North was a good 3 hour drive. First big plan failing… I hadn’t got an international driving license! I realised this when doing minimal forward (ish) planning in Kyoto and I had a semi-melt down… Take a breath, think about the controllable.
BUT, did this mean I wasn’t going to make my blue region vision a possibility?
As Ross famously shouted in friends “Pivot”.
I sat down and wrote out those key blue region elements, did some googling, used chat GPT and my brain.
My pivot plan was born…
Okinawa food was available all over the island not just ogimi, I found plenty and it pushed me to explore way more in different ways than I would have. Purple potato – good. Sashimi – good. Okinawa noodles – good. Mozuko seaweed with vinegar – good. Mozuko seaweed with kimchi – not so good. But chowing down on the Plant forward diet .
Imagine at 81 you are waking up in the morning, making your way to your Dojo, starting a class off by stretching out better than a insta bali teacher! Well, Okinawa is not only the home of karate itself and Mr Miagi of karate kid fames home town, it also has karate master 10th dan sensei Kakazu, who taught me and coached me for a few days – Even at his ripe age he’s still smashing it - punching, chopping, kicking his way through natural movement. Even those warm up stretches were tough and wonderfully humbling, with more black belts in the room than floorboards. There was also a family vibe, special moment was watching Kuko ( tiny little baby boy), watch his mother give an almighty show on how bloody good at karate she was. Find good people.
With Ogimi village off the table. I had to explore, part of the Okinawa prefecture are a group of islands, the kerama islands. What better way to see the real blue region than rural island life. Here I really felt a deep connection with a slower pace of life, eating off the land & sea and observing a passion for the environment – feeling the islands Purpose and lifestyle around necessity. ( I also had the most jaw dropping awe inducing moments, watching humpback whales. That’s for another day and another post.)
So, from mainland Okinawa to Zamami island to Aka island, I got positive vibes. In Naha I joined a group of random people from all over the world including Okinawan locals, with a rain stick in my hand and danced on the street. Sang karaoke with Miku a bar lady in an empty place ( I did look high and low for a busy one, so I howled some solo renditions of Oasis – Sorry Miku), chatted to Sabrina a journalist from Singapore over a beer, watched a humpback whale jump out the water with sushi our guide. Created my own connection and community.
In my invisible filing cabinet of stuff, I know I can pivot. I’ve done it many times in life and work. But this one felt good, I thought I was nearly ripping apart a big part of my purpose on my travels.
I found a workaround. a solution. Took a pause. Figured out the controllables. AND pivoted.
Blue region 1/5. It didn’t go to plan, but it didn’t let down.
So I never did get to Ogimi village.
But I think I got a realer look what makes this place special - not just one village but how people live. I GOT INVOLVED.
It also again gave me time to reflect on my IKIGAI, something I have been drawing on for years.
Less ticking a box, more exploring ideas.
P.s. You’ll be happy to know my international driving license is en-route.
Next stop Vietnam…
