Ikigai : the Japanese secret to a long and happy life pdfdrive com

The older, the stronger

L ooking back, our days in Ogimi were intense but relaxed—sort of like the lifestyle of the locals, who always seemed to be busy with important tasks but who, upon closer inspection, did everything with a sense of calm. They were always pursuing their ikigai, but they were never in a rush.
Not only did they seem to be happily busy, but we also noticed that they followed the other principles for happiness that Washington Burnap stated two hundred years ago: “The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.”²
On our last day, we went to buy gifts at a small market at the edge of town. The only things sold there are local vegetables, green tea, and shikuwasa juice, along with bottles of water from a spring hidden in the Y anbaru forests, bearing labels that read “L ongevity Water.”
We bought ourselves some of this L ongevity Water and drank it in the parking lot, looking out over the sea and hoping that the little bottles that promised a magic elixir would bring us health and long life, and would help us find our own ikigai. Then we took a photo with a statue of a bunagaya, and walked up to it one last time to read the inscription:

A Declaration from the Town Where People Live Longest At 80 I am still a child. When I come to see you at 90, send me away to wait until I’m 100. The older, the stronger; let us not depend too much on our children as we age. If you seek long life and health, you are welcome in our village, where you will be blessed by nature, and together we will discover the secret to longevity. April 23, 1993 Ogimi Federation of Senior Citizen Clubs

The interviews

Over the course of a week we conducted a total of one hundred interviews, asking the eldest members of the community about their life philosophy, their ikigai, and the secrets to longevity. We filmed these conversations with two cameras for use in a little documentary, and chose a few especially meaningful and inspiring statements to include in this section of the book.