In this blog I'll try to explain one reason but it also happens to be an excellent avenue for exploring Japanese culture. Consider the picture below.
This is a shot of the main shopping area in Ikebukuro. It should immediately be apparent that the buildings are very tall. You might be thinking that, given this is a shopping district, that the shops are on the ground floor and the other floors contain living quarters. Nope. The other floors are most likely other stores. Or bars, or even restaurants. Look closely at the signs, and you can tell that there are definitely something on the upper floors. In Canada, upper floors are mostly reserved for doctors or accountants, but it's not so true in Japan. In fact, let's take a closer look at another location.
This shot is from a street level sign in Akihabara. It's readily apparent how there are different establishments selling different goods and services located over multiple floors. It's safe to say that, if you were a tourist focusing only on ground level retail, you are literally missing out on half of all that Tokyo has to offer. Just as an example, personally, in our travels, we have seen two cosplay stores located on the 2nd and 3rd floors. We ate at a T.G.I. Friday's which was one floor up. There was a used game store located on another building at the 2nd and 3rd. Finally, we even found a cat cafe a whopping six floors up from ground level. And that's not all.
This is a shot of Don Quijote, a popular chain of department stores all around Tokyo. This particular one was taken in Asakusa. Now, notice just how tall it is. In Toronto, department stores are dying, but in Tokyo, they are alive and kicking. Also in Canada, department stores rarely push past the second floor but here, it can clearly be seen that it's at least five stories tall. Indeed, we must have gone up four floors when we explored the place from the inside. Don Quijote is only one example. A Kotobukiya store selling figures and models went up five stories and a manga/anime store we found went up an astounding eight. In fact, in our freshman view, when we entered the Kotobukiya store, we thought it only existed on the ground floor! Until we found the escalator hidden in the corner. How easily are treasures missed! Had we not go up, I would have missed out on some awsome models.
Okay, so what does all this have to do with the Japanese being skinny? Well, imagine living in such a city with this much emphasis on verticality. There's going to be alot of stairs to climb, isn't there? And so there are. Yes, it's true, every building we've see has an elevator of some sort and many of the bigger stores feature escalators. But at the same time, stairs are readily available. Now, if you were in a hurry, would you wait for an elevator? Or just take the stairs? We just took the stairs. For six stores, we prefer the elevator, but for the usual 2 or 3, stairs are just faster.
Okay, what about escalators? Well, the curious thing about Japan is that they design buildings with escalators AND stairs in mind. In Toronto malls, if you want to move between floors, you take the escalators because there are no other choice. The stairs are usually hidden away some where but in Japan, stairs and escalators co exist. If you find yourself closer to a flight of steps than an escalator, you are free to use them. Of course, noone stops you from walking up and down an escalator if you so choose.
So yes, what I'm trying to say here is that the average Japanese walk up waaaaay more steps than the average Canadian. Those of you living in houses are lucky to get free exercise every time you go up and down from the bedroom but not all of us are so fortunate. But from what I saw, the Japanese are forced to use stairs, alot, if they wish to take full advantage of what Tokyo has to offer. And if you happen to work at one of these establishments not at ground level, then your opportunity to exercise just doubled.
It's easy to get thin when the entire city is working you out every time you shop. And this concludes my first entry in this matter. I've thought of many, many more reasons. Taken together and you got yourself one set of fit city dwellers. But I'll blog about those another time.
P.S. I can't prove this, and I wish I took pictures but I think my theory extends past stores and shopping. Observing Tokyo living quarters I notice alot of apartment buildings have very prominent stairways built right up the side of buildings. I'm not talking about the flimsy fire escapes some old buildings have but rather huge, meaty flights of steps made of stone and concrete. This suggests to me that some of the smaller apartments don't have elevators. Otherwise, why built such obvious ways of getting up and down when people will just take an elevator? I think this is another reason why so many Japanese are thin. If you lived on the third, fourth, or even the fifth floor and your building only have stairs, then you're getting exercise every time you leave the house and come back.
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