What is the point anyway?

It is an odd thing that the Japanese are so adverse to exercise and yet remain one of the worlds healthiest countries. I don't know what it is. I am sure people have studied this phenomenon (with far greater scrutiny and attention to science than I have), but it seems to me that thinking that you know your purpose in life makes you live longer. Most Japanese seem to have this innate drive to work towards the same goals; education, job, money, house, family and back to eduacation again, although this time for the kids. For most of them there seems to be little time, or even desire, for recreation in the sense that I know it. A few hours each week hitting golf balls off a 4 storey concrete block seems to be enough fun for the average salaryman. Somehow they plug through life, doing an immensely dull job, the point of which they do not understand and are probably not supposed to, saving money to spend on their childrens' education so they too can find an equally dull job and save money for their kids... At what point does the fun happen?

And when do they decide what they are doing anyway? They seem to just wander from one stage of life to the next without asking themselves if they want to, a bit like most of us wander from primary school to high school... that same kind of inevitability. Obviously I am generalising and there are Japanese who break outside of this circle, but for the most part I have been partially disappointed to discover that the stereotype is true. Even the younger teachers I work with here would never even dream of nicking off to Europe, or even SE Asia for a few months to just chill out. They are still preoccupied with the usual business of findng a husband/wife before their bloom fades and they are relegated to spinsterhood at the age of 30. I am living in the countryside though, and it has to be said that the country is usually somewhat behind in matters of social progress, but even my friends from the cities are similarly minded. No wonder they find my seeming lack of direction so infuriating. Just as much as I am puzzled by their disinterest in the pursuit of personal contentment, they are puzzled by my disinterest in material concerns.

You could say it was their diet, or their lifestyle that makes them live longer I guess. But I reckon it's this determination to acheive all these things, get lots of stuff. Dunno about you, but I would rather wander around the world seemingly without purpose just discovering stuff about myself and my surroundings than work at a shitty job 12 hours a day even if does mean I might die a few years earlier.