There’s a question which divides any pub table in the land. No, not politics , or money, or even football. The question is: "If you could live forever would you choose to?" Anyone who’s read this column over the last year will know that I fall very much into the "more, more, more" category.
Sure, as Annie Lennox sang, "dying is easy, it’s living that scares me to death", but, you know, even a minute of hearing my husband hamming up a bedtime story so my kid laughs so hard he begs for mercy is a gift. Also there’s cheese. I’ll take an unlimited lifetime of that, please.
So yes, I am very much a squeeze the toothpaste tube of life to the very end type of woman which is why I knew, when we embarked upon our month in Japan, I was headed to Okinawa in Japan where folk live longer and happier. If you're unfamiliar with Okinawa you're not alone. Though it’s the holiday destination of choice for many Japanese tourists from the mainland - indeed, whenever I told people that our next stop was Okinawa they gave dreamy-eyed sighs like I was talking about their favourite J-pop idol – it’s still somewhat underexplored by overseas tourists, with most favouring the "Golden Route", an arching itinerary through Japan’s hotspots from Kyoto to Tokyo despite much-reported crushes of crowds.
Why Okinawa is overlooked in this way is a mystery to me since you can leave the Blade Runner neon spectacle of Tokyo and reach a white sand paradise with serene turquoise sea and jewel-colou.
