Japanese young adults are shorter than Americans (5' 10'' vs
5' 7'' for males, 5' 5'' vs 5' 3'' for females). The gap between Japanese and
American stature has been decreasing over the past several decades, however,
since Japanese youth today are much taller than their counterparts were in the
1950's and earlier. This is evidently due to better nutrition and less
childhood illness in today's more prosperous Japan.
This fits with our observations. Elderly Japanese (and there
are many, since Japan has the world's longest life expectancy) very often
appear to be under 5 feet in height, while those under 50 years old look to be
roughly the same height or slightly smaller than Americans.
Aside from people, many products in Japan are very small
compared to what we're used to back home. Here are a few examples:
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| A real pickup truck (not a toy) |
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| Vacuum cleaner |
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| This is not a giant sneaker beside the trash can in one of our hotel rooms. In fact, it's Carol's sneaker. |
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| Coffee filter sitting on top of a coffee cup is the same height as an iPhone. This is how we make our coffee most mornings. On the left is the package containing the filter and coffee. |
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| Travel coffee mug, barely taller than an iPhone |
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| Carol has to crouch to look through the peephole in the hotel room door |
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| Japanese attack dog. [Not really, but the few dogs that we've seen have all been small] |
And now a few pictures from our ride from Kyoto to Nagahama:
