When you’re learning a foreign language, there are times when you learn a new phrase and then for the following week hear it constantly. Last week, my Japanese word was “Zeppin” (絶品, superb quality), after I ate a Lotteria Zeppin Burger. This week, it’s been “Hara Hachibu”.

I saw the kanji (腹八分) flash by on a tv show and was wondering what it meant, when a few days later an author from Berkeley called Michael Pollan mentioned it. He was giving a great talk about healthy eating and said that the Okinawans came up with this practice.

Haru Hachibu talks about eating until you’re eighty percent full, not until you’re absolutely 100% stuffed. Apparently it can add years to your life. Here’s a page explaining about it:

http://okinawa-diet.com/okinawa_diet/hara_hachi_bu.html

The incredibly interesting YouTube video is after the jump.

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I read a piece in Boing Boing about how most of the companies who advertise on Japanese trains use a search picture, with an input box and pointer to show that you should search for the term. In contrast, most companies in the US seem to give a URL for you to enter into a browser. Most of the comments focussed on how this is going to be how things are done in the future and how URLs are slowly being phased out in favour of search. Many mentioned that people now don’t know how to enter a URL and instead use the search box to get to a site. I think the reason for these search boxes is different.

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