Americans: Fat and Tats

I have been reading about how Americans are getting more and more obese, and originally thought it was a lot of nonsense. But I have been observing people in airports and public places, and after walking around this weekend at Disneyland I finally agree: Americans are not only fat, they are covered full of disgusting tatoos.

I'm not talking about old people who have slowed down. I am talking healthy young people. Almost to a man, most twenty-somethings are carrying around a large gut, and they must think getting a tattoo will compensate for the extra load because they all have one. Maybe it does since most of them are with women - but most of them are also rather large and also with tatoos. Some of these women wear tight-fitting shirts, showing a stomach roll coming over their pants. And if you can't see a tatoo on one on their exposed fat-rolls, my guess is that it is on a hidden somewhere where you can't see it.

The worst part is that people aren't even trying. I see people bordering on obese - or over the line - sitting at airport McDonalds stuffing their face with all sorts of junk all the time. Even worse are the fat couples with the fat kids, all stuffing their face with fatty foods, totally oblivious to what they are doing to their own body as well as their kids' bodies.

And the world has come to the same conclusion. I was having dinner in China when my customer remarked about how fat all Americans were. Then he frowned "Except people at your company." Which is true, actually. Why is this? I was thinking that maybe those of us who do business in Asia are embarrassed by the heavy loads of Gaijin compared to all these skinny Asians and try harder to keep it off. Over here fat is normal and now "in" - there seems little stigma attached to it.