Radio Taiso

Radio Taiso (rajio taiso in Japan) is a short stretching routine that can really get a person going in the morning. I've been doing it every morning for a few months, and really feel good after doing it.

It only takes three minutes, and can be done by pretty much anybody. Unsurprisingly, millions of Japanese do this in the morning, even as a group in school, at the office or the factory.

Surprisingly, it began in the United States in the 1920s, when the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company publicized it. Japan picked it up, added music, and broadcasts it every morning. Of course, it didn't last in America, but in Japan it remains strong.

I don't know what it looked like then, but for a while after the end of World War 2, the occupation government banned it for being "too militaristic", until it was changed. Hard to imagine what they actually found wrong with it; maybe it was just MacArthur throwing his weight around.

There are actually three routines, but 99% of the time, it's #1 that people do; #3 is easily done by people in a chair. The "official" piano accompaniment actually beats along with the movements very well. There are many videos on YouTube that you can exercise along to, and the ones with music all use that piano arrangement, but I use this one.