Welcome to the MyBuddyGreen podcast. I'm Jason Wackeb, founder and co-CEO of MyBuddyGreen and your host.

Ektora Garcia and Francesque Morayos are the co-authors of the runaway international best-selling

book titled Ikigai, the Japanese secret to a long and happy life. I've been dying to get these guys

on the show so I am so excited they're finally here. Ektora and Francesque, welcome.

Thank you very much. We are very happy to be here Jason. Thank you. It's such an honor,

you know, in the subtitles, the Japanese secret to a long and happy life and look, the Japanese do

have a secret indeed when it comes to longevity. You know, as you mentioned in the book, according to

the WHO, Japan is the highest life expectancy in the world with women coming in at 87, men at 85,

and has the highest ratio of sensitarians in the world. Compare that to the US today. Life

expectancy at 79 and 73 for women and men. They're kind of kicking our butt, so a lot to learn,

and I love to start with the title Ikigai. Let's talk about what is Ikigai, and let's talk about

the inspiration behind this book. Ikigai is a Japanese word, which means it's a way of, I like to

say that it's a way of compressing meaning. In English or in Spanish, you have to say the meaning

of life or my purpose in life, and you need several words to say this. It's like a raison d'être

in France in French. In Japanese, they have just one word, which is Ikigai. You can say to your friends

or to your kids, what's your Ikigai? It's much easier, much more simple than to say what

is your meaning in life. It's composed of two characters that it's Ikigai and Guy. The first one

means life, and Guy means worthwhile, so it literally means to make your life worthwhile

living. I came to Japan now 18 years ago, and learning Japanese is a whole experience,

and there were always these words, mysterious words that you could almost not translate.

I was always attracted to these types of words, and one of them was Ikigai, and when I learned it,

it always stayed in my heart, and I didn't know what to do about it. I was just telling

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