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Supporting my fav seniors #14 Generation gap and favorites

My 9-year-old daughter had never been to Tokyo Disneyland, maybe because I don’t care too much about that place.

Nor has she been to Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, where she could meet Minions and other characters.

 

But finally, she made a grand debut at Disneyland the other day.

I had some work to do near Disneyland over the weekend, stuck in a conference room all day long, while the daughter and her family had a fantastic day at the park.

 

As I joined them in the evening after work, the daughter looked completely hooked on this land of dreams, wearing  the Stitch headband and all.

It had been 20 years since the last time I visited Tokyo Disneyland, and her joyful look made me want to see what the place looked like now. So I canceled my work the next day and went out with them.

 

But all I did was going to gift shops around the park and riding a monorail going around the resort.

Still, I could see ideas and tools to attract and engage people everywhere. Just amazing.

 

And these innovative tools are there to attract people more than once; they make sure these guests want to come back. I was so drawn to them that I wasn’t paying any attention to Mickey.

What if the Disney company got serious about starting a program to prevent frailty? Wouldn’t that get millions of people out of their homes and help them stay active?

I couldn’t help fantasizing.

 

In this trip to Disneyland, what caught my attention the most was quite a large number of older couples and women’s groups.

They were buying a bunch of souvenirs, and I first thought they were with their grandchildren. But no kids were around them.

 

After a few minutes of thinking, what came to my mind was a friend of mine and her husband, who’re both big Disney fans.

When Tokyo Disneyland opened 40 years ago, they were around 10 years old. Back then, the land of dreams was where they wished they could visit every day; it was such a special place.

When they grew up, they had the first date at Disneyland. They celebrated every major family event at Disneyland.

Now that their children are grown up themselves, she has started enjoying visiting the park not only with her husband but also with other Disney-loving adult friends.

 

According to the friend, her favorite is Goofy because few people understand this character….

She takes a walk every day so that she can keep visiting Disneyland and walk around the huge park to enjoy herself even in her 70s and 80s. She saves 100 yen every day, pretending that she had a snack, to buy new Disney products.

 

I don’t quite understand how her lifestyle works, but she sure looks really happy being a dedicated Goofy fan.

Come to think of it, people in this age group are now becoming “seniors,” repeatedly visiting Disneyland not for their grandchildren but for themselves, to see their long-time favorite characters.

As I picture this new generation of seniors, the current frailty prevention and other community activities don’t seem to fit at all. There is a huge gap….

But who am I to criticize the gap? I just ruined a pre-retirement workshop for gentlemen, born in the 1960s and growing up with the superhero Ultraman, by asking them about Astro Boy, the manga series in the 1950s. Hmm….

 




Shino Sawaoka

Associate Professor,

Dept. of Health Management,

Tokai University 

jzt1864@tokai.ac.jp

https://www.tokai-kenko.ac/


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