The world's oldest person celebrated her 117th birthday in Japan on Wednesday, a milestone the centenarian welcomed with effortless ease, the Associated Press reported.
Donning a pink kimono and a pink flower in her hair, Misao Okawa posed for pictures as a government official handed her a bouquet of flowers at her nursing home in Osaka. While most of the world's 7 billion people can only dream of living 117 years, to Okawa it doesn't feel like a long time.
"It seemed rather short," said Okawa, whose actual birthday is March 5. But she added she is "very happy."
Guinness World Records recognized Okawa, born in 1898, as the oldest person in the world in 2013. Besides Okawa, there are four other people alive today who were born in the 1800s.
Okawa lives in a country that has the most centenarians than any country in the world, a whopping 58,000, according to The Huffington Post. Most of them are women.
Experts believe a plant-based diet of soy common in some parts of Japan is a contributing factor to a long life.
As for Okawa, she couldn't really say what contributed to her rich life, which included a marriage that produced three children, four grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
"I wonder about that too," Okawa said.
