Indeed, the whole flashy/noisy outside world in Japan can become very alienating sometimes. Sometimes in weekends in Japan the only thing I want to do is to stay away from other people.
One of the start ups who frequents HN lives in Japan's country side and he's written some interesting blogs and comments on here about how he can go days without seeing another human aside his wife.
But sadly the side of Japan that seems to be exported the most is the futuristic, over-populated scenes from Tokyo and thus many foreigners assume that the whole of the nation is like it.
>Japan that seems to be exported the most is the futuristic, over-populated scenes from Tokyo...
Shiogama, for example, is primarily centered around the fishing industry. You can imagine what my friend was compelled to get into when he had his heart set elsewhere. Since the tsunami cut deep into the family income, he was a little more accepting of their needs and slowly, but surely, he's growing out of it. It may take years for him to fully integrate into society though.
Also, people need to stop thinking of Tokyo as a "city". It's big and varied enough to be a "county" in the Western sense.
I was only quoting the previous commenter there :)
> Shiogama, for example, is primarily centered around the fishing industry. You can imagine what my friend was compelled to get into when he had his heart set elsewhere. Since the tsunami cut deep into the family income, he was a little more accepting of their needs and slowly, but surely, he's growing out of it. It may take years for him to fully integrate into society though.
That was actually my point. That there's a whole side to Japan that isn't like the western culture perceives.
> Also, people need to stop thinking of Tokyo as a "city". It's big and varied enough to be a "county" in the Western sense.
To be fair, that's true for many large cities - even in the west.