Repost: Notes on being a gaijin

TOKYO — Looking back, when I first arrived in Tokyo, I was pretty condescending and American-centric and I stayed that way longer than I should have. I was like a lot of other Americans in that era who felt superior to the Japanese for a variety of reasons, including the outcome of the war, the U.S. GNP, the high level of Major League Baseball, Hollywood movies, rock music and any number of other things.

I thought that in my naivete and stupidity during that time that the USA would  automatically be loved and respected by right thinking people. It took me a while to realize that I was wrong and that Japan was superior to the U.S. in many ways, that   Tokyo was a superior city to New York, and that there were many Japanese who were the mirror image of me, in other words who felt just as superior to me as I did towards them. This was especially so during the Bubble Era.