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My apologies in return for a slow reply. I've been in the US part of this month.

Some points:

Re "mixed" culture:

I expected there was a source for your thought here; I don't imagine that you're making things up! : ) My beef is precisely against many books with names like "Insight Guides: Japan", which I've found over long years to be often filled with goofiness. Not as part of some conspiracy to mislead, but simply by way of not thinking through things critically.

The above is a case in point: the "purity" of, say, Christianity is a myth. Take its holiest day, Christmas: Celebrating the birth of a Jew who added new teachings to traditional Jewish ones, it originated in pre-Christian winter solstice celebrations, borrows its date from an ancient Roman sun-worship festival, picked up Germanic and Scandinavian pagan elements like trees, wreaths, and "Yuletide", and is jam-packed with things like Santa and presents that have no connection to Christ/God whatsoever.

Mixing up religions, without contradiction, is the norm for humanity, and not some special Japan thing. (I know Christmas isn't labeled with multiple religion names, like Buddhism+Shinto, but placing labels over substance is exactly where such books go wrong. ...Ack, it's a big topic, more blog fodder for later! : )

Anyway, I certainly don't fault you for going by what supposed experts say. Lord knows how many misbeliefs about the world I hold, based on "expert" claims that I'm not in a position to debate!

Re Kaizen: Well, let me support your side here. I'm right when I say that "kaizen" in Japanese doesn't mean "continual improvement" or have any deep meaning whatsoever. But how about the newer English word "kaizen"? The word is now part of English – I assume first used by management guru types – and arguably has precisely the meaning you ascribed to it. So you can say you're right!

I'd just like to take the opportunity to let the world know that the Japanese word differs.

(Incidentally, I wonder, with tongue in cheek, how the word first came to English. Maybe in the same apocryphal way as "kangaroo". Like this:

American management guru: "Wow, the work you've done in this auto plant is amazing. Please, you must tell me, what is the Ancient Oriental Secret behind it all?"

Japanese factory guys: "Hmm? Nothing, really... just 'kaizen' – that is, we just make improvements when we see someth..."

Guru: "Astounding! I must tell the world of this mystical Asian 'Kye - Zen' philosophy! If only the Western world is ready for it! My book will prepare them - coming soon, only $29.99!"

Factory guys: <look at each other, scratch heads>  )

Re "the Japanese" making the robot: I know, you're only using shorthand when you say that. It's no crime, and is common practice. But it's a shorthand that does impede understanding in the big picture, IMHO; so many people do read too much into such shorthand. (As in, "Hmm, 'the Japanese' made that robot, so 'the Japanese' must be adept at robot-building, so..." And it all goes downhill from there.)

My peeve is that saying "the Japanese built a robot" is no less silly – and I do mean not one iota less silly – than saying "Northern hemisperians built a robot..." or (if an all-male team) "males built a robot..." or "dark-haired people built a robot..." etc.

I'll just never fathom the world's obsession with filing human activity under the utterly unrelated labels of arbitrarily-drawn political entities. But that's just the orneriness talking. : )

Finally, your mention of "the next level" was a good choice of words. I know it's not a level you were aiming for, and isn't the focus of your blog, so I don't want to nitpick things. It's just the way the Internet goes: post something, and someone else may take that chance to run with the topic onto other tangents. Thanks for the opportunity!