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Hello again...as before, I'm just going to respond to a few of your points.

- Credit cards. My trip to Japan was in April 2008, so no, not 20 years ago. I spent 6 days in Kyoto, and 2 days in Tokyo. I suppose it's possible that some of the stores I visited do in fact accept credit cards, and I just didn't ask. But I didn't see any "we accept credit cards" signs other than at Kyoto Handicraft Center. Before going there, I asked my hosts how often I'd use cash vs. credit cards, and they said you have to use cash all the time, that they don't take credit cards anywhere (or checks, for that matter). A simple Google search shows that this isn't something I'm just making up.

- "Just started putting toilet paper in bathrooms"? Say what? There were, and no doubt still are, public toilets that expect you to bring your own, but for the most part, public toilets or those in an establishment will have TP. Again, I have to wonder what times and places the author is talking about. Maybe he chanced upon a restroom that'd just been "cleaned out" by a heavy user, and decided to label it a national issue. I don't get it."

Again, my trip was in April 2008. My source for this information is what my friends told me, They said that people used to have to carry tissues with them all the time, and that's why there are people on street corners handing them out. I didn't personally see any public toilets without toilet paper, but as you say, they still exist even today.

- "When I was a young'un in the US, we learned writing using that paper with the little lines indicating the baseline for letters, the height of capital letters, where a "t" stops, how far down the "y" dips, and so on. All very controlled and prescribed; penmanship sure wasn't a lesson in "do things your way". How is that any different from the Japan example given?"

The difference is that the penmanship requirements stop after grade school. No one cares that I draw my e's differently from other people. I used this as an example because drawing a box seems like such a minor thing to regulate.

- "Discrimination is a big topic, and books can and have been written about it. But the particular example given above is pure silliness. Traveling, studying, and working overseas are utterly mundane things in modern Japan, at least in the cities; outside of some oddball crowds, they will not get one ostracized."

I don't know what to say here. According to what I read (which I think was "Kata: The Key to Understanding and Dealing with the Japanese"), what I said is perfectly true.

- "At any typical moment, a good 99% of the people in view in Japan will be wearing jeans or business suits or dresses or some other form of what we'd call "normal Western" clothes."

I must have seen hundreds of kids wearing school uniforms. Did I just happen to arrive during "wear a uniform to school week?" And my point was about casual clothes, not "normal Western" clothes. Business suits would certainly count as non-casual.

- "But there has never been, as far as I know, a specific claim that Japanese can't digest American beef."

I got this from the book "Insight Guides: Japan."

- "So, back to the list item: Japan is "too proud" to accept imports, right? WRONG. Japan is a huge importer of goods from all over the world."

I do agree with this. I was just pointing out some weird things they have against some imports.

- "Hmm. I wanted to make this a more agreeable post than the last, but it's gone the other way."

And as with your other post, I have no problem with this one. This is perfectly reasonable criticism, and I appreciate your input.