[ChisaChi]

I did notice that Japanese people have a very different view of what weight they should be to that of Westerners... flicking tv channels there were plenty of ads for weight loss programs where the 'before' picture is more like the 'after' picture in ads here ("dropped from 49kg to 40kg, yay!"); a woman we met mentioned she was on a diet and needed to lose weight despite being tiny enough for childrens' clothes here; almost every girl you see is incredibly skinny. I'm not sure how the men feel about it, but the women at least seemed to me to be quite obsessed with weight loss and being skinny.

On the other hand I got the impression that whatever their opinion of you, in general they will never say something rude to your face - the culture is very polite.