Thanks a lot for answering my questions! I know that those accounts of life in Japan should be taken, as you said, with a grain (if not buckets-full
) of salt, but at the same time I am aware that I have been somewhat idealizing Japan, and feel that it'd be best to be prepared for the worst when I go there.
I asked the question about you feeling integrated because it's something I've been struggling with for a while. I'm of mixed origin (Singaporean - Norwegian), and despite being 'officially' Norwegian and speaking the language, I feel quite the outsider here (here being Denmark), and people seem to confer upon me that outsider status because I'm not 'white'. Do you feel that you are in any way excluded in Japanese society, or that people make unfair judgements about you, based, perhaps, on your physical appearance?