[SSJup81]

Originally Posted by GTJ

YES. It's worth noting that apart from what they see on TV or in movies, the Japanese are almost completely ignorant on the whole about foreigners. It's pretty funny most times, completely blows my mind other times.

Hmm, sorta like how there's this stereotype that only blonde-haired, blue-eyed white people live in the US or that it's only whites here in general and that no other group of people help to make up this country. That's a crazy stereotype. lol I had a pen-friend last year, who was going to the university near here. She's from Osaka. She was talking about the stereotypes her family back home, and even she, unfortunately, thought before actually coming here to live. It was pretty much "Only white people live in the US" and for black women, we all apparently are supposed to look like Beyonce. lol

I agree with miyukisama more than the OP (and am interested in knowing how she got like 144 billion posts). I raised my eyebrows at the "perfect English" comment, but that's irrelevant. The OP's post has a very tangeable "the REAL Japan is in the inaka" slant to it. The message I got clearly from it was "if you don't go to Japan for the boonies and backwoods, you suck and you're doing it rong." Sure, that's where all the historical and "pure, untouched" Japan is, but you can say the same for any country.

So, if you don't go to the Grand Canyon or the forests and mountains in West Virginia, you aren't seeing the "real America". If you only go for New York to eat pizza and hamburgers and see Broadway shows, you're doing it rong. Something like that, OP?

Ah, so by the OPs logic, I'm a "true American" because I have to constantly visit my mother's hometown, which I was raised in when I was very young before they moved to Richmond, and New York City prior to that. Seriously, the town is so small, people constantly warn us to don't even bother dating down there because more than likely, it'll turn out to be a relative. lol This actually happened to my cousin once. He met a girl when in his teens, and it turned out that our family was related to that girl's family.

Anywho, that place is very "inaka". The town doesn't even have a grocery store or a hospital.