[Nyororin]

A bit late to reply - and not sure if the original poster is still around... But there are indeed normal people living here. We just don`t usually go out of the way to hang around with other foreigners - at least in my experience.
I came to Japan, ultimately, because I took a short term language class and thought it was easy. Being poor, and the local university being one of the few at the time to offer a Japanese language major AND allow testing out of all the language related classes... I sort of came up with a plan to cut university costs by staying in Japan for some time and then testing out of as much as I could.
The reasons I ended up staying are a bit more complex - the language did end up being easy for me, but a lot of it was the freedom from a completely dysfunctional family situation and eventually falling in love and marrying someone Japanese. I`m here for the long haul, and haven`t been out of Japan for the past 4 years, and only a handful of times in the past 10.

I agree the huge difference is whether you learn the language or not. Language is the key to culture, and culture is the difference between actually living here and being "visiting" or "trapped".