Nothing you have described is racist. Overweight people are pointed at in every country in the world. The first day I moved into Japan there were no lighbulbs in my apartment. I found a electronics store and bought lightbulbs. That evening I went to a small family owned restaurant and the owner said "I heard you bought lightbulbs at the electronics store." Never in my wildest dreams would I have construed that as racism. Japan is made of small tight-knit communities, and read that as their way of telling me they were watching out for me. Americans value privacy much more than Japanese do. That's a cultural thing. Do you think you are the only person the bank calls or is talked about?

Taiwan is very much the same.... As a foreigner, I get stared at all the time - but you get used to this after a while and it doesn't bother you. Younger, high school kids often get a kick out of saying "Hello" or "Hey, man!" and walking off giggling like little schoolgirls (even the boys). The one that gets to me is being called American all the time (No offense to the Americans here, but well... I'm not American)... Once at an acupuncturist's, a kid asked his father "Is he American?", pointing at me. His father replied that he thought so, but after a few moments, the kid replied again "Nah, he can't be... he doesn't have blonde hair."

Racism exists, and I have a few good examples of it, but I would say that it's mostly much like Japan. Curiousity and lack of information.

Communities are tight-knit here too, so I know everyone in my wife's 'community' though I don't even really know our nextdoor neighbours. Especially round my area, since we live in an older area of the city and there aren't many foreigners around here. 'GuanXi' is very important and can often play a big role when getting a job or haggling over prices at the market.

Getting used to cultures is different for everyone. I adapted fast and quite like living in Taiwan - but my mother stayed for a month and hated it. Different strokes for different folks.

This comes up again and again. I lived in Japan for over three years and go back and visit yearly. In that time only once did I see a sign like that, and it was on the door of a pink salon ("massage" parlor).

For an essentially homogenous society, in my experience the Japanese people I dealt with were very open and open-minded. I see a LOT more racism in the US than I ever experienced in Japan.

There is a long history of tension (and war) between Koreans and Japanese and I think that exists still, especially among older generations. Now there are many Korean singers and actors that are massively popular in Japan, so for the younger generations I don't think that is so true anymore.

I wouldn't call it a "great interest" but many people did like the chance to talk to a non-Japanese. I was am assistant high school teacher on the JET Program

No. No. (It was in a pretty industrial area.) Not as bad as some of the other teachers.

This site shows there are some misconceptions about Japan, but at least people are interested.

There were plenty of clubs that were basically meat markets for foreign guys to meet Japanese girls, so there is some of that.

Not out in the countryside where I was... heck, there were hardly enough foreigners to fill 1 table at a restaurant if nearly every foreigner within 20 minutes train ride came to a party, much less an entire bar.

Oh yeah... In Osaka and Kobe there were a bunch of bars like "Isn't It" and "Sam and Dave's" and "Pig and Whistle" that catered to foreigners. It was fun when I was in my early 20s, but I don't know if I would enjoy those places now...especially on the weekends.

I avoided those kinds of places in general during my stay. I like smaller pubs personally, I've never been one for huge parties.

I just managed to find the small outings that used a mix of Japanese and English. Japanese usually ended up dominating the night as more beers came, which was good for my own studying purposes.

Edit: Reference to MMM's post on Osaka gaijin bars

Edit2: JapanMan2 -> Don't expect them to fall all over you Charisma-man style, if that's what you're getting at.