Streets in Osaka.
Japanese friends are hard to make. Since coming to this transilient country I have befriended quite a few Americans and some British and Irish people. That’s mostly it. In such a dense and developed nation, far fewer speak English than possibly anywhere I’ve ever been.
The culture is also hard to penetrate: most Japanese are shy, indirect, and not very socially brave. Americans are therefore seen as intimidatingly cool. Moreover, Japan suppresses individualism and glorifies conformity. They even have a saying to this effect: The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.
Then there are those great exceptions on which ride the waves of history.