In the past few years, Japan has experienced a lot of tourists coming from abroad, and it unfortunately led to a surge of negative sentiment towards foreigners as evidenced by the most recent elections (Sanseito, a party whose slogan was "Japanese first," won a lot of seats.) As always, it's also a reflection of economic difficulties: for example, the price of real estate in many parts of Tokyo has nearly doubled in just a few years because of speculators (both Japanese and foreigners, but foreigners will mostly be blamed, sometimes unfairly, but sometimes for rightful reasons when they don't even live here and yet bear a certain arrogant demeanor because the yen is currently weak.) When I first came here, I was welcomed with so much kindness and love by so many Japanese people, so it's honestly a bit sad to see how the general perception can get skewed negatively because of a minority ill-mannered and/or greedy, transactional people who struggle to understand why you should be respectful of the local culture when you are a guest in another country. I will write below additional posts during the next few months/years, but I truly hope that the Japan that has welcomed me a decade ago hasn't definitely disappeared.