[Chile]

Originally Posted by MMM

I think you are right about being social. It is very easy to be completely invisible, especially in the big cities in Japan.

Check this out: Hikikomori - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I have read this wikipedia entry about Hikikomori and find it very interesting.
This will not be the first time that I have heard about such things in Japan. Naturally, it is not the romantic place that anime fans idealize it to be. I am not afraid of living a life that is less cushioned than the one I have here in America - and indeed I think it would be good in its way.

However, I am frightened by the descriptions of intellectual pursuits in Japan.
In regards to the mind I am an inquisitive, difficult to please sort of person. I have read that many Eastern Asian societies focus greatly on the material, and deeper analysis is discounted. If I am disgusted by the superficiality of many Americans I have met, I will certainly be discouraged (if what I have heard is true) at social life in a country where a more extreme form is exhibited. I have had these concerns about Japan for years, and my suspicions about Eastern Asian cultures have been fueled not only by what I have read, but by a friends' experiences in Taiwan.
I am hoping my frame of reference is not quite correct.