Then in several European countries, people have been eating raw fis for centuries. One of the most stereotypical food of the Netherlands is the "maatjes" (raw herring). Scandinavians also eat raw fish, and to a lesser extent Mediteranean people too. I guess that among Westerners, it is mostly in English-speaking countries, France* or Central-Eastern Europe that it is not part of traditional food. In places far from the sea, it is fairly normal. As for Britain, well, people boil or bake everything there ! Yet, most Western countries (including France and English-speaking countries) do have a tradition of eating raw oysters (alive).
French do eat raw fish just not with “wasabi” but some creamy sauce on a petite toast called Canape'.

Yet, not a single Japanese person has asked me whether I "could" eat soba or okonomiyaki. Why ? I don't know. It's probably because so many Japanese have the strange idea that sushi/sashimi is a kind of food that only Japanese people can appreciate. This is what I call a "misconception regarding foreigners/Westerners". In fact, I found that more Western friends of mine don't like much soba (especially cold), but almost all of them love sushi.
Maybe it’s because of Pasta? Pasta is noodle but of course the sauces of Pastas dishes are very different to Japanese noodle dishes hence say the dish "Chicken Fetuccini" and the dish "Tempura Udon" would be different. However they are still noodle dishes.

Either by ignorance - looking only at the US to define all Western countries, which is a huge mistake, as the US is a melting pot of world cultures, which developed a society very different from European cultures.
I find Japanese and Taiwanese (not counting the ones who lived and studied overseas) tend to only know Americans as Westerners.

It doesn't seem so obvious to all Japanese that not only Japan has four seasons. Or at least, it is not obvious to them that all Europe does. Otherwise, why would it be such a common question, and why would some people be surprised when I say that Belgium, or France, or Italy all have 4 seasons ? Even my wife admitted that she did not know that before going to Europe (before meeting me). That's very strange for me. What do Japanese people learn at school about geography, I asked my wife. She said that 1) not everybody takes geography classes (it's not compulsory like in Europe), and 2) some teachers had told her that Japan was one of the rare countries in the world to have 4 seasons (I can't speak for other Japanese, but in her case, and other friends to whom I asked, that is what they were told).
That’s really strange; I would have thought common knowledge like this would be taught in school. I have met Japanese and Taiwanese who didn’t believe Perth have no time difference between Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia…etc.

They said "Australia is at the bottom side of the globe, so it must have time differences than those countries who are not."

Of course this means they don’t know how time zone works.

Yes very true. Unfortunately, with very few exceptions, the Japanese as a whole are like sheep as they believe what they are told and taught and read in the newspapers and hear on TV. Very few take the time to do any real research on their own or question authority as they don't want to stand out in a crowd lest "the protruding nail gets hammered down."
My university lecture mentioned to us once that the obedience rate of Japanese was 90 percent while in Chinese was 70 percent and the obedience rate of Americans was only 50 percent.

agree. I left Japan justly because the Japanese would never accept that a foreigner could become "Japanised", and would always look at me as a "curious thing", and ask me stupid questions (can you use chopsticks ? can you eat sushi ? Have you heard of Hokkaido ?) even knowing that I had been in Japan for years, was married to a Japanese, spoke Japanese (to them), and managed this website about Japan. It is very irritating for someone who tries hard to learn as much about the culture "to go native", and still be treated like the first newly arrived tourist by people who have known him for several years. Sometimes, in an occasional fit a paranoia, I wonder if the Japanese government has not instructed all Japanese to behave exactly as they do to discourage "Japanised foreigners" to stay in Japan, so that they will not try to change their "pure" country.
Well, this is my experience as a Chinese born in Malaysia, but later as an immigrant of Australia. It is wondrous if you can come to Australia, reside in Australia, study the language and then implement for citizenship.
Nevertheless, while the official "paper" naturalisation is rather unproblematic, the interpersonal one is much more effortful if sometimes not absolute close to impracticable. Take your new compatriots, the "native" people, with their innate human curiousness they will ask you the same question no matter where you go- the "Where are you from?" question.

Unless you are some lingual virtuoso and have a good musical ear, you will have an accent. Or, if you are of a contrastive cultural group, you will appear dissimilar from the absolute majority of people. Your name may also excel. So, people will question you the same thing over and over again: "Where do you come from?" Sure, now you can tell them about your recent abidance in the country, the brand new town where you reside. They will then plausibly grimace insatiately and demand you a more straightforward, more perceptive question that you plainly cannot obviate.

Now- "Where do you come from, to begin with?" Now, this is a pugnacious one. Unless you want to prevaricate, you will have to narrate them the verity. So, in interpersonal situations, you frequently, if not always, persist as an outsider. In spite of the vow you took when you became a citizen of the country.

If people get huffy at you for any grounds, they may even say to you "Go back to (insert country’s name here)! even though you are a citizen of Australia.

Now, it is pleasant to get a new passport and exalt with preen: "I am a citizen of..." Nevertheless, for some reason, not a single country in the world releases a passport that does not have your birthplace inscribed in it. So, if you jaunt, officers that ascertain your passport may begin questioning you, sometimes culpable, but, sometimes, wary ones and address you as a person of the former country, not the new one you are a citizen of. And God proscribe if your former country has a rotten reputation in the one you are visiting. You can be labelled all kinds of names, or even denied ingress.

Not only in Japan also overseas, Japanese do not like to mix with foreigners.

In Tilburg where I live in the Netherlands are quite some Japanese working for FUTJI and a few other Japanese firms. They all live together just outside Tilburg in a villa quarter. There is hardly any contact with the Dutch people,
the Japanese families live on a island, also in Tilburg.
In France they do the same thing. They have their own Japanese schools here, they don’t attend local schools.

Those North Africans are not immigrants, they are as French (language and culture) as everyone else. They are second and third generation North Africans and most don't even know that much about their faith since they have probably never stepped a foot outside France. Why were they rioting? Because it is hard for them to get jobs (because of their names and skin color), it does not have to do with religion.
No it has to do with religion and their attitudes, I know some Vietnamese French who have lived in France since five generations but never received any discrimination from the white French.

Just for the information, there is about as much rice in Belgian or French supermarkets as in Japanese ones as a proportion of all the products available. Traditionally, Spaniards use rice in paella, Italians in risotto, French people in riz au lait, Greeks in various dishes... Chinese food has become one of the most common cuisine in most of Europe, while Indian food has the de facto national cuisine of the UK for at least 20 years. Yet, I have noticed that many Japanese people wondered if we could even find rice in a European supermarket ! It is true that Japanese rice is more difficult to find (they have some at Carrefour though), but Mediterranean, Indian, Thai or American rice are as common as potatoes or pasta.
I don’t think there are as many kinds/brands of rice as you have described, but I agree that Japanese should not assume you can't find rice in Europe at all. I think out of the countries I have been America has the biggest range of products.

In France, they have lots of products but mainly French products. I find many missing ingredients I need in the Asian grocery stores here.

wow is that true? thats awesome.(not the demeaning of japanese men and women having surgery, just the way japanese look up to westerners)
Actually eye lid surgeries are more common among Koreans because something like 70 percent of Koreans are born with single eye lid, something considerate to be not pretty in East Asian ideology of beauty.