The complete randomness of city design in Japan baffles me. But I guess I'm use to towns having some structure and design to them, like with a proper city centre, and allocated alotments for certain building types. On my way to Kyoto from Osaka the other day I was looking out the window of a train, into the country side, and in the distance I could see a huge office tower, or residential tower or something, basically in the middle of nowhere. It looked awful. However, as a non-Japanese, who am I to judge the way their cities look? What I can judge however, is the destruction and "taming" of all nature. That type of of recklessness affects all humanity. It really makes me sad when I see a river with a big concrete wall on either side.

The whole "all westerners speak English" thing, while completely irritating, is completely understandable. Although outside Japan there are millions of white people who don't speak English, in Japan I reckon that 98% of whites would be able to. My whole time here I've met one westerner who couldn't speak English. She was Italian. I've met quite a few French, a few Indians, and other people from around the world, and they all speak English to some degree. Even Maciamo speaks English, and can write it fluently. So, yeah, in Japan, if you're white, you speak English.