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The recipe to an unhappy life in Japan is to want to be Japanese if you are not. Anyone who wants to penetrate the country is setting themselves up for tears and disappointment.

I couldn't speak Japanese very well, passport regulations were changing, I felt British, and my future was in Britain. And it would also make me eligible for literary awards. But I still think I'm regarded as one of their own in Japan.

I'm very happy to be a foreigner in Japan, and I can't think of a more wonderful place to live, but at the same time, I would never want to be Japanese, because they are subject to stresses that I am not.

Japanese is a very difficult language.

My life was very Japanese.

Basically, people in other countries don't want to have to work quite as flat-out as they do in Japan.

The Japanese people are usually very prudent, even when they are convinced change is necessary.

In Japan, sometimes it's hard to know what you are looking at.

Japanese is sort of a hobby of mine, and I can get around Japan with ease.

Am I famous in Japan? I don't know, and I don't really think of myself in that way.