Background

In fact, we went to Fuchu, a city in the Tokyo metro area about an hour west of downtown, and were there for about a week at the end of June (2001). We were working most of the time, of course, so I could only explore in the evenings, but in the end I did manage to get free for one afternoon and one day, most of which I spent just walking around Fuchu looking at things.

I'd never been outside the continental United States before, except for a visit or two to Mexico when I was too young to remember, and some visits to various parts of Canada. So, the most foreign place I'd been to before was Montréal.

We stayed in a Western-style hotel, which proved to be a good base of operations—I could go out and explore, and still come back to something comfortable and mostly familiar.

What did I know about Japan before I went? I'd studied Japanese for a year in high school, but I don't remember learning much about the culture. So, I suppose most of what I knew about Japan came from Japanese movies, notably The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and Tampopo … and maybe Akira and Ghost in the Shell. I'd probably also picked up some ideas from science fiction stories, notably Neuromancer. Speaking of science fiction, I wouldn't say it was a major influence, but I was certainly reminded of Maneki Neko when I saw the same cats in real life.