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Nice addition to Laz's great thread, Candor7.

Living in Japan now, I don't speak the language of 99% percent of the people I meet. And yet, there's a strong will to communicate and spread good cheer about living in this fabulous world.

My wife teases me: "One of your legs is already in the coffin."

Last week I took a bus field trip with the local international association and sat next to a middle-aged civil engineer born and raised in Cambodia -- and he speaks enough Japanese to be very useful to his Japanese employer. He's also done work for the Naval Facilities Command in Asia.

I made a friend -- and we're headed together soon to the hot springs.

He also emailed me a Youtube link to a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who reverently explains the Four Noble Truths of humanity in less than 20 minutes.

It's a small world after all.

After you absorb a modicum of culture behind the bamboo curtain, go to Ise for a visit and make sure you take your wifey so you can petition an audience with the kami at the Kagaruden.

Not many foreigners know of this aspect, but you go to a Kagaruden kiosk where a Shinto priest will take down your name and your wife's name, (you need to have your name in Japanese Script, preferably Kanji if possible and there is a donation fee). Your names are added to a petition for blessings from Amaterasu. You wait and are admitted to the sacred interior of the Kagaruden where music and sacred dance are offered to the kami, the Kanushi bless the audience, the whole situation sets up a mandala in which you are included. A kanushi reads the petition and recites all of the names on the petition.

After you leave Ise make sure and visit the old village just outside the main gate of Ise. There is a sake bar there, small , for White Hawk Sake ( Shiro Taka)...its the best you will ever taste anywhere...they supply the sake for the shrine.

Inside the Kagaruden,the Kami is invoked and that can be felt , it can be quite emotional because of the energy...everybody maintains their cool....but you may see some tears....If you have an offering heart of offering body speech and mind, and have arrived at a place where your heart is pure and uncluttered with passion , aggression or ignorance, you will receive a great blessing in your life.

After doing this myself, I maintain a kami-dana in my home.That feeling is still with me, and it allows continuing blessings and insight into the phenomenal world.

The one person you should meet while in Japan is Shibata Kanjuro XXI Sensei,Onyumishi ( Bowmaker), to the Imperial Family of Japan . He is a kyudo master of the ancient koryu kyudo lineage of Heki Ryu Biu Shyu Chikurin Ha, a meditation /warrior style of kyudo founded by Chikurin Osho, an Ajikan monk, 600 years ago.Shibata Sensei is connected to people all over Japan, and he is an excellent resource for any gaijin living in Japan, and his wife is also famous as a Tea Master and caterer :

https://suigenkyo.com/en/service/

If you want his address, I can send it to you PM, he is in the old Samuirai Quarter of Kyoto.

You are living in a wonderful place. My son , his Japanese wife and three children live there ( Tokyo).

All the best.Happy New Year of the Wood Dragon.

( Shibata Sensei )