For many years, Japan remained cloistered behind a wall of mystery mixed with a heavy dose of isolationism. But the 20th century dragged the nation by force into the world community. A staggering defeat in World War II by America forced much of Japan's acceptance of Western culture upon its people. Its subsequent rebirth after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, low points in human history, is a testament to the resiliency and focus inherent in the Japanese spirit. Now that Japan has finally caught up with the West to become the planet's second largest economy (ahead of any nation in Europe including Great Britain), the nation has begun to assert its aesthetic thumbprint on the minds of the West with a powerful seductiveness that some have labeled as "Japan's GNC" (Gross National Cool). As the New York Times wrote, today's Japan is "the passion of the masses and the connoisseurs."

One American Mac user offers an anecdote that highlights Japan's ability to astound via even the most mundane experiences. "What's so fascinating about Tokyo is how completely chaotic yet orderly and logical the whole place is," says Strange, an American independent filmmaker. "During the shooting of my film 'Hikikomori' in Tokyo last year I needed to take a break from shooting and access my home network back in America. I needed a broadband connection for my PowerBook® G4, so I found this place in Shibuya (a district in Tokyo) called Media Café Popeye that is a lot like Kinko's in America, but about fifty times cooler. You go in, and rent a cubicle. In the cubicle is a huge luxury lazy boy chair, a brand new high-end computer, a private telephone, headphone/microphone headset, and it's all completely quiet, clean, and affordable. I stayed for three hours; and I have to admit that I didn't want to leave. It felt and looked like the lounge from 'Star Trek Enterprise!'"

Yet another foreigner in Japan describes Japan's mélange of cultures and influences... "I drove an hour to Kofu [Japan] to hook up with a bunch of Colombians and Peruvians that we had met in a park a few weeks prior," says Australian photographer Martine Cotton. "Japan has a large Latin American immigrant community-and actually, a large Mongolian, African, Chinese, Korean and Indian population too. As an Australian, dancing to Kylie Minogue's 'Can't Get You Out Of My Head' with a sassy Colombian woman, her beefy Japanese boyfriend, her 12 year-old daughter, a happily smashed Mongolian friend, a morosely smashed Australian and a tap-dancing American on a packed, dingy dance floor on the 4th floor of an office building in rural Japan, I could only think life just doesn't get more vital than this.'"