Simon points to what No-sword learned after one year in Japan:

Maybe you're well-read. Maybe you have actually learnt to enjoy Dennis Bailey's music. That's great, but 95% of people you meet say: Dennis who? So what? And it is the same in Japan. And this fact is hammered home all the harder when you actually meet one of the 5%, and realise how much you enjoy spending time with them -- the freedom to actually say whatever you think rather than running it through a Normalcy filter.

You are an outsider in an essential, inner way that will not change, no matter which country you are in.

Go read it.