The last word on bursting bubbles

Hopefully Debito Arudou's essay "Time to burst your bubble and face reality" (Just Be Cause, Dec. 3, 2014) will prove to be a long-overdue wake up call to a great many gaijin [foreigners] like myself who should have realized years ago that all "good" things must finally come to an end.

Back in 1984 my rather shy students would ask me, "Why did you come to Japan?" Now they would probably ask me in not so shy a manner, "Why are you still here?" My response would be "Why not?" or even "It's none of your goddamn business."